Why did Shakespeare have to write Macbeth?

Answer 1

Basically, Shakespeare wrote all of his plays because it was his job. A successful play put money in his pocket, and Shakespeare was acutely focused on money.

But why this particular play? Some view the play as a homage to King James I, who was reputed to be the descendant of Banquo through his son, Fleance. The story is from Holinshed's Chronicle which Shakespeare used many times as a source; Shakespeare did not tweak it to flatter the Stuarts (Holinshed's sources had already done that). Very probably, Shakespeare saw possibilities in the story of exploring the things we love about the play: guilt, inducing another person to commit a crime, paranoia, madness, what makes a good leader of a country, the effects of unlawful seizure of power, fate and predestination, the supernatural.

Answer 2

To seal a relationship with King James. He made it to please King James by putting key parts of his interests into it; supernatural, the previous ruler Queen Elizabeth killed her cousin because she thought she threatened her position on the throne.

Answer 3

Simply for entertainment! Not True--it was actually written for the current king of that time, Duncan's murder was performed off stage due to respect of the Scottish King. (Although of course Banquo, who unlike Duncan was an ancestor of King James, wasmurdered onstage) Actually there is no actual evidence that the play was composed particularly for performance before the King. The only record of a contemporary performance is of a performance at the Globe for the general public. In other words, the play may well have been written simply for the entertainment of the folks who paid to watch plays at the Globe.

Answer 4

To seal a relationship with King James. He made it to please King James by putting key parts of his interests into it; supernatural, the previous ruler Queen Elizabeth killed her cousin because she thought she threatened her position on the throne.

Answer 5

In 1606 William Shakespeare was asked to write a play for King James of England who inherited the throne from of his ancestors, Banquo and Fleance. The play Macbeth was preformed to James and his brother-in-law, King Christian of Denmark at Hampton Court near London, a story that James very knew well. Many changes were made to this play, in reality Banquo and Macbeth murdered Duncan but this would be unfit to present to King James because it would show that his ancestor were murders of Kings. In order to make the play a success with the King, Shakespeare added the element of the witches, for James was very interested in witches, witchcraft and the supernatural. Within the play the witches serve to represent the past, present and future. In order to write the play loosely based on the facts Shakespeare used the only resources available to him, The Chronicles of Scotland, by Rapheal Holinshed.

Answer 6

There is no one reason why Shakespeare wrote the play, however he was probably trying to impress King James I of England (6th of Scotland) who had recently come to the throne. We know this because Banquo (a really good guy in the play) was a real life ancestor of King James and at one point in the play the witches predict that Banquo's decendants will be kings and even show Macbeth a line of kings including King James.

Another influence may have been the Gunpowder plot, but this depends on when you believe the play was written. Guy Fawkes and his gang were trying to kill a king and put who they wanted on the throne, just as Macbeth does. Because of all the religious issues at the time (protestants versus Catholics) the message of the play could be that God chooses kings, not men. The Porter's reference to "equivocators" would seem to be a reference to one of the men tried for the Gunpowder Plot who had written about how to lie when being questioned by "equivocating".

Answer 7

Macbeth is not a novel, and Shakespeare wrote no novels. Of all his works, only his poetry was intended to be read. His plays, like Macbeth, are intended to be performed. So, to answer the question, the reason Shakespeare wrote it was so that the actors in his company could perform it, and the company could make money from the people who bought tickets to see it. Apart from the actors, Shakespeare did not intend that anyone should read it.

Answer 8

The idea that Macbeth was written to please the King comes exclusively from one American academic who proposed the theory in 1957. In reality, Macbeth, like all Shakespeare's plays, was written to make money for Shakespeare and his partners. It was hoped that it would draw people into the theatres, especially since it was slightly topical. It does not appear to have been a particularly successful play at the time: no Quarto versions were published and it was clearly revised (probably by Thomas Middleton) in an effort to make it more popular. There is no record of any performance at court, and Shakespeare did not add references to witches or the story about Banquo being James's ancestor, because all that was in the source he got the story from.

Answer 9

Shakespeare had to write Macbeth because he worked in a writing company.