Context (AO3) is worth only 6 marks, half of AO1 or AO2, but without it, reaching a Grade 4+ is impossible. Most students assume that context marks arise solely from knowledge. This is not the case. Context should deepen your analysis, rather than sitting in a separate paragraph of history. The highest marks for AO3 are awarded to essays which balance relevance and subtlety: even the smallest contextual points can achieve high marks if they are used in a way which is relevant to the question and to your analysis. Learn these few ideas well and drop them in as single sharp sentences.
King James I and the Divine Right of Kings
Shakespeare wrote Macbeth around 1606. At the time, King James I had just begun his reign, and the play is shaped to appeal to him. James believed firmly in the Divine Right of Kings, the idea that a monarch is chosen by God. Under this belief, killing a king was not just murder, but a rebellion against a God-given social order. This is why Duncan is called 'the Lord's anointed', and why nature itself convulses after the killing.
The Gunpowder Plot and the fear of regicide
In 1605, just before the play was written, a group of conspirators tried to blow up King James and Parliament in what is known as the Gunpowder Plot. It failed, but it left the country terrified of regicide. An audience watching Macbeth would have felt that same fear. The play's message, that killing a king brings chaos, guilt, and revenge upon the murderer, was a comforting message to an audience and a king who had lived through such a threat.
Witchcraft and King James
Witchcraft was a popular idea within the Jacobean era, spurred on by King James' own interests in the supernatural. He wrote a book called 'Daemonologie' about how to identify and fight witchcraft, and he oversaw witch trials. Putting witches at the heart of the play was therefore both topical and flattering to the king.
The natural order and the Great Chain of Being
Alongside the Divine Right of Kings, Jacobeans believed that the universe was created in a fixed order, with God at the top, then the king, then nobles, and so on down. This is known as the Great Chain of Being. A rightful king sitting on his throne kept this chain in balance. When Macbeth murders Duncan and takes the crown, he breaks that order, which is why nature itself goes wrong after the murder: the sky stays dark by day, an owl kills a falcon, and Duncan's horses turn wild and eat each other. Order is only restored when the rightful king, Malcolm, takes the throne.
The tragic hero
Originating from Ancient Greek writers, the 'tragic hero' is a man of great nobility who is brought down by a fatal flaw (hamartia), which makes audiences feel both fear and pity, which is known as catharsis. Here, Macbeth's ambition is his hamartia, because it directs him to a tragic end. His downfall, as he is slain by the virtuous Macduff, is considered to be cathartic for audiences.
See how this context deepens each theme on the Macbeth themes page, especially the supernatural, and connect it to the King Duncan and Macbeth pages.