Piety in Macbeth Piety in Macbeth (55573) William Shakespe

Piety has various shades of meaning, including the concepts of being dutiful to orthodox religious beliefs or ôfidelity to natural obligations (as to parents)ö (Merriam-Webster 1999: 880). In Macbeth, Shakespeare showed the tragedy of a mighty king being brought to his downfall by violating the concept of piety in his treatment of others.

The idea of piety to ancient beliefs was present in the origins of Greek drama (Gill 2003). Begun as a religious observance in honour of Dionysus, Greek tragedy reflected the central values of the culture that was at its peak of greatness in the short but historically influential reign of Pericles in the 5th century B.C. Central to Greek values was the idea of piety û to the gods, to traditional morals and law, to oneÆs social betters, such as the king, and to oneÆs fellow human beings. Greek tragedy originated as serious religious pageantry, and showed how a lack of piety brought ruin to the tragic heroes of the plays.

Now let us fly through time and space from ancient Greece to Elizabethan London. Here plays were profane, secular entertainments for profit, and the unruly spectators milled aroun

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Approximate Word count = 1073
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)