1. Pre-Gothic
Cultural
‘violence’ is
reflected in
the
Macbeth
literature
1500 Reformation Tension 1600
between
superstition
and reason
Renaissance
Traditional
value
systems
challenged

2. Pre-Gothic Birth of Gothic
Macbeth
Tension Highlights the
between power of
Witch superstition emotion in
thought and
and reason
Trials literature
1600 1700 Romanticism 1800
Cultural English Civil War
‘violence’ is
reflected in
the
literature
Growth of
Written after 60 years of violent religious reformation,
Empire
it is unsurprising that Shakespeare explores the nature
Cultural anxiety of cultural violence in Macbeth. Indeed, whilst the
is a result of onstage massacres in Macbeth may seem excessive –
exposure to the
we should not forget that 30 years later, England was
‘other’
engaged in bloody civil war. Shakespeare’s violent
Gothic anxieties can be seen as wholly relevant.

3. Romantic Gothic Modern Gothic
Gothic Satire
Gothic Monsters
Victorian Gothic
Tension
between
Traditional
value systems
Bloody
Industrialisation superstition
and reason Dracula
challenged
Chamber
1800 Darwin’s Theory of 1900 Feminism 2000
Evolution
Scientific and
Technological
Progress
Freudian
Theory Highlights
Wuthering Traditional
the power of
emotion in
value
Heights systems
thought and
literature
Growth of challenged
Marxism
Empire
Cultural
anxiety is a Written after 60 years of violent religious reformation, it is unsurprising
result of that Shakespeare explores the nature of cultural violence in Macbeth.
exposure to Indeed, whilst the onstage massacres in Macbeth may seem excessive –
the ‘other’
we should not forget that 30 years later, England was engaged in bloody
civil war. Shakespeare’s violent Gothic anxieties can be seen as wholly
relevant.