Macbeth, a Play for our Time. The Irony and Symbolism Such is the genius and so great is the scope of Shakespeare's writings that there can be little doubt that a common perception is one of an imaginative mind concocting stories. In fact Shakespeare had many sources and much of his work was based on historical fact. Holinshed chronicled in the sixteenth century, the histories of England, Scotland and Ireland, and it is from the "…showed first 75 words of 2800 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2800 total…in world dictators, military juntas and corporate criminals. So Macbeth can be seen as having contemporary significance. We may now ask why the works of Shakespeare enjoy an undiminishing acceptance in most countries of the world and an aura of immortality. It is perhaps because we see in Shakespeare the mirror of the human condition with which we may all identify and gain a sense that in some strange way his plays belong to us.