Macbeth Essays (Examples)

Macbeth's Desire for Kingship Conclusion

Shakespeare is, above all, a dramatist whose characters are defined by their language: the language they use and how they are affected by language. There is no singular discourse that unites all of the characters of the play: rather the witches, Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth all share in a particular way of rendering language which begins with the witches' incantation at the beginning of the text and follows through to end of the play. Macbeth receives their language, passes it on to Lady Macbeth in the form of a letter, who then reconfigures it in a persuasive manner to lure Macbeth to kill. The seductive notion that their prophesies can be 'true' causes Macbeth to believe the witches, to trust Lady Macbeth's words, and his character is literally eaten alive and possessed by their words until he is a shell of a man. Banquo, in contrast, merely hears the witches' language, but never adopts their method of speech, and no character 'mirrors' his words as Lady Macbeth's does Macbeth's nor affects his interpretation of the witches' prophesy. His inability to assume the witches' language means his actions are unaffected by their words throughout the play.

Macbeth's free will in obeying…… [Read More]

Macbeth and Oediups Rex Are Great Tragedies

Macbeth and Oediups Rex are great tragedies from two very different time periods. Even though such different writers wrote them, and in such different times, the similarities that exist between the two are remarkable. Shakespeare and Sophocles both understood exactly what it took to write great tragedy. By comparing how fate plays a part in each play, it is better seen that perhaps Sophocles and Shakespeare were on similar wavelengths. Are the tragic heroes of each play doomed to live out their fate or is there an element of free will that causes each of their downfalls. Surely, it may be a little of both.

Oedipus tells the story of a young boy named Oedipus, who, when he was born, was given up to be adopted by his mother and father. Later when Oedipus was growing up, he asked his adopted parents who his mother and father really were. When he was told that they were a King and Queen in a far off country, Oedipus decided to go look for them. He started by crossing the desert but when he met a man in the desert he got in a fight with him and killed the man. He finally…… [Read More]

Macbeth Lady Macbeth Reading the

To beguile the time,

Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,

Your hand, your tongue; look like th' innocent flower,

But be the serpent under't. He that's coming

Must be provided for; and you shall put

This night's great business into my dispatch,

Which shall to all our nights and days to come

Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. (I.v, 60-70).

Macbeth shows no ill intent towards his king when he informs his wife that Duncan will be an overnight guest, but Lady Macbeth immediately responds by instructing him to act as a serpent towards the king. She does not appear to have to goad him tremendously, because Macbeth is immediately discussing the idea of assassination. However, when his wife enters, he has made up his mind that they will not kill Duncan. However, Lady Macbeth goads him, implying that if he does not kill Duncan, he does not love her. She asks:

What beast was't then That made you break this enterprise to me?

When you durst do it, then you were a man;

And to be more than what you were, you would

Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place,

Did then adhere,…… [Read More]

Macbeth Letter of Truth in

This scene illustrates the difference between Lady Macbeth and her husband. She sees the big picture and the risks involved with getting what she wants. She understands those risks and accepts them as mere obstacles. In this light, she is cold and calculating. She is afraid of nothing and is quick to pray for what it takes:

Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here

And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty. (I.v.38 -- 41)

She knows she lives in a man's world but that does not deter her in the least. She will simply use her husband to get what she wants and she has no doubt that she can do this. She knows he needs her support, however. Later, she tells him, "But screw your courage to the sticking-place / And we'll not fail" (I.vii.64-5). Her support is crucial because it allows him to see them operating as the couple even though he will be the one that draws blood.

While we often see the Macbeth couple operating as one this early scene provides with a glimpse into their individual characters. Macbeth has the desire to be king but…… [Read More]

Macbeth the Title Character of Shakespeare's Macbeth

Macbeth

The title character of Shakespeare's Macbeth is one of its most evil villains. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both plot a series of heinous murders, beginning with the cold-blooded killing of Duncan, to the chamberlains, Banquo, and Macduff's wife and children. Macbeth's only concern is to obtain and secure his position of power, and he rapidly descends into insanity as the play progresses. As the drama's main character, Macbeth is certainly the protagonist; all the action in the play centers on Macbeth, his character and his actions. However, unlike many protagonists, Macbeth is not the play's hero. Although he is a relatively minor character in the play, Macduff emerges as the play's true hero by Act II, scene three. Not only was he the first to become wise to Macbeth's nefarious nature, but Macduff takes decisive and successful action against the evil king. Were it not for Macduff, Malcolm would probably have remained in England, too weak and impotent to do anything about Macbeth. Macduff delivers the final blow that ends Macbeth's life and restores Malcolm to the throne, and he does so without any attempt to seize power for himself. Because Macduff takes charge, demonstrates wisdom, and defeats Macbeth,…… [Read More]

Macbeth a Tragedy by William

Macbeth knows what he plans to do is wrong, even though his wife encourages his ambitions. He acknowledges that what he is going to do is so evil that he does not to see the hand that will do the deed. At the same time he diminishes the deed, saying that a wink of the eye will be enough to block the crime from his view, showing that desire for power has overcome his sense of right and wrong:

Stars, hide your fires:

Let not light see my black and deep desires:

The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see." (I.5 50-53)

Macbeth's wife eventually kills King Duncan, and goes mad from the resulting guilt. Meanwhile, Macbeth, although a brilliant general, makes a poor king, especially when compared to Duncan. Eventually he is killed by his former friend MacDuff.

The play Macbeth is a true Shakespearean tragedy because the characters control their fate through the choices they make. Lady Macbeth did not have to go mad. She chose to kill the king and paid a high price for her action. Macbeth wanted the crown enough to kill Duncan…… [Read More]

Macbeth's Mental Decline Shakespeare Knows

In short, he chooses evil over good.

Macbeth somehow justifies murdering Banquo and Fleance, which demonstrates his deteriorating mental state. He did not struggle with murdering them as he did with Duncan.

He says:

For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd;

Put rancours in the vessel of my peace

Only for them; and mine eternal jewel

Given to the common enemy of man,

To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings! (III.i. 65-69).

Macbeth no longer stops to question his behavior or his motives. He simply moves forward with his plan. He plans the murders and make provisions for them on his own. The fact he does not need Lady Macbeth to prod him along illustrates his mental instability. His behavior even startles Lady Macbeth.

Macbeth becomes an excellent case study in the decline of the human psyche when certain aspects are in place. Macbeth possesses a healthy amount of desire and ambition when we him early in the place. He allows himself to be influenced by the witches and his wife to the point that he loses his moral center. With all the talk about being king going on, Macbeth is wrapped up in the idea of…… [Read More]

Macbeth Shakespeare Is Perhaps the

" (I.v.64-66). She even summons the spirits to free her from the weakness of femininity "Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here" (I.v.41-42) because she associates cruelty and lack of remorse with manhood. In many cases, politics is about what takes place behind the cameras in the sense that rivalry, treason and the corruptive influence of ambition are never expressed in an open manner, but kept hidden and set free only when the lights go out. From this point-of-view, Lady Macbeth could represent the instigator, the morally flawed individual who pushes towards wrongdoing even though she does not get her hands dirty.

Another important factor which could account for the appeal of the play is the fact that it clearly traces the line between good and evil (Nostbakken, 1997, p. 25) even though language and dialogue suggest the exact opposite. In this sense, equivocation is a very important theme in "Macbeth." Equivocation could be defined as a manner of "answering ambiguously through hairsplitting logic and mental reservations so that the truth remains unclear" (Coursen, 1997, p. 56). Although equivocation is not lying, it is still considered deception, and such deception was linked to the Catholics…… [Read More]

Macbeth the Development and Availability

/ He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear / His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear. / And you all know security / Is mortals' chiefest enemy." (Act III, Scene 5).

True to the prophesy of the above words, Macbeth destroys both his security and power by succumbing to the illusion of security. The appearance of extreme wealth and power blinds him to the true danger around him and to the false promises of the witches. In this way the play acts as a warning for the audience: wealth and power are likely to bring more grief and danger than they are worth. They also destroy any meaningful connection that might exist between the human being and the divine.

In modern-day works of art, the same warning is issued, although in a more light-hearted, redeeming fashion. Furthermore, material wealth and the divine come closer to each other than in Shakespeare's play, suggesting a new paradigm of wealth and its relationship to divinity. Aristotle's assertion in terms of modern humankind may therefore hold less truth than may have been the case for the average Shakespearean audience.

The main difference is in the distribution and specific manifestations of wealth. Currently, more…… [Read More]

Macbeth and the Spanish Tragedy Viewed Through

Macbeth and the Spanish Tragedy Viewed Through Female Eyes

Women and power are often viewed as anathema in the conventional view of Jacobean drama, although ironically the dramatic form reached its height during the reign of Elizabeth. Lady Macbeth is often cited as proof positive that women in tragedy are seen as sources of negative, rather than positive power when they exercise statesmanship and personal choice. But Shakespeare's Lady and also the lesser known Bel-Imperia of Thomas Kyd's earlier revenge play both function not so much as negative sources of power, but as the moral reflections of the men in their lives and the world in which they live, both for good and for ill.

According to the common conception of Lady Macbeth, the wife of the Thane of Cawdor is an evil, malicious shrew, full of gall rather than the "milk of human kindness." (1.1.15) However, although Lady Macbeth is hardly the type of woman one might want to have hosting one's dinner party, her inner complexity is much deeper. She is not like the witches who lure Macbeth to his doom. Rather, she like her husband, becomes besotted by their words, in her case after reading her husband's…… [Read More]

Macbeth Gothic the Great Play Macbeth by

Macbeth Gothic

The great play Macbeth by the wonderful English author William Shakespeare is a very haunting and scary depiction of a royal Scottish family. Even though this play was written and performed in time period that would be considered pre-Gothic, this play demonstrates some very Gothic elements in its contents. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how Macbeth is quintessentially a gothic work. This essay will accomplish this by describing several key qualities that are seen in gothic works and show how Shakespeare wrote Macbeth with those very same qualities.

The Supernatural

When scary and things such as witches and ghosts appear in a story or piece of art, it is a very gothic element. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, there are three witches that play an important role in the play. Also there is much talk of a devil, Satan, and murder. Macbeth is often portrayed as losing his minds to spirits and is clearly disturbed by supernatural forces throughout the entire length of the play. The supernatural is also displayed in Macbeth when the idea of death and life after death are significantly discussed and played throughout the entire play and many people also die as well.…… [Read More]

Macbeth in Act I Scene 2 Of

Macbeth

In Act I Scene 2 of the tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare -- after giving a brutally graphic description of how Macbeth "unseam'd…from the nave to the chaps" an enemy soldier -- makes his hero's name rhyme with the word "death" at the scene's conclusion (64-5). Of course the technique of the play is to combine psychological realism with densely-written poetic language. Yet I hope that an examination of the play's supposed moment of comic relief in prose -- the "Porter Scene" that opens Macbeth Act 2 Scene 3 -- reveals, when read as poetry, an additional level of grotesque imagery. I think a closer examination will reveal that, although the Porter's dialogue is written in prose, it deserves to be called "prose-poetry," for Shakespeare still uses metaphor, linguistic detail, and context in order to achieve the same level of condensed and knotty language which characterizes his verse.

The "Porter Scene" technically begins at the conclusion of the previous scene. But it is necessary to look a little more closely at how the conclusion of Act 2 Scene 2 "sets up" the porter scene and establishes its poetic context. So the introduction of the Porter directly follows the murder of…… [Read More]

Macbeth Annotated Bibliography Overview of

The article goes into significant details about the genealogical structure of the Scottish families that were on the Scottish throne at that point. Although Shakespeare does not follow exactly the historical line, most of his characters and actions are closely linked with the historical realities.

The article briefly goes through a description of the Scottish life and Scotland at the time of King Macbeth, as they are also reflected in the play. Besides raides from the Vikings from Norway and Denmark, medieval Scotland is also dominated by a belief in witches (which appear in the play) and the unnatural. However, the author points out that authorities took drastic measures against witchcraft.

Finally, the article includes a presentation on England in the time the play was written, namely during the time of James I, with a description of historical events (the Gunpowder Plot and the Gowrie Conspiracy among these) and general traits of those times.

Gurewitsch, Matthew. "This Time, No Laughing at the Witches.(Arts and Leisure Desk)(MUSIC)." The New York Times. 157. 54104 (Oct 21, 2007): 30(L). Student Resource Center - Gold. Thomson Gale. SMITHSON VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL. 1 Nov. 2007

The article, published in the New York Times, refers to…… [Read More]

Macbeth Is Noted by Many

Thus he sought to kill both Banquo and his son Fleance in order to further decrease the chances of a later betrayal. His actions appear irrational on a surface level, but due to his avid focus on independence he would not seek counsel from Lady Macbeth, someone who is much more subtle and knowledgeable about internal politics and political intrigue. Macbeth's near irrational paranoia finally alienates him not only from his wife, but also the majority of nobles within the Scottish polity. Thus, while Macbeth's personal power continues to rise because he gains complete ownership over his own actions, at the same time he is also increasingly isolating himself from the outside world. With Macbeth's continuing disregard for Lady Macbeth, she finally succumbs to a combination of regret and guilt and ends her own life. In her final moments she continued to question, "what, will these hands never be clean?" (5.1.45). Macbeth in a similar fashion awaits his own prophesied execution at the hands of Banquo's heir. The ultimate result of his decision to isolate himself and rely on his own competence is that he finally left himself with no second opinion nor the ability to carefully review his own…… [Read More]

Macbeth Showing All the Characteristics

They believed in the idea of Wyrd, or the Nordic version of fate. This fate was based on past events of an individual's life. Their future would be adjusted accordingly by Wyrd, much like the Eastern idea of Karma, (Herbert 1995). It was the destiny of all men, based on what individuals had done previously in their lives. This element is prevalent throughout Shakespeare's Macbeth, in that his fate is what eventually leads him to his downfall. Because of his treacherous actions in murdering the King and his friend Banquo to steal the crown, Macbeth ensured that Wyrd would eventually come to take its revenge for his deceitful behavior. This pagan tradition did not fully die out with the region's conversion to Christianity; rather it moved from a strong religious practice into folk tales. Anglo-Saxon traditions and beliefs are still engrained into British literary traditions.

The earlier idea of Wyrd was later transitioned into the current English phrase "weird." The three witches are associated with this earlier Anglo-Saxon tradition, "The weird sisters, hand in hand," (Macbeth I.3.32). Their prophecies end up reality, showing their link to Macbeth's destiny. The naive Macbeth did not fully see the ramifications of their prophecies…… [Read More]

Macbeth Subject for a Witches

This adds to their mystique.

Shakespeare never intends to fully disclose everything there is to know about these women. Instead, he leaves them with us to make up our own minds as we watch Macbeth descend. We know they are responsible for part of Macbeth's tragedy. He becomes more dependent on them, illustrating how they slowly replace his moral center. It is also important to realize they are completely aware of what they are doing. They set out to destroy him and he falls into their trap instantly. Their ability to affect Macbeth is compelling and Shakespeare deliberately establishes them as supernatural and powerful creatures to reinforce the humanity of Macbeth. To enhance this affect, the witches' apparitions drive Macbeth close to and eventually off the mental edge. After killing Lady Macduff, Macbeth moves beyond any reason. They are source of struggle for him. While their prodding seems to upset him, he asks for it. They keep him in a state of confusion that works to their advantage. In their mystery, symbolize the darkness and chaos that will soon become Macbeth's life. Their intent is clear from the beginning of the play. Their declaration of all things being "foul is…… [Read More]

Macbeth and Its Relation to

" (1.1.12). This elimination of distinction is later echoed by Macbeth, who is on his way back from the battlefield. Already disorder has crept into his mind. "So foul and fair a day I have not seen," he states (1.3.39). Rather than exulting in his victory on the battlefield, he appears to be troubled. He is in danger of losing his sense of order and value even before he meets the witches. They use his weakness to compel him to overturn his reason and pursue his ambition.

His mental and moral health is not helped any by his wife, who renounces her femininity (and ends up losing her mind): "Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here." (1.5.47-8). She prays for a spirit of cruelty, knowing for well that their ambition can only be satisfied through cruelty. After the murder is committed, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and seemingly stunned by what they've done. Lady Macbeth states that "it will make us mad" (2.2.50) if they think too much on what they have done. Murder awakens her conscience. It kills Macbeth's.

The pricking of one's conscience and the killing of another may easily relate to today's…… [Read More]

Macbeth Had Resisted Temptation Befriended Duncan and

Macbeth had resisted temptation, befriended Duncan, and (for good measure) divorced his wife. Wouldn't he be the King of Scotland, in due course? Why didn't the Bard create a model of patient merit, instead of a form of vaulting ambition? Why not make Macbeth a hero, instead of a loathsome villain?

In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the playwright tells of a man whose ambition, not to mention the prodding of his even more ambitious wife, leads him to commit multiple murders in order to obtain the crown of Scotland. Macbeth had been a loyal subject of King Duncan until he makes the acquaintance of three witches who predict that he will be Thane and then, ultimately, King. However, in order to achieve this goal he must not only commit regicide against the current king, but must also get rid of anyone who might subvert his attempts to gain the throne. By the play's end, Duncan is murdered and his sons forced into exile, Macbeth's friend Banquo is murdered, another soldier named MacDuff's whole family is slaughtered, Lady Macbeth commits suicide, and then finally the villainous title character is himself killed. The responsibility for the tragedy is laid squarely on the shoulders…… [Read More]

Macbeth Act 1 Scene 1

Versions of MacBeth

Act I, Scene I of MacBeth is a short act that introduces the audience to three characters who play small, but significant, roles in the play. The three witches, sometimes referred to as the weird sisters, appear in a desolate location, with a storm brewing in the background. Their conversation is without any substance; instead, it is clear that the audience is viewing them after they have already done something, but what is left unspecified. Instead, they are setting the time and place for their next meeting. They indicate that they will meet with MacBeth. They also foreshadow that good will be bad and bad will be good, though whether they are going to cause this disruption or are merely able to predict that it will occur is not specified.

In the 1971 version of MacBeth, directed by Roman Polanski, the three witches are on a beach, stormy weather in the background, and engaged in something that appears disgusting, but not necessarily bad: they are burying an arm with a knife. The implication seems to be that they have robbed a grave to get the arm, though the possibility is that they have killed a man to…… [Read More]

Macbeth and Arthur Dimmesdale as Tragic Figures Remark on Their Hamartia Hubris Respectively

tragic figures. The writer compares and contrasts Macbeth and Arthur Dimmesdale as "tragic figures." Their lives, their ideas and the things that happen to them all contribute to the tragic figure persona. There were 10 sources used to complete this paper.

Throughout history authors of literature have used their works to make their characters evoke emotion in the readers hearts. One of the most emotion evoking characters in works of literature is the tragic hero. The tragic hero is a hero in actions and tragic in the flaw that makes him or her human after all. The tragic hero is the character that struggles with human flaws or emotions while at the same time acting in heroic ways. The ways of a tragic hero are often about warriors and the ability to fight but this is not always the case.

At other times the tragic hero is the one who performs a feat outside of war but a feat that is for the good of the greater whole. There are two classic works of literature that display the life of a tragic hero. The story of Macbeth by William Shakespeare and the story of the Scarlet Letter by Nathan Hawthorne…… [Read More]

Macbeth Revised Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth Is

Macbeth REVISED

Shakespeare's tragedy of Macbeth is, in some ways, the story of a disaster that everyone can see coming. After all, it opens with characters -- the Three Witches -- who can see the future. When Macbeth encounters them, the witches offer what Shakespeare terms "strange intelligence" or "prophetic greeting" -- predicting that he will attain the titles of Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis, and King of Scotland (I.iii). The question the play poses, then, is what Macbeth can or cannot do to manipulate the existing circumstances to fulfill his own ambition and the witches' prophecy. The witches predict Macbeth will be the king -- they do not predict that he will murder Duncan to make it happen. Shakespeare does not use the term "manipulate" for Macbeth's way of becoming king, but instead couches it in terms of daring -- as Macbeth will tell his wife, when he begins his campaign to manipulate existing circumstances and attain the titles the witches have predicted for him, "I dare do all that may become a man / Who dares do more is none." (I.vii). But every stage of Macbeth's daring takes him one step closer to his downfall at the…… [Read More]

Macbeth the Marriage Relationship Between Lady Macbeth

Macbeth

The marriage relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth is ironically close, given their overwhelming personal ambitions. Throughout the play, the couple bonds over murder, guilt, and a hunger for the throne. Driven by their individual desires to attain and maintain a position of power in Scotland, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth feed off of each other. However, their relationship disintegrates not because they lack love or respect for one another, but because they succumbed to guilt and other personal psychological demons by the end of the play.

In Acts I and II, Lady Macbeth is by far the dominant partner in the relationship. She feels her husband is too weak, "too full o' the milk of human kindness," to do whatever it takes to secure the throne (I, v. 15). She wants to wear the pants in the family, to be "unsexed," so that she may perform acts of "direst cruelty," (I, v. 43, 45). At this early point in the play, it seems that Lady Macbeth's strength of character and her self-will are stronger than those of her husband. Reversing traditional gender roles, Lady Macbeth declares that her husband's manhood will be defined by his willingness to commit murder:…… [Read More]

Macbeths Two Macbeths An Analysis

Their inability to come to terms with the facts of their success and the actions they were required to take to achieve it becomes, in many ways, the focus of the film, and becomes the true heart of the story Polanski is trying to tell in this film.

Character Changes

The violence and psychological crumbling it causes is not only accentuated in Polanski's Macbeth by these added scenes, but also in how Polanski presents certain other scenes from the play, as well. These changes have direct implications for the interpretation of the two primary characters in the play, as well as for several of the secondary characters and the overall thrust of the film's story. Perhaps the most significant interpretive choices that Polanski makes in regards to the direct characterizations of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth occur in the staging -- or the filming, rather -- of their soliloquies. Through Polanski's interpretation, these soliloquies become clear instances of the mental deterioration of these characters.

This becomes clear relatively early in the film, beginning with Macbeth's first encounter with a hallucination. Falling in Act Two, scene one of Shakespeare's script, Macbeth delivers a soliloquy in which he believes he sees a spectral…… [Read More]

Macbeth Choose a Complex and

Lady Macbeth is never as confident as she is before the death of Duncan. She faints when she hears Macbeth describe the murder of Duncan in graphic detail, and while this could be a ploy to divert attention from him, her later actions indicate that she is wracked with guilt. She obsessively reenacts the scene of the murder as she sleepwalks at night, and perhaps most tragically, she grows more and more estranged from her husband. While before Macbeth told her everything, now, before making the critical decision to kill Banquo, Macbeth says: "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed" (III.2).

This separation from the man she helped 'make' king is what drives Lady Macbeth mad, along with guilt. Unlike her warrior husband, she never truly saw death. Out of love for his wife as well as ambition, Macbeth killed his king, but in doing so he created a rift that forever separated them, emotionally. After the death of Duncan, Macbeth cannot forgive Lady Macbeth for the sleepless, friendless nights he now endures as a hated king. He is too emotionally numb to even mourn her death. And Lady Macbeth takes her own life…… [Read More]

William Shakespeare's Macbeth Introduction to

She declares that a man who snatches what he desires is actually a true man. Lady Macbeth burdens herself by seducing his husband into committing the murder afterall. Although, initially she has the strength and potential to deal with the task of abetting in a murder and thinks she will be able to forget all about it once she becomes the Scottish Queen but eventually conscience overpowers her vices. She dies of guilt and anguish.

(iii) Banquo

Like Macbeth, Banquo, is also a nobleman of Scotland and a general in rank.To some extent through Banquo and Macbeth, the writer has offered a comparison of choices made by men in similar circumstances. When Macbeth was foretold of his rule on Scotland, so was Banquo made aware that his descendants would one day be wearing the crown. Like Macbeth, Banquo is a man of high rank and status and hence of an ambitious nature. However, he considers the honor of his king, country and individuality foremost and suppressed his selfish agendas.Further comparison reveals that Macbeth and Banquowere a part of the same secret i.e., of knowing their fate and Macbeth had also tried to seduce Banquo to be a part of his…… [Read More]

Shakespeare's Play Macbeth Women Play Influence Macbeth

Shakespeare's play Macbeth, women play influence Macbeth a brave vibrant soldier, ready die king, a murderer? Discuss witches predictions portrayed Jacobean era ambitious Lady Macbeth husband deranged.

William Shakespeare's play Macbeth provides an intriguing account involving concepts like greed, the influence women have on men, and the overall idea of human nature in dubious circumstances. Macbeth is the central character and he comes to employ deceiving attitudes as he becomes more and more overcome by greed. While it is actually normal to see a person being obsessed with power and coming to act in disagreement with principles he or she previously believed in, Macbeth is also significantly influenced by women who he interacts with and it is only safe to say that they play an important role in making him commit regicide.

Macbeth is somewhat dependent to women, not from a sexual point-of-view, but from a point-of-view involving him wanting to emphasize his interest in patriarchy and in individuals who can support this concept. However, this dependency can be considered to be a reason for his failure to maintain the throne. "The restoration of the proper king and virgin Malcolm by Macduff, not of woman born, is taken to signify…… [Read More]

Literary Analysis of Macbeth

Shakespeare

Macbeth and the Struggle between Good and Evil

Like all of Shakespeare's tragedies, the action of Macbeth is based around the fatal flaw of the man who would otherwise be a hero. For Macbeth, his flaw is his ambition. He allows his ambition to drive him and this overcomes his reason. In doing so, he chooses the path of evil over the path of good. In the end though, he cannot live with his own choice and his good side becomes his underdoing. In this way, Macbeth is not only the story of a man choosing evil, but also the story of a man who cannot be driven to ignore his good side. This makes Macbeth a unique play because it shows both sides of the struggle between good and evil and makes it a human struggle. This major theme in the play is expressed in several ways. This will now be discussed in detail to show how Shakespeare expresses the theme.

The first important point of the play occurs when Macbeth meets with the three witches. As witches, this is a clear representation of evil. The idea of witchcraft also suggests that Macbeth is acting against what is…… [Read More]

Ambition and Evil in Macbeth

Banquo dies but Fleance escapes, and when the murderer arrives to tell Macbeth, the first thing Macbeth notices is "There's blood on your face" (III, 4, 13). This point is both a step forward and a step back for Macbeth; his former friend Banquo is dead, removing a source of suspicion, but Banquo's son lives, ready for revenge. The blood Macbeth sees on the murderer's face reflects both his rise to power and his fall from grace.

Before this scene, however, Macbeth murders King Duncan. He almost does not go through with it, but for Lady Macbeth convincing him first that he is no man if he does not, and second by outlining how they'll get away with it: "what not put upon / His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt" (1, 7, 70-1). The word "spongy" refers both to the fact that they are going to get the officers drunk, and that the officer's clothes will soak up the blood from the daggers. In the scene after the murder, Lady Macbeth tells her husband to "wash this filthy witness from your hand" and "smear / the sleepy grooms with blood (II, 2, 44; 46-7). Just as in the…… [Read More]

Shakespeare the Character and Relationship of Macbeth

Shakespeare

The Character and Relationship of Macbeth and his Lady

In Act 1, Scene V of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband and then reflects on his character. Use this letter and speech as a focal point for analyzing their relationship. What does the letter tell you about his view of the world? What does her subsequent speech tell you about hers? Stay with these few pages of the text and examine as many of the words and phrases as possible.

It seems from the text that Lady Macbeth loves her husband and wants the best for him, but she also believes that he will not be able to do what is required. The letter introduces her to the message from the weird sisters who, as the reader knows, are witches who are, throughout the tale telling Macbeth of his fate. At the end of the opening letter she is reading he says "my dearest partner of greatness, that thou might'st not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell." He is talking about the fact that he has been anointed by both the…… [Read More]

Hamlet and Macbeth Hamlet vs

While Macbeth also appears to see ghosts as a result of killing his friend and the king, it is very probable that his visions are caused by his conscience, as he is unable to get over the fact that he murdered his best friend and the king. Lady Macbeth also yields to hallucinations: "Here's the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" (Lady Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1). Instead of perceiving them as being examples of their dirty conscience, the Macbeths consider that their visions are supernatural occurrences that appear as a result of their actions.

Macbeth lacks morality where Hamlet uses too much of it: the former does not hesitate to kill anyone that stands in his way in spite of the fact that he is actually close to many of the people that he kills whereas Hamlet discovers that Claudius is actually responsible for his father's death but postpones their confrontation because he feels that he is uncertain regarding the punishment that he needs to impose on his uncle.

Supernatural factors have different purposes in each of the plays. The ghost in "Hamlet" is interested in providing the protagonist with…… [Read More]

Literature Macbeth

Shakespeare's Macbeth represents what many refer to as the tragic hero. This can be proven by examining Macbeth's character. Through a series of bad decisions, Macbeth single-handedly ruins his own life. By allowing himself to be influenced by outside forces, Macbeth diffuses his own moral strength and good nature, which were the very things that led him to greatness. Step-by-step throughout the play, the reader can watch Macbeth's character deteriorate until he has nothing left. Macbeth might have been a tragic hero, but the tragedy was of his own making.

In the beginning of the play, Macbeth demonstrates characteristics of a hero and a leader. His loyalty to the king transforms into a desire to be king. This is evident in the first scene when Macbeth encounters the witches and falls victim to their curses and predictions. Because of his false sense of security, he believes everything they say. In a rather simple move, they have successfully tempted him with the idea of becoming king.

Macbeth reveals his weakness in character when he allows himself to be swayed by what the witches tell him. Shakespeare paints a picture of a man that is somehow mesmerized by them and lulled into…… [Read More]

1971 Film Version of Macbeth Roman Polanski's

1971 Film Version of MacBeth

Roman Polanski's 1971 version of Shakespeare's play Macbeth is dark, suspenseful and quite bloody for a film that was made before the slasher genre was even in existence. What is particularly good about Polanski's take on the play is that he seems to not have taken into account any versions of the play before he made his own; that is, Polanski has put his own mark on the film that proves itself to be quite different from any of the films that he would do before -- or after. Considering the year that Macbeth was made -- 1971, just two years after the Manson murders that claimed his wife Sharon Tate's life, their unborn baby, and three others (Garber 104), it might not be crazy to think that Polanski's ample use of blood in this film was a way of avenging the death. This is merely speculation, but Polanski's Macbeth is one of the most violent films even by today's standards.

Jon Finch as the murderous Macbeth is fine in the role, though Francesca Annis who plays Lady Macbeth is far more convincing. Polanski has always had a knack for directing his actors in a…… [Read More]

Danger of Temptation in Macbeth

They catch his attention hailing him Thane of Glamis and King hereafter and he is obsessed. Banquo asks Macbeth "why do you start and seem to fear / Things that do sound so fair?" (I.iii51-2), indicating the difference between the two. Banquo exercises caution while Macbeth expresses interest in more information.

Both men handle success differently. When King Duncan meets with the men after battle, they are not treated or rewarded in the same way -- even though both served the king equally well. The king offers his heart to Banquo saying, "That hast no less deserved, nor must be known / No less to have done so: let me enfold thee / And hold thee to my heart"(I.iv.33-35). Macbeth, on the other hand, Macbeth receives a handsome reward. Banquo is quite content with this offering and praise. He does not feel slighted not does he make any comment regarding Macbeth's lot. Macbeth, on the other hand is appreciative but he desires more.this comparison allows us to see how the hearts of the men are different. One man finds contentment with what he has while the other seeks to have more.

People respond to the temptation of power and success…… [Read More]

Banquo Macbeth Banquo and Macbeth

Macbeth eventually comes to the realization that Banquo cannot be trusted to help his plot to become king. He realizes that Banquo has a pure spirit and will be a threat to his newly acquired throne and therefore has him murdered. Yet this doesn't end Banquo's role in the story and his spirit is shown first in his son Fleance and then later through ghostly appearances.

The main illustration of the foil between these two friends in the story can be provided by their responses to the two witches. While Macbeth had a somewhat neutral response at first indicated by the statement "this supernatural soliciting cannot be ill / cannot be bad, if ill why hath it given me earnest of success?" This implies that he didn't think it was too bad if it gave him hope for the future. However, the more Macbeth imagined himself as king, the more his lust for it grew. He then begins to think of murder, "my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical" in which he began his downward plunge into darkness.

However, Banquo had quite the opposite reaction to the witches and remained skeptical of their prophecy until the moments before his…… [Read More]

Mohammed Suharto and Macbeth William Shakespeare Wrote

Mohammed Suharto and Macbeth

William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth to be one of his most important epic plays, reaching into the darkest aspects of mankind and offering no redemption to his hero in the end. At first a loyal general, Macbeth sees power as something that is in his grasp, and with the right amount of pressure, he seizes this power by killing King Duncan. (Shakespeare, 1611) In the end, Macbeth was punished for the evil that he committed, and did not remain King for long. The power unbalance that Macbeth sets forth can be compared to Mohammed Suharto's take over of Indonesia in 1965. Suharto, like Macbeth, was power hungry, and believed that he knew what was the best way to govern, and would do anything possible to prove it.

In several ways, the life of Mohammed Suharto can be directly placed over the story of Macbeth. The same tragic ending of King Duncan is likened to that of Sukarno, who was overthrown in 1965 at the height of problems in South East Asia. In the late 1950s, the struggle between Indonesia and Malaysia had just begun, and the Muslim rulers of Indonesia did not want to succumb to Communist…… [Read More]

Shakespeare's Play Macbeth There Are Several Themes

Shakespeare's play Macbeth, there are several themes that can relate today's modern society. But, one in particular wills mostly likely stand the test of time of all future societies. The theme of nature is use throughout the play and in the play it means that something will occur by the nature of things is set up. For example, in Act I, there is darkness all around the witches and during the time of the play, people associated darkness with evilness. So, the nature of the setting in Act I gave the audience the impression something evil was going to happen. And, today's modern audience would still get the same impression due to the nature of the setting.

Also, in Act I, there is thunder and lighting, which indicates a disturbance in nature. People of today still feel that way about thunder and lighting. In Act II, darkness is all over the place before the murders and that of course, will lead all audiences to believe evil awaits. When Macbeth has no hope for the future that is a disturbance in nature and that in itself will make people believe that nothing is going to happen. Therefore, the theme of nature…… [Read More]

Richard III & Macbeth Comparison Contrast

They want to be king so badly that they can justify any action that helps them achieve their goal. These actions include murder. Both men become villains in different ways - Richard seems to have been born villainous and Macbeth seems to prove that villains are not born but made from outside influences. Shakespeare proves both assertions valid when we see Macbeth reach the same level of conniving and ruthlessness as Richard. The dream of power and the intense thirst for ambition lead both men to murder. In addition, both men not only murder but also commit cold-blooded murder to get what they want proving that we are not so different from one another.… [Read More]

Power of Blood in Shakespeare's Macbeth Blood

Power of Blood in Shakespeare's Macbeth

Blood is powerful when it comes to invoking images and William Shakespeare knew when he wrote Macbeth, the audience would remember everything with blood imagery sprinkled throughout the drama. Blood imagery helps emphasizes the extrreme change in Macbeth's character and it is compelling because blood is vital for life. When we see blood, we generally think of life or death in some or another.With Macbeth, Shakespeare reminds us not only of the loss of life but the loss of sanity that also occurs as a result of the death that occurs in the play. As the play progresses, blood represents guilt, which eats Macbeth alive. Later, we associate blood with justice. Blood symbolizes the lives and minds that are lost in the play.

Blood is present from the easrly moments in the play, establishing an eerie mood. Mark Van Doren writes Macbeth's world is a world that has "grown terrible with ill-smelling mists and the stench of blood" (Van Doren 347). He says the presence of blood "sickening" (353) because the imagery only "darkens" (353) after murder takes place A.C. Bradley says it "cannot be an accident that the image of blood is forced…… [Read More]

Reversal of Nature in Macbeth

"(Bloom, 41) Any act of evil is seen thus to change the basic structure of the universe and to transform nature into a desolated chaos.

It is not only the natural, physical environment that becomes extremely chaotic through evil, but the human nature as well. All through the play, Lady Macbeth calls upon the forces of evil to keep at bay the "compunctious visitings of nature." It is thus plainly shown that there can be no enactment of malignancy without a reversal of human nature: "The raven himself is hoarse / That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan / Under my battlements. Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / of direst cruelty! make thick my blood; / Stop up the access and passage to remorse, / That no compunctious visitings of nature / Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between / the effect and it!"(1.5.40-51) the invocation that Lady Macbeth addresses to the spirits, urging them to "unsex her" is also significant: what she asks for is to be made infertile, and therefore to be herself transformed into an unnatural being, that…… [Read More]

The Modernization of Macbeth

popular theatrical experience in New York City. It is written objectively and seeks to identify both the areas of success and areas of improvement that this production, and its holistic experience, entails for the viewer.

Event Description

This event involved the author going to an a 1930's style hotel in New York City. Various aspects of the theatrical experience which is loosely based on Macbeth involved audiences getting acclimated to different perspectives and rooms in the residence in which the story takes place. In this regard the experience was truly interactive.

Evaluation

The most interesting thing about the event was the modernization of Macbeth. The fact that theater goers could actually follow various characters in this timeless tale in different rooms helped to add to this story, and emphasize some of the aspects of the play that are less emphasized in the original.

b.i. On the one hand, there was sufficient guidance on the part of the personnel working this event. They ensured that all present were given masks, and were also present to ensure that these masks were not removed. This sort of attention added to the uniqueness of this event and its interactivity.

b.ii The theater environment itself…… [Read More]

Relevance Quote Plot Interpret Quote Mention Literary

relevance quote plot Interpret quote mention literary techniques devices This quote reflects theme ... (put a theme) CLEARLY STATE THE THEME Write occasions characters play embody theme Body 1: Topic Sentence connects thesis statement mention Occasion Character #1.

Being and seeming:

The contrast between surface appearances and true character in Shakespeare's Macbeth

When Lady Macbeth learns that the witches have predicted that her husband Macbeth will be king she gloats and greets her husband with the words "…look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't" (I.5). The fact that the three 'weird sisters' have predicted Macbeth's kingship is interpreted by Lady Macbeth as license to commit the murder of Duncan. Lady Macbeth's words indicate a contrast between 'being' and 'seeming' that runs throughout the play. Lady Macbeth urges her husband to seem as though he is loyal even while he conspires with his wife to kill the king. Yet the play underlines the theme that it is not only Macbeth who merely makes a show of what he is not: the dangers of making assumptions based upon surface appearances run throughout the play. Both Duncan and Macbeth are guilty of this fatal flaw.

Of the thane of…… [Read More]

Insanity Within the Plays of William Shakespeare

Shakespeare and Insanity

An Analysis of Insanity in Four Plays by Shakespeare

Shakespeare lived at a time when the old medieval Catholic world was splitting apart and giving rise to the new modern Protestant world. In the midst of this real conflict, Shakespeare depicts on stage several different characters that go mad. Some feign madness, some truly lose their minds, and some are bewitched by the maddening charms of love potions. This paper will analyze the degrees of madness in four of Shakespeare's plays and show why each case is unique and different from all the others and yet in a way related to the transforming world in which the playwright found himself.

Hamlet is by no means representative of the kind of insanity that Shakespeare depicts in all his dramas. But there is in a Hamlet, a young man who has just returned home from college, a prototype for much of modern drama. Hamlet is an actor, and in Hamlet, the Prince feigns madness out of exasperation with the fakery he sees at Elsinore -- whether it his in his mother, or in the spying Polonius, or in the puppeteer-ed Ophelia. Yet, his fake madness (and his mad-seeming acts,…… [Read More]

Shakespeare's Notorious Villians William Shakespeare

Shakespeare allows us to see Macbeth's good nature, which also illustrates how easily man can fall once he allows his passions to have free reign.

In Hamlet, Claudius is also driven by ambition and he ranks a close second to Iago as men whose hearts are tainted with evil. His ultimate desire is to be king and then to remain king and he will stop at nothing to achieve that goal. Of course, the wicked deed of killing his own brother becomes more grotesque than that of Iago or Macbeth because of the sheer lack of soul a man must have to commit such an act. Claudius admits that he will do what it takes to retain the throne and he resorts to all sorts of dubious behavior to accomplish this. He also asks Rozencrantz and Guildenstern to use their:

Companies

To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather

So much as from occasion you may glean,

Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus That, opened, lies within our remedy. (Hamlet II.ii.14-8)

Here the man is so obsessed with staying on the throne that he is willing to enlist others to help him. Once he decides to include…… [Read More]

Text Stage and Screen

Screen

Shakespeare's rhetoric has always astounded his contemporary audiences through his almost supernatural ability to perceive and present the universality of human nature on stage, regardless of the time his characters lived in.

The three different types of techniques used in rendering the play to the public are different, but related art forms: literature, theater and film. They reflect their author's or directors' vision of the story originally presented by Shakespeare on stage at the Globe, in London, at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Kings of Scotland, England, and later Great Britain, had always been challenged in keeping their place on the throne and Shakespeare himself lived through times that were still full of intrigue and plotting against the sovereign. Mary Stuart, accused of plotting against the queen of England, Elisabeth I, had been executed in 1587, still a vivid memory for many who attended the shows put on stage at the Globe.

The Londoners in Shakespeare's time were thus no strangers to the intrigues at the royal courts. The way kings feared for their lives, while princes or any of those who could raise a claim to the throne were wowing their nets, making allies in order to…… [Read More]

Violence Exists for Its Own

2).

However, unlike Lady Macbeth, Macbeth knows that once violence has been undertaken, there is no going back: "Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!" (II.2). After her initial resolve, Lady Macbeth becomes miserable and eventually insane with guilt: "Nought's had, all's spent, / Where our desire is got without content" (III.2). Once he has murdered Duncan, Macbeth knows he must defend his grip on power with more bloodshed, and he kills his old friend Banquo without remorse.

The contrast between the two figures during Duncan's murder shows the contrast between male and female views of power: Lady Macbeth, shielded from war and the real workings of power, has a romantic view of what being queen might be like. Macbeth is a soldier and despite his ambition has a more sober view of bloodshed, a sober view that is warranted, given the misery that results from his impulsive action to obey his wife…… [Read More]

Diffusing Tension and Educating the

This is also true in another tragedy of murder, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. One of the more humorous characters in the novel is the drunken Marmeladov. Marmeladov is an alcoholic, and his long, rambling monologues are a startling counterpoint to the seriousness with which Raskolnikov regards his life. Without characters like Marmeladov, the novel would be almost unbearably claustrophobic and ridden with tension, as Raskolnikov tormented himself with guilt over his double murder, and the police officer Porfiry tried to trick the law student into a confession. But like the porter, Marmeladov serves an important function in underlining the novel's theme. It shows the desperation to which the poor in Russia sink: Marmeladov's dissipation forces his daughter Sofia to become a prostitute.

Without knowing Sofia and the patience with which she bears her sacrifice and her misery, Raskolnikov would never have found his path to moral redemption. Even in comedic and ridiculous people like the porter and Marmeladov, there is significance: the porter sees how there is always a danger of a kingdom being overthrown, and Marmeladov's behavior, which might seem funny to a distanced observer, has consequences that destroy his family. It is also the sight of people…… [Read More]

Popular Movie Reviews Chinatown Chinatown

Their methods, however -- regicide, then more murders to cover up the first one, and finally a desperate civil war in an attempt to kill the throne -- are not exactly worthy of nobility. All prophecies are eventually fulfilled; though Macbeth reigns as king, his line ends with him.

Are Shakespeare's witches symbolic or real?

Though tempting to interpret the witches as a sort of symbolic force, there can be little doubt that Shakespeare intended them to be real. There are hallucinations in the play, and they are reacted to quite differently. Macbeth and Banquo both converse with the witches early in the play, and their words motivate much of the action. Though there might be symbolism in their characters -- the inner whisperings of greed, etc. -- the figures themselves are very real.

What do we learn of Love, Greed, and Power?

All three, especially unchecked, will only lead to ruin.

The Maltese Falcon

Movie Details: Book Details:

The Maltese Facon, 1941, b/w, 1hr/41min the Maltese Falcon, 1930

Director: John Huston by: Dashiell Hammett

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre 224 pages (1989 Vintage edition)

The complex plot of the Maltese Falcon is something only a genius like…… [Read More]

Wordsworth Blake Shelly and Other Greats of the Romantic Era

Romantic Era

The years in which the Romantic Era had its great impact -- roughly 1789 through 1832 -- were years in which there were "intense political, social, and cultural upheavals," according to Professor Shannon Heath at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (Heath, 2009). The beginning of the Romantic Era actually is traced to the French Revolution, and though that tumultuous event was not in England, William Wordsworth and others sympathized with the French Revolution -- at least at the beginning of the Revolution.

The demands for democracy in the Era were manifested through poems that reflected solidarity with principles of "equality and individuality," Heath explains. The principles of fairness and equality were needed in England as well as in France, and Heath suggests that poets were not just responding to revolutions but rather were critiquing English government. According to Giovanni Pellegrino the struggles for democracy and the "political and social problems of the time" in England caused romantic poet to "withdraw into himself indulging in introspection and meditation" (Pellegrino, 2011). Moreover, the "egotism and individualism" of the poet in the romantic period led to a "…constant intrusion of the poet himself into his work," Pellegrino writes. For the…… [Read More]

Crime and Punishment Crime and

From a good soldier, he turns into a bad king. He becomes a man who believes the transparent lies of the witches who, along with the urging of his ambitious wife, motivated him to commit the murder of King Duncan.

Hamlet: Hamlet's depressed and uncompromising nature resonates with anyone who has ever been an adolescent. Hamlet is intensely critical of aspects of his society others take for granted, such as King Claudius' right to marry his brother's widow and Old Hamlet's suspect death. Hamlet's criticism can be harsh, and misogynistic as well as misanthropic, but he is an inspiring example for young readers. He urges readers and playgoers today to continually question the morality of their elders and betters, and strike out against the 'smile' or lie that hides the real truth about power in society.

The Scarlet Letter: Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter shows that the appearance of religion without real action is a great societal evil. Hester Prynne is honest, and has committed only one 'crime' -- betraying her cold, elderly husband. However, the father of her illegitimate daughter seems like a pure man of the cloth but is too cowardly to honor his commitment to little Pearl. Until…… [Read More]

Film Project Othello Modernized Shakespeare

My story being done,

She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:

She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange,

Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:

She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd

That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me,

And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, should but teach him how to tell my story.

And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:

She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,

And I loved her that she did pity them.

This only is the witchcraft I have used:

Here comes the lady; let her witness it.

Translation

Setting: The inside of the administrative building. Nighttime. Othello is wearing a suit, and is confronted by the school's president, 'Dr. B,' and several members of the administration in their pajamas.

John Othello: Look Dr. B, I know it's not easy when your little girl leaves you. Lord knows how I'd feel if I were in your shoes. Maybe I'd feel just the same way, as if I'd like to strangle the guy who took my only baby girl away. I've never been a father, or…… [Read More]