I'm excited to see what you think.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Macbeth Final Reactions
We finished Shakespeare's Scottish tragedy, Macbeth; time to share your thoughts, feelings, and reactions. Be sure to examine themes, motifs, symbols, character, and anything else you think may be relevant; you should incorporate quotes to support your assertions.
I'm excited to see what you think.
I'm excited to see what you think.
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Before reading Macbeth, I did not fully understand how speaking the name of a play could cause a disastrous accident to take place. Now, I can see how this particular play could cause bad things to occur. Macbeth has a tragic plot, beginning and ending with war. My favorite aspect of the play is how the character, Lady Macbeth, changes along with the plot. Lady Macbeth enters the play as a confident, independent woman with secret intentions. Surprisingly, Lady Macbeth is an essential role in supporting the motif of masculinity. While plotting the death of Duncan in hopes of making her husband king, she states, “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty…” (Act 1 Scene 5, Lines 39-42) In this line, Lady Macbeth is asking for masculinity, defying the norms of the society in which she lived. This shows how she was fearless of performing the unexpected in the beginning of the play. Lady Macbeth gradually changes along with the plot, and her masculine ways alter as she becomes more and more regretful of her past actions. When Lady Macbeth begins to talk in her sleep, she reveals her sympathy towards a woman whom she helped murder. She states, “The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” (Act 5 Scene 1, Lines 38-39) Lady Macbeth is showing how overcome with remorse she is. This is quite different from how she acted in the beginning of the story. Another aspect of the play that I found interesting was the motif of hands. Hands reappear throughout the play. They are used to describe committing an evil deed and the consequences that come with it. When Macbeth ponders the possibility of killing Duncan he states, “Let the eye wink at the hand.” (Act 1 Scene 5) He is performing an apostrophe to the stars, asking them to conceal his actions from his eye, therefore allowing him to be free of guilt. The motif of hands is seen again when Lady Macbeth sleepwalks. She is constantly washing her hands, trying to clean the blood she is envisioning. The blood represents the guilt, while her hands represent the deed. I am thoroughly impressed by how Shakespeare managed to incorporate discreet messages through motifs and other symbols to enhance the Scottish Play.
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ReplyDeleteMacbeth is an intense, dramatic, and fiercely interesting play. The most compelling aspect of the story was, to, me that while Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are clearly quite evil they are not portrayed simply as villains, but rather slowly descend into amorality, wracked by guilt and regret with each new murder they commit. They are incredibly complex characters; they commit unspeakably evil deeds, and while their sense of morality declines more and more over the course of the play it never disappears entirely, with each new death at their hands driving them further into grief, guilt and even madness. As they realize that they have fallen too far to ever return to the good, virtuous lives they once had, their growing self-loathing manifests itself in hallucinations of blood covering their hands. Just as their murder can never be undone, the blood can never be washed off, not even with “all great Neptune’s ocean,” but “will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red” (Macbeth Act 2 Scene 2 lines 57-60) Even as the story reaches its climax, Macbeth still has not become the stereotypical self-serving, sociopathic villain the reader might expect him to be, but has instead cultivated such a profound hatred of himself that he no longer cares for his own life, made evident by his nihilistic yet brilliant monologue in act 5 scene 5; “Out, out, brief candle, Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” This anguished and tortured aspect of Macbeth’s character, which grows in proportion to the evilness of his deeds, portrays him in a human light even while he becomes demonically evil, and makes his story truly tragic; while Macbeth is an evil tyrant, the reader does not celebrate his death, but rather mourns it.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare’s tragedy essentially deals with the ultimate vulnerability of human nature when challenged by unnatural powers, and how these same unnatural powers breed equally unnatural deeds. The motif of nature reoccurs frequently throughout the tragedy. When preparing to kill King Duncan, Macbeth himself says: “Now o’er the one half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse the curtain’d sleep” (2.1. 49-51), proving the unnaturality of his deeds. However, I disagree with this theme. Characters constantly refer to the “unnatural” events that occur, however, in essence, the ultimate actions are anything but unnatural. Only the stimulus is an unnatural source of these events; the rest is the very natural occurrence of human nature. Macbeth’s actions are a product of human nature; his greed and power-hungry nature, being provoked by the Weird Sisters, erupted from his civil facade and led to his eventual destruction. Considering that Macbeth’s descent into madness was provoked only by the stimulation of the dark side of his nature, this story is one that can be repeated in any setting. All supposedly “unnatural” events that occur are essentially a result of a very natural impulse of human nature. Despite the theme, Macbeth is an ingenious piece of literature. Its poetic motifs not only make this tragedy an analytical gem, but it also lends itself to the overall tone and beauty of the literature.
ReplyDeleteThe development of the characters also implies an inconsistency of human nature. This is evident from the beginning of the story when King Duncan laments the infidelity of his the Thane of Cawdor: “there’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face. He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.” (1.4. 11-14) Similarly, Macbeth begins the tragedy as Duncan’s closest captain but eventually murders him. Conversely to Macbeth’s downfall, Lady Macbeth also displays inconsistency. She pushes Macbeth towards the murder, but as Macbeth begins his moral decline, Lady Macbeth is stricken with guilt. These examples prove the ultimate inconsistency of human nature, how personal gain and morals are in conflict with each other, and finally how these can so drastically change human nature.
Reading Macbeth helped me obtain a better understanding of the symbols that the play showed. The motifs were extremely significant and there were multiple theories that supported the actions of the play. The hand motif, having to do with the blood on Macbeth’s hand from the killing of Duncan, had great impact on the play. The topic came up very often and truly expressed the guilt that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth each felt from their actions. Another one would be the nature idea. Banquo was very interested in nature and always had something to say about it. It expresses how the nature was disturbed on the night that Duncan was killed. “The night has been unruly: where we lay, our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, lamentings heard i’th’air, strange screams of death and prophesying with accents terrible of dire combustion and confus’d events, new hatch’d to th’woeful time.” (2.3 49-54) This shows how many people in the castle felt the night and nature was being disturbed that night. Another thing that interested me was how each and every character is different in their own way. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are both very dynamic, and change to go along with the events in the play. Characters like Malcolm, Macduff and Lennox all stay the same throughout the play, except for when it comes to getting rid of Macbeth. It shows the hatred for him and how everyone wanted him gone. The play Macbeth thoroughly explained multiple motifs that had important expressions and helped form the story.
ReplyDeleteWhen first hearing about Macbeth and what the book/play is going to be about I didn't think it would be that entertaining. But, when starting to get into reading it and understanding Shakespeare's language it got really interesting. I enjoyed reading the whole book and I liked how the main characters changed over time. For example, when I first thought of Macbeth in the beginning of the book he was the next strong leader. But then he started killing people and the motif with blood on his hand was very common throughout the book. The motif was Macbeth could not rub the blood off his hands and that he will have that regret and guilt for the rest of his life and it won't go away because blood can not come off your hands. One thing that Macbeth does not change about himself throughout the book is his big ego because he thought he was the very best when he was being crowned king. "Thou lowest labor. As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed. Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; I bear a charmèd life, which not yield, To one of woman born." (Act 5 Scene 7 Line 40) This quote shows that he still has his big ego after everything he has done and is telling Macduff that he's wasting his time trying to fight him because he won't win. Unfortunately Macbeth was wrong and he got killed by Macduff so that showed how revenge does really come back at people.
ReplyDeleteI personally enjoyed reading Macbeth because I was intrigued by the development of the characters. Before starting the novel, we were told that Macbeth was to have a tragic downfall, and throughout the book I was intrigued by coming across specific moments where this held true. Macbeth’s continuous moral deterioration throughout this play is the most significant aspect of the tragedy. For example, in the beginning of the play Macbeth is a noble, respectable soldier who risks his life for his country. The first image of Macbeth’s moral lapse occurs when he reminisces the idea of murdering to become king, but shuts his own idea down immediately. “If good, why do I yield to that suggestion, whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs against the use of nature? Present fears are less than horrible imaginings. My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is, but what is not.”(1.3, 129-141) In this quote, Macbeth shows his doubt in the unnatural thought of murdering someone who he risks his life in battle for. The distraught nature present in this quote is a powerful motif in this tragedy because it symbolizes the polar change in Macbeth. In contrast, when Macbeth is plotting to kill Macduff, he rushes through his decision to avoid his guilt. “From this moment, the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand.” (4.2, 145-147)
ReplyDeleteHaving the background knowledge from research before we began to read the play allowed me to better understand the characters' roles in the tragedy. Because the main character in a tragedy, in this case Macbeth, is supposed to have a major downfall from a high position, I was expecting something tragic to happen to him while reading. I believe that Macbeth's true downfall was the destruction he imposed on himself during his quest to achieve ultimate highness. The beginning of this downfall started in the very beginning of the tragedy, Macbeth, when the witches told him that he would become king. Macbeth initially thinks of his idea of murdering king Duncan crazy. He thinks he has become impure with the thought. After achieving the title of king by murder, he would stop at nothing to keep his position. Because he got what he wanted, he thinks nothing bad of murdering. Eventually his guilt gets to his head and he begins to see Banquo's ghost because he feels remorse for killing him. In this tragedy Banquo represents harvesting; "There, if I grow, the harvest is your own" (1.4 37-38.) Also, in the tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare presents the irony of Duncan calling Macbeth's castle pleasant, sweet, and gentle. "This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself unto our gentle senses" (1.6 87-89.) This is ironic because Duncan thinks highly of the castle that Macbeth murders him in. Macbeth's internal conflict with himself leads to the downfall of him. Although Macbeth shows that he feels invincible, on the inside he is slowly falling apart.
ReplyDeleteMacbeth Overall Summary:
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the tragedy I did not quite fully understand everything that was going on due to the dialect, but towards the end it was easier to comprehend and the book grew on me. I did not think that I would end up enjoying Macbeth, however to me it kept me wanting to read more. I liked how the book was filled with action and how many characters were involved greatly, even if the were murdered early on. One motif that I noticed throughout the tragedy was how the blood was stained on the skin and the guilt of killing someone stuck with them. For example when Lady Macbeth was with the doctor he noticed that she was scrubbing her hands harshly for long periods of time trying to wash away the “blood” on her hands. Lady Macbeth says this in act 5 scene 1 lines 31-36 “Out damned spot! Out, I say! One, two. Why then ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeared? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” Overall I really enjoyed reading this tragedy and learned valuable lessons from it.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading Macbeth, I was able to comprehend all of the motifs and symbolism and note the intriguing theme that power corrupts. Macbeth is an ambitious man who showed courage on the battlefield as a general. He shies away from the desire to do evil deeds, but has an urge for the advancement of his power. Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, suffer from horrid hallucinations both before and after committing murders. "Is this a dagger which I see before me..." (2.1, 33-34) Macbeth believes that he is seeing a bloody dagger float through thin-air in front of him, but when he attempts to grab it, his hand goes through. The dagger symbolizes the trail of destruction Macbeth is about to create. The blood on the dagger is also a motif that first occurred in the opening scene on the battlefield along with the ending scene when Macbeth’s bloody head is carried through his palace. It comes to signify both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s guilt. She eventually falls susceptible to the horrifying hallucinations when she believes her hands are stained with blood saying, “Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” (5.1, 33) As the motifs become more apparent, I was able to understand and fully appreciate the underlying themes along with the overall plot. Shakespeare’s Scottish tragedy is brimming with conniving witches, prophecies, terrifying dreams, hallucinations, and unnatural events in nature that lead to heinous crimes and crepuscular setting.
ReplyDeleteMacbeth is the first Shakespeare tragedy that I have read. According to the information we read before reading Macbeth, Shakespeare’s tragedies always have a protagonist that starts as a proud, happy man to a broken, guilt ridden maniac at the end of the play, most times dying or losing everything they have, and Macbeth was no exception. In the beginning of the play, he fought for and supported the king, “For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Which smoked with bloody execution Like valour's minion carved out his passage Till he faced the slave.” (Macbeth 1.2 18-22), but by the end he had killed him. There were many motifs throughout the play, the one we saw the most often was blood. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth killed Duncan, Banquo, Lady Macduff, and many others, and each murder they felt guiltier and guiltier, saying numerous times how however hard they tried, they could not wash the blood off their hands. “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas in incarnadine, Making the green one red.” (Macbeth, 2.2, 75-78). Lady Macbeth eventually dies from this incurable ailment of guilt, which a doctor could not help her with. Overall, I enjoyed this play, the dark element of Shakespeare’s writing made Macbeth bloody and full of gore, but it was necessary to show the audience how far Macbeth had truly descended into hell.
ReplyDeleteAs with any school novel, especially a Shakesperian one, I initially disliked "Macbeth". This changed however, as I began to notice interesting foreshadowing, symbols, and motifs, and I became increasingly engrossed in the plot. An evident theme of "Macbeth" for me is “allowing power to get to your head”. This is obviously displayed throughout the story as Macbeth descends rapidly into greedy insanity and paranoia, killing off anyone who posed a threat to him, and the doing the typical "bad king" deed of raising taxes. Another theme that unfolded quite interestingly was “attempting to change fate”. Macbeth, upon listening to the witches original prophecy and the advice of Banquo, decides to let fate decide if he will be king or not. “If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me without my stir.” (1.3, 142-143). This quote speaks to the idea that fate (or chance) cannot be changed: if Macbeth is meant to be king, it shall happen on its own. Of course, Macbeth tempts fate and kills the king, an ‘unnatural’ thing to do. This ultimately leads to his demise. The ‘unnatural’ killing of King Duncan illustrates a very important motif in “Macbeth”, nature. Symbols and metaphors that relate to nature are present throughout this play, especially in Banquo. “There if I grow, The harvest is your own.” (1.4, 32-33). This quote from Banquo incorporates a farming and nature metaphor into his proclamation of loyalty to King Duncan. Additionally, the murder of the king is an unnatural deed, as it goes against the forces of nature. “The obscure bird Clamour’d in the livelong night. Some say, the earth Was feverous and did shake.” (2.3, 54-56). “And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature…” (2.3, 109). “‘Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that’s done...And Duncan’s horses...Turn’d wild… broke their stalls, flung out, Contending ‘gainst obedience as they would Make war with mankind.” (2.4, 14-18). Each of these quotes illustrate nature revolting to Duncan’s murder, which proves that this was not the natural course of events originally planned by fate.
ReplyDeleteIt was motifs and themes like the aforementioned that made Macbeth so interesting. I was caught up in the double entendres, irony, foreshadowing, and the interesting perspective Shakespeare has on human nature. “Macbeth”, though it took a little getting used to, was an interesting and riveting read that exposed mankind’s darkest secrets.
Shakespeare's drama, Macbeth, gave me a better understanding of why he is known as such an amazing writer. Macbeth expressed how a man, once so revered, turned into a tyrannical monster obsessed with power. Shakespeare adds so many layers to the plot by incorporating supernatural activity to the already dark play, therefore enhancing the play. "You can’t say I did it. Don’t shake your bloody head at me. "(3.4.53-54) This is said when Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo, taunting him, in the king's chair, an example of a supernatural being disturbing Macbeth. At the time of Shakespeare, witchcraft was illegal and people were often killed because they were suspected of meddling with evil, and this book condones the practice of witchcraft. Macbeth's whole mess started when he became greedy after the witches told him his prophecy and it lead to his death, so some of the story could also be used as a warning to people. Towards the end of Macbeth's life, he adopted an attitude similar to that of the murderer. The murderer says, "So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune that I would set my life on any chance to mend it or be rid on't," (3.1.114-117) meaning that his life is so pointless that he doesn't care if he lives or dies. Before Macduff's army arrives, Macbeth says that he doesn't care anymore because he will be killed or remain king, but either way his guilt will eat him alive and he will go to hell for all he's done. At the end of the play, Macduff enters carrying Macbeth's head, similar to how MacDonald's head was brought in symbolizing how the traitor had been brought to justice.
ReplyDeleteWhen we began to read "the Scottish play" I was intrigued by the mystery that we had been told surrounded productions of Macbeth. However, as we delved further into the history of the play and began reading the actual text, I became invested in the story of Macbeth. We learn of Macbeth, a noble and brave thane in the kingdom of Scotland. Macbeth begins the play fighting in a war against the thane of Cawdor, a traitor "on whom I [King Duncan] built an absolute trust.” (1.4. 11-14). The thaneship is then transferred to Macbeth once the war is won. Macbeth and Banquo are then visited by the three witches. My interpretation is that the witches represent the evil nature of all humans. When the witches spoke of lavish aspirations for Macbeth, even Banquo, Macbeth's foil and a more consistently noble character, was tempted into asking what the witches had in store for him. The witches represent some of humanity's natural flaws. Continuing onwards in the story, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth build themselves up mentally and emotionally to kill King Duncan, however, when the deed is done, they both begin to unravel. Macbeth becomes paranoid, seeing daggers and other hallucinations, while Lady Macbeth becomes scared of the dark, which is symbolic of the fact that she muffled the light of King Duncan by killing him. As they continue to fall deeper into the depths of insanity, they continue to worsen their plight in a desperate attempt to hold on to power. These powerful scenes really allowed me to see many of the allegories and deeper meanings behind the "Scottish play".
ReplyDeleteAfter finishing Macbeth, I think that the play was interesting not only through its tragic plot but also its characters. Although I initially struggled to read the Shakespearian language, a grew accustomed to it and was able to embrace the story more. Because of this difficult language, I found myself spending a more thorough time reading it, therefore paying closer attention to the many symbols and important word choices Shakespeare used. I think the most important thing to have recognized and followed throughout the play is the character progression of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth was originally a loyal thane, revered by his peers and his king, yet his obsessions took him down a dark path of murder and tyranny. On the contrary, Lady Macbeth was originally portrayed as a cruel woman who was desperate for her husband to murder Duncan. However, it is apparent that these past wishes haunt her with great remorse and guilt. “Out, damned spot! Out, I say... Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?” (5.1, 31-35), she mutters in her sleep along with other ramblings that prove her dissatisfaction with her past deeds. Another thing I enjoyed in Macbeth were the ironies. It is ironic how Macbeth replaced the traitorous thane of Cawdor, yet he later betrayed the throne as well. In addition, there is irony in the fact that Macbeth would face his fate at the hands of the family of the people he killed. Lastly, the light vs. dark contrasts were a clever way to provide visual description when there were moral dilemmas and collisions in the play.
ReplyDeleteOne of the motifs that became most apparent to me during the last few scenes was the idea of equivocation. Before the last two incidents of double-speak “I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane,” (5.4, 60-61) and “Macduff was from his mother’s womb Untimely ripp’d,” (5.8, 15-16) never became too prominent in the story, or at least, I was not paying enough attention to see much of it. I feel at the end of the play, the most important theme told in Macbeth was the corruption of power and ambition. In the beginning, Macbeth’s are so high and his plans work out so well, even the witches prophesize about his immortality and future as king, but it all comes tumbling down so fast as loopholes in every assurance the witches made to Macbeth are exploited. I would say this was the most interesting work I Shakespeare I have read so far, maybe because it was so short and the action was so dense. One of the most outstanding and obvious symbols in the play was blood which Macbeth drew with every life he took and Lady Macbeth regarded in the famous line “Out, damned spot, out, I say!” (5.1, 37) Macbeth is full of intense characters and dramatic scenes and one of my favorite aspects about a tragedy like this is seeing the main characters as antiheroes, and even the villains and antagonists of the plot, even though most of the scenes in the play feature the Lord and Lady Macbeth.
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