Discussing Act.1 Scene 7 of Macbeth

The scene takes place in the Madison Square Garden’s basketball courts after scheduled training. Chris Anderson, reserve point guard, a position recently appointed to him after Jason Hart sustained a serious injury, considers jeopardising Chauncey Billups position as point guard and captain of the Denver Nuggets. Chris talks to head cheerleader and girlfriend Ashley Reynolds and discusses ways to jeopardise Chauncey’s position on the team.

(Chris dribbles ball across court to Ashley)

Chris: If only I could get rid of Chauncey without any suspicions or consequences (Thinks)

I could purposely hurt Chauncey in a practise session, but the risk of suspicion would be way too risky. It would be much easier and beneficial to have someone do it for me. (Looks to Ashley in a strange way)

Ashley: No, no way would I put my cheerleading career in jeopardy, and besides, who am I to do such a thing! I’m not a violent person!

Chris: There’s got be some way I can get his position. My basketball coach in college had a prophecy that one day I would be drafted to the NBA. He also stated that I would become a true leader of a NBA team. I’ve been drafted now and all there is left to do takeover Chauncey’s position and captaincy.

(Ashley thinks of ways in which Chris could become captain)

Ashley: I have a perfect idea.

Chris: Out with it then.

Ashley: Well, I am head of the cheerleading team and everyone knows, players loooove cheerleaders.

Chris: What are you trying to get at? Yes we all love cheerleaders.

Ashley: Well, I could jeopardize Chauncey’s position on the team by making false accusations that he sexually assaulted me.

Chris: (Thinks) No, I couldn’t do that to him, Chauncey is a loyal friend and besides, I don’t want to ruin his career. What happens if the plan falls through? There’s a chance it will ruin my NBA career as well. All the NBA endorsement I have received will be lost. I don’t think I’m ready to throw that all away for a starting position on the team.

Ashley: You are wrong! Chauncey isn’t a loyal friend, he is a team-mate and that’s all. Nothing bad will happen to you and your career. You don’t have to be involved, no one will ever know!

Chris: Ashley, we are a couple now, if news spreads that we are together and then gets linked back to the sexual assault a lot of attention will be brought upon me. I don’t know what to do, I’m only a newly recruited player to the Denver Nuggets, I should be appreciative of what has been given to me. Not everybody receives a deal like mine. Chauncey is very deserving of his position on the team and is a very good role model in which I should aspire to. He is so well respected in the NBA. There would be many assumptions as to why he would sexually assault women, let alone a cheerleader from the same team, besides Chauncey has a wife and is a very good friend of yours.

Ashley: What are you talking about Chris? Ever since you were drafted to the NBA you’ve wanted Chauncey’s position! You’ve wanted leadership and you should be granted recognition. What girl doesn’t want her boyfriend to show leadership and dominance? I would love you even more if we were to pull this off.

Chris: No, the Consequences of these circumstances are far too severe. Chauncey has done nothing to me in order for me to jeopardise his position on the team let alone his career in the NBA. If the predications from my college basketball are true, maybe I might get that leadership role as captain of a team, but who’s saying that its going to be captain of the Denver Nuggets, who says that its Chauncey Billups position and role of the team in which I’m going to overthrow. In time, the prophecy will come true. It’s better to hide my ambitions then expose them and run the risk of ruining my NBA career, a friends NBA career or my friendship with Chauncey.

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Murder Most Foul

Hi, my name is Nick Kingson. I live in the suburb of London city. I live in an institute for homeless people. I have been here for the last past nine years. I am now 17 years old. During my nine years in the institution, my best friend has been David Bryant. He is like me but his past has a tragedy storey. His mother was black and his father was white. During a shopping trip, his parents were stepped in the parking area by white youths. David was only three then and couldn’t do anything. When I heard his storey, I couldn’t stop my tears. The tears were like a riverbank waiting to burst.

Unlike him, my parents were with me until I was six. After that my father left my mum and went with another woman. As if that wasn’t enough my mother died in a car accident. Later I found out that the accident occurred because she was drinking alcohol. I warned here about here addiction to alcohol and how it could get her into trouble, but she never listened. And know look where I am, a homeless teenager. The institute follows a strict rule like no television after ten, no smoking or drugs, etc. David and I didn’t really fit in and we had plans.

We didn’t want to live here for the rest of our lives. The administrator of the institute had a close eye on David. After what happened to his parents, David didn’t like white people. For some reason, David came very friendly with me and told me most of his secrets, even though I was white. I guess he trusted me and the things we had in common bought us closer together. On April 7th 2003, we made a plan to get out of the institute and find a place for ourselves, where there were no rules. During that night we got out of the institute and went into the city.

What a site it was! The city had so many shops that I lost count of it after three minutes, imagine that. At the time we didn’t have any money and we were starving. We decided to go to the local restaurants and ask them if they needed any help, and in return we get food. All of them refused our offer. It was probably because we didn’t have any reference of previous employment and we could give them our address or telephone number. We didn’t have one. It was mid-day now and we very getting really hungry. I felt like a balloon without air inside.

I never felt like this because when we were in the institute, we got out food on time. We came across a shop that had food on display. Looking at it made our mouth watery. We had no choice; we took some of the food and ran as fast as we can. After running for half a mile, the shop owner stopped chasing us. We ate the food. At the moment I thought how we are going to survive. I lived most of my life in an institute and didn’t know much about the outside world. It was getting dark and as we were walking around the street, we found an old abandoned house.

It looked empty. So we decided to take the night there. We thought the back door will be open but it wasn’t. We decided to break the glass a bit just enough to open the door. As we entered, we found the kitchen. It looked like if some one was there because there were bread and butter on the dinning table, and the fridge was full of allsorts of things, like milk, fruit juice etc. I told David to check downstairs while I go upstairs and check there. As I was checking the rooms, I heard a loud noise from downstairs. It looked like if an old lady screamed.

I quickly ran down stairs and there I found an old lady lying near the fridge bleeding. The blood was all over the floor. I guess she lost about one liter of blood. I asked David what happened and he did speak. It was like if he went in to coma or something. I tried to wake the lady up but she kept lying on the floor. I smacked David and he finally woke up. I asked him what happened again and he kept on saying, “I didn’t meaning it”. I asked to explain what happened and he said, “The lady walked in and saw me and then came up with her walking stick.

I tried to stop her but she fell backwards on the metal fridge. ” I told him it wasn’t his fault. I didn’t want to waste anymore time. We phoned the ambulance and told them about our location and what happened. After twenty minutes, the ambulance arrived, with them came the police. At that time I wanted to ran and leave the scene of the accident and then I thought if I did that I would look like a criminal. The doctor came firing though the front door. We stepped back. Just after that everything seemed like it was ok, but them the policeman walked thought the door.

He asked us what happened and we told the whole truth. He took us into custody. We stayed in the prison cell over the night. The next morning the policeman walked through the door and he face projected a sad news. He told us that the old lady died in the hospital during the night. David placed his hand over his face and cried. I didn’t feel it was his fault, but it was our fault for breaking in an entry and because of that an old lady died. The policeman told us from the evidence they gathered that we told the true story.

I felt a bit relaxed but I wouldn’t forget what happened. I will always have the cogence that I was responsible for a death. David took the death harder on himself. He felt that it was his fault. We had to do community sentence for 1 year. As time went on I got a bit better and came back to my self. On the other hand, David was still thinking about it. I told him about hundred of times but still he feels it’s his fault. Our sentence passed quickly and we were back at the institute. The life went normal there. But to this date David is still thinking about what happened.

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Light and Dark Imagery in Macbeth

Light and Dark A tragedy play, written by William Shakespeare, is Macbeth. This play is filled with imageries of light and darkness. In the play Macbeth, Macbeth himself goes through a transformation in character. At the beginning of the play, he is noble and loyal, but in an effort to be crowned king, he is drowned by greed and darkness. His reign of terror, driven by insanity and ambition affects the natural order of the world and results in his death and the restoration of the natural order. The change in Macbeth’s character from a noble man to a dark figure is mirrored by the imagery of light and dark.

During the first three scenes of the first act, Macbeth is absent and is only described by other characters. As a soldier informs Duncan of Macbeth and Banquo’s performance on the battlefield, he says, “If I say sooth, I must report they were as cannons overcharged with double cracks” (I. ii, 40-41). This quote highlights Macbeth’s actions as a light character. Macbeth is portrayed to be a great man and soldier in fighting for his king. After being told of Macbeth’s role in the fighting near Forres, Duncan utters these praises, “O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman! ” (I. ii, 26).

This is said in recognition of the outstanding fighting that Macbeth is doing for his king and country. Good is synonymous with images of light, therefore the good deeds of Macbeth are associated with light imagery. When Macbeth finally has a chance to respond to Duncan’s praises, he says, “The service and loyalty I owe, in doing it, pays itself. ” (I. iv, 25-26). Macbeth explains to the king that he does not require anymore payment than he already receives, as even just the satisfaction of fighting for Duncan and his state is enough. Macbeth believes himself to be a truly loyal and noble man.

At this point, Macbeth’s character is tied only to images of triumph, but this begins to change when Macbeth realizes great opportunity. Realizing ambition and opportunity as well as outside influence from Lady Macbeth causes the light inside Macbeth to fade, thus beginning his transition into darkness. When Macbeth says this: “This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill; cannot be good…” (I. iii, 140-141), he begins to give the witches prophecies more thought. The witches are described as the instruments of darkness, and by contemplating their prophecies, he dims the ight that he was surrounded by, and becomes a slightly darker character. During an aside, Macbeth says, “Stars hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires…” (I. iv, 57-58). The quote represents Macbeth’s acknowledgement of his own dark thoughts and desires. This is his first thought of acting on ambition through dishonest means, and marks an evident change in Macbeth as a light character. This only furthers his transformation into a dark figure. Finally, Macbeth is portrayed as dark and evil when he says this, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?

Come, let me clutch thee. ” (II. I, 40-41). Macbeth says this during the night in which he would commit his first murder and cross the point of no return. Accepting the dagger symbolizes Macbeth finalizing his decision to murder the man that had shown him nothing but kindness. Perhaps Macbeth was never as genuine as he had seemed to be and was always a dark figure. What is known for sure though is that once Macbeth starts his reign as a tyrant, he is unable to stop. After committing a series of killings, Macbeth has unarguably become a dark figure.

Although it is in Macbeths own speech that he affirms himself as an evil man. When Macbeth speaks to Lady Macbeth, he states, “I am in blood stepped so far, that I should wade no more. ” (III. Iv, 167-168). He reflects upon his wrong doings by creating a dark image. The image pictures Macbeth wading in a river of blood, having proceeded so far that it is easier to continue than to try to return back to where he started. When Macbeth is informed of his wife’s death by suicide, his only response is, “And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.

Out, out, brief candle! ” (V. v, 24-25). The light and dark imagery is quite significant here, as this particular phrase is his way of saying her life was short, like that of a burning candle. Though, he exhibits a great lack of remorse for his wife, and goes on to explain that all the past has done is lead foolish people to their graves. During Macbeth and Macduff’s final exchange of words before their battle, Macduff tells Macbeth, “I have no words: My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain than terms can give thee out! (V. viii, 8-10). This quote is an example of how Macbeth is viewed by his enemies. He is viewed as a bloody villain. This view of him contrasts to previous views of him in that he is no longer a light character and he will die a true figure of darkness. Macbeth is now seen by others as, and admits his self to be, an evil man. The play Macbeth is a story of the rise and fall of a tragic hero. It is clear that the character Macbeth goes through an evident change in character.

Whether it due to the outside influence of the three witches, his wife or his own ambitions, he is the one who makes his decisions. After capitalising on opportunity by murdering Duncan, he ends up having to kill several people in order to eliminate suspicions. He is unable to halt his reign of terror, which would later result in his own death. The imageries of light and dark play a significant role in representing Macbeth’s transformation from a strong and respected military leader to a murderous tyrant. Works Cited: Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. Roy, Ken. Toronto:

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Essay on Macbeth and female roles

Moreover, I find It to be one of his more Interesting plays as It Includes misguided ambition, bravery, paranoia as ell as betrayal and It Is a perfect example of how one story can be projected upon different ages. Macbeth, who Is a conscientious man, Is being overpowered by his vaulting ambition. The tragedy In this play Lies In him degenerating from a noble and brave warrior to a simple killer who commits gruesome murders to save himself. Ironically from the repercussions of his own crimes. Looking at this play from different angles allows me to get a better impression of how the gender roles are presented between the different characters.

I found the role women play in Macbeth specially intriguing, as they seem to be the ones pulling all the strings. Therefore, I am going to show how they are being defamed and portrayed, among other things, as cold and monstrous. Moreover, I will show how those perceptions of women can be seen in relation to the classical perception of women, as well as the perception that people had during the Middle Ages and how these and biblical pictures could have formed such personages as Lady Macbeth and the three witches.

To be able to analyze those characters in depth I am going to limit myself to specific scenes involving Lady Macbeth and the three witches. Furthermore, I am going to use information I found in various books as well as the text ” The Great Chain of Being” to put my findings into perspective. The role of women in Shakespearean Macbeth The Setting Macbeth takes place in Scotland around 1600 with the exception of a single scene In England (Act 4 Scene 3). The tragedy unfolded among the upper classes of society, namely Kings and thanes.

Women did not have the greatest Influence; one could say that men owned them and they behaved accordingly. 2 An example of this Is the tragedy of Macadam leaving his wife and children despite Lady Macadam’s contrary linings towards his decision (Act 4 Scene 2). The play starts out with a lightning storm, creating a gloomy atmosphere that sets the mood and Indicates the general atmosphere of the play. The three weird ones I chose to analyze two scenes describing the three witches (they are also called “weird ones”, “weird women” or ‘Modeled sisters”) In “Macbeth”, namely Act 1 Scene 1 and Act 1 Scene 3.

In my opinion, those are best suited to show how the three weird ones are being portrayed and in addition. They demonstrate how important their role included, as it isn’t certain that Shakespeare wrote those. Instead many scholars live that Thomas Middleton wrote Act 3 Scene 5 and parts of Act 4 Scene 1. 3 Since I want to analyze Shakespearean play, it seems natural to exclude those two scenes. Act 1 scene 1: Meeting the witches This scene is the shortest opening scene in Shakespearean works and introduces us immediately to the three sisters.

What’s more interesting, though , is that they aren’t introduced as witches or any other kind of other negative name, but they call themselves “we three”, whereas in the rest of the play others name them as the “weird sisters” or “weird women”. This might be owed to the old English word “weird” meaning “fate”, and considering there are three of them, one could associate them with the Pearce, who were the three mythical creatures that controlled human destiny. Parallels can be drawn from the mythical creatures to those three sisters controlling Machete’s life, as if those three sisters decided how his life should be and how it should end. Another interesting aspect of the first scene of this play are the paradoxes used. The most interesting of those is: ” fair is foul, and foul is fair”, which seems to be a contradiction in it itself and therefore a violation of God’s natural order. Lars Sabers idea on this is that it is a typical Shakespearean drama with the theme of “The Seeming versus the Being”6.

This seems to be a fitting assumption, although it needs a deeper explanation. The main theme of the play is described by this quote and means, simply put, that nothing is what it seems. For instance, Lady Macbeth is named a “gentle lady” by Macadam (Act 2 Scene 3 line 79), but in reality, she is the one to blame for the execution of Dunce’s murder. Another example is Banquet, who in the beginning, appears to be Machete’s right-hand man and friend. Soon thereafter, however, we can see that he negates that picture of him.

This confirms that the witches know exactly what is going to happen and to whom, and thus the assumption of them being a Shakespearean version of the Pearce. Act 1 Scene 3: The witches meet Macbeth and Banquet The beginning of this scene shows that the three witches driven by evil and vengefulness are not only malicious but also very destructive. When one of the sisters asks where the other has been, the second answers that she was out killing swine, which back in their time, as Eva Poss.. And Clinician Gabon wrote, according to popular belief was something witches did.

This shows how ruthless they are and that there is a lack of compassion for animals or other living beings. As the first sister explained her whereabouts, she tells about a sailor’s wife eating chestnuts, and having asked for some she was denied the food (Act 1 Scene 3 line 1-5). This resulted in them cursing that woman’s husband. The evil of the weird sisters is shown clearly in their choice of words and their actions; by taking a better look at this curse, one can see the connection between the captain’s and Machete’s in life several places. For one her chant: “I’ll dad, I’ll do, and I’ll do.

I’ll drain him dry as hay;” can be linked to the sterility of Machete’s marriage and as she chants: “Sleep shall neither night nor day’, she curses this man to suffer from insomnia, Just as Macbeth will suffer from lack of sleep, which will ultimately push him over the limit and make him go mad. Lars Jabber explains in his book: “De err linefeed, dies hisser, go some en slag’s metastasis mafia hover De sigh p deem, deer anger at subsidized deem. “9 1 do agree about the evil deeds they have committed, it can be easily overlooked that this curse also shows the limitations to their power.

Specifically when looking at this quote: “Though his bark cannot be lost”, which shows that they are not capable of making this man’s ship sink. (Act 1 Scene 3 line 23) As the play continues they interrupted when they hear Macbeth arriving. At that point he exclaims: “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (Act 1 Scene 3 line 36). This is an echo of the three witches’ “Foul is fair and fair is foul”, for so many men have been slaughtered in battle, yet Macbeth had achieved a great victory. When Banquet sees the witches, he describes them as being withered and wild” in attire.

He says that they don’t look like they were from this earth and further describes their looks with choppy fingers and skinny lips that are often used to describe a person that is not trustworthy or even likeable. People often associate it with somebody who has a calculating personality,10 and this is the same feeling you get from those witches when you hear their description. He also says that they should be women, and yet their beards forbid him to interpret them as such. (Act 1 Scene 3 line 37-45) All of this depicts how unnatural and unusual Banquet thinks these women are.

When the witches start to talk, they hail Macbeth as the soon-to-be Thane of Castor and King of Scotland. Whilst Macbeth is stunned by these fair-sounding prophecies, Banquet demands the witches to also tell him about his future, and he is told that, although he shall not be royalty, his offspring will. As abruptly as the witches had appeared, they disappear, and messengers from King Duncan arrive and inform Macbeth of his newly gained title of Thane of Castor. When they hear the news, Banquet suddenly remarks: ‘What, can the devil speak true? His utterance once more demonstrates Banquets lack of belief in those witches, ailing them the devil. Macbeth is astonished by the news and tries to hide his mind’s preoccupation with kingship, while Banquet warns him of the dangers these prophecies might bear. He compares the sisters to the darkness when he says: “And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betrays In deepest consequence. ” (Act 1 Scene 3 line 119-125) Are those women simply prophets, or do they actually set events in motion?

During our first encounter with the weird ones, it is unsure where they’ve come from or who r what they actually are, or even what they have in mind when they plan on meeting Macbeth. As the play continues, the feeling of them manipulating events becomes more apparent, and their maliciousness emerges step by step. The words Shakespeare used for their dialogs and chants can be interpreted as negative, and even though some might have a positive use, they are turned into something bad, just as their first “prophecy’, of fair being foul and foul being fair, predicts.

They plot mischief, using prophecies against Macbeth and their predictions turned the noble Macbeth into a murderer. It is unclear whether the witches had their knowledge from somebody else, or whether they are the ones toying with human destinies. As mentioned before they have a staggering resemblance to the Pearce, who controlled the thread of life and thereby every humans’ destiny. The way Shakespeare chose to portray the weird ones makes it seem as if they took some kind of perverse delight in using their knowledge to destroy human beings and their fates.

Looking at the witches from afar gives a clear picture of what it means to be malicious, vengeful and This woman is more than Just an interesting character. She goes through several developmental stages, and in contrast to the three witches, the evil, or coldness that is within her cannot be seen through a dialogue but through the thoughts that occupy her mind. Lady Macbeth is one of the most powerful female characters in literature. The fact that she is alone in the beginning shows that we are privy to her innermost thoughts and feelings.

Act 1 Scene 5: Lady Macbeth is determined to be queen This scene opens with Lady Macbeth, who received a letter from her husband. In his letter, he calls her “dearest partner of greatness”, which she indeed is and becomes even more so as she manipulates Macbeth into giving in to his passions. To a certain degree, she even controls his actions, resulting in the crimes committed. This means that, even though she is not the one to deliver the fatal blow herself, she definitely is responsible.

As she finishes reading the news of his success in battle and his encounter with the witches that promised him that he will become king – and thus her queen – she exclaims: “Glacis thou art, and Castor, and shall be What thou art promised; yet do I fear thy nature, It is too full thimble of human kindness. “(Act 1 Scene 5 line 14-16) What she means is that he shall become what he was promised, namely king. This seems to be reflecting the witches’ prophecy, and one could say that she follows the witches’ lead and becomes herself an agent of fate.

Nevertheless, according to Lars Jabber she believes him to be somebody that would let others cheat to achieve his goals, as long as it wasn’t he who was cheating 1. As her thoughts seem to battle over whether her husband could fulfill this prophecy she can see only one solution: “Hi thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thin ear, And chastise with the velour of my tongue”. Act 1 Scene 5 line 24-26) She practically says that she wants to empower him with her poisonous words and he should renounce any of his doubts and be brave enough to kill Duncan.

Since the masses back then must have seen Hamlet before Macbeth, they might have remembered that in Hamlet’s Act 1 Scene 5, the father’s ghost reports that he was killed by poison: “And in the porches of my ears did pour The leprous despoilment”12. This parallel darkens Lady Machete’s words instantly. As the play continues, Lady Macbeth descends further and further into her dark self. When a messenger arrives, she compares him o a hoarse raven, an omen of death in itself, and calls upon dark spirits to “unsexes” her, saying: “Come to my woman’s breasts And take my milk for gall”.

Jennies La Belle argues that Lady Machete’s outbreak isn’t only a psychological one but one that asks for her to eliminate her basic biological characteristics of femininity. 14 Meaning that the body and mind are connected, and to achieve such an unfeminine consciousness is to become a man and leave all female attributes and weaknesses behind. This once more shows how ambitious she is, and that she doesn’t shy away from hard assure.

I am not sure I would go as far as Jennies La Belle and connect the physiological with the psychological, but there is a definite connection between Lady Machete’s words and her desire to be tougher and more hardened like a man. This is once more a contradiction that fits the witches’ prophecy. A woman is supposed to be nurturing and soft, whereas a man is supposed to be tough and aggressive. Soon thereafter, Macbeth arrives and they have a brief and urgent talk about Dunce’s rather cruel, because it contains a paradox. The warmth of the sun is contrasted with

Duncan, who won’t ever see it again. In the following lines she uses several metaphors to conceal her actual thoughts:” Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men May read strange matters”(Act 1 Scene 5 line 61-62); followed by an amusingly ironic allusion to Genesis 5:” You hand, your tongue; look like ethnocentric flower, But be the serpent underwent. “(Act 1 Scene 5 line 64-65) The “paradise” that was promised by the witches turns, as they called it, from “fair to foul”. The last line of the scene: “Leave all the rest to me”, has quite a chilling tone to it and is very imperative.

It seems as if she completed her transformation to a man and takes over the active and leading role in their relationship, whilst Macbeth becomes a mere accomplice. Act 1 Scene 7: Macbeth debates whether to murder Duncan The imagery of Machete’s soliloquy in the beginning of this scene exposes his objective, for example Dunce’s murder and his own success, but his use of words reveals a mind that is suffering from confusion and indecisiveness. This becomes particularly obvious because of the repetition of some specific words like:” if, were, but and so on” that show his confusion.

Finally, when Lady Macbeth enters, he informs her that he has changed his mind. She responds contemptuously to his change of heart: ‘Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time, Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard to be the same in thin own act and velour, As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou system’s the ornament of life, And live a coward in thin own esteem, Letting “l dare not” wait upon “l would”, Like the poor cat Tightwad’s? (Act 1 Scene 7 line 36-45) She does not only accuse him of being a coward but taunts him by comparing him to a cat that wanted a fish yet didn’t want to get its paws wet. Lady Macbeth essentially tells him that he can’t be trusted, even concerning his love towards her 16. Furthermore, she urges him thereby to get over himself and kill Duncan to prove his manhood and love for her. On top of convincing her husband to kill the King, she breaks his first illusion of not involving anybody else by prompting him to blame the murder on Dunce’s officers.

This reveals how manipulative she is and that she has control over her Cubans like a puppeteer over his puppets. What really shows the darkness and the evil that lingers inside of her, though, is how far she would go to achieve her goal; she said that she would dash the brains out of her own child whilst it was sucking on her nipple and smiling lovingly at her if she had sworn as he had done. (Act 1 Scene 7 line 54-58) This is a shocking and monstrous thing to say, and no woman could call herself a woman, being able to say that about her own offspring, or any child for that matter.

This declaration proves a complete absence of compassion, mercy or sense of lilt. Act 5 Scene 1: Revelation of Lady Machete’s guilt during her sleep This scene is critical to understanding Lady Macbeth as a character and as a woman. Even though she felt no, or close to no remorse in the preceding scenes, this one changes the perception of her abruptly; she is haunted by her guilt and confesses those gruesome deeds in her sleep. At this point the decline of the Macbeth family begins, Lady Macbeth doesn’t play the role of the leader of their relationship anymore, and Macbeth is slowly turning mad.

The psychological impact all those deeds had on Lady nine 64-66) Her speech patterns have become fragmented, and the wife that had once been in control of herself and her surroundings is now reduced to a woman who cannot connect two sentences correctly, and one who has lost connection to reality due to her devastated mind. As she sleepwalks with a candle that she has ordered(Act 5 Scene 1 line 20-21) to be by her side at all times, I agree with Lars Saber’s opinion that it seems as if the only thing important to her now is saving her soul, with the light being the only symbol of hope left to her. 7 Is Lady Macbeth a 2- dimensional character, or is there more to her? Lady Macbeth, who is an incredibly ambitious woman, shares the same aspirations as her husband. During the first couple of scenes, until Macbeth starts shutting her out, she seems to be the one who is most ruthless and the one who pulls the relationship forward. As the play continues and her husband follows her urges to kill Duncan but turns colder and more paranoid, their relationship suffers. Macbeth starts a bloodshed and Lady Macbeth finally succumbs to her guilt and goes mad.

Her state of mind is even more damaged than her husband’s, and her conscience ultimately forces her to commit suicide. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth seem to have a perfect partnership They feel passion for each other and think alike, but as the story continues and Lady Macbeth persuades him to kill the King, they become more and more alienated from each other, and their feelings for each other turn to sheer numbness. Looking at this woman under a magnifying glass reveals that she isn’t a simple two-dimensional character but Just as Pushpin described Shakespearean characters in general to be.

She is a complex and multifaceted character, with all the inconsistencies that a person of flesh and blood has, and she reveals her different acts in the wide range of situations she is put nine. In the end one can’t deny that Lady Macbeth has a tough outer exterior, and could be called an “Iron Lady’, but she also has softer sides to her, which only comes to shine through if one begins to scratch below the surface. Are women in ? This question is a difficult one to answer.

As I progressed from reading the play to analyzing the witches and then Lady Macbeth, my perception changed gradually. It seemed as if various authors had agreed on either putting those women into one drawer or the other, but in my opinion, they should not be stereotyped. For instance, the witches are indeed portrayed as evil and calculating, but if you take into account that they could be the ones on the receiving end of information about various humans’ “fate”, then you can’t call them as evil as you would probably like to.

The fate of Macbeth would not lie in their hands any longer, and their actions would not matter; his path would have been predestined. When trying to understand what lies behind Lady Macbeth, many authors are very trigger-happy and call her monstrous, cold and evil. And yes, her actions, manipulating her husband into killing the King aren’t the actions of an innocent soul. Still one has to look behind the curtain, to see that she did those things out of love, because she is familiar with her husband’s shortcomings.

Finally, she starts feeling remorse and succumbs to her guilt, but only when her husband starts shutting her out and she feels isolated. Therefore, I neither want to call those women evil nor good, rather women that are in different situations and do what they feel is right. Portrayals of women in Macbeth and the perception To start with, I will take a peek into a possible point of history where the general reception of women in the Elizabethan era might have originated. The authors of the book “Brisker till skivvies histories” retell the Greek mythological story of human creation.

The titan Prometheus creates men from clay, and the goddess Athena gave them the breath of life. As the story goes, Prometheus and the human kind had angered Zeus; therefore, he let Hyphenates create Pandora, a mortal of stunning beauty. They gave her many gifts of wealth as well as a deceptive heart and a lying tongue. She becomes the first women on earth who carries one final gift: a Jar filled with all evil, sorrow and misfortune but also hope. 9 This is Just one of many examples of how lowly people thought of women.

One can also recall the Christian mythology, where – Just as in Greek mythology – the woman was created after the man, and of course, it is she who causes their eviction from paradise, or for that matter Lithe, who according to Jewish mythology, is Dam’s first wife and a succubus who sleeps with different men and strangles newborn babies. 21 All of those mythological stories show a rather misogynistic perception of women. No doubt, this influenced centuries to come and I would like to argue that it also influenced Shakespeare to write Macbeth.

I am tempted to compare the play to the 2nd part of the history of creation in Genesis. The role of Lady Macbeth is similar to Eve’s. To a certain extent both are temptresses. In both Genesis and the play, the characters do not realize the luck and “wealth” they are in, and finally yet importantly, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as well as Adam and Eve regret their actions in the end. To explain those three similarities further, one has to take a deeper look at both stories.

Adam and Eve are told by God that they are allowed to eat any fruit in the Garden of Eden apart from the ones from the tree in the middle. None of the two tries any of these fruits, until the devil in the disguise of a snake deceives Eve and tempts her into eating the forbidden fruit by telling her stories of the wisdom and knowledge she will gain from eating them. When she tries the fruit, she tempts and convinces Adam to do the same and try the forbidden fruit. Looking at the play of Macbeth, the same goes for Lady Macbeth.

Instead of being tempted by the devil, it is the thought of her and her husband becoming royal that tempts her. She gives in to that temptation. The symbolical forbidden fruit here is the murder of King Duncan, ND Just as Eve convinces Adam to take a bite of the fruit, Lady Macbeth convinces her husband, who has doubts but believes in his “partner in greatness” Just as Adam believes in Eve, to conspire and ultimately kill Duncan and take the throne. The end of the stories have their own parallels. Adam and Eve’s feelings of guilt derive from their betrayal of God’s trust.

When they eat the forbidden fruit they learn the feeling of shame, which finally makes them feel guilty for their crime. Due to the betrayal of God’s trust they are expelled from Paradise and became mortal. On the other hand, we have Macbeth and his wife. Their betrayal is of a more complex kind. Not only do they betray the trust of others, but, more importantly, they also betray themselves. Their ambition makes them betray themselves and the guilt that springs from it gradually nags at them, makes them lose their mind, and in the end, it is their guilt and their actions that kill them.

Perception of women throughout the middle ages, royals and the common people In the book Women Defamed and Women Defended, etymology studies to depict the roots of antihistamines tradition. In those studies, they compared men to women and decided that women were deformed men. 23 This fits he Christian idea that Eve was created from Dam’s rib, thus she must have been a lesser version of a man. By reading through these sources the perception men had of women unravels before one’s eyes.

Even though time has passed by, the belief in those myths, as well as the hierarchy that followed these “bible” stories hasn’t disappeared fully. SST John Chromosome, for example, was an advocate for chastity and censor of women and one of the strongest voices of his time to deny authority to women or the right to teach. His reason was that, since Genesis, men had had to be the highest ranked in the hierarchy. Thus, women should not be allowed to speak in church, because they can only learn in silence.

According to him, God made women subject to men, and therefore their husbands should rule them. 25 This seemed to be the common truth, though, with exceptions if one looks a little deeper at queens or noble women. Lisa Benz explains in her book Three Medieval Queens that queens were looked upon as a version of Virgin Mary on earth and therefore had the same responsibilities, for one being a mother and giving birth to the next male heir but also being an intercessor. Mary being a mediator between Heaven and earth, made he Queen be the intercessor between the King and his people.

She also explains that the Queen’s duties were to act as a regent in case their King wasn’t capable to rule, for example due to health issues or young age. Another of their duties was to help their King and other nobility to spy on rivals, help ignite conflicts or even wars, be of strategic help and help to spread information, whether false or true, to help the King achieve his goals, whatever those might be. 26 In my opinion, there are clear parallels between the duties and roles of a queen in the Middle Ages and Lady Machete’s behavior.

For starters, Lady Macbeth, Just like a queen, is ready to do anything in order to help her husband achieve his goals. It is easier to see the parallel by looking at one of her first statements, namely that he shall be King as he was promised, even though in her opinion he doesn’t have the manhood to do what has to be done without her support. However, I think Lady Macbeth is capable of going much further than a usual queen would have. In the Middle Ages Theresa Rearrange says, queens that were sterile were shunned and even murdered.

The fact that Macbeth and Lady Machete’s relationship does not result in a child must Hereford be a vital reason for her to do everything possible to please her husband by helping him achieving what he strives for, even if it crosses his or other’s boundaries. This shows Lady Machete’s behavior to be that of a Queen, before she actually becomes one. Another parallel is Lady Machete’s way of ruling. She is the one with the strategic head on her shoulders and plans the assassination on King Duncan.

Moreover, she figures out the best way to shift the blame off them and onto somebody else by drugging and placing the dagger used to murder the King in the Kings officers’ hands, all of this to wash her husband’s and her hands clean of guilt. Another great example are the tales that were written in the book of the wiles of women. This book contained tales of women and their – so it seems – pathological misconduct, adultery, their sharp tongue that shifted the blame from them onto others and simply female deceit.

Those were popular antihistamines anecdotes, and general perception turned to women being deceiving liars no man could or should trust. An interesting chapter on how a “good” wife was supposed to behave in the Middle Ages from Georges Dubos and Michelle Parrot’s book A history of women bevels that women were lower in the hierarchy than their husbands. “Saint Thomas went as far as to say that the basic reason for getting married was to ensure a male figurehead for the education of the offspring. “29 The only function left for the woman/mother was to nurture the child.

According to them, there was one point on which there was a unanimous agreement – that a good wife is one that takes care of the house. From Aristotle on there were two areas, which were divided between man and woman: production and conservation, where the men were the ones to be productive, while the women “conserved” what they had. 0 This explains the division between the house (the female domain) and everything that is outside of it (the male domain), leading to the woman managing the family and being responsible for her family behavior. 1 We can apply these characteristics to Lady Machete’s behavior, but it becomes quickly apparent that Lady Macbeth is not the type who can be connected to adultery or sexual misbehaving. On the other hand the deception of her and her actions is enormous. She does however, not deceive her husband, as was the case in those earlier tales, but the ones who stand in their path to success, particularly King Duncan. Another point to be noted is the sharp tongue. This description fits her like a glove.

Examples ranging from calling upon dark spirits to unsexes her to the harsh and insulting words she uses to convince her husband of murder are excellent proofs of her resolution and her capability of using her tongue to manipulate her husband or others into doing or believing what she says. Lady Macbeth seems to fit the description of a Queen or noblewoman very well. Her one shortcoming, apart from being childless, however, is opposed to what women were supposed to be. Lady Macbeth is a bad hostess.

Not only is it her husband that plans social gatherings but it is she who plots the King’s demise, when she should be the one to cater to the Kings needs. The Great Chain of Being and Macbeth Being a logical human being, the first instinct is to divide things into two without overlaps, but it is impossible to name a precise moment in history when, for example, the Middle Ages turned in the age of Renaissance. Thus we cannot say that the cultural and intellectual ideas, politics or for that matter other areas can be separated into two different chunks of history.

Quit to the contrary, there are overlaps of two different ages. Shakespeare, who lived (1564 – 1616) during England’s Renaissance, demonstrates this overlap in his play Macbeth which is a very good example of The Chain of Being’s concept but, more importantly, the consequences of somebody disturbing precisely this chain. This so-called chain was actually a description of how our world and the beings in it are connected and in which order. This order was based on the proportions of “matter” and “spirit”.

The more spirit a being had, the higher up the chain that being would be. Inanimate things in nature, such as for example minerals, were at the lowest end. Above them were plants, insects, and other creatures that weren’t noble , like lions, bears or wolves. Then there came humans: the king, who back then was thought to be chosen by God, was the highest ranked among humans, and women were the ones who were lowest highest. Since God was the one to create the chain, it was of course unthinkable to disturb it. Repercussions and chaos could have been the outcome.

Looking at the play, Macbeth and hereby Lady Macbeth disturb this chain by murdering King Duncan, who is the highest-ranked of all human beings. This regicide has to have consequences, and the fact that Duncan is a noble and good king cannot help that matter. This killing does actually demonstrate two disturbances of The Great Chain of Being, we have on one hand Macbeth committing regicide, but Lady Macbeth disturbs the chain by leaving her place in the hierarchy and placing herself higher than she should be. I would consider this first murder to a of catalyst for the rest of the misfortune to come.

As the story continues, Macbeth loses his courage and hires other men to kill for him, while Lady Macbeth starts to fall apart and feel remorse. However, the death count continues and the bodies for whose death he is responsible pile up. Mayhem erupts throughout their kingdom, and it becomes apparent that The Great Chain of Being is more than Just disturbed. The expected chaos has come and it does not seem like anything could stop it. Even the horses are attacking each other, and the natural order breaks down as less noble creatures overcome the noble and stronger ones.

Nobody sees Macbeth as a king; instead, “his” people are calling him the tyrant. While looking at the whole play from afar, death seems to be a motif that persists and shows the crimes Macbeth commits and the impact these crimes have upon The Great Chain of Being. His kingdom seems to be engulfed in a morbid atmosphere, as different animals appear that are associated tit death and decay, such as ravens. As the play continues and more of those morbid signs appear, Macbeth loses his mind and starts hallucinating. Having committed all those crimes, he induced his own phantasmagoria.

In the end it isn’t only his kingdom that falls apart, but also his relationship to Lady Macbeth and further on the abrupt cut with her, as she commits suicide. If he had not had committed those crimes, according to The Chain of Being, everything would have remained in equilibrium, and the kingdom would be in a state of order, but because he does, his kingdom turns into chaos. Conclusion Working in depth on this play, more specifically the female roles in it and the history regarding the perception of women, I have to conclude that the role of women in Macbeth cannot be described in simple words.

While looking at the surface, the depiction of Lady Macbeth and the witches is evil and monstrous, but it should not be categorized as obvious. These women, Lady Macbeth as well as the witches, achieve their goals through dangerous, sinister and most importantly subtle manipulation. The prophecies the witches foretell are not straightforward but play on Machete’s ambition and the way Lady Macbeth questions his manhood convinces IM of committing murder. The story would not unfold the way it does without these women.

Both parties, Lady Macbeth and the witches, are important driving forces behind what happens. The witches’ counterparts are the Pearce, who controlled the thread of life, while Lady Machete’s counterpart is Eve, who is blamed for the original sin – the fall of humankind and its expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Even today, Eve still stands as one of the ultimate examples that connect women and evil. The Middle Ages as well as the classical perception of women had an incredible influence

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Macbeth Essay Argumentative Essay

In this essay I am will be analysing and comparing and contrasting how Shakespeare and Duffy portray madness in “Macbeth” and “Havisham”. Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare. It starts off with three witches who tell Macbeth that he will become the king. Macbeth did not have as much as courage, but Lady Macbeth takes matters into her own hands and convinces Macbeth to kill the king. Macbeth kills the king and becomes king, just as the three witches said he would be. Lady Macbeth had been tormented by guilt and had soon gone mad. Banquo, a friend of Macbeth’s who was killed by Macbeth, torments Macbeth in ghost form.

Eventually, Macbeth dies after he was killed by Macduff and Banquo’s son becomes king, again just like the three witches Macbeth is beheaded by Macduff. “Havisham” is a poem written by Carol Ann Duffy. This poem is spoken by Miss Havisham, a character in Dickens’ Great Expectations. Abandoned by her scheming fiance on her wedding day, she continues to wear her wedding dress and sit along with the remains of breakfast for the rest of her life, while she plots her revenge and curses her fiance, she had shown vivid signs of madness throughout the story, which may be caused by the trauma, she may had received throughout the years.

I firmly believe in Act 5, Scene 1 of Macbeth, Shakespeare showed us that Lady Macbeth had been mentally affected by her guilt of killing The King. It can be said that she had shown signs of madness and also a mental disorder. This is because she had said many strange phrases that you wouldn’t have seen a normal state person to say, and also the fact that she had been talking to herself in terms of desperation and guilt showed more evidence of her madness. This idea can be supported by the following quote/s. ‘What, will these hands ne’er be clean? ’’ In the quote shown, Lady Macbeth had asked a rhetorical question to herself, epitomising her guilt and madness as she meant that she cannot rid herself of the blood she sees on her hands, and ultimately, the guilt that she feels. This was because what she was seeing was all an illusion. This may be classed as a dramatic irony as, Lady Macbeth thought blood stains were on her hand, but the reader knew there wasn’t any.

The language used in my quote that I had given, was very straightforward. By this I mean that in the quote, Lady Macbeth had asked a question, in which she wanted someone to answer her question, but because she was talking to herself it sounded like a rhetorical question which showed us more than glimpses of madness and guilt. Also this related more to craziness because, from an audience perspective, we would have been thinking ‘’what is Lady Macbeth talking about? ’’ This is how Shakespeare presented Lady Macbeth’s madness.

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The relationship between Machbeth and Lady Macbeth

The relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth By Myra Civilly Macbeth, the play written by William Shakespeare in 1606, shows us the relationship that exists between the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and how it creates most of the actions, reactions, moods, feelings and attitudes. Both love each other and that deserves any sacrifice. At the beginning of the play, they are very close and this is shown when he calls her, “my dearest partner of greatness. ” He clearly demonstrates being open with his wife.

Afterwards, they seem more and more assistant, each into his/her private world. Although Lady Macbeth shares many personality traits with her husband, such as the pride, she is endowed with unwavering firmness of mind and her aggressiveness and cruelty almost denies her feminine nature. By analyzing her actions throughout the play, we realize her coldness. We can also see her power when she uses her sensuality to convince Macbeth to commit the murder and when she taunts him calling for his love, “From this time such I account thy love” (Macbeth, Act l, Scene VI’, p. 4) and questioning bout his virility (calling him a coward), disregarding the fact that killing the king is unfair and brutal, “What beast wasn’t, then, 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”. (Macbeth, Act l, Scene VI’, p. 35) Macbeth seems to be persuaded by all the intense arguments of Lady Macbeth. She could convince him, even if he had no desire to perform the murder. The function of provocation by Lady Macbeth only awakes of Machete’s evil side.

Despite the fact he s a noble, bold, and brave man, he has a gloomy nature. Macbeth conveys an uncertainty to commit or not the crime and although he has already thought about killing the king, he needs precision and motivation from Lady Macbeth to do it. After the murder, when Macbeth comes back to his bedroom horrified with his hands covered with blood, he meets Lady Macbeth who gets impatiently with Machete’s thoughts. When she sees that he had not left the dragger in the scene of the crime, she gets angry and tells him to take them there, but he refuses to do so.

She accuses IM of being a coward, and takes the dragger herself, “Coward! Give me the daggers. Dead and sleeping people can’t hurt you any more than pictures can. Only children are afraid of scary pictures” (Macbeth, Act II, Scene II, p. 43). From the moment that Lady Macbeth notices her hands covered with blood, she shows us, for the first time, the feeling of fear. The guilt starts to take account of Lady Machete’s mind. However, even after Machete’s wife realizes what she did, she continues to give support to her husband because she thinks he getting the throne is the best thing that could append for both.

Lady Macbeth tries not to weaken in front of Macbeth, “Things without all remedy should be without regard. What’s done is done” (Macbeth, Act Ill, Scene II, p. 64). She keeps guiding her husband in her weakness. Although Macbeth is also beginning to feel guilty, he is obsessed with the position of king and he has no problem with killing other people. After Lady Macbeth deploys the unscrupulous courage in her husband heart, she loses her power over Macbeth and, as a result, he starts to plan his actions, like murders, without her knowing.

Now, we see that he intros Lady Macbeth, which means that he makes decisions by himself. Once crowned, he rises and his wife descends in importance. The secret that Lady Macbeth hides disturbs and unbalances her. Before, she was a calm, controlled, and strong wife, now, her mental state begins to damage. She wakes up in the middle of the night, sleep walking and speaking aloud, Out, damned spot! Out, I say! -?One, two. Why, then, ‘its time to do ‘t. Hell is murky! -?Fie, my lord, flee! A soldier and afeard? 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. (Macbeth, Act V, Scene l, p. 114) Lady Macbeth and her husband separate of each one not only physically – she gets mad and he doesn’t care about her anymore, because he is obsessed with his enemies. Arising from this, unable to bear the madness, she commits suicide. Macbeth reacts with indifference to Lady Machete’s death saying, She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow. Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the cast syllable of recorded time.

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. 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. (Macbeth, Act V, Scene V, p. 126) This lack of emotion means that his feelings about his wife were over. Thus, we can see how their relationship has changed throughout the play and how he has changed, in contrast to his guilt when he killed the king Duncan.

Now, Macbeth is too eager to enable his conscience to stop him from doing cruel things. However, near the end of the story, he seems to be relieved to know that the English army was coming and it means that he would return to the battlefield, where he starts to win, nevertheless, he loses the battle dying. We can conclude that the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth has always been about complicity and fidelity despite this mutual union deteriorates in the final moments of the story.

Macbeth needed Lady Machete’s mental strength while for Lady Macbeth her husband’s hysterical force was indispensable to commit the barbaric act. This represents a balance between the characters; one completes the other and vice versa. They are partners in crime, in greed, in corruption, in madness and in their allocations, which symbolizes an irony of a “wonderful” union. References http://www. Sparseness. Com/Shakespeare/Macbeth/ http://www. Clientèles. Com/literature/m/Macbeth/character-analysis/Macbeth http:// www. Shampoos. Com/Macbeth/plot-analysis. HTML http://www. Graveside. Com/Macbeth/study-guide/sections/

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The Story of Macbeth

In the story of Macbeth, there is a lot of ups and downs that go along. How everyone takes the events that are going on will determine who are the strong ones and who are the weak ones. At one point all of the characters will have a flaw which will cause them to act a certain way. Many events that go on shocked, excited, and worried most.

Every action will lead to a deeper event. Although everyone seems to have their head together at the beginning, there is alot of flaws that these characters are not showing right away. Most of these characters will leave and reader at a sharp turning point. These situations that the characters are always falling into are because of the characters poor decisions that leave the character where he/she cannot change or controls certains situations.

Macbeth’s mind set and actions will show how he really feels about certain situations and help a reader understand why Macbeth’s actions are the way they are. Not just Macbeth’s actions, its Lady Macbeth’s actions too. No one knows which way to turn to when events start to drop out of nowhere. In the story of Macbeth, you can see that the troubled main character, Macbeth is in situations that you can see his flaws clearly, making this story a tragedy.

To start off in at 1 of The Tragedy of Macbeth, the setting is in Scotland. Lady Macbeth comes across the three witches, the Weird Sisters, she had made the witches mad so the witches knew to go after her husband. So that is exactly what they did. The witches said they will meet Macbeth “when the battle’s los and won” and when “fair is foul and foul is fair”.

The witches will tell the characters one thing and will think in their head another meaning to what they just said, so the characters will be confused and do or say the wrong things that will cause a huge situations that can be a life of death situation. For example, when the witches told Macbeth that he will be king, also when they told him a human cannot harm him till the trees move. Another thing that the witches did was curse Lady macbeth when she would not give the witches some of her crackers.

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