Macbeth

William Shakespeare is arguably one of the greatest playwrights and poets of all time. This is due to his intelligent sonnets and plays that are divided into the genres of comedy, tragedy and history. Many great poets have acknowledged him as a pure genius in the way he presents his work. English novelist D. H. Lawrence stated “When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder that such trivial people should muse and thunder in such lovely language”. Alchin, online) English poet Robert Graves once described this poetic genius, claiming that “The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good – in spite of all the people who say he is very good. ” (Alchin, online) Shakespeare’s work has the reputation of being the one of the greatest in English language and Western literature. It has been translated into every major language and is still being preformed all around the world today. Many of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets have similar characteristics relating to themes, motifs, and symbols.

These recurring images and ideas not only portray how he really feels, but they also have a personal connection with Shakespeare as they have had some significance in his life. The theme of death and reappearing ghosts appear in many of Shakespeare’s works, especially in Hamlet and Macbeth, and are used to connect with the reader and present an important aspect that helps develop his works as a whole. In the time of William Shakespeare there was a strong belief in the existence of the paranormal activity and. Thus, the theme of the supernatural is a recurring aspect in many of Shakespeare?s plays.

In both Hamlet and Macbeth, the supernatural is vital to the development and structure of the plot. It provides a deeper understanding of each character, and increases the impact of important events. The supernatural appears to the audience in many varied forms. In Hamlet there is a ghost, the most common supernatural form. However, in Macbeth, not only does a ghost appear but a floating dagger, witches, and prophetic apparitions make appearances. A ghost, appearing in the form of Hamlet’s father, makes several appearances in the play. It first appears to Marcellus and Bernardo, along with Horatio.

The ghost says nothing to them and is perceived with fear and apprehension. However, the ghost gives the reader important information that helps them understand the development of the plot. The conversation between the ghost and Hamlet serves as a reason for Hamlet’s later actions and provides insight into his character. However, Hamlet is not quick to believe the ghost. “T’ assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. (Shakespeare, Act 2, Scene 2).

This reveals another aspect of his character and helps the reader understand Hamlet. This ghost is portrayed as a subconscious, and he uses it as a guide when he takes the ghost’s advice to seek revenge for the King’s death. The supernatural occurs four times during the course of Macbeth. It occurs in the forms of the witches, in the appearance of Banquo’s ghost, in the apparitions, and in the “air-drawn” dagger that guides Macbeth towards his victim. The witches are the most important supernatural aspect in Macbeth. They represent Macbeth’s evil ambitions and are the reason for his evil aspirations.

Macbeth believes the witches and wishes to know more about the future so after the banquet he seeks them out at their cave. He wants to know the answers to his questions even though the consequences are violent and destructive to nature. In Hamlet and Macbeth the supernatural is a vital part of the structure of the plot. It provides a catalyst for action by the characters and supplies insight into the major players. The supernatural appeals to the audience’s curiosity of the mysterious and thus strengthens their interest. Shakespeare had his experiences with death throughout his whole life.

During the 16th century, waves of plague swept across England. John and Mary Shakespeare had eight children, including William. Joan, the first born sibling, died at the age of two months old due to the Bubonic Plague. Margret was the second born child and only lived for one also due to the plague. Anne Shakespeare was the sixth child born. She died at the age of eight. William was very fortunate to live a full life as three out of seven of his siblings died at an extremely young age. He also had to witness much of his family suffer with illness from the plague that swept Stratford uring the hot summer months. The plague was not the only tragic aspect of Shakespeare’s time. Smallpox, Syphilis, Typhus and Malaria mainly from infected rats all drastically affected Shakespeare’s life and caused copious amounts of death. These type of aspects and experiences all have influenced his writing (Amanda Mabillard, online). It is also a key motif and vital theme in Macbeth and Hamlet, as well as many other plays. Each major character in both plays has a famous soliloquy that discusses the topic of death and leads the character with a lingering feeling of despair.

They both wonder if embracing death would be better than living in a world full of corruption. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! … Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. ” (Shakespeare, Act 5, Scene 5). Macbeth, feeling guilty after committing killing the king and sad after the death of his wife, sees life as meaningless and insignificant.

He wonders if life is truly worth living anymore. Hamlet’s famous soliloquy displays a similar tone as he also ponders between life and death. “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? … With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. –Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember’d. ” (Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 1).

His despair, sorrow, anger, and inner peace are all justifiable emotions for this troubled character. Hamlet’s feeling of despair towards his life and to the world develops as the play moves on. With the burden of avenging his father’s death, Hamlet thinks that perhaps it is better commit suicide, except that there is no knowledge of what comes next. Therefore, although he thinks death should to be embraced, it cannot be pursued. (Schoenbaum, 49) Shakespeare’s life and thoughts are portrayed, reflected, and interpreted throughout his plays. Hamlet and Macbeth’s speeches both suggest that

Shakespeare himself dealt with the question of life over death and possibly had thoughts of suicide. He uses these characters to reflect his feelings and thoughts and develop the plot of the story. Shakespeare’s plays have influenced many people around the world. He is one of the most known playwrights. His style is so unique and distinctive and excels beyond the expectations of great writing. Although his plays may seem as just a great story merely for entertainment, each and every single aspect of his writing has an incredibly deep meaning that adds style and feeling to the plot.

The supernatural in many of Shakespeare’s works and have contributed to plot development by foreshadowing events later in the novel and shaping the characters attitude throughout the play. Death has been a lingering aspect through most of Shakespeare’s plays and is usually the fate of the major character. It helps develop the plot and places emphasis on the fatal flaw of the major character or theme of the play. They both have played an important part in Shakespeare’s life and have been essential to the success of his work as they help the genius express his feelings and shape the scheme of his writing.

It is a sad but true fact that out of the more than six thousand languages that existed in the world at one time, one disappears every fortnight! Take the example of Patrick Nudjulu of North Australia, one of the three remaining speakers of the dying language Mati Ke. As tradition forbids him to speak to his sister, he does not have anyone he can speak his own language with, and as a consequence, the language is dying out, and will disappear with the death of Patrick. Some of the other languages that will disappear soon and be lost forever are, according to Duncan Walker, Abenaki, Atures, Welsh, and Manx.  (Walker, Duncan 2005)

In any culture, land and its language are closely inter connected, and in Aboriginal Australia, this is especially true because the entire continent is divided by its hills and other geographical distinctions, and also because of its languages. The people of Wadeye, who spoke Mati Ke, were forced to move over and start using the Murrinh-Patta. This meant that Mati Ke was no longer being used, and nobody even realized in the beginning that the language of their ancestors was slipping away into oblivion.

Patrick Nudjulu, an old man, and one of the few people left in the world who can actually speak Mati Ke still, says, “I still dream in Mati Ke. See all in the past.” His own daughter and granddaughter do not know how to speak this language, and they use the Murrinh-Patta that they are more familiar with. It is interesting to note that for Patrick Nudjulu, English is his fourth of fifth strongest language.

The author of the book Mark Abley, in a quest to gain knowledge of a few words of Mati Ke, learnt that ‘mi warzu’ is the name for fruit in Mati Ke, ‘a dhan gi’ means salt water prawns, ‘a wayelh’ refers to goanna lizard, although it was sadly true that Patrick Nudjulu himself was forced to use the Murrinh-Patta to communicate with his family. Patrick’s story is indeed a tragic but an all too familiar one; he was forced to leave the town in which he had been living after his parents had given up their difficult life in the bush, but had to go back to life in the bush because he could no longer tolerate the destruction of his town.

He has in effect returned to the bark and bough shelters that were familiar to him, as he had lived in them through his childhood. However, despite his best efforts, it was obvious that his language would not be saved; although he spoke to his grandchildren in Mati Ke, they chose to reply to him in Murrinh-Patta, thereby leaving no doubt at all that yet another language, Mati Ke, is on its inexorable way to extinction.   (Abley, Mark 2005)

Works cited

Abley, Mark “Spoken here, travels among threatened languages” (2005) Google Book Search retrieved on March 11, 2008 from <http://books.google.co.in/books?id=skV2wp81JQIC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=lost+language+mati+ke&source=web&ots=VgjTQUxV-c&sig=GKbK0bd-eTYNC-gHyIasUeaYmLw&hl=en>

Walker, Duncan “In defence of ‘lost’ languages” BBC News (2005) Retrieved on March 11, 2008 from <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4172085.stm>

Imagine a war without guns, missiles, or bombs. A war with swords, daggers, and arrows. A war with blood, gallons and gallons of blood flooding the battlefields. Set in eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon Scotland, this would be the typical battle scene in Shakespeare’s bloody tragedy, Macbeth. In Macbeth Shakespeare presents a bloody tale of an age-old struggle for power when Macbeth, the play’s protagonist, and his wife plan to kill Duncan, Scotland’s current beloved king, after hearing a prophecy told by three evil witches proclaiming Macbeth to be the new king.

The higher Macbeth rises to the throne the deeper he slips into a bottomless pool of the blood of those who dared stand in his way. Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses images of blood as a means of symbolism, using multiple recurrences of blood imagery to promote the primary feelings of “fear, honor, and pain” (Spurgeon 115). As symbol blood ultimately “covers everything Macbeth has touched” in many ways “both qualitative and quantitative” that “real blood” is unable to do (Mack 53).

As the play progresses the symbolism changes and transforms from honor to betrayal and ultimately to guilt and revenge. Macbeth begins as a courageous hero in the midst of battle. A “bloody man” in King Duncan’s court tells a story of a bloody battle in which Macbeth fulfills the role of the hero (1. 2. 1). On the verge of bleeding out the Captain manages to “paint Macbeth’s valor” despite his blood flooding the King’s court (“Character Profile” 193). Images of the Captain, a man mortally wounded protecting Duncan’s son Malcolm in battle, smothered in his own blood gives a symbol of an honorable death.

While the Captain lay dying, he still goes on about Macbeth unseaming an opponent from “the nave to th’ chops,” building King Duncan’s trust in Macbeth (1. 2. 18-23). After the three witches visit Macbeth and Banquo, Macbeth tells his wife, Lady Macbeth, of the promises the witches mentioned. Hearing her husband’s prophecy to be king, Lady Macbeth begins plotting the murder of the current reigning king, Duncan. She calls upon spirits to “make thick” her blood and stop the “access and passage to remorse,” so that she can murder Duncan without regret (1. . 44-45). Wishing her ability to regret her actions to be replaced with “direst cruelty” leaves Lady Macbeth believing that she and her husband will be able to kill Duncan with no remorse (1. 5. 44). While Macbeth contemplates his wife’s treasonous plan, he sees a dagger before him covered in “gouts” of King Duncan’s blood (2. 1. 46). The blood and dagger are not real, though Macbeth believes they are, instead, they are a vision that Macbeth sees before the “bloody business” (2. 1. 48).

These blood images convey a symbol of betrayal as well as treason. Murdering Duncan involves Macbeth betraying his trusting cousin and committing treason against Scotland. Immediately after Macbeth kills Duncan, he is “rigid with horror at his “blood-stained hands” (Spurgeon 115). The “endless red of the blood” on his hands is all Macbeth can focus on (Campbell 130). Seeing the blood on his hands begins amplifying the guilt, sending him into shock, forcing Lady Macbeth to smear the “grooms with blood” (Campbell 130-131).

Lady Macbeth plans to shift the light of guilt from her and her husband to the guards who were supposed to keep watch over the noble king. Using Duncan’s blood to “gild” the guard’s faces Lady Macbeth transforms blood into a physical symbol of guilt (2. 2. 55). Lennox, a Scottish nobleman, reports on the scene of Duncan’s death describing the guard’s faces to be “badged with blood” and their daggers “unwiped” (2. 3. 104-105). Because they are covered in the king’s “golden blood” the alleged murderers are “steeped in the colors of their trade” (2. 3. 114-117).

Bloody stains of the hands and hearts of Macbeth and his wife and the blood that covers the faces and weapons of the guards become a physical symbol of guilt. The guilt of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is hidden from others while the guilt of the guards is painted on their faces. Macbeth is fully aware that he is totally consumed by the blood of his murderous deeds. He states that his hands are stained with blood from the murder of Duncan. As the play progresses, the guilt of Macbeth multiplies as the amount of blood on his hands continues to grow, becoming a symbol of Macbeth’s guilt.

Each death at the hands of Macbeth causes the stain of red to expand from his hands and spread all over him, “from head to foot”, symbolizing his growing guilt that becomes more inescapable (McElroy 46). As time goes on after the murder, Lady Macbeth begins to slowly unravel into insanity. She is haunted by memories “deeply etched in fear” (Campbell 131). One of these memories is the scene of Duncan’s death she recalls the shock of the “old to have had so much blood in him” as well as the idea that her hands will never be clean (5. 1. 42-43).

Walking in her sleep, Lady Macbeth finds a spot on her hand that she is unable to wash clean, a symbol of her eternal guilt. Bloody memories push Lady Macbeth into the waiting hands of insanity through the guilt that she feels. Images such as “the blood upon her hands,” and Duncan “bleeding so much blood,” feed Lady Macbeth’s guilt, causing it to continue to grow from guilt to deeply embedded fear, and finally to pure insanity (Campbell 132). With the murderous and wicked deed of the evil tyrant and his wife come plans of revenge and vengeance.

Malcolm and Macduff, both having had horrid injustices done unto them, plan to take action to seize the throne from the wicked tyrant, Macbeth. With Malcolm’s father’s murder and the massacre of Macduff’s family, the two men have burning passions for vengeance. In the country near Dunsinane, Scottish nobleman, Menteith, tells that Malcolm and Macduff are coming to Scotland with Malcolm’s uncle Siward and the English powers. He explains that “revenge burns” in both Malcolm and Macduff and that they come for revenge for Scotland, Duncan, and Macduff’s family (5. . 2). The bloody deeds of Macbeth drive Malcolm and Macduff toward their goal of reclaiming Scotland. Malcolm describes the bloody state of Macbeth has driven Scotland as a country that “sinks beneath the yoke” (4. 3. 39). He claims Scotland “weeps”, “bleeds” and “each new day a gash / Is added to her wounds” (4. 3. 40-41). The personification of Scotland as a living being adds to the imagery of cuts and bloody gashes, upholding Malcolm’s need to avenge his father’s death and reclaim his father’s throne.

The gruesome murder of Macduff’s family provided him with “the most natural of motives for revenge” and brought Macduff to the “impersonal role of Scotland’s avenger” (Felperin 104). In the final act of Macbeth blood comes to symbolize a mean for revenge. It is the bloody acts of the evil Macbeth that drive the good men of Scotland to revolt against Macbeth’s rule, and ultimately in the reclaiming of their homeland and the death of Macbeth at the hands of Macduff. The final scenes of Macbeth transform the symbol of blood to one of revenge.

It is bloody acts that lead both Malcolm and Macduff to seek revenge against the tyrant alongside the noblemen of Scotland who wish to regain their homeland.

Works Cited

1. Campbell, Lily B. “Macbeth: A Study in Fear. ” “Macbeth. ” Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999. 126-135. Print. “Character Profile. ” “Macbeth”.
2. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publisher, 2005. 193-197. Print. Felperin, Howard. “A Painted Devil: Macbeth. ” William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth. ”
3. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 91-112. Print. Mack, Maynard. “Literary and Political References in Macbeth. ” “Macbeth. ”
4. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999. 45-57. Print. McElroy, Bernard. “Macbeth: The Torture of the Mind. ” “Macbeth. ” Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publisher, 2005. 27-52. Print. Shakespeare, William, and Sylvan Barnet.
5. The Tragedy of Macbeth. New York: Signet Classic, 1998. Print. Spurgeon, Caroline F. E.. “Shakespeare’s Imagery Heightens Emotions. ” “Macbeth. ” Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999. 107-117. Print. Word Count: 1,223