- I would describe my overall experience in reading Macbeth as...
- Destiny: How it played a role in this play!
- Lady Macbeth versus Macbeth
- One setting in the play that made me uneasy...
- Changes I would make to the play would be...
Other than my struggles in understanding old English, I would describe my overall experience in reading Macbeth as surprising. I think that the pace in which the story of Macbeth unfolded was really rapid compared to most of the other material I've read. One moment Macbeth is getting promoted to thane of Cawdor, and by the next he's already murdered the king. The amount of planned murder in this story also surprised me, because I wasn't expecting most of it, especially Banquo's death. I thought that Macbeth and Banquo were good friends, but just because of the witch's prophesies about Banquo's heirs, Macbeth actually had his friend murdered. Even more surprising was the murder of Macduff's entire family, even the children and servants. The way Shakespeare described the death of Macduff's son especially made the reader think of Macbeth as a ruthless tyrant. Another surprising part to me was how the witch's prophecies actually all came true, especially the ones like "Macbeth will never vanquished until Great Birnam Woods to high Dunsinane Hill shall come to him." (Act 4, Scene 1) or "none of woman born shall harm Macbeth" (Scene 4, Act 1).
I had initially understood this to mean that Macbeth was invincible because, when would a forest actually decide to pick itself up and march up a hill? I thought it was a fancy way to say that Macbeth would never lose, but eventually the forest did move, in a way, and Macduff was, in a way, not of woman born. There were many such events in the plot that surprised me because everything happened so fast and people just kept dying.
I think one of the main reasons for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to have gone to such measures is because Macbeth had learned his destiny too early. While reading this play, I often wondered what would have happened to Macbeth had he not met the witches. Was his destiny already fixed whether or not he knew about it? Or was it his destiny to know his destiny? Macbeth was clearly worried about many things after he'd met the witches the first time. If he had had any doubt, it was completely erased after the witches' first prophecy came true, when he was promoted to thane of Cawdor. However, it was the other predictions that concerned him. He did not want to wait patiently to become king; instead, he immediately thought of the idea to murder the current king. Also, he was angry that his heir would not inherit the throne: "Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, and put a barren scepter in my grip" (Act 3, Scene 1). The witches said that Banquo's heir would be kings, but by the end of Macbeth, it seems that Malcolm was to be king. Out of all the witches' predictions, this is the only one that does not come true by the end of the play. Perhaps they just said this to Macbeth to drive him insane and urge him to murder more people and continue on his path of becoming a tyrant.
It was also the witches and their prophecies that eventually led to Macbeth's death. He became arrogant and fearless because he thought that there was no way he could die, unless the Birnam Woods marched to Dunsinane Hill. He also believed that no one could kill him, since the witches told him that no man born of woman could harm him, so he just assumed that no one could harm him. This arrogance is what made him decide to just stay in his castle and and wait no matter what his servants were telling him, until Macduff entered the room and beheaded him.
If Macbeth had not been told these riddles, he might have had some sense to escape as the oncoming army began to approach his castle. I think there was definitely sufficient time for him to have made his escape. However, Macbeth's response to Lady Macbeth's death and his speech about life gave me the feeling that he wouldn't have ran anyway. But at least he maybe wouldn't have be that arrogant and embarrassed himself when Macduff said that he was actually born of cesarean section.
At the beginning of the play, I saw Macbeth as a powerful, successful soldier, and I also recognized that he had a conscience. He was extremely hesitant about the idea of murdering King Duncan, and also consistently focused on the good sides of Duncan's kingship. He was very loyal to Duncan, and also admired him greatly. He was not the type of person who would ruthlessly murder someone just for his own benefit. However, the fact that he even came up with this idea means he does have an ambitious motivation within him. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, had absolutely no doubt that killing Duncan was the way to go upon seeing her husband's letter. Her only worry was to make sure that Macbeth would cooperate, because he was "too full o' th' milk of human kindness". She then continued to use her husband's hesitation to manipulate him, accusing him of being a coward and unmanly. She said that he needed to remain true to his resolve, and brought up a disturbing example of how she would smash out her own baby's brains if she'd resolved to do so. Macbeth had nearly resolved to not kill a king he admired as much as Duncan, but eventually succumbed to his wife's manipulation and went ahead with the murder.
I noticed that Lady Macbeth herself mentioned that she would have had trouble murdering Duncan herself because he resembled her father, so she forced Macbeth to do it. Although Macbeth admired Duncan so much, he still managed to get himself to commit the murder. After this major turning point in Macbeth's life, he started losing it and becoming more or less insane. He then went on to order the murder of Banquo, Fleance, and Macduff's entire family and servants, among these being his friends, innocent children, and also completely unrelated people like the servants. At this point, not even Lady Macbeth, who'd appeared to be much crueler at the beginning of the play, had planned to have so many people murdered. In general, Lady Macbeth gave me the impression of being more practical, with limited vulnerable moments, while Macbeth seemed to have more human qualities. He started showing signs of insanity far before Lady Macbeth, and he would start to hallucinate when he was fully conscious. Lady Macbeth's abnormal behavior, however, began later, and only happened when she was sleeping, unconscious and unable to control herself. During the day, she composed herself well. I think Macbeth's impulsiveness and lack of practical thinking caused him to make many wrong decisions, although his initial instinct of loyalty towards Duncan also showed a human impulse to be good. Lady Macbeth was too practical and didn't consider other people's feelings at all because she was the type of person who tried to put down her own feelings and was proud of that, thinking of herself as "manly".
One setting in the play that made me uneasy was the scene where Macbeth was told that Lady Macbeth had committed suicide, and he then started talking to himself. At first, I was kind of surprised that he didn't seem to really care about Lady Macbeth's death, acting like it was going to happen sooner or later anyways, because I thought that they had a pretty tight relationship. However, he goes on to put down the meaning of life with an extremely depressing pessimism, and I kind of got the idea that he was very much so done with chasing his ambitions, being king, and living at all. I think he had probably realized at this point that being king was far worse than his original position, whether it was because of his own guilt or some sort of ill fortune. But I think he knew he had gone far past the point of no return. He'd had innocent children murdered, and his own armies were turning against him. Only Lady Macbeth was still on the same page as him, and knew what was really going on. But he was suddenly left to handle all the guilt that had built up over his streak of crimes all alone, and I think this is the point where Macbeth truly became insane. In the past, he'd hallucinated before and after his murders and seemed actually mentally troubled. Although he didn't seem to be having mental disorders this time, I feel like part of him just collapsed after Lady Macbeth committed suicide. He'd once felt like he would go insane having to live his life with the guilt that had accumulated within him, but at least he was planning to live. But by this point of the play, he doesn't see any purpose or meaning in life: "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 fury, signifying nothing" (Act 5, Scene 5). It's like he was tired of living, even though he wasn't old yet. He repeatedly stated that he would not commit suicide, and I'm not sure if that's because of a sense of dignity or pride, but I think that even if he didn't want to die, he didn't want to live anymore. He also made his own crimes seem less important, because he described life as a play. Nothing really mattered, in a way, so his crimes too, signified nothing. It made me uneasy because I kind of felt sorry for Macbeth at this point, because at the beginning of the play, we know that this isn't how he started out, that he did have decency in him.
I think I would have made it more clear what happened to Fleance, because according to the witches, he's supposed to become a king or something. Or at least, I would have hoped to know what happened to him. Maybe Shakespeare just wanted it be stressful to Macbeth that Fleance survived the assassination, because then it seemed like the witches' predictions about Banquo's heirs were really going to become true and that there was nothing that Macbeth could do to stop it. But either way, I kind of felt like Shakespeare actually forgot about Fleance and the prophecy about him. At the end, it is clearly Malcolm who is going to become king and so it seemed like there was one prophecy that did not come true. Then maybe Shakespeare was trying to show us that the witches were evil and they fool people. They fooled Macbeth into believing that Banquo's heirs would become kings to make him want to kill Fleance, which would start his killing streak.
But I still felt like Shakespeare forgot his existence.
I had initially understood this to mean that Macbeth was invincible because, when would a forest actually decide to pick itself up and march up a hill? I thought it was a fancy way to say that Macbeth would never lose, but eventually the forest did move, in a way, and Macduff was, in a way, not of woman born. There were many such events in the plot that surprised me because everything happened so fast and people just kept dying.
I think one of the main reasons for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to have gone to such measures is because Macbeth had learned his destiny too early. While reading this play, I often wondered what would have happened to Macbeth had he not met the witches. Was his destiny already fixed whether or not he knew about it? Or was it his destiny to know his destiny? Macbeth was clearly worried about many things after he'd met the witches the first time. If he had had any doubt, it was completely erased after the witches' first prophecy came true, when he was promoted to thane of Cawdor. However, it was the other predictions that concerned him. He did not want to wait patiently to become king; instead, he immediately thought of the idea to murder the current king. Also, he was angry that his heir would not inherit the throne: "Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, and put a barren scepter in my grip" (Act 3, Scene 1). The witches said that Banquo's heir would be kings, but by the end of Macbeth, it seems that Malcolm was to be king. Out of all the witches' predictions, this is the only one that does not come true by the end of the play. Perhaps they just said this to Macbeth to drive him insane and urge him to murder more people and continue on his path of becoming a tyrant.
It was also the witches and their prophecies that eventually led to Macbeth's death. He became arrogant and fearless because he thought that there was no way he could die, unless the Birnam Woods marched to Dunsinane Hill. He also believed that no one could kill him, since the witches told him that no man born of woman could harm him, so he just assumed that no one could harm him. This arrogance is what made him decide to just stay in his castle and and wait no matter what his servants were telling him, until Macduff entered the room and beheaded him.
If Macbeth had not been told these riddles, he might have had some sense to escape as the oncoming army began to approach his castle. I think there was definitely sufficient time for him to have made his escape. However, Macbeth's response to Lady Macbeth's death and his speech about life gave me the feeling that he wouldn't have ran anyway. But at least he maybe wouldn't have be that arrogant and embarrassed himself when Macduff said that he was actually born of cesarean section.
At the beginning of the play, I saw Macbeth as a powerful, successful soldier, and I also recognized that he had a conscience. He was extremely hesitant about the idea of murdering King Duncan, and also consistently focused on the good sides of Duncan's kingship. He was very loyal to Duncan, and also admired him greatly. He was not the type of person who would ruthlessly murder someone just for his own benefit. However, the fact that he even came up with this idea means he does have an ambitious motivation within him. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, had absolutely no doubt that killing Duncan was the way to go upon seeing her husband's letter. Her only worry was to make sure that Macbeth would cooperate, because he was "too full o' th' milk of human kindness". She then continued to use her husband's hesitation to manipulate him, accusing him of being a coward and unmanly. She said that he needed to remain true to his resolve, and brought up a disturbing example of how she would smash out her own baby's brains if she'd resolved to do so. Macbeth had nearly resolved to not kill a king he admired as much as Duncan, but eventually succumbed to his wife's manipulation and went ahead with the murder.
I noticed that Lady Macbeth herself mentioned that she would have had trouble murdering Duncan herself because he resembled her father, so she forced Macbeth to do it. Although Macbeth admired Duncan so much, he still managed to get himself to commit the murder. After this major turning point in Macbeth's life, he started losing it and becoming more or less insane. He then went on to order the murder of Banquo, Fleance, and Macduff's entire family and servants, among these being his friends, innocent children, and also completely unrelated people like the servants. At this point, not even Lady Macbeth, who'd appeared to be much crueler at the beginning of the play, had planned to have so many people murdered. In general, Lady Macbeth gave me the impression of being more practical, with limited vulnerable moments, while Macbeth seemed to have more human qualities. He started showing signs of insanity far before Lady Macbeth, and he would start to hallucinate when he was fully conscious. Lady Macbeth's abnormal behavior, however, began later, and only happened when she was sleeping, unconscious and unable to control herself. During the day, she composed herself well. I think Macbeth's impulsiveness and lack of practical thinking caused him to make many wrong decisions, although his initial instinct of loyalty towards Duncan also showed a human impulse to be good. Lady Macbeth was too practical and didn't consider other people's feelings at all because she was the type of person who tried to put down her own feelings and was proud of that, thinking of herself as "manly".
One setting in the play that made me uneasy was the scene where Macbeth was told that Lady Macbeth had committed suicide, and he then started talking to himself. At first, I was kind of surprised that he didn't seem to really care about Lady Macbeth's death, acting like it was going to happen sooner or later anyways, because I thought that they had a pretty tight relationship. However, he goes on to put down the meaning of life with an extremely depressing pessimism, and I kind of got the idea that he was very much so done with chasing his ambitions, being king, and living at all. I think he had probably realized at this point that being king was far worse than his original position, whether it was because of his own guilt or some sort of ill fortune. But I think he knew he had gone far past the point of no return. He'd had innocent children murdered, and his own armies were turning against him. Only Lady Macbeth was still on the same page as him, and knew what was really going on. But he was suddenly left to handle all the guilt that had built up over his streak of crimes all alone, and I think this is the point where Macbeth truly became insane. In the past, he'd hallucinated before and after his murders and seemed actually mentally troubled. Although he didn't seem to be having mental disorders this time, I feel like part of him just collapsed after Lady Macbeth committed suicide. He'd once felt like he would go insane having to live his life with the guilt that had accumulated within him, but at least he was planning to live. But by this point of the play, he doesn't see any purpose or meaning in life: "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 fury, signifying nothing" (Act 5, Scene 5). It's like he was tired of living, even though he wasn't old yet. He repeatedly stated that he would not commit suicide, and I'm not sure if that's because of a sense of dignity or pride, but I think that even if he didn't want to die, he didn't want to live anymore. He also made his own crimes seem less important, because he described life as a play. Nothing really mattered, in a way, so his crimes too, signified nothing. It made me uneasy because I kind of felt sorry for Macbeth at this point, because at the beginning of the play, we know that this isn't how he started out, that he did have decency in him.
I think I would have made it more clear what happened to Fleance, because according to the witches, he's supposed to become a king or something. Or at least, I would have hoped to know what happened to him. Maybe Shakespeare just wanted it be stressful to Macbeth that Fleance survived the assassination, because then it seemed like the witches' predictions about Banquo's heirs were really going to become true and that there was nothing that Macbeth could do to stop it. But either way, I kind of felt like Shakespeare actually forgot about Fleance and the prophecy about him. At the end, it is clearly Malcolm who is going to become king and so it seemed like there was one prophecy that did not come true. Then maybe Shakespeare was trying to show us that the witches were evil and they fool people. They fooled Macbeth into believing that Banquo's heirs would become kings to make him want to kill Fleance, which would start his killing streak.
But I still felt like Shakespeare forgot his existence.
