MacBeth Lecture notes

I'm just a we bit spot on!

Out of all the tragedies Shakespeare has written, MacBeth turns out to be the closest in relationship to himself. Even though its just about the simple rise and fall of a man. What makes MacBeth different from his other tragedies is there are no humorous moments, or self reflection that take place in his the other 2 tragedies Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet. Actually, there maybe one dark humorous moment and that occurs in the scene of Porter, a bit argument-able in MacBeth, but that's about it. 

Before i get ahead of myself, what is a tragedy? A tragedy is where the main character(s) have a flaw that ultimately brings them to their own down fall. A tragedy will also reinforce values from the time period in which the book was written from. With that insight then the break down of MacBeth comes easily.

We see that in MacBeth with the advancement in isolation comes a decline in moral and mental health. However, it is resulted from MacBeth's own decisions. That bring him to his own demise. It is that unwise decision making though that draws in the audience. 

Why does MacBeth kill duncan? 

You could say Ambition, but thats to simple. MacBeth kills Ducan because of the witches prophecy. The witches prophecy however only told Hamlet what he already long desired. We assume Hamlet already had a desire to become king, because he does not question the witches like Banquo did. He accepts it and allows it to influence his decisions to come, like killing King Ducan. Which in case you didn't know violates everything his community believes in. 

Ambition and Immorality Create the tension in MacBeth. So here comes the MacBeth and Hamlet comparison.  In Macbeth, like in Hamlet MacBeth struggles to act upon his thinking. 

As for Lady MacBeth she has no conscious to rule over her. She's just a tool of destruction or in other words a self righteous hoe. Ultimately she ends up killing her self due to the lack of inner will and an over whelmed feeling of guilt for killing king Duncan, which reminded her of her dad.

Macbeth as a king..? Once Macbeth became king it was the classic slipper slope, downfall, demise, what ever you want to call it.

Macbeth

-Play begins with thunder and lightning and three witches.
-three witches are used to help with foreshadows and situational irony.
- Anon: Vamanos.
- No flexibility in iambic pantameter
- Characters: Machbeth, lady Macbeth, Duncan, Malcom, Sergeant, Lennox, Ross, 3 witches, Banquo, Macduff, Lady Macduff, Hecate, Fleance, Porter, Donalbain
- First insight on Macbeth is indirect characterization, we see that Macbeth is a gory blood lust warrior.
- Witches going to give Macbeth a message.
- Golgotha: A biblical name for where Jesus was crucified, used as an allusion in the play.
- Theres a role of masculine. Lady Macbeth affects Macbeths masculine, witches foreshadow this by calling her a sailor with nut in between her legs.
- At this point we do not know the intent of the witches.
- Banquo makes fun of Macbeth and calls him a women, which influences the audiences view on the role of which Macbeth will play.
- Macbeth is visited by the witches, they say he will become thane of crawdor and soon after a king. Banquo is like well what about me whats in my future, and the witches reply your future sons will be king.
- shortly after being visited by the witches Macbeth found out that the thane of crawdor is suppose to be executed due to treason committed against the throne by helping out the rebels and Macbeth starts to believe the witches prophesies.
- Macbeth then sends a letter to his wife explaining to her what happened and the witches.
- She decides that she will help convince Macbeth to kill Duncan.
- She comes up with a plan. To get the Servants drunk and then have Macbeth kill the king and blame the servants.
- Macbeth is virtually crazy, we see that he keeps hallucination a lot
- He almost chickens out, wife convinces him to try it and
- Hes successful with the killing of king Ducan.
- Ducans sons run away, one to england the other to scottland. People think they murder the king.
- Macbeth becomes paranoid of the witches prphecies telling Banquo his children will be king, so he orders the death of banquo and his son, banquos son surivies the attack.

MacBeth notes

- sought to please King James I (use to be King James the IV but then Queen Elizabeth died and became the I)
- not the usual Shakespeare play, intense and complex though.
-Shakespeare's chief source for Macbeth was Holinshed's Chronicles
- addresses a political agenda of King James I
- Background is important, go figure.
- King James was into witch craft and thought it was real. Wrote a book about demonology, which is why the book is weird)
- murderers everywhere
- Theme  - "what is a man"
- Lady Macbeth, apparently is crazy
- Who's the Third Murderer?
- MacBeth a homicidal crazy person?

Top Blogs

Katie Enstad: kerhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com

Trevor Hudgins: tjhrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com


Kelly Brickey: kabrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com


These are the top 3 blogs I picked as the best out of my peers. They are always up-to-date and if I want great insightful feed back on a subject I go to these blogs and it allows me to easily compare them with one another so I can decide what is creditable and what is not.