Promoting Family Values in Macbeth
The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, was first printed in 1623, and is a play that is confrontational and disturbing to the values of the audience. Values such as truth, masculinity, security and goodness are all implied in the play, as their opposites are shown to be destructive and life shattering.
Of all of Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth is the one most obsessively concerned with evil. It is dark, brooding and bloodthirsty; by way of illustration, the only function of the messenger to Lady MacDuff is to prepare the audience for bloodshed. Blood in itself is considered an evil image and it aids in character development, as seen in the description of Macbeth at the start. According to Duncan, gutting someone like a fish is worthy of praise such as “Oh valiant cousin, Oh worthy Gentleman!” To the people of the age, being able to kill someone with such skill is a good thing… of course, it does mean that Macbeth has the potential to snap. The evil imagery in the play also helps with the rising tension – the old man’s description of the horses devouring each other is a prime example of this.
Macbeth himself is essentially evil as well; when he knows he is going to die, instead of taking the honorable way out by committing suicide he decides to take as many people with him as he can. It is somewhat ironic therefore that “Macbeth” means “son of life”.
The evil that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth create within themselves means that the audience is made to experience the psychological emptiness involved in committing a murder. Evil is inevitably destructive, but it is also self-destructive. By murdering Duncan, Macbeth is destroying himself; his “single state of man” is shaken by his...
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forbidden, he decides to go over and talk to her. While they were talking, we
This marked the beginning of the Palestine armed conflict, one of its kinds to be witnessed in centuries since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and World War 1. Characterized by a chronology of endless confrontations, this conflict has since affected not only the Middle East relations, but also the gl...
The Israeli-Palestine conflict is an event that has been well documented throughout the course of Middle-Eastern history. The conflict dates back as far as the nineteenth century where Palestine and Zionist, will later be known as Israel, are two communities each with different ideologies had the same overwhelming desire to acquire land. However, what makes this clash what it is, is the fact that both of these up and coming communities are after the same piece of land. The lengths that both sides went to in order obtain they believed was theirs has shaped the current relationship between the two nations today.
Bradley, A.C.. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.
Conflict: The group’s main problem is that they are being held ransom and they don’t know whether they’ll ever be rescued. The group is concerned that their parents won’t be able to get the whole amount of money so they are faced with the fact of having to runaway in order to escape their kidnappers.
Many people view drug testing in schools as a good aspect of our school systems. Schools require random drug testing for students in sports. These rates show that random drug testing lower illegal substance use. A pro for random drug testing, can be that it helps regulate the use of drugs in our teenagers. If a teenager happens to test positive, the school and parents can take immediate action to stop the problem before it progresses. They can refer the student to a counselor or if needed to a rehab center. If students know they can be randomly tested, they can see this as a sign to get help. Drug testing can make schools safer and also lower the rates of drug use in schools.
Macbeth is swaying between the forces of good and evil. He wants to stop killing but he also wants to become king and in his mind the only way to do that is to kill whoever is in his path, saying “I am in blood/ Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o'er.” (3.4.168-170). Macbeth is already deep into this situation and if he were to turn back now, it would cause him greater hardship than relief. Macbeth has been dealing with this inner conflict ever since he was told by the weird sisters that he is fated to become king. This conflict ties everything together, between fate versus free will and sane or insane. Macbeth started the play as being a glorified war hero, however as time moved on he transformed into a bloodthirsty tyrant. Macbeth has gone through so much that he has shifted into a guilty man haunted by nightmares and hallucinations but will not stop until he gets what he came for. Macbeth has gone so far into the void of guilt that his name has now fell into infamy, as shown by quote by Young Siward saying “The devil himself could not pronounce a title/ More hateful to mine ear.” (5.7.10-11). Macbeth had already grown a name for himself while he kept his innocence, however with all the killings macbeth has made, he has done nothing but shame his name. Macbeth name to others is more hateful and there is nothing that Siward would rather do than to end Macbeth’s life, thus ending all the guilt and evil inside
In today’s society, everybody is encountered with drugs at least once. The reason for this is due to family, friends, or references in the media. Teenagers are often influenced by their peers to do drugs, and they need to be tested at their schools to prevent adolescents from partaking in this activity because the number of their peers will diminish. However, there are people who believe that testing students is against their constitutional rights. On the other hand, there are those who believe that it needs to be done to protect adolescents from using illegal drugs. Drug testing needs to take place in schools to protect all students from the physical and emotional toll on the body.
“Palestinians do not control their own fate but instead live under the power of other states” (82, Yambert). The one state that directly controls the fate of Palestinians in the occupied territories is Israel and for the Palestinians who do not reside in Israel, other governments control them. The history of Palestine and how Israel came into existence is essential to understand in order to break down the present day conflict. The most dominant and important player in the Palestinian – Israeli conflict has been the United States of America, which has completely shaped the predicament in order to fulfill its interests. Before delving into the role of the United States, it is essential to go back in time and familiarize with the history of Palestine and Israel.
Bradley, A.C.. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.
Kamrava, Mehran. "The Arab-Israeli Wars." The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War. 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 2010. 109-39. Print.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, first published in 1606, is an endearing tale outlining the dangers of unchecked ambition and moral betrayal. In the subsequent centuries after first being performed, Macbeths critics have been divided upon whether Macbeth himself was irrevocably evil, or if he was guided by the manipulation and actions of the women in the play to his ultimate demise. Although Lady Macbeth and the witches were influential with their provocations in the opening acts, it is ultimately Macbeth’s inherent immorality and his vaulting ambition, that result in the tragic downfall. It was Macbeth’s desire for power that abolished his loyalty and trustworthiness and led him down a path of murder. It is evident through his actions and words
In Macbeth, Shakespeare confronts audiences with universal and powerful themes of ambition and evil along with its consequences. Shakespeare explores the powerful theme of the human mind’s decent into madness, audiences find this theme most confronting because of its universal relevance. His use of dramatic devices includes soliloquies, animal imagery, clear characterisation and dramatic language. Themes of ambition and mental instability are evident in Lady Macbeth’s reaction to Macbeth’s letter detailing the prophecies, Macbeth’s hallucinations of Banquo’s ghost and finally in the scene where Lady Macbeth is found sleep walking, tortured by her involvement.
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