Macbeth Reading Logs #1
Theme: Order/Disorder
“The news of thy success; and when he reads / Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight,” (1.3.101-103) (pg 21)
This shows disorder because there are rebels fighting. Any orderly kingdom would not have these rebels and fights going on.
“And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you / Have done to this.” (1.7.66-67) (pg 43)
Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth on how to kill someone. However things are getting out of hand because she threatened to smash kill the baby by smashing it.
Images: Food
“Or have we eaten on the insane root” (1.3.94) (pg 21)
The insane root is a number of plants that were believed to cause insanity when eaten. Banquo and Macbeth both cannot believe what they have just seen and heard from the Three Witches.
“This even-handed justice / Commends the ingredience of our poisoned chalice / To our own lips.” (1.7.11-13) (pg 41)
Macbeth is talking about how he will kill the man. He decides that he can poison the chalice the man will drink from and he will die from a poison.
Macbeth Reading Logs #2
Theme: Order/Disorder
“The night has been unruly. Where we lay,/ Our Chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, / Lamentings heard i’ the air, strange screams of death,/ And prophesying, with accents terrible,/ Of dire combustion and confused events/ New hatched to the woeful time. the obscure bird/ Clamored the livelong night. Some say the earth/ was feverous and did shake.” (2.3.58-65)
Chaos caused Duncan’s death. The winds are like screaming death. The owl’s scream is a sign of death and causes confusion.
Images: Food, Feasting/Hospitality
“Chief nourisher in life’s feast.” (2.2.56) (pg 57) Macbeth
Macbeth is describing sleep as a wonderful thing. It gives you energy and nourishes you like food from a feast.
“Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes. It provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery. It makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.” (2.3.27-35) (pg 61)
Porter is saying, to Macduff, that drinking makes you sleep.
What I said was altogether false against my grandfather and Mr. Burroughs, which I did to save my life and to have my liberty; but the Lord, charging it to my conscience, made me in so much horror that I could not contain myself before I denied my confession…”(Godbeer 147).
passage was "..and you will know my name is the Lord, when I lay my vengeance
"O, that this too sailed flesh would meld/or that the everlasting had not fixed/his cannon against self-slaughter" (I.ii.129-132).
“I did not intend to pay, before the gods,/for breaking these laws/because of my fear of one man and his principles.”
When she learns Macbeth has been given a fortune of been given thane of cawdor then king and half the prophecy has become true, she knows if Macbeth is king she will be queen. She is willing to do anything to get it. On the night that Macbeth and lady macbeth have planned to kill Duncan. Macbeth is having second thoughts but Lady Macbeth is not letting him back down by saying he is a coward and she would do it if she was in his place by saying ”When you durst do it, then you are a man. And to be more than what you were you would be so much more than a man”. Macbeth is a hearty warrior and feels as though he has to prove to Lady Macbeth he is a man and he is not a coward. Therefore due to Lady Macbeths manipulation Macbeth murders Duncan. On Macbeths return Lady Macbeth is happy but Macbeth is Filled with regret Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to forget what happened “ A little water clears us of this deed”. Which is Ironique as At the end of the play Lady Macbeth has been in the anxiety and it has finally eaten away at her and she has gone mad and keeps seeing blood on her hands. “Out damned spot out, I say !” which in turn leads to her own suicide and portrays Lady Macbeth as taking her fate into her own hands in an evil manner, However the guilt from doing the evil task highlighted Lady Macbeth was not as manly as she wanted to be and she still had feelings, showing the audience by her suicide as an act showing she was unable to withstand the guilt of being queen knowing the great evil she had to do to get
“O proper stuff! This is another of your hallucinations you always get when afraid, go back to the quarters and get yourself together. I will entertain the guests. Go, before you ruin everything! GO! You fool,” Lady Macbeth sharply said to Macbeth.
of Macbeth with a banquet. It gives us an insight into his state of mind
...pse." In Current Issues in New Testament Interpretation, edited by W. Klaasen and G.F. Snyder, 23-37. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1962.
Arragel, Moses, A. Paz Y Meliá, Julián Paz, and Alba, Jacobo Stuart Fitz-James Y Falcó. Bible (Old Testament). Madrid: Priv. Print. for Presentation to the Members of the Roxburghe Club, 1918. Print.
that my ambition to act on the witches prophecies was to be our downfall. The
Lady Macbeth is a vicious and overly ambitious woman, her desire of having something over rules all the moral behaviors that one should follow. On the beginning of the novel, Macbeth receives the news that if Duncan, the current king, passed away he would be the next one to the throne. So, Lady Macbeth induces Macbeth into killing Duncan by filling his mind with ambition and planting cruel seeds into his head. After accomplishing his deed of killing the king, he brings out the daggers that were used during the murder, and says, “I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done; look on’t again I dare not.” This is his first crime and Macbeth is already filled with guilt and regret. He shows the reader to be the weak one of the duo. Lady Macbeth as the cruel partner still has some sentiment and somewhat a weakness in her heart and mind. When talking about Duncan she says, “Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t.” Weakness is still present and will always be there throughout the novel but this one change the fact that Lady Macbeth is still the stronger and cruel one.
This theme is further verified by King Duncan's statement "There's no art/ To find the mind's construction in the face..." (Act 1, Scene 4, Lines 11-12) Although Macbeth has the semblance of the amicable and dutiful host, ("fair") he is secretly plotting Duncan's death ("foul"). Furthermore, Lady Macbeth's orchestration of the murder exemplifies the twisted atmosphere in Inverness. Both a woman and a host, she should be the model of grace and femininity. She is described, however, as a "fiendlike queen" (Act 5, Scene 6, Line 69) and exhibits a cold, calculating mentality. In addition, the very porter of Inverness likens the place to the dwelling of the devil Beelzebub. This implies that despite its "pleasant seat," (Act 1, Scene 6, Line 1) Inverness is a sinister and evil place. It is also interesting to note that Macbeth is unable to say a prayer to bless himself after murdering Duncan. It is strange and "foul" that he should think of religion after committing such an unholy act. The very sanction of sleep and repose is also attacked in Macbeth. What is normally considered a refreshing and necessary human activity is "murdered" by Macbeth after he commits his heinous crime. Neither Macbeth nor his wife is able to sleep after killing Duncan. Macbeth's lack of sleep makes him a brutal killer; Lady Macbeth begins to sleepwalk and inadvertently reveals the source of her distress through her nightly babble.
- Brown, R. E., An Introduction to The New Testament (New York: Doubleday, 1997), p. 177
Macbeth's destiny and his lust for power, confirmed by the Three Witches and Lady Macbeth, leads to destruction. Every act that Macbeth commits effects the kingdom as a whole. Macbeth's indecisiveness and his understanding of success cause this destruction. This lust for power leads Macbeth, as it would all men, to an evil that exist in everyone. It is his destiny to fail.
...e contradictory characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This critical scene continued to effectively have an impact on the audience accordingly. This scene continues to depict how Macbeth has become corrupt, “Mortal murder,” earlier he did not even want to be associated with murder, but now he speaks of it with no shame. The play ends with Macbeth’s confusion, “It will have blood they say: blood will have blood / We are yet but young in deed.” The ambiguous reference raises dramatic tension as it shows uncertainty through the use of tragic inevitability and the cycle of murder and the apprehension that there is more to come. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth must face the consequences of their actions; this saga has not ended with them simply acquiring the throne, “fruitless crown,” causing them to lose sight of their ultimate goal.