Lindsey Turner
Mrs. Dean
Macbeth Paper
17 January 2017 Method to the Madness
The weighing between good and evil, right and wrong, as well as the inevitability of fate, are all factors that come in mind when thinking of the famous Shakespearean play, Macbeth. Being named in the top ten list of Literature’s Most Dangerous Couples, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth currently hold the sixth spot, particularly for their deviance of power. Similarly, in the second spot, lays the dynamic duo of DC Comics, Harley Quinn and The Joker. A comparison between these two couples lies a common ground, a method to the madness. Nonetheless, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, as well as Harley Quinn and The Joker, all set
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Throughout the beginning of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the ruthless and and encouraging one, feminizing Macbeth to the point to where he was questioning his manhood. Eventually, Lady Macbeth’s characteristics became transparent to her husband’s, and she slowly began to transition from rugged to remorseful. They caused their own downfall, making their fate inevitable. As far as Harley Quinn, although many people see her as ditsy, she is incredibly smart and mischievous. She kills people with a smile on her face and was made crazy by her boyfriend, The Joker. In this case, The Joker relates more to Lady Macbeth as far as making their spouses/lovers crazy, but in the long run, Lady Macbeth and Harley mirror each other because of their manipulative and exaggerated mechanisms to get what they want. Macbeth and The Joker are both men who would not have gotten as far as they did thanks to their women. Overall, both couples are not strong enough people to be alone, due to their insecurities and madness. However, they are all so messed up psychologically, it clearly has caused destruction in all of their lives in many …show more content…
“Is this a dagger in which I see before me? The handle towards my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Are thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation proceeding but from the heat-oppressed brain?” (Macbeth Act Two lines 33-39). At this point in the play, Macbeth sees a floating dagger, ironically pointing towards Duncan’s bedroom. He does not feel remorse or guilt yet, but possibly this part of Act Two could signify all of the other ghostly hallucinations that Macbeth will come into contact with after accomplishing his task of killing Duncan (such as Banquo’s ghost, and the three ghostly apparitions)? However, in Suicide Squad, while Harley is being held in prison, she’s hallucinating and pretending she’s dancing and talking to The Joker while she’s conversing with a prison guard. Although she is extremely intelligent, she has an atmosphere among her that is almost as if she’s living in a hallucination. Perhaps this signifies that although she is smart, she is not happy, and therefore she is trying to live in a fairytale to suppress her true
The legendary plot of Macbeth, like those of many Shakespearean plays, relies heavily on the influence of the supernatural. The play itself reflects on the dark inane tendencies of humans to be evil, especially when faced with a thirst for power. Throughout its course, the reader is able to witness a man’s transformation from a brave soldier to a murdering madman. Without the impact of certain apparitions, hallucinations, and three bearded witches, the events of the story would not have unfolded as they did. The root evil is first planted in the minds of two ambitious people, creating in their minds a projection of how things will turn out. Unbeknownst to our two leading lunatics, the eventual outcome of the play will not be the scenario drawn up in their twisted minds.
Macbeth’s disorder first unfolds when he and his wife, Lady Macbeth, are planning to murder their close comrade King Duncan. In the early scenes of the play, Macbeth questions his state of mind, and his stress and anxiety causes him to imagine things, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand” (2.1.33). In preparation for the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth envisions a bloody dagger hovering there in front of him, that will lead him in the evil ways (execution). Macbeth is trying to cover up his hallucinations, “A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” (2.1.38-39).
During the play, Lady Macbeth starts off as the “cheerleader chick” for Macbeth, egging him on, and supporting him through their twisted ambitions and conflicts. “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it”(1.5.5-8) Macbeth has ambitions and dreams, and with the help of the witches (The Supernatural), ideas start to form. In conjunction with Lady Macbeth’s idea’s for her husband’s eminence, create a deadly psychotic force that causes the initial (and most of the other) murders. This quote from the second half of Act 1, shows how Lady Macbeth is more than insane enough for the both of them, as Macbeth can’t muster up the will, and stomach, to do what they both plan to do,
In ACT II hallucinations are used an experience in which involves an apparent perception. When visions of the dagger are presented in front of Macbeth “Is this the dagger which I see before me” ACT II SCENE ii it reminds Macbeth of the murder of Duncan. The dagger in which is presented in front of Macbeth is to his vision covered with blood as it points to the kings chamber,
Macbeth by William Shakespeare has three characters that appear to be the best developed. The first is Macbeth, the main character of the story. The second most developed character is Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s wife. The third most well developed is Banquo, Macbeth’s friend. Banquo and Lady Macbeth play very important roles in Macbeth’s life.
Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. As she is Macbeth’s wife, her role is significant in his rise and fall from royalty. She is Macbeth’s other half. During Shakespearean times, women were regarded as weak insignificant beings that were there to give birth and look beautiful. They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the highest influence in Macbeth’s life. Her role was so large; in fact, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support her unstable Lord, and fails miserably while their relationship falls apart. Everything about Lady Macbeth is enough to create the perfect villain because of her ability to manipulate everyone around her. It appears that even she can’t resist the perfect crime.
This demonstrates Macbeth's obsession because it indicates that Macbeth values his power over his friends. His obsession with power causes Macbeth to feel guilty and lose his sanity. Macbeth's guilt and loss of sanity is indicated in the hallucinations he experiences. His first hallucination occurred just before killing King Duncan. Macbeth sees "A dagger of the mind, a false creation" (Act II, Scene I, line 38).
A butcher is someone who brutally slaughters other human-beings. According to this definition Macbeth was a ’butcher’ by the end of the play. Macbeth becoming a butcher was brought about by his ambition for power, and how this ambition was used by the witches.
William Shakespeare's play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, was based on the life of Macbeth. However, Shakespeare made up or changed many things in his play to make the idea of Macbeth more interesting. Many of Shakespeare's characters, settings, and events differ from the facts of Macbeth in history.
Within the pages of the play Macbeth, one can find the five distinct literary devices of symbolism, allusion, alliteration, personification, and repetition used throughout. These three devices aid the story along and help develop the plot and characters each in a different way.
The relation of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth takes a few turns throughout the play. It starts with Lady Macbeth being in control and dominating Macbeth. Then suddenly Macbeth turns into an unhesitant man, who gets accustomed to killing and getting his own way. The dire changes in the characters affect the couple’s relation extremely.
In the play Macbeth we see many common themes that do emerge. One of which is the theme of ambition which will at the end eventually lead to the death of the main character. We see this in the eventual death of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In this essay I hope to show the dominant theme of ambition and how it leads to the downfall of the main characters in the play.
In Act 2 Scene 1, Macbeth is alone in his castle before he kills Duncan. While he is by himself he has a hallucination of a bloody dagger. Macbeth sees the dagger and tries to grab it but there is nothing. He believes that this hallucination is a sign of the murder he is about to commit.
In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is overly whelmed by the letter she receives about Macbeth. This pushes her to the extreme and causes her to react outrageously. " Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here…make thick my blood…take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers…come thick night." (I;v;40-50) All these images of darkness and horror reveal the true character of Lady Macbeth; she feels the need to become wicked. Her attitude is even more horrific when she calls on evil spirits to come and possess her, taking control of her actions. This sort of behavior causes the audience and reader to assume Lady Macbeth is a psychopath, and therefore would have reason to hold her responsible for having a major impact on her husband and driving him off, enlightening a twisted sinister and threatening dark side of him.