Awake Duncan's 'An Excerpt From Macbeth'

Not surprisingly, Macbeth has received volumes of critical commentary over the years. Not only is the play an audience favorite, but its complex characterization, deeply woven themes, and characteristic Shakespearean style make it rich ground for scholarly inquiry. Critics such as Harold Bloom have remarked on the importance of Macbeth in the context of Shakespeare 's works. In Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Bloom writes, ' 'The rough magic in Macbeth is wholly Shakespeare 's; he indulges his own imagination as never before, seeking to find its moral limits (if any). ' ' Bloom also remarks, ' 'Macbeth is an uncanny unity of setting, plot, and characters, fused together beyond comparison with any other play of Shakespeare 's. '

Macbeth is the main character in this Play, he is at the beginning a guy who seems emotionless and cold. He wants to be king and to have the ultimate power, he wants his wife to be happy and proud of him.To achieve all his goals he tries everything to become a friend of the king, duncan, and is really nice to him even thought he just has the ultimate power in his mind. After a while Macbeth is getting tired of always being nice and faking everything so his wife is trying to persuade him to keep doing everything to be king. Macbeth is getting help from three witches who set them all the thoughts about being king in his mind, with his wife many people want to convince him to kill duncan, so Macbeth is under a lot of pressure. At the end of the play when macbeth killed duncan and reached his goal to be king,he is really confident and full of himself what makes him think he can get anything and win everything, but when he fights against Mcduff his head got cut off and he dies.

“Macbeth” and “Macbeth retold” by Mark Brozel, share many comparisons yet have many vital differences.

“Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.” – Buddha. Buddha was a wise man and knew that someone who is ambitious can get very impatient when it comes to delaying their plan and having rivals that share the same goals. Ambition is often the result of one good thing happening which leads to one pursuing their dreams more and more. Although ambition can be a good thing, it can also be bad. Twisting people 's judgment on reality and making them perform actions they wouldn 't normally do. Such is the case in Macbeth where ambition causes Macbeth to go through with a murderous plot to become king that involves his wife plotting the murder and going insane. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare expresses the theme of ambition by

Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’ is about the leading male protagonist succumbing to his ambition and need for power. Though Macbeth is liable for his own actions, he is not solely responsible for the events that eventually result in his downfall. Macbeth is corrupted by his wife, Lady Macbeth, as well as the three weird sisters. Macbeth’s contribution towards his downfall is his strong ambitious nature. Lady Macbeth is the person who induces Macbeth to assassinate King Duncan. The three weird sisters (witches) play with Macbeth’s ambitious nature and sense of security. Macbeth’s downfall is due to himself and two external factors.

seen nor heard speak and she tells them to fill her to the brim with

One would question the credibility of the enigmatic apparitions within Macbeth's renowned Act IV, Scene i. Shakespeare gains the audience's acceptance of the three mystically summoned apparitions through methodically foreshadowing a supernatural event is about to occur. Each stance of Shakespeare's foreshadowing -- cauldron potions, Hecate, the second witch's awareness of MacBeth, and stage direction -- contributes to the believability of the apparitions' appearance in the play.

In life, there are two types of people: those who do the right thing and those who don’t. In the play Macbeth, by Shakespeare, the main character Macbeth is given a prophecy by three witches that says he will become king; however, there is no descending line of kings of his own blood. With the knowledge of the Witches’ prophecy, Macbeth’s ambition, and manipulation from his wife, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth is quickly dragged into a never-ending, bloody murder rampage to obtain the crown and get rid of those who stand in the way of obtaining it as well. Macbeth constantly battles with his moral dilemmas; however, he easily falls victim to influences that go against his morals. Influences on major characters emphasize how easily one’s decision making can be negatively affected, resulting in one going against his or her morals/integrity.

Tori and I were assigned Act 3 Scene 5 for interpretation and performance which resulted in some difficulties. The scene is between the three witches and Hecate. I was assigned Hecate, the Goddess of Sorcery. We had trouble trying to find a way to portray the scene because Hecate was a new character and she had most of the dialogue. Furthermore, the scene’s set is a heath so there weren't many props that could be used. We wanted to display there is question as to whether or not Shakespeare even wrote this scene. The performance was also hindered by the absence of Tori and it didn’t go as well as I had hoped. The purpose of the scene which we tried to portray was that it was a continuation of the theme of prophecy versus

The raven is a symbol of ill omen whose voice is hoarse from “croak[ing]”(1.5.46) King Duncan must die. Shakespeare is taking the concept of murder and juxtaposes it with the natural imagery of a raven to unveil Lady Macbeth’s thoughts of murder.

Laurence Sterne once wrote, “No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.” This passage embodies one of the over arching themes of Macbeth. The character Macbeth, in Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, could easily identify with this passage due to the fact that he is pulled in opposite directions by both his desire to do what is right and his desire for power.

It is human nature to be intrigued by all things mystical and dangerous. We fear the unknown but seek it nonetheless out of greed. Most of Shakespeare’s works hold an element of the supernatural and the play Macbeth is no exception. In this play we see a contemporary morality that warns of the dangers of trafficking with instruments of darkness; the witches in the play prophesize of Macbeths future as king, and Macbeth blinded by his hunger for power fails to recognize that the witches prophecies are luring him to evil . In act 1 scène 3 we see the effect that the excitement of the prophecies has had on his imagination as he begins to contemplate murdering the king. As Macbeth gets closer to

Evilness itself is a betrayal of the habitual human nature of any person. The natural tendency of a person is morality; however, that inclination can be corrupted and influenced into twisted malevolence. A common image in the play representing this evil is the serpent, shown to be a conniving, wicked tempter. This symbol takes many forms throughout the story, beginning as a comparison of the ideal character Macbeth should strive to be and finishing as yet another threat to Macbeth’s quest for glory. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have to defy their own human nature to accomplish their desires, namely murdering King Duncan. This action forever changes their mentalities and morals by its test to the strength of their ethics and the loyalty of the relationships to which they belong.

As a virgin to The Shakespeare Theatre, I was pleasantly surprised when my recent encounter with Macbeth was a stimulating and enjoyable excursion. The two and a half hours I had predicted to be less than enchanting were filled with symbolism, and an overall attitude towards the Shakespeare classic that I had never contemplated before.

Through the many different dynamics that have happened throughout both of these films “Macbeth” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” both of them have had very different type of dynamics with different characters. When I watched “Macbeth” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” I found one relationship for each of the films. Most dynamics are provoked by the antagonist’s reactions but they aren’t really shown. I will be comparing the dynamics in both of the relationships of the two different films as well as the dramatic means by which they are being established by. Throughout the two films there will be differences in both but there will also be similarities for the dramatic means which are being stated. As for the dramatic means that they are being established by, is the way they show how their disagreement and which is the reason that caused it to happen. Therefor the rest of relationships that are happening do happen to have an impact to the two relationships that I will be talking about. This being the case, the two relationships I wanted to talk about was Macbeth and Lady Macbeth from the film “Macbeth” and from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” I will be talking about Lysander and Helena.