Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill and Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Throughout the history of literature, classic tales have been adapted and rewritten by various authors. While this practice is more conspicuously noted in popular culture, it has existed for centuries. For instance, while Gil Junger’s 1999 romantic-comedy 10 Things I Hate About You is obviously a retelling of William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare’s own Romeo and Juliet is an adaptation of Ovid’s “Pyramus and Thisbe” from Metamorphoses. As a result, retellings are only a natural occurrence in literature and can oftentimes convey the basic story in new and exciting ways. On the other hand, retellings can also miss the mark, failing to produce a story that can triumphantly stand on its own as a work of art. For example, Robin Talley’s As I Descended is a modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, being adapted to fall within the genre of young adult literature. When evaluating As I Descended as a retelling, the characters and basic plot of Macbeth can be identified, but an added underlying story that introduces unnecessary plot points both causes frustration and overcomplicates the novel.

      Lady Macbeth has seen Macbeth's weakness, his lack of manliness.  She is too afraid to commit the murder of Duncan, and must assure Macbeth that it is his duty.  She accomplished this goal by making fun of him and arousing his jealousy instincts.

In the beginning Lady Macbeth had a strong stance on killing Duncan and went far enough to even mastermind their murderous plan. She is witty and reluctant as to why Macbeth is afraid to achieve their ambitions; Enough to insult his manhood, “What beast was ’t, then, That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man” (1.7.47-49). This then urges Macbeth to show his wife he is stronger than she says. Although Lady Macbeth seems evil, praying to the spirits to “ unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty” (1.5.31-33). She is in fact not. She’s dreaded with guilt, which in then shows her humane side. After all, Lady Macbeth couldn’t find the right in the murder of Duncan. While sleep talking she exclaims, “What, will these hands ne'er be clean?—No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that” (5.1.31-32). She is losing sleep from the guilt and is unable to believe the righteousness of the

     Before the murder Lady Macbeth did nothing but bash Macbeth. She emasculated him a lot. She accuses him of lacking manhood. The good Lady tells Macbeth that she thought he was a man when he was talking about the idea of killing Duncan, but now she thinks he is less than a man because Macbeth doesn't want to go through with the murder,

The witches manipulate Macbeth into becoming a murdering, power-hungry evil being, by telling him, “someday you’ll be king.” “I'll drain him dry as hay. Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid. He shall live a man forbid. Weary sev'n nights, nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.” (I,i) The witches use the two other prophecies to get in the mind of Macbeth. They say that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor, and Banquo will be the father of future generations of kings. Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.They give Macbeth a false sense of security with the visions they perceive. These influential women are the ones that instill the idea of murdering the king. Macbeth lets greed get the best of him. The witches sway Macbeth into killing Duncan for the throne. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” (I,i) The Witches intend to turn Macbeth from his good ways, into something evil. As the only character that understands their cruelty, the witches want Macbeth dead. The witches give Macbeth the temptation to kill the king by telling him their prophecies. In the end,

This is shown many times throughout the play; she thinks she can do everything that is needed to be done with killing Duncan, because she is not a “coward” but when it comes to her making the attempt to do so she chickens out because she finds Duncan to resemble her father to much when he is sleeping. She tells Macbeth everything will be fine as long as he doesn’t show his fear. She does not understand that she has a much stronger conscience then she is aware of. The play reads, “Only look up clear; / To alter favour ever is to fear: / Leave all the rest to me.” (Act I, v, 79-81) This statement is very important because it shows that Lady Macbeth is very confident in herself. She is saying that Macbeth just needs to stand there and look pretty, and sell himself to everyone mean while she will plan out everything else, involving this horrid murder. Much later in the novel she starts to feel very guilty for the murder of Duncan, and eventually falls ill, ridden in guilt. Lady Macbeth has mentally wired herself to act as though nothing will get through to her, it is like she is an iron wall, she thinks nothing can get through, but in reality, the wall is nonexistent, and her conscience is very strong, it is just not present at the necessary times. As well as Lady Macbeth’s blindness to her conscience and guilt, she is blind to the consequences that come with doing

In lady Macbeth’s argument she holds a seductive and demanding tone. She believes in Macbeth’s ambition and wants him to kill the King once and for all. Lady Macbeth begins to attack Macbeth’s character and provokes him to kill King Duncan by saying, “What beast was ’t, then, That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man,” (Lady Macbeth,1.7,47-51) Through this quote it’s easy to see that Lady Macbeth is aware of Macbeth’s vulnerability so she attacks his manhood making him feel less of a man for going back on his word. In order to put her plans in action she uses a heavy pathos appeal in the following lines, “From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valor As thou art in desire… ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,” (Lady Macbeth,1.7,39-44) Through this quote Lady Macbeth makes Macbeth feel sympathetic and cowardice for not following his desires, she uses their love and how she will view him to lure him into the plan even more. While Macbeth may still be weary Lady Macbeth uses an ethos appeal by establishing her authority on the topic of killing King Duncan, “We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we’ll

In Act 1, Scene 7, Lines 56-57, "When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man", Lady Macbeth orchestrates Macbeth’s self-esteem by taunting his manliness when Macbeth doesn’t plan on following through with her plan. Moments later, she tells him how he should act and what he needs to do, in Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 71-75, “When Duncan is asleep...look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.” She successfully augments Macbeth’s ambition and exhorts him to commit atrocities. After Duncan’s murder, Macbeth no longer values Lady Macbeth’s opinions- his actions are rash and selfish because they are made promptly. Interaction between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth falters since Macbeth is now swept up with erasing his tracks. The two perish as individuals- Macbeth is miserable with guilt caused by cold- blooded Lady Macbeth’s attribution of influence and plan. But instead of comforting her husband and talking him out of murdering more people, Lady Macbeth only gives one feeble attempt.

Lady Macbeth accused him of cowardice and dangled bright prospects of his future before his eyes so that Macbeth would kill the king (Foster). Macbeth really killed the King because he thought it would make him a powerful man. If he wouldn’t have killed King Duncan, I would have made him feel less of a man. Lady Macbeth had a nervous break down knowing she wasn’t going to kill anyone. She states “He could not miss ‘ em .Had he not resembled my father as he kept, I had don’t” (2.2). Lady Macbeth is just making up excuses because she know that she can kill anybody. She wanted somebody to do her work for her that’s why Macbeth stepped up as a man and did what he had to do. Macbeth showed that he was willing to do anything that came in this way for the throne. Lady Macbeth showed that she is no the true villain because she started acting crazy over the murder of King Duncan and she killed herself from the gilt of what she had

     Lady Macbeth progresses throughout the play from a seemingly savage and heartless creature to a very delicate and fragile woman. In the beginning of the play, she is very ambitious and hungry for power. She pushes Macbeth to kill Duncan in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecy. In Act I, Scene 6, she asks the gods to make her emotionally strong like a man in order to help her husband go through with the murder plot. She says, “Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty!” Also, she does everything in her power to convince Macbeth that he would be wrong not to kill Duncan. In Act I,

However once they accomplish the deed, the torment that the guilt brings is too much for Macbeth but he gets used to the evil of killing people meanwhile the opposite happens to Lady Macbeth who becomes paranoid about killing Duncan. Shakespeare presents the play in such a way that the audience sees how more and more their relationship changes dramatically as a result of how they each handle their emotions following the murder of King Duncan. Although Macbeth was weak at first, it was the strong Lady Macbeth who helped him through the first murder, but in sacrifice to controlling Macbeth and his conscience, she lost control of her own and consequently became insane and committed suicide. Lady Macbeth repeatedly convinced her husband by questioning his manhood “When you durst do it, then you were a man, / And, to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the man” (Shakespeare 1.7.54-56). She is a strong, powerful character in comparison to her easily influenced husband, until towards the end of the play where he seems to take on her role.

Lady Macbeth is very tricky and sly with her actions and tone of voice by insulting her husbands manliness. She says, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man” (i. vii. 56-58). If Lady Macbeth had not humiliated Macbeth’s courage as a man, than it is very likely that he wouldn’t have killed Duncan. Lady Macbeth provided that extra push that Macbeth needed to commit such an evil deed.

Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth about his confrontation with the paranormal trio and after finding his hesitance to kill King Duncan to gain the royal title, she ferociously attacks him with her words. Lady Macbeth manipulates her words by making Macbeth question his sense of manhood if he does not follow through. She does this by saying, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to me more than what you were you would be so much more than a man” (Act 1 Scene 7 Lines 56-58). Macbeth takes this to heart and places his sense of manhood above his morality to gain the respect of his wife. She also is in a position of power over him, proven by her condescending words of saying that if he did not follow through with the assassination, she would “dashed the brains out” of him (Line 65).

From the very start, Lady Macbeth believed that Macbeth wasn’t very masculine enough to murder king Duncan to achieve his goals. She believes that her husband is too kind to act heinously, “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,” (Shakespeare 1.7. 15-17) Nonetheless, Macbeth is determined to prove his wife wrong and show her that he is masculine enough to do the deed, and murder king Duncan, “ I sdre do all that may become a man; who dares do more is done” (Shakespeare 1.7.

Aptly described as "fiendlike" by Prince Malcolm, Lady Macbeth was a major participant in the ruin of Macbeth. She was a woman virtually devoid of human emotions and general scruples. Her lack of principles and mindless ambition made her a proponent of seizing the throne. She goaded her husband into the act of vile murder with the words, "Yet do I fear thy nature. / It is too full o' the milk of human kindness" (Shakespeare 189). Lady Macbeth later said, "When you durst do it [kill Duncan], then you were a man" (Shakespeare 189). Lady Macbeth called Macbeth weak and made light of his manhood in order to influence him towards the murder of Duncan. Without the influence of his wife, Macbeth may have lacked the single minded resolve to go through with the murder of good King Duncan. In addition to pushing Macbeth to commit the murders, Lady Macbeth acted as accomplice that made his succession to the throne possible. Lady Macbeth came up with the plan to frame two innocent guards for the murder of Duncan. "...his two chamberlains [the ones she planned to frame for the murder] / Will I with wine and wassail so