Note: Sorry this is slightly late, I thought that I had sent it, but it showed up later as only a draft.
1. The book opens upon witches talking about Macbeth. They meet Macbeth, and they tell him that he will be king of Scotland, and the Thane of Cawdor, and they tell his friend Banquo that he will father a long line of kings. we learn that Macbeth has done well in battle, and for this, King Duncan made Macbeth the Thane of Cawdor. After a while of being Thane, Lady Macbeth gets Macbeth to kill King Duncan, and she blames it on the king’s servants.
The prince Malcolm hears about this, and flees to Ireland. Macbeth is worried that Banquo knows the truth, so he tries to get him and his son, Fleance murdered, but Banquo is the only one murdered, and his son escapes. Macbeth starts a downward spiral into madness, as he is haunted by his friend, and a new prophesy that says that he will not die until Birnam Wood comes to his home, and that he can only be killed by a man who is not born naturally, and that he should watch out for Macduff. Macbeth killed more people, and his wife committed suicide. Macduff and Malcolm build an army, and using Birnam Wood branches to hide themselves, besiege Macbeth’s castle. Macduff who was born through c-section kills Macbeth, and Malcolm kings Macduff.
2. The theme of the play is that power corrupts. Macbeth got a little power, and wanted more and more, driving him mad, and Macduff gains power in a similar way to Macbeth, starting another cycle of this, which will presumably be stopped by Fleance, who will come back and be the first in a long line of kings, in accordance to the witches’ prophecy to Banquo.
3. Sinister, and looking to a dark future. The two examples of prophecy in the story point to the looking to a dark future, as the witches make it dark by conotation, and the constant death and insanity throughout the novel make it sinister, like when Macbeth kills King Duncan.
4. Iambic pentameter is used throughout the work, as it is a Shakespeare play. Foreshadowing is used in the witch prophecies, especially the second, as it is said in such a nebulous manner. Soliloquies are scattered throughout the play, such as the “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy. Symbolism is used, as macbeth is used to symbolize the corrupt leaders of history. Synecdoche is used when the witches refer to the branches of the trees as the whole forest. Metaphor is used in this line Macbeth delivers: “O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife.” Irony is used, in that Macbeth is trying to gain power to be happy, but ends up going crazy and ruining his life in the process. Foil is used, as Banquo foils Macbeth in some scenes, and in others, the opposite happens. The text is full of allusions, especially to Italic mythology. Personification is used by Macbeth when he claims that his knife was screaming.
CHARACTERIZATION
1. Macbeth is directly characterized by his actions when he is with the witches for the first time, but also characterized indirectly when we see that he has been promoted to Thane before we actually meat him. Banquo is characterized directly when he is with the witches and Macbeth, as we can see his actions. King Duncan is indirectly characterized when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth talk about him.
2. When characters talk about others who they like, positive words are used, and when they talk about people they dislike, negative words are used, but since the story is told through dialogue, there are no passages of the narrator giving an opinion on characters.
3. The “protagonist” is dynamic, as he gets crazier and crazier throughout the book, going from a sane warrior, to a man mad with power. He is also a round character, as there is more to him than just gaining power, otherwise Lady Macbeth would not have had to force him to kill King Duncan.
4. Yes, I feel like I had met Macbeth, but I think it was because I had watched the play too. I feel that he was a human, as he initially showed some resistance to wanting to kill the king.
No comments:
Post a Comment