Month: November 2016

In this act, the readers witness how a physician and a nurse find out about some dark stuff that they are not supposed to know about Lady Macbeth. Everyday Lady Macbeth goes to a box picks up a letter seal it and then she goes back to bed. The nurse was suspicious so she asked a physicist to watch, and then Lady Macbeth starts talking about death and blood and Banquo’s death, the nurse and the physicist were scared, so they decided to act if they have not seen nor heard anything.

LADY MACBETH

Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.

[…]

LADY MACBETH

The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that. You mar all with this starting.

[…]

LADY MACBETH

Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!

[…]

LADY MACBETH

Wash your hands. Put on your nightgown. Look not so pale.—I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on ’s grave.

[…]

LADY MACBETH

To bed, to bed. There’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come. Give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone.—To bed, to bed, to bed!

In this act we see how Macduff tries to persuade Malcom to be King of Scotland. However Malcom starts talking about how he would make a bad king and that he has got bad desires. Therefore if Malcom becomes king of Scotland, Scotland will suffer. Macduff then feels really disappointed since he has left his family in Scotland without goodbyes to see someone who deos not want to be a king. However Malcom then says that even though he has these bad desires, he never acted upon them. Therfore he might be a good king. Then the doctor comes and tells Malcom that a crowd of ill people are waiting for a person to heal them. Macduff then asks him who is that person and what does he mean. To the n find out that person is the king of England and that the king of England can cure you from evilness from just telling you. Ross then enters Macduff asks him about Scotland and he replies that everything is upside down and that Macduff’s family is OK. However he tells Macduff that his wife and child were killed by Macbeth. And then all three of them decide to go on war against Macbeth.

MALCOLM

     This tune goes manly.

Come, go we to the king. Our power is ready;

Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth

Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above

Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may.

The night is long that never finds the day.

 

Lady Macduff is worried about her husband’s sudden disappear to England. Lady Macduff does talk to Ross about but Ross leaves her vulnerable to risks. Lady Macduff does question Macduff’s love towards his family since he left the whole family vulnerable to risks knowing that Scotland is not a safe place any more. Lady Macduff then has a really lengthy conversation with her son about traitors and her husband given that she thinks that her husband is a traitor. This conversation ends with the killing of Lady Macduff and her son.

FIRST MURDERER

     (Stabbing him)     What, you egg?

Young fry of treachery!

SON

He has killed me, mother.

Run away, I pray you!

He dies. Exit LADY MACDUFF, crying “Murder!” followed by MURDERERS

MACBETH      She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Shakespeare in this quote is trying to communicate something really important about life. Shakespeare chooses the right time to deliver this message to his audiences. Macbeth’s wife just died, and Macbeth loves her so much. Just to give you an image of how much Macbeth loves his wife, Macbeth killed Duncan, a king of Scotland, because his wife told him to do it, and he did it even when she did shame him and questioned his masculinity.

This is why the soliloquy “She should have died hereafter” by Macbeth is really important. Shakespeare is not talking necessarily about Macbeth’s feelings now. Shakespeare in fact is trying to communicate a message about life. The first two lines are, “She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word.” life is too short for a person to cover everything they want to cover in their lives. Essentially Macbeth is saying that he does not have time for sadness. In a sense Macbeth is right because he, the king of Scotland, is in fight with his people and the English army. In other words, Macbeth is saying through Shakespeare’s words that he does not have the time to mourn about his wife’s death. Which does raise suspension, hence Shakespeare is saying that life is short and you cannot do everything you want to, however Macbeth is saying that he does not have time to be sad – If Macbeth dies he will regret not being sad -. And when Shakespeare says “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death.” In these verses, Shakespeare uses the first metaphors in this soliloquy. Macbeth says that every day we spend on our lives, death starts sneaking from day to day until the time has come and that time that was recorded for you is over. Shakespeare might also mean that God and Angeles were recording everything you have done and every syllable you have said. And then Macbeth says: in the past the way to death was obvious and only fools did choose it. In other words only fools die. The metaphors that Shakespeare used are Creeps since death cannot creep, -it is probably personification as well-, and syllable since time is not measured with syllables. Shakespeare also says that life is a brief candle using a metaphor “Out, out, brief candle!” Shakespeare than says that life is just a player that shows off and gets sad for an hour and then no one hears about him. He also says that this is just a tale told by an idiot, we can see the use of the linguistic device of diction since Shakespeare use the word idiot and nothing else to describe him self to the audience. Shakespeare then continues to say that that idiot ,which is him, is just making sounds that mean nothing. This is interesting, hence in the world of Macbeth Shakespeare is God himself. -He creates stuff and removes stuff and know what is in the characters’ minds.- However, if Shakespeare did not mean that verse on this way, he meant it in a way where he says that (these are words used to explain, and I do not agree with them) this tale is told by an idiot, and that idiot is God, that God is just emitting sounds that mean nothing to him. All of these meanings are all combined to make a beautiful soliloquy.

I think that Macbeth is an equivocator. Macbeth shows a lot of equivocation when the corps of the king Duncan are found. The quote is:

MACBETH

Had I but died an hour before this chance,

I had lived a blessèd time, for from this instant

There’s nothing serious in mortality.

All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead.

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees

Is left this vault to brag of.

I this Scene, we see how Macbeth pays the witches a visit to kind of ask them about the future. The witches as representatives of evil obviously agreed to what Macbeth has asked them to do. The witches decided to give him apparitions. The first Apparition was an armed head, and he said that Macbeth needs to be careful of Macduff (the thane of fife).

FIRST APPARITION

Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff.

Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.

SECOND APPARITION

Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn

The power of man, for none of woman born

Shall harm Macbeth.

THIRD APPARITION

Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care

Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are.

Macbeth shall never vanquished be until

Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill

Shall come against him.

A show of eight kings, the last with a glass in his hand, followed by BANQUO

MACBETH

Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo. Down!

Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair,

Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.

A third is like the former.—Filthy hags!

Why do you show me this? A fourth? Start, eyes!

What, will the line stretch out to th’ crack of doom?

Another yet? A seventh? I’ll see no more.

And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass

Which shows me many more, and some I see

That twofold balls and treble scepters carry.

Horrible sight! Now I see ’tis true;

For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me

And points at them for his.

In this scene, the people who are supposed to be loyal to Macbeth are planning to rebel on Macbeth’s leadership. Lennox and another Lord even say that with Macbeth rolling the country, everything is out of the natural order. Lennox said that he heard that Malcom is trying to secure help to overthrow Macbeth in England. They therefore are planning to send their prayers to Malcom declaring their support, and they are trying to get the King of England help them overthrow the king of Scotland (Macbeth). All the people that Macbeth is supposed to trust are planning to over throw him.

LORD

     The son of Duncan—

From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth—

Lives in the English court and is received

Of the most pious Edward with such grace

That the malevolence of fortune nothing

Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff

Is gone to pray the holy king upon his aid

To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward,

That by the help of these—with Him above

To ratify the work—we may again

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,

Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,

Do faithful homage and receive free honors.

All which we pine for now. And this report

Hath so exasperated the king that he

Prepares for some attempt of war.

LENNOX

     And that well might

Advise him to a caution, t’ hold what distance

His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel

Fly to the court of England and unfold

His message ere he come, that a swift blessing

May soon return to this our suffering country

Under a hand accursed!

In this scene, a new character is introduced to the play. Hecate, the head of the witches, tells the witches off because they did not involve (him or her) in the matter of ruining Macbeth’s life. He then says that all of those spells that the witches have been doing are not as effective as what he is going to do (Hecate is planning something).

HECATE

Have I not reason, beldams as you are?

Saucy and overbold, how did you dare

To trade and traffic with Macbeth

In riddles and affairs of death,

And I, the mistress of your charms,

The close contriver of all harms,

Was never called to bear my part,

Or show the glory of our art?

And, which is worse, all you have done

Hath been but for a wayward son,

Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,

Loves for his own ends, not for you.

But make amends now. Get you gone,

And at the pit of Acheron

Meet me i’ th’ morning. Thither he

Will come to know his destiny.

Your vessels and your spells provide,

Your charms and everything beside.

I am for the air. This night I’ll spend

Unto a dismal and a fatal end.

Great business must be wrought ere noon.

Upon the corner of the moon

There hangs a vap’rous drop profound.

I’ll catch it ere it come to ground.

And that distilled by magic sleights

Shall raise such artificial sprites

As by the strength of their illusion

Shall draw him on to his confusion.

He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear

His hopes ‘bove wisdom, grace, and fear.

And you all know, security

Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.

Music and a song within: ‘Come away, come away,’

                                                                             &c

Hark! I am called. My little spirit, see,

Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me.

Macbeth is feeling to unsafe and is starting to see stuff where ever he is. Macbeth even start seeing ghosts next to people, and by seeing them, he nearly says all the evil things that he has done. Characters think he is getting crazy. Macbeth not just thinks that, he thinks he has scorpions in his head.

MACBETH

Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!

Thou know’st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.

MACBETH

So is he mine; and in such bloody distance

That every minute of his being thrusts

Against my near’st of life. And though I could

With barefaced power sweep him from my sight

And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,

For certain friends that are both his and mine,

Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall

Who I myself struck down. And thence it is,

That I to your assistance do make love,

Masking the business from the common eye

For sundry weighty reasons.

LADY MACBETH

     What’s to be done?

MACBETH

Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,

Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,

Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day

And with thy bloody and invisible hand

Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond

Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow

Makes wing to th’ rooky wood.

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;

Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.

Thou marvel’st at my words: but hold thee still.

Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.

So, prithee, go with me.

MACBETH

(to GHOST) Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake

Thy gory locks at me.

The murderers go to Macbeth’s castle and inform him that they killed Banquo, however they did not kill Fleance. Macbeth then says that Fleance is fearless to him but there will be a time where he will need to kill him.

	MACBETH Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect, Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, As broad and general as the casing air. But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears.—But Banquo’s safe? FIRST MURDERER Ay, my good lord. Safe in a ditch he bides, With twenty trenchèd gashes on his head, The least a death to nature. MACBETH      Thanks for that. There the grown serpent lies. The worm that’s fled Hath nature that in time will venom breed; No teeth for th’ present. Get thee gone. Tomorrow We’ll hear ourselves again.

The Macbeth crowning party starts and Macbeth acted as if he is angry that Banquo did not come, pointing that he is being rude.

MACBETH

Here had we now our country’s honor roofed,

Were the graced person of our Banquo present,

Who may I rather challenge for unkindness

Than pity for mischance.

LADY MACBETH

Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus

And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat.

The fit is momentary; upon a thought

He will again be well. If much you note him,

You shall offend him and extend his passion.

Feed and regard him not. (aside to MACBETH) Are you a man?