...Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth illustrates one of Shakespeare’s most powerful female characters because of her role as both a driving and destructive force, which was uncommon of women during the Elizabethan Era. Women of this time (circa AD 1000) were not very influential and did not normally have meaningful input. Despite this social convention, Lady Macbeth is an unparalleled character Shakespeare creates to entertain his audience. Lady Macbeth’s passionate desire and ambition to murder Duncan in order to gain power is a characteristic developed by Shakespeare not seen in her historical counterparts. After learning of the prophecy telling that Macbeth will become King of Scotland, Lady Macbeth ferociously pushes Macbeth to murder Duncan and cleverly uses her words to manipulate Macbeth into action “through a meticulous process of cruel and piercing emasculation, purposefully designed to attack his warrior status” (Ancona and Thompson). This exemplifies how...
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...Ambition is the motivating force towards many people’s success; too much ambition can result in chaos. Ambition drove Macbeth to be a great warrior. However, once a malicious thought was planted in his mind, his potential to do great things turned into evil deeds. Macbeth’s ambition caused his downfall. Macbeth was on the road to greatness, he had everything a man could want. Macbeth’s successes in battle lead to admiration by many important and powerful people, such as the king. King Duncan boasts about Macbeth stating, “ O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman! “(I.ii.24). Ironically Macbeth later on kills his king. Macbeth had titles and power, the King was by his side promoting him to be triumphant. “I have begun to plant thee, and will labour to make thee full of growing.” (I.iv.29) This is King Duncan’s promise to Macbeth to help him to succeed. Macbeth has the full support of the King to follow his bright and ambitious future. To this point in the play, Macbeth’s ambition is positive and he shows a lot of potential to do great things in the future. Later in the play, Macbeth had a turning point from positive ambition to destructive, negative ambition. The witches planted the ambitious seed in Macbeth’s mind that someday he would become king and Lady Macbeth fuelled this aspiration with encouragement; however, the thoughts of murder came from Macbeth himself. It took very little for the notion of murder to be considered. “For mine own good All causes shall give way. I am in...
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...United States president Richard Nixon between 1969-1974, and Macbeth are two people who experienced an exceptional rise to power, and because of their overpowering ambition; they are driven to commit crimes in order to maintain their power. Richard Nixon grew up in a poor family, who at the time was unable to provide Nixon with living expenses of going to Harvard University where he was offered a scholarship. After attending high school, Nixon went to local Whittier College where he gained the reputation of being a fearsome debater, well known in drama productions and an exceptional athlete. He went on to graduate from Duke University Law School, and went on to practice law. Of course for a man like Nixon with such flourishing visions, being...
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...Conrad. The play Macbeth is written around the centralized idea of ambition and the consequence of guilt that one bears after their deed. Macbeth by William Shakespeare; Shakespeare presents a man and wife hungry for power living in 1600s dark Scotland. One day Macbeth encounters three wicked sisters who reveal a prophecy which leads Macbeth on a murderous quest for power. The power of guilt can ultimately lead to one's demise; Furthermore the desire for power driven by Macbeth's impulsive actions. Shakespeare presents this idea heavily on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth along with providing symbolic references throughout the entire play....
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...Death, Be Not Proud”: Macduff’s Contemptuous Condemnation of Macbeth In life, the most disarming fear experienced by mankind is of the absence of life. Death is the most frightening fate of mankind and the inevitable fate of all living things. The fact that death cannot be evaded, and that it is impossible for the living to have an accurate concept of death is the root cause of fear derived from it; all life will inevitably be consumed by the mysterious and destructive power of death. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is punctuated by moments of murder and death caused by the hands of the power-delirious title character. John Donne’s Holy Sonnet X “Death, Be Not Proud” exhibits arguments that challenge the integrity of death’s power. The...
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...Shakespeare in Film Individual Assignment Macbeth is well known to be one of Shakespeare’s shortest yet darkest tragedies. The rich, psychological turmoil experienced by the main characters and the incorporation of elements such as the supernatural culminates in a tragedy that is one of Shakespeare’s most intense and grim. I will be examining the 1971 Roman Polanski film due to the unique life story of the director and the gruesome murders that occurred prior to the film. The film employs the use of gratuitous violence, nudity and graphic imagery that far exceeds that of the text, which Roman Polanski masterfully uses to highlight the inherent madness and evil that drives Macbeth and in doing so, successfully creates an psychologically disturbing film with an atmosphere of perpetual dread. Firstly, one distinct feature about the film that differs from the text is the inclusion of nudity seen in several scenes. Macbeth itself draws largely upon the theme of the occult and madness as the main driving forces, with the inclusion of the prophetic apparitions, visions of ghosts and mental breakdowns. The scene showing Macbeth seeks out the witches for the 2nd time exemplifies the occult brilliantly as it opens to a huge coven of naked witches huddled around the cauldron whilst chanting “Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, cauldron bubble”. In the book, there was no mention of other witches apart from the three and by including the scene, the huge gathering...
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...Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry ‘Hold, hold!’ Lady Macbeth speaks these words in Act 1, scene 5, lines 36–52, as she awaits the arrival of King Duncan at her castle. We have previously seen Macbeth’s uncertainty about whether he should take the crown by killing Duncan. In this speech, there is no such confusion, as Lady Macbeth is clearly willing to do whatever is necessary to seize the throne. Her strength of purpose is contrasted with her husband’s tendency to waver. This speech shows the audience that Lady Macbeth is the real steel behind Macbeth and that her ambition will be strong enough to drive her husband forward. At the same time, the language of this speech touches on the theme of masculinity— “unsex me here / . . . / . . . Come to my woman’s breasts, / And take my milk for gall,” Lady Macbeth says as she prepares herself to commit murder. The language suggests that her womanhood, represented by breasts and milk, usually symbols of nurture, impedes her from performing acts of violence and cruelty, which she associates with manliness. Later, this sense of the relationship between masculinity and violence will be deepened when Macbeth is unwilling to go...
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...Nihilism 1. .Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy. While few philosophers would claim to be nihilists, nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche who argued that its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history. “Nihilism" comes from the Latin nihil, or nothing, which means not anything. It appears in the verb "annihilate," meaning to bring to nothing, to destroy completely. Early in the nineteenth century, Friedrich Jacobi used the word to negatively characterize transcendental idealism. Nihilists denounced God and religious authority as antithetical to freedom. By the late 1870s, a nihilist was anyone associated with clandestine political groups advocating terrorism and assassination. 2. Nihilism, in fact, can be understood in several different ways. Political Nihilism, as noted, is associated with the belief that the destruction of all existing political, social, and religious order is a prerequisite for any future improvement. Ethical nihilism or moral nihilism rejects the possibility of absolute moral or ethical values. Instead, good and evil are nebulous, and values addressing...
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...Courtney White Victim or Manipulator? How do Shakespeare in ‘Macbeth’ and Steinbeck in ‘Of Mice of Men’ present female characters? Both Shakespeare and Steinbeck have presented their characters in ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Of Mice and Men’ as women who possess the features of a manipulator and a victim. Both elements are a question of power; manipulation being able to overpower someone else, whereas a victim is a subject to someone else’s power. Lady Macbeth and Curley’s wife both manipulate men using their femininity: Curley’s wife shows this as she manipulates the men on the ranch using her appearance and Lady Macbeth uses her sexuality to persuade her husband to kill the king and by welcoming Duncan into her home, even though she was plotting to kill him. Alternatively, there are differences between the two women, as Curley’s wife is lonely and isolated on the ranch, her husband disrespects her and is disliked by all the men on the ranch and as a result, manipulates the men innocently to get some attention. Lady Macbeth desires power and fame, and acts manipulatively and selfishly to get what she wants. Lady Macbeth is upperclass, giving her more freedom to do what she wanted. She had status, wealth, glamour and equal partnership with her husband. This was very unusual for the time- Shakespeare has presented her as a very modern anti-heroine. The writers have also presented the women as victims of their gender. During the time each text was written women had restrictions placed on...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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...Walter Benjamin (1936) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction ________________________________________ Source: UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television; Transcribed: by Andy Blunden 1998; proofed and corrected Feb. 2005. ________________________________________ “Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant in comparison with ours. But the amazing growth of our techniques, the adaptability and precision they have attained, the ideas and habits they are creating, make it a certainty that profound changes are impending in the ancient craft of the Beautiful. In all the arts there is a physical component which can no longer be considered or treated as it used to be, which cannot remain unaffected by our modern knowledge and power. For the last twenty years neither matter nor space nor time has been what it was from time immemorial. We must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing \change in our very notion of art.” Paul Valéry, Pièces sur L’Art, 1931 Le Conquete de l’ubiquite Preface When Marx undertook his critique of the capitalistic mode of production, this mode was in its infancy. Marx directed his efforts in such a way as to give them prognostic value. He went back to the basic conditions underlying capitalistic...
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...“Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight” Clifford Geertz Reprinted from The Interpretation of Cultures The Raid Early in April of 1958, my wife and I arrived, malarial and diffident, in a Balinese village we intended, as anthropologists, to study. A small place, about five hundred people, and relatively remote, it was its own world. We were intruders, professional ones, and the villagers dealt with us as Balinese seem always to deal with people not part of their life who yet press themselves upon them: as though we were not there. For them, and to a degree for ourselves, we were nonpersons, specters, invisible men. almost as satisfactory. If we ventured to approach someone (something one is powerfully inhibited from doing in such an atmosphere), he moved, negligently but definitively, away. If, seated or leaning against a wall, we had him trapped, he said nothing at all, or mumbled what for the Balinese is the ultimate nonword-"yes." The indifference, of course, was studied; the villagers were watching every move we made and they had an enormous amount of quite accurate information about who we were and what we were going to be doing. But they acted as if we simply did not exist, which, in fact, as this behavior was designed to inform us, we did not, or anyway not yet. cockfighting as "primitive," "backward," "unprogressive," and generally unbecoming an ambitious nation. And, as with those other embarrassments -opium smoking, begging, or uncovered breasts-it seeks...
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...The Hell of Nineteen Eighty-Four. ). Did Orwell realise quite what he had done in Nineteen Eighty-Four? His post-publication glosses on its meaning reveal either blankness or bad faith even about its contemporary political implications. He insisted, for example, that his 'recent novel [was] NOT intended as an attack on Socialism or on the British Labour Party (of which I am a supporter)'.(1) He may well not have intended it but that is what it can reasonably be taken to be. Warburg saw this immediately he had read the manuscript, and predicted that Nineteen Eighty-Four '[was] worth a cool million votes to the Conservative Party';(2) the literary editor of the Evening Standard 'sarcastically prescribed it as "required reading" for Labour Party M.P.s',(3) and, in the US, the Washington branch of the John Birch Society 'adopted "1984" as the last four digits of its telephone number'.(4) Moreover, Churchill had made the 'inseparably interwoven' relation between socialism and totalitarianism a plank in his 1945 election campaign(5) (and was not the protagonist of Nineteen Eighty-Four called Winston?). If, ten years earlier, an Orwell had written a futuristic fantasy in which Big Brother had had Hitler's features rather than Stalin's, would not the Left, whatever the writer's proclaimed political sympathies, have welcomed it as showing how capitalism, by its very nature, led to totalitarian fascism? With Nineteen Eighty-Four, it is particularly necessary to trust the tale and not...
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...KING LEAR Act One The play opens at Lear’s court, where we meet the main characters. The opening scene is in itself shocking, as Lear forces his daughters to declare their love for him. The one who loves him the most will receive the largest part of his kingdom, which he intends to divide between the three. Lear himself wishes to hand over the ruling of the kingdom to his daughters, while retaining the ‘Pre-eminence, and all the large effects / That troop with majesty’ (Scene 1, Lines 131-2). Goneril and Regan acquit themselves well at this love test. Cordelia, however, dismayed by her sisters’ ponderous words, refuses to take part in the ‘contest’ and tells Lear that she loves him as her duty instructs her. When Cordelia refuses to speak again, Lear casts her off without a moment’s hesitation. Ken attempts to argue with the King, accusing him of ‘hideous rashness’ (Scene 1, Line 151). When Kent further warns Lear that his elder daughters are false flatterers, Kent too is banished. Lear invests Albany and Cornwall with power, and, after Burgundy refuses to take Cordelia as his wife, now that she is without dowry, France takes her for her virtues alone. Goneril and Regan complain, in private, about Lear’s harsh judgement and unpredictable behaviour and worry that they too may be treated unfairly. Edmund, Gloucester’s bastard son, soliloquises about his own situation, revealing his devious intentions towards his brother. When his father enters, Edmund’s...
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...The Illusion of Leadership Directing Creativity in Business and the Arts Piers Ibbotson The Illusion of Leadership This page intentionally left blank The Illusion of Leadership Directing Creativity in Business and the Arts Piers Ibbotson © Piers Ibbotson 2008 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan®...
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