...UNDERWOOD S E R I E S E D I T O R S : W. GEIGER ELLIS, ED.D., ARTHEA J. S. REED, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, EMERITUS and UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, RETIRED A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth 2 INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare developed many stories into excellent dramatizations for the Elizabethan stage. Shakespeare knew how to entertain and involve an audience with fast-paced plots, creative imagery, and multi-faceted characters. Macbeth is an action-packed, psychological thriller that has not lost its impact in nearly four hundred years. The politically ambitious character of Macbeth is as timely today as he was to Shakespeare's audience. Mary McCarthy says in her essay about Macbeth, "It is a troubling thought that Macbeth, of all Shakespeare's characters, should seem the most 'modern,' the only one you could transpose into contemporary battle dress or a sport shirt and slacks." (Signet Classic Macbeth) Audiences today quickly become interested in the plot of a blindly ambitious general with a strong-willed wife who must try to cope with the guilt engendered by their murder of an innocent king in order to further their power. The elements of superstition, ghosts, and witchcraft, though more readily a part of everyday life for the Renaissance audience, remain intriguing to modern teenagers. The action-packed plot, elements of the occult, modern characterizations, and themes of import to today's world make...
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...spirits to “unsex me here,” suggesting that being a woman means she cannot be powerful. This is the first example of Lady Macbeth firmly rejecting her femaleness to gain power. She continues her soliloquy saying, “Come to my woman’s breasts, / And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,” (45-46). This statement refers to the “milk of human kindness” she spoke of before. Lady Macbeth is asking the spirits to take the milk, which she associates with human kindness, out of her breast. By replacing milk with poison in her breast, she is switching a form of nourishment and life to a cause of death. She thinks that the only thing holding her back from enacting such cruelty is being a woman. Janet Adelman takes a greater look at Lady Macbeth’s rejection of her femininity in her paper “Born of Woman: Fantasies of Maternal Power in Macbeth.” Adelman states, “perhaps Lady Macbeth is asking the spirits to take her milk as gall, to nurse from her breast and find in her milk their sustaining poison...In these lines Lady Macbeth focuses on the culture’s fear of maternal nursery” (Adelman, 40). Lady Macbeth needs to be rid of the connotation of nursing and being a woman. Since men cannot nurse, she is rejecting that fact that she can if she were to have a child, by filling her breasts with poison. Although she is not literally unsexed, after this soliloquy, Lady Macbeth feels the effects of her desired manliness. When she speaks with Macbeth about Duncan’s visit, she immediately starts...
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...In this essay, I will be looking at ways in which William Shakespeare shows sympathy and dislike for Macbeth. I will refer to historical context as well as the play on a whole. The play Macbeth which was set in Scotland, was written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600’s. This play was a tragedy and was written for King James I a year after the gunpowder plot. The play was to some extent a tale to caution any potential killers of the king (regicides) as to what would happen to them if they attempted to blow up King James and his parliament as Guy Fawkes did. Macbeth starts out as a very brave warrior. On his way back from fighting the Norwegians he encountered the three witches who told him that he would become king and Thane of Cawdor. Upon his return the first part of the prophecy came true. Macbeth informs his wife of the predictions and she tries to persuade him to kill Duncan. Macbeth yields to temptation and becomes very heartless killing everyone in his path so that he could become king. He became king and eventually died when he was defeated in war against Macduff. We first feel sympathy for Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 7. In this scene, his wife, Lady Macbeth, persuades him to kill King Duncan in order to fulfil the second part of the witches’ prophecy. Macbeth considers reasons why he should not kill King Duncan. Evidence of this is in Macbeth’s soliloquy, and i quote” First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host...
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...Macbeth Literary Essay Submitted By: Zachary McGregor May 1st, 2012 I believe that Macbeth is fully responsible for his own destiny because whether or not it was fated, he still chose to do everything he did. We obviously know that Macbeth made some pretty bad decisions over the course of the play. He should be held responsible and forced to pay the consequences of his actions for the following reasons. We know that Macbeth still had the choice of whether or not to murder Duncan, although he was encouraged by the witches’ prophesies and Lady Macbeth he didn’t really have to go through with the murder. We also know that the crimes Macbeth commits are becoming increasingly sinister and evil, as he continues to do these terrible deeds it becomes easier and easier for him to commit them. Finally, Macbeth acknowledges his guilt for the crimes he commits and is therefore fully responsible for his actions. It seems that the witches’ predictions insinuate Macbeth’s desire to become king, however, no one actually forces him to kill Duncan. Even though Macbeth’s decision was most certainly influenced by the witches’ prophesies and Lady Macbeth, he still made the final choice regarding the murder of Duncan which is wrong. Macbeth’s ambition causes him to question his loyalty to the king after hearing the witches’ prophesies. “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my shingle state of man that...
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...Clayton Prescott Macbeth Final Essay Macbeth’s life was great in the beginning, but turned into a disaster in the end. Macbeth was in a situation of power and success and ended up throwing it away due to greed, envy and power hunger. One could call his story a success because he got the power he wanted and was respected and feared by many of his people. Macbeth also had controlled and manipulated people he thought could be of service to him, and he ruined their lives also. Lady Macbeth was changed completely and was the sole reason that they would not be able to keep their murders hidden. Lady Macbeth was sleepwalking and a worker had heard her talking of the tragedies that she and Macbeth had committed. Macbeth was very regretful of the...
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...Macbeth Literature Essay During the play Macbeth was influenced by numerous characters namely; the three witches and Lady Macbeth. He was a victim of manipulation and trickery to a certain extent by them but his ambition and paranoia also played a big role and contributed as well to his downfall. The witches provoked evil images in Macbeth’s head as the prophecies were very tempting to Macbeth but, because his better judgment overcame his evil thoughts he decided not do anything about it and pushed the evil thoughts out of his head. Once the second prophecy came true he immediately started thinking about the third prophecy which excited him and made him fearful of the evil thoughts in his head. “I am thane of Cawdor: If good, why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature? Present fears are less than horrible imaginings: my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is but what is not.” Once again his conscience overcame his evil thoughts and he made a wise decision on what he must do. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir”. Although, he was still very intrigued by the witches now that both predictions came true and him becoming King was straight after the second prediction. As soon as Malcom was announced the Prince of Cumberland he immediately forgets about...
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...To put Macbeth into perspective, you'll need to know a little about William Shakespeare and why the play is still so popular over 400 years after it was first performed. William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was born in Stratford upon Avon in 1564. His father sold gloves and became an important person in the town. William, one of eight children, was the eldest son and was probably educated at the local grammar school. He married when he was only 18 and his wife, Anne Hathaway, was eight years older than him. They had two girls and a boy (who died aged 11). Nobody knows how Shakespeare began to write or when he entered the theatre, but we know that he became a leading member of the theatre troupe known as 'The Lord Chamberlain's Men'. The company proved very popular and later, when King James I granted them the right to perform at his court, the troupe became known as 'The King's Men'. Shakespeare wrote over 30 plays for 'The King's Men', making it the most important theatre company in the country, and he often wrote parts for particular actors. He was very successful and wealthy in his time, and his work has remained very popular ever since. The popularity of Macbeth Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's best known plays. There are all sorts of reasons for this but perhaps the main one is that the basic story still strikes a chord with modern audiences. It is a bloodthirsty tale of ambition, and the evils we will go to in order to get what we want. We follow the central character...
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...very difficult discernment for both Macbeth and Banquo to tell whether they were woman or not. Like their appearance, their roles offered the same discernment. Although some critics offer that point that the witches have nothing to do with the play, it can be argued that the weird sisters in fact take control of the outcome of the fates of many. The setting of the play is like the netherworld setting, which is known by the rule of uncertainty. The only thing set in stone was evil, hence the weird sisters. With that being said, the role of the weird sisters was to create an uncertainty, to open up the doors to an unknown realm, and to cause the scattering of ideas. This is seen throughout the play such as when the witches plant a seed into Macbeth’s head to cause him to think, and to act differently, which ultimately causes the exposure of his true character. The first role that the witches play is made obvious when they deliberately acknowledge Macbeth as not only the Thane of Glamis, but also the Thane of Cawdor and all hailing King. This, most likely being the most important event in the poem due to its initiation of the actual purpose of the story, is what really leads Macbeth to believe that he has to kill King Duncan in order to become king. The reason for this is that Macbeth became Thane of Glamis by the death of his father and then Thane of Cawdor by the death of the past Thane. “Their function is simply to open up areas of empty space, in which vagrant ugly desires manifest...
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...English Macbeth Essay Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a very dark and powerful tragic play. There are many characters in this play that are two faced, loyal one minute, and deceiving the next. One of the individuals who immensely represents these attributes is Macbeth himself. Macbeth is a warrior who is manipulated by his own wife and the three witches which leads him to become a greedy, ambitious and brave king. Ultimately because of his overconfidence, he dies devastatingly. . Macbeth bumped into three witches after his battle. The three witches tell Macbeth he will become thain of cawdor and glamis, and then king. He then becomes the thain which opened up an opportunity for him to become king. He then writes a letter to his wife in which he wrote to her about everything that was going on and she decides they need to kill the king in order for him to seize the throne. Macbeth kills the king but his wife has to return the daggers to the guards, to frame them for the crime, because Macbeth did not. After all that the King Duncans' sons run away becuase they fear that they were gonna be put to blame. Macbeth then becomes king. Once he became king, he did not want anyone else to have the same power as him or to do the same thing to him, as he did to King Duncan. Also he remembers one of the prophecies of the witch where they told Banquo the his children will be king. So he then orders the murderers to kill his best friend, Banquo and his son, Fleance . Macbeth is then...
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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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...УДК 811.11136(075.8) ББК 81.2Англ-2я73 И89 Все права защищены. Никакая часть данной книги не может переиздаваться или распространяться в любой форме и любыми средствами, электронными или механическими, включая фотокопирование, звукозапись, любые запоминающие устройства и системы поиска информации, без письменного разрешения правообладателя. Серийное оформление А. М. Драгового Истомина, Е. А. И 89 Английская грамматика = English Grammar / Е. А. Истомина, А. С. Саакян. — 5-е изд., испр. и доп. — М.: Айрис-пресс, 2007. — 272 с. — (Высшее образование). ISBN 978-5-8112-2292-6 Пособие содержит базовый теоретический и практический курс грамматики современного английского языка для студентов первого и второго курсов факультетов иностранных языков. Данное учебное пособие является составной частью комплекта учебников «Практический курс английского языка» под редакцией профессора В. Д. Аракина. ББК81.2Англ-2я73 УДК811.Ш'36(075.8) ISBN978-5-8112-2292-6 © Истомина Е. А., Саакян А. С, 1980 © Айрис-пресс, 2007 СОДЕРЖАНИЕ Предисловие ....................................................................................................................... 7 Part I THEORY SYNTAX .............................................................................................................................. 8 I. Types of Sentences according to the Aim of Communication............................................ II. Types of Sentences according to Their Structure...
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