...One of the main ideas in the Shakespearian play Macbeth is deception, which is not only practiced by the villains but by other characters as well who have to rely on this at the time of disorder and distrust. However, Malcolm’s deception in testing Macduff’s loyalty and in deceiving Macbeth about the number of his troops is far less crucial as the central motif of the play, for it is the deception conducted by both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth that grapples the interest of the audience with its resounding morals about human nature. It is one thing to be deceived by another person and quite another to “fool yourself” by engaging in self-deception. Of all forms of deception, I think it can be argued that self-deception is perhaps the worst. In the words of Bemos Thenes, “Nothing is easier than self-deceit for what man wishes he also believes to be true.” Self-deception is a human weakness. It means that even though something maybe wrong and untrue if an individual believes it enough it will come to pass. No matter what someone may say, it is hard to change ones opinion because that is what the person truly believes. This is portrayed in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, through the actions of various characters. Shakespeare clearly shows the idea of self-deception through their actions and how this self-deception leads to moral disorder. Deception is introduced to the play right from the beginning when the three witches meet to talk, the mood being nothing is quite as it seems...
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...Blind Leading the Blind In MacBeth, Shakespeare writes about a greedy, power-hungry man who murders the king to fulfill his selfish desires. MacBeth was one of King’s Duncan’s noblemen and honorable general. However, after he is claimed as the Thane of Cawdor and Glamis, he believes a prophecy by three witches that he will become King and, along with his wife, decides to murder King Duncan in an attempt to gain more power. Although MacBeth grew uncertain about going through with the assassination, his wife, Lady MacBeth, manipulates and deceives him to follow through. As a king, he becomes a tyrant and starts to kill anyone who he felt threatened his position on the throne, including one of his good friends, Banquo and the family of MacDuff. Throughout his reign, the MacBeth’s guilty consciences take a toll on them and eventually lead to both of their downfall. Furthermore, MacBeth’s reign does not last long when MacDuff gets revenge against the tormentor by killing him in the end. As a result, King Duncan’s son, Malcolm, becomes king. Through the use of symbolism and characterization, William Shakespeare, in MacBeth, depicts how one’s desire to gain power causes others to change gender roles to create deception within an environment. In MacBeth, MacBeth’s horrific murders proved how strongly he desired to gain power. Desire means to have a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. When a person desires something, he or she becomes...
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...ENGLISH ESSAY: MACBETH “Macbeth shows us a world blackened by selish desires.” In life, we are often oblivious and undermine the power of evil as we aren’t directly exposed to the dangers and destructive consequences at first. We are presented with this same idea in the tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Macbeth’s progression and transformation throughout the play demonstrates and a world blackened by selfish desires. Macbeth at the beginning of the play is shown to be a friendly, honest and loyal person. But later, manipulation and deception as well as lust and greed mould Macbeth in to an aggressive, ambitious and possessed man. Finally, through his transformations we are able to identify a world blackened by selfish desires. Macbeth at the beginning of the play is shown to be a friendly, honest and loyal character. Shakespeare demonstrates Macbeth's loyalty to his king and to Scotland as the Captain recalls, "brave Macbeth killed [Macdonald]." Macbeth is well respected by his peers and maintains good relationships with them and is willing and committed to acting to protect Scotland. Furthermore, we are introduced to Macbeth by Malcom in act one scene two as a “good and hardy soldier” further highlighting his brave and courageous nature. On a different level, Macbeth shows he is a loving and respectful character in his attitude and approach towards his wife as he calls her his “dearest partner of greatness.” Additionally, we are able to measure the strength of the...
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...unchangeable. Whatever happens in life is meant to be and cannot be changed by mankind. The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare displays ambition, fate, deception and treachery. Fate is a supernatural force that controls the actions and choices of others. In Macbeth fate plays an important role in the lives of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Banquo. Macbeth’s fate is unavoidable and unchangeable. Macbeth’s fate is sealed as soon as he meets the witches’. Macbeth’s fate is tragic. Macbeth and Banquo are together...
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...In the play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, William Shakespeare develops the theme of hunger for power through the use of irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism. Shakespeare ultimately proves that hunger for power can mislead a person from situations and turn good intentions, to bad intentions all because of there blind lust. Power, as grand as it may be, can always be misleading. William Shakespeare, often called the English national poet, is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time. Known throughout the world, the works of William Shakespeare have been performed, taught, and studied for more than 400 years. William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a successful middle-class glove maker in Stratford Upon-Avon, and created the play “Macbeth” in 1606. In 1582 William at the age of 18, married an older woman named Anne Hathaway. They had three children, Susanna, Hamnet and Juliet. Their only son Hamnet died aged just 11. By the early Seventeenth Century, Shakespeare had begun to write plays in the genre of tragedy. These plays, such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear, often hinge on some fatal flaw in the lead character, and provide intriguing insights into the darker aspects of human nature. You can now see where this comes into play in other situations Macbeth is a play of contradiction and ambition. Macbeth, a well-known war general driven to become King, killed not only King Duncan to receive his kingship, but also all the heirs to the thrown which happened...
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...Shakespeare’s Macbeth, symbolizes a common theme found in English literature: the effect of the supernatural. The supernatural is constantly exploited by authors to develop their plot. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the supernatural is something “belonging to a realm or system that transcends nature, as that of divine, magical, or ghostly being.” As well as William Shakespeare, Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys utilize the supernatural in their books Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, respectively, to affect the amount of power each character has the ability to attain. No matter the gain or loss of power, the supernatural...
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...Celton Brito-Lobato Analyse and compare how Lady Macbeth and Curley's wife are presented Shakespeare’s ' Macbeth' and Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ In the Shakespearean play of ‘Macbeth’ we are introduced to the character of Lady Macbeth. Similarly in John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice of Men we also presented with an equally diverse character of Curley's wife. ‘Macbeth’ was written during the early 17th century, and was a play 'fit for a king'. It outlines a couple's ambition to become rulers of Scotland and sees them fulfil this ambition and in doing so, killing the king in the process. Despite being written during patriarchal Jacobean society, Lady Macbeth is a female protagonist. Throughout the play, through Lady Macbeth's actions we are forced to believe that she is evil. In contrast, in the novel John Steinbeck tells a story of dreams, hopes and loneliness. We are introduced to a majorly significant and complex character, named Curley’s wife. Steinbeck shows us that Curley’s wife is flirtatious, mischievous (despite the patriarchal society of the 1930’s) but most of all she is an isolated character. Her hasty marriage to Curley proves to be failed attempt to escape her own spiral of disappointment of not fulfilling her ambition of becoming an actress. This ironically is a main theme in both texts. This essay will analyse and compare the presentation of Lady Macbeth and Curley's wife through structure, themes, what is said about them, their actions and what they themselves...
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...The play Macbeth and the film The Social Network (TSN) share many similarities, despite the fact that they are from two completely contrasting settings. One is a famous tragic play written by William Shakespeare, and another is the modern film about the creation of the popular social network in the 21st century, Facebook. Trust is a good trait to have in some situations, but it can also cause bad things to happen. Many characters in the movie and the play are affected by the trust that they have in others. Although Macbeth and The Social Network have different outcomes, but the idea of being trusting is demonstrated as a negative trait through both productions. People should be more cautious of whom to trust. In both the film and the play,...
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...Confusion is prominent throughout Shakespeare’s plays, for example ‘The comedy of errors’ and ‘Macbeth’. The disarrangement would be expected by an Elizabethan audience; however the structure of the play subverts traditional, more conventional plays and suggests disorder in itself. There are various comic techniques that Shakespeare utilises, the most significant being deception, most of the characters are able to transgress past social boundaries in order to get their way, which ultimately causes disorder. He is able to use both subtle and obvious techniques to cater for all of his audience. Shakespeare immediately presents his audience with this idea of disorder through the induction; the chaos at the start is further emphasized by comic techniques. Although the induction would be highly amusing for an audience, it does highlight that a person’s behaviour can quickly change depending on how they are treated. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony not only to evolve comedy but to engage the audience, when Sly says ‘well, bring our lady hither to our sight, and once again a pot o’th’smallest ale’. As well as being bawdy the quotation epitomizes the idea of gender roles, however Shakespeare establishes dramatic irony as ‘our lady’ is one of the page boys. The aspect of disorder is developed by the disguise, and tricking Sly. Shakespeare through the induction might be challenging the traditional roles of men and woman, Sly is at first preoccupied with making sense of his outrageous change of...
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...Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ and John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ written in the 17th and 20th century, separated by hundreds of years of development and change within the world, both reflect the ideologies, treatment and representations of women in their respective eras. The principal feminine representatives are Lady Macbeth and Curley’s wife who throughout both texts demonstrate similarities and differences in their portrayal of their relationships with their male counterpart, the description of their tragic deaths and the conventional role of men and women and how they fit or break the stereotype. In this essay, I will refer to the aforementioned depictions, analysing the techniques the writers use to create their characters, and how a Jacobean audience, one during the Great Depression of the 1930s and a modern audience would react. Rather than supporting her husband in a subservient manner, Shakespeare makes Lady Macbeth the ruthless mastermind of a fiendish, venal and daring enterprise aimed to ensure her husband would ‘catch the nearest way’. In Act 1 Scene 5, when attempting to convince Macbeth to commit this necessary deed, she utters the heartless words ‘you shall put this night's great business into my dispatch’ inferring she intends to commit Duncan's murder herself. ‘Dispatch’ would lead a modern audience to believe she will only manage and oversee the murderous plan, however, in Elizabethan England, it would have meant to kill with quick efficiency; thus, Lady Macbeth prepares...
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...the beginning of the play Macbeth is the "bravest" soldier and the honorable Thane of Glamis. His rank and nobility are of great value, and he seems to be fit for his status. But his encounter with the witches awakens in him a deep impatient ambition. Immediately after the first prophecy of being Thane of Cawdor becomes true the "horrid image" of the murder of King Duncan in order to become king himself crosses his mind. He is not totally cold and solely ambitious as shown by his terror of the murder image, which thoroughly defies his loyalty. There is love in Macbeth as shown by his letter to Lady Macbeth in which he calls her his "dearest partner of greatness." Macbeth is already thinking about being king but he is undecided about whether it is better to succumb to the temptation presented by the witches or to wait for Fate to crown him. Banquo warns him that at times evil forces "tell us truths . . . to betray's in deepest consequence." Even though he does not state it out loud, Macbeth does care about morality and religion, as demonstrated in his soliloquy (I, IV, 12-28) where he lists the three reasons why he should not kill Duncan: he is "his kinsman," "his subject" and "his host." Macbeth adds that "Duncan hath born his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels." Lady Macbeth knows her husband and feels that he is "too full o' th' milk of human kindness." To counter this she accuses Macbeth of being a coward if he...
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...As you all already know, Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tale about the power struggles among the elite. But what makes Macbeth so compelling is its incredible insights into how blind power can make a person to moral reason and common sense. This “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” and this “unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it” according to John Acton and William Pitt. By examining the men and women of great power in Macbeth, we get a glimpse into how easily susceptible they are to the corruptibility of power. They suffer the same feelings as us, especially the unrelenting ambition of men, and now women have become victims to in contemporary society. It is against this backdrop, that I will produce a modern rendition of Macbeth that will challenge the audience to contemplate the ever-growing feminist society of the present day. To accomplish this, I will be shifting the focus of my directorial debut away from the many linear adaptations of Macbeth littered throughout the film industry with revisions featuring little to no deviation to its original source by producing a character that brings to the fore the reputable role of the puppet-master that females are renown for in contemporary society. This will be achieved through the depiction of the female’s ability to use her wit to cunningly manipulate the opposite sex, no longer mere accessories to men in this current age. Through alterations to the original play, exploitation...
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...play that focuses on the desire for marriage; but the emotions of young couples were not the main consideration in courtship (McDonald 267). Katherina actions portray her as the shrew, but the audience knows her ultimate desire was to receive genuine love from a man. Richard III makes it abundantly clear that he desires to take over the English thrown and do whatever it takes to grasp it. Additionally, Hamlet seeks revenge and is motivated to do so by his supernatural spirit of his father (Sobran 45). The need for wealth, power, ambition, and greed lead many of Shakespeare’s characters to satisfy their own self gratitude over the basic ideas of human kindness. London, during the sixteenth century, was a time of extreme corruption. Gender roles were unequal, marriage was spurious, and seeking wealth or power of some sort became every man’s objective. The usual occupation for a woman during Shakespeare’s time was marriage and motherhood (McDonald 253). Although England was ruled by the strong-willed Elizabeth I, woman’s rights were significantly contrasting compared to men. Women having a career and an education were taboo. As for men, finding a career and seeking wealth was essential for daily living. Many men sought women who come from wealth,...
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...literary figures. And his works were indeed created for the popular entertainment of his day with little thought to their immortality. Shakespeare did not take any steps to preserve his writings past their immediate use. (Fortunately his friends did.) With all the academic study of Shakespeare and the trappings of fine culture that have been wrapped around productions of his dramas over the centuries, we often forget what a rollicking, bawdy and entertaining spectacle his plays presented to their original audience — and still can to a modern audience, in the right hands. The timelessness of Shakespeare's themes continue to keep his plays fresh. He dramatized basic issues: love, marriage, familial relationships, gender roles, race, age, class, humor, illness, deception, betrayal, evil, revenge, murder, and death. The essential question that Shakespeare explored in his plays is, "what does it mean to be a human being?" The genius of Shakespeare is that he manged to show us ourselves in every conceivable light. It really doesn't matter when the plays were written since they are about the human condition which is timeless. Shakespeare was an incredible observer of his fellow human beings. We, as human beings, may dress differently or have more technology than people in Shakespeare's day but we are still motivated by the same desires and have the same feelings. The themes of his plays are as universal as his characters. For example, in his history plays, he explores the...
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...easily understood, the character’s motives are clear, and many of the themes are as current today as they were in Shakespeare’s time. Therefore, it can be read on a variety of levels, allowing all students to enjoy it. Less able readers can experience the swash-buckling action and investigate the themes of parent-child conflict, sexuality, friendship, and suicide. Because of the play’s accessibility to teenagers, able readers can view the play from a more literary perspective, examining the themes of hostility ad its effect on the innocent, the use of deception and its consequences, and the effects of faulty decision making. They can study how the characters function within the drama and how Shakespeare uses language to develop plot, characters, and themes. The most able students can develop skills involved in literary criticism by delving into the play’s comic and tragic elements and its classically tragic themes: the role of fate and fortune, the inevitable nature of tragedy, and the isolation of the tragic hero. This teacher’s guide will be divided into several parts: (1) a brief literary overview, including a synopsis and commentary on the play; (2) suggestions for teaching the play, including activities, discussion questions, and essay topics to be used before, during, and...
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