Guilt in Macbeth

I think it is interesting to examine how guilt in Macbeth drives the plot of the latter part of the play, specifically by comparing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth equates guilt with weakness and femininity early on in the play when she asks to feel no guilt over the planned murder of Duncan. However, it is Macbeth the masculine character that questions the plot because of his loyalty to his king, suggesting that he feels some guilt. Additionally, Lady Macbeth puts on a more convincing show for Macduff after Duncan is killed, but Macbeth is so affected that he messily tries to cover up his crime, making Macduff suspicious of him. Lady Macbeth is also ashamed and unsympathetic of Macbeth's guilt, chiding him that water will get rid of the blood when Macbeth is bothered by the stains left by Duncan's murder and trying to stop his raving at the sight of Banquo's ghost. However, I would argue that Lady Macbeth cannot escape her nature or her guilt, but that she is trying to suppress it and it is simply dormant. Even when she rubs the red of the blood off, her skin is still red from the rubbing, and therefore the mark of her involvement is not gone. Later, her guilt further manifests itself in her subconscious when she is sleepwalking. It is suggested later that her guilt drove her to commit suicide. Macbeth's guilt drives him not to attack himself, but others. Almost trying to rationalize his actions, Macbeth projects on others, expecting the people around him to betray him. His paranoid fears that the witches' prophecy that Banquo's heirs will be kings will come true cause Macbeth to hire killers to murder Banquo, and his guilt over that is shown when he sees Banquo's ghost at the feast. Any other thoughts on how guilt affects the viewing of Macbeth?

female names in macbeth

Ok, so I was interested in what others might think of this little detail from Macbeth. Why is it that this is a play where females play a large role, but Shakespeare refuses to give them any names? Lady Macbeth and the Witches have a huge role in actions taken by all characters in this play. For a play that emphasizes the importance of woman characters I am confused why they are not given any actual names. A few of ideas that I had: 1) Lady Macbeth controls Macbeth or at least has strong influence on his actions. So Shakespeare might possibly be connecting her identity to Macbeths, therefore sharing the blame between the two of them. 2) Because females have such a prominent role in this play, which might offend some males at the time, this was Shakespeare’s way of removing their identities. This could help satisfy the male egos that would be offended by such strong female presences within the play. 3) Lady Macbeth is a common way to refer to a woman of stature during the time this play was written or for when it what set. If that’s the case then I have obviously over thought this whole name thing. Let me know what you think.

Masculinity in Macbeth

There is much masculinity shown throughout Macbeth. Macbeth is a very violent play and there is much killing and murdering going on so the men can gain masculinity for each person killed. Men sometimes murder in order to show how powerful he can possibly be. Men also want to prove to their wives or loved ones how powerful they are. I think that there are other ways in which men can so masculinity, however Shakespeare doesn’t show how in this play. Instead he creates a play in which a man goes around murdering innocent people in order for him to have power and become king. By killing these men and not earning the power and becoming king Macbeth looks cowardly. Professor Britland said in lecture that blood binds men and they earn respect for each other. How can blood bind men if they are killing each other left and right? I think the only way that men can earn respect by killing is by self-defense. If someone attacks a man and that man kills the person going after him I would have a lot more respect for him. First of all by defending yourself when someone tries to kill you deserves the most respect. By doing this it shows toughness, alertness, and masculinity. I cannot see how one can have respect by killing someone behind their back, like Macbeth did to Duncan. If he wants to earn respect he should have challenged him to a fight. By doing this and winning he not only would earn respect and his masculinity, but he would have also earned to be king. We cannot say that Lady Macbeth has earned respect either. She helped the plot to kill Duncan. By doing this she also becomes cowardly. There are many different ways to earn respect, but killing in a cowardly way is not one of them.

the three witches: about as clear as case law

Okay so back to my love of the supernatural…there’s one thing I’ve noticed about the witches that has lead me to a whole lot of contemplation.

Why did they go into so much detail about Macbeth’s death and not his rise to power? They gave many clues as to what and how things would take place to precede his death but when they first meet Macbeth to tell him of his advancement of titles and power, they say so little. They could have easily said “Hey you’re going to become king by killing the king…here’s how you do it” or “hey you’re going to become king…but don’t kill him because otherwise you’re going to become one of the greatest literary villains of time. And he’ll die of a tragic accident in like a week anyway”. But seriously why? I can’t really think of anything quite yet; I’ll probably have to reread those sections. Thoughts guys? I mean granted Macbeth did ask specific-ish questions about his impending downfall but he also tried to ask them in the beginning.

My other question concerns Hecate. Was she like pissed off or was it kind of like one of those…”Really guys? Really? Did you have to go and paint on the walls? I gave you crayons and finger paints and lots of paper and you had to go and draw on the walls. Well fine, let’s clean it up and then we can bake cookies.” I know, I know, she wasn’t exactly all June Cleaver, and this isn’t Leave it to Beaver but I don't get a sense of like true anger besides what the witches alude to. I didn’t really get the sense that she was all that upset with them and beyond the fact that she came into scold them what’s her purpose? She comes into tell them to clean up their act and right their wrongs (again an –ish) and nothing else. I really don’t see a role for her. Which makes me wonder if she’s actually a terrifically important character and I’m missing something huge. Help!

Richard: Love him or hate him?

In lecture the question was asked, "Why does Shakespeare turn Richard into such a villain?" This is a good point to look at because who is he a villain too and what are the readers supposed to feel? We can understand that Richard is a terrible guy for killing so many for so little reason sometimes. He is a murderer, and what makes it worse is that in the play we are shown signs that he is also pretty intellectual which makes the killings even worse. He should be looked at as a terrible character, yet after reading it you can almost feel sympathy for him. He does these terrible things but is it because its predetermined? Margaret brings in predestination in lines from act 1, scene 3, that make seem like maybe this isn't all Richard's fault. Or it can be the fact we feel bad for just the overall person he is, and how he can't see these terrible things he does as being bad. He feels peace makes man weak, how can anyone feel any sympathy for that is crazy to think, but reading the play throughout it's hard to keep that set idea that he is beyond horrible and a little sympathy creeps into my mind. In the end, I may feel a little sympathy for him, but i would never want to see him on the streets.

Witches In Macbeth

I feel that the witches play a very important role in Macbeth. The represent greed, lust, and darkness. In the beginning of the film we can see just how dark they are. The audience sees them taking eyes out of statues, spray-painting red on their eyes; all of the statues are of the Virgin Mary.
In the beginning when they are meeting they ask when they should meet again, “When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in the rain?” All three of these environments are dark, cruel atmospheres. This gives the audience the idea of what these witches are here for. They say they want to meet Macbeth, but they don’t explain why they will meet with Macbeth. This confuses me, are they just randomly picking Macbeth for no good reason, is it just random? When they meet with Macbeth they seduce him into this greedy, lustful character. His greed is for power and for this power he needs to become violent and kill. These witches cause all the violence because they are greedy, lustful, and full of dark

macbeth's self fufilling prophecy

I propose that if Macbeth had not heard the witches’ prophecies in the beginning of the play he would not have killed Duncan, and most likely would have been fine with the position as the new Thane of Cawdor. However, Macbeth allows the prophecies’ to completely control the direction his life takes.
I am a psychology major so naturally I am biased to this point of view… but I think that Macbeth’s fate was mainly a product of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Although some of the witches apparitions that come true are purely supernatural such as their warnings that Macbeth would be safe until Birnam Wood moved to Dunsane Hill and that he would not be harmed by none of woman born( and all the other prophecies in that scene.) I believe that Macbeths killing of Duncan Banquoe and Macduff’s wife and children are the result of Macbeths allowance of the witches prophecies (that he would become king and that Banquo’s children would eventually gain the throne) to completely manifest themselves as absolute reality in his mind and his inability to realize that he still had the power to choose his actions. Macbeth’s actions can be paralleled with the ideas in the Thomas Theorem the root principal in self fulfilling prophecy explains that: “people do not react only to the situations they are in, but also, and often primarily, to the way they perceive the situations and to the meaning they assign to these situations. Therefore, their behavior is determined in part by their perception and the meaning they ascribe to the situations they are in, rather than by the situations themselves. Once people convince themselves that a situation really has a certain meaning, regardless of whether it actually does, they will take very real actions in consequence.” (Wikipedia) Similarly, it doesn’t matter whether or not the witches prophecies in the beginning of the play were true or if the witches had just turned out to be three crazy homeless ladies speaking in tongues that were only in the play for that one scene…Macbeth would have fundamentally carried out the same actions.