...Name Institution Professor Date Macbeth: Character and Synopsis Review At the start of the Shakespearean play “Macbeth” the character Macbeth; also, the protagonist features a dichotomy in strength and weakness. This is though conformity that several characters in the play are emotionally unstable and tortured. Macbeth, like other characters, has his mind pulled in to conflicting directions consequential to compelling desires, obligations, ambitions, and desires. Three attributes that cause a strain in Macbeths life are ambition, self-doubt, and bravely. Shakespeare uses Macbeth in showing how personal ambitions and guilt terribly affect people who lack a strong personality. The aforementioned three attributes illustrate the struggle for mastery of Macbeth through the play. We first hear of Macbeth in the wounded captain’s description of his battle boldness hence get an impression that he is a capable brave warrior. His nobility and rank are valuable aspects that make him seem fit for his status. However, his encounter with three witches provokes a deep impatient ambition. Soon after the first prophecy on being Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth gets a nasty image of the murder of King Duncan in his mind. This would open a room for him to assume the throne (Bloom 8). Macbeth is though not solely and ambitious as seen in his fright of the murder image that thoroughly defiles his loyalty. Macbeth is portrayed as deeply thinking about being the king. He is though undecided whether...
Words: 981 - Pages: 4
...Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and Malouf’s novel Ransom both explore themes about freedom. The themes of freedom are largely characterised by their modes of textual representation – the play and the novel. Malouf’s novel is a heteroglossic text and is able to explore the themes relating to freedom through multiple focalisations and intertextuality with Homer’s Iliad. On the other hand, Shakespeare’s Macbeth explores the theme of freedom with asides, soliloquies and the supernatural. However, despite these differences in their representations of freedom there is a convergence for the reader in the implications for narrative meaning. Regardless of their contexts both texts elevate free will over predestination. Malouf’s novel Ransom reimagines...
Words: 1619 - Pages: 7
...the imagery of ‘hell’ is continued in the porter’s prose: “Who’s there I’th’name of Beelzebub?” the analogy hell becomes imperturbably strongly as instead of receiving a welcome to Macbeth’s castle, guests are cautioned as they put themselves in the devil’s land. The porter is unlike all the characters of noble birth and this is portrayed through his speech in prose and not iambic verse. Despite his casual banter, the porter ironically tells truths, therefore, increasing the sense of theatricality. The comical metaphor of naming the alcohol the equivocator to lechery because alcohol both “provokes, and unprovokes” caricatures Macbeth’s moral confusion and ambition for power. By doing so the porter echoes Lady Macbeth’s sexual taunting of Macbeth about his ability to carry out resolutions. The oxymoron “too cold for...
Words: 856 - Pages: 4
...Throughout Scene 1-4 Macbeth is portrayed as a heroic and valiant man, however with sly and manipulative characteristics brought out by the Witches. The use of structure and language allows Shakespeare to present both Macbeths flaws and weaknesses to the audience. The arrangement of the meeting place for the witches, in act 1 upon hill in dark and destructive weather, symbolises the witches as a representation for temptation, foreshadowing Macbeth’s potential human weakness to be susceptible to temptation, before we are even introduced to Macbeth himself. Shakespeare presents Macbeths character as brave and fearless in Scene 2; without Macbeth being present. “Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’chaps and fixed his head upon our battlements”, this quotation is said by the captain, who is commending Macbeth for defeating the leader of the rebel army. We can see from this, how Macbeth posesses a merciless attitude and has no problem boasting his achievements in such a crude manner. The use of vivid imagery depicts Macbeth’s bravery in slaughtering the enemy, despite the brutality of the death. The gratitude proclaimed by the Captain also highlights Macbeth’s loyalty and devotion to the King, placing Macbeth on a pedestal to highlight Macbeth’s vast downfall later on in the play. In addition to this the Captain uses a simile, “Like Valour’s minion carved out his passage till he faced the slave”. Again, this depicts Macbeth as a courageous hero who used his ruthless bravery...
Words: 613 - Pages: 3
...Name Institution Professor Date Macbeth: Character and Synopsis Review At the start of the Shakespearean play “Macbeth†the character Macbeth; also, the protagonist features a dichotomy in strength and weakness. This is though conformity that several characters in the play are emotionally unstable and tortured. Macbeth, like other characters, has his mind pulled in to conflicting directions consequential to compelling desires, obligations, ambitions, and desires. Three attributes that cause a strain in Macbeths life are ambition, self-doubt, and bravely. Shakespeare uses Macbeth in showing how personal ambitions and guilt terribly affect people who lack a strong personality. The aforementioned three attributes illustrate the struggle for mastery of Macbeth through the play. We first hear of Macbeth in the wounded captain’s description of his battle boldness hence get an impression that he is a capable brave warrior. His nobility and rank are valuable aspects that make him seem fit for his status. However, his encounter with three witches provokes a deep impatient ambition. Soon after the first prophecy on being Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth gets a nasty image of the murder of King Duncan in his mind. This would open a room for him to assume the throne (Bloom 8). Macbeth is though not solely and ambitious as seen in his fright of the murder image that thoroughly defiles his loyalty. Macbeth is portrayed as deeply thinking about being the king. He is though undecided...
Words: 981 - Pages: 4
...the sentiments behind William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth. Shakespeare was a poet as well as a playwright, famous for his powerful poetic language, universal themes, and keen insight into human behavior. His works dealt with the consequences and the psychological effects of certain actions, rather than the actions themselves. His effective use of figurative language, and unique writing style in Macbeth, as well as his other works, instantly captivates and mesmerizes the reader. Macbeth is a powerful drama about unchecked ambition, murder, intricate human relationships, and corruption of the human conscience. The play, set in 11th century Scotland and England, is composed of various acts and scenes, each greatly contributing to the overall plot and the play's varied themes. This is the inciting incident of the witches' prophecies in Act I Scene iii that puts the whole play into action. It is an extremely important and a very complex scene involving the Weird Sisters, Macbeth and Banquo, holding the key to future incidents and actions in the play, leading right upto the climax. This scene is pivotal in the overall development of the play- getting the characters geared up, and setting the stage for depraved thoughts and terrible actions to come. "The charm's wound up"(37) when the protagonist, Macbeth, first arrives on the scene with his friend Banquo. Upto this point, the reader does not know much about the character of Macbeth aside from the fact that he is said to be a brave...
Words: 1824 - Pages: 8
...No Roles, No Estate Fate, nature, and identity: in MacBeth, Shakespeare brews these three factors together in a boiling cauldron to demonstrate the dark side of the nature of mankind. MacBeth, initially a loyal general in Duncan’s army, becomes a mad, arrogant tyrant as a result of listening to prophesies of his future – or more specifically, his soon-to-become titles. His prior knowledge of his new titles elicits the inconspicuous avarice within MacBeth, which in return envelops Scotland into disorder and disease. Had he never obtained the ambition to promote his own role as king, Scotland could have remained the way it was under Duncan’s gentle rule; the absence of malicious intent – which had caused the deaths of Duncan, Banquo, and MacDuff’s family – would have most certainly created a different, possibly peaceful, alternative in the direction of destiny. Perhaps Shakespeare may be attempting to demonstrate the importance of roles within a society, as is evident throughout the characters, embedded words, and motifs within the script. Titles and roles create identities for people and establish societal norms, and, in effect, ultimately balance the order of nature. A role defines the identity, and thus the actions and purpose, of an individual. Names and labels are essential in that they are used everyday to recognize other people and oneself. The roles indicate who said, did, and conversed with whom, fundamental to Shakespeare’s literature that involves the interaction...
Words: 1328 - Pages: 6
...A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET CLASSIC EDITION OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S MACBETH LINDA NEAL 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...
Words: 8499 - Pages: 34
...AP LIT TERMS 1. Allegory: figurative treatment of one subject under the appearance of another. George Orwell's 1984 (ex. Big Brother: Stalin, Airstrip One: Soviet Russia), Shakespeare's All the World's a Stage (metaphor of human lives being as in a play) 2. Alliteration: The repetition of the same letter or the same consonant sound in words that are together. Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven(While I nodded, nearly napping...) 3. Allusion: A casual reference to a significant figure from the past Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet ("...when King Cophetua loved the beggar maid!": Allusion to an old legend) 4. Ambiguity: An unclear, indefinite, or vague word, expression, meaning, etc J.D Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye(“... I’m quite a heavy smoker, for one thing—that is, I used to be. They made me cut it out. Another thing, I grew six and a half inches last year. That’s also how I practically got t.b. and came out here for all these goddam checkups and stuff..."-"Here" and "there" are ambiguous) 5. Analogy: A comparison that shows the likenesses in two things Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet("What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called.": Compares Romeo to a rose and says a rose is sweet smelling no matter how you call it.) 6. Anaphora: The repetition of words in two or more successive clauses, sentences, or verses J.D Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye("It rained on his lousy tombstone...
Words: 679 - Pages: 3
...|stylistic device |definition |translation |example |effect | |alliteration |recurrence of initial sound |Alliteration |“The fair breeze blew, |to convey auditory images | | | | |the white foam flew.” | | |accumulation |series of expressions (adjectives, cliches, |Anhäufung |“He came, saw, fought and won” |to make the language livelier | | |examples, images) that contribute increasingly to | | | | | |meaning | | | | |anaphora |repetition of first word(s) of line/clause |Anapher |In every town, in every house in every man, in every|to stress the main point ...
Words: 1251 - Pages: 6
...Stylistic devices Repetition and Variation |stylistic device |definition |translation |example |effect | |alliteration |recurrence of initial sound |Alliteration |“The fair breeze blew, |to convey auditory images | | | | |the white foam flew.” | | |accumulation |series of expressions (adjectives, cliches, |Anhäufung |“He came, saw, fought and won” |to make the language livelier | | |examples, images) that contribute increasingly to | | | | | |meaning | | | | |anaphora |repetition of first word(s) of line/clause |Anapher |In every town, in every house...
Words: 1262 - Pages: 6
...Today we see conflicts in soaps such as Coronation Street or Emmerdale but in Shakespeare's time they had plays and saw the conflicts in plays such as Macbeth. It is good to have conflicts in dramas as it keeps the audience captivated and makes the audience want to know what is going to happen next. In the play Romeo and Juliet, conflict is the foundation of the play as there is conflict between the two families the whole way through and there is fighting because of it. There is verbal and physical conflict. In the prologue it mentions that there will be conflict in the play to come so it pricks our interest. A prologue is an introduction to the play explaining the basis of what is going to happen. It occurs at the beginning of the play and it is like the blurb on the back of a book. The mention of conflict in the lay is about a family feud between the Montague and Capulet families. The idea of conflicts in a play adds a sense of excitement. We are supposed to learn that you shouldn't make people hate each other and that a lot of pain and suffering could have been resolved if they had made up or just let Romeo and Juliet get on with their lives without interfering and trying to separate them and control them. The prologue is supposed to captivate the audience in a trance so they don't lose track of the play. The way the sonnet was written as well is good for the rhythm of the prologue. Also the prologue is good to make them want to know what is going to happen throughout...
Words: 2063 - Pages: 9
...because of his unconstitutional usurpation of power? William Shakespeare’s well-renowned play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, has led to centuries of controversial debate on the validity of tyrannicide based on his depiction of Julius Caesar. Some scholars have argued that Shakespeare intended to portray Caesar as a tyrant, while others believe he is acting as a just King. On one hand, it is difficult to assume that Shakespeare plainly viewed Caesar as a tyrant, especially since Shakespeare deliberately left Caesar’s actions and intentions ambiguous, making him into a less obvious tyrannical figure compared to Plutarch’s representation of Caesar. In addition, Shakespeare does not solidify Caesar as a tyrant in the same way he does with Macbeth and Richard III in their respective plays. On the other hand, it is difficult to reason that Caesar is a just King because he came into power by usurpation. “In antiquity the term [“tyrant”] referred to a ruler who came to power by usurpation, without constitutional warrant.” Based on insight from several sources and my own interpretation of Julius Caesar, I have concluded that Shakespeare left Caesar’s objectives unknown in order to focus on the moral dilemma faced by Brutus, but Shakespeare still intended to depict Caesar as a tyrant who deserved to be deposed because of his unconstitutional usurpation of power. In order to prove this I will evaluate the political turmoil during the Elizabethan era in an attempt to understand Shakespeare’s...
Words: 1848 - Pages: 8
... Allegory—A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one. A story, fictional or nonfictional, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts. The interaction of these characters, things, events is meant to reveal an abstraction or a truth. These characters, etc. may be symbolic of the ideas referred to. Alliteration—The repetition at close intervals of initial identical consonant sounds. Allusion—An indirect reference to something (usually a literary text) with which the reader is expected to be familiar. Allusions are usually literary, historical, Biblical, or mythological. Ambiguity—An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way. Also, the manner of expression of such an event or situation may be ambiguous. Artful language may be ambiguous. Unintentional ambiguity is usually vagueness. Anachronism—Assignment of something to a time when it was not in existence, e.g., the watch Merlyn wore in The Once and Future King. Analogy—An analogy is a comparison to a directly parallel case. When a writer uses an analogy, he or she argues that a claim reasonable for one case is reasonable for the analogous case. Anecdote—A brief recounting of a relevant episode. Anecdotes are often inserted into fictional or nonfictional texts as a way of developing a point or injecting humor. Angst—A term used in existential criticism to describe both the individual and the collective anxietyneurosis of the period following...
Words: 2974 - Pages: 12
...Jean Leon Iragena Dr. MacMaster IDST 1128-02 Spring Project March 24, 2011 The Truth behind Free Will: Luther vs. Erasmus The notion of free will is one of the most complex notions to define and to understand; it is defined differently according to one’s interpretation of the scriptures, especially the Bible. Both Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus, influenced by their faith and beliefs, write respectively against and for free will. Both try to adequately answer the questions: Does man have free will? If yes, why and how? If not, how? Possible answers to these questions given by both authors and some scholars who write against or for each one of these opponents’ arguments highlight, especially, the differences in the conception of man’s free will. Luther and his supporters view free will as an imaginary or impossible and dangerous thing to have; Erasmus and his supporters defend that the existence of man’s free will is irrefutable for it is in human nature itself as the Bible says it. In spite of some of Luther’s good ideas that prove man’s absence of free will and Erasmus’ excellent interpretation of the Bible, neither of them fully responds to the human yearning of knowing the concept of free will. After a thorough and wise analysis of the defense and abnegation of man’s free will of these authors, I find it impossible to fully deny or prove the existence of man’s free will. It is important to take into...
Words: 3561 - Pages: 15
