-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Shakespeare Noob
- Thread starter Falvlun
- Start date
OmarKhayyam
Well-Known Member
Some one has remarked about Macbeth that it uses too many words to explain something simple. The example given is from Act 1 vii:
"Macbeth: I am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know."
The poster reads this as saying, “Distract the party while I kill the King.”
This is a shallow and amateurish reading that simply fails to appreciate what the lines were intended to convey. And reading in this fashion does indeed reduce the play to a modern soap opera. And one hardly worth the effort of watching.
What the reader should understand is that Macbeth is conflicted about his plans. He knows he should not kill. He knows he must be false to his friends. But he is settled to do the deed anyway. Here we have a common theme in Shakespeare; the ability of Man to do evil, knowingly and in full reason but without malice. Macbeth holds no ill will for Duncan. He actually rather likes the guy. But he will kill him anyway knowing it is wrong and knowing it will have unwanted consequences. And why?
He has “. . . no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.”
This is why the play is called the “The Tragedy of Macbeth” instead of “The Tale of the Murderer Macbeth.” Here is a basically good guy, noble, honest, a proven warrior, who commits regicide for no reason but “vaulting ambition.” There is nothing wrong with ambition. It is behind much progress and good in the world. But here a good man is ruined by it. And his society and many others harmed or killed.
The lines quoted say a lot MORE than the poster understood. About us; as moral reasoning and responsible beings.
"Macbeth: I am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know."
The poster reads this as saying, “Distract the party while I kill the King.”
This is a shallow and amateurish reading that simply fails to appreciate what the lines were intended to convey. And reading in this fashion does indeed reduce the play to a modern soap opera. And one hardly worth the effort of watching.
What the reader should understand is that Macbeth is conflicted about his plans. He knows he should not kill. He knows he must be false to his friends. But he is settled to do the deed anyway. Here we have a common theme in Shakespeare; the ability of Man to do evil, knowingly and in full reason but without malice. Macbeth holds no ill will for Duncan. He actually rather likes the guy. But he will kill him anyway knowing it is wrong and knowing it will have unwanted consequences. And why?
He has “. . . no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.”
This is why the play is called the “The Tragedy of Macbeth” instead of “The Tale of the Murderer Macbeth.” Here is a basically good guy, noble, honest, a proven warrior, who commits regicide for no reason but “vaulting ambition.” There is nothing wrong with ambition. It is behind much progress and good in the world. But here a good man is ruined by it. And his society and many others harmed or killed.
The lines quoted say a lot MORE than the poster understood. About us; as moral reasoning and responsible beings.
Last edited:
monta
.
What I love most about Macbeth it that everyone gets what they wished for but there wishes are perverted to the extent that they are destroyed by them, delicious. Many people think that the version we have today was edited for time and that is why it is so short, but I enjoy the fast pace of it.