Magic has a dominant affect on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. This dark, eerie play becomes tragic when the supernatural is introduced. Untraditional in Shakespeare’s work, magic sets the tone in this tell tale of prophecy, ambition, and betrayal. Hallucinations, spells, witches, and prophecy, all associated with a dark higher power, affect the outcome of Macbeth when he tries to outsmart the powerful in his ruthless aspirations to attain power and immortality. Because Macbeth recklessly associates with the supernatural, his life takes a turn for the worse as he gambles with it to his ultimate downfall.
The witches bring a new unheard of quality to Shakespeare’s play. Not only does Macbeth meddle with their foretelling but he tries to order them to tell him his future in order to manipulate it as if he has power over them and his destiny. In act I, he doesn’t question their prophecy, but aspires to its fulfillment and later in Act II and III he begins to see the consequences of his role in it. In Act IV, the scene begins with the cauldron, the witches filling it with parts of animals and nothing that is ever whole. These parts could signify brokenness, separation, an unsettled table of events. These supernatural plays a huge role in the foreshadowing of the play from the darkness, to the blood, to the three apparitions. The spell in Act IV scene I, the most magical scene of the play, creates a dark mysteriousness for the events to come. Because these unexpected charms are unsettling and uneasy to make out, there is a certain sense of fear associated with them.
Macbeth tries to manipulate the prophecy and improve his outcome by meddling in supernatural charms. However, gambling with magic and other’s lives still proves fatal. The unknown evils in magic that he chooses to buy into, works against him. Macbeth cannot outrun his fate or continue with his own selfish gains by outsmarting the more powerful supernatural. He believes his life to be charmed, but doesn’t focus on what the apparitions tell him to beware of. The meaninglessness in the magic such as the caution of trees and something not born of woman proves so detrimental to the outcome of the play and implores more meaning that Macbeth needs in order to secure his reign. “Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cow’d my better part of man: And be these juggling fiends no more believe’d, that palter with us in double sense….”
Magic which is viewed as the dark evil could not be overpowered for Macbeth’s own benefit but only used for more darkness. All in all, without magic, the intensity of the plot would not be possible and neither would a lot of the events that take place.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Masculinity
In the first two acts of Macbeth, issues of gender, violence, and what it means to the definition of masculinity arises. Lady Macbeth constantly manipulates her husband by belittling and questioning his manhood. She assumes the responsibility of creating a plan to kill Duncan the king, and commanding her husband on his every move. On page twenty-eight she says to Macbeth: “…that I pour my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round.” The behavior of Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth’s response to her, shows that they equate masculinity with aggression, evilness, and violence.
Even though the men in the play are the only ones who have committed the physical violence, such as war and murder, the aggression and hunger of Lady Macbeth is more outstanding and surprising because it is contradictory to the usual expectation of how a woman should behave. She wishes to be “unsexed”, (30) and have all maternal, nurturing, and traditionally female attributes of her body stripped from her, and have them be replaced with evilness and cruelty. Her ambition for power and royal status is almost stronger and more apparent than her husband’s, as well as the other men in the play.
The other females who have appeared in the play thus far are the three witches. However even they appear manly because of their bearded chins. The witches are the initial spark that encourages violence, because of the prophecy they told Macbeth. Shakespeare has linked violence, and evil with the four prominent female characters in the play, demonstrating that women can be just as masculine and cruel, if not more so, than their male counterparts.
Even though the men in the play are the only ones who have committed the physical violence, such as war and murder, the aggression and hunger of Lady Macbeth is more outstanding and surprising because it is contradictory to the usual expectation of how a woman should behave. She wishes to be “unsexed”, (30) and have all maternal, nurturing, and traditionally female attributes of her body stripped from her, and have them be replaced with evilness and cruelty. Her ambition for power and royal status is almost stronger and more apparent than her husband’s, as well as the other men in the play.
The other females who have appeared in the play thus far are the three witches. However even they appear manly because of their bearded chins. The witches are the initial spark that encourages violence, because of the prophecy they told Macbeth. Shakespeare has linked violence, and evil with the four prominent female characters in the play, demonstrating that women can be just as masculine and cruel, if not more so, than their male counterparts.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Hurlyburly.
In the first words spoken in Macbeth, the three witches make plans to meet again soon. The thunder and lightning of the impending storm has already begun, but inclement weather seems to only better set the mood for their plotting:
1 Witch. When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
2 Witch. When the hurlyburly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
3 Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. (Macbeth, 1. 1.1-5.)
Not only has the thunder and lightning already sounded, but one may argue that the “hurlyburly” has already begun as well. The Arden edition of the play helpfully supplies the definition of this unusual word: “uproar, tumult, confusion, esp. the tumult of sedition or insurrection” (3). The “uproar, tumult, confusion” of the battle has already come to an end, with its victors declared, its defeated humiliated, and its heroes proven. The “sedition and insurrection” of the Thane of Cawdor’s treason has also come to light, and his title stripped to reward the heroism of Macbeth. But “ere the set of sun” another “hurlyburly” will be underway, and, one may argue, another battle already lost before it had begun.
The seeds of the “sedition and insurrection” plotted by the Macbeths will end in the murder of a king (among others), and the new Thane of Cawdor will end in much the same way his predecessor did—in the disgrace of treason. But the seeds of this next “hurlyburly” were planted long before this day. In the ruthless ambition and cruel intentions of Lady Macbeth’s heart, the battle for good and honor was lost long before she received her husband’s letter. “Ere the set of sun” not only will the witches meet again, but the bloody results of the Macbeth’s “hurlyburly” will be all but done.
The witches meet to plot, cavort, and do mischief. Although they are analogous to the three Greek furies of vengeance, jealousy and rage, their real mischief isn’t in pronouncing curses or enacting evil and murderous deeds. The “hurlyburly’s done” and the battle for good is already “lost and won”—theirs is only a descriptive commentary on the evil already intended by others. There is little real work for witches or furies amid the hurlyburly of the human heart.
1 Witch. When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
2 Witch. When the hurlyburly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
3 Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. (Macbeth, 1. 1.1-5.)
Not only has the thunder and lightning already sounded, but one may argue that the “hurlyburly” has already begun as well. The Arden edition of the play helpfully supplies the definition of this unusual word: “uproar, tumult, confusion, esp. the tumult of sedition or insurrection” (3). The “uproar, tumult, confusion” of the battle has already come to an end, with its victors declared, its defeated humiliated, and its heroes proven. The “sedition and insurrection” of the Thane of Cawdor’s treason has also come to light, and his title stripped to reward the heroism of Macbeth. But “ere the set of sun” another “hurlyburly” will be underway, and, one may argue, another battle already lost before it had begun.
The seeds of the “sedition and insurrection” plotted by the Macbeths will end in the murder of a king (among others), and the new Thane of Cawdor will end in much the same way his predecessor did—in the disgrace of treason. But the seeds of this next “hurlyburly” were planted long before this day. In the ruthless ambition and cruel intentions of Lady Macbeth’s heart, the battle for good and honor was lost long before she received her husband’s letter. “Ere the set of sun” not only will the witches meet again, but the bloody results of the Macbeth’s “hurlyburly” will be all but done.
The witches meet to plot, cavort, and do mischief. Although they are analogous to the three Greek furies of vengeance, jealousy and rage, their real mischief isn’t in pronouncing curses or enacting evil and murderous deeds. The “hurlyburly’s done” and the battle for good is already “lost and won”—theirs is only a descriptive commentary on the evil already intended by others. There is little real work for witches or furies amid the hurlyburly of the human heart.
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