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Comparison
of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth (Act I assignment)
Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are a man a wife who live in castle and get more materialistic
the older they get. They can both be described in my opinion as go getters. They see something they want, and they strive
their hardest for it at any cost. The couple’s goal throughout most of the story is to achieve having the ultimate power. At the beginning the two are very different
– Lady Macbeth is sly and ruthless and Macbeth is brave and loyal. As the story goes on, Macbeth falls into the ways
of his evil wife. Both characters make enemies which is unlike Macbeth for he was a selfless warrior. They are after the same
thing and plan to get it in the same desieving ways. Macbeth no longer fights for what he wants the honorable way but follows
Lady Macbeth in her pathway of lowered standards after she challenges his manhood. Macbeth plots a murder and sends three
murderers to take care of the job just as Lady Macbeth plotted the death of the king and lured Macbeth into doing it. After
committing the first murders, the two can’t stop. It seems as if they think they can murder their way to the top and
even though they are taking people’s lives, they are one step closer to getting what they want. Another characteristic
they share is that before the story ends, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both feel guilty over their wrongdoings. Lady Macbeth and
Macbeth are different in some parts of this story, by the end they both share the same, immoral, morbid, desperate, and selfish
qualities. This is a typical married couple. One has problems, one doesn’t, but before it’s over the one with
problems has pulled they other one down with her, and now they’re both crazy!
Character Sketch
of the Porter
(Act II assignment)
The porter is different
from all the other characters in this play. He adds a comic relief to all the drama happening. The porter
is pretty much crazy and pretends he is at the gates of hell. In Act II scene ii, there is a knock on the
door of Macbeth's castle. He takes his time and stumbles to the door. Instead of sleeping, the porter stayed up
drinking. Macduff and Lennox complain about the slowness of the porter getting to the door. He simply jokes about
what effects alcohol has on a person. The porter has many characteristics that make him special. Some include:
- he is the only character
that is just a regular old nonpower seeking person
- he lightens the
mood with comedy
- he is a layed
back man with no worries
Relation of
Macbeth to the Plot of the Play
(Act III assignment)
Macbeth is sincerely a good, kind
man who is trapped in wrong doing. Every person has a side of them that is evil just as Macbeth does, but it doesn't
come out until we have something we want or are done wrong by another or lose the values that keep us making the
right desicions. The good in Macbeth is seen when he is portrayed as a courageous warrior and also when he shows
guilt. He becomes the evil man when he falls into the world's ways and lets Lady Macbeth influence him.
By the end of the play Macbeth is drowning in his evil side and the desperate tyrant has so isolated himself from society—and
from his own moral sensibility—that for him life seems "a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying
nothing' (5.5.26-28). His once good nature is now bad. This is the basic theme and plot of the play, " foul is fair,
and fair is foul."
A Case and a Supported Theory
on the Identity of the Third Murderer
(Act IV assignment)
For some reason, we feel that
Macbeth himself actually stopped being a coward and took care of his business for himself. He was responsible for killing
many others only out of selfishness to get ahead. The power struggle made him a murderer through out the play.
Macbeth has a party and dinner in his honor and his friend Macduff didn't support him by not showing up. At one
point in the play, Macbeth tells his wife that he is going to find out why Macduff didn't attend. He lets her know
that there may be another murder. Lady Macbeth couldn't have been the third murderer because Macbeth
refused to tell her that he was arranging the murder of Banquo. She is also at the castle at the time of the murder
meeting with guests. She would not have had time to enter the woods, clean herself, and make it back in time.
We do not believe that Ross or Macduff were the third murderers either. Ross was at the dinner waiting for Banquo to
arrive while Macduff was in England. All the signs point back to Macbeth and he got to a point where he would've done
absolutely anything to get what he wanted.
Macbeth's View
of Life After Lady Macbeth's Death
(Act
V assignment)
Macbeth: "She should have died
hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from
day to day. Tothe last syllable of recorded time: And all our yesterdays have lighted foos The way to dusty death. Out, out,
brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no
more. It is a tale Told by and idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing. "
In Macbeth,
ambition conspires with unholy forces to commit evil deeds which, in their turn, generate fear, guilt and still more horrible
crimes. In the course of the play, Macbeth repeatedly misinterprets the guilt that he suffers as being simply a matter of
fear. His characteristic way of dealing with his guilt is to face it directly by committing still more misdeeds. Macbeth struggles
with deciding between following his ambition or following what he knows is right. By Macbeth saying that life is a tale tld
by an idiot, it makes us think he speaks of Shakespeare’s view. The whole play is made up of murder, drama, and suspense.
All the things are elements Shakespeare included in many of his works, so I think that the view is Shakespeares.
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