Your thoughts on Macbeth

[Infinita]

I am a bit curious to what everyone thinks about the shakesperian play, Macbeth. I have finished reading it. It's really good and I just want some opinions on it. What do you think of the character Macbeth and did you enjoy reading this play? (that's if you did) ^^

[Eris]

Shakespeare is honestly a bit dull if you ask me. It's one of those things you're supposed to appreciate, but it never sat well with me. He was talented, but not -that- talented.

Also, being a play, it's more rewarding to watch than to read.

[Ollie]

I personally greatly dislike the fact that in high school English classes you have to read Shakespeare. What kind of logical fallacy is this? It was never meant to be read!

My knowledge with Shakespeare is thus quite limited. I liked watching Hamlet, though.

[None of the above]

At least Macbeth was one of the best plays ever we did in class. Believe me - There is much worse.

[Amray]

His that baldy man right? I don't think we ever learnt that shakespeare book..or maybe we did but I just wasn't paying attention. ^^;
I remember 12th Night or whatever though. Deary me that topic seemed to go on forever and ever!

[Baka]

I used to know a girl Beth that worked at McDonalds. But that's "Mc" not "Mac"

Never read the play though. Is it good??? I read Hamlet and The Comedy of Errors, but that's the only Shakespeare I've read. I have seen A MidSummer Night's Dream on stage before.

[Fiery]

Honestly, I'm not much for blank verse. If it's going to be in iambic pentameter, I want it to rhyme. Just a personal preference.

I much prefer his sonnets, but then again, I don't really agree with his views on love.

I did like Twelfth Night, though, mostly because it was nonsense, and I could have a good laugh at it without bending my knees to a reverent name.

[Sailor Mystery]

It was okay I didnt like it much. To me its basicly a chain killing one person after another just to get the power over people that you want. In the end Macbeth died and to me there was no point.

[Totsean]

^ Macbeth didn't kill anyone.

[International 4-8818]

I found macbeth to be an old school murder ring book. For me, i think shakespear is to over hyped. Yes, i think we get it, the gods control everything in the whole damn play. That just takes out the whole fun in it.

[Momokachan]

Ugh, Shakespeare. Even -contemplating- reading his work gives me a migraine.

People always go on and on about how supposedly amazing he was. Guys, it's just one big string of sex jokes, put together with pretty words, at least in the case of his plays. For crissake, Macbeth is a tragedy, and there's an entire scene with the drunk sentry talking about the effects of alcohol on a man's sex drive.

[Hideki Motosuwa.]

I saw something about it. And my school had a play McBeth, but I never read the actual Shakespere play. I read a comic-book version(shortened) of it and I enjoyed it. Quite violent though. 0.0

[MetalKnight]

^ Macbeth didn't kill anyone.

What are you talking about? He shanked Duncan hardcore and threw Macdonwald's head on a pike.


As for me, I've also thought Shakespeare's plays were good, but not great, certainly not worth the overrated canon attention it recieves in the school system or page upon page of written analysis. Macbeth is one of the better playss in my opinion.

[Fabala]

I liked Lady Macbeth XD Her ambition was her downfall. That amuses me.

Though I prefer Oedipus Rex for being downright twisted.

[demonplight]

I didn't care for it to much, when comparing it to his other works, I find it a bit dry, and unrealistic. A marching forest, and being killed by a man not born (LOTR copied that), so a man born from C-section kills him. I mean come on. when compared to other forms of classical literature Macbeth comes short. I think that Much a do about Nothing was far better.

What do you think of Canterbury's Tales?

[Wio]

I liked Lady Macbeth XD Her ambition was her downfall. That amuses me.

I'd say her downfall was doing so many evil things. I mean if she was ambitious and didn't do such heinous acts, she wouldn't be haunted.



Macbeth was just another story about the some guy corrupted by his desire for power.

[Fabala]

But her ambition led her to commit those acts. Without her ambition, would she have done them at all? I doubt it. Therefore I say her ambition was her downfall.

I didn't care for it to much, when comparing it to his other works, I find it a bit dry, and unrealistic. A marching forest, and being killed by a man not born (LOTR copied that), so a man born from C-section kills him. I mean come on. when compared to other forms of classical literature Macbeth comes short. I think that Much a do about Nothing was far better.

LOTR copied it and didn't do it justice, I say. A separation between man and woman? Come on, that's pushing the meaning too far.

[Momokachan]

I liked Lady Macbeth XD Her ambition was her downfall. That amuses me.

Though I prefer Oedipus Rex for being downright twisted.

Antigone was worse, I thought.
I know one of the English teachers here has a paper-mache model of Oedipus' head, including the blood-stained bandage where he stabbed his own eyes out.

...this is probably why I never took a Cognard Torture Session.

[Ollie]

Ugh, Shakespeare. Even -contemplating- reading his work gives me a migraine.

People always go on and on about how supposedly amazing he was. Guys, it's just one big string of sex jokes, put together with pretty words, at least in the case of his plays. For crissake, Macbeth is a tragedy, and there's an entire scene with the drunk sentry talking about the effects of alcohol on a man's sex drive.

Which explains all the hundreds of books that have been published going into detail trying to figure out the symbolism and fully understand why Shakespeare put things together the way he did...

IT WAS ALL PART OF THE ANTI-TREE REVOLUTION!!

[Totsean]

The Macbeth Murder Mystery
by James Thurber (American humorist).

Originally published in My World and Welcome to It

This is of course a send-up of classic early 20th century detective fiction and its readership, but also of a habit of mind of reading Shakespeare that looks a bit too closely at the details.

"It was a stupid mistake to make," said the American woman I had met at my hotel in the English lake country, "but it was on the counter with the other Penguin books--the little sixpenny ones, you know, with the paper covers--and I supposed of course it was a detective story. All the others were detective stories. I'd read all the others, so I bought this one without really looking at it carefully. You can imagine how mad I was when I found it was Shakespeare." I murmured something sympathetically. "I don't see why the Penguin-books people had to get out Shakespeare plays in the same size and everything as the detective stories," went on my companion. "I think they have different-colored jackets," I said. "Well, I didn't notice that," she said. "Anyway, I got real comfy in bed that night and all ready to read a good mystery story and here I had 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'--a book for high-school students. Like 'Ivanhoe,' " "Or 'Lorna Doone,' " I said. "Exactly," said the American lady. "And I was just crazy for a good Agatha Christie, or something. Hercule Poirot is my favorite detective." "Is he the rabbity one?" I asked. "Oh, no," said my crime-fiction expert. "He's the Belgian one. You're thinking of Mr.. Pinkerton, the one that helps Inspector Bull. He's good, too."
Over her second cup of tea my companion began to tell the plot of a detective story that had fooled her completely--it seems it was the old family doctor all the time. But I cut in on her. "Tell me," I said. "Did you read 'Macbeth'?" "I had to read it, she said. "There wasn't a scrap of anything else to read in the whole room." "Did you like it?" I asked. "No, I did not," she said, decisively. "In the first place, I don't think for a moment that Macbeth did it." I looked at her blankly. "Did what?" I asked. "I don't think for a moment that he killed the King," she said. "I don't think the Macbeth woman was mixed up in it, either. You suspect them the most, of course, but those are the ones that are never guilty--or shouldn't be, anyway." "I'm 'afraid," I began, "that I--" "But don't you see?" said the American lady. "It would spoil everything if you could figure out right away who did it. Shakespeare was too smart for that. I've read that people never have figured out 'Hamlet,' so it isn't likely Shakespeare would have made 'Macbeth' as simple as it seems." I thought this over while I filled my pipe. "Who do you suspect?" I asked, suddenly. "Macduff," she said, promptly. "Good God!" I whispered, softly.
"Oh Macduff did it, all right," said the murder specialist. Hercule Poirot would have got him easily." "How did you figure it out?" I demanded. "Well," she said, "I didn't right away. At first I suspected Banquo. And then, of course, he was the second person killed. That was good right in there, that part. The person you suspect of the first murder should always be the second victim." "Is that so?" I murmured. "Oh, yes," said my informant. "They have to keep surprising you. Well, after the second murder I didn't know who the killer was for a while." "How about Malcolm and Donalbain, the King's sons?" I asked. "As I remember it, they fled right after the first murder. That looks suspicious." "Too suspicious," said the American lady. "Much too suspicious. When they flee, they're never guilty. You can count on that." "I believe," I said, "I'll have a brandy," and I summoned the waiter. My companion leaned toward me, her eyes bright, her teacup quivering. "Do you know who discovered Duncan's body?" she demanded. I said I was sorry, but I had forgotten. "Macduff discovers it," she said, slipping into the historical present. "Then he comes running downstairs and shouts, 'Confusion has broke open the Lord's anointed temple' and 'Sacrilegious murder has made his masterpiece' and on and on like that." The good lady tapped me on the knee. "All that stuff was rehearsed," she said. "You wouldn't say a lot of stuff like that, offhand, would you--if you had found a body?" She fixed me with a glittering eye. "I--" I began. "You're right!" she said. "You wouldn't! Unless you had practiced it in advance. 'My God, there's a body in here!' is what an innocent man would say." She sat back with a confident glare.
I thought for a while. "But what do you make of the Third Murderer?" I asked. "You know, the Third Murderer has puzzled 'Macbeth' scholars for three hundred years." "That's because they never thought of Macduff," said the American lady. "It was Macduff, I'm certain. You couldn't have one of the victims murdered by two ordinary thugs-the murderer always has to be somebody important." "But what about the banquet scene?" I asked, after a moment. "How do you account for Macbeth's guilty actions there,, when Banquo's ghost came in and sat in his chair?" The lady leaned forward and tapped me on the knee again. "There wasn't t any ghost," she said. "A big, strong man like that doesn't go around seeing ghosts -- especially in a brightly lighted banquet hall with dozens of people around. Macbeth wasshielding somebody!" "Who was he shielding?" I asked. "Mrs. Macbeth, of course," she said. "He thought she did it and he was going to take the rap himself. The husband always does that when the wife is suspected." "But what," I demanded, "about the sleepwalking scene, then?" "The same thing, only the other way around," said my companion. "That time she was shielding him. She wasn't asleep at all. Do you remember where it says, 'Enter Lady Macbeth with a taper'? "Yes," I said. "Well, people who walk in their sleep never carry lights!" said my fellow-traveler. "They have a second sight. Did you ever hear of a sleepwalker carrying a light?" "No," I said, "I never did." "Well, then, she wasn't asleep. She was acting guilty to shield Macbeth." "I think," l said, "I'll have another brandy," and I called the waiter. When he brought it, I drank it rapidly and rose to go. "I believe," I said, "that you have got hold of something. Would you lend me that 'Macbeth'? I'd like to look it over tonight. I don't feel, somehow, as if I'd ever really read it." "I'll get it for you," she said. "But you'll find that I am right."
I read the play over carefully that night, and the next morning, after breakfast, I sought out the American woman. She was on the putting green, and I came up behind her silently and took her arm. She gave an exclamation. "Could I see you alone?" I asked, in a low voice. She nodded cautiously and followed me to a secluded spot. "You've found out something?" she breathed. "I've found out," I said, triumphantly, "the name of the murderer!" "You mean it wasn't Macduff?" she said. "Macduff is as innocent of those murders," I said, "as Macbeth and the Macbeth woman." I opened the copy of the play, which I had with me, and turned to Act II, Scene 2. Here," I said, "you will see where Lady Macbeth says, 'I laid their daggers ready. He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done it.' Do you see?" "No," said the American woman, bluntly, "I don't." "But it's simple!" I exclaimed. "I wonder I didn't see it years ago. The reason Duncan resembled Lady Macbeth's father as he slept is that it actually 'was her father!" "Good God!" breathed my companion, softly. "Lady Macbeth's father killed the King," I said, "and, hearing someone coming, thrust the body under the bed and crawled into the bed himself." "But," said the lady, "you can't have a murderer who only appears in the story once. You can't have that." "I know that," I said, and I turned to Act II, Scene 4. "It says here, 'Enter Ross with an old Man.' Now, that old man is never identified and it is my contention he was old Mr. Macbeth, whose ambition it was to make his daughter Queen. There you have your motive." "But even then," cried the American lady, "he's still a minor character!" "Not," I said, gleefully, "when you realize that he was also one of the weird Sisters in disguise!" "You mean one of the three witches?" "Precisely," I said. "Listen to this speech of the old man's. 'On Tuesday last, a falcon towering in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.' Who does that sound like?" "It sounds like the way the three witches talk," said my companion, reluctantly. "Precisely!" I said again. "Well," said the American woman, "maybe you're right, but-" "I'm sure I am," I said. "And do you know what I'm going to do now?" "No," she said. "What?" "Buy a copy of 'Hamlet,'" I said, "and solve that!" My companion's eye brightened. "Then," she said, "you don't think Hamlet did it?" "I am," I said, "absolutely positive he didn't." "But who," she demanded, "do you suspect?" I looked at her cryptically. "Everybody," I said, and disappeared into a small grove of trees as silently as I had come.

Oh yea, it's alot more deep of a mystery than all of you think it is.

[Faceless111]

^ Macbeth didn't kill anyone.

...What? Um, yes he did.

People always go on and on about how supposedly amazing he was. Guys, it's just one big string of sex jokes, put together with pretty words, at least in the case of his plays. For crissake, Macbeth is a tragedy, and there's an entire scene with the drunk sentry talking about the effects of alcohol on a man's sex drive.

It called comedic relief. He added these elements to lighten the mood. Yes, these are tragedies, but comedic relief helps a lot. And I happened to really like the drunken porter.

Anyways, if you like Macbeth and if you like Akira Kurosawa (or even if you haven't seen his movies), go out and watch Throne of Blood. It's Macbeth with samurai in it. Also, I really liked the ending. Death by arrows as opposed to one-on-one combat. It sounds cheap but I think it was really well-done.

[Totsean]

...What? Um, yes he did/

Probably not. Read my other post with the big quote.

[lovely_gurl_of_rose]

i just loved it because theres that saying " the good conquerors over all" and im completely with that saying . shakespeare did a good job there.

[None of the above]

Probably not. Read my other post with the big quote.

As concludent all that stipulated proof is, it really isn't.

First of all, this is fiction.
Secondly since it is fiction, it can be interpretable. In a postmodern point of view, the double-coding is incredibly vast in Shakespeare's plays.

Again- the classic interpretation of Macbeth's murders still stands.
So, he did kill.

[Totsean]

^ Kay lady, whatever you say, but that's just what you think. I was just saying my opinion. No need to get all worked up about it.