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Post by Mr. Thomas on Apr 29, 2014 13:52:22 GMT -5
"...unsex me here..."
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konrad
Junior Member
Posts: 55
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Post by konrad on Apr 29, 2014 16:56:49 GMT -5
C. With the Today’s reading, I was curious about Macbeth’s aside and Lady Macbeth’s speech that introduced in the first act. With some sense, did Lady Macbeth thought of killing the king and wanted the king to actually to come to the her castle before Macbeth hearing the prophecies from the witches?
D. “The Prince of Cumberland: that is a step/On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,/For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires,/Let not light see my black and deep desires,/The eye wink at the hand. Yet let that be,/Which the eye fears when it is done to see.” (Macbeth 13, Aside) This quotation has some significance to the overall plot of this play that relates to a tragedy of Macbeth. With the early encounter of the witches and the announcement of Malcolm’s taking the next throne by King Duncan, Macbeth has some intentions to actually let his destiny to happen, but the only way he could become the next king; he had to actually assassinate the king and any heirs to the throne. This is the first time that is mentioned to the readers or the audience that Macbeth wants to fulfill his destiny. Later in the play, we see that Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s wife, wanted her husband to achieve such a task and encourage him to actually murder the king. This is just predictions, but is likely to happen, as I am assuming during this time, politics were taken in a different level that resulted to many deaths with families, especially, and the likelihood of major suspensions with noble people.
H. As I mentioned before, the scenery of this establishment with the king meeting the commanders of his army could be done differently than that in the movie that Roman Polanski directed. In my imagination, I would actually translate the text from the play to the standard and more preferable tone, but it will reflect the same meaning. And then, it will be basically like the Game of Thrones or other medieval shows that is depicted like in Macbeth.
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Post by andrewbotti on Apr 29, 2014 17:29:07 GMT -5
C) I didn’t understand what they were planning to do to the king. I know they were going to kill him but how do they expect to kill the king without anyone else finding out. The king would be specifically going to their house. People would know that he was with Macbeth and his wife when he died if they killed him. I just don’t think they should go about this without an elaborate plan. If Macbeth were to just kill him without another thought he wouldn’t become king. Even if he killed him he wouldn’t become king until he killed Malcolm. This whole situation just seems really confusing. D) “He’s a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.” When Duncan said that I thought it was a little bit of foreshadowing. I thought maybe someone would betray Macbeth later on in the play. Whether it be his wife of Banquo, I think that that line showed a little bit of foreshadowing and can’t wait to see if I’m right or not. If I am it would make for a very good story. E) This Act meant a lot to the rest of the play. A lot happened in just a few pages. Macbeth is plotting to kill the king, we met his wife, and we find out that Malcolm is the Prince of Cumberland and that Macbeth wouldn’t be the heir to the throne. This act is vital to the story.
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Post by liamgoldfarb on Apr 29, 2014 17:39:55 GMT -5
I. Responding to Konrad’s question: “With the Today’s reading, I was curious about Macbeth’s aside and Lady Macbeth’s speech that introduced in the first act. With some sense, did Lady Macbeth thought of killing the king and wanted the king to actually to come to the her castle before Macbeth hearing the prophecies from the witches?” I do not believe Lady Macbeth thought of killing the king before reading Macbeth’s letter and hearing about the prophecy. I think because Macbeth was a lower official Thane, treason such as killing the king would probably never have even been thought of. It was only thought of after hearing the prophecy and realizing the king was the only one in Macbeth’s way of becoming the king.
E. Lady Macbeth seems to be wicked and ruthless lady. Lines 70-72 in scene five bring out the true colors in Lady Macbeth: “Only look up clear;/ To alter favour ever is to fear./ Leave all the rest to me.” She is basically telling Macbeth she will kill Duncan for him, which is cruel and ruthless. I look forward to seeing how their plot turns out.
C. Earlier we talked about how Macbeth killed the Thane of Cawdor who was a traitor and thus became the Thane of Cawdor… The King, Duncan shows high praise for Macbeth. However, this makes me wonder if the king is a little too quick to trust someone? He seems to be too easily on board and I wonder if you guys think he is an absolute fool?
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loweryj
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 50
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Post by loweryj on Apr 29, 2014 18:42:06 GMT -5
E. The 5th scene was pretty cool and made evil look pretty interesting. I really liked how Lady Macbeth kind of seems like the person who really likes the power and the prestige of her husband possibly becoming the king of Scotland. Once she heard that her it was her husband’s destiny to become the king of Scotland and that King Duncan was coming to stay with them for the evening, she wanted to seize the opportunity to make sure that his destiny came true. She asked the spirits to take away all of her feminine qualities, that wouldn’t allow her to be ruthless. She also asked the spirits to help her husband, Macbeth, so he could shed his weakness of not being able to be evil. That was very interesting.
C. I don’t exactly understand why the king would suddenly come to the castle, right after the two of them start scheming for his title ? (Maybe Shakespeare is the only person who would know that answer.)
A. In the first episode of “House of Cards”, Francis gets rejected for the prized post of Secretary of State for a less qualified guy. When he came home, after not returning his wife’s calls, Claire has a conversation with him. She tells him that he had to be angrier than he already was. He said that he could fix this. That reminded me of this section because of Lady Macbeth’s comparison to Claire. They are involved wives, who care about the husband’s prospects.
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Post by justinalexander on Apr 29, 2014 19:17:55 GMT -5
C) What is wrong with Macbeth? Why does he feel the constant need to kill? He already has this new title so why must he get this one? Is it really worth killing two men, specifically Duncan who is constantly praising him? If the witches’ prophecy was true then he could just wait around and be king. Why is the king so quick in trusting people? He already appointed a traitor and now Macbeth. Do people take advantage of King Duncan and do people wonder if he is foolish or gullible? Is this book about a bunch of traitors and disloyalty? Also why doesn’t Banquo get any recognition? He is with Macbeth the whole time. Do people look at him as a sidekick? Does this bother Banquo? Will he soon betray Macbeth?
D) “He’s a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.” I feel this is foreshadowing. I feel similar to how Macbeth would soon betray King Duncan someone will betray him. Maybe Banquo or maybe Lady Macbeth?
E) Lady Macbeth seems to be stern, ruthless women. Her character seems to be the female equivalent of Macbeth. I feel they were truly meant to be. In the lines, “Only look up clear; To alter favour ever is to fear. Leave all the rest to me,” she is basically explaining her similar view on her opinion of King Duncan and they next appointed. She will kill Duncan for Macbeth, if Macbeth doesn’t pull this plan out and decides not to do so.
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Post by andrewarabian on Apr 29, 2014 20:17:25 GMT -5
D. "Fair is foul and foul is fair". Although this quote is not necessarily in this part of the reading, it did stick out to me. This idea of right being wrong and wrong being right is extremely hard to grasp. I have found it to mean that doing the wrong moral action may lead to unrealistic hapinness. E.I like the way the Thane of Cawdor took in his punishment. He was ready for his death and went out in an honorable way rather than crying and begging for mercy. I also like the reocurring theme of how people can mask their inside feelings. It was ironic how Macbeth plans to kill the future king while he is being complemented by him. E. I personally like Duncan as a character. He shows repeated examples of strength. He is not easily manipulated like Macbeth. He looks for the good in people and doesnt read their "darkside".
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Post by Ben Ezquerra on Apr 29, 2014 20:58:12 GMT -5
C. I think that the plan that Lady Macbeth is plotting does not make sense at all. The king is already old and will pst likely die soon, i feel like instead on focusing so much on the king that should focus more on the heir. Macbeth convince Malcolm to go to a certain woman (whore) because she is one of the best in the town but really hire her in order to kill him and then chase after the woman, pretending to try to avenge Malcolm, and kill her. That way there would be no witnesses and a certainty to the throne. E. I was actually pretty surprised at Lady Macbeth. I thought she was going to be a nice person with a kind warm heart, but no, she had to be the most twisted and evil person in the book. I. In response to konrad: Macbeth was thinking that he needs to kill the king in order to him become king himself but he did not want to feel guilty about it and wanted to forget it. He really wants to become king and so does Lady Macbeth, she wants to be queen. I also agree with liamgoldfarb that Lady Macbeth would not have planned this until she read the letter that Macbeth gave her but i feel like she wants this to happen more than him. She is the one that begins to plan how to kill the king and asks the sprints to help her with it.
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Post by richardliriano on Apr 29, 2014 23:20:42 GMT -5
C. I was curious as to whether Duncan is smart or not? Because in all honesty he says, “There’s no way to read a man’s mind by looking at his face. I trusted Cawdor completely.” Which means that he can’t trust people and then he goes to Macbeth and just glorifies him. As if he hasn’t just seen that Cawdor, who he trusted, betray him. Is there something charming about Macbeth, or is he scared that Macbeth might kill him if he is not nice to him.
D. “(aside) The prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, for in my way it lies.” I like these lines because it just shows how ruthless Macbeth really is. He will get rid of anyone or anything in his way.
I. In response to justinalexander, “What is wrong with Macbeth? Why does he feel the constant need to kill? He already has this new title so why must he get this one? Is it really worth killing two men, specifically Duncan who is constantly praising him? If the witches’ prophecy was true then he could just wait around and be king.” I believe that the witches are manipulating Macbeth. Maybe the witches didn’t know the future but they didn’t like the king, so they could just easily convince Macbeth to kill the king. Macbeth is ruthless and if someone is in his way he will get rid of whoever it may be.
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Post by jamespodias on Apr 30, 2014 1:44:03 GMT -5
D. “Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter The Prince of Cumberland, which honour must Not unaccompanied invest him only,”(Dunan 38-40). Wow this really shocked me. After I heard of Macbeth being named Thane of Cawdor, I thought for sure that he would eventually make it to the throne. But out comes Duncan and announces his son Malcolm is the heir. I wonder if this is just because of his son, or if he actually deserves it over Macbeth. But now for sure there is one person lying between him and the throne.
C. What I am confused about is that if Macbeth ever had a shot at the crown before Duncan made the announcement of his son. Was it pre-determined that he would take the throne because Macbeth seemed somewhat surprised. I mean he is hi son and it would make a lot of sense.
E. In Lady Macbeth’s lines 40-50, she is being shown to be very greedy and ravenous. She says will do anything for her husband to be king and actually mentions very violent things. But I think she doesn’t care for her husband to be king she just wants to sit next to the king. I think this will come to bite her in the ass and will not work and will eventually cost Macbeth the throne.
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Post by grispinok16 on Apr 30, 2014 5:18:14 GMT -5
B. When king Duncan is speaking to his son, prince Malcom, he says, “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face. He was gentleman on whom I built trust, an absolute trust” (12). He was talking about the old Thane of Cawdor, who is a traitor, in those lines; however Macbeth is planning to murder the king and prince. So it is very ironic that he talks about putting his trust in people. Shakespeare probably put this in for humor, or to give the scene a sense of irony.
C. Why doesn’t Macbeth just wait to be king? He waited and received a new title of thane of Cawdor. Macbeth says, “Starts hide your fires, let light not see my black and deep desires, the eye wink at the hand. Yet let that be, which the eyes fears when it is done to see”(13). He even prays for himself to not notice him murder the king and prince. He doesn’t want to do this, but at the same time he believes the witches told him the truth about his future.
D. Its pretty funny seeing Lady Macbeth praying to evil spirits to become evil. This must be her reaction to reading Macbeth’s letter, saying he is going to become king and all. She says, “make thick my blood, stop up th’acess and passage of remorse that no compunctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between th’effect and it”(15). She even says “unsex me” at one point meaning he wants to be a man, thinking being a woman is weak.
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Post by Louis bentivegna on Apr 30, 2014 5:36:36 GMT -5
C.) I was confused because I know that Malcom was the prince of Cumberland but know he is becoming king and I didn't know who was going to be the prince of Cumberland. Is Malcolm both king and the prince of Cumberland? E.) I feellike I can relate to Macbeth because if you think you are going to get something and someone just comes in and takes it even though you deserve it more. Everyone wants to kill that person.
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Post by crocketts16 on Apr 30, 2014 22:47:52 GMT -5
Macbeth Act 1 scene 4-5: F. I am unsure of how they are trying to portray Lady Macbeth. To me, it seems as if she cares little about Macbeth. She seems to be into his title and not him. E. I think that the story might be saying that Lady Macbeth is some kind of religious woman or a sorcerer. I feel this way because of how she speaks to the spirits and says weird stuff so that she can have her caring humane characteristics taken from her. I believe that this is so that she would be okay with either her husband or herself killing the King. C. So Macbeth was a great warrior who has killed many men. With this in mind, why would he have a problem with killing the king? He said that he doesn’t want to see what his hand has done yet he sees himself do the same thing regularly. -Shane Crockett
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Post by thomasclark16 on Jun 4, 2014 17:45:34 GMT -5
D) In act 1 scene 5 16 Lady Macbeth says "It is full O'th' milk of human kindness". She is saying how Macbeth is not cruel enough to commit the crime of murdering Duncan. This quote shows how she is going to leave nothing up to chance.
E)Lady Macbeth in these scenes seems quite ruthless as we see that she thinks that being a mother and having a child can prevent her from killing Duncan. She calls the spirits asking to Thicken her blood and make her milk for gall (Poison). This shows Lady Macbeth's capability of killing Duncan.
F) We see that the trust between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth is not strong because Lady Macbeth doubts him in achieving the plan to kill Duncan.
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