Act II of Macbeth

 In the four scenes of Act II, it can be inferred that Macbeth has let guilt and his own wife provoke him to killing King Duncan. Not only did he kill Duncan, he killed his two servants in fear that they saw that the two had seen the murder. Without Lady Macbeth, the murder would have been botched. She went back and fixed the daggers in the servants' hands to make it seem like they killed King Duncan. I see this as a big twist, because in the beginning of this story Macbeth is seen as one of the bravest and most loyal fighters to King Duncan. Now he has deceived him and even become cowardly framing others to make it look like they killed him. Although Macbeth does admit to Macduff he was the one who killed the servants, he lies about the reason he did claiming he was angry because they killed the King which they didn't. The duo of Lady Macbeth and the Thane of Cawdor as well as Glamis, have turned evil and will stop at nothing until all interfering assets are out of the way. The term, "foul is fair and fair is foul" can have an example just as this one. The fact that Macbeth conceived an idea to take out the king for his power delighted him. Other the other end, the king would see that as very evil. So in that exact case, what is considered fair is foul and what is seen as foul is fair.  It seems as though Shakespeare parallels the weather to the event of King Duncan being killed. Ross describes the sky as having an "unnatural darkness", although the sun was out, it looked as though it is nighttime. Several unusual events began to happen. Like horses began to eat each other, as well as an owl eating a hawk. It is though Macbeth becoming king is not natural and should not happen. Macbeth seems to blow the the witches' predictions out of line every time they speak to him. He was told he would be king, but the witches did not specifically say to kill King Duncan and it will happen. He let the desire of gaining all of this power by being king take over his mind, forcing him to commit murder on the king. In my opinion, had Lady Macbeth not provoked Macbeth so much into killing King Duncan, Macbeth could have potentially avoided all of this trouble.

Act I of Macbeth (Pt.3)

 



After reading and analyzing the final three scenes of Act I (Scenes 5,6 and 7), I have began to see the cold heart and evil that Lady Macbeth possesses. She asks for absurd things like to be "unsex[ed]" and have cold blood run through her veins. She wants the masculine characteristics of a man so she can commit more evil acts. She is very convinced Macbeth can make himself king of Scotland. So she feels she should do whatever it takes to make him king and herself queen. It seems as if the tables have turned in a certain way. Macbeth is afraid to kill King Duncan because of the way he treats him, and Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth if he is a man or not. She becomes very selfish and tries controlling her husband.  It turns into an obsession as if she is a little insane. The witches have in a way dictated Macbeth's life at this point, by predicting his future. My question is, why is Macbeth so concerned about being king right now if he will be king eventually?

Act I of Macbeth (Pt.2)

  Getting into scene two,three, and four of Act I, I am starting to understand the type of person Macbeth is. He is loyal to his homeland and king and will fight to preserve the trust and courage he possesses for them. After finishing his time in battle defeating Macdonwald and exectuing the thane of Cawdor, he is confronted by three witches. The thane of Glamis is told by the three "hags" that he will soon be thane of Cawdor, after killing the original thane. He is later named thane of Cawdor and is amazed at the prophesy being true. The last predidiction of being King of Scotland astounds Macbeth. Banquo is told he will not be king, but his children such as Fleance will be. Macbeth begins plotting to kill King Duncan. I believe once Macbeth found out he was thane of Cawdor, he was going to do whatever it took to take the throne as king. Emotions begin to change for Macbeth throughout the following scenes after finding out Duncan's son, Malcolm will be the heir to the throne after he is gone. It is clear that there will be some sort of twist in the story soon, where exactly though, is unknown.

Act I of Macbeth

    Works by William Shakespeare are an important part of my high school curriculum. We had read plays such as A Midsummer's Nights Dream, as well as Romeo and Juliet. These two works introduced me into the writing style and grammar of Shakespeare. Over time it has become easier for myself to comprehend his writing. My college English class has recently began to read Macbeth, a play about a British thane who finds out he is destined to become King of Scotland. Macbeth is constantly plagued with fear and stress of carrying out this task.
    After reading all of Act I of the play Macbeth, I have began to get a grasp on how to understand William Shakespeare's writing.  Scene  1 consists of the three witches meet to discuss a confrontation to Macbeth after he finishes his time in battle is finished. The conversation opens with the sentence, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair".  The witches could be paralleling this phrase to life itself. For example the yin yang. A yin yang possesses bad in the good and good in the bad. The idea of 'foul' being 'fair' and 'fair' being 'foul', could be explaining that every good situation possesses bad and vice versa.