Choose two of the following and write a paragraph (at least 5-6 sentences) about each. Use evidence from the text to support your answers. Post and respond to a fellow classmates' response by Sunday.
1. Who are the witches? Are they real or hallucinations? Support your answer using evidence from the text.
2. Discuss the role of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and how they each deal with the murders in the play.
3. Discuss Lady Macbeth's actions throughout the play with respect to the feminine elements of her character.
4. Explore in writing the theme of guilt in Macbeth in the context of the characters of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, and Macduff.
5. Discuss the character of Lady Macbeth and her progression towards madness.
Again, don't forget to use evidence from the text to support your points. Bring your two paragraphs to class on Monday.
The witches are evil sisters that are in a way oracles -although rather sinister at that-, they prophisize the future but cannot tell the details of what is to happe, only the end result. Like when they predicted Macbeths coronation, they where not able to tell him how he would become king only the fact that he would. The witches are real but they can dissapear into thin air, like when Macbeth and Banquo first met the weird sisters.
ReplyDeleteLady Macbeth is like Macbeth's Yin- responsible for all the bad things in his charecter. Macbeth is pushed by his wife to kill the king which awakens his inner murderer. Macbeth has a very guilty consiense after he murdurs Duncan and is very paranoid and starts acting a little bit schizophrenic. Lady Macbeth tells him to man-up and that the whole thing is no big deal. Macbeth later decides to kill Banquo because he knows too much, he is than hauunted by an appiration of Banquo's ghost who drives him mad at the dinner table. Later he is not bothered at all once the appirations have left and decides to have Macduff and his family killed-to which he has no remorse or insane appirations. Lady Macbeth ends up in a hospital because she keeps scrubbing duncans no-longer-present blood off of her hands in her sleep. The murdurs weigh a ton on her conscience and are driving her insane.
question #1: in the book macbeth the witches are real. they are ment to be wicked, evil, and all the typical things a typical which is. the reason y i think the whiches are real is because when macbeth and banquo first meet the wiches they kinda tell the future for both men. whne the wiches tell macbeth that he will becom thane of cawdor and then king. when he becomes thane of cowder he thought that the rest of the profecy would come true. then he goes and kills everyone in his way to become king
ReplyDelete1. The witches, just as Aidan said, are sinister, evil oracles that can prophisize the future. They are very real, because not only Macbeth can see them. For example, in the witches' first appearance in the play, both Macbeth and Banquo see and hear the witches. The witches can manipulate the future to their liking because they know the end result and can see how it will change beforehand. The witches are an essential powerful part of the play, and even though they are real they have some fictional characteristics, like the fact that they can disappear into thin air, like they did after the meeting with Banquo and Macbeth.
ReplyDelete2. Lady Macbeth is a very bloodthirsty almost demented character in the play. She is like the devil on Macbeth's shoulder, encouraging him to murder and back-stab. Then she just tells him to "wash the blood off his hands" afterwards. Macbeth, however has a very different outlook on the murders. He is very scared and cautious about what he does, and he is constantly haunted by the murders hes committed. For example, after he murdered Banquo, he sees his ghost multiple times after, and becomes very paranoid.
Question #1: The witches are the three unusual sisters that constantly appear in Macbeth's life. They can tell prophecies and what will happen in the future which at first are ignored by Macbeth until one of them comes true. When he hears that he will be Thane of Cawdor by the witches and then is told that he is now of that name by someone sent from the King, he starts to believe that what the witches say is true. After knowing that, Macbeth helped himself along to become King by killing Duncan so the reader is never quite sure whether the witches prophecies would have come true if Macbeth hadn't killed the King himself. The witches have this mysteriousness about them for the entire play and you never really know if they have the power of telling the future or if they just make people believe they are right, and then the people change the future for themselves. The witches are real, and not hallucinations because they are not only seen by the one they are prophesying, but by others too like when Macbeth and Banquo first meet the witches and they tell the future at first to Macbeth and not Banquo.
ReplyDeleteQuestion #2: The role of Macbeth in the play is, of course, the power hungry one. From the first time he hears that he could be King, he wants it desperately and would do anything, even kill someone, to get it. Lady Macbeth just helps this hunger for power along. She convinces him that it is feasible that he could become King and helps him with the murders. Though Lady Macbeth seems confident about the murders at first, she gets to be crazy after the murder of Banquo. When Duncan was killed at first, she was just reassuring her husband and said he should, "Wash this filthy witness from (his) hand." (p. 29 2.2.46), but after Banquo dies, she goes crazy with guilt and handles it very poorly. Macbeth was not much different with his attitude about the murders. When he murdered Duncan, he felt guilty and horrible, but listens when his wife tells him to just wash the blood off his hands and he will feel better. After the murder of Banquo, though, he is also insane with guilt and starts to see the ghost everywhere he went.
I agree with what Aiden an Ethan said about how the witches are sinister and evil, and I believe that they only wanted to have some fun of their own by ruining someone's life.
Q1:
ReplyDeleteThe witches are real in the sense that they are not hallucinations. It's odd because I don't think of them as people, but they are living and tangible. For instance in Act I scene III, the first witch is able to send the sailor out to sea. That isn't normal for an everyday human being. They obviously have supernatural powers that exceed those of any other character in the play. They have the talent of prophesizing. In truth they are manipulative with their powers. Using their magic for their own good and not necessarily the good of others. Although the witches aren't credited for the play, they push Macbeth to kill so many people and in the end they are responsible for the damage he has done. They are conniving and wicked.
Q 2: The role of Macbeth is the self destroying, ambitious one. He has a passion for power and nothing will stop him. But the truth behind Macbeth's insanity is his wife. Lady Macbeth is beyond crazy. "I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
have done to this." Lady Macbeth doesn't have one maternal bone in her body. She is dark and in the end troubled. I feel that Lady Macbeth cares more about power than anything else. She would sacrifice anything for her husband to become King. The outcome of her power hungry attitude is complete delusion. She goes insane. Always trying to wash the blood off her hands, constantly seeing spots of blood and re washing her hands. I think shakespeare made Lady Macbeth so driven in order to show how Macbeth was persuaded and pushed to do his killing. And finally to show how the need for power can drive you to do regrettable things.
I agree with Molly about the witches in the sense that they are manipulative. They make people think they are right by telling prophecies that maybe allure people which I think pushes them to make the prophecy come true. Then the witches, being the evil people they are, tell another even more outrageous prophecy and because they were right the first time, the people believe it the second time. Not to get misunderstood I do think the witches base their prophecies off realistic powers.
ReplyDelete1. The witches are three bizarre and unordinary sisters who frequently are a presence in Macbeth’s life. They are witches that tell the future and let people know how their life will be. This becomes an important part of the story when they tell Macbeth and Banquo’s futures. The prophecy they tell Macbeth is that he will become Thane of Cawdor. At first I don’t think that Macbeth believes them. However, then a messenger sent by the king arrives and tells Macbeth he will be Thane of Cawdor. This is when he starts believing what they say. There is no real way to know if they are telling the truth and actually can see the future, or if they are just guessing trying to get Macbeth and others to believe them. In my opinion, I think that the witches are real humans, with some unfortunate looks. I don’t think there is a real way of knowing if they are real of hallucinations, I think it is up to one’s imagination to interpret. The witches are very old, creepy, cynical, and mysterious. They always are disappearing and leaving Macbeth with many important thoughts to ponder. That’s one way that makes them so powerful. They have power over Macbeth’s mind.
ReplyDelete#2 After the witches tell Macbeth he will be King, the thought of murdering King Duncan gets drilled into Lady Macbeth’s mind. Then she finally convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan himself. After he does, he starts to feel so guilty about killing him, and the guilt takes over him. Lady Macbeth then says to get over it, and wash the blood from his hands and be a man about it. Lady Macbeth at first seems fine with the fact they murdered the king. However, later on she begins feeling great internal grief and guilt. She starts to go insane, and sleep walk and try to wash the thought of blood off her hands. Macbeth however starts to become a more savage murderer, killing anyone thought to be a risk to his crown. In the beginning it is Lady Macbeth that seems to be the more heartless of the two, but as the plot progresses, she becomes to more guilty one, and it is Macbeth who becomes heartless.
2. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have somewhat similar personalities, even if they display them differently. While they both desired King Duncan to be dead so that Macbeth could be crowned king, Lady Macbeth expressed this outwardly, while Macbeth had his doubts and didn't seem as vicious about it. Macbeth said, "We will proceed no further in this business" (1.7.31) originally, but as Lady Macbeth continued to mess with him, he changed his mind. He said in conclusion, "I am settled, and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat." (1.7.79-80). However, after they did the actual deed of killing King Duncan, Macbeth becomes paranoid, and Lady Macbeth essentially goes into denial. Macbeth says, "I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?" (2.2.13). Lady Macbeth tries to change his mind about feeling guilty when she says, "Consider it not so deeply." (2.2.28). Later on, though, Lady Macbeth goes insane with guilt after they've also killed Banquo. The guilt consumes her even in her sleep, and she says, "Out damned spot! Out, I say!" (5.1.38). She's trying to wipe blood off her hands that isn't even there. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both go mad with the burden of the crimes they have committed.
ReplyDelete4. One of the themes of Macbeth that is very strong almost from the beginning is guilt. For one thing, Macbeth feels guilt at having murdered so many people. His guilt takes the form of madness as he begins to go crazy. After he kills the king, he continues to hear noises and odd sounds even when there are none. This guilt starts immediately after he killed Duncan when he says to Lady Macbeth, “I have done the deed. Didst thou no hear a noise?” (2.2.13). Eventually, he sees the ghost of Banquo after killing him, and that is when he is driven insane. He says to the lords when asked to sit down, “The table’s full” (3.4.47), because the ghost of Banquo has taken his place. At the same time, Lady Macbeth also feels guilt at forcing him to follow through with those horrible deeds. In the end, she goes mad like her husband, trying to wipe the bloodstains off her hands. She thinks about it even in her sleep, when she rubs her hands together and says, “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” (5.1.46). Additionally, Macduff feels guilt in a different way because he left his wife and child at home alone, which ultimately led to their deaths. This theme of guilt is reflected in many of the actions of the characters in the play. Guilt is one of the most powerful feelings in the play.
I agree with Aidan when he said that Lady Macbeth is responsible for all of the bad things about Macbeth. She's the one who told him that he needed to kill King Duncan to fulfill the prophecy of the weird sisters. She also was very rude to Macbeth when he felt guilty about it, and continued to lie to everyone around her about what was wrong with him, like at their banquet when Macbeth saw Banquo's ghost. Lady Macbeth was vicious, and I don't think Macbeth would have done all the evil things he did without her influence.
ReplyDelete#2 once the witches tell the Prophecy that macbeth will become thane of cawdor, and it comes true, and they tell him that he will become king. once the first part of the prophecy comes tru he thinks the second part will to. he wants to become king so bad that he and his wife want him to becom king so bad that they are willing to kill any in their way. in the relationship between macbeth and lady macbeth is that when they are killing people macbeth sets the trap and then lady macbeth kills the person. for example when the two killed the king lady macbeth stabed him while macbeth distracted the sevents with wine. after killing the King gilt takes over Macbeth's mind. At this point lady macbeth is blood thirsty and tells him get over it. and move on but since the gilt was to strong they had to hire murders to kill Banquo and his sons since they are also in line for the throne. the murders kill Banquo and the son gets away. the relationship between the Macbeth's and the murders is that its like a job the boss tells them what to do and they do it.
ReplyDeleteso far everyone as basicly said the same thing about the witches. the tell macbeth and banquo a prophecy and they are evil sinister and a typical witch.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Dewey said. I also think that the witches pay a crucial role to the play, in that they tell the future.
ReplyDeleteQ1: The witches play the crucial role in the play as the fortune tellers, and to add Banquo describes them on page 8 as "...What are these so withered, and so wild in there attire, that look not like th' inhabitants o' th' earth...". The text clearly says that they see the witches not as hallucinations, because Macbeth and Banquo both see them, and have a conversation with them about the future. We also know and understand that, that the witches have the power to "mess with the characters heads," and meddle with the characters lives, as we see on page 60-65, when it is the witches and the apparitionists. Hecate talks about how she is aggravated with all of the killings Macbeth has attempted/achieved. So the witches are not hallucinations, because the characters clearly see them.
ReplyDeleteQ5: Lady Macbeth is what we call the idea person, and she in many respects is like the witches because she meddles with people lives. In Act 1, Scene four, we see how Macbeth was considering killing the king, it was Lady Macbeth who pushed him over the edge, so then when they have the plan, she ends up not doing her part (stabbing the king in his sleep.) Also, she ends up going crazy with guilt as a result of the murders, "Out out damn spot," one of her most famous lines in the play, and in all of the play in general. She constantly washes her hands, because she is metaphorically "covered with the guilt." So Lady Macbeth gets crazier and crazier as the play progresses.
I agree with Aidan and Giulia on the witches, and how Aidan said they were oracles. I also agree with what Molly said about the witches having the power to ruin everyones life.
The witches are prophets who guide Macbeth through the play. Although they lead him to do things he shouldn't do or shouldn't have done, they are a big role in the play. They tell Macbeth what is going to happen in relation to him but never reveal how or when or why. The witches are "weird" and almost look like aliens, or things that have not come from this earth. The witches are only prophets however, because of macbeth and his willingness to believe them. This is why they aren't so much prophets as they are guides along Macbeth's journey. They tell Macbeth that he will first become thane of cawdor, then become king. Later they tell him that no one would be able to harm him, they would be able to of course because of his willingness to believe then and to ignore the people who he should be listening to. He first believes the witches after he becomes the thane of cawdor shortly after their prediction. I like to think that the witches are in fact real in the play and not halleucinations. However the thought of them being one of the many "devils" on Macbeths shoulders is not far beyond the prospect of belief.
ReplyDeleteMacbeth and Lady Macbeth take huge roles in all the murders throughout the play. Even though they commit most of the murders, the murders take a strike at their sanity. Macbeth, after the murder of king duncan starts becoming insane and gets uneasy with the guilt. This becomes heavier and heavier after the murder of banquo and throughout the story, and after banquo's death he sees a ghost. Macbeth isnt the one that plans all of this though. Lady Macbeth is the one who actually urges him to do it and succeeds in urging him on everytime. Macbeth may not himself be evil and keniving but Lady macbeth certainly is and she seems not to effected by guilt as much as he is.
3. The character of Lady Macbeth deceives all eyes, in that she appears gracious and most lady-like. Yet behind the scenes she is plotting and ambitious. She uses her feminism to her advantage to calm suspicions and control her husband. When it is said that men rule the world, it really is that their wives let them think so. In their deceptive ways women can manipulate men to do what they want, which is exactly what Lady Macbeth did. for example, "Art thou afeard to be in the same in thine own act and valor as thou art in desire?" (1.7.39) Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to murder Duncan by challenging his manly-hood, that is, questioning his courage. Then, to the public she shows all the "weakness" of women. "Help me hence, ho!" 2.3.120) This leads them to suspect Lady Macbeth less and less. Last, Lady Macbeth soothes and advises her husband countless times when the guilt is starting to emerge. She puts her ultimate power as wife here when she comforts her husband by telling him of the next plan or how it wasn't his fault. "Things without all remedy should be without regard: what's done is done." (3.2.11) It ends up as her being the plan manager and Macbeth the one who carries out the evil deeds.
ReplyDelete5. Even though Lady Macbeth seems cold-hearted and cruel on the outside, I believe that she has a conscience deep inside, which slowly drives her mad. It all begins with Duncan, who resembled her father in sleep. The beginnings of guilt started here. She even pointed out the possibility of it right after the deed was committed. "These deeds must not be thought after these ways;so, it will make us mad." (2.2.33) Next, after Banquo is killed, the aftereffects of murder still haven't hit yet, but Macbeth is already seeing ghosts. Finally, when an innocent wife and child of the heir to the throne are murdered, guilt takes over. Lady Macbeth then starts to have troubled sleep where she walks and talks about the poor murdered people. She also mentions how the figurative blood she cannot wash from her hands. "What, will these hands ne'er be clean?" (5.1.46) She has finally gone crazy from guilt, and we learn some the effects of a guilty conscience of some people.
I agree with Gus that Lady Macbeth is the one who really starts Macbeth's killing streak. I also agree with Dewey when she said that Lady Macbeth seems to be the cruel one, yet as the play progresses it turns out that she gets hit hardest with guilt while Macbeth shines with cruelty.
ReplyDelete#2 Macbeth And lady Macbeth are entangled in murder from the start of the play, we don't see them before this so we don't really know what hey were like before this. Lady Macbeth really is power hungry and will kill, the guilt really doesn't set in right away though. Macbeth on the other hand is almost feeling guiltily before he has murdered Duncan. I think it was a really bad idea for Macbeth to have killed Banquo, because a friend would be really helpful to Macbeth right now.
ReplyDelete#4 guilt is a main theme in Macbeth, all of the guilt is deserved too. Macbeth Kills his king and his best friend, Lady Macbeth pushes Macbeth to do all of this, and Macduff fleas in terror leaving his family to Macbeth's assassins. Lady Macbeth sees her guilt as irremovable blood on her hands and Macbeth sees it in banquo's ghost. This is interesting because they both see it in "real" things, It is especially interesting that neither help the other with their problems.
I was going to comment on the witches but enough people did that already and I agree that the witches are evil but only if they could see the future if not they were just crazy.
2. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth react in similar ways to the murders. They both go crazy with the stress of committing the murders, and are having huge amounts of stress put on them with trying to cope with living with the fact that they are killers. Lady Macbeth has a huge part to play with this because if she had never urged Macbeth on to killing Duncan, none of this would have happened and Macbeth wouldn't have completed the prophesy. Macbeth is the one that actually has committed the murder of king Duncan, and he is the one that continues to kill people by using the three murderers to kill the people that get in his way. Macbeth goes crazy by seeing Banquo's ghost and making a fool of himself at his dinner. Lady Macbeth is washing her hands in her sleep, and trying to get the blood off of her hands and wash it down the drain.
ReplyDelete3. Lady Macbeth has had a big behind-the-scenes part. She isn't usually on the front lines in the battle, but whe is definitely back there commanding and scheming. She has urged the whole prophesy to happen, and out of greed and hunger for power. When Macbeth is trying to decide whether to kill Suncan and fulfill the prophesy or just to leave it be, she says, "Unsex me here." She is trying to say that she wants to kill Duncan, and she doesn't know if Macbeth has the guts to do it. Also, she is saying unsex me because women are supposed to be gentile and caring, not murderous. That is for men, and that is why she is saying that.
I agree with Gus. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth had a huge role to play in the murders in the story, and they were basically the source of it all, along with the witches. They did have this role, but it didn't come without a price, and that price was their sanity.
#1
ReplyDeleteThe witches are in fact real because for them to be hallucinations they wouldn’t be seen by anyone else other than Macbeth. When Banquo says, “What are these so withered and so wild in their attire....” He is referring to the witches and how ugly they are. So he did see them and Macbeth wasn’t just going crazy. The witches are what Aidan said they are, oracles. They predict the future, but they don’t know how something is going to happen. All they know is what’s going to happen. If they had told him how he was going to do it all, it might have changed his plan or maybe even made him think twice about it.
#2
At first, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both thought it would easy for Macbeth to be king. Macbeth had the most trouble with the whole murdering, because he did the murdering. He was pushed into murdering by his wife, the witches, and his will to have more power, but that’s not who he is. I believe that he was a great man but his wife wanted the power of being queens, and Macbeth listened to her. Macbeth also listened to the weird sisters, who help him go off the edge even further. He kept wanting more and more and wanted the throne.