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Macbeth (Modern Library Classics)

by William Shakespeare, Eric Rasmussen (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Jonathan Bate (Editor)

3.83 · rating details · 112,886 ratings · 2,226 reviews

One of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, filled with fierce, violent action, Macbeth is a human drama of ambition, desire, and guilt in a world of blood and darkness, with whispers of the supernatural.

Under the editorial supervision of Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, two of today’s most accomplished Shakespearean scholars, this Modern Library series incorporates definiti...more

Paperback, 240 pages

Published August 4th 2009 by Modern Library (first published 1605)

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Sep 14, 2009

Madeline rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare

Years after first adding this to my "Shakespeare" shelf, I finally sat down and did it. So here, long overdue, is

The Scottish Play, abridged:

WITCHES: Bibbity bobbity boo! Time to fuck with the mortals!

DUNCAN: Isn’t Macbeth great? Now there’s a guy I can always trust to have my back. I should promote him.

MACBETH AND DUNCAN: WEEEEE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIEEEENDS. YES WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, WEEEE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, NO TIME FOR -

...more

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May 18, 2010

David rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: pants-crapping-awesome

Don't you kind of hate how we've entered the decadent phase of Goodreads wherein perhaps fifty percent (or more) of the reviews written by non-teenagers and non-romancers are now naked and unabashed in their variously effective attempts at being arch, wry, meta, parodic, confessional, and/or snarky?

Don't you kind of pine (secretly, in the marrow of your gut's merry druthers) for the good ol' days of Goodreads (known then as GodFearingGoodlyReading.com) when all reviews were uniforml...more

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Feb 28, 2010

Elizabeth rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: in-theater, scottish, tam-lin, in-by-of-england, reviewed, elizabethan-my-dear, that-old-black-magical-realism

I love Lady MacBeth. I don't have a crush on her, she's not a sigh-over kind of woman. This isn't a school girl crush on a member of the High School Musical cast. She is fierce, in a way that Tyra Banks only wishes should could be. (Actually if Tyra Banks had any ability to act, any at all, I'd be willing to pay money to see a performance of her as Lady M. Think about it. The height, the growl, the skewed, surfacing craziness that is a mandatory part of the Lady's personality.) Lady MacBeth make...moreI love Lady MacBeth. I don't have a crush on her, she's not a sigh-over kind of woman. This isn't a school girl crush on a member of the High School Musical cast. She is fierce, in a way that Tyra Banks only wishes should could be. (Actually if Tyra Banks had any ability to act, any at all, I'd be willing to pay money to see a performance of her as Lady M. Think about it. The height, the growl, the skewed, surfacing craziness that is a mandatory part of the Lady's personality.) Lady MacBeth makes this play for me.

It's all nice and sunshiney to be a heroine in one of Shakespeare's comedies. They get some great lines, they get the guy who speaks some awesome poetry in their honor, and they get to run about in men's clothes (so what if they have to pretend to be dead or fend of the advances of a simpering lady from time to time; it's all good fun). The best characters though are over here, in the tragedies. It's why Antony and Cleopatra is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. And Lady MacBeth is their queen.

When I read this in high school, the big debate, as presented by my well-meaning but misguided teacher was, "Who is more evil, MacBeth or Lady MacBeth. Discuss." (and you'd better blame it on the woman people). I'm not sure there was anything else to the conversation. We were excellent sheeplike children, intent on high grades, and so we would answer with exactly what the teacher wanted to hear. So reading it now was like reading another play. Lady MacBeth isn't evil. For that matter, her husband isn't either. We don't have King Richard III calculation here so much as unchecked ambition and paranoia.

Reading it now, I was looking to answer the question of how much this play is about woman's nature and man's nature. I was struck by how often this comes up in the play. Lady M does encourage her husband by telling him to be a man more than once. It's all over the place, throughout the whole play. And Lady M is the most fascinating study of this. Our first meeting with her has the amazing unsex me here soliloquy. I've always wondered how an early modern European woman ruler would respond to (adapt?) the teachings of The Prince: Be calculating. Be strong. Don't let your kinder feelings get in the way. If all of those kinder feelings make one womanish, how would a woman respond to it? By calling to be unsexed, by saying that she could dash out the brains of her child. And she does, of course, and then her rejection of her basic nature comes back and wallops her in the face.

The other part of Lady MacBeth's unsexing is comparison with both Lady MacDuff and the witches. Here we have Lady MacDuff, that kind, perfect mother figure. A shining example of what happens to women who dither when faced with a challenge (when a messenger arrives and tells you to run, don't talk, run, you idiot). If you don't have some strength, you will not survive. The witches then represent this primordial spirit of womanhood as well. There isn't anything more basic than a Greek goddess of witches appearing in your play. In comes Hecate, and her witches, and MacBeth is shown to be steered around both by his wife, denying her true nature, and the witches, the evil of women's nature incarnate. Women really don't get a good representation in this play, in all honesty, but, in this case, I don't care.

This is one of those plays that I take in historical context. I would respond differently to a contemporary author who took on such a theme; in early modern England though? Elizabeth's reign is only just finished. The son of last Scottish queen, murdered by England's female Prince, is in the audience. I love political messages within plays that also look at human nature. How do we become who we are? How do we go from healthy, normal people to ambitious killers? How do we come to war?
(less)

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Mar 12, 2010

Bram rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, the-bard

After a discussion of this play that went over 100 comments, a review seems at once superfluous and necessary to give greater exposure to an excellent conversation. One of the best things about Goodreads is that it provides a forum to hash out discrepancies of opinion thoughtfully and passionately, so that our own feelings and understandings can be challenged by and challenging for others. I think what you’ll find below is a perfect example of this, enacted by people who care deeply about Shak...moreAfter a discussion of this play that went over 100 comments, a review seems at once superfluous and necessary to give greater exposure to an excellent conversation. One of the best things about Goodreads is that it provides a forum to hash out discrepancies of opinion thoughtfully and passionately, so that our own feelings and understandings can be challenged by and challenging for others. I think what you’ll find below is a perfect example of this, enacted by people who care deeply about Shakespeare and about literature. People who have been changed by what they’ve read and who hope to allow others to experience something similar, to allow them to understand why certain themes are so vitally important.

I like to think that my opinions, even immediately after finishing a book, are solid and well-considered. And usually this delusion goes more or less unchallenged. But below, something unusual happened, made more so by the fact that I’d done no more than give a rating and list a few undercooked criticisms. I was forced to reconsider my reading to the point where I now have to admit that I have very little confidence in my criticisms and in my response to this play. I don’t feel like I gave it my best effort because, frankly, some of the rejoinders I’ve heard are pretty impressive. Take this comment from David, who was responding to my complaint that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth seemed to lack adequate moral reasoning and background in the initial stages (i.e. Macbeth seems ‘good’ but gives in quickly/easily and Lady Macbeth seems overly and inexplicably ambitious/murderous):

I think these two characters have very different dilemmas: Macbeth must overcome his aversion to the crime and his sense of honor (as subject of the king) to kill Duncan. (There is much text in the play, I think, committed to exploring his moral compunctions and waffling regarding this.) Lady Macbeth has intellectually set her mind on the crime at the beginning, so the development we see in her character isn't from 'goodness' to evil; it's from her initial intellectual commitment to the crime to her ruination at the hands of her own humanity or, if you will, by her own psychological qualms. So it would almost be nearer to the truth to say that Lady Macbeth's transition is from 'evil' to 'goodness' (in a very loose sense). In some respect, Lady Macbeth is redeemed at the end of the play; that is to say that she does not actively redeem herself, but she is redeemed by the author as a failure of evil.

So the two characters have inverted character arcs, a fascinating concept that never occurred to me while reading the play. Macbeth goes from the loyal thane and hero who’s scared to commit even the ‘perfect murder’ to someone who, at the time of his demise, is a raving, fearless, and evil tyrant. Lady Macbeth, as David points out, starts out confident in her trespassing of the laws of goodness but ends up coming undone, emotionally and psychologically, from the weight of such a heinous crime. Lady Macbeth is the original Raskolnikov, a human being who thinks she might be one of the Great Ones, for whom the laws of mankind do not apply. Each of these characters believes that a sign of greatness (and for Lady Macbeth, true manliness) is an ability to achieve a certain Machiavellian perfection, wherein your conscious does not impede your achieving a goal even, and especially, if it requires murder. While Roskalnikov’s plan is more theoretical than pragmatic, the line of thinking is eerily similar. And so is the fallout.

Thinking about Lady Macbeth in terms of Crime and Punishment, as Ellen inspired me to do, allowed me to flesh out her progression in a way that I wasn’t able to from the text, either due to my own failings or from what I felt was an overly-rushed story. Dostoevsky gives us an incredibly thorough picture of the post-murder descent into madness, one that can only be relieved, if at all, by coming clean. While Roskalnikov is able to take this route, Lady Macbeth is ultimately trapped, and her ‘redemption’ can only come internally with recognition that her initial perspective was hopelessly flawed and evil. It is, of course, conceivable that Lady Macbeth was not repentant and that she killed herself in madness or in the recognition that she simply wasn't a Great One, a conclusion which does not necessarily imply a belief that she was wrong in her actions. I reject these possibilities, however, because the inversion of the character arcs is such an elegant, brilliant design that nothing else seems artistically plausible.

The theme in Macbeth that stuck with me most strongly during my reading was that of prophetic destiny. The power of the witches’ prophesying is not in their ability to actually carry out the events according to their predictions, but simply to plant the seed of an idea that, due to human depravity, provides a barely-needed push to send one into a destructive pursuit of base selfishness and glory. To use a tired but, in this case, warranted analogy: think about George W. Bush and the Iraq War. His religion gave him that little excuse. It planted the idea of destiny and purpose, of achieving something great and glorious that would, however, inevitably lead to the destruction and suffering of so many others, so many innocents. But he didn’t care about that. God had spoken. The witches had spoken. And who was he to get in His way?

I love this website. Without it, I’d have probably given this play no more than five extra minutes of thought and moved on. And I’d have missed out on some great themes and ideas, all of which were accessible because of the ability to tap into a few of the exceptional minds here on Goodreads. I can only hope that I continue to keep an open mind and healthy suspicion of my own opinions because—and I barely need mention this—my tendency is very much in the other direction. So give this play the time and thought it deserves. You will be rewarded. (less)

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Oct 16, 2011

Bird Brian marked it as celebrity-deathmatch · review of another edition

CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH REVIEW*
(* entertainment purposes only)

1984 v. MacBeth

It is 1957.

It is night.

It is raining.

A creeping sense of unreality grabs me. Is it shell-shock reasserting itself, in response to my great anxiety?

My hands are visibly shaking. Bloody.

WHAT HAVE I DONE?!

The murder of the first General Secretary of the Inner Party! No punishment in Room 101 can match the horrors I’ll fac...more

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Sep 30, 2011

Bird Brian marked it as celebrity-deathmatch · review of another edition

CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH REVIEW*
(* entertainment purposes only)

MacBeth v. The Complete Sherlock Holmes

Setting: Great Birnam Wood (a very misty forest), where the three witches stand in a clearing, chanting their incantations over a cauldron filled with dry ice and warm water.

(Sherlock Holmes and MacBeth enter together as comrades)

Witches: All hail Sherlock Holmes, winner of Celebrity Deathmatch Reviews!

Holmes: Wha-?

Mac...more

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Oct 09, 2011

Mariel rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: I think I can handle a little peril

Recommended to Mariel by: the band from Harry Potter

Shelves: babywecouldbefamous, letsgotothemovies, turturro, celebrity-deathmatch

Celebrity Death Match tournament versus The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The Twisted Sisters

I was worried about my colleague, the great respected private detective Sherlock Holmes. The pressure to uphold his reputation was great. He was up at all hours of the night, often muttering to himself that this or such and such was "Elementary, my dear Watson" and ways to upstage me in games of Trivial Pursuit. One evening I caught him with an opened second box of the g...moreCelebrity Death Match tournament versus The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The Twisted Sisters

I was worried about my colleague, the great respected private detective Sherlock Holmes. The pressure to uphold his reputation was great. He was up at all hours of the night, often muttering to himself that this or such and such was "Elementary, my dear Watson" and ways to upstage me in games of Trivial Pursuit. One evening I caught him with an opened second box of the game and he was memorizing the questions and answers. To let him save face I pretended that I did not see and feigned awe and worship of his mastery of the game. "My dear Mr. Holmes, your pursuit of this game is anything but trivial!" One night after he mixed up note cards of a taped episode of Jeopardy! he left to walk the block of Baker Street. I assume he also wanted to smoke a pipe. His housekeeper had been applying the pressure about the bad smell and ill health effects. It was not easy to be Mr. Holmes and I tried my best to solve all of his cases for him. I would leave open pages of relevant newspaper articles or historical facts, highlighting the portion that pertained to the case. Sometimes I would fake his handwriting and write who did it and leave it on his dressing room mirror. I would smile as he berated me for not guessing the obvious clues. He was a great man and I was only doing what any good friend would do. I knew that Macbeth and his bitch wife were responsible for murder and tomorrow I would allow Mr. Holmes to put them behind bars. I would get him back into his warm bed if I had to get in it with him myself.

That particular evening my friend did not come home in time. I found him again in the den of the psychic hotline sisters. "Sex me! Sex me! You foul temptresses... I think I want the blonde tonight..." I'm an accepting friend, truly I am, but these women were not even hot. By rights they should be giving quarter hand jobs behind the local pub.

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air! You have been smoking again." The one with the heaving cleavage was uttering these words as Holmes nestled his unshaven face between the twin bosoms. "If you notice, the left is larger than the right..." He drunkenly muttered.

"Mr. Holmes, I have come to take you home. You cannot afford their prices. That is how we ended up taking the diamond caper case and that nearly got us both killed."

"Mr. Watson, you are a wet blanket." He might have said something else. He was slurring his words at this point. He had called me a wet blanket another time but to understand you would have to get the context. It is elemental, not elementary.

"These bitches cannot solve our cases. It is much too perilous! The correct answer will come to you in the morning, as it always does. True genius should not be rushed." Egos such as Mr. Holmes needed to be boosted. It was a tough world we lived in. Prostitutes like these charged too much! (The red head had laughed at me and said I couldn't even watch for a few lousy quid.) Was nothing free anymore? Before my marriage, I would stumble into any rest stop and find a willing young man. Alas!

"I can handle a little peril... I am...the...great...Sherlock Holmes!" He had passed out. I could not get him moved by myself. The brunette was unbuttoning my pants and the redhead had my wallet. They had found the diamonds I had stolen from the bank to create the diamond caper case. A new and mysterious fourth woman was drawing on my face. She looked familiar. The photos of the Macbeths in my wallet! Too late. I hope it is a dignified mustache, this time.

When I woke up I was in jail for murder and last I heard Mr. Holmes was a security guard at a shopping mall. Macbeth and his whore wife were living it up in Bermuda. Hand jobs in prison cost a lot. Damned inflation...

Winner: Macbeth(less)

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Oct 15, 2011

Manny rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: celebrity-death-match

For the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament, Macbeth (30) versus 1984 (22)

ANCHORMAN:

... and now over to Northern Airstrip One, where Macduffian freedom fighters and our East Asian allies are close to encircling the Eurasian-backed dictator Macbeth's last stronghold. We have a journalist reporting live now from just outside Dunsinane Castle.

[Windswept Scottish Highlands scene. JOURNALIST in combat gear in foreground, camouflaged soldiers carrying branches ...more

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Jan 17, 2012

Henry Avila rated it

· review of another edition

The play starts with the standard three witches, (which Shakespeare practically invented) plotting the assassination of Duncan.Why the King of Scotland is to be killed is never explained.The weird sisters maybe just like to cause evil.Their tool is Macbeth , a lord and very ambitious man, married to an even more, woman.Scotland in the mid 11th century is barbaric,bloody,and with the nobles always fighting for power.The English and Norsemen also battle for influence in that rough land.A great opp...more

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Sep 29, 2011

Manny added it · review of another edition

Shelves: celebrity-death-match, parody-homage

For the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament, Macbeth (30) versus The Complete Sherlock Holmes (19)

This early draft of Macbeth, recently translated from the original Klingon, casts new light on the play and has already caused its fair share of controversy. We present two extracts.
_____________________________________________

MACBETH:

Surely no man suspects I killed the King?
Or if they do, they durst not breathe a word
Knowing our wrath...
...more

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Sep 27, 2010

Esteban del Mal rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Aspiring Machiavellians

Shelves: legion-of-doom, fiction, play

Location: Central California coast. A beach.

ESTEBAN: [aside] Methinks that the cover art for this Bantam Classic edition makes Macbeth and Lady Macbeth looketh much alike. 'Tis freakish!
Forsooth, gender is all over the place in this play: the bearded sisters are hermaphroditical, Macduff is some kind of übermensch because he has avoided the taint (heh) of natural birth. Is Macbeth some kind of frustrated homosexual? If so, it serves those gay bashing medieval Scottish bastards...more

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Sep 02, 2008

Trevor rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: literature

This was my first ever Shakespeare.

We studied it in high school in Year Eleven. It was the only Shakespeare we studied in High School. Now, in the last three years of high school, my daughters read a play by Shakespeare every year.

I remember, before I started reading this play, how afraid I was. I knew, you see, it was very important that I understand Shakespeare – even if I had to pretend. It was that important that I understand him. I knew that this was going to...more

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Nov 25, 2010

Melissa Rudder rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: master-s-exam, teach-it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I do not know why Macbeth was chosen to be one of the three William Shakespeare plays on my Masters Exam. (Which panics me, because it seems like something I should know.) Macbeth is, in my opinion, the weakest Shakespearean tragedy I've read. It does not have the startling ambiguities or essential human questions of Hamlet. It does not have the brutal horror of Titus Andronicus. It does not have the political relevance and rhetorical strength of Julius Caesar. It does not have the pathos of an ...more

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Apr 06, 2010

Choupette rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics, drama, own-or-access, studied, to-be-re-read, ab-fav

Currently re-reading for, what, the ~~fifth~~ tenth time? I FUCKING LOVE IT.

____________________________

How on earth can I ever write a review that does justice to this superlative-defying work of drama? Despite three periods of intense study including research into academic works, I continue to find new layers to this piece, and that, in my opinion, is the mark of a true masterpiece (Not that anyone is implying Macbeth is anything but).

The beautiful language, fab...more

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Oct 13, 2011

Sandybanks rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, british-literature, brushing-up-on-the-bard, classics, ebook, medieval, tudor

For the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament, Macbeth vs The Complete Sherlock Holmes

When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes cases between the years ’82 and ’90, I happen to come upon a half-forgotten adventure that is probably the strangest of them all. My faithful readers, who are no stranger to odd going-ons involving my famous friend’s cases, would be reminded of stories such as The Hound of the Baskervilles or The Sussex Vampire. Yet, this particular ca...more

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Jun 20, 2007

Kim rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: teach

yeah. i'm an english teacher and a theatre major and i? don't really love macbeth. it bores me on many levels and i'm seriously considering NOT teaching it in brit lit this year. yes, it has interesting motifs with blood and water, power and revenge, and the whole tragic hero thing, but eh. i just. can't. connect. with. macbeth. and that? makes me not really 'love' a play. even if i hate the main character, i need to feel some sort of connection and i just don't here.

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Jul 24, 2007

Admonit rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

Some thoughts from studying & teaching Macbeth....

This critical edition of Macbeth puts the play into the context of cultural controversies. One hot topic of Shakespeare’s time was this problem about “Does God determine all things before they begin, or are human beings free to create their own [eternal] destinies?” And it was very hot; wars were raging all over Europe in the latter half of the 16th century over Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism. Shakespeare, man of...moreSome thoughts from studying & teaching Macbeth....

This critical edition of Macbeth puts the play into the context of cultural controversies. One hot topic of Shakespeare’s time was this problem about “Does God determine all things before they begin, or are human beings free to create their own [eternal] destinies?” And it was very hot; wars were raging all over Europe in the latter half of the 16th century over Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism. Shakespeare, man of the age, was certainly not going to let this red-letter debate slip by. But he also didn’t want to lose his head.

However that may be, the author of the introductory matter in our Norton Critical Edition, Robert S. Miola, claims that “Whatever his personal convictions, Shakespeare clearly adopts a Catholic view of the action and theology of free will in this play” and “the doctrine of predestination renders human action essentially undramatic: when the end is known, preordained, and absolutely just, there can be no real choice, suspense, conflict, or resolution. This conception of divine justice and human action renders pity an impertinence, terror a transgression, and tragedy an impossibility” (pp. xv, xvi).

Maybe we shouldn’t be so sure. I have a problem with that sweeping generalization. I wouldn’t say that predestination freezes all possibility of dramatic action. I have two objections:

1. The characters do not know the ending. They are predestined by the intent and will of the artist, but within their fictional narrative space and time, they are making operative choices.

2. In life, we do not know our ending. The staunchest Calvinist, if he has his wits about him, believes that here inside time we must make choices. Yes, perhaps God has set the choice before hand, certainly God knows what will be done, but that does not make the psychological and emotional experience of choice any less a reality. It also works this way inside books.

But it's still fascinating to ask: Is Macbeth free to choose his fate, or is he destined to follow the prophecies?
(less)

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Jan 17, 2008

Lesley rated it

· review of another edition

"I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er."

A sure sign you're totally fucked.

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Sep 10, 2011

Melissa rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: great-shakespeare-athon

I started my Great Shakespeare-A-Thon! with this because it's the one play I'm most familiar with, besides Romeo & Juliet (and that's only because I saw the Claire Danes movie). I was surprised to discover that I'd memorized more of it in high school that I thought; although I couldn't have told you before what it belonged to, I had over half the play lodged somewhere in my brain. I went with the No Fear translation because most of the others I found at work are riddled to death with footnotes (...more

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Nov 22, 2008

Christina rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: list-ap-literature, required-for-high-school, plays, 2008-reads, textbook, classics, list-college-readers

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 19, 2008

Brad rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: faves, drama, shakespeare, classic, to-read-again

I like to come at Macbeth from an historical perspective, a perspective where Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are not anti-heroes, but heroes of the highest order.

How is that possible you ask? Because Macbeth is taking what is rightfully his.

Modern audiences, and perhaps even audiences in Shakespeare's day (although that seems unlikely since they would have had a greater everyday knowledge of the power structures of Scottish clans), look at Macbeth as the story of power corrupt...moreI like to come at Macbeth from an historical perspective, a perspective where Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are not anti-heroes, but heroes of the highest order.

How is that possible you ask? Because Macbeth is taking what is rightfully his.

Modern audiences, and perhaps even audiences in Shakespeare's day (although that seems unlikely since they would have had a greater everyday knowledge of the power structures of Scottish clans), look at Macbeth as the story of power corrupting absolutely. We see it as a story where a man's ambition overrides his goodness, and his callous regicide justly destroys himself, his Lady and everything they have built.

It is a comfortable reading for us. It supports our current belief in good and evil as absolutes, and it allows us to see Duncan as a benevolent leader, Banquo as a victim and Malcolm and Macduff as righteous avengers. It fits our view of the world.

But this reading hurts the complexity that is Macbeth, and it dissolves what makes Macbeth my favourite Shakespearean tragedy -- the tragedy itself.

There is little tragic in the fall of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth if we follow the ill-informed modern reading. They get what they deserve. They commit murder, they make a grab for power, they pay the price. We cannot pity them. And it is difficult to care for them.

But consider the historical context and this reading is tipped on its side like a sacred cow in a dusty field of moonlight.

Macbeth, as the next most powerful Thane, is next in line for Duncan's crown. It is his right. It is the way of Scottish accession. Duncan simply has no right to declare Malcolm the heir, and to do so immediately following Macbeth's greatest victory is both an insult and a challenge.

Moreover, once all others back Malcolm and place themselves against Macbeth they are committing high treason.

Should Macbeth have assassinated King Duncan? Probably not (although the alternative would have been civil war and is killing one King more criminal than being responsible for the death of thousands?), but therein lies the strength of Shakespeare's play. Macbeth and his Lady feel overwhelming guilt, and their killing of Duncan tears them apart. Not because it is what they deserve, but because they are fundamentally virtuous people who made a decision that, even righteous, wounded them as deeply as it wounded those around them.

Taken within the context of Scottish accession, the play becomes much deeper and more meaningful. The conflicts of all the characters are muddied, the right and wrong becomes a worrisome mess, the tragedy deepens, and Macbeth and his Lady become honorable people who make a difficult choice that ultimately undermines their own values. This also suggests that the Witches and the supernatural are not some crazed deus ex machina that makes Macbeth's fate inevitable, but a form of chorus that plants seeds of understanding in the minds of the audience and Macbeth.

It's a great play even if the historical context is ignored, but how much greater is it when the historical context is restored? I feel it becomes a match for Lear and Hamlet. Re-read it and see what you think. (less)

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Sep 09, 2011

mark monday rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: this-classic-world

i love this play like a simile I can't come up with.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/871...

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/402...

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/465...

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/835...

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/907...

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/233...

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/423...

well that last review pretty much sums up anything i could...more

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Dec 14, 2011

Coprbrd rated it

· review of another edition

The language is thick and for my standard at least, I have to reread a line 2-3 times to get the meaning. It has to be that way because dialogs were laced with different meanings during the olden periods. I would want to give this book 3.5 actually, but since there's none I'll stick with 4. Anyway I've lost count on how many times I did went through the lines, went for the play, participated in the play and many more.

I've role played Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the witches lines count...more

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Apr 24, 2009

Zach added it · review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare

a few thoughts of mine....

On Macbeth’s Ambivalence

“My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smothered in surmise, and nothing is but what is not . . . If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir” (1.3.139-42, 1.3.144-5).

Upon hearing himself greeted as the Thane of Cawdor (1.3.105), and thus having heard the devil speak true (1.3.107), Macbeth becomes lost in a rapture ...morea few thoughts of mine....

On Macbeth’s Ambivalence

“My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smothered in surmise, and nothing is but what is not . . . If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir” (1.3.139-42, 1.3.144-5).

Upon hearing himself greeted as the Thane of Cawdor (1.3.105), and thus having heard the devil speak true (1.3.107), Macbeth becomes lost in a rapture that undoes what he had previously thought the boundaries of life—changing life’s being into only what is not. This rapture also seems to suggest an ambivalent desire towards undoing life, an undoing of life ranging from the literal undoing of life, his own and others’, to the undoing of the significance of life. But Macbeth’s ambivalence towards undoing life, in his thought that chance should crown him without his stir, is not strong enough to dissuade him. How might Macbeth’s ambivalence help explain his undoing of life that he continues throughout the play?

Macbeth’s ambivalence towards undoing life is characterized by the abruptness of the vacillations that Macbeth goes through and the extremity to which these vacillations take him. A good example of this begins with the opening quotation. For what appears to be later the same day, or at most a few days after Macbeth declares that chance should crown him without his stir, Macbeth, while receiving praise from King Duncan, quickly perceives King Duncan’s son, the Prince of Cumberland, as an obstacle that he must face (1.4.48-50), thus abandoning his previous aim of not stirring to be crowned. From here, Macbeth reverses again and must have Lady Macbeth help him rediscover his courage for aiding himself in fulfilling the witches’ prophecy that he shall be king (1.7). Macbeth tries to leave his ambivalence behind in recognizing his need to steel himself to his course of action. Yet when Macbeth declares that he still has the initiate’s fear that lacks hard use (3.4.141-42), he has already killed King Duncan, the two servants he framed for Duncan’s murder, had Banquo murdered, and wished the same fate for Banquo’s son, Fleance. Macbeth’s ambivalence towards undoing life is emphasized here because of the extent to which he has already undone life and his lingering ambivalence with doing so. These vacillations reveal Macbeth as a whirlwind of change, unable to hold fast to a particular course of action for very long, yet nonetheless taking action.

This helps explain at least one of the functions of the vacillating, for, as Macbeth whirls between feeling guilty for what he’s done and continuing to undo life, he is able to enact his own advice, “The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see” (1.4.52-53)—Macbeth’s ambivalence obscures his feelings towards what he thinks and does. And it seems as if this is the very manner in which Macbeth finds himself ambivalently undoing life. In the lines that precede the opening quotation, as Macbeth tries to understand what it means to have the witches’ first prophecy come true, he sides with ambivalence in stating that it can be neither ill, nor good (1.3.131), and he is then thrown into a confusion where “nothing is but what is not” (1.3.142). The undoing of the significance, or generally presupposed meaning, of life is the manner in which Macbeth can maintain ambivalence even in action—because the action is still unclear.

As he begins to near his end, Macbeth’s vacillations begin to turn more closely upon his life, and he vacillates from claiming that he shall never fear again (5.3.10) to feeling he has lived long enough (5.3.22) to wishing the entire world undone (5.5.50) to his final vaunt that he will fight until the last (5.8.27-34). In between these is Macbeth’s harrowing conclusion that life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (5.5.26-28); it seems that since he is able to treat life as a mere nothing, an idiot’s tale, Macbeth wants to conclude that life is no more than these things. Also, taken at face value, an idiot’s tale seems a practical induction for Macbeth to make after living the life he has lived because life signifying nothing would relieve him of responsibility for his undoing of life or, in the very least, remove the significance, but the noted final vaunt reveals that life did signify more than nothing to Macbeth, despite his claims and despite the fact that Macbeth’s ambivalence, as noted above, has lead to him thinking that nothing is the only thing that is. Macbeth's clinging to life, till the very end, also makes his conclusion that life is an idiot's tale appear as if it is more wishful thinking than earnest conclusion.

Macbeth’s wishful thinking brings to mind a much earlier passage, but is now given a more nuanced meaning. Shortly after killing King Duncan and the two framed servants, Macbeth gives what at first appears as only a necessary, strategic show of grief for the slain king—particularly after his recent recognition that he must play his part to ensure none in his audience detect his involvement (1.7.80-83). But in light of the idea that Macbeth is attempting to believe rather than genuinely believing that life signifies nothing, this passage, “Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv’d a blessed time; for, from this instant, there’s nothing serious in mortality; all is but toys” (2.3.89-92), seems to suggest an additional meaning: it is an announcement of the undoing of life that Macbeth is to now begin in earnest, his idiot’s tale. In the first line and a half of this passage Macbeth admits a poignant truth: if he had died just an hour before, he really would have lived something of a blessed life—dying a recent hero, after quieting a rebellion and being praised & rewarded by the king. It is this veracity that begins the passage that lends to what follows, the claim that life is an empty toy, an intimation of a tenable cause and effect relationship—though not one that is static or remains single in direction—and it is this relationship, this ambivalence, that is echoed in chiasmus form as Macbeth struggles to conclude life as an idiot’s tale signifying nothing, but, in his final vaunt, wants nothing more than life.

Macbeth’s desire to treat life like an empty toy or an idiot’s tale can be understood as another vacillation of Macbeth’s ambivalence towards undoing life—as noted above—yet this alone does not offer insight into why Macbeth sees life this way. But as one reflects on the many vacillations that he goes through, Macbeth begins to appear as a toy, being pushed and pulled, back and forth, with the strain and frustration of a heavily used toy, and this experience helps explain why he would want to understand life, for everyone, this way—because his ambivalence is ever present, Macbeth is unable to choose singly for himself and must project his undoing of life on others.

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Dec 03, 2008

Max rated it

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Recommends it for: Teens - Adults

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 03, 2008

Douglas Conroy added it · review of another edition

...Still my favorite of Shakespeare plays; revived interest in it around the time it began its revival on Broadway and it’s simultaneous references in a couple of Maureen Dowd columns. Two major things going on in the world right now (6/08) are the Bush Administration’s mishandling of the Iraq War and the Presidential campaigns. Two major themes that arise while absorbing (or seeing) Macbeth are blind ambition and lust for power.

The story of Macbeth seizes upon one’s senses of fe...more...Still my favorite of Shakespeare plays; revived interest in it around the time it began its revival on Broadway and it’s simultaneous references in a couple of Maureen Dowd columns. Two major things going on in the world right now (6/08) are the Bush Administration’s mishandling of the Iraq War and the Presidential campaigns. Two major themes that arise while absorbing (or seeing) Macbeth are blind ambition and lust for power.

The story of Macbeth seizes upon one’s senses of fear and desire, subtly conjuring up both feats in quiet and oftentimes near restless interplay of one another, diminishing the viewer’s soul by the end to a sort of wise child. What does Macbeth in is his provincial inner-restlessness and vaunted personal ambition. The inner-trappings of a great victory in battle allowed his armor and gallantry to be seeded by three witches to apprehend the crown by his own hand. To his amazement, yet already news to the King and his subjects, the second of the witches’ three prophecies was subsequently and immediately fulfilled. By this end of Act I, scene iv, just after he eyes the crown with the line, “for in my way it lies,” and utters, “Stars hide your fires, let not light see my deep and black desires...” the language and the story start to settle in, grabbing hold of one’s senses. The sharp and poetic interplay of events up until this point lets you pretty well know how the rest of the play will pan out.

Starting out as not-so-simple plan, Macbeth talks himself in and out of betraying his valiant service to King and country. Even though he killed as a soldier in battle, never did he commit murder, or treason. In the soliloquy outside of the King’s chamber, through the dagger of the mind, he creates the alter ego, envisioning the blood on the imaginary dagger until at some point he draws the real dagger and the two become one. Yet, still somewhat in this rapt state of mind, surrounded by the inner-trappings of the moment and the influences behind all that seemed fated to him seeping into his imagination, justifying the evil and avarice in the world, he simply “moves like a ghost” tempting his fate to something so fragile as some tiny, earthly element to spook him out of the unspeakable. Then, like a feather in a wind, is convinced.

Macbeth repeatedly willed himself to do the ultimate in the name of selfishness and dishonor, which he sensed his conscience would be unable to completely control. You, the reader, can see at this point that this soldier is absolutely not cut out to get away with murder and treason. Nobody can ever, really. Bound by faith and/or responsibility, one cannot possibly though every impression know every expression in his/her own backyard; act resolute to ever alter fate completely to one’s liking. And, from any potential natural obstacle that can arise uncontrollably from a simple plan, both an instance ended up sealing his fate. (I’d like to note that the film adaptation by Trevor Nunn, with Judi Dench and Ian McKellen in the lead roles, has a better, more thought-provoking ending than the play, as it is written.)

The scene between Macduff and Malcolm’s soul-searching/testing the true nature of a hero (under these circumstances) versus a villain is fantastic.

Unless WMDs are mysteriously found, we are left to support the troops and Iraqi civilians in the midst of a White House that has had as high a turnover as any McDonald’s, with still no justifiable reason for our military incursion. And, along the home front, we’d had two Democrats going at each other, aiming for a more progressive leadership.

It would be great in this or any time when our favorite Shakespeare play could be A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth was more of a literary classic. I have, I guess, what I would call a punk-ethic when it comes to understanding things that are undeniably strong and honest in their toiling depiction toward human goodness. Such things as widely seen and read as Macbeth — “...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” — should be well understood throughout our worldwide community, by now, yet has rather unfortunately lived on to this day. (less)

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Jan 07, 2008

Bagger rated it

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Shelves: fiction, brits

I went and saw this play in Shakespeare in the Park, and though I had read it for school already, and at the time hadn't cared that much for it. By the time the play was over I had changed my mind, it is a great play, and I think that is one of the best things to do with an author like William Shakespeare, although reading the plays are great, I ended up loving this book, after seeing it at the park, seeing the mannerisms and word inflections that you just don't get in by reading.
The play ...more

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Oct 09, 2007

Jeff rated it

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Recommends it for: people who have those niftly little Tide pens

"Are you going to see Shakespeare in the park tonight or what? Macbeth starts tonight. You said you’d go and see it."
"Dammit. I did didn’t I? Okay, what time?"
"Meet at my place around six. Oh, and we’re going to get some wine."

I wasn’t in the mood to see Shakespeare. I was miserable, for various reasons. Still, I went.

“Welcome to Shakespeare in the park. Please no flash photography.” the recorded message said.

I thought...more

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Apr 17, 2009

Steven rated it

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Macbeth is best read as a look at a certain kind of marriage: a man and a woman, both ambitious, who partner-up to propel forward their joint fortunes. Neither would have achieved royalty without the other---and neither would have become a murderer in the process. The synergy between them is fascinating. As usual, Shakespeare has a genius for human psychology.

Teaching the play throughout the 1990s, I was continually struck by how strongly the play reminded me of one well-known Am...more

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Nov 01, 2007

Zja Noir rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: EVERYONE!

Shelves: own, reviewed

Firstly, I have to say that my shakespeare's complete works is one of those volums I am constantly thumbing though. It suits all moods and occassions!

And Macbeth is my favourite of all of them!
"Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,
I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
Shall e'er have power up...more

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About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. Hi...moreWilliam Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
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Trivia About Macbeth

114 trivia questions
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Quotes from Macbeth

“Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!” — 959 people liked it

“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
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 an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.” — 904 people liked it

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