Macbeth in Never too Late to Read Classics

Jul 29, 2016 J. Sebastian rated it it was amazing

Shelves: english-classics

For long has this been my favourite of the plays. Though brief in compass it has everything both to enthrall and horrify the reader: storms, witches, darkness, war, blood, murder, ghosts. Some of the lines of Lady Macbeth are so terrifying that I am unable to bring myself to utter them aloud, but beyond its literary quality, and its sheer power to captivate the reader and hold him spellbound, there are deep and important questions to consider about a world in which Fair is foul, and foul is fair ...more

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May 11, 2012 midnightfaerie rated it liked it

Shelves: classics, rory-gilmore

Click here for William Shakespeare Disclaimer

Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a tale about a man who makes the wrong choices and lives (or rather dies) to regret it. After hearing about a prophesy that starts to come true by three witches, he starts to think maybe he could be king. As if it's never occurred to him before. To me, this makes him something of an idiot. Then his wife gets in on the action and starts to use her wiles to convince him to kill the king. I won't ruin the ending for you Click here for William Shakespeare Disclaimer

Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a tale about a man who makes the wrong choices and lives (or rather dies) to regret it. After hearing about a prophesy that starts to come true by three witches, he starts to think maybe he could be king. As if it's never occurred to him before. To me, this makes him something of an idiot. Then his wife gets in on the action and starts to use her wiles to convince him to kill the king. I won't ruin the ending for you, but basically it's all about power and betrayal. It's the one where the lines "Double, double toil and trouble, Fire burn and Cauldron bubble" and "Something wicked this way comes" comes from.

I'm not sure how I felt about this one. Shakespeare is obviously brilliant and puts meat in his characters that take on a life of their own. So if, for instance, you hate a character, you don't merely dislike him, you downright wish to see maggots spouting from mouth. Macbeth's and Lady Macbeth's unscrupulous actions have you squirming in your seat. The play was coarse the character's fought dirty and there was lots of blood. This was not a light and fluffy piece. I think my favorite characters were the witches. They were just really creepy. I heard a rumor that every time this play was performed or made into a movie, there were always problems and issues with it and they never did well because of it. Apparently Shakespeare used real witch spells and that's why many actors won't go near this one. Bad things always happen surrounding this play. Even in just reading the play the witches freaked me out, so I can see that. But maybe it was some of the ingredients used in their spells. Some of my favorites were the liver of a blaspheming Jew and the finger of a birth-strangled babe ditch-delivered by a drab. (the finger of a baby that was strangled as a prostitute gave birth to it in a ditch) So you can see how this has a high creep factor. I also enjoyed Lady Macbeth's character. She started out strong and I liked her conniving to get what she wanted. I'm sure lots of reviews have been written with references to the whole Eve-factor and woman being the downfall of man aspect here, but I could care less. Shakespeare did it well.

The obvious hero of our story, Macduff (must Shakespeare make so many of his characters in his plays start with the same letter?) is good and strong and true of character and also boring as sin. The not so obvious hero in my opinion is Malcolm, King Duncan's son. Many see him leaving after the main event as running scared. I don't see it that way. I think he was smart to leave. I felt like he did it to regroup and think through his actions instead of doing something hasty. I respected him more for that and thought he was the most intelligent character of the bunch. This fact was reinforced when he performed his little "test" on Macduff, to see if he really wanted him on the throne or if he was only looking to kill him. I really liked him and would have liked to see this part hyped up a bit more in the movies. Overall, it was a good solid production, but a gut wrenching plot, which for me, I have to be in the mood for.

The first movie I saw was the version starring Patrick Stewart. It was very raw, but in a good way. It left me feeling disturbed. It was set in a 20th century military type society and the actors were well cast. I especially loved how they did the witches, very disturbing, and Lady Macbeth was superb. She was probably my favorite character in this movie. I also enjoyed Porter's crassness at explaining inebriation while urinating in the sink. Overall, very close to the play and well done.

The second movie I saw was the Sam Worthington version of Macbeth, which dealt with the mob. It was wonderfully violent and appropriately gruesome, exactly like the play. It was a neat take on the story and I think they did it well. I read some bad reviews from high school teachers saying there was no way that their students could watch it. Well, duh. Have you read the play? Overall it was a great interpretation and I highly recommend it.
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Feb 19, 2018 Shirley (stampartiste) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: challenge-bingo-2018, read-classics, challenge-back-to-the-classics-2018, favorite-author-shakespeare-william

I absolutely loved this play! It was so tragic to see Macbeth devolve so quickly, as one crime made the next and the next easier and easier to perform or command others to perform. (view spoiler) ...more

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