Analysis of the Macbeth Play Written by William Shakespeare - Book Report/Review Example

Macbeth Macbeth is a play set up in scot land is written by a great d William Shakespeare. However,it is considered as one of his darkest and most powerful tragedies. The play aims to dramatize the corrosive psychological and political effects which were produced when evil is chosen as a way to fulfill an ambition to gain power. It was the first play by Shakespeare which is categorized as the most studied play which has been made into films, shown in television and even made for basis for the modern plays and films we watch today. Shakespeare work has transcended language, time and even continental barrier; his plays are among the most analyzed and perfumed all over the world. His poems are also taught in classes at every level. Shakespeare was born on April 23 in year 1564, in a family of eight children he being the third, after he got baptized at the holy trinity church in strafed- upon –Avon in Warwickshire, England. His parents’ John and Mary Arden Shakespeare sent him to grammar school in Stratford –Upon-Avon. William dropped from school at university level at the age of 18 and married Anne Hathaway. Many of his plays greatly impressed people including queen Elizabeth I Shakespeare died in April 1616 and was buried in Stratford-upon-Avon (Wells, 23-70). Macbeth play is believed to have been written between 1603 and 1607 which mostly reflects the playwright’s relationship with the sovereign. The play is mainly a story of a young brave Scottish general named Macbeth who gets a prophecy from witches that one day he will become the king of Scotland. Shakespeare opens the play amidst thunder and lightning, three witches contemplate that the heir next meeting shall be with Macbeth. A wounded sergeant then reports to king Duncan of Scotland that general Macbeth has just conquered the allied forces of Ireland and Norway who were led by the traitorous Macdonward, the thane of Cawdor. Macbeth the king’s kinsman is highly praised for his bravery and fighting abilities he displayed in the battle field. The next scene of the play starts where Macbeth and Banquo are discussing weather and the air victory in the battle they fought. As they are wandering onto a heath, three witches enter and greet them with prophecies, Banquo who is more doubting than Macbeth, challenges the prophecies given by the witches, the witches hail Macbeth as “thane of Glamis”and they keep telling him that he shall” be the king here after” Macbeth is stunned to silence. Banquo on his part asks of his own fortunes and the witches are quick to inform him that he shall father a line of kings but he himself will not be a king. The witches vanish leaving the two men wondering at these pronouncements, shortly after another thane who is named Ross arrives and inform Macbeth of his newly acquired title of thane of Cawdor in Scotland as the previous thane of Cawdor was to be executed for his traitorous activities. Since Macbeth witnesses his first prophecy being fulfilled, Macbeth immediately begins to harbor ambitions of becoming a king (Spurgeon 169-178). King Duncan welcomes and sends a message of gratitude to Macbeth and Banquo and declares that he would be spending the night at Macbeth’s castle at Inverness. Macbeth on receiving the message, he sends a message ahead to his wife lady Macbeth revealing the prophecies from the witches. Lady Macbeth is certain and seems more convinced by the prophecies than Macbeth and wishes for his husband to murder Duncan in order to obtain the kingship. Lady Macbeth overrides all of her husband’s objections where he challenges his manhood and then persuades him to kill the king when he arrives to spend the night at the castle. Macbeth and his wife works a plan to get Duncan’s two chamberlains so drunk that they will not be able to tell what happened in the night hence will take the blame (Shirley, 19-63). When King Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him despite his doubts and supernatural hallucination of a bloody danger, his wife takes charge seeing how Macbeth was shaken where she frames dunces sleeping servants for the murder by placing the bloody daggers on them. In the next morning, Macduff who was a loyal thane of fife, Lennox a Scottish nobleman arrive where a porter opens the gate and Macbeth leads them to the king’s chamber. Macduff discovers Duncan’s body and calls the guards Macbeth out of anger pretence murders the guards to prevent them from professing the heir innocence, shortly after, Duncan’s sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to England and Ireland in fear that whoever killed king Duncan who is the heir father would also seek to murder them. Macbeth is left to assume the throne and becomes the new king of Scotland as a kinsman of King Duncan. (Jackson, 45-78). Macbeth remains uneasy since he was aware of his part of the prophecy, consequently, he invites Banquo to a royal banquet where he learns that his friend Banquo and his son Fleance will be riding out that night Macbeth quickly arranges for the heir death by hiring men to kill them. The assassins kill Banquo but Fleance manages to escape this in turn makes Macbeth overcome with fury, since he fears that his power is insecure as long as the heir of Banquo remains alive. Macbeth invites his lords and wife to a night of drinking and merriment, Banqou’s ghost is seen entering and sits in Macbeth’s place. Macbeth raves fearfully which startles his guests since the ghost is only visible to him only. The lords in the house panic on seeing Macbeth raging at his empty chair until Lady Macbeth tells them that her husband is afflicted with a familiar and harmless malady. The ghost keeps appearing and disappearing which makes Lady Macbeth to order the lord to leave which they obey. Consequently, Macbeth visits the three witches where he requests them to reveal the truth of her prophecies to him; they summon apparitions who offer predictions and further prophecies to ally Macbeth’s fears. They conjure an armored head which tells hi to be aware of Macduff; secondly, a bloody child tells him that no human shall be able to harm him and lastly an image of a crowned child who was holding a tree and states that Macbeth will be safe until when Great Birnam wood comes to Duisinane hill. Additionally Macbeth also inquires if Banquo’s sons will ever reign in Scotland: the witches conjure procession of eight crowned kings which are all similar to Banquo in appearance, and the last is seen carrying a mirror that reflects even more kings. Macbeth realizes that all these are Banquo’s descendants having acquired kingship in numerous countries. After the witches perform the heir mad dance and leave, Lennox enter and informs Macbeth that Macduff has fled to England, alternatively, Macbeth orders Macduff’s castle to be seized where lady Macduff and the heir children are all murdered including everyone else who was in the castle (Topham, 2011). Due to guilt conscious on Lady Macbeth, she becomes racked from crimes she and her husband committed where she started to have a strange habit of sleepwalking. Lady Macbeth enters with a burning candle in her hand moaning the murders of Duncan, lady Macduff and Banquo, she is also seen trying to clean imaginary bloodstains from her hands while speaking of the things she had pressed her husband to commit. The doctor and the gentlewoman are left to marvel at her descent into madness. It is ironic that her belief that her earlier claim which she had told his husband Macbeth that a little water can clear all the bad deeds since she laments that nothing would wash away the bloodstains from her hands. The news on how Macduff’s castle was seized and his family murdered reached Macduff in England where he was stricken with grief and vowed to revenge. Alternatively Prince Malcolm, Duncan’s son had succeeded in raising a large army in England and Macduff joined him where they all allied to challenge Macbeth’s forces. The invasion also benefited from the support of the Scottish nobles who appalled and frightened by Macbeth’s murderous and tyrannical behavior. Malcolm, Macduff and an Englishmen Siward lead an army against Dunsinane Castle, while the soldiers were camped in Birman Woods they were ordered to cut down and carry tree to hide the heir numbers. Macbeth got the news that Lady Macbeth had killed herself which made him sink into deep and pessimistic despair. He was brave since he believed that the witches prophecies guaranteed his invincibility to death, before reaching the battle field, he was struck with fear when he learned that the English army was advancing on Dunsinane shielded with boughs cut from Birnam Wood which apparently fulfilled one of the witches’ prophecies. A battle rose in Macduff’s confrontation with Macbeth as the English forces overpowered his forces at the castle where Macbeth boasts that he has no reason to fear Macduff. Nevertheless, Macduff declares that he was from his mother’s womb and not a woman born, since he was born by caesarean section which fulfilled the second prophecy. Macbeth realizes too late that he is doomed since he had all misinterpreted the witch’s words but he carry on the fight. Macduff later kills and beheads Macbeth thus fulfilling the remaining part of the prophecy. After beheading him, Macduff then carries Macbeth’s head onstage and Malcolm suggest how order was to be restored. The witches’ prophecy concerning Banquo came to be true through king James of Scotland and latter James of England who were all descendants of Banquo. Within the play, the main theme which Shakespeare brings out is ambition. According to Shakespeare, destruction follows when ambition goes beyond moral constraints. Macbeth, who is a brave general as evident by the number of battle he took and won, is naturally inclined to commit evil yet he is deeply ambitious and also desires power. Due to his ambitions which go beyond moral constants, he murders King Duncan against better judgments and then latter wallows in guilt. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth pursues her goals with greater determination by convincing her husband to the murder king Duncan yet; she is not capable of dealing with the guilt conscious from her immorality. Lady Macbeth takes the role of a forceful female character in the play by spurring her husband to mercilessly kill Duncan and urges him to remain strong afterwards. Ambition catalyzed by the prophecies offered the witches, is the sole factor that drives the couple to commit the heir atrocities. According to the play, it is evident that that when one decides to use violence to further one’s quest for power, it becomes difficult to stop it just as Macbeth uses violence to eliminate threats to his throne. The theme of masculinity is also represented in the play where Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood making a wish to her to be unsexed. Lady Macbeth contradicts Macbeth when she says that a woman of her type should give birth only to boys. When Macbeth hires assassins to murder Banquo and fails to murder his son, he provokes them by questioning the heir manhood. These acts which are revealed by Macbeth and his wife show that the couples equate masculinity with naked aggression since whenever they discuss the manhood, violence is bound to follow. Shakespeare through the use of these characters’ understanding of manhood which allows the political order represented in the play to end up into chaos. The role of a woman is to contain violence and evil intentions, the witchs prophecies triggers Macbeth’s ambitions alternatively encourage his violent behavior. Additionally Lady Macbeth on her part provides the drive which stimulates the will in her husband behind the plot to kill King Duncan. Macbeth, however traces the cause of chaos and evil from women though critics argue that the play is the Shakespeare’s most misogynistic. Additionally, the male characters are brutal and more prone t evil than women. However, the aggression of the female characters is more vivid since it contradicts the expectations of how women are expected to behave. Through the use of Lady Macbeth character in the play he shows that women can also be as ambitious and also ruthless as men. However they may rely on someone else to do the heir mischief but at the long run the guilt is the same (Shaughnessy 79-90). Connectively manhood definition has been placed in the end of a play where Malcolm consoles Macduff In unsympathetic manner, where he encouragingly tell him to  use it to fuel his hatred to Macbeth but Macduff tell the young Malcolm that he shall seek the revenge but also he also is subjected to feeling just as a man. work cited Jackson, Russell. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Cambridge University Press 2000, 45-78. Print Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.) (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture. Cambridge University Press. 2007, 67-90. Print Shirley, Francis. Shakespeares Use of Off-stage Sounds. University of Nebraska Press. 1963, 19-63. Print Spurgeon, C. "Shakespeares Imagery and What It Tells Us". In Wain, John. Shakespeare: Macbeth: A Casebook. Casebook Series, AC16. Macmillan. 1967 pp. 168–177 print Wells S. and Grazia, M. (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Cambridge University Press 2001, 23-70. Print Read More