After reading Macbeth, viewing at least one production, and reading the lecture, you are now ready to discuss elements of the play here in discussion board virtual space. Choose just 2 of the questions below to write a 100 word minimum response to each question, quoting at least once from the play, citing the Act, Scene, and Lines. Use standard formatting for this–for example: (2.3.44-47) means Act Two, Scene Three, Lines 44 to 47.
Once you have posted two responses, then respond with a substantive answer to two of your classmates (not a compliment or a criticism per se, but a response to the content of the play as viewed by a classmate).
- Macbeth is a study of evil. If he is cursed by the three weird sisters (witches) from the outset, is the evil then emanating from him? 21st century readers place a higher value on one’s individual ability to choose the right moral path, and with little to no intervention from supernatural powers. How much credence should we give to the Greek element of the harmattan in Macbeth, in this case that his flaw (from which all tragedy supposedly begins), is his ambition?
- How does Lady Macbeth’s attitudes (responses) about the murders differ from Macbeth’s?
- The play often refers to fertility and infertility. If you are fertile, you have been blessed by God—and vise versa. Lady Macbeth prays to be barren in exchange for power. Can you cite one place in the play where this is mentioned?
- Isn’t Macbeth based on an actual 11th century Scottish King? Why is it classed with the tragedies rather than the histories? What was Shakespeare’s source material for the play?
- A friend of mine wrote the American production of “House of Cards.” He described writing it as Lady Macbeth meets Richard III. Explain what he meant.
- In what ways does Macbeth resemble then contemporary notions of Lucifer Morning Star?
- The witches’ prophesies contain hidden meanings. What do the following turn out to mean? 1) Macbeth will not be defeated “until Birnam wood move to high Dunsinane,” and 2) that “no man of woman born” may harm him (Macduff).
- Banquo warns Macbeth that devils or demons or spirits may tell us partial truths, while concealing darker consequences, but Macbeth ignores him. Incidentally, this is the same belief that causes Hamlet to delay making a decision about what to do about his father’s murder. In the case of Macbeth, then, we get a play about how power corrupts absolutely. Are there other stories that echo political corruption?
- Do we realize the vast import of usurpation? The overthrowing of a King is serious business because King’s rule by Divine Right. To overthrow one, God better be on your side. David Hume wrote extensively about this in the 18th century, as did our own founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence. If you should fail in the overthrow, your soul will be damned to eternal hell fire. The question: what other very serious preoccupations for the Elizabethans do we not take quite as seriously today? Conversely, what do we take seriously that Elizabethans may not have thought twice about?
Watch the play. ( Macbeth ) (MLO 2.1)
Read Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s finest tragedies.
