We enter scene five with Lady Macbeth reading a letter from her husband. We have an indirect characterization of Macbeth from her. He is a coward who doesn't really like to get his hands dirty. We have a direct characterization of her. She is in a word, a bitch. She hates cowardly people, therefore there is a small part of her that hates her husband. The only reason she is with Macbeth is because she sees that he can get high politically and she wants to bath in that glory.
Shortly, a messenger announces the arrival of the king, Duncan.
Macbeth arrives and talks to his wife. She is pleased of course because he was names the Thane of Cawdor, which is next in the line to be king. But she is not happy enough. "O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!" With this line he says that she wants Macbeth to kill Duncan. He says we will talk later because Duncan is arriving.
Scene 6:
Duncan arrives with Banquo. Lady Macbeth goes out and meets him. He compliments her and the home, he seems like an honest and kind man.
Scene 7:
Duncan is in his chamber and the lovely couple discuss the matter of killing Duncan. Macbeth says "He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people..." What this means is, he just got a promotion and a bunch of people like me, why would I want to kill him tonight? But of course, Lady Macbeth is an itch and sh calls him a coward and questions his manhood. He starts folding in and says what if we fail? She says that we won't fail if we have courage and of course who would blame us nice folks, especially if we look devastated ("As we shall make our griefs and clamour roarUpon his death?")? He starts thinking about it but the audience can pretty much insinuate that she managed to convince him.
Nice job on your notes Feli they are really in depth and easy to understand. Do you have notes on your blog for the rest of act 1? Could you comment on my act 1 notes as well please?
ReplyDeleteI don't have notes on the rest of act 1, sorry... I just started taking notes when he first instructed us to....
DeleteGreat job Feli!! I really like your explaination and interpretation of the quotes. They are well in depth.
ReplyDeleteGreat way of explaining Lady Macbeth's character. Isn't she just lovely?
ReplyDeleteNice at remembering to write down where you took the notes with the scenes. I forgot that. You didn't summarize and you added your own ideas. I would just organize the quotes and your ideas on them by separating them so it's easier to read.
ReplyDeleteDo you think Macbeth is a wimp like his wife said? Even though he is a great warrior I think he's also wimp for giving into his wife's ideologies so easily and completely throwing his morals and logical reasoning under the buss(in barley a day).
I think Macbeth is definitely a wimp. The fact that the wife wears the pants is an indication of that. If he was a true man he would tell his wife no and stand by his king.
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