Macbeth

by William Shakespeare

Other authorsSylvan Barnet (Editor)
Paperback, 1963

Status

Available

Call number

822.33

Collection

Publication

Signet Classics (1963), Edition: Revised, Paperback, 267 pages

Description

Classic Literature. Drama. Fiction. HTML: Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and one of his best-known plays. Often referred to as an archetypal tale, it warns against lust for power and the betrayal of friends. Shakespeare based the play loosely on a King Macbeth of Scotland. The play is traditionally considered "cursed", and thus many actors refer to it as "The Scottish Play" to avoid naming it..

User reviews

LibraryThing member dmsteyn
A profoundly affecting play, Macbeth is Shakespeare's darkest tragedy, though perhaps not as nihilistic as the pre-Christian King Lear. Not that Macbeth's Christian era has any considerable redemptive effect on the play. There is Christian imagery throughout the play, of course, but I would contend
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with critics like Empson and Bloom that Shakespeare was not a particularly Christian playwright. It has hard to say anything about Shakespeare from his plays - he is the least auto-biographical writer in the Western tradition, one might say. He may well have been Christian (perhaps even Roman Catholic, as some have speculated) but I do not think his plays, Macbeth least of all, espouse any overt religious message. One can tack such a message onto Macbeth, if you wish, by investing Macbeth's opponents (young Malcolm, Ross, Macduff, and the other rebellious thanes of Scotland) with the ethos of 'good Christian knights', sent to kill the emissary of evil. But I would contend that this is a misguided misreading of the play. Macbeth may be morally abhorrent, but the play is closer in structure to a Sophoclean tragedy, with the focus nearly entirely on Macbeth, not on the 'avenging Christian heroes'.

Bloom contends that Macbeth is extremely horrifying not because of its disturbing imagery and actions:Titus Andronicus is much more bloody, and yet less horrifying than Macbeth, and in any case, playgoers of his time could go to Tyburn to watch bloody executions. Rather, the horror is in Macbeth's extreme interiority and his proleptic imagination, which infects the whole play, as well as those who watch or read the play. Reading Macbeth awakens anxieties in us because it makes us aware of our own propensity and capacity for evil. 'Evil' is, of course, a particularly ambiguous term nowadays, with relativism making such a strong claim to our morality. But, within the confines of world morality, few would claim that Macbeth and his wife's initial ethos of 'the ends justify the means' is not particularly terrible. Even the Macbeths realise the horror of what they have done, though it has diverging effects on the two. In any case, the though that we may be capable of atrocities is uniquely tempting in this play. Macbeth is initially a 'golden boy', though we sense the danger of his propensity for slaughter, even though it is initially in service of the monarch. I never lost my admiration for Macbeth's bravery throughout the play, though I would strongly condemn his actions. It is this dichotomy between centripetal admiration, and a concurrent centrifugal revulsion, which draws one into Macbeth's unique psychology.

Lady Macbeth is the only of other strong character in the play - the thanes and Malcolm are colourless in comparison. But she falls away after the beginning of Act III, and the play then focuses on Macbeth to the near-exclusion of everything else. This is unique in a Shakespearean tragedy - even Hamlet has his mother, uncle, and Horatio. Macbeth is left centre-stage, with his famous soliloquy on death ('Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...'). Though he is killed, we remain strangely uneasy at the end of the play. I think this is because of the above-mentioned identification with Macbeth: we fear our capabilities for evil, but, in a perverse sense, also exult in them. Even more perversely, I felt a distaste for king Malcolm and his easy morality. Perhaps I am merely a misanthropic egoist, always fearing that the 'do-gooding rabble' might come after me as well. All I can say to that is:

Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires.

More seriously (well, you judge whether I was serious previously...) is the role of the witches / weird sisters in the play. Do they control Macbeth, planting the seed of murder in his mind? Or has he always had the potential for evil in him? The text is ambiguous about this, but I suspect that Macbeth considers evil long before the witches appear. For instance, they never, ever tell Macbeth to do anything. He comes to the idea of murder all by himself, with some promptings from his wife. And, conversely, when they make predictions to Banquo, Banquo does not run off to kill the monarch. Evil (whatever you mean by that word) seems to reside in humanity itself, not in the outside universe. Which is a bit of a cop-out: the witches are, after all, in the play. Bloom says, despite his fascination with the witches, that they are nearly redundant, which I would agree with, following my interpretation of Macbeth's own culpability. But, then, why did Shakespeare feel the need to add them to the play? Was it only because James I had an inordinate interest in witches and the supernatural in general? This hardly seems like a good enough reason for such a large aspect of the play. Is it because Holinshed mentions them in his Chronicles, on which the play is based? Shakespeare often leaves out things in Holinshed which he finds extraneous. Or did Shakespeare also find witches fascinating? It could be for anyone of these reasons, but I think the last is the most intriguing.

This is, obviously, a great play. It is economical, fast-paced, and cuts to the bone of what Renaissance tragedy could do. It is also frightening, and more so the more one thinks about it. I could say much more about the play - I've left out a whole discussion on the use of humour in the Porter's scene, which Coleridge hated, but which De Quincey examined at length. I also haven't said much about the role of imagery in the play, or the pathetic fallacy of nature responding to the death of the king. Time is short, the art too long.

On a last note: thank God this play isn't as amenable to post-modern reimagings as, say, Othello or The Tempest! I hate polemical interpretations which pervert Shakespeare's plays beyond all recognition. Retellings are fine, but don't give me a Marxist-feminist-structuralist play in which Macbeth is a hero of the proletariat, who kills the factory boss, but then descends into a homo-erotic coupling with the cross-dressing 'Lady' Macbeth, who convinces him to re-exploit the poor factory workers.

Obviously, at the end, he is overthrown because of repressed longings for Malcolm, who resembles his mother. Obviously.

God, help us.
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LibraryThing member ncgraham
Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy and, many would say, his darkest. I’ve also called it my favorite for several years, although I never read it until now, my familiarity with it being limited to the video with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench. So I am very sorry that my experience reading it
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was not more enjoyable.

For sometimes that is what determines our enjoyment of a book or play: the experience, rather than the work itself. Something just doesn’t click, or we come to the material with the wrong material, and from then on everything is ruined. That was how it was for me and Macbeth. I still enjoyed it—but not the way I enjoyed Much Ado About Nothing, or even The Merchant of Venice. Maybe the comedies are simply easier for me to comprehend. I read this play alongside my brother, who had been assigned it in school, and when I tried to explain some of the themes to him I found I was having difficulty with it, even though I had previously thought them fairly simple and straightforward (for Shakespeare, that is).

I think in the end what draws me to this play is that it shows us a world where evil is very real, and yet it does not allow for it to completely triumph over goodness. From the witches’ devilish incantations to the guilt Lady Macbeth shows in her famous sleepwalking scene, this is a study of evil, sin, and suffering in all their various forms: vain ambition, jealousy, negligence (one could argue that Macduff is guilty of this—I like that Shakespeare’s good guys are complex even in plays like this), death, revenge. And yet in the end, the Macbeths get their just deserts, and all is righted. (Of course, there are some scholars who maintain that this is not the case, because Duncan was a usurper and Macbeth historically was really in line for the throne. Whatever. They’re old curmudgeons and just want to take away my happy ending.)

Along with the play in book form, I do still recommend the video with McKellen and Dench. As it is based on a stage production, it follows the text very closely, and both stars perform superbly. I’ve seen sections of the old Orson Welles film as well, and while it is splendid visually, it is more of an interpretation of Shakespeare’s work than a performance. I assume that many of the other film versions suffer from similar changes.
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LibraryThing member veilofisis
‘Let it come down.’

Macbeth is a remarkably saturnine, poisonous play: a thread of muddy doom is woven through the fabric of its plot, and any hint of redemption obscured by dark, threatening clouds. That its skeleton is constructed with certain stock materials—vaulting ambition punished, the
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insidious and cruel female, the equivocal and often deleterious nature of prophecy—is curious given its transcendence of the maudlin trappings of most of these sorts of tragedies: Macbeth takes place, after all, on a somewhat epic-scale; unlike similar fictions, however, it doesn’t squeeze in its more human elements as mere padding between its battle scenes: the play is its human elements. Despite the conspicuous spilling of blood and the sometimes convoluted machinations of its political contexts, Macbeth is truly a tragedy of the soul.

Relationships are strained here; and that of Lady Macbeth and her husband is, obviously, the most interesting and complex Shakespeare is offering: the veil between sanity and madness is delicate in a play where guilt is consistently put further on the backburner as the atrocities pile up. Lady Macbeth, seemingly a seething black hole of corruption and evil, provides us with an interesting contrast to the slow devolution of her husband: her own guilt manifests behind the curtain of consciousness, only reaching its climax offstage, where her (implied) suicide—and its motivation—remains somewhat mysterious and open to interpretation. Macbeth, on the other hand, remains unrepentant to the last, and we are treated to his gruesome undoing in exacting detail. Shakespeare has loaded the duality that exists in both of these characters with a great deal of psychological weight: the tension that boils between them is more complex than murderer and accessory (and we can pick who fits which title). Lady Macbeth’s convictions exist undeterred until she is confronted with their ramifications after-the-fact; Macbeth’s own convictions waver in the face of forethought, but once the transaction has been purchased with blood, he stands behind them, unwavering, to his very death. A haunted couple, they have become archetypes in our literature.

Macbeth’s relationship with Banquo is less baroque. Banquo provides a foil of reason to Macbeth’s decline: Banquo represents the innocent who stands on the just side of fate, while Macbeth rises heavenwards, like Icarus, chasing destiny with dire results. This begs a question, however: how much of what takes place in Macbeth is solely the work of destiny? Certainly one can say that the prophecies regarding both Banquo and Macbeth coming to their fruition is confirmation of the play’s propensity towards the supernatural, but of Macbeth’s pursuit of fate…this is more curious: after all, why plot to kill Duncan and make yourself king if the cards have already been laid out towards this end? Or are Macbeth’s crimes exactly what the prophecy infers? This question could be argued in circles, certainly, because it exists beyond the constraints of the play. Macbeth’s vision is very dark, however, and I would lean towards the latter conclusion: predestination requires a fated evil as much as a fated good, and we do not always find ourselves in the position to choose. This is one of the more troubling truths examined in Macbeth.

Macbeth is obsessed with the supernatural: with fate, with visions, with incantation, with prophecy. It is entirely natural, then, that its characters should be shrouded in the gloom of uncertainty: each of these people is swallowed up by the fog that surrounds them, whether for eventual good or ill. None of them leave this play without experiencing shattering transformation, both internal and external. But the play goes beyond average considerations in pursuit of more metaphysical themes: it suffocates us with its horrors and leaves us disconcerted by their import—chews at our hopes as much as at our fears. It implies, without beating us over the head, that perhaps free will is a more complicated privilege than we’d care to admit: that perhaps even that most elemental of freedoms is subject, somehow, to the caprices of fate.
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LibraryThing member weird_O
What in the world can anyone say about one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies? That it is a bloodbath. No poisonings. No smotherings or stranglings. No shootings. Every death brings the killer face to face with his victim. The killer must thrust the knife or swing the sword, feeling the flesh
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resist then tear, hearing viscera and fluids gush then drip, and heed the shrieks and groans of the injured, the rattle of death from the dying. Few are spared, not women and children, not the elderly. Inevitably, blood flows freely, staining murdered and murderer alike.

And why?

Macbeth, a warrior, is played like a fiddle by three creepy, scuzzy gorgons. First, they tell him of an honor he knows he bears. Then they tell him of an honor he'll soon learn has been settled on him. And finally, they hook him with the notion that he could be king. Here is a warrior, by profession a killer. He can apply his job skills, make the king dead, and assume a new role. Except the King has two healthy sons (also warriors), one of whom could reasonably expect to succeed Dad in the family business. Then too, there are Macbeth's brethren in the warrior fraternity who would rightfully desire to avenge the murder of their king.

In the final scene of Act I, Macbeth has it out with himself, concluding "I have no spur/To prick the sides of my intent, but only/Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself/And falls on the other." In plainer terms, the only motivation for this murder is ambition. To him, it's not enough. "We will proceed no further in this business…" he tells his wife. But she plays that fiddle too, questioning his manhood, accusing him of cowardice. "I have given suck," she says, "and know/How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:/I would, while it was smiling in my face,/Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,/And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you/Have done to this."

Yow! His goose is cooked.

[Macbeth] is one of Shakespeare's last works. First performed four hundred years ago, in 1606, it has been performed regularly every year since (probably). Here are some famous lines:

WITCHES: Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
(Act 1 Scene 1)

MACBETH: Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
(Act 2 Scene 1)

MACBETH: Methought I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep: the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.”
(Act 2 Scene 2)

WITCHES: Double, double toil and trouble:
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
(Act 4 Scene 1)

SECOND WITCH: By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
(Act 4 Scene 1)

LADY MACBETH: Out! damned spot! One, two, — why, then ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? – Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.
(Act 5, Scene 1)

LADY MACBETH: All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
(Act 5, Scene 1)

LADY MACBETH: What’s done cannot be undone.
(Act 5, Scene 1)

MACBETH: 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.
(Act 5 Scene 5)

You ought to read it, methinks. I dodged it for more than a half-century, but now I'm content. I'd suggest reading an edition that pairs Shakespeare's text with a contemporary "translation". The Spark Notes version I read has the original text on the left, a modern text on the facing page. Worked for me.
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LibraryThing member crazyjerseygirl
Is he ambitious?
Is he insane?
Is he just a jerk?
You decide.
LibraryThing member Fluffyblue
What can you say about Macbeth that's not already been said? I thought I would find it difficult to understand, having not read any Shakespeare before, but it just took a bit of slow reading and thinking about what the meaning might be.

I think if you've not read Shakespeare before, this might be a
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good place to start.
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LibraryThing member cbl_tn
I don't recall reading Macbeth since high school, yet as I listened to the audio version I found myself quoting lines along with the actors. The play seems like it's full of cliches, yet it's the source for phrases like “vaulting ambition”, “a charmed life”, “be-all and end-all”, and
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“milk of human kindness”. Reader that I am, I also caught several book titles “borrowed” from its lines: Borrower of the Night (Elizabeth Peters), Look to the Lady (Margery Allingham), Light Thickens (Ngaio Marsh), By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Agatha Christie), Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury), The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner). I'm a long-time fan of the TV series All Creatures Great and Small, so it was a little disconcerting to hear Siegfried Farnon (i.e., Robert Hardy) in the role of Duncan. That aside, it's an exciting dramatization of one of Shakespeare's most famous plays.
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LibraryThing member bell7
*some spoilers*

Three witches meet Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, and greet him with tidings that he will become Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland. Macbeth can't stop thinking about it, and when the first prophecy comes true, he starts pondering regicide with his wife alongside goading him into
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action.

This is the first of Shakespeare's plays that I ever read, and as such it holds a special place in my memory. In high school, it was the one play I was assigned to read, and I just remember the thrill of surprise as the prophecies that Macbeth put his trust in came back to bite him. The excitement didn't disappoint on rereading, even though I knew what was going to happen. I love the theme of fate vs. free will - could Macbeth have avoided his fate? Would he have become king if he did nothing, much like Banquo's prophecy is likewise fulfilled? The arc of the characters as guilt gnaws them fascinates me as well. One of my absolute favorites of Shakespeare's plays. 5 stars.
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LibraryThing member aethercowboy
The Scottish play is well known for those who know a thing or two about Shakespeare. This play tells the tale betrayal, guilt, hubris, and witchcraft, threading together plots and wordplay only as Shakespeare could do.

Recommended for any fan of Shakespeare, or by any fan of British fantasy.
LibraryThing member DecemberBird
The Scottish general Macbeth happens to meet three witches, who predict that he will become king. So Macbeth and his wife decides to murder Duncan, the Scottish king. Lady Macbeth smears blood on the swords of the sleeping guards, so they will be accused of the murder. When the king's body is
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discovered by a nobleman named Macduff, Macbeth kills the guards saying that they are guilty of the crime because of the blood on their swords. Macbeth becomes king and more murders occur, but the guilt of the murder tortures Lady Macbeth and she decides to commit suicide. In the end, Macduff kills Macbeth to avenge Duncan, and he becomes king.

I think Macbeth has more than one theme. Greed, guilt, ambition and revenge. It showed me how far humans will go for money and reputation. Macbeth killed king Duncan for power, Lady Macbeth committed suicide because of guilt, Macduff killed Macbeth because of revenge. These feelings drive humans mad and make us do the unthinkable, like murder. I realized that most of the sinful things in this world is fueled by the lust for power, money and love.

This story is very deep and filled with complicated emotions, which almost makes it difficult to understand. There are many wise thoughts that will keep you thinking and you will realize obvious things that you have never thought about before. I think Shakespeare has written many intelligent plays and this is definitely one of the best. I really recommend this book.
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LibraryThing member MrsLee
I think this is one which needs to be seen. It seemed very slow to me, aside from the bits with murder and ghosts.
LibraryThing member gbill
That Bill Shakespeare could really write a play. 400 years later, Macbeth still more than holds up. I love this one for how lean and taut it is. It grabs you from the start, with the valorous Scottish Thane Macbeth receiving a prophecy from three witches that he will one day be King. Egged on and
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aided by his wife, he later kills King Duncan and assumes the throne. Guilt and paranoia lead to more violence, and of course violence begets violence. The play is dark, tragic, and lasting.

There are many memorable scenes here, including Lady Macbeth sleepwalking, but for me, the three witches steal the show. Who can forget “double double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble”?

There was a real Macbeth, King of Scotland from 1040 to 1057, who killed then King Duncan at the battle of Elgin, and who was later himself killed by Malcolm Canmore, Duncan’s son, with help from England’s King Edward the Confessor. Shakespeare used the material 550 years later when the English and Scottish thrones were united under James I, following Elizabeth’s death, to curry favor with James. He delivered the goods.

I loved this particular edition, with its 81 page introduction, including among other things illustrations of baroque art from the time period, Caravaggio and Bernini, to help illustrate the comparison to this baroque drama. The footnotes included in the text of the play are detailed, taking up a good fraction of each page, and very helpful. This would be a good book to start with for someone new to Shakespeare.

Quotes:
On guilt:
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No – this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.”

On the transience of life:
“She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word –
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
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.”

Lastly this one, from the witches, so morbid, such great imagery:
“Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witch’s mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravined salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock, digged i’th’dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Slivered in the moon’s eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-delivered by a drab:
Make the gruel thick and slab;
Add thereto a tiger’s chawdron,
For th’ ingredience of our cauldron.”
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LibraryThing member mbmackay
Re-read this classic in the Signature Shakespeare edition - beautiful presentation, and useful notes and explanations. Interesting to contrast the awful reputation of the Shakespearian Macbeth with the vastly different person that historians now document. I read a book on the real Macbeth a few
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years ago which claimed that he was the most unfairly maligned figure in history. But you read the play for Shakespeare, not historic accuracy, and this play is a ripper.
Read March 2015
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LibraryThing member Clara53
Re-reading "Macbeth" to refresh my memory before going to see it on stage. Not even trying to assume I can write a review on this classic. But one thing jumped out at me this time: how it took almost no time at all for Macbeth to decide on his murderous deeds after the prophecy of the three
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witches. It seemed incredible to me how little he hesitated to fulfil that prophecy at the horrible cost. Even though he did have some guilty conscience that tormented him just before and after the king's murder, being urged by Lady Macbeth was all it took...The images are dark throughout, the choice of words is insanely striking. A very good Introduction to the play by Mark Van Doren.
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LibraryThing member Rosamie.Bautista
Opening with the prophecies of the three witches always caught my imagination. I love how the story relates to that throughout the play, and also how Macbeth is intrigued that he may indeed become king. It adds a great, dramatic effect. Beginning to end this is a brilliantly written play.
LibraryThing member regularguy5mb
Dark and supernatural, Macbeth is one of my favorite of Shakespeare's tragedies. One of the biggest questions I always ask is, "Would the weird sisters' prophecies come to pass even if Macbeth hadn't gone all murder crazy?"

Macbeth is a great cautionary tale of the dangers of ambition, especially
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when it comes to power. Shakespeare explores what lengths men will go to for power, especially when they believe it is owed them.

Adding this copy to my Little Free Library in hopes that someone in the neighborhood can learn something from it, especially as certain phrases remind me of the current political climate and I know the way my neighbors tend to vote.
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LibraryThing member DanielAlgara
We have much to learn from Maestro's use of language. In Macbeth, it is surprisingly accessible and fast-paced.

I marvel at his choice at what occurs offstage, like the murder of Duncan. Yet the murder of Macduff's family, including children, happens for all to see. It is postulated that the Duncan
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scene was cut by someone else. But it actually does something interesting. It increases Macbeth's increasingly murderous character, intensifies his evil as a progression in his paranoia.

I have many more thoughts , of course, but I must stew. Perhaps I'll return to solidify my thoughts on this masterly work of art.
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LibraryThing member mjmbecky
Although I'm an English teacher, I have to admit that Macbeth is not one of my personal favorites. Does that mean that the play isn't brilliant? Absolutely not. Shakespeare, once again, exhibits the full range of characteristics and emotions that a human can display. Great play about the way a
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seemingly good man, can descend into the madness of becoming greedy and a murderer.
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LibraryThing member edspicer
I would recommend this book. It has love, tragedy, and horror in it all. There's blood and gore for the Halloween spirit.
5Q, 5P; Cover Art: Awesome!
This book is best suited for highschoolers and adults.
It was selected due to teacher recommendation.
Grade (of reviewer): 11th
MK-AHS-NC
LibraryThing member Hamburgerclan
My daughter has shamed me a bit in recent months. She's been on a Shakespeare kick--purchasing his works here and there from book sales and the like. Me, I've read a couple of plays and seen one or two others on television. I've never got around to reading these treasures of English literature. It
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was this shame, and the need to find a book that would fit in my lunch box, that led me to check out Shakespeare's Macbeth. 'Tis the tale of a Scottish thane or chieftain who, tempted by a cryptic prophecy, murders his king and tries to cover it up. There is much bloodshed and guilt, all set in iambic pentameter. The story was enjoyable enough, though I have to confess, I read through the synopsis before attempting to tackle the 17th Century English. (This, the Oxford School Shakespeare edition, is chock full of notes to help us poor students along in our studies.) Reading it spoiled the drama, but also helped me follow the story. So anyway, now my own guilt has been assuaged--for the nonce--and I can get back to reading more modern fluff. I don't think the child has procured a copy of Othello yet, anyway.
--J.
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LibraryThing member euang
Not dark enough: I was disappointed by this CD, particularly as the Naxos recording of King Lear with Schofield is so fine and the Richard III with Branagh a worthy production. Dillane, rated as a fine actor, fails badly to convey the steel and darkness of Macbeth for the early part of this play.
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Famous soliloquies,'Is this a dagger' fall flat. Later, he improves but fails yet to hit the heights. Finoa Shaw as Lady Macbeth, however, is magnificent. The CD also has some annoying quirks of recording, one scene sounding as if it has been recorded in a shower room
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LibraryThing member liammurrray
I enjoyed reading this play write even after the 1st time reading it a few years earlier. Although much of the language is hard to understand as it is written by Shakespeare in a complete different time period, it expresses an awesome story about the corruption of power. Initially, Macbeth is a
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character of the most heroic attributes, and his first acts present him as a very noble man. It is sad to see him be brought to his downfall after his wife brings the dark side out of him and herself as well. The corruption of having a great deal of power is presented by this play, and Macbeth is brought to his death because of this pursuit of power. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Shakespeareian plays or the history of the Middle Ages.
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LibraryThing member jacketscoversread
“Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble!” {pg. 82}

Comprised of five acts, The Tragedy of Macbeth starts as three witches agree to meet up again after a battle is fought. Originally, Macbeth starts off being portrayed as a hero, having led King Duncan’s forces
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successfully in battle, and hence will get a new title. The witches flatter his ego by telling him of the titles he will receive - more than he could ever have hoped - and that he will become king, ultimately.

From then on, Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth become ‘evil’, and pursue the witches’ prediction, and plot to kill Duncan. They have become greedy from the prediction. The play then follows their corruption, the murders they commit, and their ultimate downfall.

I prefer to watch Shakespeare’s plays rather than read them, especially when they’re very long. Lucky for me, The Tragedy of Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays and probably has the easiest message to comprehend-the corrupted nature of power and greed, and the terrible affects it can have. However, The Tragedy of Macbeth is Shakespeare’s equivalent of a summer blockbuster. Entertaining with lots of action (fight scenes, murder), oddities (witches, ghosts, prophesies, hallucinations, and insanity) but poor character development and nothing intellectual to take from the play.
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LibraryThing member JeroenBerndsen
Fantastic editions this is, the play on the right page, and explanations and supprt material on the left. You don't have to read it, but if you come across words you don't understand, It's pretty convenient!

The story itself, well that off course has lost nothing of it's magic....
LibraryThing member Joles
This is one of my absolute favorite plays by Shakespeare. The "Scottish Play" contains the supernatural, riddles and memorable quotes. It is a testament about the times and a warning to those that would deceive others to get what they want. This play is a must read/see!

Language

Original publication date

c. 1606 (Play)
1623 (Folio)

Physical description

267 p.; 6.8 inches

ISBN

0451521358 / 9780451521354

Other editions

Macbeth by Shakespeare (Paperback)
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