Boekverslag: Macbeth
The play Macbeth opens with the witches, this means that the play will deal with evil. (A1S1: ?Fair is foul, and foul is fair.?) Macbeth and Banquo return from battlefield and the witches hail them. (A1S3: ?All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!?) These prophecies set everything in motion. The witches tell Banquo that he shall be father of the king. The fact that two prophesies have realized, make Macbeth think that number three is realized. That is not possible, unless he kills the king. The thought of killing disturbs him. He starts doubting the realization of the third prophesy. (A1S3: ?Two truths are told as happy prologues to the swelling act of the imperial theme. I thank you gentlemen. This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, why hath it given me earnest of success, commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion, ??) He writes a letter to his wife. (A1S5: ?They met me in the day of success; ??) Lady Macbeth is becoming the ?fourth? witch. Lady Macbeth immediately fears that Macbeth does not dare to kill the king. (A1S5: ?Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised; yet I do fear thy nature, ??) She thinks that he does not have the courage to follow the nearest way. Lady Macbeth is challenging Macbeth to kill the king. King Duncan is invited at the castle of Macbeth. (A1S7: ?If it were done, when ?tis done, then ?twere well it were done quickly.?) The motive to kill the king is vaulting ambition. Yet, he decides to kill under the influence of his wife. The King visits Dunsinane, the castle of Macbeth. (A1S7: ??; that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all-here, ??) His mind is so full, he is suffering from hallucination. The dagger-scene is a result of a heat-oppressed mind. (A2S2: ?Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain??) Lady Macbeth is still very strong, whereas Macbeth himself is very uncertain. (A2S2: ?Still it cried ?Sleep no more!??) Lady Macbeth says: (A2S2: ?A little water clears us of this deed.?), whereas Macbeth himself says: (A2S2: ?Will all great Neptune?s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand??) Macbeth realizes the enormity of the crime. (A2S2: ?To know my deed, ?twere best not know myself.?) The function of the porter-scene (knocking on hell-gate) is that if offers comic relief for the ordinary people, but on the other hand it has a thematic link with the play itself. Three men knock on the door of hell-gate. They all three commit the same sin as Macbeth, they expected too much. Macbeth expects too much, he is not in the line of the king. The farmer is expecting too much crop and too much money. The tailor has the people pay too much for the clothes. The equivocator (a Jesuit) is equivocating (speaking in riddles), which is also done by the witches. These three men are a thematic link. Macbeth realizes after the killing of the king only the mere lees is left. (A2S3: ?Renown and grace is dead, the wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of.?) Killing of the king is an unnatural deed. This is made clear by the following metaphor: (A2S4: ?On Tuesday last, a falcon towering in her pride of place was by a mousing owl hawked at, and killed.?), this represents the unnatural. Banquo suspects Macbeth of having killed the king. Macbeth realizes Banquo is an enemy, because he is suspecting Macbeth. Macbeth fears three things. He fears Banquo?s courage (Macbeth is having Banquo killed), he fears his royalty of nature (witches) and his wisdom. Lady Macbeth is losing her courage, getting nervous. (A3S2: ?Tis safer to be that which we destroy, than be destruction dwell in doubtful joy.?) Macbeth says: (A3S2: ?Things without all remedy should be without regard: what?s done is done.?) After killing Banquo Macbeth becomes a killing machine (out of fear). Killing becomes an automatism, he is killing without thinking. Macbeth knows that he is closed in; he wants to be double sure, so he visits the witches for the second time, this time out of his own free will. The witches cheat him by speaking in riddles (equivocate). They show him three apparitions. The first apparition is an armed head, there is no evidence of whom this head is representing. It says: beware of Macduff. (A4S1: ?Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, beware Macduff; ??) The second apparition is a bloody child, it represents Macduff at birth. It says that none of woman born shall harm Macbeth. (A4S1: ?The power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.?) Macduff is born through a caesarean, Macbeth does not know that. The third apparition is a crowned head, it represents Malcolm. (A4S1: ?Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him.) The apparitions give Macbeth an equivocal assurance, which lead him on to his destruction. He thinks that he is safe. He does not understand the riddles, we know that, he thinks he understands them, but he takes them to literally. Again, Macbeth thinks that he has to do whatever enters his mind. (A4S1: ?From this moment the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand.?) Automatism of evil. He wants to kill Macduff, who is fled to England. He kills his wife and son. Meanwhile Lady Macbeth has gone completely out of her mind, in the sleepwalking-scene. In this scene, she suffers from her conscience and re-experiences the past. (A5S1: ?Here?, the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.?) The difference with first is that she is loosing courage. In England Malcolm is building up an army. This army will free Scotland of Macbeth?s tyranny. Lady Macbeth dies. Macbeth realizes that he is left alone now. However, he still feels very sure, because of the prophecies. Macbeth is still again the courageous soldier he is at the beginning. (A5S5: ?I have almost forgot the taste of fears.?) Then follows an existential speech: (A5S5: ?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?s a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.?) Macduff is standing before him. When Macbeth is dying, he realizes that Macduff is born through caesarean. (A5S8: ?Despair thy charm, and let the angel whom thou still hast served tell thee, Macduff was from his mother?s womb untimely ripped.?)
Shakespeare wordt geboren in 1564 in de Engelse plaats Stratford-upon-Avon. We weten dat hij op 26 april wordt gedoopt, zodat 23 april zijn waarschijnlijke geboortedatum is. Het was immers gebruikelijk in die tijd om een kind drie dagen na de geboorte te dopen. Hij trouwt met Anne Hathaway in 1582, waarschijnlijk naar aanleiding van een zwangerschap. Er is uit deze tijd verder weinig van hem bekend. Dit verandert vanaf het moment dat hij opduikt in de theaters van Londen. Ongeveer in 1588 arriveerde hij in Londen en het duurde vier jaar voordat hij als acteur en als schrijver succes kreeg. Shakespeare wordt vader van twee dochters, Susanna en Judith, en een zoon Hamnet.
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- Macbeth
- William Shakespeare
- Engels
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