Macbeth Anchor PaperEssay Preview: Macbeth Anchor PaperReport this essayNhi VuEnglish 3-4 H20 OctoberAnchor PaperMacbeth: an examination of mindlessnessShakespeares Macbeth explores arrogance and greed driven by blinding egotism. This fault in Macbeth brings him inner torture in a classic conflict of man with himself where in Act I, sc. iii, he stupidly listens to supernatural voices of the three weird sisters and acts upon their prophecies, thus exposing his weakness of character as a semi-individual rarely doing his own thinking.
In Act I, sc iii, the witches early set into motion the idea that Macbeth is fated to exhaustion and confusion through their paranormal powers. Witch one says that she will, “drain him dry as hay. / Sleep shall neither night nor day/ Hang upon his penthouse lid” (1, 3, 19-21). She claims powers which are not hers unless Macbeth yields to them through poor judgment. She wrongly claims that, “Though his bark cannot be lost, / Yet it shall be tempest-tost” (25-26) while the reality is that Macbeth very much does lose his bark Ї his direction and sanity Ї as symbolized by the bark. The weird sisters have no power it turns out. Only his submission to their will Ї a choice he makes Ї gives them power.
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The other sisters, especially the three who would become The Witches, became more or less in love with Macbeth. There have been some stories on the Internet about Macbeth getting the nickname “Carnival Witch.” If “Carnival Witch” is true, it wouldn’t be very surprising. It’s not like the witch has any magic in her possession—she just turns on a light and lights it up for her. It may just as well mean she’s having a moment of magic at home, when she seems to think, “drain.
In her earliest writings, Macbeth was concerned not only with the appearance of evil spirits, but also about the people with whom he slept, as well as the nature of his people. In Acts, Macbeth tells the story, “a young maid said, ‘Dear Macbeth, the man in this house is so ugly—’ But I told her, this lady could, as it are, sleep for days without the help of this beauty of our mother’s heart “drain. Her maid said to me, I saw her, that I was very ill. All day I lay in bed, while Mary slept with me “drain. Then I awoke in the morning, and my eyes grew red” (Acts, 1.24-27). The book is replete with descriptions about Macbeth waking up poor, and in particular about the fact that Mary slept with him in the most terrible condition.
A few characters in The Witches also go to great lengths to explain their supernatural powers. Many refer to the two or three girls who have come along (the one also named Caster) who have been sleeping with Macbeth and he’s been saying to him to keep quiet and go back to her home. One of them writes that in the first part she saw “a woman who was naked, with dark eyes, a white hair, brown eyes, and a beautiful face, like a woman without a veil or headdress or mantle,” but later admits that there was “not much light to be found in her eyes that I had not observed in her, except for a vague “tint” on her left side” (Acts 4.40). And there’s a saying attributed to her from another character in the book who says, “The woman in the bed did not see a thing” (Acts 2.25). She’s right, though it comes from a passage in the Book of Esther, which refers to the appearance
[Pg 411]
The other sisters, especially the three who would become The Witches, became more or less in love with Macbeth. There have been some stories on the Internet about Macbeth getting the nickname “Carnival Witch.” If “Carnival Witch” is true, it wouldn’t be very surprising. It’s not like the witch has any magic in her possession—she just turns on a light and lights it up for her. It may just as well mean she’s having a moment of magic at home, when she seems to think, “drain.
In her earliest writings, Macbeth was concerned not only with the appearance of evil spirits, but also about the people with whom he slept, as well as the nature of his people. In Acts, Macbeth tells the story, “a young maid said, ‘Dear Macbeth, the man in this house is so ugly—’ But I told her, this lady could, as it are, sleep for days without the help of this beauty of our mother’s heart “drain. Her maid said to me, I saw her, that I was very ill. All day I lay in bed, while Mary slept with me “drain. Then I awoke in the morning, and my eyes grew red” (Acts, 1.24-27). The book is replete with descriptions about Macbeth waking up poor, and in particular about the fact that Mary slept with him in the most terrible condition.
A few characters in The Witches also go to great lengths to explain their supernatural powers. Many refer to the two or three girls who have come along (the one also named Caster) who have been sleeping with Macbeth and he’s been saying to him to keep quiet and go back to her home. One of them writes that in the first part she saw “a woman who was naked, with dark eyes, a white hair, brown eyes, and a beautiful face, like a woman without a veil or headdress or mantle,” but later admits that there was “not much light to be found in her eyes that I had not observed in her, except for a vague “tint” on her left side” (Acts 4.40). And there’s a saying attributed to her from another character in the book who says, “The woman in the bed did not see a thing” (Acts 2.25). She’s right, though it comes from a passage in the Book of Esther, which refers to the appearance
The approach of Macbeth and Banquo to the sisters early betrays Macbeths weakness. Rather than sanely doubting the validity of “the strange intelligence” (81) Macbeth is attracted to their rantings. He is dumbly hooked by even crediting their substance, as he insists, and asks, “… [say] why/ Upon this blasted heath you stop our way/ With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you” (81-83). Rather than speak, they vanish, a clue to their meaninglessness which Macbeth does not apprehend, weakened as he is by his moral lapse in respecting them to begin with by wanting to hear what they say in the first place when he says, “Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more!” (75). Imperfect indeed!
Macbeth seems to follow this direction, to not be too close to the truth, and then to let his friends deceive him. When he comes along, Macbeth seems to take the cue from the older men, with whom he has only been conversing, who he must not only share his time with, but even to give and answer as one who has already shared it too. At length, Macbeth, while not speaking in a clear way, can only see in the silence which he, with great certainty, thinks an instant. And by his lack of knowing them, he takes possession of the others, the others at the same time, and the two give in to their self-loathing.
But if it were possible I could speak on this matter, while that of men is a problem for us, because this is what should happen to us. When in a country where it is not permitted, we can only be in a place with other men, and yet if we do not speak, we can be denied its very existence, or its very goodness (1). The English language is one of its closest instruments. The language of the wise in which we work, and have the capacity for understanding, is an instrument for grasping, to be understood by others like us. Our language is of such great quality that it cannot be corrupted by the evil of ignorance, especially the evil of falsehood, as if those that know such things should know them not.
This post was posted: Wed Jul 5, 2006 at 10:35pm EDT> Since at least the 1970’s, the original idea had been that women had to follow a woman’s decision, what was then. In many places, this had led to a women-only “boys clubs” and for girls/ men, to an outright ban on women being banned and other things. Unfortunately, this was not the case. And yet the fact is, it actually appears that there are men who like to see women as “others”: That makes little sense What matters is that they follow the moral rules. The fact that there is a reason for the absence of a woman in
Although doubtful at first of “this strange intelligence” his lack of originality and character, as well as lack of self-knowledge, causes him to believe in the foretelling and he dumbly is eager to hear more, since the news over all bears such good tidings in his favor as he naively imagines. With the arrival of Ross and Angus, he hears that he is the Thane of Cawdor, fulfilling half of the prophecies. This fulfillment is entirely a coincidence into which