So, then, i kept reading Macbeth, I mean, TRYING to read Macbeth.... And i look at And stare at the wall ahead of me, and thoughts of Hamlet plague my mind....
Okay, Hamlet is basically about a restless ghost ( the old king Hamlet), a conniving uncle, a girl who loses her mind and commits suicide, her brother who wants vengeance, a Hamlet who later realizes he might actually have a something for his biological mother.... and the depressing ending when Shakespeare kills Hamlet off.... I mean, that is why it is a tragedy right?
So, Macbeth is also about this dashing Macbeth, and then you throw in three witches, and a Lady Macbeth who is greedy at the beginning and then consumed with guilt, a Macbeth who thinks he will not die, but does in the end.... A Macbeth who recites poetry when he hears that his wife is dead....
When you put both the tragedies together, there are a few, you know, things that are similar.... Like in hamlet, we have a ghost, a restless ghost who wants revenge and justice, and in Macbeth, we have three witches....
Witches and ghosts are all not very real, are they?? So, i suspect that Shakespeare likes to use mythical elements, especially in his tragedies.
And, Shakespeare uses these mythical creatures to become the catalysts of their heroes downfall... How?
The three witches predict to Macbeth that he shall become the next king, and this made him completely greedy for the throne,and the ghost of the old King Hamlet kept pestering Prince Hamlet to avenge his death... see the connection...without these mystical creatures pestering and predicting, the heroes would have gone along, minding their own business.
Another thing about our dear Shakespeare is that, he loves to use the same name method.... How?
In Hamlet, the dead king is known as King Hamlet, and the prince of Denmark, out to revenge is father's death is known as Prince Hamlet.... In the modern day, we would have called them Hamlet Senior and Hamlet Junior, but we are talking about old England now....
In Macbeth, there is Macbeth, and then there is Lady Macbeth... I mean, yeah, she is his wife and all, but, couldn't Shakespeare name her something more feminine?
The next thing that is interesting about our Shakespeare is that, he makes ALL the woman in his plays somehow, guilt borne, or weak...
In Hamlet, we have two lady characters, Hamlet's mother and hamlet's girlfriend ( in old english, we'll say, his lady interest), Ophelia... Hamlet's mother remarried not even a month after her husband's death, and her son shows physical interest in her....
Ophelia, after being scolded mercilessly by Hamlet, and hearing the news of her father's death, becomes mentally in stable and happily floats to her death, singing and drowning at the same time
In Macbeth, we have dear lady Macbeth who happily kills the king so that her husband could become the king, as what the three witches predict, and later succumbs to guilt that kills her...
In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet presumes that Romeo is dead and kills herself.....
Yeah, see how he portrays his woman? Isn't there a kind of similarity in all of them... So, weak maybe?
Mr Shakespeare's tragedies, are also due to some really bad vices....what do i mean?
Okay, if we see Macbeth, in the end of the day, it is all about GREED... and in hamlet, it is all about PROCASTINATION..... Romeo and Juliet is all about HATE among family that killed two beautiful lovers...
And then, there is this thing about Shakespeare... he loves to add too much of spice, and salt and pepper and whatevernots into his stories... His stories will focus on so many different characters, before it actually comes to a climax or a conclusion. It's very much bollywood like sometimes. I have no idea why... Sometimes, i have this feeling, that, maybe, just maybe, Shakespeare was a bollywood man, transported into the world of old England?? Maybe we should do some genetics study on him?
Okay, that one, i was crapping :P
Okay, this was a link i found online, going straight into the world of Macbeth....
And the one thing i found here, that i still have a rough time believing is that Macbeth is the most darkest and most painful tragedy of Shakespeare...
Really? I though Romeo and Juliet was... But then again, they both die, so maybe they met in heaven....
I thought Hamlet was, but then again, Hamlet does die, honoring his word to his father, and perhaps, he met Ophelia and his mother in heaven....and maybe they all lived happily ever after...
Macbeth too dies, maybe he does meet Lady Macbeth...but i have a feeling they did not go to heaven, so perhaps, that is why it is the darkest tragedy??
You sir... are an amazing man...but i still don't get you :P
Well, this post was mainly to compare Macbeth to the other works of Shakespeare, so that we can see the differences and the similarities,and at the same time, think deeply about what a talented man Mr Shakespeare was....
Thank you, see you again, soon, i hope :)
My personal view on the use of King Hamlet's ghost and the witches, are purely storytelling techniques. Also I have thought of them as being the inner voices of Hamlet and Macbeth.
ReplyDeleteHamlet had the intention of ruining his mother's second marriage for obvious reasons, even if it was not to seek revenge for his father's death.
Macbeth is has had the thought of being the king all along! Don't blame it on the witches alone! They are merely catalysts. This is just my opinion.
The same name practice was quite normal in those days. Shakespeare is merely reflecting the era.
There has been thousands of paper written about Shakespeares women and how they are being portrayed. They are either weak or evil. But you have to read all of his works to know if this is true for all of his female characters!
Portia in Merchant of Venice is intelligent. Viola of 12th Night is courageous. King Lear's youngest daughter has a strong mind and speaks of it directly.
Well done Khayma. I enjoyed reading your entries.
There are some typos in my writing. Excuse them.
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