Some thoughts on Macbeth

So I was noticing some motifs in Macbeth that I thought were interesting and I figured it would be best to get my blog post over with now. I promise there will be no spoilers. Wow sorry this all ended up a lot longer than I thought it would, but I hope people read it regardless and I think it gives a lot of opportunities for responses. Enjoy!

Motif #1: Faces

I noticed, as I'm sure many of you did as well, that there is some irony in the beginning of the play regarding comments characters make about faces. For instance, in act 1 scene 4 Duncan and Malcom are speaking of the original traitorous Thane of Cawdor, and Malcom says something about how he never would have guessed him to be a traitor. Duncan responds, "There's no art to find the minds construction in the face / he was a gentleman on whom I built and absolute trust" (1. 4. lines 11-14). He is pretty much saying that sometimes one is unable to tell someone's true intentions by the pieces of themselves that they reveal to the public. Later, Lady Macbeth tells her husband, "Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters"(1. 5. lines 61-62). I find it ironic that she tells her husband that his intentions are blatantly obvious, and that he must learn to mask himself. And of course, Duncan builds an absolute trust on him as well, and Macbeth, as well as the previous Thane of Cawdor, becomes a traitor against Duncan. oh and also Macbeth says, at the end of act one, "false face must hide what the false heart doth know." Crazy, right?

Motif #2: Clothing

In act 1 scene 3, Ross and Angus come to tell Macbeth that he is to be crowned Thane of Cawdor. As soon as Ross tells him this title belongs to him, Macbeth exclaims, "the Thane of Cawdor lives, why do you dress me in borrowed robes?"(1. 3. lines 108-109). He compares the title to a piece of clothing he is being given that clearly belongs to someone else. Later in the scene, Banquo comments to the Lords, "New honours come upon him, like our strange garments, cleave not to the mould but with the aid of use" (1. 3. lines 144-146). Banquo once again compares power and titles to garments, which he states are strange when new, but gradually broken in as they are used. Finally, fast forwarding a bit in the play, in act 5 scene 2 lines 20-22, Angus says of Macbeth, "now does he feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief." This is yet another example of the motif of clothing, which is actually sort of ironic. Banquo had said he would grow used to his power, but Angus makes it clear that Macbeth is quite incapable of holding his title as king of Scotland, these robes are much to big for him. I found this clothing thing interesting.

Motif #3: Messenger

Now I think I am biased to the Thane of Ross because of my playing him in a stage production of Macbeth, but I have analyzed his character and read his lines a hundred times over, and in my quest to find his motives throughout the play, I determined he was mainly a messenger, though the themes of his messages change almost as quickly as the play. In the beginning, he comes to Duncan to tell him that "to conclude, the victory fell on us!" in the battle, and also "nor would we deign him [Sweno, the King of Norway] burial of his men till he disbursed, at St. Colme's Inch, ten thousand dollars to our general use" (end of act 1 scene 2). He is delivering very good news about the war against Norway to the king himself. He also delivers good news to Macbeth in the next scene, act 1 scene 3, when he says, "The king hath happily received, Macbeth, the news of thy success...and everyone did bear thy praises in his kingdom's great defense and poured them down before him" and later, "And, for an earnest of greater honour, he bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor. In which addition, hail, most worthy thane, for it is thine" (act 1 scene 3 lines 89-107). This all happens when the play is still generally cheerful, and Ross is delivering happy news to Macbeth and Duncan. However, as the play begins to darken, Ross is used as a messenger for more unfortunate matters. For instance, in act two scene four, Ross says to the elder, "is it the night's predominance or the day's shame that darkness does the face of earth entomb when living light should kiss it?" (lines 9-10). The news he delivers in gradually darkening. Further along in the play, in act four scene two, he is speaking with Lady Macduff after her husband flees, and he says "cruel are the times when we are traitors and do not know ourselves, when we hold rumor from what we fear yet know not what we fear, but float upon a wild and violent sea, each way and more" (lines 18-22). He has prior knowledge of where Macduff is and what he is planning, and Ross tries desperately to impart wisdom of how to survive in these cruel times on Macduff's wife. I swear I only have two more examples. So speaking of his messages getting gradually darker, i think it climaxes when Ross arrives at the chapel and tells Macduff, "your castle is surprised, your wife and babes savagely slaughtered" (act 4 scene 3, lines 204-205). He even confirms his role as messenger by saying, "when i came hither to transport the tidings which i have so heavily born..." earlier in that scene. My final example of his critical role in the play is when he says, at the end of the play to Siward, "your son, my lord, has payed a soldier's debt......etc etc etc." no more spoilers. Anyway i think it is interesting how a seemingly insignificant character has such an affect on the others, and transports messages that darken and lighten with the mood of the play as a whole.

If you made it this far, congratulations. I am done. Thank you for reading. Some wonderings to leave you with:

did shakespeare naturally write in Iambic pentameter? did he feel the rhythm as he wrote? or did he have to work and re-work his sentences in order to make it sound poetic?

There are so many beautiful and complex characters in Shakespeare's works, but i find it so hard to believe all of them were created by just one man. He was brilliant. I was thinking about a comparison between Malvolio in "Twelfth Night" and Macbeth, and comparing their slow descent into madness, which is actually quite similar despite the fact that it is happening for radically different reasons.

FINALLY i leave you with this video. Granted we haven't read the scene yet, but i think we will read it over the weekend, and it's a really cool swordfight from the production i was in. Brown hair guy is macbeth, long blond hair guy with the scottish accent  is macduff. Enjoy.





The end. bye.
-Emma