William Shakespeare
first published in 1606
★★★★★
Synopsis
Three witches tell the Scottish general Macbeth that he will be King of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth kills the king, becomes the new king, and kills more people out of paranoia. Civil war erupts to overthrow Macbeth, resulting in more death.
Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would',
Like the poor cat i'th' adage?
One of my favourite plays by Shakespeare, Macbeth deals with greed and fate. It’s a thin and quick book to read, I enjoyed it so much that I couldn’t put it away. This was the second time I read this play, the motivation now was to compare it to The Sound and the Fury, and it was an interesting experience. As I pointed out on the previous post, I found some aspects that connect both stories. Finding these parallels is something that I really like to do!
When looking for the book at the bookshop, I decided to buy the one published by Oxford purely because I loved the cover. It was a delightful surprise to discover that this edition is filled with support texts, which I love to read, discussing interesting facts such as: two compositors wrote the final version of the play for Shakespeare, considering the rhythm and all. However, they had different styles and it can be noticed in the lineation. To be honest, I noticed only a slight difference on the speed in which I was reading the speeches, but I didn’t pay much attention to it as I’m not a scholar on the subject.
I enjoyed reading about the political matters surrounding the play, and for my astonishment I learned that Macbeth was a real character! He lived from 1005 to 1057 and was King of Scotland. Whilst the character in the book is greedy and perverse, the real Macbeth ruled fairly, enacting laws such as requesting women and orphans to be defended and allowing daughters the same inheritance rights as sons. More about his life is available here.
I love the way Lady Macbeth was built in the play and how fierce she is, even if in a negative way. It’s impressive how Shakespeare could create complex characters in such a short story! All the feelings and despair from the Macbeths can be felt by the reader, and in a certain way I could almost feel sorry for them.
The story brings an interesting concept about fate: there is no way to avoid what is destined to you, and every attempt will only lead to what you want to be away from. This idea is present in Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, and it is very popular in literature. I don’t have thoughts about this subject, as I usually don’t believe in fate and it’s actually an idea that annoys me a little bit: if there’s no way to avoid your destiny, your choices and acts don’t matter. A nice philosophical analysis could start from this, but I’m almost ignorant on this theme, so I’ll stop here.
Although it’s a thin book, it makes us think about so many subjects and it was so dexterously written that it’s impossible not to love the story. Complex characters, conflicts, philosophy: ingredients for a very enjoyable reading time!
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.
Thoughts of One's Own 