Macbeth's Speech

Macbeth's speech can be found here:

http://youtu.be/oTV093JfZlQ

The Three Riddles

Comic of the Three Riddles:

http://Pixton.com/ic:vqqxu9oy

Explanation of Each Riddle:
Riddle 1. For my first picture for the riddle, I had the quote, “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough," (IV, I, l. 81-82). I made a comic to explain all of the riddles. In my picture, I had Macbeth and the armoured helmet. The head with the armoured helmet is telling Macbeth who he should keep an eye on. In this picture, I have the helmet saying the riddle, and Macbeth is answering how he feels about it. The riddle is telling Macbeth to be careful of Macduff, the thane of Fife. Macbeth answers saying that he knew that Macduff was a threat to him. In the picture I’m trying to show Macbeth’s worried and nervous face because of Macduff. I thought that this riddle should not be considered a riddle because it is very straightforward. It tells Macbeth that he should be wary of Macduff, and there is no secret meaning behind his words. This riddle is the easiest to understand of the three riddles. I feel that this riddle is very accurate because I know that Macduff will be finding Macbeth to kill him because Macbeth killed anyone that had a relation to Macduff.

Riddle 2. In the next picture, I have Macbeth and the bloody child. The quote in this picture is, “Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth,” (IV, I, l.90-92). This quote is harder to understand than the first riddle. The bloody child is telling Macbeth to be a tyrant by being violent, bold, and firm. The bloody child is telling Macbeth to laugh at the power of other men because anyone that is born by a woman will never hurt Macbeth. Everyone is born by a woman though because women are the only ones that can give birth. This makes Macbeth arrogant because he then feels like no one can stop him. The bloody child also makes Macbeth feel like he is superior, so he should laugh at others because no one is as powerful as he is. This builds up Macbeth’s ego, and he feels that he does not need to kill Macduff in order to remain king. This is because Macduff is just another man, and the bloody child says that no one will harm him. In my picture, I have Macbeth with an arrogant expression because he feels like he is above everyone. I am trying to show Macbeth’s self-admiration by his face expression and body language. Although this riddle was harder to understand than the last, it was still pretty straightforward. The bloody child is telling Macbeth how to rule, and how no one born by a woman will hurt him. This riddle is ruining Macbeth’s life because it is telling him how to rule as an execrable king. This is the whole point, but it is ruining Macbeth’s life because no one will want him as king when he is like this.


Riddle 3. This is the last riddle that the witches give Macbeth, and the apparition is of a child with a crown on his head and a tree in his hand. I have a picture of a young boy with a crown and a tree sticking out from his hand. I have Macbeth with an expression that is even more arrogant than the last because this last riddle, “Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him,” (IV, I, l. 103-107). This tells Macbeth that he should be brave like a lion and proud. The child also tells Macbeth that he should not care about what people think of him because he will never be defeated until the trees from the Birnam wood goes to Dunsinane hill to fight Macbeth. The child is telling Macbeth to be proud of himself and to not care about what other people think or say about him. This builds up his ego farther, which is hurting no only himself, but everyone he is ruling. Macbeth then says that the trees will never get up and kill him because trees cannot move. This makes him think that he will never be defeated. This riddle is the hardest to understand of the three. This is because people of today are not very familiar to Shakespearean language, and they may think that by writing the "wood" and "hill," Shakespeare is talking about something else. This riddle is not as direct as the other riddles were. This is a true riddle that the other two were not. Still, it is a pretty simple riddle and easy to understand.

Summary of Act I-III

Summary of Macbeth, Act I-III

http://prezi.com/r_r6y7adtjki/macbeth-act-i-iii/

Lady Macbeth's Twitter Account

Want to see Lady Macbeth's thoughts during Act II? Check it out on her Twitter site!

https://twitter.com/MacbethCharac

What I think about Twitter?

        I have never had a twitter account before, and this is the first time I’m using it. What I like about it is that it is really simple and anyone can use it. I like how you can tag people by using the “@” sign. I think it is a great way to connect with friends. I also like how you can follow people, whether they are your friends, celebrities, or family. It keeps you connected with people you care about in ways that other social media does not really let you do. Twitter allows others to see what is happening in your life. It allows people to follow celebrities’ lives easier. I like how Twitter counts the number of tweets, followers, and people following you on the page. Twitter keeps all the people you are following on one page so that people can read it easily. There are so many interesting things that other people post on Twitter too. It is entertaining to look through Twitter and find things that other people have posted or tweeted. Although there are so many positives about Twitter, there are also things I do not like. I do not like how there is a limit to how many characters you can write. I understand how this is supposed to be short, but I do not like the limit. Twitter limits everything you write, which includes your name, your biography, you tweets, your messages, and more. I also do not like the layout of Twitter. The tweets of the people you are following and of yourself are accumulated and it could get long. There is not much that we can personalize on Twitter because all we can really do is change our profile picture or our biography. I want different layouts and backgrounds to choose from. Privacy is also an issue because there are not many things you can hide from others on Twitter. Everything is out in the open for everyone in the world to see. Overall though, I find Twitter an appealing form of social media.

The Influential Lady Macbeth

       Lady Macbeth is a very evil woman in the play because she is someone who will do anything for power. Her greed for power is a lot stronger than her husbands. She has an even desire for power and she pressures her husband into killing the king. She is stronger than her husband and she has no compassion for others. She is very willing to kill Lord Duncan in order for her husband to gain the throne. She knows that Macbeth is too good of a person and probably will not murder the king without her telling him to. She wants the power so bad that she even wished that she was a man so that she could do it herself instead. Macbeth says that her deeds are of those of men in the lines, “for thy undaunted mettle should compose/nothing but males,” (I, VII, l. 84-85). Because she is not able to commit murder, she pressures her husband into doing so by challenging his manhood. She also says how by not murdering the king, it is like he does not love her. Macbeth then feels the need to prove himself. Her role in this play is the same role as the witches, but instead of just wanting to ruin the lives of all human beings, Lady Macbeth has a hunger for power. She could be a witch too because she is willing to take someone’s life in order to gain power. I think she will be pressuring her husband to kill more and more people in order to save their power. She will be the devil that tells Macbeth to do things that are completely wrong. I dislike Lady Macbeth because I do not approve of her telling her husband to commit murder. If anything, she should be convincing him not to. I do not like how she would do something as bad as killing someone in order to dominant. I disapprove of her conscience because she did not have the moral to stop murder. Lady Macbeth teaches us how power can corrupt the mind. If there was no power involved, Lady Macbeth would probably not approve of murder. She teaches us how human beings may go to extremes for power.

What Will Happen?

 

        I think the evil witches in this play will be like Lady Macbeth because they will pressure Macbeth into murdering the kings. The witches and Lady Macbeth are like the devils in the story. The witches try to influence what Macbeth does by telling him stories about him becoming king. The witches play with Macbeth’s feelings when they say, “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!” (I, III, l. 51-53). They try to make him commit murder by making him feel that if he kills the king, he will become the king. He knows that the king and his son will be in the way of him becoming king. The witches are the psychics that only have the goal of ruining other people’s lives. This is seen when they tell Macbeth his prophecy and when the first witch decides to make a man’s life miserable just because his wife would not give her some chestnuts. There is a lot of delight in ruining the lives of human beings for the witches. They are the most powerful because they have the knowledge of predicting the future. Telling anyone their future will cause them to behave differently. Whether the prediction is good or bad, the person that hears the prediction will expect it to happen. The future is not for certain though, so the witches cannot determine what will happen for sure. Only we are capable of influencing our future. It is not destiny or fate that will determine what will happen. We are in control of our lives, and so is Macbeth. Just because the witches said he would be king does not mean that he had to kill the Duncan. Even though the three witches said that he would become king, he could have just continued on with his life without doing anything. He may become king without committing murder and dealing with the idea that he killed someone. We will always be in control of our lives because we are the only ones that can really determine what we are like. Everyone in our lives has influence on our future, but no matter what, we can always change things. Nothing is for certain, so we can make a difference on our own future. There is no such thing as a “pre-determined destiny.” We can be whoever we want to be.

How's the Play?

        I’ve never read or seen Macbeth before, but I have heard of it because it is a famous play written by none other than Shakespeare. I have heard about superstitions that go with this play. I heard that saying the name “Macbeth” in a theatre causes bad luck, which is why many theatrical people call it by another name. An example would be “the Scottish play” or “MacBee.” This is because there has been injuries and even death during the play of Macbeth. Because of the nickname Macbeth has, I know that this play takes place in Scotland. I also know that this play is considered the darkest tragedy that Shakespeare has ever written. This is an example of how there is greed for power in humans. Shakespeare did a fantastic job showing this through Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This evil within Lady Macbeth is found in the lines, “What beast was ’t, then,…Did then adhere, and yet you would make both,” (I,VII, l. 53-59). In these lines, Lady Macbeth is telling her husband that he is not a man because he will not go after what he wants. Which is usually not a bad thing, but in this case, she wants to kill the king. Lady Macbeth wants to commit regicide so that she and Macbeth can be wealthy. I am very excited to see what happens throughout the play. I want to find out if Macbeth is able to keep that greed for power down and if he is able to not be pressured into doing whatever he can to get the power. Although I really hope that he will be able to control his urge, I have the feeling that he will not be successful, and he will end up committing murder multiple times. I think this play will have its twists and turns that will surprise me as the story continues. Although I do not like how Shakespeare writes because it is not like the English we speak today, I do realize that languages change as time goes on. The plays that Shakespeare writes are very well written and have a lot of meaning behind them though.