Macbeth Extra

For the past month or so we have been reading the Shakespearean play Macbeth. During this time we have been reviewing many themes about this play, such as females who have power, greed, and corruption. All these themes definitely play a large role in the play Macbeth and all of them help add thought and depth to the play. One theme that is recurring throughout the play that we didn't really go into in class was betrayal. Betrayal is sort of linked to the other things that we talked about because power, greed, and corruption usually lead to betrayal of some sort, but since betrayal played such a huge role in the play it should be talked about separately.
In the beginning of the story Macbeth appeared to be a very normal person. He was the Thane of Glamis, which was a high ranking title, but not all that high. He was very loyal to King Duncan, his country, and Banquo, one of his friends. He was a typical guy that wasn't particularly special in any way. Then the Thane of Cawdor, who was the second most powerful man to the royal family, was accused of treason and sentenced to death (it is very ironic that both Thanes of Cawdor, that other guy and Macbeth both became disloyal to the king). Then King Duncan decided that he should appoint Macbeth, ironically at the time one of his most loyal followers, to the position of the Thane of Cawdor. Then before the news got to Macbeth he ran into three witches who told him that he would become the Thane of Cawdor and later the king of Scotland. Soon afterwards, after a conversation with his wife about this his personality goes under a great amount of change.
His first act of betrayal was obviously when he murdered Duncan, who had appointed Macbeth to his current ToC position due to his loyalty. Next, when Banquo began to get suspicious of Duncan's murder Macbeth hired three murderers to kill Banquo and his son, which they eventually did; now Macbeth had betrayed two of the people who had previously trusted him the most. Then Macbeth went on a killing spree, betraying and murdering anyone who he felt threatened his reign. Most significantly he murdered Macduff's family. He had betrayed all of his fellow thanes as well as all the people he ruled over by becoming a tyrant. All of this betrayal is eventually what lead to his demise when he was later murdered by Macduff, who was fighting for revenge over his murdered family. Then, his very short corrupt reign over his country was over. Which just shows how betraying an entire country could lead to everyone turn against him and eventually lead to his death.


While looking through the internet I found a "rational list" that showed Macbeth's betrayal and corruption, the link to it is here:
Macbeth "rational list"

GUILT

Guilt can play a major role in someone's life; it can cause them to act differently than they normally would in certain situations. Guilt can make us regret decisions that we make even if we were sure that we wouldn't have feelings of remorse when we committed these actions. A real life example of this was when back in 1960 a young Dartmouth student stole a WWI cannon outside of a war veterans retirement home. The cannon would continue to be hidden up until 40 years later when an old man who claimed to be an old Dartmouth student decided that the prank had gotten old and told the location of the hidden cannon to the authorities. As it turned out the cannon was hidden under the Dartmouth football field's stands, and marked with a limber, or wheeled ammunition carriage, which had been in plain sight for forty years (many people had known it was there, but naturally since it wasn't bothering anyone nobody bothered to say anything about it. Now all these years after the cannon was stolen, its location was revealed because of an old man who felt too guilty to take the secret of the cannon's location to his grave.
For myself personally guilt hasn't really affected me much. I'm not saying that I have never apologized when I have done something wrong, but usually that's only when I get caught doing something. Honestly, other than that I don't feel guilt that often. I try to live without regret, and if I ever begin to feel any I ignore it and move on.
Anyway, in Macbeth guilt affects one character in particular and leads to her apparent suicide. Lady Macbeth spends most of her time at the end of the play talking to herself about her regret of killing King Duncan. She continually remarks on how she felt regret for his murder because she apparently felt that she had pushed her husband into murdering the king. Eventually, right before the final battle between Macbeth and Macduff, she dies, most likely a case of suicide. This shows how powerful guilt can be and how it can lead people "over the edge." This is another example of how human emotion really can play a huge role in the way that people live out their lives.


Sources cited:
Abel, David. "Guilt May Have Cracked Cold Case; Man's Confession Could Bring Return of Cannon to Vt." The Boston Globe 10 Apr. 2008, Final ed., sec. B: 1. ProQuest. 16 Apr. 2008.

Feminism and Macbeth

Personally, I have a very one sided opinion when it comes to feminism, I think that it is a joke, at least in its modern form. 30-40 years ago when Rosa Parks was refusing to move from her seat on the bus, and all those women marching in Washington, really showed how women wanted to advance themselves; that was a very respectful form of women protesting for their rights and what they wanted. Today you get people like Paris Hilton and people like that who claim to be feminists, but all they really do is degrade women everywhere. Their version of acting out is to expose themselves in public, and to sexually exploit everyone that they come in contact with. Honestly, whoever idolizes that type of feminist deserves to be hit over the head and taken to the nearest therapist, because aside from the head trauma from getting hit in the head, they need to find a way to get over their obsession with bad role models. This image of a "strong" women nowadays is apparently a women who is willing to do stupid, regrettable actions that get them attention. The true idols for women should be strong humanitarians of both the present and the past, such as Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony (one of the only women on current US currency) , Abigail Adams, Melinda Gates (wife of Bill Gates, who like Paris Hilton is also a billionaire, but she is truly as strong, positive influence for women). I think that are who young girls today should be looking up to, not; as to quote South Park, "Stupid, spoiled, *people*." (everyone who knows what I'm talking about knows what this quote really is, I just can't write it because this is a school blog) These women, such as Paris, Brittany, and whoever else girls stupidly idolize today, just make women seem to be a joke to the rest of the world, and they give the idea of women having equal rights a bad name. As politically incorrect as this seems, if the Paris Hilton idea of feminism became nationally recognized then all women should be locked up in cages in order to prevent them from doing things that will shame themselves and their families. If women want to be treated equal to men then they have to be able to learn that they must be able to be considered as responsible as the more respectful men in the world are; otherwise they should just admit that they (as said by Carlos Mencia, who I hate to be quoting but he is actually right this time), "don't want to be treated like men, they just want to be paid like men." All in all, I think that feminism has the potential to be a good thing, but only if the right views of feminism are followed.
Feminism plays a large role in the Shakespearean play Macbeth. Lady Macbeth, the wife of Macbeth, is a huge example of a women having power. She is one of the most influential people in the entire play, and she was the reason that Macbeth was convinced to murder King Duncan, who had been an ally of Macbeth's. Lady Macbeth definitely shows the strong qualities that are exhibited in all real feminist leaders today.

Good People Doing Bad Things

The play Macbeth is a great example of people who are good doing things that are really bad. Macbeth was a goodhearted, trustworthy person until his wanting for the title of king and his wife's ambition took him over. A real life example of good people going bad was with Bill Clinton during his second presidential term.
President Clinton had previously been considered as one of the best presidents in American history; he created a national surplus out of a massive national debt, effectively minimized ethnic conflict in Africa, and created one of America's greatest economic situations in nearly 30 years. Then one day in 1998 towards the end of his second term the country would find out that Clinton had been involved in scandal. It was revealed to the country that Clinton had been having a private affair with an intern in his office named Monica Lewinsky, and then Clinton was charged with sexual misconduct by many people inside his administration (the most notable being Paula Jones) and brought to court.
In court he continually stated how he "never slept with that women," over and over again. Then as the case went on it was discovered that he had been lying the entire time; as a result of that he was charged with purgery, or lying under oath. This dramatically lower his public image with the American people and made some people begin to question him. This legal conflict nearly caused Clinton to lose his presidential status nearly 3 years before he was supposed to (which would have made him the first president to be actually impeached). However, he managed to get out of it because congress couldn't get enough votes to impeach him (this was probably because congress was heavily represented by democrats who wanted Clinton to remain in office). Clinton now had a scarred reputation and a loss of credibility in many ways, one such example was that he became the butt of many jokes on Saturday Night Live, and many other comedy shows. The rest of his term went by without much other conflict and he would leave office as scheduled in 2001, where he would be succeeded by George W. Bush, the son of Clinton's predecessor George H.W. Bush.
This type of thing was similar to Macbeth in the sense that both Clinton and Macbeth were both honest, hard working, trustworthy men who became victims to doing things that were morally wrong. Both made some bad decisions, tried to cover them up, and both got caught doing things wrong. Unfortunately for Macbeth, I don't think that he will get a congressional hearing and a fair trial for his actions, he will probably have to "learn" from his mistakes in a more severe, less humane way.

The Socratic Seminar

Today in class we had a socratic seminar; a socratic seminar for all of you who don't know is when a lot of people put their desks in a circle and talk about a topic. In this one the topic was the first 6 scenes in the Shakespearian play Macbeth. These seminars are a way for students in our class to boost their grades because all you have to do is talk and you get points that wind up shooting ones grade up by two or three points (trust me that is a lot). I wasn't in this one, but I had the very important job of observing while half the class talked, and talked, and talked more. My job as on observer was to take notes on what other people said while trying as hard as I could not to dose off, cause trust me when you have a class at 8:00 in the morning it is hard to be fully awake and attentive cause most people are still tired. Anyway, as I listened to the seminar I learned others opinions about the book, some I agreed with, and some I didn't. One of the main ideas and thoughts that I agreed with was said by a classmate, Steve. Steve said that Macbeth, like most Shakespearean plays are difficult to understand unless you really know a lot about the way Shakespeare writes. Another student in class, Jen, agreed and said how Shakespeare's plays were all written similarly in terms of grammar and language. Both of these things are things that I agree with because I have the same feelings about Shakespeare, his plays all seem similar and I can't understand any of them the first time I read them.
Macbeth is the type of Shakespearean play known as a tragedy (as pointed out by a very opinionated classmate Sean), this means that it has a darker mood and the protagonist usually dies. Many others agreed with this statement and went on to say how there were many symbols that indicated this mood. One of these as pointed out by nearly half the class that was in the seminar was how betrayal played a major role. For an example of this, Macbeth, the protagonist, winds up murdering his friend King Duncan, in an effort to become king.
All in all, most comments said were very generic comments that I generally agreed on, I didn't really disagree on much, the only thing that I didn't like was how someone (I forgot to write down who) said that fate didn't play a huge role in the character's lives. Contrary to that, if fate didn't play a huge role, than Macbeth wouldn't have listened to the three witches when they said that he would be king. However, he did listen and now the previous king is dead.
One of the most important comments I heard in the seminar was about Macbeth's very controlling wife, known as Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is a very powerful women, who likes to be in control at all times of Macbeth. She is the one who really persuaded Macbeth to murder King Duncan. Their marriage is a typical example of a relationship where the women is in control. I think that this is a major theme in the book, it would appear that the women have all the power, for example the most powerful and significant characters in this part of the book are the witches, who are of course women. Also, the person who persuades Macbeth to do evil things, such as murder, is his wife. A very hillarious comment made by one of my classmates Jen was how Lady Macbeth fit the boy code, or the code that men typically follow during their everyday lives.
The only thing that I want to know is who is the most powerful and influencial person in the book; I couldn't make this determination because the people in the seminar were split between the witches or "weird sisters" and Lady Macbeth (with one person saying the the most influential person was Macbeth because if he wasn't born than none of this would have happened; I found that comment funny).
The play Macbeth is definitely more interesting than I thought it would be and as we as a class get closer to the climax I feel that it will continue to get better still.
Finally a Shakespearean play that hasn't made me wanted to kill myself while I was reading it.

Movie and Book Intro's

The most crucial part of a movie or book is it's introduction. A movie or book can either become a hit or a disaster for the viewer or reader solely based on their introductions. The strength of an intro is what is supposed to hook the reader or viewer, in order to keep them interested and willing to keep reading. One example of this is in the movie I am Legend. I am Legend is about a man living in post-apocalyptic New York City named Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith). Throughout the movie, Dr. Neville attempts to survive alone after a deadly virus wipes out nearly all of humanity, and turns almost every survivor into a flesh-eating, nocturnal, monster. The movie began with a video clip of a television interview between two reporters and a female scientist that says that she created a "miracle drug" that can cure cancer among other diseases. This is rather ironic because it leads the viewer to believe that something good may come out of this movie. Then the movie goes through an intense sequence of flashbacks where the plot unfolds. The first flashback has Dr. Neville running into his house yelling to his wife and daughter to pack their bags and come with him, because a deadly virus had just been released upon the city of New York. The next few scenes show Dr. Neville and his family attempting to maneuver through a panicking city full of people bleeding to death from a virus that had evolved from the "miracle drug" that had been mentioned in the interview. Then as Dr. Neville and his family reach the area that will lead him to safety you can see a missile being shot from a helicopter, and blowing up the G.W. Bridge so no infected people can get out of the city. This intensity surrounding the main characters in these intro scenes really helps build up later events and hook the viewer. These events definitely kept me excited throughout the intro and made me want to watch the rest of the movie. The book Macbeth definitely had a very interesting introduction; not quite as exciting as the beginning of I am Legend, but still it was very interesting and it kept me wanting to read more. Normally, I'm not really a fan of Shakespeare's plays but I get the feeling that this one will definitely keep my attention. After reading the first four scenes I can definitely expect certain things to continue to occur during the play. For one thing, I'm sure that Macbeth will take the thrown of his country even though it does mean murder, and two, the three "weird sisters" or witches will definitely play a large role as the play progresses. This leads me to believe that two recurring themes will be; death, and killing will play a large role in the events that will unfold, and the witches will have more of an influence as the story progresses, and in my opinion I feel that aside from Macbeth himself, these "weird sisters" will turn out to be the most important characters in Macbeth. This may actually turn out to be a very good play, and I hope it does too, so that way if I have to read something in class at 8 a.m., at least it will be something good.

10 things I hate about TV

I love television, and I think that its possibly the greatest invention of all time. Its a great way for people to be able to get info, be entertained, or even sometimes learn something. Unfortunately, because of all the corporations and rights to free enterprise in this country lead to there being some things on tv that we as viewers can really do without. There are about 1,000,000 things on tv that annoy me and I'm sure the rest of the country as well. Ten of these things are;

10. Reality tv (honestly, who needs to see people acting "real" tv, if you want to see drama and action, just look around your school or town, there is plenty of unnecessary drama going on there)
9. Exercise commercials (these are one of the more annoying things, where they sell products that really don't do anything, but they have a bunch of happy, thin, people using them; which brings me to my next thing I hate)
8. People on exercise commercials (the people on these commercials clearly don't actually use any of the things that they advertise, cause you don't get ripped using these rip off things, especially with "one weekly 30 second workout," and you can tell it's fake because otherwise everyone would have one)
7. Commercials w/ retired actors/athletes (these are actually kind of funny when you have someone trying to advertise for something that they clearly know nothing about)
6. Made-for-tv movies (honestly, if a movie was put straight on tv, than you can pretty much guarantee that it sucks, because who has ever seen a good made-for-tv movie)
5. Anything on Disney Channel (one of the most worthless channels on television, every single non-cartoon show has exactly the same plot line, its all about some kid or teen who gets into trouble by doing something, than gets out of it and learns something, I have no trouble with that idea of learning morals, but when its on show after show for 24 hours its gets frustrating and annoying)
4. Daytime Comedy Central (at night after 8 then comedy central becomes a comedy network, but before that its just old Mad TV episodes, made-for-tv movies, or politically correct shows)
3.Movies on tv with a one star rating (if a movie isn't a classic and has less than two stars it shouldn't be on tv, they're worse than made-for-tv movies)
2. Weight loss drug commercials (how fat is America that the tv networks have to provide weight loss drug commercials, its annoying how it is even legal for tv to advertise a commercial that sells a pill that causes its users to starve themselves)

And the #1 thing that I hate about tv is......

1. Censorship (everything that is on tv doesn't need to be censored, I absolutely hate the fact how whenever I try to watch any comedy movie I have to hear beeps or replaced words that don't go along with anything else. I completely disagree with this politically correct society that we live in. I'm not saying that I think we shouldn't act positively towards one another, but then again this idea that it is necessary to be ridiculously careful about offending people is not really that good or helpful to anything at all)