It's our nature

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts...

-William Shakespeare-

As in any play, or book, the characters have  merly human characteristics, they speak, they think, they  act, they are just la you, just like  me. That is one reason   why we read books of any kind,  we feel  connected to the character, not just because we know him from the  begining, but because  he or she does  many things  we would like to do,  does things we do, act like we do (or like we should) and  just  because they are too human to  be in a book.

In this case, as we were reading Macbeth,  maybe we did no feel  like a man who murdered  a king,  but we could feel  the guilt that  he had just after  he  did  it, he became mad, just because of it like  in Act 2 Scene 4 when Macbeth is at a party  just after he killed Banquo, he sees him   in his seat ; he   said : "Thou canst not say i did it, never shake Thy gory locks at me"  and everybody thought that he was  sick, but then ,lady Macbeth  takes him out from the livingroom and talk to him  about it, because  he was too obvious, and the scene continues. In this case,  we can relate  to the scenen when we  fail an exam or  we did something we are not proud of it, and just somebody knows. When we  feel that the feeling of guilt is killing us inside,  the guy or girl will help us to "keep in line" and to keep the secret.

Another case could  be when Lady Macbeth  starts to walk at night and  she says  what she said to Macbeth just after he killed Banquo, because,  this is  a upset  where the guilt is "killing you from inside" and   your  inconciousness  acts  saying what you did not want to reveal, just to take out this feeling of  guilt. In  our case, sometimes it not as drastic as  in the play, but  we do things  inconciously, like movements, gestures, and sounds that we continue to say until  the truth comes out.

On the other hand, when  you know the truth  of anything, sometimes you look for the right moment  to tell it, just like Macduff   used it  against Macbeth,   when he said "I have no words, my voice is in my sword; thou bloodier willian, That terms can give thee out" and their battle  began , where  he reveals other things, that  little by little kill Macbeth (metaphorically speaking), just to end in  a simple fight. Sometimes we, as humans use this,  to arrive at the right moment and time, to tell the exact words   to  hurt  somebody intentionally. For example, when we know  that  our girlfriend or boyfriend has cheated on us,  and  we wait  a bit to see if she or he  tell us the truth,  but as time goes by,   our anger grows up, and we cannot hold the feeling  anymore, so when we  decide to talk, you know  why are you there, and what  will you do to hurt the other person, just like he or she did to you, like a revenge.

In this case, I think  that Shakespeare tried to  show the nature of power and its limitations as a human, because  at some point this is a great responsability that can make us  crazy enough for us to never  be satisfied with it. In this case, recognition brought this,  and  the characters became  the worst, like proud,arrogant and smart to get  it all,  but they did not became  intelligent,  the reason of this is that  if they have been intelligent enough,  they could controll  the situation  and avoid anything of this. Also,  the characters played  many roles at the same time,  because they could  be  the  sweetest person in the world  with somebody, but the worst with somebody else, and this  is a  mascarade  game, where nobody knows who you really are,  including ypourself,  so  you end up with  many things in mind except for  who you are.
In conclusion,  Shakespeare used this play not only to show another perspective from a real fact, but to show what  humans could do just to get a little power, no matter who you are,  or how strong you are. Further more,  this   play , as one of the most played ones,  he wanted to show  a fight for power not between other humans,  but with yourself,  the fight where you discover your goals, and what  you really need to do to get   it ,  or the fight where you  discover yourself, as simple as this,  because as the play flew, the  characters  little by little didn't knew what to do with  the  power that they were reciving, so  it consumed them because the power was  bigger than the one  they were expecting and the way the got into it  was not the best.

New year, new books.

“Life ... is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
-William Shakespeare- Macbeth-

This play, written by William Shakespeare, father  of English,  in 1606 (aprox.),  tells the story about a man  named Macbeth, controlled by  his wife: Lady Macbeth,  who murdered  the  king, just after  it is said  that  maybe Macbeth could   be the  next  king  of Cawdor; this is followed   by development of  guilty  in Macbeth  that ended  with other murders based in the  feeling of "Maybe  he saw me?".

In first place, to  understand  this play,  we  can read it  in English, the "modern"  version and erase all those  words that we do not know , so we can do this  report and  live  happily ever after... Not, if you wanted to do that,  you should  watch "The Simpsons" parody and   that's it. Because   this play  is one of the most  well-known   and  one of  the most played plays  around the world, and  we , as   people  who like to read,  can   grow  up our vocabulary, look for what the  author tried to say, and as  simply as we do, read it outloud in  class hear  the  rithm that it follows, that at the  same time   gives us the atmosphere   of the   scene; we can  understand the whole play, with this little  characteristic.

 Just after  your read the   scenes, acts, or any way  you read it, I recomend  you one thing, read it  outloud,  this way you can imagine  the way the  actors could  play this, and  even  understand   somethings that  you didn't, also, as this play  might be  in "old English"  dont worry if  you read it 10 times and untill the 11th  you understand it, because  this is no  easy exercise and  no matter how many times you do it,  the  thing is that you understand it. 

 When you finally understand it,  you can get into  many conclusions, and they  might vary as you read the   play and   look for  the context. For example, the theme in this story, in the first act,  shows a man who  is  strong, corageous, and  fair; in this part we can  think that the play would  be  about a  "Manly man"  that would  become the best king , but  in the second act,  we  meet Lady Macbeth, who is  a  woman that can  control  her husband  so that  she does whatever  she  wants, without getting her hands "dirty",  and we can think that the play  is about a "Manly man" that  is controlled  by his wife. Finally, almost at the end  we discover that  Macbeth is becoming mad, because he killed  the King,  so the  theme  would  be " Madness generated  by the guilt of  a Manly Man controlled by  his wife";  I know a bit  longer, but as I have not finished reading it,  I cannot  get to a real or possible theme, and also, as  the characters develop, I can create  other  themes; for example  "Lady Macbeth's  sides, and the consequences  of  what do they generate"

To finish the  exercise of reading this  kind of books and stories,  you can reaaly think about what you like and dislike about  it. In my case,  I love theatre and  to read play,   but I do not like to read them in a group without really  playing  it, even thought that we do not know what it is about, I think that it  gives it dinamism, movement, and you can really follow the play. Also  I love the way in which Shakespeare  ends each act, with something that  mantains me there, waiting for more, and  the way he uses  metaphores to tell us the truth, to tell us  what is really happening  or what will happen  in the next  scene or act, but if we  do not analize it, we  stay   there, just to discover what we know.

 

In conclusion, I love to read  this  author, he is one of my favourites, and this play is also in my "Top five" from him,  not only because he uses  the rithm  in a way in which  you understand him  without even know many of the words he uses , but  because  in this play he  wrote about  the woman  as someone  who is as strong as a man, but  because of the time  that it is placed,  she cannot be  someone well recognized, and no matter what, she   is  strong and   does  whatever she wants, because who will suspect from a  woman? As last point,  two curious facts  from this play,  when it is played , is that  involves the bad luck  in it; the origin of the belief that it’s unlucky to say “Macbeth” in a theatre is unclear. Some blame early disasters in performances, or "accidents" that  the actors suffer just  before the  play starts, and also  If you do say “Macbeth” in a theatre, you are meant to walk three times in a circle anti-clockwise, then say a rude word or spit. 

Good luck

Poison Rain