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