Macbeth Responses

Assignment #9
The witches appear to be foul, not necessarily due solely to their words and actions, but the motif
of a witch is always a foul role in a play or story. Macbeth appears to be fair, as most war heroes
are. The Captain seems strong and resilient, but ultimately fair. However, the quote fair is foul
and foul is fair causes me to question the lasting validity of my first impressions.
Banquo lives in Macbeths shadow. He is not as decorated with titles, but the witches imply he
will have more personal successes than Macbeth. He is defensive and more ornery. He is more
skeptical of the witches and does not believe their predictions while Macbeth is swayed by their
words.
Lady Macbeth is incredibly fierce and has the ability for cruelty that her husband lacks. She is
concerned for him, not because he intends to kill the king, but because she does not think he has
the courage to do it. She is a strong presence in Macbeths conscience and she confirms the ideas
he toys with. She has much more strength and courage than her husband.
Lady Macbeth tells her husband that he is cowardly and not a true man. He is concerned the plan
will either fail, or set into motion a series of disastrous events in retribution. She assures him if
they are resilient, there is no possibility for failure. I strongly admire her strength and
convictions, but don't agree with her argument of questioning her husbands masculinity;
something that should have no tie to his courage. Her arguments are not completely reasonable
or logical, but she speaks with such conviction, Macbeth has no choice but to believe her.
Assignment #10
Lady Macbeth is quick to judge her husband; hesitancy, though she herself could not have done
the deed that he did. She easily tried to explain why it was she could not commit the murder
herself, but indeed it was her guilty conscious and refusal to get blood on her hands that kept her
from it. She is very harsh with her husband and unforgiving towards his struggles. She cannot
fully comprehend the feeling of having just committed a murder, yet she has no reluctance in
attacking his strength with her words, accusing him of weakness. She has strong conviction but
her actions don't live up to it.
The most vivid mental image that formed was during Macbeths explanation of how he killed the
chamber guards. The description of His silver skin laced with his golden blood and his gashed
stabs created a very striking image while still creating an aura of beauty due to Shakespeares
diction.
Macbeth seems a little more timid after the events that took place. He seems to be relying on his
wifes strength and guidance to aid him. After killing the king, he is unable to return to the room
to complete their plan of framing the guards. He tells the sons had I but died an hour before this
chance, I had lived a blessd time, for from this instant. theres nothing serious in mortality,
which basically states the meaning is gone from his life. He regains some sense of self in order to
act distraught and angered by the death of the king, but he is obviously shaken and changed.
Macbeth is unhappy because if he is to believe what the three witches told him, he knows he will
be dethroned and the reign will be passed to Banquos sons. This causes extreme paranoid and
agitation and he plots to kill Banquo and his son despite their friendship. He will not be satisfied
until there are no more obstacles left between him and maintaining the throne.

Macbeth is plagued by his conscious and his guilt. He acts out of greed and paranoia and desires
power so much its haunts his visions. With his power and his actions taken to acquire it, he has
tarnished his innocence and is now plagued with the wrongs he has done. As he mentioned, it is
like scorpions in his head.
Assignment #11
No, I dont think I ever felt any sympathy towards Macbeth at any point in the play. But
especially towards the end, he is completely overcome and controlled by his lust for absolute
power. He has lost all sense of morality and humanity and only knows the greed that is fueling
his actions. He began as a fairly unlikable character but by Act 4 he is simply detestable.
Id say I was satisfied with the ending. As most of the important events of the play were
prophesied beforehand, there were no shocking or surprising events. The play had closure and
ended justly. By the end, Macbeth was such an unlikable character, the reader was almost
supporting Macduff in his efforts to kill him.
Macbeth was the most affected by his actions immediately after they happened. But after being
king, he slowly lost hold of his consciousness and ability to feel guilt. He became nonchalant to
the act of murder as time went on. Lady Macbeth, however, was opposite. She felt no remorse or
guilt after the initial murder, and thought her husband weak for being affected. However, towards
the end, she was haunted by the action and her subconscious was torturing her with knowledge
of what she and her husband had done. At the end, Lady Macbeth can be found more
sympathetic than Macbeth, but the amount of sympathy felt is almost nonexistent.