Ah...our third and final blog for Macbeth. Now that you've finished the play, evaluate either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth's character. What type of person was he/she at the beginning of the play? How was he/she at the end? In what ways did his/her character change and how much affect did the sin have on his/her life? Hypothesize what he/she could have done differently to avoid distruction and when in the play he/she should have done it. Also write a personal response--what did you learn from the character and his/her trials? Spiritually (from a Christian viewpoint), how could you avoid their pitfalls? Here's the last we see of Lady Macbeth. As you watch it, think about how much her character has changed since the beginning of the play. How much has sin in her life affected her?
Remember to post your comment and respond to one other classmate.
At the beginning of the play Macbeth was this guy who was a bit scared do make a mistake his wife always made him feel like he was not a man. In the end of the play we see that Macbeth became this snob of a guy who thought he was invincible and no one could touch him. The character changed because not only did he think he had power but the sin of power and greed took over his life as he began to kill people or had people killed. He should have not let his wife talk him into killing Duncan because all of this would not have happened if he didn't listen to his wife.
ReplyDeleteWhat I can do to avoid their falls of destruction are to not listen to anyone else but God and myself. The second thing I can do is not let the greed of power take over my life.
Jocelyn Marquez
I agree with you that Macbeth's sin of power and greed took over his life as he began to kill people.
DeleteWhen we are first introduced to Macbeth he is portrayed as a noble, powerful, heroic character. Then there is a twist in the story when Macbeth hears about the prophecy of him becoming king and his true character starts to come out. His wife bosses him around controlling him and bringing him further into his temptation. To me, Lady Macbeth treats Macbeth as if he were a dog and she were his master, yelling at him, giving him commands, and then scolding him for his mishaps or stupidity. As the story goes on we see Macbeth’s character evolve after each kill, becoming more and more evil, and the biggest event that changes his character is his last visit with the witches. When Macbeth visits the witches they make apparitions/visions of the future causing macbeth to believe he is invincible and his confidence to sky rocket. The last straw that proves Macbeth has evolved is when Lady Macbeth dies, this shows how heartless and wicked macbeths character has become. He is no longer the wimpy cowardly dog but is now the confident strong master, whom is ready for whatever dare come his way. Macbeth does not need Lady Macbeth to convince him or edge him on any longer he is his own selfish, evil, independent character now. Macbeth is a good man who's temptation turns him into an evil man.
ReplyDeleteTo avoid destruction Macbeth could have listened to his gut in the beginning and not let his wife or his temptation manipulate him any farther. What I have learned from Macbeth’s character is to be confident in your own beliefs and separate right from wrong so when the time does come you are able to stand up and be strong on your own.
I completely agree with you. If Macbeth would have listened to himself and not let his wife boss him or let his desire for greed to take over his life he would not have had to do the things he did and he would not have become so greedy with power and self ambition.
ReplyDeleteJocelyn Marquez
MacBeth started out as a rather content and quite person who was happy with his position and glad to have the power that he held but once he heard the witches prophecies he started to get a little cocky and from there became very arrogant and wanted to abuse his power to gain even more and to become king even if it meant killing his best friend. By the end of the story he was a full blown tyrant who felt that he was invincible and he technically was to a certain point but because of that arrogance he was killed by MacDuff. His whole situation could have been avoided if he were willing to just keep the power that he already had and not be taken over by greed and want and just lived as a somewhat powerful thane under a just king.
ReplyDelete-Jordan Cox
I agree with you about if Macbeth just keep the power that he already had. So maybe he won't die.
Delete-Meloidia Yao
ReplyDeleteLady Macbeth under went a large change in here character, through the play. She in the beginning was the instigator. She wanted Macbeth to become king so she could be queen. She pushed Macbeth to kill the king. She was a very strong character and had a loud voice. At the end of the play, she was breaking down. She was breaking down because of how much guilt she had. The guilt she had was actually making her sick and affected every aspect of life because of it. I think if she wouldn't have persuaded Macbeth to kill the king, she wouldn't have so much guilt.
From Lady Macbeth, I learned that the even when you don't commit the sin. That pressuring other people brings on all new consequences of its own.
Lady Macbeth's change has happened because of all of the guilt that she has had to face.
-Sarah James
Very interesting analysis. I liked how she explained it!
DeleteI agree with everything you said. Nice job!
Delete-Alyssa Moreno
I never thought about that even when you don't commit the sin pressuring people brings consequences of its own.. good point!
DeleteAt the beginning of the story you see Lady Macbeth being a faithful wife and wanting the best for her husband; which includes him being king. She would do anything for him to be placed in that position and that is when your view of her turns because she wants Macbeth to kill Duncan in order to reach kingdom. She says some horrific visuals of killing her own baby and saying that her husband is not a man.
ReplyDeleteOne of her main characteristics is that she wants things done her way because she thinks that is the best and only way. So much so, she ends up helping cover up her husband's mistakes of not leaving the daggers on the guard and also when Macbeth starts talking to the ghost of Banquo.
I believe that her insulting attitude towards Macbeth led to her lonely death and him not caring about her. Also when he left her, that is when she was tipped over the edge because all she did was think about her husband and her being found out and also she saw visions of blood on her hands making her think she can't get rid of what she has committed. Her sin ended up enveloping her thoughts and made her a hot mess.
What I learned was not to be controlling because you can end up lonely and also not to do anything that can have bad repercussions. Think twice (or maybe three or four times)!
-Ilia
I never thought about the reason why she died alone. Now that you said that I totally agree with you. Just another reason why people should be kind to one another.
DeleteRight from the start of the play I found Lady Macbeth to be crazy and I couldn't stand her character. She was very controlling and forced Macbeth to do whatever she wanted. She was very cold and demanding to him. With everyone else she was deceiving. By the end of the play she losses her powerful composure completely. She is literally driven mad by her sins and her actions come back to haunt her. From the start to the end she is a different person all together. Her sin has ruined her. I think if she would've not been so power hungry and didn't have Macbeth kill the king, her outcome would've been different. I learned not to want all the power. As a christian, in order to avoid Lady Macbeth's pitfalls, I believe I should not be controlled by my emotions and instead turn everything over to God.
ReplyDelete-Alyssa Moreno
I agree that her hunger for power is what made her crazy! I liked the way you explained everything :)
Delete~Keilah Ortiz
In the beginning of the play Macbeth was a humble man. When he first heard about the prophecies he did not believe them because he could not imagine replacing the Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth thought of him as a great man, but when he got word of the change he changed himself. He then thought that he should have the power that the king does and he would do anything to gain that power. At the end he became a heartless man who killed men just so that he could have power. He thought he was unstoppable. Since he thought this way he was knocked off the path of purity. He listened to people who did also weren’t on the path of purity and they poisoned his heart.The witches showed him three apparitions and he took them the wrong way and to led him to his death. If he did not let the prophecies get to his head or had listened to Lady Macbeth he would probably a great hero and not so much the villain of the play.
ReplyDeleteI learned from the character Macbeth is that I should be careful who I listen too. Some people probably do not know what is best for my life. I always need to listen to God first and the people around me second.
Macbeth, at the beginning of the play he was a normal man you could say. maybe not the most manly of men but he seemed like a fine guy. Then he became a murderer and as the play goes on I see that he kind of changes to be in a way cold hearted. He feels guilty but he just gets deeper and deeper into wanting to get his way and he does whatever he has to do to make sure of that even if it means killing and fighting the people he know and even once called friends. Maybe if he married someone different or learned how to say no it wouldn't have turned out that way. I learned maybe be careful what you wish for, and actions have major consequences mental and physical. Also just to let nature take its course and to let God's plan jus work and not to try to do things alone because maybe that's not how its supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Macbeth was normal and then became cold hearted. He changed tremendously by the end of the play.
Delete-Courtney Wing
In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is described as a man of honor. He is courageous and held at a high standard because of his bravery in the war. He is very faithful to the king and wants to do his best to serve him. However, as the story unwinds and progresses, Macbeth is overcome by sin because of his greed and his flesh’s need for power. Macbeth first starts to become tempted when the witches give him his prophecy. After hearing his prophecies, Macbeth suddenly has a great urge to make those prophecies happen. Macbeth starts to have internal struggles and starts wrestling with his conscience. After he decides to kill Duncan, he is overcome by guilt. However, he eventually starts getting over his guilt and becomes immune to it. He is overcome by sin and greed.
ReplyDeleteMacbeth could have avoided all of this. He could have denied the witches prophecies and not fallen into the temptation. If he did this, none of this would have happened and he would have kept his title as Thane of Cawdor.
I learned from Macbeth that sin can easily take over you (if you let it) and it can change who you are completely. Spiritually, I think these circumstances could have been avoided by Macbeth if he had let God work everything out in His own timing instead of trying to make his own plans.
~Keilah Ortiz
I totally agree with your analysis of Macbeth! I really liked your comment about him "wrestling with his conscience" because I had never thought of it that way before. I always thought of it as people pressuring him to do these things but I never thought of it as a battle with himself as well. Good point! I really like that!
Delete-Micah Currier
wow you put a lot of thought into this and was excellently written. Gold star.
Delete-Christian Watson
Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most infamous female characters because she exerts a great deal of influence over the events of the play and is the main instigator in the plot to kill the king. She is more ambitious and power hungry than her husband. Lady Macbeth’s guilt soon overwhelms her. She has nightmares and tries to wash the blood from her hands. By the end of her life, guilt has replaced her incredible ambition in equal measure. We are lead to believe that her guilt ultimately leads to her suicide. Macbeth could avoid all these happen if he keep his mind don't listen others. such as his wife and witches. From Macbeth I learned that should careful to listen others, sometimes what other people tell me will influence my whole life. So I will always listen what God tell us first will try my best to follow his lead.
ReplyDelete--Meloidia Yao
In the very beginning of the play Macbeth is portrayed as a noble Thane of the King. He is well respected by everyone and he gains his respect through the faithfulness he shows toward the kingdom. He constantly shows all of these attributes up until the appearance of the three witches. The witches tell him a prophecy that he would one day become king. He is very puzzled by this and wants to know more. I believe Banquo is the one that put the idea in Macbeth’s head that gave him the desire to become powerful. From then on his desire for power only intensifies. It intensifies so much that he will do whatever it takes to be the king and stay the king for as long as he lives. After we see Macbeth commit these horrible crimes of murder and treason, his character is completely flipped upside down from the beginning of the play; he went from “hero to zero” in no time at all it seemed.
ReplyDeleteMacbeth could have changed his view from the very beginning. It could have started from the moment the witches had told him the prophecy. He could have very well told himself that these would one day be things that would be given to him. He could have waited, but instead he decides to rush without even thinking about the outcome and kills the king. After he had killed the king it was only a downward spiral for him.
From the character of Macbeth, I learned that good things come to those who wait patiently for them. Macbeth was given the prophecy and tried to rush the process by doing the wrong thing. If he would have waited patiently, he would have gotten all of the things he ever desired and dreamed for. From a Christian viewpoint, I could learn that murdering people is not the way to get what you want. Also, in a more relateable sense, deception is not the correct way to get everything you want when you want it. God calls us to first ask him and wait patiently for his response. It may not be the response we want but he will respond to everything we ask Him for.
-Micah Currier
Macbeth feels guilty about the murder of King Duncan in the beginning of the play. He is horrified by even just the thought of killing him. Although Macbeth has those feelings in the beginning, by the end of the play, he doesn’t care about how many people he has killed. By act five, Macbeth does not even show emotion when he hears the news of his wife’s death. He doesn’t only change a little bit, he goes in the complete opposite direction of who he as in the beginning.
ReplyDeleteThe murders that he committed completely ruined his life. His life might not have been ruined if he had not killed Macduff’s family. I believe that was his biggest mistake. Macduff didn’t seem like he was going to go through with killing Macbeth until he heard the news that Macbeth had killed his entire family. That’s when he decided to kill him. So, if Macbeth would not have killed the family, he probably could have lived.
I learned a couple of things from Macbeth and his wife. I learned that if something seems good at the moment, it may not always be the best choice. Murdering someone to get a better title is probably a bad idea. I also learned that even if you want something badly, if you have to do something bad to get it, you will probably end up feeling guilty about it in the end, which will in turn possibly ruin your mental stability.
-Courtney Wing
Macbeth was a great, brave warrior at the beginning of the play. He was killed by Macduff at the end, Macduff ripped his head of. He listened witches' prophecy and mystify by his appetence, it made him has the thought to murdered Duncan. The affect is serve, he can't sleep well and always saw Banquo's ghost, he‘s moped and repented what he have done all day long. The avoid distructon is go back to the time when he and Banquo first time meet three witches and don't listened them, don't followed witches' script. He can try a converse way or just don't do anything, lets see what the history got change.What I have learned from Macbeth is don't be impatient and mystify by appetite. Be honest to myself and do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteJimmy Hu
Macbeth in the beginning of the story was a complete honorable hero. But as soon as Macbeth heard what the witches told him about his future he started to down spiral into his evil side. Even before the murder of Duncan Macbeth still felt guilty about what he was going to do. But something changed inside of him almost like he shut down everything inside of him just so he wouldn't have to feel the guilt and pain of the things that he had done.
ReplyDeleteI learned quite a bit from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. I learned that you should always think about the consequences of your actions before you do them because something may seem super easy at the time but if you just work hard for it, it will be much more worth it.
-Christian Watson
Iagree. People these days don't think of the consequences for their actions these days and if they did many people would do less stupid things. Or at least in theory that's how it would work. lol
DeleteAt the beginning of this book Macbeth was a heroic man who was loyal to his king. He proved that by killing the man that betrayed Duncan. After the witches told Macbeth about the prophecy of Macbeth becoming King he started thinking about it more and more and when he wrote his wife about it she had an opinion that was strong and said if he was a man he would kill Duncan to become king. Which he ended up doing and from that point on he was very paranoid and seeing things that were not there also he killed people he thought would try and over throw him. He also got cocky because of the witches telling him that no man born from a woman could kill him. His arrogance became his downfall. All of this could have been avoided if he did not pay attention to what the witches said and just went about his life. I learned from him that your biggest desires in life could either make or break you. he was willing to do whatever he could to make it to the top, but all that was up there for him was a long fall back to the floor.If he had just trusted in God and went by the 10 commandments(one of them being thou shall not kill) he would have been fine and have gotten there respectfully one day. Personally i thought how he went about this was all wrong. He should have worked for it instead of taking the easy way out and getting there faster because Macbeth could not wait.
ReplyDeleteFrom Allison--
ReplyDeleteI learned that it is not wise to dwell on things that are tempting me. If i dwell on a temptation and constantly think about it I will most likely end up falling into the temptation. To avoid falling into the temptation I need to focus on God instead of the thing that I am being tempted by. I have to put my faith and trust in God to get me through my trials.
Response to Gabi:
I totally agree with you. He was consumed with need for power because people were telling him that he should have more power.
From Town--
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the play Macbeth is the “bravest” soldier and the honorable Thane of Glamis. His own ambitions and passions lead him into changing his goodness for wickedness. At the end he is wary of life and fully aware of his deception. He pays all the consequences of his betrayal and he dies for his sin. He shouldn’t have listened to the witches’ prophecy to avoid destruction and he should have been honest and loyal to King Duncan. I learnt not to be naïve and just judge things from the surface. I also learnt to think more carefully and sometimes the words that seem nice may have bad consequences underneath. By focusing on God you could avoid this kind of pitfalls. When you are about to do something that is a sin, just avoid it as it is against God.
In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth displayed herself as a strong powerful women who felt she was manlier than her husband. Towards the end of the play Lady Macbeth started to crumble. She became weaker and weaker. All of her guilt was taking over her mind and she started to go insane. She was so overwhelmed with guilt that it led to her killing herself. I think she should of thought really hard about what she was doing from the very beginning. From Lady Macbeth's character, i learned that even though you did not commit the crime but instead plotted it, the guilt will come back to haunt you for the rest of your life. Convincing someone to sin is just as bad as committing sin.
ReplyDelete-Jocelyn Stankovich
Macbeth at the beginning of the play was very humble and trustworthy, but by the end of the play he was very greedy and turned into a crazy person. I think that if he hadn’t been influenced my his wife to start to kill people and if he hadn’t been visited by the witches things would have been different. I think through his change he lost a lot of relationships, trust, and power. He killed off his own friends!
ReplyDeleteI learned from Macbeth that worldly desires mean nothing in the long run. After we die none of the power or money we had on earth will be there. In this situation i would try to tell him what God has to offer and how when we all die the worldly desires will mean nothing compared to God.
Sincerely,
Allissa Wahl
I agree with you that Macbeth's wife was a huge influence on him and not in a good way. Also that worldly desires are not worth replacing God over.
Delete
ReplyDeleteMacbeth at the beginning of the play was a hero. A hero who was just minding his own business when he came across three witch’s who changed everything about him. Then Macbeth at the end of the play turned into a killer, a killer who just wanted power. Macbeth’s development changed from a hero to a killer for what he wanted. He did not know that if he would just wait no one has to get killed for him to be king. He now wants to be king after the witches told him he would be one. Did they plant that idea in his head or was it already there? When he chose to listen to the witches it changed the way he treated the people around him. What he could have done differently to avoid destruction was to keep moving on with him life and not listen or even pay attention to the witches. He could have done this and stopped it at the very beginning of the play. What I learned from Macbeth was to keep going with your dreams and let fait happen on its own. What I learned from his trials was to not give in to sin or temptation. Spiritually how I could avoid Macbeth’s pitfalls is to keep my trust in the Lord and not kill or hurt to get what I want.