The relationship between Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth Essay Example for Free

The relationship between Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth Essay This essay will look at the relationship between Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth. It will analyse the way their relationship changes throughout the length of the play and events of the story. The dominant partner will be found at different points of their relationship. Early on in the story, act one scene five we can see that Lady Macbeth is ambitious for Macbeth, but is aware of his gentle nature. This is evident when she says: Yet I do fear thy nature, This implies that she wishes, or even needs to change this nature of his if her plans for him are to be fulfilled. She goes on further to say: It is too full o the milk of human kindness, when describing his personality. This may also further support the theory that she feels he is too weak to do what must be done if he is to be king. In the same scene, she says: Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be what thou art promised. This shows she has no doubt whatsoever that Macbeth will become King. This possibly hardens her resolve that it is destiny, and therefore will happen. She also says: Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to hath crowned withal, almost saying that with the help of the supernatural, he is certain to be crowned, which may indicate a firm belief in the supernatural. She comments that Macbeth: Art not without ambition, but without. This at first seems like a contradiction, but it could be taken as meaning that although Macbeth does have ambition, he would not kill for his own promotion. This is supported in a following line, which says: That wouldst thou holily; wouldst no play false. The line reading I may pour my spirits in thine ear shows how she plots to change Macbeths ambition and make him kill the King. Earlier, Macbeth calls Lady Macbeth in his letter my dearest partner of greatness, showing that at this point, he considers her an equal which may make it more likely that she will be able to influence him. Her position of influence is made more powerful since she often takes the dominant role in the relationship. This is seen when she refers to the castle as her battlements, suggesting she owns the castle, and also that she controls what goes on there. She is willing to deceive and compliment Macbeth to achieve her goals, which will become relevant later. The evidence for this statement is shown in the way she addresses Macbeth as Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor, in an attempt to win him over. Shakespeare uses alliteration on Great Glamis, which shows compliment. Her persuasion of Macbeth is very persistent. It is a theme throughout the text that she is constantly enforcing her own will onto her husband, influencing events. She uses language like Pry thee, which is almost like she is begging him. She persuades him by questioning his love for her, and his manliness, comparing him to symbols of femininity. When the time comes for Duncan to be murdered, Lady Macbeth is the one who has it all planned, as she claims it hath given me fire, She is the one who arranges the bell to toll, and she is still very practical and efficient when Macbeth panics. She does claim, however, Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had dont. This is the first time in the play that she shows any kind of sensitivity. The idea that her sensitivity is resurfacing, is backed up by the fact that she appears to faint upon hearing the news of the Kings death. However, this could also be interpreted in a different way. She may have once again been using her femininity as a tool, by fainting to take the attention away from her husband, and once again take control of the situation. This conclusion is reached because she considers it A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight, when referring to the Kings death. This shows the sight of blood does not affect her in an extreme a manner as fainting would suggest. Later, when Macbeth has become king, the relationship appears to have switched round. While earlier, it was Lady Macbeth who was plotting the murder of King Duncan, now Macbeth seems firmly in control. We can see this as he says to his wife: Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck. This is the equivalent of when she said, Leave all the rest to me. This all indicates that their roles in the relationship have totally swapped, to Macbeth being dominant. Also evidence to support this is the fact that, without consulting his wife, Macbeth took the initiative and hired the murderers. When Macbeth meets again with one of the murderers, it is during the banquet. Macbeth tells him, in a panic almost, Theres blood upon thy face. This implies that Macbeth is afraid to be seen with the murderer, and his fear begins to take control, as it did just after the death of King Duncan. We can tell because he bombards the murderer with questions, ensuring Banquo is dead he asks: Is he despatched? then But Banquos safe? This shows Macbeth is beginning to have doubts about the murder and the witchs predictions especially when the murdered says, Fleance is scaped. Possibly as a result of his new doubts and fear, Macbeth next sees the ghost of Banquo, and in fact speaks to it. He says: Thou canst not say I did it. He is paranoid that his deed will be revealed. Lady Macbeth once again takes control, covering for her husband quickly with Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus. This is like when she fainted to cover for him. She challenges his sense of manhood in an attempt to snap him out of it, she asks: Are you a man? Whereas earlier in the text, Macbeth was struggling to prove his manliness to her, now he is more in control, and responds: Ay, and a bold one. He actually orders the ghost Avaunt! And quit my sight! He is no longer fearful, which shows that he may be returning to his dominant, controlling, and hero like role. This may be shown as a hero is loyal. Despite the fact that Macbeth has seemingly reinforced his manliness here, he lost control at the sight of Banquo, and so it is Lady Macbeth who was more dominant here. It was she who ordered out the Lords, again having to cover for Macbeth, At once, good night stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once. This shows how commanding she can be. It also shows how quick of mind she is. In the earlier stages of the play Lady Macbeth says: Do not think of the deed or you shall go mad This is quite ironic as later she is observed by the doctor sleepwalking. We can see she has lost sanity, as the Doctor calls her behaviour: A great perturbation in nature. Also evidencing her growing insanity is the fact that the Doctor observes: Look, how she rubs her hands. This rubbing is taken as an irrational attempt to rid her hands of blood, signifying guilt. Obviously, Macbeth is now the dominant one, as Lady Macbeth has lost all control and sanity. Later, when Macbeth is informed Lady Macbeth has died, his response is a simple- She should have died hereafter. He is saddened by her death, but still in complete control. Their roles have once again been reversed. Lady Macbeth has been affected by their actions in such a way as she loses her mind, and ends her own life, whereas Macbeth is still in control. This is seemingly the opposite of earlier, and is here to show how Macbeth and his wife have changed right up to when they both die. In conclusion, we can see that the relationship went through many stages, in which dominance shifted. Lady Macbeth in control early on to strengthen the ambition deep within Macbeth, this done he becomes the dominant one. When her own femininity returned to her, Lady Macbeth lost control, and dominance. Their relationship changed from one of equals, to two people plotting and conspiring separately at different times, and the result was their demise.

The Ambiguity in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essays -- Young Goodm

The Ambiguity in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†      Ã‚  Ã‚     The literary critics agree that there is considerable ambiguity in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown.† This essay intends to illustrate the previous statement and to analyze the cause of this ambiguity.    Henry James in Hawthorne, when discussing â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† comments on how imaginative it is, then mentions how allegorical Hawthorne is, and how allegory should be expressed clearly:    I frankly confess that I have, as a general thing, but little enjoyment of it, and that it has never seemed to me to be, as it were, a first-rate literary form. . . . But it is apt to spoil two good things – a story and a moral, a meaning and a form; and the taste for it is responsible for a large part of the forcible-feeding writing that has been inflicted upon the world. The only cses in which it is endurable is when it is extremely spontaneous, when the analogy presents itself with eager promptitude. When it shows signs of having been groped and fumbled for, the needful illusion is of course absent, and the failure complete. Then the machinery alone is visible and the end to which it operates becomes a matter of indifference (50).    When one has to grope for, and fumble for, the meaning of a tale, then there is â€Å"failure† in the work, as Henry James says. This unfortunately is the case of â€Å"Young Goodman Brown.† It is so ambiguous in so many occasions in the tale that a blur rather than a distinct image forms in the mind of the reader.    The Norton Anthology: American Literature states in â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne†:    Above all, his theme was curiosity about the receses of other men’s and women’s beings. About this theme he was always ambivalent ... ..., Nathaniel. The Complete Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Doubleday and Co., Inc.,1959.    James, Henry. Hawthorne. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997.    Lang, H.J.. â€Å"How Ambiguous Is Hawthorne.† In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.    Martin, Terence. Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Twayne Publishers Inc., 1965.    Melville, Hermann. â€Å"Hawthorne and His Mosses.† In The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al.   New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.      Ã¢â‚¬Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne.† The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al.   New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.    Wagenknecht, Edward. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Man, His Tales and Romances. New York: Continuum Publishing Co., 1989.      

History of Mexican Revolution Essay

The novel transports readers to a ghost town on the desert plains in Mexico, and there it weaves together tales of passion, loss, and revenge. The village of Comala is populated by the wandering souls of former inhabitants, individuals not yet pure enough to enter heaven. Like the character Juan Preciado, who travels to Comala and suddenly finds himself confused, as readers we are not sure about what we see, hear, or understand. But the novel is enigmatic for other reasons. Since publication in 1955, the novel has come to define a style of writing in Mexico. Sparse language, echoes of orality, details heavy with meaning, and a fragmentary structure transformed the literary representation of rural life; instead of the social realism that had dominated in earlier decades, Rulfo created a quintessentially Mexican, modernist gothic.. The haunting effect of Pedro Paramo derives from the fitful story of Mexican modernity, a story that the novel tells in a way that more â€Å"objective† historical and sociological analyses cannot. As an aesthetic expression characterized by imaginative understanding, the novel explores Mexican social history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The decadent remnants of a quasi-feudal social order, violent revolutions, and a dramatic exodus from the countryside to the city all gave rise to ghost towns across Mexico. Pedro Paramo tells the stories of three main characters: Juan Preciado, Pedro Paramo, and Susana San Juan. From the point of view of Juan Preciado, the novel is the story of a son’s search for identity and retribution. Juan’s mother, Dolores Preciado, was Pedro Paramo’s wife. Although he does not bear his father’s name, Juan is Pedro’s only legitimate son. Juan has returned to Comala to claim â€Å"[j]ust what’s ours,† as he had earlier promised his dying mother. Juan Preciado guides readers into the ghost story as he encounters the lost souls of Comala, sees apparitions, hears voices, and eventually suspects that he too is dead. We see through Juan’s eyes and hear with his ears the voices of those buried in the cemetery, a reading experience that evokes the poetic obituaries of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology (1915). Along with Juan Preciado, readers piece together these fragments of lives to construct an image of Comala and its demise. Interspersed among the fragments recounting Juan’s story are flashbacks to the biography of Pedro Paramo. Pedro is the son of landowners who have seen better days. He also loves a young girl, Susana San Juan, with a desire that consumes his life into adulthood. â€Å"I came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Paramo, lived there. † —page 3 Although the story line in these biographical fragments follows a generally chronological order, the duration of time is strangely distorted; brief textual passages that may read like conversational exchanges sometimes condense large historical periods. Moreover, the third-person narrative voice oscillates between two discursive registers. On the one hand, poetic passages of interior monologue capture Pedro’s love for Susana and his sensuality; on the other, more exterior descriptions and dialogues represent a domineering rancher determined to amass wealth and possessions. Within this alternation between the first- and third-person narrative voices, readers must listen for another voice and reconstruct a third story, that of Susana San Juan. We overhear bits of her tale through the ears of Juan Preciado, listening with him to the complaints that Susana—in her restless death—gives forth in the cemetery of Comala. â€Å"I was thinking of you, Susana. Of the green hills. Of when we used to fly kits in the windy season. We could hear the sounds of life from the town below; we were high above on the hill, playing out string to the wind. ‘Help me Susana. ‘ And soft hands would tighten on mine. ‘Let out more string. ‘† —page 12 Poetic sections evoke her passion for another man, Florencio, and Pedro never becomes the object of Susana’s affection. Juan Preciado, Pedro Paramo, and Susana San Juan are all haunted by ghosts; in turn, they become ghosts who haunt the realities of others. â€Å"They say that when people from there die and go to hell, they come back for a blanket. † —page 6 Although as readers we have the sense of lives once lived by these characters, they emerge for us as phantasms, as partially known presences who are not immediately intelligible and who linger with inexplicable tenacity. Reading Pedro Paramo creates a transformative recognition of Mexico’s move toward modernity in the early twentieth century; more than the objective lessons learned from social and cultural history, as a novel, Pedro Paramo produces a structure of feeling for readers that immerses us through the experience of haunting. As ghosts, Pedro, Susana, and Juan point outward to the social context of Mexico in the difficult movement toward modernization, toward social arrangements that never completely die as a newer social order is established. Pedro’s accumulation of land as a rancher harks back to the trends of capital accumulation during the benign dictatorship of President Porfirio Diaz (1876-1911). The Porfiriato strove to modernize the nation through the development of infrastructure and investment; it allowed for anomalies such as the creation of the Media Luna ranch and strong local power brokers such as Pedro Paramo who shared the interests of the elite and helped maintain a thinly veiled feudal social order. Within this context, Susana San Juan and other individuals murmur their complaints in ghostly whispers. Indeed, at one point, Rulfo planned to call the novel Los murmullos—the murmurs. Speaking in the streets of Comala, overheard in dreams, and groaning in the cemetery, these spectral murmurs bespeak a reality hidden beneath the facade of Porfirian progress. The Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920 gave expression to repressed peasants—the campesinos of rural Mexico—and put an end to the Porfiriato. Susana San Juan, in turn, reveals the repressed role of women in a patriarchal order. In this world women are chattel and ranch-owners can forcibly populate the countryside with bastard children by asserting feudal rights to the bodies of peasant women living on their lands. Peasant revolutionaries and Susana San Juan as well are all manipulated by Pedro Paramo. He can force events to keep them all in the places where he would have them, but he cannot control their desires and their pleasures. The peasants celebrate festivals, and after the revolution they eventually rebel again by participating in the Cristero Revolt of 1926-1929. Susana suffers guilt and remembers pleasure in evocative passages that underscore her erotic ties to Florencio, a man unknown to others in the novel, perhaps a dead soldier from the revolution, the man Pedro would have had to be in order to have Susana’s love. â€Å"The sky was crowded with fat, swollen stars. The moon had come out for a little while and then vanished. It was one of those sad moons that nobody looks at or even notices. It hung there for a little while, pale and disfigured, and then hid itself behind the mountains. † -Juan Rulfo References Carol Clark D’Lugo, The Fragmented Novel in Mexico: The Politics of Form (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997), 70-81. Patrick Dove, â€Å"‘Exigele lo nuestro’: Deconstruction, Restitution and the Demand of Speech in Pedro Paramo,† Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 10. 1 (2001): 25-44,

The Myth Of Biblical Myths - 1503 Words

In this assignment I will be identifying the myth that is underlying the modern text which is Bruce almighty and then I will be analysing the way the myth has been used in the film. The film is about a guy name Bruce Nolan who is a TV reporter in Buffalo, N.Y, is not satisfied with nearly everything in life notwithstanding his notoriety and the affection for his better half Grace. Towards the finish of the most noticeably bad day of his life, Bruce irately criticizes and seethes against God and the way God reacts. Then later on in the film God shows up in human frame and, investing Bruce with perfect forces, he also challenges Bruce to go up against the difficult task in order to see if Bruce can do gods job better than himself. The film†¦show more content†¦In a part of the film, God shows up in three pretences . First as a cleaner, which could be viewed as a kind of perspective to Jesus, who said he came as a worker. Then he came as a circuit repairman which could be a reference to the force of the Holy Spirit and then lastly he came in the form of the manager maybe indicating that is the top of all along these lines so the Holy trinity is in refere nce here. Throughout the film, Bruce gets extremely furious and yells at God. This is a reference to biblical myths because the Bible has many significant characters from history doing the very same thing. One character can be Jonah who was so enraged with God that he told God three circumstances in which he asked that he simply wanted to be gone. So this this again another example of the underlying of the biblical myth. It’s almost mimicking that stories of the bible to the film. The film prays the fact that we live in an undeniable and sort of a blemished world that is filled with genuine and defective individuals. Furthermore, the bible indicates that â€Å"If we say, ‘We have no sin’, we deceive ourselves† .so this referring back to the bible reminding individuals we should be picking out other imperfections and sins because we have just as much sins. So Bruce used to look t people and point his finger at people however he didn’t realise that fingers were pointing right back at him. Bruce has many issues inShow MoreRelated Biblical Flood Myth of Genesis and the Flood Myth of the Epic of Gilgamesh573 Words   |  3 PagesThe Flood of the Bible and the Flood of Gilgamesh      Ã‚  Ã‚   The story of Noah’s Ark, as told in the old testament, tells how God punished the world because it had become corrupt. God accomplished this by flooding the world, and annihilating all the creatures upon it, except for Noah and his family and a pair of each type of creature on the earth. Each decade, more insight is gained into the origin of the flood story. Based on the information available at the present time, one could argue that theRead More Flood Myth in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Biblical Flood Myth of Genesis2119 Words   |  9 PagesThe Flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Flood of Genesis      Ã‚  Ã‚   The Biblical book, Genesis, of the Old Testament contains an account of an historic Flood which has never been equaled in intensity. Tablet 11of the Sumero-Babylonian version of the epic of Gilgamesh also records a Flood quite expansive and quite devastating. Are they a record of the same event?    E.A. Budge states in Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamesh that the narration of the Flood in Sumero-BabylonianRead More Comparing the Epic of Gilgamesh Flood Myth and Book of Genesis Biblical Flood Myth1792 Words   |  8 Pagesboat. A third day, a fourth day, the mountain Nisir, etc. A fifth, a sixth the mountain Nisir, etc. A seventh day, when it arrived.(Gardner 236)    Gardner notes that Nisir is sometimes identified with the biblical Ararat (238). Now let’s consider the Biblical account of the rains, which last seven weeks instead of only one as in the above record. In the â€Å"six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day,† the rains begin. And they continue as prophesied:Read MoreCompare and Contrast the Biblical Creation Myths with Other Creation Myths from Greece and the Ancient Near Eas2116 Words   |  9 PagesCompare and contrast the Biblical creation myths with other creation myths from Greece and the Ancient Near East. This essay will compare and contrast the Biblical creation myths with other creation myths from Greece and the Ancient Near East. It will first discuss the initial creation of the universe followed by the creation of mankind and finally the recreation of man whilst drawing parallels to Sumerian and Babylonian texts, The Old Testament and Hesiods Theogony. In paying particularRead MoreEssay on Ancient Biblical Stories and Greek Myths Being Male Oriented1645 Words   |  7 PagesAncient Biblical Stories and Greek Myths Being Male Oriented Are the ancient biblical stories and the myths of the Greeks irredeemably male oriented? All ancient societies treated women as the inferior gender. It has been historically shown that in the ancient world, men were the leaders, heroes, and kings, and women served primarily as companions, helpers, and child-bearers. In the Old Testament and throughout ancient Greek literature, there is a constant theme of male superiorityRead MoreOrder From Chaos : Analyzing And Evaluating The Hellenic Creation Myth Through The Lens Of Biblical Tradition1384 Words   |  6 Pagesand Evaluating the Hellenic Creation Myth through the Lens of Biblical Tradition Greek mythology is often understood through the lens of analyzing a dead religion; it is assumed that the influence of such myths is passive and fixed, only effecting the lives of those already long gone, whereas the very nature of such myths is to be active, dynamic, and illuminative. I, like many others with Greek heritage, rarely engage actively with the ancient Hellenic myths. Despite this, it is valuable to understandRead MoreReligion and Myth1007 Words   |  5 PagesA biblical myth is defined by Burrows, (1946) as a symbolic, approximate expression of truth which the human mind cannot perceive sharply and completely, but can only glimpse vaguely, and therefore cannot adequately express. In bibilical interpretation a myth is a story which communicates a set of values or beliefs through imagery. The most important thing in the myth is the message and not the literal truth of the imagery. . Good examples in the bible include: Jonah and the Whale Noah’s ArkRead MoreGreek Mythology And The Myth Of Mythology856 Words   |  4 Pagesare similarities between the two most widely known pieces of literature, Greek mythology and the biblical stories, namely, the Greek myth of Hera and Io compared with the biblical story Cain and Abel, the myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha compared with the story of Noah’s ark, and the myth of Pandora compared with Adam and Eve. These stories vividly reveal aspects of human nature. First and foremost, the myth of Hera and Io and the story of Cain and Abel showed the inborn human frailty of jealousy and theRead MoreSymptoms of Narcissism in Eve Using Paradise Lost1625 Words   |  7 Pagesand then, as she starts back toward the softer beauty of the face in the lake, by Adam himself.† (McColley 63). B. Eve’s scene in which she observes herself at the pool can be seen as a biblical form of the myth of Narcissus. C. I will argue, first, that Eve’s scene alludes to Ovids myth of Narcissus. Second I dispute interpretations that view Eve’s actions as a narcissistic impulse, instead maintaining that the scene asserts Eve’s free will. Lastly, I will mention how Eve losingRead MoreThe Word â€Å"God† Or â€Å"Christianity† Is Often Thrown Around1274 Words   |  6 Pagesreligious justification of national, political, and societal interests that have virtually no biblical basis. In order to determine the national impact, Hughes, explores the â€Å"myth† of Christian America. A myth, as Hughes defines the term, is â€Å"a story so powerful and so rich in meaning that it can orient our lives amidst the chaos and confusion of the world in which we live,† (Hughes 1). In the case of America, this myth has created a negative impact in consideration to its inaccurate portrayal of the Christian