The Wayward Sailor

The witches say they'll torture a sailor because of his wife's refusal to share. This goes beyond Act 1 Scene 3. In Act 4 Scene 1, Macbeth, who has completely changed his attitude towards the witches gives them commands, but does credit them with amazing powers. He states that they have the power to control winds and knock down churches and make ships impossible to navigate. The sailor tossed at sea and pushed by witch-winds is metaphorically Macbeth, of course. Macbeth is like Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, though. He climbs to the top of the mast and yells defiance into the storm.  You go, Macbeth. Though Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane and MacDuff is not of a woman born. You go!

The Three Witches--Bad, Worse, Worst

This, my twentieth time reading Macbeth, I've noticed that the Weird Sister are three different degrees of characteristics. In the beginning, Firstie (that's what I'll call her) called Macbeth "Glamis" which is his present title. Second called him "Cawdor", a title that followed almost immediately, then Thirdie (you get the idea) called him "King", which took a little longer and involves much darker deed. 

Later, when they were making a potion, Firstie put in some poison, Second put in all the what is now stereotypical witches brew type stuff, ie, eye of newt and toe of frog..." Thirdie blows them out of the water with human body parts, dragon scales, shark and wolf bits. She seems to be the most hard-core.

Shakespeare's outlook toward the future is bleak. It's as if he could look into a crystal ball and see that as time progresses, society gets more and more complicated and disheartening. Follow this up with Act 4 Scene 2--the saddest scene in all of Shakespeare (see post).

The Scottish Play

According to an article I read*, it is bad luck to say, "Macbeth" if you are around a stage production of, well, Macbeth. Instead, they call it "The Scottish Play" so that nothing bad will happen during the performance. I find this mildly amusing. Theater arts folks are usually liberal minded people--why are so many of them so superstitious? People can't say "Good luck", can't say "Macbeth"--give me a break. I also read that "Break a leg" comes from Shakespeare's time. Actors were told to "Bend their leg" which meant to take a deep bow, which means, "Have a good performance so that at the end you can take a bow and soak in the applause." Obviously, there is a great deal to learn about the theater and Shakespeare and Macbeth. Wish us luck!

Reading Macbeth

I am looking forward to posting my observations as I read Shakespeare's MacBeth. Last year, I encouraged my students to post often, but they mostly waited until they were nearly finished reading the whole play before they posted. This is contrary to the purpose of a blog, I feel. I want to encourage them to use a blog as a place to react to the text in real time. To encourage this, we will focus more on what I will call, "significant moments"--short instances that can be examined more closely.

One can take a single moment or line from Shakespeare and react to it out of its context. For instance, in Act 1 scene 1 a witch says, "When the hurly-burly's done, / When the battle's lost and won." Hurly-burly means busy or boisterous activity. She is referring to the battle going on down below where they are flying. Hurly-burly makes light of the fact that men are dying in a violent manner. I don't think the soldiers would consider what they are doing as a hurly-burly, but to the witches it is just a bunch of men throwing stuff around. Hurly comes from "hurl" which means throw. So the soldiers are truly hurling, throwing spears and other weaponry. I think this means that war is both dangerous and unnecessary business--lots of wasted energy and trouble, which is possibly the witches' business.