The play concerns a trusted general who secretly lusts for power. Encouraged by the prophecies of three witches and urged on by his ambitious wife Macbeth commits regicide. Left fearful and superstitious by this desperate act he is driven to a spiralling course of murder and outrage, almost inevitably culminating in his own death. One of Shakespeare’s most popular tragedies, Macbeth is ostensibly based on the Scottish king although the story represented in the play bears no relation to historical fact as the true King Macbeth was well respected by his contemporaries. This book includes the hero Macbeth becoming more and more evil after he gets told his "destiny" by the witches and becomes greedy with power.
I’ve never enjoyed reading plays – I find it much easier to engage with and understand a play when it’s performed. This bridges the gap nicely, with the action “performed” through the illustrations in a comic book. Though the visuals are pretty standard and uninspiring, and Gareth Hinds’ adaptation looks more artistic, the thing that caught my attention here is that the speech bubbles contain the entire unabridged text of the play, meaning readers don’t miss out on anything. That makes this a great read simply because the original play is so good. I may read some other Classical Comics, perhaps starting with A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Review of "The Tragedy of Macbeth (Oxford World's Classics)" on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
There is a commonly used structural/plotting device in drama whereby the nature of the leading characters are elucidated by their varying responses to the same event/temptation/threat. I'm not sufficient a scholar to know if this approach pre-dates Shakespeare but he certainly used it and it has certainly been employed many times since - because it can be very effective.
It's used in Julius Caesar - compare and contrast the conspirators' motivations for assassinating Caesar and it will tell you much about the varied natures of those conspirators.
Here in MacBeth it is used even more prominently - so much so that it is the responses to one act of ambiguous temptation in the first Act that forms the entire action and purpose of the play. Three people are tempted by the prophecies of the Weird Sisters. "Weird" derives a now rare meaning, "fate" from Old English "wyrd", that I am …
There is a commonly used structural/plotting device in drama whereby the nature of the leading characters are elucidated by their varying responses to the same event/temptation/threat. I'm not sufficient a scholar to know if this approach pre-dates Shakespeare but he certainly used it and it has certainly been employed many times since - because it can be very effective.
It's used in Julius Caesar - compare and contrast the conspirators' motivations for assassinating Caesar and it will tell you much about the varied natures of those conspirators.
Here in MacBeth it is used even more prominently - so much so that it is the responses to one act of ambiguous temptation in the first Act that forms the entire action and purpose of the play. Three people are tempted by the prophecies of the Weird Sisters. "Weird" derives a now rare meaning, "fate" from Old English "wyrd", that I am confident Shakespeare was aware of. Think about it; the Fate or Fateful Sisters. Makes perfect and terrifying sense in the context of the play.
So the three people tempted are MacBeth and Banquo, of course, since they were present for the prophecy, and Lady MacBeth, who hears it later from her husband, and stands to gain much, indirectly, if those uncanny sisters speak truth.
I feel that if the basic idea occurred to a contemporary Hollywood scriptwriter today, we'd have the story of virtuous, heroic Banquo, who would die himself whilst killing the usurper, leaving the throne to his son. Shakespeare, however, knew that a flawless hero is actually a fairly boring protagonist and instead relegated him to the secondary but crucial role of person who ignores the temptation but nevertheless reaps the reward offered in the prophecy (if founding a line of kings is any consolation for being murdered on the way to a feast hosted by your former best friend).
More interesting is the morally conflicted man who knows that the quickest way to the throne is also the worst and his ambitious wife who urges him on though she, when it comes to it, cannot do the evil deed herself.
So first we have the contrast between the good man and the bad, then we have the contrast between the initially reluctant man who goes on to commit crime after ever more brutal and heinous crime and the woman that, though she did nothing directly herself, becomes ever more remorseful and unhinged, until she can stand it no longer, her prayer to be "unsexed" having not been answered.
These contrasts reveal the Tragedy of the potentially great and good MacBeth.
I really read this in: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30864936
Review of 'Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Most of these works made me want to go investigate the author and read more, which was good. The exception was David Simpson, as I'd already read the work he offered here in a seemingly little-changed form as the start of one of his novels. I picked up the collection because of [a:Peter Cawdron|5252525|Peter Cawdron|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1320085669p2/5252525.jpg]'s name in the list of contributors, and his contribution was as enjoyable as I'd hoped. A very well curated collection with, should I re-open it, enough links to authors pages and other works to keep me going for weeks.
