Customer Reviews

Macbeth (The New Folger Library)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read this book in class, with my Language Arts teacher and the rest of my class. We didn't do the exact play, just read through it, but it was fun. You may think, why are 7th graders reading Shakespeare? Well, the answer is, we have a great teacher with enthusiasm, that is willing to teach us with his characterists before we read it in high school with the most boring teacher in the world. Anyway, reading this was a blast. With the help of the New Folger Library explanations, and my teacher, I understood this play. It teaches that greed doesn't pay, no matter how hard you try, and how many people help you. Also, you will regret what you do, and realize it wasn't worth it when your head has been removed from your shoulders. It has these great messages, as well as no matter how "perfect" your plans are, they aren't and will backfire eventually. The characters are excellent, although some are very greedy, which makes this play interesting. This was the first Shakesspearean play I have ever read, although I have seen Romeo and Juliet at the opera. This got me interested in Shakespeare, and I plan to read his comedies, and possibly Hamlet.

It's been said that Freud said he learned everything he knew from Shakespeare. There is no one who writes of human nature, from the inside out, as Shakespeare did. I've read Macbeth before and will read it again ... and will always thrill at the 3 witches. What a beginning! But it's the portrayal of Lady Macbeth that has stuck with me from high school days when I first read it. It's as effective at curtailing certain reprehensible female behavior as is "Fatal Attraction." My high school English teacher told me to read the great works of literature every 5 years because they'll be different each time. I do, and they are. If I could write like Shakespeare, I'd describe how beautiful and powerful his language is. This action-packed drama is one of the works of Shakespeare that particularly appeals to men.

I realized that this play is a horror story just recently. It has witches, ghost, creepy castle, brooding atmosphere, and plenty of blood. What seperates it from most horror stories (aside from the fact it was written by Shakespeare) is the true horror is not from the ghosts or witches but the evil that is in man's soul. This makes it scarrier and more truthful than most horror stories.

Noble Macbeth and the story of his decay due to the seduction of the forces of darkness - I liked it. The play sets off with an impressing scene, the chant of the three witches, a perfect use of language, I dare say. It takes only about a page and I knew it by memory after two times reading. We used to quote it during the breaks, and actually still do so sometimes. "When shall we three meet again...and so forth. After this promising start the language gets quite hard (I'm not any native form Enland, the US or any other english speaking part of this planet). One can follow the action though and every five or six pages there's a reward for your patience, at least for anybody who likes the power Shakespeare's language is able to display in their good or best moments: "Have we eaten on the insane root?" and the likes. Of course there's also the famous "It is a tale, told by an idiot...". It's for these moments, where Williams knew how to transfere a feeling of one of his caracteres into the realm of a universal significance, that I enjoyed the play...

For my whole life, I had heard about Macbeth, but knew little about the play itself, other than its setting (Scotland). While I have not enjoyed some of the Shakespearean plays I have read, I truly enjoyed Macbeth. The story is very psychologically stimulating; Lady Macbeth is an especially interesting character: ambitious, heartless, yet compassion that surfaces at times. The whole issue of what fate is, when it is determined, how it is determined, how much of one's future is his fate, etc. is very thought-provoking! Other than a few weak scenes where one has to wonder if Shakespeare was just getting a little too clever (like the lame reverse psychology Malcolm uses to test Macduff's loyalty; or Macduff's son's dying words "He has killed me mother, Run away.") Nonetheless, even better than Hamlet I would say (yet I know few will agree)

Shakespeare's cleverness shows through in Macbeth, in my mind one of his greatest plays. By appealing to ALL components of his audience, from James I (via Banquo's royal progeny) to the uneducated and superstitious groundlings (via witches and ghosts), Shakespeare created a timeless classic. Macbeth's tragic flaw, "vaulting ambition," ultimately causes his downfall; this downfall serves as an ultimate, meaningful, and universal warning: while ambition may cause a person to rise in status and prestige, too much ambition may cause a person to both lose touch with reality and improve his/her status by any means possible (including murder). Suspense and mystery, combined with mystical superstition, believable characters, eerily vivid descriptions, and universal themes, make Macbeth a wonderful play to read, to interpret, and to analyze.

"Macbeth" is one of Shakespeare's most powerful plays. Without doubt, audiences always remain guessing as they read the powerful speeches of Macbeth and his wife, who change dramatically during the story. The plot is not Shakespeare's most clever or most genius, but beautiful nonetheless!! And the best part is, thru this play, Shakespeare shows us that people are good at heart, even if corrupted within their lives.

Which version of "Macbeth" to buy? Definitely this one. The right pages provide the original play, while the left page provides definitions for old or hard vocabulary. There are also plot summaries before each scene. In addition to page numbers, each page also indicates act and scene, making the search for certain passages extremely easy. The lines are, of course, numbered, for easy reference (if you're reading this as a school assignment.) And of course, the stage directions are included too. A very helpful edition of Shakespeare's work.

that drives Macbeth?? It's desire...desire for power, desire for his wife, desire for Life.

His actions are despicable, but watching him fight with his conscience, beat it and then destroy himself, is endlessly fascinating. And what he says in Act V, sc. v, after learning of Lady's suicide...is so achingly beautiful that he can almost be forgiven for being a murderous tyrant.

It's tough to choose a favorite among Shakespeare's works...but this is mine.

I'm not a literary scholar, but I still liked this book. Romeo and Juliet really ..... and Richard III I couldn't really understand (maybe because I was in 5th grade when I read it) but Macbeth is a captivating story of a murder and the degradation of the murderer. The language is beautiful and haunting. I think the best part (can't tell you the scene--don't have my book with me) is when Macbeth says, "We have scorched the snake, not killed it" and then the dialogue between him ends in, I think something like, "Things bad begun make worse themselves by ill." Anyway, the book is really interesting and really anyone could read it--that is I could read it, so anyone could. Many good and memorable scenes, and you can actually remember exactly what you read because the words are so catchy and impressive they stick in your brain

It is a tragic story with interesting personalities. Macbeth for example first a brave good knighter becomes with his fame more and more crazy. He is not satisfied with the title he gets from Duncan, from now on he kills everybody who is in his way to become king. He does not even resist when it concerns his friend Banquo. His women influencing and supporting him in his doing ends up gowing crazy, so that she dies at the end. The witches are very important in the play, they transmit the background and stand for the future. They also influence Macbeth in his doing, or at least tell him his future. Which is not only a subject in Shakespeare's time. Even though Macbeth knows that he is in danger of getting in a big trouble he can not do anything .It will probably be very helpful the watch the movie to understand the whole content.