I studied Macbeth in English this year, and I have a
couple of thoughts now.
1.
Letting other people rule you can lead to
mistakes you will regret for the rest of your life. Macbeth was very reluctant
to go through with the murder of his king. It was mainly his wife’s influence
that drove Macbeth into the deed, but he cannot be entirely innocent. Despite
all his hesitations Macbeth caved to his wife and allowed her to convince him
into the murder. We all choose how much influence others hold over us.
2.
Sometimes you just have to trust people, but
that doesn’t mean go into it blindly. Duncan the king trusted the Thane of
Cawdor completely, Cawdor turned out to be a traitor. All the same Duncan
trusted Macbeth and all the other characters, even though the Macbeths end up
murdering him I think Duncan was one of the happier characters of the plot.
Macbeth is a little too trusting as well. Macbeth puts complete trust in the prophecy of the witches, three people he knows nothing about, which eventually leads to his death.
Banquo on the other hand is suspicious of the witches and Macbeth but he never acts on his suspicions.
Malcolm, I think, is the smartest character in the plot, at least on the issue of trust. Malcolm doesn’t trust Macduff immediately but once convinced however Malcolm commits to trust by taking Macduff into his confidence.
Macbeth is a little too trusting as well. Macbeth puts complete trust in the prophecy of the witches, three people he knows nothing about, which eventually leads to his death.
Banquo on the other hand is suspicious of the witches and Macbeth but he never acts on his suspicions.
Malcolm, I think, is the smartest character in the plot, at least on the issue of trust. Malcolm doesn’t trust Macduff immediately but once convinced however Malcolm commits to trust by taking Macduff into his confidence.
3.
Crazy is an overused word these days. “Everyone
has a mental disorder” they say, ‘I’m crazy and It’s cool’ we say jokingly to
our friends. Then you read Macbeth there are some genuinely crazy people there.
By the end of the play your thinking ‘Macbeth is a NUTCASE, he is literally
crazy, not a little teenager/young adult crazy, not crazy busy, actually
mentally insane. It’s subtle but it’s sad. We watch the fall of a respected man
into murder and finally madness and we walk away with the feeling that it could
have been us, it could still be us. My mom thinks that it takes a certain level
of insanity to take someone else’s life, I think I agree.
In closing I walked away from Macbeth wondering if the
sanctity of human life is as sacred as we want it to be. I walked away
wondering how I would handle taking a life. I walked away wondering how much to
trust people. I walk away from Macbeth with the conviction that there are some
lines that cannot be crossed and other lines that are not as solid as I would
like them to be.
