Richard III Act I

In the beginning of Act 1 Scene ii, Anne is going on and on about her hatred for Richard. She is in a funeral procession of King Henry, her father in law(I think). She says, “If ever he have wife, let her be made more miserable by the death of him than I am made by my young lord and thee” talking to King Henry. She is basically setting herself up for trouble here, because she’ll probably be that wife. Then Richard comes into the scene and Anne is pissed, spewing her rage at him and even spitting at him. He hears all of this and just talks about her beauty and how she’ll be his wife soon. She doesn’t listen to it at first and he says that he would kill himself if she won’t return his feelings. She gives him a knife to kill him and she’s about to do it, but then he says “Nay, do not pause, for I did kill King Henry-But t’was they beauty that provoked me.Nay, now dispatch: t’was I that stabbed young Edward-but t’was thy heavenly face that set me on.” Basically saying that he killed all these people that are dear to her because of her beauty. And, lo and behold, that works.

Macbeth Act V

So, Macbeth is finally dead and it is such a relief. It was getting painful to read his speeches and hear him order yet another person dead. His speech in the fifth scene is really interesting. It is really depressing and bleak. If this is Shakespeare’s perspective on life, then he was seriously troubled. Macbeth is saying that every day leads up until our death and we, “the poor player” all are afraid of this day and then we are “heard no more”. My favorite line is “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”. I think it relates to this act in that Macbeth is about to die and everything that he has done up until this point equates to nothing. Although his story is full of “sound and fury” it means nothing because he is about to die. But, then I disagree with the part about how the player “is heard no more” because these plays that Shakespeare wrote are extremely memorable and people still talk about them. I’m sure Macbeth in this fictional time and place would’ve also been a memorable short lived king.

Macbeth Act IV

Lady Macduff is an interesting character and I was sad to see that she was a victim of Macbeth’s madness and was eventually murdered. At the beginning of the scene Lady Macduff learns that her husband has fled the country by Ross. She feels betrays that Macduff left and that he is just basically being a baby and leaving his loved ones in danger. She says, “All is the fear and nothing is the love, as little is the wisdom, where the flight so runs against all reason.” She tells her son that his father is dead, but he doesn’t believe her. My favorite line of hers is, “But I remember now I am in this earthly world, where to do harm is often laudable, to do good sometime accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas, do I put up that womanly defense to say I have done no harm?” She says this as the murderers are entering. I think it’s interesting to contrast her to Lady Macbeth. Lady Macduff is wise and questioning right up until her death. Her world is surrounded by crazy deeds and things are the opposite of what they might seem. This ties back into the witches Fair is foul and Foul is fair.

Macbeth Act III

There is a definite power struggle in Macbeth. It seems like everyone is always walking on eggshells trying to exhibit pleasantries trying not to offend anyone. Like they are all trying to keep their desires hidden. Macbeth acts the martyr and nonchalant when he becomes King, but it was his and Lady Macbeth’s great wish that they made sure happened. Everyone is always secretly plotting. But, I think the people who hold the greatest power are the three weird sisters. They tell Macbeth his destiny and he makes it happen so the prophecy becomes reality. Hecate scolds the three in this act for telling Macbeth his destiny. She would’ve rather them stay out of it, but perhaps if they didn’t tell Macbeth he would have never become King. Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, knows they hold great power because she has to intervene saying that, “He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear his hopes ‘bove wisdom, grace and fear;” foreshadowing an even darker fate for Macbeth.

Macbeth Act II

This is the bloody act in which Macbeth kills Duncan, the king. We don’t actually see him killing Duncan, but we see a precursory illusion of a dagger. He sees this right before he goes into the King’s chamber and so I think it is Macbeth’s guilt over what he is about to do that evokes this image. Even though he sees this and is quite frightened by it he still goes along with the bloody deed. Lady Macbeth is talking to herself while waiting for Macbeth. She says that she would have done it herself, but the King looked like her father and couldn’t. This is the first time we see the Lady Macbeth waver in her ruthlessness. When Macbeth comes out of the chamber he only talks about the words he heard in there. Lady Macbeth is pissed that he didn’t put the dagger with the servants but took it with him. She then has to take it herself. After we saw a little bit of vulnerability in the Lady, it is back to their original roles of Macbeth obsessing over his guilt and Lady Macbeth taking control.

Macbeth Act I

So, Macbeth starts out with the stage direction “Thunder and lightning. Enter three witches.” Without even getting into the dialogue of the three witches, we know this scene is going to be ominous. I think that this whole first scene is a foreshadowing of what is to come in the rest of the play. Thunder and lightning are connected to turmoil, which the 2nd witch mentions that the three will meet again after the turmoil is done and after the battle. We know now that there is a battle being fought and for some reason these witches are concerned with meeting Macbeth. The last thing they say before leaving is, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air”. This line once again sets up the rest of the play. It talks about good and evil and maybe a blurring of those lines, or how these things can sometimes be interchangeable, or come at the same time. Which we see with the bittersweetness of Macbeth’s news from the witches.

Hamlet Act IV & V

One of my favorite paintings is one of Waterhouse’s Ophelia’s.  I’ve always loved the painting because how it looks to be so innocent. We just see a young woman picking flowers next to water. But, after reading Hamlet, I know that it’s a much darker scene.When the Queen Gertrude announces of the sad death of Ophelia, she describes it in such detail that we can perfectly see it in our heads. To me this painting is perfect because it is really hazy and romanticized and that is what I think when I think of Ophelia’s suicide. “There on the pendent boughs her crownet weeds clambr’ing to hang, an envious sliver broke, when down her weedy trophies  and herself fell in the weeping brook.” Death here is something that is almost idealized. Ophelia adorned herself with beautiful flowers and sang herself to death in the water. This is not the bloody death that others in this play find. Death is something that can lurk in the daydreams of a girl and manifest in flowering songs.

Hamlet Act III

So, this is the act when everything is really building up. The King learns that Hamlet is not mad because he is in love with Ophelia and this worries him, because there must be some reason for his action. He says that they must keep an eye on him. The players also put on their play under Hamlet’s supervision. Claudius gets really angry when one of the characters kills his uncle with poison in the ear. Claudius later has a monologue wherein he talks about how guilty he feels for his murderous actions. He is mainly worried about how he will be received in Heaven and how even if he repents he has to bear the tainted title of King and his incestuous wife. So, his actions can never really be redeemed. The Queen also talks about her feelings of guilt with Hamlet. He goads her into these feelings of course. She says that after all of his disgusted reflections on her new marriage, she sees her soul and is not happy with what she sees.

Hamlet Act II

So, for this blog we are supposed to talk about what body talk and language can convey and what it can not. I wanted to talk about the scene in which one of the players that visits the castle makes a speech about the fall of Troy and Pyrrhus and Priam and their deaths. Hamlet even starts out the speech and in his there is also some action and drama. The players here talk with so much detail about how the characters are moving and in what position they are. This is a fighting scene so there is a lot of movement and action. The player talks into detail about how Priam cuts off Pyrrhus’ ear, “seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash takes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear” Act II ii.He paints a picture for Hamlet and for us the audience, because here there are two audiences. The violence of the scene is once again a precursor to the horror that are yet to come.

Hamlet Act 1

The first act of Hamlet definitely starts off with some drama. The soldiers who guard the battlement have heard rumors of a ghost that comes just at midnight and then while talking about him he actually appears and in the form of the former King, Hamlets father. I think Shakespeare wanted to tell the audience from the beginning that this play isn’t a happy one. It is filled with lies and deception and darkness. He puts the ghost in at the beginning as a precursor to what even darker events are still to come. When Hamlet finally sees the ghost for himself and they talk, the ghost wants Hamlet to avenge his death. He finds out that his Uncle who now rules was his murderer. So, we see that the ghost has no good news. He first talks about the perils of hell and then tells Hamlet to kill his Uncle. I don’t know how I would stage a ghost. I think I would just put a man up there but make him look like he’s literally living in hell.