Macbeth LRJ #3

Sarita Beekie
Ms. Peifer
10 IB - Hour 5
25 February 2009

Macbeth LRJ #3

The third act of Macbeth begins to take the smaller, less noticeable "quirks" of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and develops those quirks into definite characteristics that become embodied in each of their already complex personalities. Macbeth, for example, showed in act one that he had the will to murder (whether he truly thought it was the best idea or not, he did kill Duncan), but in the third act, Macbeth begins to show his first signs of being a cold-blooded murderer when thinks to himself, "They hailed him [Banquo] to a line of kings. Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown and put a barren scepter in my grip, thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, no son of mine succeeding...for them the gracious Duncan have I murdered...to make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings." (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 3, i, 61-71) and then later resolves, "It is concluded . Banquo, thy soul's flight, if it find heaven, must it find out tonight." (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 3, i, 143-144) bearing in mind that Banquo is supposedly Macbeth's best friend up until this point. Also, another clue to the changing of Macbeth's character is the fact that he made arrangements to kill Banquo without Lady Macbeth's consent.

In the first two acts of Macbeth, it was apparent that Lady Macbeth had a subtle issue with being inconsistent, but her hypocritical nature becomes blatant when she says to herself, "Naught's had, all's spent, where our desire is got without content. 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 3, ii, 6-9) and right after as Macbeth enters, she tells him to, "be bright and jovial among your guests tonight" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 3 ii, 31). From this, we can also infer that Macbeth is no longer the anxious one of the two, it is now Lady Macbeth, who has all of sudden lost the brassy nerve that she once had in the previous acts.

As far as the reoccurring imagery concerning the abnormal weather patterns, no direct changes in the weather are spoken of in the third act of Macbeth, however, several references to weather are made by the characters. Like when Macbeth exclaims (to no one in particular), "Come, seeling night, scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, and with thy bloody and invisible hand cancel and tear to pieces that great bond which keeps me pale!" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 3, ii, 49-53) Another small reference to weather is when Banquo innocently states, "It will be rain tonight" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 3, iii, 21) and then a murderer appears and exclaims, "Let it come down!" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 3, iii, 22).

The Violinist

Another poem. Enjoy.

Gracing her bow upon the strings
Music, her medium, is drawn,
But alas, not only from her violin
But from her own heart strings, as well.
Pulling her bow
Her magic bleeds the air,
Tenderly smiling
As she unlocks her colors and sparkle.
Observing the sky,
She extends her arm
And points her bow to draw an arch
And which she paints on utmost silence.

“A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” -Leopold Stokowski

Macbeth LRJ #2

Sarita Beekie
Ms. Peifer
10 IB - Hour 5
23 February 2009

Macbeth LRJ #2

As the story of Macbeth develops, readers begin to find in the second act that the "first-impression" characteristics of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth begin to become clearer and more blatant. Also, new facets of their complex characters begin to become visible in the second act, as well. As Macbeth moves into the second act, Macbeth becomes more torn between his moral conscience and his evil desires, especially now that he has killed Duncan, and because of this (and his blatant inconsistencies up to this point), he begins to suffer from extreme guilt. In response to Lady Macbeth chiding him for falling through with the last steps of their murder plot, he replies, "I'll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done; look on't again I dare not" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 2, ii, 53-55) and then goes on to say, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the miltudinous seas incarnidine making the green one red." From this, readers can also infer that although Macbeth may be a warrior, he clearly does not have the heart of a cold-blooded murderer. As far as new characteristics, Macbeth begins to show his first signs of definite mental instability when he begins to monologue, "Is this the dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee...a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable as this which now I draw" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 2, i, 34-42).

Lady Macbeth on the other hand, shows no remorse for the heinous acts that she and Macbeth have planned and carried out, and contrary to Macbeth's increasing uncertainty with this whole operation, Lady Macbeth becomes increasingly bolder. "That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; what hath quenched them hath given me fire" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 2, ii, 1-2) is her response to poisoning Duncan's guards. However, as bold and as domineering as Lady Macbeth may be, she has her own share of inconsistencies, as well. As she waits for Macbeth after she has poisoned the guards, she says to herself, "Had he [Duncan] not resembled my father as he slept, I had done't" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 2, 11, 12-13) bearing in mind that this is the same lady who said, "How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me; I would while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 1, vii, 56-59).

There are several reoccurring themes that transfer from act one to act two, as well. Such as the abnormal weather patterns. When the first witch is offended by a woman who, "wouldn't share her chestnuts", the Weird Sisters cry out, "Weary sev'nnights nine times nine shall he dwindle, peak, and pine. Though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-tossed." (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 1, iii, 22-25) and they send a wrathful storm out to the woman's seaward husband. Then after Duncan is discovered dead, Ross comments, "By th' clock 'tis day, and yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp. Is't night's predominance or the day's shame that darkness does the face of the earth entomb when living light should kiss it?" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 2, iv, 6-10).

The Cellist

Just thought I'd put this on my blog

Passion's sound hung on each enamored heart
As he graced his bow upon the taut strings,
His lovely magic, the blessed fine art
A concoction of all beautiful things.

The lustrous moon and stars began to dance
As the Lovely One continued to play,
Ev'ry ear was encompassed in a trance
As their souls were beckoned to run away.

His heart poured into the rapturous song
Forever drowned in his tragic amore,
They wept, for this angel had done no wrong
Yet cast from Heaven's face forevermore.

At his song's end, if you look in his eyes,
You'll see his soul fade as the music dies.

Macbeth LRJ #1

Sarita Beekie
Ms. Peifer
10 IB -Hour 5
20 February 2009

Macbeth LRJ #1

In the first act of Macbeth, the two characters that readers become most acquainted with at first are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The first impression of Macbeth is that he is a lot like Faustus, in a sense that he is being torn by good and evil desires, which presents the play's theme of conflicting morals. When presented with the idea of killing the king and gaining the crown (as it has been premeditated by the Weird Sisters), he says to himself:
"This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
My thought, whose murder is yet but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man
That function is smothered in surmise,
And nothing is but what is not." (Shakespeare, Macbeth 1, iii, 131-143)
In contrast, Lady Macbeth immediately comes off as outwardly poised, yet in actuality she is very cold, calculating, and manipulative to an extent. Being an aristocratic lady, it is required that she is poised and superficially elegant, which she does well when Duncan (the king) thanks her for letting him stay in her household, and she replies, "For those of old, and the late dignities heaped up to them, we rest your hermits" (Shakespeare, Macbeth 1,vi, 18-19). This contrasts her first entrance, after Macbeth has sent word of the prophecy pertaining to him being king. At this message, she immediately calls, "Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe-top full of direst cruelty!" (Shakespeare, Macbeth 1, v, 40-43) because she believes that Macbeth is too much of a gentleman to take the actions needed in fulfilling the prophecy. So she makes up Macbeth's mind for him, and tells him:
"When Duncan is asleep--
Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him--his to chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassail so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only. When in a swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
Th' unguarded Duncan? What not put upon
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?" (Shakespeare, Macbeth 1, vii, 62-72)
Lady Macbeth's character is also used in introducing the play's themes of darkness and power thirst.

One scene in the first act of Macbeth that struck me as far as imagery is concerned is the scene in which Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth, "Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valor as thou art in desire?...How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me; I would while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 1, vii, 40-59). In this particular scene, Lady Macbeth is chiding Macbeth for not being "man enough" to take action in accordance with the prophecy, and then goes onto to state that she would kill her own child if she had to and had promised so. This would've been considered quite shocking for an aristocratic lady of her time to be speaking in such a way, especially to her husband. Also, the fact that she would kill her own child (for any reason) adds to already apparent darkness of her character.