1. Source:
From Act 5, Scene 5 of "Macbeth".
2. Synopsis of "Macbeth":
General Macbeth, cousin of King Duncan of Scotland, returned from serving the king in suppressing rebellion and resisting invasion. He met three witches on the way. The witch told him some prophecies and cryptic words, saying that he would be crowned king, but he had no heirs to inherit the throne. Instead, the descendants of his colleague General Banquo would be the king. Macbeth is an ambitious hero who murders Duncan at the instigation of his lady and becomes king. In order to cover up others' eyes and prevent others from seizing the throne, he gradually killed Duncan's guards, Banquo, and the wife and children of the noble Macduff. Fear and suspicion make Macbeth more and more evil and cruel. Lady Macbeth went insane and committed suicide, which was also a great stimulus to him. With all the rebels and relatives separated, Macbeth faced the siege of Duncan's son and the English reinforcements he invited, and ended up bowing his head. As soon as Macbeth appeared on the scene, he had different ambitions, killed the king and usurped the throne. In order to consolidate his throne, he brutally massacred the people, making the country a river of blood, putting the society in chaos, and trapping the people in water and fire. He can be said to be the same tyrant as Richard III. Such a tyrant deserves his suffering and death.
3. Work Appreciation
After all, "Macbeth" is not a tragedy of fate in the complete sense. This is very clear when compared with the tragedies of ancient Greece. In the ancient Greek tragedy of fate, the power of fate acts directly on people. Therefore, we cannot draw any logical explanation for their fate from the characters themselves. At most, it is family inheritance (such as "Agamemnon"), or the sins of the ancestors (such as "Oedipus the King"?) . But in Shakespeare's "Macbeth", fate does not directly affect people, but indirectly affects people through human beings' own desires, sins, characters, etc. As Hecate said, fate caused "all kinds of hypocritical phantoms to confuse his nature", allowing him to move step by step towards his own destiny, driven by his own desires. From the perspective of human physics, all Macbeth's actions and final outcome can be explained. From Lady Macbeth's mouth, we learn about Macbeth's character. He "desires to be a great man" and he is ambitious, but "lacks the evil that goes with that ambition." His "desires are great. But I hope to use only legitimate means." "On the one hand, I don't want to play tricks, but on the other hand, I want to seize unreasonably." After putting down the rebellion and being named Sir Court, Macbeth was already inferior to one man and superior to ten thousand people, and Duncan, who was superior to him, completely relied on him to ensure the stability of his country. At this time, even without the witches' prophecy, Macbeth must have had that thought in his mind. So when the witches disappeared, he said, "I hope they stay a little longer." He asked them to stay a little longer. It was obvious that the idea of ??becoming a king had lurked in his heart, so he wanted to learn more about it from the witch. Shakespeare's simple words vividly express the flow of Macbeth's subconscious.
The witches’ prophecy brought Macbeth’s secret desire for power to the surface, and Duncan’s excessive rewards and praise for him strengthened his desire. Duncan said, “Your merits are too extraordinary. Even the reward for flying the fastest cannot catch up with you. If it were a little smaller, then maybe I can give you the gratitude and reward you deserve according to your proper status. Now I can only say this, no reward can make up for it. "Your great merits." Such words are too exaggerated and should not come from the mouth of a king. It objectively shows Duncan's dependence on Macbeth. It also stimulated Macbeth's ambition, making him think that his seizure of the throne was not without reason: because he had great merit. After Macbeth usurped the throne, he assassinated his comrade-in-arms, Banquo. This is very reasonable. Banquo is the only person Macbeth fears. Before killing Duncan, he had wanted to bribe him, "If you listen to my words, I guarantee you will get a valuable sum." But Banquo rejected him: “I will not do anything that would cost me my honor just to covet something valuable.
"Since bribery failed, he knew many of his secrets. In order to secure his throne, Macbeth killed him and eliminated dissidents. This is a common trick used by politicians. It is the same at home and abroad. It is not surprising. As for Macbeth's subsequent failure, it was also because of A tyrannical and illegal king created by himself will inevitably encounter resistance from all walks of life. The resistance of the people and the rebellion of the people can bring down any king. In the play, Macbeth blames his failure on God's will. In terms of personal destiny, it is correct; in terms of the fact that he was defeated, it is absurd, just like the overlord of Western Chu in China who blamed his failure on the sky.
4. Author Shakespeare. :
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is the most important writer in the European Renaissance, an outstanding dramatist and poet, and one of the most outstanding writers in the history of Western literature and art. One of the outstanding writers. He occupies a special position in the history of European literature and is known as "Zeus on the Olympic Mountain of human literature". He is also known as Aeschylus and Sofolk, the three great tragedians of ancient Greece. Sophocles and Euripides are collectively known as the four greatest tragedians in the history of drama. 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.