ENGL 1616 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Hellhound, Sleepwalking, Tyrant
Document Summary
The once celebrated war hero, macbeth, spirals into a ruthless revolutionary, set to destroy everyone he can, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. After being approached by three witches and told he will one day be king, macbeth throws away reason, ignorantly trusting the crowns and proceeds to act on his blinding lust for the crown. Throughout shakespeare"s tragedy, which is set in scotland and england, reality is tossed upside down as both supernatural and natural agents harbor evil intentions. Macbeth, no longer satisfied with the throne, starts to kill although he gains nothing. Armed with the ambiguous prophecies from the weird sisters, macbeth attempts to control fate with treason and blood shed. Blood is a leitmotif throughout the play; from start to finish the literal and colloquial variations of blood adding depth while referring to family lines, guilt and even the quickly deteriorating mental state of more than one key character.
