/lit/ - Literature

>>19714220
>tfw no Lady Macbeth gf to push me into reaching my full potential
Really enjoyed reading this/watching adaptions. Not the first Shakespeare I've read, but never read anything before this christmas. The quaint language feel more natural in a tragedy such as this I think, giving the speech more gravitas, compared to the comedies where it seem a bit ridiculous at times.Some things I thoughts after reading it:
The theme of the intangibility of time is for me one of the major themes throughout the play. There's not any bad choices being made, just a failure to have the time to find the right ones - one never has the needed information in a situation, nor the time to analyze what you have. The fast pace of the narrative enforce this. After Macbeths meeting with the witches, theres hardly time to think before Duncans visit, after the murder hardly time before he is king, after he is king hardly time before the world conspires against him. Other characters, Malcolm and McDuff for example, also alway seem to be in a rush. There is always something left unsaid: every meeting between Macbeth and Banquo ends with a "But more of this hereafter" (the last one a bit ironic), M and lady M never get the time to glory in their victory ("there would be time for such a word"), and Macbeth ofcourse ends both interviews with the sisters for more information. Time is also obviously a major theme in a certain soliloquy. The characters seem to be barely hanging on, which everyone who has had to make a difficult choice may recognize.
As a extension of this, the play was much less moralistic than I expected. It felt like a greek tragedy, in that, although independent actors, the characters never really had a choice. The murder wasn't a moral failing, but the result of a situation, once the idea of the regicide was planted. See for example Lady M's first speech, where she begs for her kindness to give way for her ambition. She isn't "evil", but as a human is forced to rise to the occasion. Although the murder is bloody and the consequences are horrible, it cannot be reprehended, for many men would do the same. What if Macbeth didn't go through with the murder? He would then be a coward, a failed potential, and would be just as cursed. The lack of time futhermore obscures what the right course of action is, if there even is a right course of action. This moral relativism (not the a perfect label for this, as it has some bad associations) is reflected in phrases such as "foul is fair..", "Hell is murky", the speech of McDuffs son, and probably much more.
Favorurite sections:
>The raven himself is hoarse..
>Was the hope drunk which made you...
>She should have died hereafter...
Favourite line:
>"Take it like a man!"
>"Aye, I will. But I must also feel it like a man."
One of the few sane lines in the play. Looking forwards to the rest of the year!