Macbeth

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's best known tragedies. It is packed with malicious acts, death, and power struggle, and in the end those who had been seen as good are those who lose their lives because of their evil-doing. One interesting aspect of this play was gender roles, because Lady Macbeth, rather than being the meek, delicate woman she was expected to be, was ruthless and the dominant figure of the scheming of the play. A passage from the play that captures this is the following:

LADY MACBETH
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue. Look like th' innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under 't. He that's coming
Must be provided for; and you shall put
This night's great business into my dispatch,
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

MACBETH
We will speak further.

LADY MACBETH
Only look up clear.
To alter favor ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me.

This passage shows Lady Macbeth taking the reins from her husband and essentially assuming what should have been his role. She immerses herself in his scheme to become king, and, doubting Macbeth's strength and dedication, she names herself the orchestrator of the entire operation. In making herself the controller of the murders of the king and his escort, as well as the person who cleaned up the mess afterwards, she establishes herself as the ruthless killer that one would have assumed her husband would be. Macbeth, a valiant killer on the battlefield, had the good in his heart that one would have expected, stereotypically, from a woman, and because of his inhibitions Lady Macbeth took over as the driving force of her husband's plan. It is interesting how she orders her husband around, asks him to be the distracting entertainer, all while she prepares for the murdering of the two men. The entire gender role reversal is interesting and unexpected, and with Lady Macbeth ending with "Leave all the rest to me" she solidifies the fact that she is the leader of the relationship.

Macbeth is a tragedy, not only because of all the death that occurs, but because of who it is that dies. Shakespeare takes two people, who prior to the play had been good, respectful people, happy with their status, and turns them into killers. It is tragic that Macbeth, a war hero, turns from his heroics and goodness of heart to an overwhelming desire for power. This play showed the weakness of man, and how giving in to temptations would always backfire in the end. It was as though Macbeth, by resorting to manipulation and murder to climb his way to kingdom, had sentenced himself to death. Once his wife joined him and took over for him in his journey for authority, she as well was doomed to die. The tragedy of this story is inevitable once the three witches reveal their prophesy for Macbeth, and the entirety of the play is watching Macbeth's downward plummet, a very difficult thing to witness. Shakespeare made this play tragic through the gradual decline into evil of his characters, as well as the deaths of the many characters of the play.

As a whole, I did not really enjoy Macbeth. I found the gender roles fascinating, the diction was superb, yet I could not get drawn into the entirety of the play. I will always remember the scene with Lady Macbeth washing her hands in her sleep, and the ghost scene of the play, but I did not find myself as captivated with this play as I had been with others. I had difficulty becoming an active reader of this play, but perhaps that was my problem: I may have appreciated the play more had it been acted out in front of me. I recognize its strengths, I really liked Shakespeare's character development, and still I could not get into the play. One day, at another time, this play is going to be reread by me, and I am going to see if maybe I just read too much Shakespeare in one sitting. Or hopefully I will have the opportunity to see it acted out, but at this point in time, Macbeth is not my favorite Shakespearean play.

Richard III

Shakespeare, the author of some of the most widely known works in modern literature, wrote his plays in such a way that they were divided into three categories. There is history, tragedy, and comedy. An example of a historical work by Shakespeare is Richard III, a story of a man who deceives and murders his family in order to rise to the throne.

One passage from Shakespeare's Richard III that I found particularly interesting was the following:

GLOUCESTER
Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts' sovereign
The weary way hath made you melancholy.

PRINCE EDWARD
No, uncle; but our crosses on the way
Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy
I want more uncles here to welcome me.

GLOUCESTER
Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your years
Hath not yet dived into the world's deceit
Nor more can you distinguish of a man
Than of his outward show; which, God he knows,
Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.
Those uncles which you want were dangerous;
Your grace attended to their sugar'd words,
But look'd not on the poison of their hearts :
God keep you from them, and from such false friends!

PRINCE EDWARD
God keep me from false friends! but they were none.

This passage, although seemingly harmless and normal from the Prince's point of view, is an ironic and hateful conversation in the reader's perspective. When Richard speaks of deceit and attempts to decipher who a man is on the inside, he is, in reality, speaking of himself, and his ulterior motives. It is horrifying as the reader sits and pictures the scene, as Richard takes on the persona of a harmless, deformed uncle, when we know what really is on the inside of the man. When he speaks of outward appearances being deceiving, he is speaking directly about himself, and yet turning his nephew away from thinking him to be a threat. The irony of this passage, as well as the play on words that Richard utilizes to convince Edward that he is the safe uncle, create the type of scene that, even just being read, makes the reader stir with a sense of foreboding, yelling at their book as they realize what is going to happen. I think it is the manipulation and cruelty that Richard demonstrates throughout the play that makes this passage more effective, because the audience can only sit in anticipation, predicting the main character's next move.

This play, aside from its dialogue, also had some historical value. Shakespeare, in a combination of tyranny and history, took the story of Richard III and made it into a little chunk of English history. I think that, although history can be boring at times, Shakespeare found a way in which it could appeal to his audiences. The intertwining of tragedy and history, was, in my opinion, an archetype of typical royal happenings. The fight for power, the desire for status, the ruthlessness to reach those goals, it all works not only in the play, but in reality. Even today, there are still constant power struggles not only amongst governmental figures, but also average people. Although history was a large part of the play, Shakespeare was able to create an interesting plot that was related to everyday life.


Richard III, in my opinion, had its greatest strength in its language. Shakespeare knew what to write in order to make the work more impacting, show Richard as the dishonest, manipulative man that he was underneath his physical guise of weakness. I loved how Shakespeare took Richard's character, and rather than keeping him in the seemingly weak state that he was physically, made Richard's character into one of extreme power. The extremes of this play were shocking, and the pure cruelty of the situations was frightening. To take a deformed man, and transform him into a deceptive, power-hungry man requires great skill, and this play showed Shakespeare's mastery of the English language just as every other one of his plays has. The play appeals to audiences, has the death, and drama, and the emotional pull that a play requires in order to be a success. The sheer number of deaths in this play is frightening, but even more frightful is how Richard succeeds with his scheming, and does become King, even if for a short while.

Taming of the Shrew

Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew is one among the many plays that Shakespeare wrote during his lifetime. What makes this play unique is how Shakespeare creates the story, using word play, puns, and some very laughable situations. One passage from this play that I found myself laughing about was the following:


PETRUCHIO
Verona, for a while I take my leave,
To see my friends in Padua, but of all
My best beloved and approved friend,
Hortensio; and I trow this is his house.
Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.

GRUMIO
Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is there man has
rebused your worship?

PETRUCHIO
Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.

GRUMIO
Knock you here, sir! why, sir, what am I, sir, that
I should knock you here, sir?

PETRUCHIO
Villain, I say, knock me at this gate
And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.

GRUMIO
My master is grown quarrelsome. I should knock you first,
And then I know after who comes by the worst.

PETRUCHIO
Will it not be?Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll ring it;
I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.
He wrings him by the ears

GRUMIO
Help, masters, help! my master is mad.

PETRUCHIO
Now, knock when I bid you, sirrah villain!

This scene was hilarious, not just because of what it could potentially lead to, but because of the circumstances. One missing word completely altered the meaning of what Petruchio had said, leading to a near violent situation. As horrible as that is, it has a level of humor to it that is captivating. I had to keep reading, just to see if the pair would actually come to blows or someone would come to the rescue before the fighting occurred. The situation was so believable, so ridiculous, and the way the men spoke to one another was very humorous. The threats, the insults, the fear, and the miscommunication all made this passage into the little comedic scene that it is. Situations such as this happened throughout the play, between Kate and other male characters, between servant and master, even between father and son. Despite the sections of less active dialogue, this play kept the audience paying attention with scenes such as these, that capture the true comedy of humanity.

This play was a comedy throughout, taking all the miscommunication, exaggerations, and puns made by the characters and turning them into an entertaining story. Shakespeare knew not only how to entertain his audience, but also how to make them laugh. A play based on taking a feisty young woman and "taming" her has to have some humor, otherwise the audience would be upset at seeing their own behavior portrayed. Shakespeare seemed to be making a jab at the actions of the men around him who, rather than accept a woman for who she is, found it necessary to make her into a meek, pristine housewife. Had he made that spear the main focus of the play, and not woven those comedic scenes into the work, it would have been quite difficult for him to maintain a happy and captivated audience. With his comedy Shakespeare was able to provide entertainment to the masses, and mask his actual thoughts on the situations that he was portraying.


Taming of the Shrew, as humorous as many of its sketches were, left me feeling sad. To think about how women in Shakespeare's time were treated in the manner of horses, seen as something to break into their wifely duties, made me somewhat angry. Not at Shakespeare, just at society as a whole, viewing women as objects because people were too ignorant to recognize that women had their strengths along with their weaknesses. All that was seen was weakness, strength and individuality were stolen from these women, and I just can't understand it. of course, I am from an entirely different time period, but it still bothers me. I found it interesting how Shakespeare used comedy to depict the plight of women. This play was one where I would be laughing, and suddenly realize that I was laughing at the inhumanity of man as they dehumanized women. I definitely felt like I was being toyed with in those situations, being made to laugh, then realizing the hypocrisy of my laughter. Overall, I enjoyed the play, but some aspects of it left me feeling bothered.