Macbeth (1623)

After all the hype, I dived into it because of the recommendation of Patrick Stewart. Perhaps there was too much time and intervening texts to really get it but the creepiness of Lady Macbeth sleepwalking definitely transferred from page to imagination. All the other stuff I didn't appreciate. And, as an avid fan of Shakespeare, I'm sure that was my fault. ( )

The weird sisters. What more needs to be said? ( )

So...MacBeth.

Weird that I knew so very little about this particular play, considering it's one of those ones that comes up a lot.

And while it's suitably tragic, this one—and perhaps it was the players in this rendition, I don't know—this one didn't grab me. Lady MacBeth deserved to die, she was a foul, foul woman. But for me, I think it was the fact that this MacBeth guy, a major war hero, is so easily and stupidly thrown into this tragic self-fulfilling prophecy, and how he's easily and stupidly led into murder by his foul wife, and then he's stupid at the end.

Very tragic, and yet again, I'm struck by how many phrases are still heard today by a four hundred year old play ("Lay on MacDuff" and the whole "boil and bubble, toil and trouble" witches' chant stand out). But overall, not one of my favourites. ( )

I don't typically like these older books, with poetry and their weird talk, but this one was pretty good. Macbeth killed some people, then killed a bunch more. Lady Macbeth was like 'whoooo let's go kill the king' but then she starts to feel guilty while Macbeth feels less guilty. The witches were awesome. "Double, Double. toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble'! Pretty intense stuff. Kind of hilarious how they tricked him and how Macbeth was so easily defeated. ( )

A wonderful study of madness, magic, and ambition gone awry. ( )