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A review by toggle_fow
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
3.0
This was alright.
I kind of want to leave it at that because that would be funny, but I can't because I have an ax to grind. Overall the play was fine, enjoyable but not wildly so.
The whole woods moving thing made so many references across all of literature make a lot more sense. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have an extreme Ahab/Jezebel dynamic going on. I was deeply confused by the fact that Banquo's son was still offstage and had shown no sign of becoming king by the end, until I googled it.
Familiar lines:
And now for my ax, which is that Macbeth is told that "no man born of woman" will be able to harm him. This is cool, such as it is, but its execution -- really?
JUST because Macduff did not PASS THROUGH THE BIRTH CANAL does NOT mean he wasn't born of woman. If not woman, then what? Like, because his mom had a C-section, is he born of man? Born of cow, or dog, or the hands that lifted him from his mom's womb? This is ridiculous and makes no sense.
By itself, this is just mildly irritating, but instantly after hearing the prophecy I was expecting a woman to kill him. And what woman do we have waiting in the wings, a proven murderer AND conveniently losing her sanity at that very second? I still think it would have been a better fit for the prophecy and more tragic for Lady Macbeth to kill both Macbeth and herself.
I kind of want to leave it at that because that would be funny, but I can't because I have an ax to grind. Overall the play was fine, enjoyable but not wildly so.
The whole woods moving thing made so many references across all of literature make a lot more sense. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have an extreme Ahab/Jezebel dynamic going on. I was deeply confused by the fact that Banquo's son was still offstage and had shown no sign of becoming king by the end, until I googled it.
Familiar lines:
• "Screw your courage to the sticking place."
• "Is this a dagger which I see before me?"
• "Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care."
• "There's daggers in men's smiles."
• "Something wicked this way comes."
• "What, you egg!"
• "Double, double, toil and trouble / fire burn and cauldron bubble."
And now for my ax, which is that Macbeth is told that "no man born of woman" will be able to harm him. This is cool, such as it is, but its execution -- really?
JUST because Macduff did not PASS THROUGH THE BIRTH CANAL does NOT mean he wasn't born of woman. If not woman, then what? Like, because his mom had a C-section, is he born of man? Born of cow, or dog, or the hands that lifted him from his mom's womb? This is ridiculous and makes no sense.
By itself, this is just mildly irritating, but instantly after hearing the prophecy I was expecting a woman to kill him. And what woman do we have waiting in the wings, a proven murderer AND conveniently losing her sanity at that very second? I still think it would have been a better fit for the prophecy and more tragic for Lady Macbeth to kill both Macbeth and herself.