The End of Macbeth

Macbeth does not end on a happy note. To say the least. We find Macbeth in his castle at Dunsinane with the forces of Macduff and Malcolm encroaching. He is arrogantly unafraid of the armies, assure of the witches' prophecies that "none of woman born” can harm him and that he will stay in power "[t]ill Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane.” Little does he know, Malcolm has instructed the members of his army to carry boughs from trees in the surrounding forest as they approach Macbeth's castle. When Macbeth realizes that the witches' prophesy is coming true, he loses a bit of his self-assuredness, but still fights viciously against the invaders. Somewhere in the chaos, Lady Macbeth dies and Macbeth gives his famous "She should have died hereafter" speech. Soon after, Macduff encounters Macbeth, reveals that he was not actually born from a mother, and kills Macbeth. Malcolm then becomes king. The end.

--Wald der Hitzig

Research on Lovecraft

Our blog assignment tonight was to talk about some of the research we have done on our projects. As I mentioned previously, I have already accumulated a decent collection of sources, comprising of books, articles, and a documentary. To begin my research, I have already read a few short stories by H. P. Lovecraft, including "The Call of Cthulhu," "Dagon," and "The Outsider." I have also begun reading one of my articles on Lovecraft that discusses him from a philosophical standpoint. All in all, my research is going well so far.

--Wald der Häuslich

Planning of the Project

We we instructed in class today to blog about the planning of our projects. So far, I have, of course, made my calendar outlining the different due dates of things. I have also already obtained several good sources on my topic, H.P Lovecraft, including a complete collection of his fiction; several articles concerning Lovecraft's life, philosophy, and work; and a documentary on him. I also may schedule an interview with Matthew Banther, who knows a great deal about my topic. I may not necessarily be able to cite him as a source, but I will at least get a lot of information from such an interview. Hopefully, by being able to plan out when parts of the project are due myself, I will be able to complete this paper without too much stress.

--Wald der Hemmungslos

The Emotions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red. 

After Macbeth has killed Duncan, he is horrified at both the literal and figurative blood on his hands. He declares that not even all the water in the oceans can wash the the blood off: if he were to try, he would only turn the oceans red. Lady Macbeth nonchalantly dismisses his concern, stating that "A little water clears us of this deed: / How easy is it, then!" This exchange once more emphasizes the contrast between Macbeth and his wife. Macbeth is timid and utterly wracked with guilt, yet his wife is blasé and merely interested in eliminating the immediate evidence that might result in them getting caught.

--Wald der Kampfbereit

The Dagger of the Mind

The "dagger of the mind" speech is given by Macbeth right before he kills Duncan. He describes seeing a floating dagger before him, with the blade pointed toward Duncan and the handle toward him. Macbeth tries to reach out and grab the dagger, but he cannot touch it, stating that "...[his] eyes are made fools o' the other senses." He also observes blood on this imaginary dagger, a motif that will recur throughout the rest of the play. As he draws his real daggers, Macbeth fearfully and reluctantly follows through with the murder, beginning his slow descent into madness.
I watched a version of this section of Macbeth on YouTube where Ian McKellen gives the speech, and it certainly gave me more of an idea of what was actually going on than just reading the script. Macbeth is in the dark, grasping for a nonexistent dagger before pulling out a real one, all the while ranting about whether or not he should believe what he is seeing. The gravity of the scene is difficult to understand from just words on a page, but when watching a live rendition, one can clearly see Macbeth's transition into madness. As he is giving his monologue, his voice gets higher and faster until he is in a frenzy. It is in this state that Macbeth kills Duncan.

--Wald der Schartig

Continuing Macbeth and the Project Calendars

Today in class, we read a section of Macbeth in which the nature and character of Lady Macbeth is explored. Unlike her husband, who is cautious to the point of being meek, Lady Macbeth is vehemently power-hungry and brash. She is very myopic in her desire to overthrow King Duncan, and eventually taunts her husband into actually going through with the murder. She famously tells Macbeth to "unsex me here," and demands that he not view her as just a female. Lady Macbeth tosses aside her femininity in order to carry out the brutalities of homicide and treason.

We have also begun to work on creating our own calenders for when different parts of our projects are due. My calender is done. I have arranged it in a way that encourages me to do the initial reading, research, and thinking relatively early, leaving me with a lot of time to actually write the paper itself, as this is the part of the process that typically takes me the most time by far. I have picked H. P. Lovecraft for sure, and I have already acquired several good resources on him (partially with the help of Ms. Walton, as per your recommendation).

--Wald der Trotzig

The Beginning of Macbeth

Today in class we began our reading of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. So far in the play, the three witches have cast a spell, Macbeth has fended off some Irish invaders and won the title of Thane of Cawdor, and Macbeth has met the witches, where they told him that he would on day be king. Macbeth is rather apprehensive about receiving this information, faced with the ambivalence of the current king, Duncan, being a good friend of his and the implanted seed of desire for power. I am very glad that we are reading this work aloud in class. I find that it is nearly impossible to get anything out of Shakespeare with reading it aloud. I myself have the joy and honor of reading the part of Macbeth. So far into the story, it is not my favorite Shakespeare work, but it is not my least favorite either. It is difficult this early in the plot to detect the overall themes of the play, but so far, I see potential themes possibly including the dangers of greed, hunger for power, female domination, and/or corruption.

--Wald der Kahlköpfig

The New Project Assigned

Today in class, we were assigned a long-term research project of our choice. Or so I've heard. Unfortunately, due to my having missed this class to perform at the WCU Spanish conference. As I understand it, we are allowed to pick any topic of our choosing, so long as it relates to American literature in some way. The subject of our paper can be an author, a poet, a genre, or even a book if it is heavy enough. At the moment, I think I would like to do my project on H. P. Lovecraft, Charles Sanders Peirce, Pragmatism as a school of thought, or William James. I hope to do considerably better on this paper than the last one.

--Wald der Pragmatisch