Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Macbeth act 3 questions

13 comments:

  1. Are lady Macduff and Son trying to get together? Why would they try to do that. Isnt that incest. How is Macduff a traitor. He is going to bring down Macbeth.

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  2. I am not sure how Macduff is a traitor either. Maybe he is a traitor to his family because he fled to England to escape Macbeth. But when Lady Macduff explains to her son why Macduff is dead, she explains that he will be hung, or he already was hung? So if he is dead already, how did he die?

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  3. Macduff is a traitor because he is trying to start a war against Macbeth. As the lord states in Act Three Scene 6,
    "Thither Macduff Is gone to pray the holy king upon his aid To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward, that by the help of these—with Him above to ratify the work—we may again give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,
    Do faithful homage and receive free honors."
    Also, I do not believe Macduff is dead. Otherwise, the witches would not have warned Macbeth to beware the Thane of Fife. Macduff has much more to accomplish in this play. Maybe, like Fleance, Macduff escaped his death to fulfill the witches' prophesy.

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  4. This is turning out to be VERY interesting! This isn't much of a question but more of a wondering on what other people's thoughts are:

    Who do you think the third murderer is? Macbeth only hired two murderers, but looking back at the text, the two murderers ask who the third is and he says that Macbeth hired him, and they go, "Oh well Macbeth is to be trusted" or something of the sort. Peculiar I'd say!

    Another thing: Why did the light go out during the murder? Personally I'm thinking the third murderer is kind of like a double agent, and that maybe he put the light out. He was the first one to ask who did it, and if you look at the side notes then it says that because the light went out, Fleance got away. I may be reading too far into it but what are everyone else's thoughts?

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  5. I think that the third murderer is like a spy, or like you said a double agent. Because it seems silly in my mind for them to introduce the first two together, and then the third one separately if they are all working together. So what I thought is that maybe the third murderer is working for Fleance and so he shut off the light to help him escape, and try to figure out what Macbeth is up to. Who was the person who thought Macbeth was the murderer of Duncan, was it Fleance?

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  6. I'm curious why during the banquet, after Banquo is dead and Macbeth sees his ghost, Lady MAcbeth covers it up first. But then, she and Macbeth start to talk about murder of Banquo and Duncan in front of all the guests. Why is that..?
    Also, I thought that the third murderer was the traitor and snuffed out the light so Fleance could get away. But then the first murderer said something that translates to: "wasn't that what we were supposed to do?"
    So I think the first murderer is the traitor and Macbeth hired the third murderer to keep the other two murderers in line and to make sure they were not traitors.

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  7. I think that the third murderer was actually Macduff in disguise. After all, he wanted nothing more than to take out Macbeth, and this would be the proof he needed that Macbeth was to blame for Duncan's death, and now Banquo's.

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  8. Shakespeare's Macbeth. Two guys did a puppet show of the scene between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth was Barbie and Lady Macbeth was Godzilla. Never have I enjoyed Shakespeare so much. MLIA


    Why can't we do stuff like this?

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  10. Who was the third murderer? Why is Macduff a traitor? I think Macduff is going to kill Macbeth.

    I agree with JD that we should do more like that in class. It could make reading Macbeth way more fun and entertaining.

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  11. I am not quite sure if Macduff is a traitor. It says in the play that Macduff has fled to England to reach Malcom, Duncan's son and rightful heir to the throne, and assemble an army to take down Macbeth and have power given to the rightful person. None of the other characters know that this is the reason he left though so they think he is a traitor.

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  12. @josh f. 2013
    No one knows who the REAL third murderer is. There is speculation that it may in fact be Macbeth himself to make sure that the two murderers actually did it.

    Macduff really is not the traitor here. He is simply trying to defeat Macbeth, the real traitor. Macduff knows that Macbeth should be stopped, because of the power he is manipulating.

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