Shakespeare's "Macbeth" Part 2: Characters and Questions
New Books in Literary Studies
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Macbeth and the Gunpowder Plot
The play keeps us close to Macbeth the whole time. We hear his most intimate thoughts in his speeches and silly liquids. But what we see isn't a demon, it's a man whose demons haunt him. He hears voices, he sees ghosts, and his own thoughts seem to turn against him. Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, he says to his wife after Duncan is dead. After the first murder, Shakespeare doesn't allow Macbeth a moment's peace. There is a pathos about that, a real pathos about it.
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