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IF we had had class on Friday (instead of being hired out and the rest of us choosing to just hang out), I would have had you do an activity over Lady Macbeth after Act II of Macbeth. I thought you might want to do a piece of this activity on the blog as one of your optional comments. I could see some of you getting into this...
You can link here to read the lyrics to Alanis Morissette's song "Wake Up". What is the speaker's attitude in this song? Does this seem to be more like Macbeth or Lady Macbeth's viewpoint in Acts I and II? Look at the first two lines and line eight. What is the speaker expressing in these lines about the person to whom she is referring? Rewrite the song (or any portion of the song) as if Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth. Keep in mind the states of mind of both characters at this point in the play.
Below is an example:
You want power but only if it's morally taken.
You like to think but only if someone else thinks for you.
No reason that you should be in dismay
No excuse for you not to do the deed today
Cause it's easy to be scared
So much easier than being brave
And if your chance comes and passes by, it shall never come back to you
You like prophecies to be fulfilled but only if you don't play your part
You sulk... and you think...just go do it
There's an obvious attraction
To the choice that risks your chance to be king
There's an obvious coward that I
could not make you finish tonight
Cause it's easy to be scared
So much easier than being brave
And if your chance comes and passes by, it shall never come back to you
To you to you to you to you and to you alone...
There's no jewels, no crown, no bravery anymore
There's a little boy cowering in a corner
Which the sight he cannot bear
There's a bold and proud little girl
Going to commit the act
But it's easy to be scared
So much easier than being brave
And if your chance comes and passes by, it shall never come back to you
To you, to you
Go on kill him go on just do it
Go on kill him go on just do it
Go on get it done before someone sees you
Go on kill him go on just do it
Just do it.
Week of 9/10
5 years ago
10 comments:
This song would be Lady Macbeth's song to Macbeth. The speaker is expressing anger and annoyance at the person that this song is about. This song fits with the emotions Lady Macbeth displayed towards Macbeth. She was annoyed with the fact that Macbeth was too kind hearted to kill the king and lashed out at him telling him he was weak.
You like glory but only if it is won without a fight
You like power but only if someone else gains it for you
You should see the opportunity that lies before you
Take it now or lose everything
-Elizabeth
This is a song from Lady Macbeth to Macbeth. It sums up the feelings that she has for Macbeth. Macbeth was to soft to kill anyone and that is what's being expressed.
I am not creative enough to create an alternative verse off the top of my head, but if I think of one I will post it.
I agree with Elizabeth. I feel that this song expresses the same emotions that were felt by Lady Macbeth towards her husband. Lady Macbeth is obviously annoyed by Macbeth's agonizing over whether or not to kill Duncan. I feel that Alanis Morissette is also very annoyed at the person this song is referring to. Both Macbeth and the subject of this song seem to want something, yet they are not willing to do what it takes to obtain it.
You want power, but only if it doesn't cost you a thing
You want the crown, but only if your hands remain clean
You want the world, but only at another's expense
I also believe that it describes the way that Lady Macbeth felt before Macbeth killed King Duncan. She thought he was a coward and yelled at him about it. The song seems angry and at the end tells him to just kill him over and over. This is exactly like what Lady Macbeth was telling Macbeth when he did not want to kill the king.
I agree with the others that this was Lady Macbeth's song to Macbeth. She is wanting him to become stronger and meaner, and she is going about it in a mean manner. She wants him to want power as bad as she does and do anything it takes to get it.
I think that to some extent that it corresponds very well with the song. It is very much like Lady Macbeths' feeling towards both her and Macbeths' actions. However, the song gives more of a sense of time to it and the characters in Macbeth change much faster.
Carmelita
In Act II of the play, Macbeth is still very weak minded and easily swayed by others around him. His wife especially influences his decisions with her poisonous words, very convincingly paralleled by the lyrics to this song.
When the speaker in the song saids, "You like snow, but only if it's warm. You like rain, but only when it's dry." it corresponds with Lady Macbeth's plea to her husband to grasp for power with two eager hands. She wants him to desire it as much as she does, as Monte pointed out.
Macbeth does not want to get his hands dirty and, as this song points out, it must be done to achieve Lady Macbeth's end. Eventually, when Macbeth becomes more greedy and less worried about trifling issues such as his immortal soul, they become his ends too.
The person described by the speaker lives in a false reality. He/she wants the glory, but does not want to do the work necessary to achieve it. Lines 1, 2, and 8 of the song show that the person is incapable of dealing with hardship or suffering and is looking for the easy, hassle-free path through life. He/she needs to "wake up" from this dream world.
Based on Acts 1 and 2, these lyrics would have been sung by Lady Macbeth to her husband. Macbeth wants the power of a king, but he doesn't want to get his hands dirty and is unable to bring himself to kill Duncan. He is searching for an easy path that will be of no cost to him. He doesn't want to have to bend the rules or his morals. But he is weak and allows himself to be intimidated by Lady Macbeth into doing it. She also helps to make it easier for him. She plans it all, even drugging and framing Duncan's guards.
You say that you want to be king
But what gives you the right?
I only see a lazy, cowardly thing,
Hoping he won't have to fight.
(This is where Macbeth chimes in with "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" from the Lion King.)
You must take control of fate
To gain what you desire.
You can't just sit around and wait,
If power you wish to acquire.
the one right before Jake's is Sarah Barker's. Bye.
I can't say that I'm any good at rewriting songs off of the top of my head, but I am pretty good (darn good, actually) at analyzing them?
The Alanis Morissette song can definitely be seen as a parallel to the feelings expressed/described of Lady Macbeth towards her husband. She is very cutthroat and he is quite the opposite.
In the lines you suggested (1-2 and line 8), it seems that the overall message is that the person it is directed towards doesn't like something, per se, but rather just the THOUGHT of something.
This definitely describes Macbeth. He seems to want a lot of things, but is not quite manly enough to get them himself--until, of course, Lady Macbeth challenges his manhood.
p.s. I think Alanis should be humbled by our uncanny ability to find parallelism in her lyrics to the point of classic Shakespearean literature.
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