A Midsummer Nights' Dream
Any discussion of Shakespeare's life is bound to be loaded with superlatives. He wrote some thirty-seven plays. Taken individually, several of these works are among the world's finest written works; taken collectively, they establish Shakespeare as the foremost literary talent of Elizabethan Age and, even more impressively, as a genius whose creative achievement has never been surpassed in any age by anyone. Shakespeare is a productive writer. From the Romanticism, people recognize that Shakespeare, as a tragedian, is more important than a master of comedy (See Î482). His four great tragedies are Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth.
Macbeth, among the four, is the last one of them. It is a relatively short play, and it is considered to be Shakespearefs darkest work by many scholars. This Scottish tragedy, like numerous pre-Shakespearean plays, its structure follows a standard conventional form: the rise and fall of a great man. The first part of the play follows Macbethfs rise to power, then he has assumed the kingship. The rest of the play follows the disintegration of all he has achieved, a process that culminates with his death and the installment of new king. In Macbeth, Shakespeare offers us a picture of humanity in all its unpredictability, lust for life and glory. We can see the murders penetrate the whole story. And we can also see the guilt-ridden pathology of evil deeds generating more and more evil deeds. An integral part of this thematic web is the playfs most memorable character, Lady Macbeth. Like her husband, Lady Macbethfs ambition for power leads her into insomnia and madness. But while Macbeth responds to the prophecies of the playfs famous trio of witches, Lady Macbeth does even further by figuratively transforming herself into an unnatural, desexualized evil spirit. The current trend of critical opinion is toward an upward reevaluation of Lady Macbeth, who is said should be rehumaned to thoroughly remould herself...
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