Challenging Conventions

For my social norms project, I carried an American Girl doll (and dressed like it) around school for a whole day. I also carried the doll around the mall, but I didn't have any pictures of that. 

Challenging Conventions

Challenging Conventions

Challenging Conventions

I was able to participate in 2 challenging conventions projects: one with Maeve and one with Madi Henry.

First, to challenge conventions, Madi and I sat at the sandwich bar during lunch and ate our lunches there. We got many weird and confused looks from kids who were walking to clear their plates, and multiple teachers and students went up to us to ask what we were doing. In particular, Mr. Baker said, "Challenging conventions?" and Mr. Hild said, "Nice lunch seat!" Also, many of our friends at other lunch tables took videos of us, and it was an embarrassing but also hilarious experience. Sadly, it had to end before lunch was over- about 20 minutes into our experiment, a lunch worker told us that the sandwich bar wasn't a table and that we had to leave. Nonetheless, it was a really fun experience!

The second experiment I did was with Maeve, and we walked around West Hartford Center and Blueback Square wearing the same sweatshirt! It took a long time to actually get into the sweatshirt and get used to walking around, but after that, we acted as normal as possible and went shopping at stores including Charming Charlie's, Whole Foods, Crate and Barrel, and Starbucks. So many people stared at us while we were crossing the street or walking down the sidewalk, and a bunch of people commented on our appearance, either complimenting us or making a joke. It was probably one of the craziest and funniest things I've ever done!

Macbeth's Fate

As I was trying to come up with an idea as to what to write for this blogpost, I couldn't help but wonder that if the witches never told Macbeth his fate, would he have become so obsessed with having it all play out? This thought then led me remember the Fates from Greek Mythology. Like the witches, the Fates were described as ugly hags, and were magical, you could say, deities who determined your fate. While they were not gods, they were powerful in the sense that even gods were powerless to stop them for their actions, such as ending one's life. Considering that even gods were unable to change their fate, it leads me to believe that, while Macbeth's path was not the cleanest one,  there was no way for him to go against his destiny.

What is Macbeth driven by?

• What drove Macbeth to treason? Was it the witches and their prophecy? Was it Lady Macbeth and her manipulation? Or was it Macbeth himself and his hunger for power? I think Macbeth would not have acted in such a treasonous nature if he had not received the prophecy from the witches. We see no real corruption in Macbeth previous to the prophecy, or even immediately after. When told he has been given the title of the Thane of Cawdor, he asks why he has been given borrowed robes. When left to ponder the news he then became consumed with power and status. I think If he had never been given the prophecy he never would have been driven to murder.

Paradoxes in Macbeth

After finishing reading Shakespeare's play Macbeth, I remembered how on the first day of looking at the text we briefly touched upon paradoxes within this play. flipping to the first pages of the play (where I wrote the definition) I began looking for some. Within the first page I stumbled across line 12 of Act 1, scene 1: "fair is foul, and foul is fair". While this qualifies as a paradox, how does it relate to the play? and how did it, if at all, foreshadow any of the events that occurred in this tragedy. First off, this paradox means that while some things may appear to be great (fair), they can really be concealing their evil (foul). From this, the immediate example that came to mind was of how this paradox directly correlates with King Duncan and Macbeth. While by merely looking at him and his achievements, Duncan came to the conclusion that Macbeth was this amazing war hero (fair). However, with absolutely no suspicion on Duncan's part, Macbeth show his evil capability (foul) to kill him and claim the throne. From this small paradoxical phrase that kicks off the play, Shakespeare is able to build an entire play of this simple, yet critical motif.

Out, Out by Robert Frost and Macbeth

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/53087 This is the link to the poem

While reading Macbeth, I realized that there are numerous themes, quotes, and character traits that modern writers, artists, and directors take inspiration from. With all these options to explore, I decided to compare a poem to the play. ‘Out, Out’ by Robert Frost is a poem that includes events and a character that can be related to Lady Macbeth in Act 5. (Just for some basic background information) ‘Out, Out’ is a short poem that harshly and artistically tells a story of a boy cutting wood with a saw and accidentally cutting off his hand. The story takes place in the mountains of Vermont, so unfortunately, a doctor cannot get to the boy quickly enough to help him, and he dies. I think the most obvious similarity that shows that Robert Frost is inspired by Macbeth is the title. The phrase out, out is used by Macbeth when he says, “Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow,”(Act 5, Scene 5, 23-24) I think that this line can be connected to the poem because Macbeth is saying that life is over quickly, and in this poem a young boy loses his life quickly and the experience is over and done being described in a short poem. Lady Macbeth also says out, out when she says while sleepwalking, "Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!" (Act 5, Scene 1, 34) Another resemblance that this poem has to Macbeth is that in both, a doctor is unable to help the injured/sick person. In the poem, the doctor can not save the boy and in Macbeth, the doctor can not help Lady Macbeth. Also, each character that is hurt for different reasons, is hurt because they have taken on a task that isn’t normally expected of them (in society). The boy in “Out, Out” was a “big boy Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart.” Lady Macbeth, by planning and encouraging the killings of multiple people in order to gain power was doing something that was (as the poem said for the boy) “a man’s work.” Another connection that I made between the two pieces is that in both, it seems as if the deaths of these characters is not taken as seriously as it should be and the people around them continue living their lives with other things prioritized. In Macbeth, after Lady Macbeth dies, the other characters are distracted by the threat of an attack from English soldiers and aren’t sad. Very similarly, the boy’s death in Out, Out is not taken seriously. This can be seen by the other character’s reactions to his death, “And they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.” Robert Frost’s poem is symbolic of Lady Macbeth's situation in Act 5 for these reasons.

Biggie and Macbeth

One person I would compare to Macbeth from modern times is Christopher Wallace, more commonly known as the Notorious BIG or Biggie Smalls. Macbeth rose to the top by doing whatever was necessary to succeed and by having incredible ambition and talent as a warrior. Biggie shared all of these characteristics. Like how Macbeth killed and betrayed people standing in his way, Biggie committed numerous crimes in order to gain notoriety and respect, like selling crack, beating people, and robberies. Like how Macbeth was indisputably a great warrior, Biggie was truly one of the greats, but through feuds and other pernicious acts he rose to fame quicker than he could have otherwise. By starting feuds with other rappers and producers like Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight, Biggie became a king in a sense. In what is perhaps the most famous picture of him, he is seen wearing a golden crown, showing how in many ways he was a king. Small's biggest rival, Tupac Shakur, was killed in a drive by shooting in which Biggie was implicated. Much like Macbeth killing Duncan, Biggie had to kill another king to be on top. Also like Macbeth, once in power Biggie became paranoid and violent. Macbeth did violent and foolhardy things like kill Macduff's family and Banquo, and Biggie committed similar acts like assaulting fans and possessing large amounts of illegal weapons. Biggie's end was also similar to Macbeth's. The east west rivalry was what spurred Tupacs death, and as an act of retaliation Biggie was killed in a drive by, believed to be done by a member of west coast scene. Biggie also had lyrical similarities to lines from the play. In "Who Shot Ya", he says, "Everything around me two Glock 9s, Any motherfcker whispering about mines, And I'm Brooklyn's finest, You rewind this, Bad Boy's behind this." This seems like a very forward admission of guilt in the death of Tupac, but due to his fame and status Biggie was untouchable except for by violence. Lady Macbeth, her mental status deteriorating much like Biggie's due to paranoia, says, "What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?" (5.1.42), demonstrating how her mental status is similar to that of Biggie after the hit of Tupac. Obviously the stories of these two individuals do not line up perfectly, but the same motivations and fears drove the two men to do the horrible and great things that they did, showing the consistency of human nature throughout time.

Macbeth Similar to “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

Okay so this is quite a stretch, but when I was reading Macbeth I couldn't help but recognize the similarities between Macbeth and the character in the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart." The first thing that stood out to me was when Macbeth says "The bell invites me" reminded me of how Poe kept saying "louder, louder, louder," (the heartbeat he kept hearing.) Another thing that was similar was how they were both extremely paranoid after they killed someone. Macbeth was going crazy thinking that Malcolm and Donalbain would catch on to him and Lady Macbeth says that he needs to stop thinking about it or he will go mad. In Tell Tale Heart, the whole beginning part was him in denial about being a mad man. He says "So you think that I am mad? A mad man cannot plan," which also reminds me of Macbeth because he was continuously getting mad, yet he was still able to plan the death of Banquo. Macbeth's dagger was kind of like the old mans eye. One last similarity I saw was when Poe says "There was no reason for what I did I did not hate the old man." This reminded of how Macbeth did not hate Duncan nor Banquo yet he killed them both.. sus. 

Shakespotter

Recently I was talking to one of my friends outside of KO, and I mentioned that I was reading Macbeth in my English class. She said that her sister had told her something about Harry Potter and Macbeth being really similar. I like to think of myself as a true Potterhead and seeing that we were reading Macbeth in English, I had to investigate the matter. Upon researching the topic, I discovered that Macbeth is actually J.K. Rowling’s favorite Shakespeare play and she implemented a lot of parts of Macbeth into the Harry Potter series (including the movies!). After reading this, I can now see a lot of parallels with Macbeth, one of the most significant being Harry’s prophecy. This is something that has actually been discussed by Rowling herself. She says, “What if Voldemort never heard the prophecy? It’s the Macbeth idea…If Macbeth hadn’t met the witches, would he have killed Duncan? Would any of it have happened? Is it fated or did he make it happen?” On her website she referred to Macbeth again when talking about Harry’s prophecy: “The prophecy (like the one the witches make to Macbeth) becomes the catalyst for a situation that would never have occurred if it had not been made.” I definitely didn’t think about that when I was reading the books or even after. Relating more to the movies, I found out is that the director for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban actually came up with an idea for a song in the movie with the majority of its lines quoted straight from Macbeth Act IV Scene 1. I’ll put the video down below. Not only this, but the poster for the same move (below) also nudges at a line in Macbeth. There are a lot more parallels and a lot of them are discussed on this great website called "Shakespotter" and if you're interested in reading more about the parallels or you just like Macbeth or Harry Potter, I highly suggest you go read some of their posts. I'll put the link to that below too. ALSO, I just found out that the actor who plays King Duncan in the Fassbender version of Macbeth plays Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (MIND BLOWN). 

Shakespotter: https://shakespotter.wordpress.com/

    

Caligula and Macbeth

Emperor Gaius Caesar, also known as Caligula, and Macbeth share many similar ruling styles. For those who do not know who Caligula is, he is a well known Roman emperor who succeeded Tiberius. Like Macbeth, Caligula is depicted as being an unpredictable/panicky ruler. Both rulers also become very anxious and worried, when challenged. As a result, they believe eliminating their opponents will resolve their problems, as well as protect their power/throne. Throughout Macbeth, we notice that whenever the power/throne of Macbeth is threatened, Macbeth becomes very worried and feels he must kill anyone that opposes or gets in his way (specifically seen after he kills Duncan and is driven mad). For example, Macbeth felt it was necessary that he kill Banquo and his sons, given that they were believed to have been the heirs to his throne and could have possibly been threats to Macbeth. Additionally, Caligula, like Macbeth, is known for being a tyrannical ruler. In the play Macbeth, Macbeth is constantly referred to as a tyrant. This is because, while he was ruling Scotland, he was requesting for everyone to be killed, and as a result, was spreading illness and fear all over the country. 

Macbeth and The Lion King

As I was reading Macbeth, I began to realize how similar the story is to "The Lion King". In both of these stories, power and the want of power are constant themes. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth were willing to do whatever it took to gain power. In "The Lion King", Scar's brother Mufasa is the king. Scar has always been jealous of his brother, so he will do anything to gain the power, including killing him. Macbeth kills Duncan to gain power, and Mufasa kills his brother. Both of these events had a large effect on the people (or animals) around them. In the end, it wasn't just about gaining power. Much bigger problems were sparked by both of these characters' betrayal. Macduff fights Macbeth to take the throne away from him because he is a tyrant. Just like how Simba and Scar get into a fight because the throne does not rightfully belong to Scar.

Hamilton and Macbeth

While reading act 5 scene 5 of Macbeth, I was very impressed with how Shakespeare was able to express Macbeth's negative feelings on life after Lady Macbeth killed herself as Macduff and Malcolm's army approached his castle. On page 177, when Macbeth expresses how he feels after finding out Lady Macbeth has died, I was surprised to read the quote, "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day" (5.5.21-22), because that is a line from a song called "Take a Break" in Hamilton! However, while Macbeth uses this quote to show how life is meaningless after his wife commits suicide, Hamilton uses this quote with a different meaning while writing a letter to Angelica. In this letter, he says, "My dearest Angelica, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day. I trust you'll understand the reference to another Scottish tragedy without my having to name the play." He is expressing how his life is a tragedy much like the tragedy of Macbeth, for his efforts to enforce a financial system are unsuccessful. Angelica tells him to take a break, but Hamilton is too determined to quit. This shows how the same quote from Macbeth is used in Hamilton, yet it carried a very different meaning.

Cash Lady Macbeth Ousside, Howbow Dah

Lady Macbeth is a strong character, no doubt. In fact, she's even stronger than Macbeth in some ways in the first two acts. But is she mostly just mouthing off?
In recent weeks, a video clip from the Dr. Phil show has become immensely popular online. It features a 13-year-old by the name of Danielle whose mother wants to hand her over to the authorities for being absolutely out of control. Danielle hits her mother and steals cars, and is unashamed and loudmouthed when it comes to how "bad" she is. This sort of delinquent behaviour is unfortunately a staple of talk shows nowadays, but the distinguishing feature of this particular Dr. Phil episode is when Danielle turns to the audience at large and screams to them what sounds like, "cash me ousside, howbow dah?!?!?" which roughly translates to the English threat, "catch me outside, how about that". She invites a fight with any one of the grown audience and show crew members, and even 'squares up' to her mother at one point. Right then though, her mother says to Dr. Phil, "but this is all mouth, do you see? She's all mouth." When Danielle gets up to argue, she is silenced by Dr. Phil and told to sit down. When asked what her thoughts are on the very likely situation that she will be caught stealing a car and will be tried before a court, she responds that she is too shrewd, too "street-wise" to ever be caught. She'll find her way out of such a situation in no time.
Now, it may seem like a long shot to try and compare Lady Macbeth to Danielle. However, there are some similarities between them if you REALLY think about it. One of their basic characteristics is how gosh darn pushy they are. Lady Macbeth pushes her husband to the point of murder with words of toughness, manlihood, and obligation. In the Dr. Phil clip, Danielle has fiery threats and challenges, no, dares, anyone to come cross her. However, in a follow-up video (not on Dr. Phil, but one that some person recorded then posted on social media), Danielle is leaving the Dr. Phil show after her episode and another girl comes up to her, drags Danielle from the car, and proceeds to fight her. Danielle is "snatched" and gets "dragged", aka she loses very badly. It seems, then, that all her car-stealing history and street wisdom don't count for much when faced with an actual opponent of sorts. Similarly, for all of Lady Macbeth's nipple-plucking, baby-head-smashing fantasies, all she does on the morning of the discovery of Duncan's body is swoon. While Danielle and Lady Macbeth certainly have a wild history and lots o' mouth, neither of them display these traits in real time. So much for cashing ousside, huh.

Strictly Research:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEj8v1hb3Ws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQGF4DUc86s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNpsink2xDw

Banquo's prophesy

After I finished reading, I realized that all of the witches prophesies came true in Macbeth except for the one the said Banquo would never be king (which is true) but his descendants would.  I wondered if I missed something in the book, but when I looked it up I realized something pretty interesting.  As we know, Malcolm becomes king after Macbeth, and he is actually roughly based on Malcolm III of Scotland who happened to have a younger brother Donald III, but neither are descendants of Banquo, nor will the next 19 generations however eventually we get to a dude named James VI who also happened to be James I of England and legend says he was a descendant of Fleance, even though it is basically accepted that Banquo and Fleance probably weren't real.

As interesting as this is (to me at least), I found it on reddit so I'm not sure how accurate it is.

Thinner and Macbeth

A couple of months ago I watched Thinner on Netflix, which is a movie based on the book by horror author Stephen King. In a really condensed summary, a fat, upper class lawyer named Billy Halleck hits a gypsy one night with his car. Since he is friends with the court judge and police officer, he avoids any charges filed against him. As a result of the accident and the manipulated trial, the father of the dead gypsy curses Billy, the judge, and the police officer each with a unique plague. Billy is cursed with becoming thinner and thinner until he is nothing more than skin and bones, so emaciated he will die. At first Billy and his wife are happily surprised by the many pounds he is shedding, oblivious to the fact that a curse was placed on him. However this relief soon turns to fear as Billy can’t stop losing weight no matter how much food he eats and how many doctors he sees. Billy’s rapidly decreasing weight completely turns his life around and he ends up going to great lengths to remove the curse.

   It wasn’t that great of a movie and it definitely creeped me out, but now I see that it has some pretty cool connections to Macbeth. Thinner is kind of like the opposite of Macbeth. Billy’s failure to pay attention while driving and then successful attempt to play the court system shows his corrupt nature, which leads to him receiving the curse and being controlled by supernatural forces. Conversely, in Macbeth the three witches’ prophesy is what leads to Macbeth being consumed by uncontrolled determination and avarice for power.  Similarly, both leading characters, once they learn of the supernatural forces at play in their lives, stop at no ends to either fulfill or undo their "prophecies." For Billy, this means destroying his relationship with his family, wreaking havoc among the gypsy village, and ultimately intentionally killing his wife and then daughter accidentally in order to lift the curse from himself. Likewise, Macbeth becomes a tyrant in order to satisfy the prophecies that the witches told him, becoming a murderer and losing his kingdom, his wife, and eventually his own life. 

   

Sleep No More...

Sherlock and Macbeth

I recently watched Episode 2 of the new season of Sherlock, and I was struck by how similar one scene was to Macbeth's dagger soliloquy, as well as other themes this episode shares with Macbeth.
Some background: John Watson's wife, Mary, was shot in the first episode, and since then, and all throughout this episode, he's been seeing hallucinations of her. When he sees her, her purpose is either to act as his conscious, or to ease the pain of her death. During the end of the episode, John confesses to "Mary" that he cheated on her while she was alive, and we get this shot, which snaps us back to reality
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This shot is quite similar to Patrick Stewart's dagger soliloquy where he also talks to something that isn't there.

These 2 scenes use the same concept to convey 2 different thoughts. Both characters see something they desire, whether it be their wife or a dagger. However Watson uses his hallucination as a way of coping with his wife's death(also, Macbeth hallucinates voices following his murder of Duncan. This is interesting because while Macbeth is directly responsible for Duncan's death, Watson also blames himself for his wife's death, despite not being the killer). Shakespeare uses the hallucination as a way of showing Macbeth's hunger for power.

Watson is not the only one who hallucinates in this episode, though. A major twist in the episode is when it's revealed that Sherlock hallucinated a meeting with a woman who gave him a murder case while on drugs(everything she told him turned out to be true in real life though, which doesn't make sense). This is related to Macbeth because they both carry out real actions based off of fake things. In one variation of Macbeth, he literally follows the floating dagger to where he will murder Duncan. In Sherlock, this fake meeting is what starts him on a real case(And again, all the things the hallucinated woman told him were actually true, which doesn't make sense, but anyway). Another interesting comparison is that Sherlock's hallucination is caused by his desire to solve crimes, while Macbeth's is caused by his desire to commit crimes.

This theme of hallucination as a way of showing feelings and desires is prominent in this episode of Sherlock and the dagger soliloquy

Breaking Macbeth

Macbeth in 2013?





And...if you're already a fan of Breaking Bad, here's a great (but long) montage that shows the full evolution of Walter White over the course of the six seasons.

What is your moral alignment?

These categories and theories of moral alignment come from Dungeons and Dragons, and you can get more information about the categories here.

To go right to the quiz, click here. Remember to comment below on what category you were assigned. Do you think it's accurate?