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Description:

This video summarizes the Shakespearean play Macbeth. Two major forces are at play in the story: witches’ prophecies and Macbeth’s demanding wife, Lady Macbeth. If you take out one of these forces, would the outcome of the play have changed? Did Macbeth ever have a chance of avoiding becoming a murdered murderer?

Author:

Author / Shakespeare - William Shakespeare

Language:

English Language

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Transcript

00:00
Macbeth, a la Shmoop. Try not to lose your head.
00:11
Macbeth is married to a... strong female figure.
00:17
She sorta makes Mothra look like a slightly irritating pest.
00:24
Lady Macbeth, one of the greatest villains in literature...
00:27
... knows what she wants. She urges the man of the house to take action

00:35
and start lopping off heads so he can become king...
00:41
Of course, things don't turn out so great for Macbeth in the end.
00:47
But we wonder... would his situation have been any better if he didn't have a wife who
00:52
was hitting the crazy pills? Well, for the purposes of this story, we have
00:56
to assume that prophecies are a real thing...
00:59
It is prophesied by the witches that Macbeth will become the King of Scotland.
01:07
Which means that, even if he hadn't started whacking people...
01:10
...he eventually would have been wearing that crown.
01:13
The only reason he... hurried the process along...
01:15
...was that his wife was getting antsy.
01:18
Then again, the witches later prophesied that he had to... among other things... watch out
01:25
for Macduff...
01:26
...the guy that ends up sending him to his maker.
01:36
But could this prophesy have been avoided if Macbeth hadn't fouled up in the first place?
01:44
What reason would Macduff have had to be upset if Macbeth hadn't killed his entire family?
01:53
Or... was Lady Macbeth such a dark-hearted person and such a poor influence that her
02:04
husband would have come to a tragic end regardless?
02:06
Her power-hungriness seemed to come before all else...
02:10
...maybe she would have been his undoing whether there had been any prophesies or not.
02:15
So what do you think?
02:15
If Lady Macbeth had been more patient and Macbeth hadn't gone on his little killing
02:20
spree... would he have remained in one piece?
02:24
Was he doomed no matter what because of the witches' prophesies?
02:28
Or was he doomed the instant he married a complete loony toon?
02:33
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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