Macbeth Essays (1006 words) - Characters In Macbeth,

Macbeth Still it cried, Sleep no more! to all the house. Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more. (II, ii, 50-52) Sleep is one of the most powerful and most used words in the play Macbeth. Its use and implications span between both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Through sleep you can see the changes that go on between the two aforementioned characters. Sleep in the play is used as a way to show how the characters evolve and transform into that which is most feared by those characters. Before the witches prophesize to Macbeth they vow to whip up a storm and destroy the ship of a sailor. Interestingly the witches do not say that they want to murder the sailor. Instead, they plan to destroy his sleep: I'll drain him dry as hay; Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his pent-house lid. He shall live a man forbid. (I, iii, 19-22). For the witches the inability to sleep is symbolic of a tormented soul. The man who cannot sleep lives in chaos, night is day and day is night. To the characters in Macbeth sleep is the, chief nourisher in life's feast (II, ii, 48) without it one becomes mad. Characters invoke the word sleep as a symbol of order. But in the play sleep is also a complicated term because it represents a character's control over their lives. When characters cannot control their sleeping habits they have entered into the realm of chaos where the fires burn and the cauldrons bubble. Macbeth, his arms soaked in blood after murdering Duncan turns to Lady Macbeth. Surprisingly some of his first words to Lady Macbeth are, Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep,/ Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care, (II, ii, 44-45). Macbeth's first admonition that his decision to murder Duncan has destroyed him, is his recognition that he will no longer be able to sleep. Racked by guilt Macbeth instantly recognizes that the order around him is turned upside down. Macbeth's rule is of darkness for Scotland and inner turmoil for himself. Ross speaking to an old man describes Macbeth's Scotland by saying, Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame,/ That darkness does the face of earth entomb,(II, iv, 9-10). Macbeth, like the owl, both hunts and rules by the shadow of night. And like the owl he cannot sleep at night. He is a creature of chaos. Lady Macbeth as she is eaten up by guilt and goes mad is robbed of the ability to control her sleeping habits. She is robbed not like Macbeth of the ability to sleep but the ability to stay awake. Lady Macbeth lives in a surreal world where she writes, washes, and walks all in a fast sleep. The doctor who attends her before her death describes it by saying: I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed. Yet all this while in a most fast sleep. (V, i, 4-7). The use of the word sleep to describe Lady Macbeth's actions is fascinating for Lady Macbeth before her death is not really sleeping as much as living in a hallucination state. The fact that her altered state is referred to as sleeping is not really true to the definition of sleep. Sleep is usually defined as a time for the body to rejuvenate. But Lady Macbeth was not in a state of rejuvenation when she slept. To her sleep was the torment that being awake was to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth's sleep is representative of the portrayal of a woman's place in the play Macbeth. As a woman her guilty conscience makes her sleep. Her madness makes her benign. Lady Macbeth is the prototype of the madwoman in the attic who lives in a state of semi-sleep, mumbling to herself, and washing her hands. She poses no threat to anyone but herself. Her madness makes her less dangerous then when she was in control of her senses. In contrast the inner chaos of Macbeth causes him to be awake. His madness makes him

A Writer Can be Anyone or Anything

A Writer Can be Anyone or Anything A Writer Can be Anyone or Anything A Writer Can be Anyone or Anything By Maeve Maddox I attended a writers workshop session at which a minor, but much-published author warned participants against creating POV (point of view) characters of the opposite sex. According to her writing philosophy, a woman writer should create only female POV characters and men, male POV characters. Thats not to say that the POV characters cant interact with characters of the opposite sex. Her books contain characters of both sexes. She just insists that POV must be limited to the gender and general life experiences of the writer. A woman whose only work experience has been that of office work, for example, has no business writing from the POV of a male brain surgeon. I reacted strongly against her attempt to place such an extraordinary limitation on writers of fiction. Restricting writers to the POV of persons only like themselves makes as much sense as it would to restrict readers to reading books about characters most like themselves. The whole point of creating fiction is to enable people to expand their experience of life. In the writers imagination there is neither male nor female. Some writers will enter into alternate minds better than others, but the success of the attempt will depend upon talent and technique, not gender. The following successful titles wouldnt exist if their authors had followed such a limiting dictum as write only from your own point of view and personal experience: Silas Marner by George Eliot (Marian Evans) woman writing from POV of poor male weaver Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden American man writing from Japanese womans POV A Great Deliverance, By Elizabeth George American woman writing from British male detectives POV And Id be especially sorry never to have read these books in which the authors cross the species barrier to tell their great and moving stories: Watership Down by Richard Adams Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson Black Beauty by Anna Sewell Gayneck the Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji Bambi by Felix Salten Charlottes Web by E.B. White (Yes, I cried when a spider died.) Hurray for the writers imagination! Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Religious Terms You Should Know40 Synonyms for â€Å"Different†Preposition Mistakes #3: Two Idioms

Philosophies of leadership Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Philosophies of leadership - Movie Review Example Most viewers during that time talked about the state of Mississippi as the most racially segregated and violent state in the US. These two aspects of racial segregation and prejudiced violence are clearly prevalent in the movie Woodstock. Philosophy of Nonviolence Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement came up with an idea of nonviolence as a weapon to destroy institutionalized racial segregation, isolation, and inequality. The same leaders later followed principles of Martin Luther King Jr. in restructuring rules of nonviolence and passive resistance. The civil rights leaders had taken long to realize that racial discrimination would not go any further to maintaining their power and authority over the black population. Consequently, they conceived notions of counteractive mechanisms regarding the violent state of affairs in 1960s. According to Warner (2004), advocates of nonviolence thought that some pivots might be made if the needed number of people from the Southwest could be invit ed and integrated into the struggle. Philosophy of Hippi Subculture Based on the movie, one can acknowledge the fact that Hippi culture propagated liberalism in the society. The hippie code said "Do your own thing any time you feel like and from anywhere†. In addition, principles of the same subculture asserted that one was free to change to anything but leaving the rest of the society in its natural form. This philosophy accorded philosophers the right to express their thought patterns to whoever was willing to give a listening ear. Based on this philosophy, the movie demonstrates that approximately 100,000 people moved into San Francisco during summer time in search of change. The media also played a significant role in casting a view on the Haight-Ashbury district and popularizing the "hippie" label. As time went by, pressure to change rose, and the hippies merged their support for values of love, unity and peace. In most cases, those subscribing to hippie ideologies were b lamed to being lazy drug addicts with unconventional permissive activities. Therefore, this philosophy in subject was instrumental in influencing leaders to orchestrate and control Woodstock. The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) This philosophical construct, which led to ideas of fighting against apartheid regime that took place in South Africa during the mid-1960s, emerged out of the political vacuum created by jailing advocates of African National and Pan African Congress. After the leadership orchestrated Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, Black Consciousness Movement stepped in with an effort to distribute ideas of social freedom and political consciousness. This philosophy was against the Whites’ skewed conduct towards blacks in social, economic and even political platforms. Through concerted efforts of advocates, Black Consciousness Movement won substantial support from ordinary black men. Rogan (2011) says that despite conspicuous disagreements during the inception stages , the movement later emerged as an influential philosophical association. Philosophy of Feminism, It started in the late 1960s with an aim of ending women isolation in the society. Prior to development of this ideology, women were only to sit at their husbands homes and take care of their household chores. In addition, the female gander was charged with the responsibility of bearing and raising children. In this regard, feminism was put in place as a means of supporting and promoting women’