1. King Duncan was a easily persuaded man who would act on instinct and gut. He was also a good leader in Shakespeare view. (1.4.11-14) "There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face:/ He was a gentleman on whom I built/ An absolute trust." This shows that he may have built up to much security around this one man who was in the end a traitor. He was to trusting and so it came back to him in a bad way. Duncan was also seen as a great and generous leader. One example of this is, "The King's a-bed. He hath been in unusual pleasure, and this diamond he greets your wife withal by the name of most kind hostess" (2.1.11-15). This shows just how generous he was. Not only did he give Macbeth a new title, but he graced his family with a visit and gave Lady Macbeth a diamond to show his appreciation.
2. Machiavelli would in general say that Macbeth was a good leader. one of Machiavelli's quotes that Macbeth shows well is "The ends justify the means." This quote seems to not only reflect Macbeth's actions, but most of the play as well. One example is in order for Macbeth to become king he would have to kill the king. Thus proving that he fits the quote. Another quote that Macbeth uses is "It is not essential that a Prince have all good qualities, but it is most essential that he should seem to have them" Macbeth does this a lot in the play. For example when he must pretend that he is warm and welcoming to the king when he actually wants to kill him. He also does this when he said that in a fit of rage he killed the guards, He is seeming to have the quality of loyalty to the king when in fact he only did it to further his own cause.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Shakespeare's Macbeth
1. In Shakespeare's play Macbeth appearance is more important than reality. Many of the characters in this play are consumed with appearance and disregard the reality that is around them. The three weird sisters are apparitions and so that means that they are making people concentrate on appearance instead of the reality that is in front of the. "All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, the thane of Glamis!/ All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!/ All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter." (1.3.48-50) these three lines may only be one small part of the play, but they are used to make Macbeth begin to see a blur between the line of reality and appearance. He is beginning to see that perhaps his appearance is something that is becoming more important that the reality around him.
2. In the play Macbeth the role of women and men is clearly portrayed that women are the obedient and gentle beings and that the men do the fighting and more "manly" things. "Come, you spirits/ that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ and fill me from the crown to the top-full of/ direst cruelty" (1.5.39-42) in this line Macbeth's wife is talking and asking the spirits to give her a man's soul so that she may murder and hurt. You can see that Shakespeare was conveying his feeling that women are docile and the men are the dominating of the genders. As you can see that back when Shakespeare was writing this women were not expected to be able to do anything but domestic jobs. This transferred into his writing as there are several different examples of this later in his text.
3. In the beginning of the play Macbeth you see loyalty in Macbeth's wife. She is willing to help kill the king because she wants her husband to being and she herself wants to be queen. But she does not give up on him even when he gets unnerved and doesn't seem like he is going to do it. she sticks by him and makes sure he is going to go through with it. Also when you look at it it would seem that Macbeth is following the general idea of Machiavelli that you should be loyal to yourself for your the only one you can trust. You never know who might turn on you and so Macbeth kills many people who he believes might turn on him.
2. In the play Macbeth the role of women and men is clearly portrayed that women are the obedient and gentle beings and that the men do the fighting and more "manly" things. "Come, you spirits/ that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ and fill me from the crown to the top-full of/ direst cruelty" (1.5.39-42) in this line Macbeth's wife is talking and asking the spirits to give her a man's soul so that she may murder and hurt. You can see that Shakespeare was conveying his feeling that women are docile and the men are the dominating of the genders. As you can see that back when Shakespeare was writing this women were not expected to be able to do anything but domestic jobs. This transferred into his writing as there are several different examples of this later in his text.
3. In the beginning of the play Macbeth you see loyalty in Macbeth's wife. She is willing to help kill the king because she wants her husband to being and she herself wants to be queen. But she does not give up on him even when he gets unnerved and doesn't seem like he is going to do it. she sticks by him and makes sure he is going to go through with it. Also when you look at it it would seem that Macbeth is following the general idea of Machiavelli that you should be loyal to yourself for your the only one you can trust. You never know who might turn on you and so Macbeth kills many people who he believes might turn on him.
Who is Machiavelli
1. Niccolò Machiavelli was a political philosopher, but he was also a poet, a musician and a screen write. He lived in the Renaissance time in Italy, born in Florence in 1469 and grew up in a politically confusing time. When he was 25 he entered into the world of politics himself by becoming a clerk, In the same year, 1494 he got a spot on the council that delt with diplomatic and military matters. His work brought him to the royal courts of France and Aragon and to the Pope's seat in Rome. Cesare Borgia, on whom Machiavelli is believed to have partially based The Prince, came to power in 1502. Machiavelli died on 21 June 1527, but had written the Prince in 1513, but published posthumously in 1532 five years after his death. Machiavelli wrote the book The Prince to show people what a leader needs to do to gain and maintain political power while being attacked by other foreign powers.
3. "The ends justify the means."- The Prince by Machiavelli. Today this advice would be frowned upon by our culture today. We are widely based around the well being of others when it comes to leading them in almost anything. The reason for this is because we are taught a a young age that team work is good and that always working by yourself won't work. Even though we do tend to watch out for ourselves we also end up watching out for others in the process to get ourselves ahead. When he says the end justifies the mean this could mean several different things, such as lying to others, wiping out a culture, or stealing. Many would say this advice is bad or that they don't like it because it could end up leading people in the wrong direction.
4. "A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise." I believe that this would have been a good quote for the Pizarro to know because it would help him to know what he could do against the Inca's. Because the Inca's seemed to already know how to be deceitful and cunning. If Pizarro had been more cunning and on top of his game he may not have needed to kill all the Incas. He eventionaly used his tatical skills and smarts to defeat the Incas, but if he had know the quote from the start he would not have needed to fight.
2. "The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him." I believe that this quote from Machiavelli's The Prince has the most relevance to leadership today. If you think about it humans naturally look at a person and see what they are like by the people they hang out with. Many people will hang out with others who have similar interest as them and even if their intelligence is not the same they will probably have a close intelligence level. Take the stereotypical example of jocks, not so bright, but very athletic. If they all hang out together and you want to figure out what one of them is like, all you do is look at the people they hang out with. People's nature usually leads them to finding things out about others in an indirect way. So they go around and talk to the people who hang out with the person that they are assessing and gain information about them that way. This is the way Machiavelli would suggest learning information about a person because it does not arise suspicion and you learn valuable information on that person.
3. "The ends justify the means."- The Prince by Machiavelli. Today this advice would be frowned upon by our culture today. We are widely based around the well being of others when it comes to leading them in almost anything. The reason for this is because we are taught a a young age that team work is good and that always working by yourself won't work. Even though we do tend to watch out for ourselves we also end up watching out for others in the process to get ourselves ahead. When he says the end justifies the mean this could mean several different things, such as lying to others, wiping out a culture, or stealing. Many would say this advice is bad or that they don't like it because it could end up leading people in the wrong direction.
4. "A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise." I believe that this would have been a good quote for the Pizarro to know because it would help him to know what he could do against the Inca's. Because the Inca's seemed to already know how to be deceitful and cunning. If Pizarro had been more cunning and on top of his game he may not have needed to kill all the Incas. He eventionaly used his tatical skills and smarts to defeat the Incas, but if he had know the quote from the start he would not have needed to fight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)