Reading Journal - Act V.

Act V – Scene I:

·         Lady Macbeth – wash your hands – guilt

·         The guilt has driven her to insanity.

·         Is Lady Macbeth sleep walking? And is she really being visited by Banquo?

·         She has followed her husband into insanity.

·         Lady Macbeth is vulnerable – Macbeth has killed children, therefore if Lady Macbeth has had children and lost them, does she empathise with Macduff’s grief?

·         A woman and family have been killed; Lady Macbeth is now hiding behind her gender at the start of the play, now however she is scared because a woman has died at the hands of Macbeth. The possibility that she could die as well has entered her mind.

·         She questions her character and personality.

·         Another role reversal of Macbeth and his wife.

·         Guilt, remorse, blood and dreams.

·         Macbeth and Lady Macbeth – they fluctuate, one is weak, while the other is storng.

·         Lady Macbeth gains femininity

Act V – Scene II:

·         The Scottish lords discussing  the situation call Macbeth the “tyrant,”

·         The lords also talk about the need for Birnan Wood. 

Act V – scene III:

·         Macbeth boasts proudly that he has nothing to fear from the English - “none of woman born” – gender roles are once again included in the conversation, and the weakness/innocence of women.

·         The doctor tells the king that Lady Macbeth is kept from rest by “thick-coming fancies,” and Macbeth orders him to cure her of her delusions – he’s making the decisions with force, showing that he is string.

·         The audience see Macbeth as how he is describes at the beginning of the play by the Captain, Courageous, strong and a great warrior.

Act V – Scene IV:

·         There is an essence of fear and anxiety in the atmosphere because the men are about to go to war.

·         The men decide that each soldier should cut down a bough of the forest and carry it in front of him as they march to the castle, thereby disguising how many men they have.

Act V – Scene V:

·         “Life is but a walking shadow” – epiphany, futile, philosophic, lack of emotion, apathetic.

·         Logical and practical.

·         Macbeth’s preparing for battle – “beat them backward home” links to Macbeth at the beginning of the play.

·         Lady Macbeth’s death is announced – does he still need her?

·         2 people as one, psychological?

·         Nihilistic – nothing matters to Macbeth anymore.

·         Emotionally numb

·         Existentialist – only you can give it meaning, a focus on one’s self.

·         Macbeth has lost the one person who keeps him strong – companionship.

·         Macbeth manic depressive? – building up?

·         “it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” – questioning superstition and the validity of the witches.

·         He feels he is being used by and toyed with by the witches, he doesn’t see the point.

·         Revelation signifies his fall.

·         Rejection of religion? Denying faith and the afterlife.

·         “Equivocation” – links to the porter – “ringing an alarum bell” – he knows he is going to hell.

·         “There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here” and “I’gin to be aweary of the sun” – don’t play with fire or the supernatural.

·         The gothic is subversively conservative, in making people obey the rules.

·         Non-Christian play, temptation?  

·         Like to Macbeth = blasphemy, the audience admire him – he gets what he wants, and does whatever it takes.

·         We see Macbeth as the tragic hero that we are denied by the witches at the end.

·         He has a bleak epiphany.