Wednesday, March 29, 2006

And now.. a word from our sponsors!

We have a google group for our particular tutorial group in my literature module. As a part of class participation (10% of our continuous assessment), we have to post something on the google group page.. something relevant to the books that we read. This week, it was on the themes and patterns observed in the play "Macbeth". My post kinda went like this... (don't fall asleep while reading it! It is essential that you get through this awake so that you can enjoy the last part!!)

I found the way in which guilt is dealt with in the play quite
interesting. Macbeth and his wife thought that they could get away with
Duncan's murder very easily by putting the blame on the guards of
Duncan. What I found interesting is that they didn't count on their
own inner conscience. Though the deed was easily done, the memory
stayed on for a long time. I liked the way in which the act of washing
hands was used to portray the guilt of the Macbeths in the play.

In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is the one who is more perturbed
by the sight of Duncan's blood on his hands. Lady Macbeth doesn't
seem to be that disturbed and think just a little bit of water will
wash the evidence away.

Macbeth: "What hands are here? Ha: they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No: this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red."
(Act 2, scene 2, 62-66)

Lady Macbeth: "A little water clears us of this deed.
How easy it is then!"
(Act 2, scene 2, 70-71)

These lines show the contrast in the attitude of Macbeth and his wife
with regards to the blood on their hands. But towards the end of the
play, the roles seem to have switched. Macbeth becomes a little more
cold-blooded (in my opinion) and embarks on this murdering spree and
kills Macduff's entire family for no reason. Lady Macbeth goes mad
with the guilt and starts sleep walking. Even in her sleep, she sees
the blood stains on her hand and tries in vain to get rid of them

Lady Macbeth: "Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One, two. Why
then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier,
and afread? 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?"
(Act 5, scene 1, 30-34)

>From these lines, it's obvious that Lady Macbeth thought that nobody

would be able to prove that she and her husband were guilty of
Duncan's murder. Yet she is haunted by the deed even in her sleep.
She thinks the blood is still fresh on her hands.

Lady Macbeth: "Here's the smell of the blood still; all the per-
fumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O,
O, O.
(Act 5, scene 1, 42-43)

I find this pattern of washing the blood stains (real or imaginary) off
the hands interesting because it directly links the both of them to the
murder while they try to comfort themselves by thinking that the night
would hide their deed and that they would be able to forget the past
and blind themselves so that they don't see the horrors of reality.
Obviously they were unsuccessful at that and the guilt of the first
murder stayed on fresh in their minds almost throughout the play.

Good attempt at trying to be serious and interpret something out of th play, right?? (hey! Don't laugh! I am not that bad!). Anyways... Here is something interesting that I found on the right hand column of the page... It is a list of sponsored links...

Washing Hands
Quality new and used items.
Search for washing hands now!


Hand Wash Stations
By frequently washing your hands
you prevent the spread of bacteria


Infection Control Tools
Poster, button, training card, and
hand washing label – turnkey


Well Lady Macbeth, you got the right (soap) solution to your problem, thanks to.. THE INTERNET SPONSORS!!! :P

5 comments:

Anusha said...

Hahahahahahahahahaha!!! Abso-freakin'-lutely hilarious!! :D

[And you know what I think about the 'serious' part of it :)]

S said...

hilarious!!!! gr8 post!i remember when we were posting, something on a very huge murder case, kind of project... the ad said
thank tony blair.. at tonyblair.com....
i found that ironical and hilarious.. we were talking about murder :) and thats wat hes doing! as for the serious bit... i have no words to describe how much i was grinning imagining you writing all the serious stuff

The Girl Who Sold The World said...

HAHAHA! I loooooove Shakespeare's works (though that's another thing that I used to hate them in the beginning when we started Shakespeare in school :P) Julius Caesar and The Tempest were full of similar stuff too.
The ads were hilarious! Lol...even when you read your mail, glance at the ads on the right hand side. And I don't know if you know of this one but I found out something interesting a few days back. Go to google.com, type "failure" and press the "I'm feeling lucky" button. You'll be taken to.................George Bush's biography at www.whitehouse.gov. Hahaha. :D
Oh, and as for Macbeth, I liked the witches the best!
"Double double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble."
Muahahaha.

Macho Girl said...

#clueless
hehe. glad u liked it! :)

#outlaw
//thank tony blair... at tonyblair.com

Hahaha!! That must have been a nice comic relief in ur hectic murder case schedule!

//as for the serious bit... i have no words to describe how much i was grinning imagining you writing all the serious stuff

What's that supposed to mean??????? /:)

#The girl
Oh yeah! i tried the george bush thingy!!! it was hilarious!!! I was totally taken by surprise when i tried it out!

Everybody likes the witches best in macbeth!!! They have the best costumes in the play and the whackiest hair style!!! (i wudn't mind that kinda hair style! Maybe in a nice bright electric blue colour :P)

Anonymous said...

I was just looking for the serious stuff in the blog, I do not know how I missed it. But a great blog though. I am clueless when it comes to shake-subbaiyer (read something in high school and since then forgot everything about him), but your analysis of hand-wash/guilt is nicely done. And for the slogan "I wash because I care", let me make a poster and hang it in (Y)OUR toilet!!!!!