Act V of Shakespeare (AutoRecovered)(1)(1)

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Nov 24, 2024

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Act V of Shakespeare’s Macbeth -- Scene 1 is especially relevant to forensic psychology majors. A doctor arrives at the castle and tries to treat Lady Macbeth. She is engaging in behaviors (make sure you know what they are) we would associate with guilt or depression. He declares that Lady Macbeth’s problems are not his department and suggests she visit a priest instead. His dismissal reveals Renaissance attitudes toward what we as modern people would term mental illnesses, that they are spiritual rather than medical matters. What we would think of as the sub-conscious, a Freudian concept, was viewed in the pre-modern period as the conscience, and only a religious figure could help soothe a troubled conscience. Macbeth was written sometime between 1607 and 1608. In 1607, one of Shakespeare’s daughters, Susanna, married a physician, Dr. John Hall, so the doctor here might reflect some of his son-in-law’s experiences. --In 2.12, Lennox states that the sons of the Scottish gentry “[P]rotest their first of manhood” by engaging in battle against Macbeth and his forces. In short, fighting in a war constitutes a manhood ritual. The Scots forces find doing battle against the tyrant Macbeth both personally and politically meaningful. In contrast, Angus states, the soldiers fighting with Macbeth have a certain weakness. What is it? --At the beginning of Scene 3, as the English troops descend upon his castle along with Macduff’s forces, Macbeth’s shares his stereotype about the English. What is it? Remember that Shakespeare’s royal patron, James II, was Scottish, so here the playwright allows the airing of negative views about the English instead of the Scots who populated the English court after Elizabeth I died. --Macbeth has violated the natural order by murdering Duncan and other claimants to the Scottish throne. As a result, nature fights back, and a forest marches in an army opposing the regicide or king-killer. How does Birnham Woods actually remove to Dunsinane? --Scene 8 contains some Foucauldian moments, meaning some instances that accord with Michel Foucault’s theories. Foucault argues that pre-modern cultures used spectacles as law enforcement whereas modern societies employ surveillance. These displays of power often wield the threat of exposure or humiliation. In lines 27- 30, Macduff informs Macbeth that if he surrenders instead of fighting to the death, he will be treated as part of popular culture, a sideshow act labeled the defeated tyrant. Make sure you can recognize these lines. In line 65, Macduff enters with “[T]h’usurper’s cursed head.” His use of Macbeth’s head as a deterrent to other possible traitors recalls the Scottish Captain who fought under Duncan describing in 1.2. 25 Macbeth’s ripping open of the body of his enemy, Macdonwald, and his placement of his disembodied head on the battlements as a warning. Macduff as new ruler of Scotland employs the malefactor’s body or part of it as a theatrical display. Note that the play begins and ends with a head displayed for a monitory or warning purpose. The circularity of the 1

plot raises questions about the new Scottish government’s prospects for peace: will this cycle continue, with a challenger displacing Macduff in the future? (This question is rhetorical: you don’t need to answer it). --In line 44, Ross informs Seward that his son has died in battle. Seward has effectively sacrificed his son for the new Scottish kingship. During the Vietnam War, the child-care specialist and anti-war activist Dr. Benjamin Spock asserted that wars constituted ritual sacrifices of a younger generation by the parents’ generation. Seward seems amenable to this sacrifice, as long as it leads to a Scotland free from tyranny. What does Seward want to know about his son’s death in battle? 2

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