Annotated Bibliography

Poch, Cheryl. "Transcript of Larry Watson Interview for 2007 Livingston Reads!" Livingston Reads. 23 Feb. 2007. Pinckney Library. 29 Apr. 2008 .

Guilt In Macbeth

Throughout Macbeth guilt is a major theme, a lot of people in the book feel guilt and their actins are fueled by it. We see an example of this after Macbeth has his best friend Banquo murdered, the ghost of Banquo shows up to Macbeth’s feast along with King Duncan’s ghost and haunts him as his guilt does. This guilt then makes him do even more irrational things such as have Macduff’s family killed because he notices that Macduff could finally expose him for who he really is. Also guilt overcame Lady Macbeth when we learn she has died and we the readers’ assume that she took her own life. The guilt of knowing she had a part in killing another human being finally over came her and she couldn’t handle that feeling anymore apparently. Guilt is a very powerful theme in this novel and it’s effects can be seen on several different characters.

Guilt is a very prominent theme in Macbeth but it is also seen in real life, this is seen in Rafael Robb's case when he resigned from his post at the University of Pennsylvania after admitting he killed his wife. He murdered her after they had a fight and he recently admitted to it and resigned from his position. Clearly in this case his guilt finally got him and he had to admit he had killed his wife, therefore guilt is a very powerful thing if it makes you admit horrible crimes you have committed. In Macbeth, Macbeth himself has been changed by things he has done in order to get in his position of great power. Deep down inside I’m sure Macbeth still feels very guilty for killing his friend and his king, and it seems now that he feel even more guilt for the death of his wife which now is causing him to lose the desire to live.

Blog Post Numbah 3! Feminism

It’s that time again when we have to post about a topic that our teacher gives so here it goes. This week we examined feminism, specifically feminism in today’s world and in the time period Macbeth is set in. Today’s feminist movement consists of trying to get equal pay for women because in some workplaces women are paid less than men, this does not happen too often but wherever there is some sort of issue there is always a group of people who will support the cause until they get the issue resolved. Another focus feminist groups have today is creating a positive image of a woman that young girls could look up to and aspire to be. In today’s world of hip hop and rap music, women are viewed as possessions more than people and feminist groups are certainly looking to change this. Also another problem is the role models' girls have today are tainted in some ways, such as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Both are spoiled women who have no direction in life, this is not setting a good example for young women, so many feminist groups protest when they see that some rapper is objectifying a woman, or feminists try to replace the negative role models in today’s society. In my opinion I think feminist groups have every right to protest the objectification of women , because if a woman is viewed as an object in today’s day and age then we haven’t really improved on how we treated women since the 1700’s.


Lady Macbeth is a very strong woman and she uses her marriage to Macbeth to control his actions and she eventually convinces him to kill the king and she eventually corrupts him. Lady Macbeth is and absolute horrible example of a positive role model for women. She lies, she cheats the ones she supposedly loves, she supports ideas of backstabbing and murder, she is the exact opposite of what you want your child to become. Lady Macbeth although very powerful, she obtains her power in an ill-gotten manner and not only that, but she uses her power in a negative way.

Socratic Seminar!

Well this week it came that magical time once again for our peers to share their ideas with the class and possibly be strongly criticized by you peers for doing so, fun fun fun… Anyways, we started off our seminar by asking the same question, “ How do you like the book so far?” And of course all the students gladly replied for an easy point or two to start off the seminar. Next my peers were asked what we had all week to prepare for, our talk about feminism and whether women today and in our novel, Macbeth, fit the criteria for being feminists. One student stated that to determine whether a women was a feminist or not some sort of criteria would have to be made to claim someone to be a feminist. The class of course agreed and they determined Lady Macbeth was a feminist in the sense she had control over her husband; however, as a woman in her time period she really had no power and she was not doing anything to better her fellow women. We also took into consideration whether Paris Hilton could be seen as a strong feminist role model, of course just having Paris Hilton and the words ‘role model; in the same sentence is laughable. The class agreed that Paris Hilton, while being exceedingly wealthy, is also somewhat of a moron in the sense that she does very stupid things.
The next portion of the class we discussed whether it was moral for a woman to use sexuality in order to gain power in today’s world. Personally I feel for a woman to gain power through sexuality is wrong morally and if a woman gains power that way the power they gain is sort of tainted. Another student brought up the point that men use brute force to gain what they want; however, I do not know what sort work environment that person was in but the males who tend to use brute force to gain power are commonly arrested because its labeled as assault. Males can only use brute force in a schoolyard setting such as high school, but in the real men cannot simply push people around physically to get what they want, they use the tactics that have been applied for years, hard work, persistence, and maybe lying once in awhile. Those are the techniques that people go about getting their way, but brute force and sexuality are not valid ways to gain power in my opinion.

Good People Do Bad Things!

Macbeth's current deeds are not ones that have not gone without being repeated by other good people. Macbeth, a good person with a respectable past, had been corrupted with power and his wife convinced him to kill King Duncan in order for him to get closer to the throne and to eventually become king. The CEO from the company Enron has established a similar situation. The CEO of Enron, was a very respectable man who clearly had a good past of abiding the law and they all were very credible men however he tricked the system by moving money around in their company to make it look like there was an increase in their stock; however, the contrary was actually going on the contrary the company wasn't making more money he was just moving money around making it seem like there was profit being made. This man then sold his shares in the company making himself and his accomplices' millions of dollars then the company's stock crashed leaving all of the company's employees unemployed and without any compensation. The CEO of this company clearly was not a bad man before this event, but he was corrupted by the promise of wealth he would receive after leaving millions of employees in financial ruin. Macbeth's situation can certainly be compared to this because he as been corrupted by the promise of power that he would receive by becoming the king. In my opinion Macbeth is really not such a bad person but since he falls to the pressure of his controlling wife and since he is power hungry his personality has been tainted for the time being in this story.