Blog Thursday :-)

Evaluate King Duncan as a leader.  Please give at least two specific examples from the play that support your opinion.

King Duncan wasn't a huge part of the beginning of Macbeth. He didn't make very many decisions that affected anyone. But the one decision he did make was to go to Macbeth's castle. In doing so Macbeth and Lady Macbeth not only planned but killed Duncan and his guards. So I feel That King Duncan and his guards are not very clever. As the King of Scotland he should have had better if not the best guards in all the land. 

How would Machiavelli evaluate Macbeth as a leader?  Please be sure to use at least two specific Machiavelli quotes and offer specific pieces of evidence from the play.

I think Machiavelli would be neutral with Macbeth. I say that because Macbeth did thinks he would be proud of and thinks that would disappoint him. Some of the things that would disappoint him are:

• Doubting himself (not knowing if he could kill Duncan)
• Feeling guilty about what he did (killing Duncan)
• Hiring someone to kill, and have the job not get completed (killing Fleance and Benquo)
• Not staying in control (at the banquet he gets kind of crazy and cant even function)

Then there are some things on the other hand that Machiavelli would like for example:

• Knowing how to lie to Duncan
• Letting Duncan go to him house (with intentions to kill him)
• Killing Duncan to become king
• Trying to kill anyone who can identify him as the killer  

 Over all Machiavelli would feel like he does thinks that are good and bad, he may not stay king for long.

Machiavelli

1. Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian writer and  philosopher from Florance, Italy.
the prince is one of the first works of modern philosophy. The Prince is almost like a procedure for what a a ruler should do in order to keep his position in power.  


2 and 3. "The end justifies the means"
A lot of leaders today feel like they can do what ever they want in order to get what they think might be a good out come. whether it hurts different classes of Americans, for example Brian Dubie is planing on Cutting taxes for the 14,000 richest Vermonters because he thinks it will improve the economy in Vermont. Cutting taxes for people who can afford it wont help the people who cant afford it. This is an example of the end justifying the means because in the end he thinks it will help Vermont but in the mean time hes hurting the Vermonters who cant afford taxes by not giving them a break. This is not good advice for leaders today. because it will make them think as long as the outcome is good nothing else matters which isn't the case for many people today. which brings me back to Brian Dubie's idea of cutting taxes, in the end it may very well be a good thing but, many Vermonters cant afford taxes which in the mean time seems rather unfair to cut costs for the "rich" and keep charging the "poor". 

4.  "Before all else, be armed."
This would be a good quote for the Incas because the leader of the Incas told everyone to be unarmed when meeting with the Spanish leader Pizarro. This gave the Spanish the perfect opportunity to take over and rule the poor native people. If all of the few thousand Incas were armed they most likely could have dominated the 169 Spanish soldiers. But unfortunately the Incan leader did not know any better so therefore his kingdom came crashing down.



5.
A.

B.
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Prince.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli 




 

Macbeth Themes

Appearance Vs. Reality:
In scene Three Macbeth has an inner struggle with himself. In his head he says, " Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see." (1.3.51-53) Macbeth is basically saying Let the darkness cover my evil desires. What his hands must do he doesn't want to see, because it scares him but it must be done. In Macbeth's mind he wants to kill the king but when he talks to King Duncan he acts like nothing is wrong like he doesn't know what the witches told him, just as though nothing has happened. King Duncan tells Malcolm that he trusts Macbeth completely. Macbeth is appearing to be fine and act like nothings wrong but in reality he wants to kill King Duncan so he can rule Scotland.

Gender Roles:
At the beginning of scene three, Macbeth talks to the Three Witches also known as the Weird Sisters. The sisters Tell Macbeth that he is the Thane of Glamis, that he will become Thane of Cawdor, and then the king of Scotland. He then questions the hags, but before they answer anything they disappear. At first he doesn't believe the strange hags, until Ross calls him the Thane of Cawdor. At this point Macbeth starts to believe the witches. He begins to think about how hes going to accomplish the goal of becoming king of Scotland. The way Gender plays out is When three women tell him hes going to be Thane of Cawdor he doesn't believe them but when one man calls him the thane before the original Thane is killed he believes him.


Loyalty and Honor:
Macbeth starts out as a loyal subject King Duncan, until he starts getting more power and learns his destiny. After he learns that he will become king he starts to turn on King Duncan, He secretly starts thinking about killing him to because ruler of Scotland. He has an inner struggle with him self and becomes scared of what hes thinking. even though he is scared he continues to plan King Duncans death in his mind.