http://steel-not-glass.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] steel-not-glass.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2011-09-20 02:33 pm
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry
Entry tags:

Bringing Literature To Life--Through Violence! [Tuesday, Second Period]

Instead of coffee today, Cindy had brought hot apple cider. And, well, coffee for herself. You damn kids could get your own caffeine if you needed it.

"MacFinlay shall never vanquished be, until great Birnham Wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him," Cindy quoted after everyone had taken their seats. "One of Shakespeare's great tragedies, MacFinlay tells the tale of a great thane of Scotland who ends up murdering his king and his best friend all for ambition. In very brief, MacFinlay, who is a famous warrior and favorite of the king, is walking home through the woods with his friend Berto when they meet a trio of witches. The witches hail Macbeth as a great king and hails Berto as a father of great kings; from that simple meeting Macbeth goes on to murder King Dougan who is visiting MacFinlay's home, framing Dougan's sons for the crime, taking the crown for himself, and murdering a lot of people to keep himself on the throne, including Berto and the wife and children of another old friend of his, Macgruder."

And yet, the women of the play always get such a bad rap. Typical.

"MacFinlay seeks out the witches once again, and they tell him to 'be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm MacFinlay' and, as I said in my opening quote, that he could never be defeated until a forest that existed many miles away came up to Dunsinane, his castle. Upon hearing that, Macbeth decides he's invincible and does a lot of stupid and fairly horrible things. Eventually, Dougan's eldest son joins forces with Macgruder, and they come to take back the throne. As they travel through Birnham Wood, they cut the branches off the trees and attach them to the army to mask their size and provide camouflage, and Macgruder, who was 'from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd.' They fight and Macgruder wins, slaying MacFinlay and returning Scotland to its rightful ruler."

"Prophecy in literature is a very tricky thing. Whether the hero is trusting in it or attempting to avoid it, the prophecy always comes true in the end, usually in an unexpected way. There seems to be no way of avoiding prophecy--Birnham Wood came to Dunsinane and there was a man not of woman-born to defeat MacFinlay. In the story of Troy, Paris had been exiled originally because of a prophecy he would bring ruin to the kingdom and the story of Oedipus centers around the prophecy he would kill his father and marry his mother. Some prophecies are simply interpreted wrong, like when the Oracle of Delphi told Croesus that if he declared war on the Persians, he would destroy a mighty empire. He did--his own. In MacFinlay, all the prophecies that are given come true--but with human agency. Did MacFinlay become king because the prophecy made him? Or was it his own ambition? Who's at fault, then, for what happened?"