Saturday, May 17, 2014

What exactly is Macbeth saying in his soliloquy in Act 1, scene 7, in Shakespeare's Macbeth?I'd like it "translated" into modern English.

Macbeth lists 7 reasons why killing Duncan would be wrong:


-vengeance - the killer will be killed (lines 8-12)
-kinship - you don't kill your relatives (lines 13-14)
-loyalty - you don't kill your king (lines 13-14)
-hospitality - a host doesn't kill your guest (lines 14-16)
-Duncan's goodness - you don't kill a virtuous king (lines 16-20)
-pity and horror - murder is unnatural to innocent humanity and to heaven (lines 21-25)


In the soliloquy he also mentions at the beginning how if there were no consequences resulting from the murder, he would risk it, not worrying about the future. (1-7) At the end of the soliloquy he mentions how ambition is his only motivation to kill Duncan. (25-28)


Notes taken from my Cambridge School Shakespeare copy of Macbeth.

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