When first studying Macbeth, I was under the assumption that the gore and violence that takes place was the central cause of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s downfall; however, I came to understand that all the words assigned for concept tracing played a vital part in their deaths. I was assigned the word “magic” or the “supernatural” to follow and analyze through the whole play. The assignment brought to light how the Weird Sisters and Hecate—the witches in the play—weakened Macbeth internally by feeding him “honest trifles, to betray’s - In deepest consequence”(1.3.137-1438). Macbeth became reliant upon the witches and revealed their prophecies to Lady Macbeth. The couple then became power hungry and ambitious, betraying the ones closest to them
…show more content…
This notion that witches are foreign to earth, and bring evil and sinister vibes is common. It started with Pope Gregory IX and the Church, when they authorized the killing of witches because they believed they had connections to the devil. In Macbeth, when Ross announced Macbeth was Thane of Cawdor, Banquo questions himself and Macbeth by asking, “What, can the devil speak true?”(1.3.107). This suggests that Banquo believes the witches are from hell or represent Satan. From that moment in the play, the witches became the villains of the plot and were blamed for following events, yet Macbeth was the real ruffian in the …show more content…
The poem mentions the “new-caught sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child”(Kipling), referring to the ongoing notion that “ Africans were heathens or heretics, resigned to live a life of savagery”(https://scholarblogs.emory.edu). Painting a huge population of people as devils and inhuman solely because they do not identify with the Christian religion is inequitable. In South Africa, the government had passed the South African Suppression of Witchcraft Act in 1957, forbidding the use and creation of “witchcraft and traditional South African medicine, essentially made it illegal to ‘cry witch’”(https://blog.uvm.edu). The medicine in South African often involved the use of herbs with divination, curing diseases such as cancer and cholera. The South African Government had prevented the use of such important medical treatments and the way of life for midwives and herbalists; animals relied on the medicine and so did “60%-80% of the people in Africa...to treat themselves for various diseases”(https://www.aho.afro.who.int). Devaluing the need for medical care is dangerous and takes away from the herbalists who wanted to provide paths of rehabilitation, causing division and social tensions throughout the country post-Apartheid. Adam Ashforth, a professor at the University of Michigan Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, began
This notion that witches are foreign to earth, and bring evil and sinister vibes is common. It started with Pope Gregory IX and the Church, when they authorized the killing of witches because they believed they had connections to the devil. In Macbeth, when Ross announced Macbeth was Thane of Cawdor, Banquo questions himself and Macbeth by asking, “What, can the devil speak true?”(1.3.107). This suggests that Banquo believes the witches are from hell or represent Satan. From that moment in the play, the witches became the villains of the plot and were blamed for following events, yet Macbeth was the real ruffian in the …show more content…
The poem mentions the “new-caught sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child”(Kipling), referring to the ongoing notion that “ Africans were heathens or heretics, resigned to live a life of savagery”(https://scholarblogs.emory.edu). Painting a huge population of people as devils and inhuman solely because they do not identify with the Christian religion is inequitable. In South Africa, the government had passed the South African Suppression of Witchcraft Act in 1957, forbidding the use and creation of “witchcraft and traditional South African medicine, essentially made it illegal to ‘cry witch’”(https://blog.uvm.edu). The medicine in South African often involved the use of herbs with divination, curing diseases such as cancer and cholera. The South African Government had prevented the use of such important medical treatments and the way of life for midwives and herbalists; animals relied on the medicine and so did “60%-80% of the people in Africa...to treat themselves for various diseases”(https://www.aho.afro.who.int). Devaluing the need for medical care is dangerous and takes away from the herbalists who wanted to provide paths of rehabilitation, causing division and social tensions throughout the country post-Apartheid. Adam Ashforth, a professor at the University of Michigan Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, began