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Description:

This video summarizes the Shakespearean play Macbeth. Two major forces are at play in the story: witches’ prophecies and Macbeth’s demanding wife, Lady Macbeth. If you take out one of these forces, would the outcome of the play have changed? Did Macbeth ever have a chance of avoiding becoming a murdered murderer?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Macbeth, a la Shmoop. Try not to lose your head.

00:11

Macbeth is married to a... strong female figure.

00:17

She sorta makes Mothra look like a slightly irritating pest.

00:24

Lady Macbeth, one of the greatest villains in literature...

00:27

... knows what she wants. She urges the man of the house to take action

00:35

and start lopping off heads so he can become king...

00:41

Of course, things don't turn out so great for Macbeth in the end.

00:47

But we wonder... would his situation have been any better if he didn't have a wife who

00:52

was hitting the crazy pills? Well, for the purposes of this story, we have

00:56

to assume that prophecies are a real thing...

00:59

It is prophesied by the witches that Macbeth will become the King of Scotland.

01:07

Which means that, even if he hadn't started whacking people...

01:10

...he eventually would have been wearing that crown.

01:13

The only reason he... hurried the process along...

01:15

...was that his wife was getting antsy.

01:18

Then again, the witches later prophesied that he had to... among other things... watch out

01:25

for Macduff...

01:26

...the guy that ends up sending him to his maker.

01:36

But could this prophesy have been avoided if Macbeth hadn't fouled up in the first place?

01:44

What reason would Macduff have had to be upset if Macbeth hadn't killed his entire family?

01:53

Or... was Lady Macbeth such a dark-hearted person and such a poor influence that her

02:04

husband would have come to a tragic end regardless?

02:06

Her power-hungriness seemed to come before all else...

02:10

...maybe she would have been his undoing whether there had been any prophesies or not.

02:15

So what do you think?

02:15

If Lady Macbeth had been more patient and Macbeth hadn't gone on his little killing

02:20

spree... would he have remained in one piece?

02:24

Was he doomed no matter what because of the witches' prophesies?

02:28

Or was he doomed the instant he married a complete loony toon?

02:33

Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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