BookRags.com Literature Guides Literature
Guides
Criticism & Essays Criticism &
Essays
Questions & Answers Questions &
Answers
Lesson Plans Lesson
Plans
My Bibliography Periodic Table U.S. Presidents Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-Up
Research Anything:        
History | Encyclopedias | Films | News | Create a Bibliography | More... Login | Register | Help

Not What You Meant?  There are 19 definitions for Macbeth.  Also try: Lennox or Macca or Old man or Duncan of Scotland.

Household Words: Macbeth and the Failure of Spectacle: Household Words: Macbeth and the Failure of Spectacle

Print-Friendly  Order the PDF version  Order the RTF version
William Shakespeare
About 20 pages (6,130 words)
Macbeth Summary

Bookmark and Share Know this topic well? Help others and get FREE products!

Lisa Hopkins, Sheffield Hallam University

In her epic novel on the life of Macbeth, King Hereafter, Dorothy Dunnett suggests that one of the primary reasons for the eventual failure of her hero's kingship is his inability to be perceived as sufficiently charismatic: 'a diverse people in time of hardship need a priest-king. The English know that. Edward is anointed with holy oil: he has the power of healing, they say'.1 Although Dunnett's Macbeth-figure—an Orkney jarl also known as Thorfinn—is very differently conceived from Shakespeare's, each shares an unfortunate tendency towards the mundane. Most particularly, Shakespeare's hero and his wife both, at certain crucial moments of their lives, strongly favour a low-key, occasionally almost bathetic vocabulary.2 This aspect of their characterization has been much mocked in the English comic and popular tradition: Bertie Wooster is continually amused by the concept of the cat i' th' adage, and Edmund Crispin's irascible literary detective Gervase Fen, Oxford professor, gives the play very short shrift:

This is a free excerpt of 162 words. There are 6,130 words (approx. 20 pages at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.

Read the rest of this Criticism with our Household Words: Macbeth and the Failure of Spectacle: Household Words: Macbeth and the Failure of Spectacle Access Pass.

View all | View only answered questions | View only unanswered questions
does macbeth and lady macbeth get caught for killing king duncan?
10

What Points Mean

The best answer to this question will earn 10 points. All other answers will earn 1 point. Click for more information.
In Critical Essays | Asked by kitkat2 | 0 answers | Open for 6 more days
Asked from the Macbeth study pack
(1 question)
Ask any question on Macbeth and get it answered FAST!
Answer questions in BookRags Q&A and earn points toward
discounted or even FREE Study Guides and other BookRags products!
Learn more about BookRags Q&A
Copyrights
Household Words: Macbeth and the Failure of Spectacle: Household Words: Macbeth and the Failure of Spectacle from Literature Criticism Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.



Join BookRagslearn moreJoin BookRags


About BookRags | Customer Service | Report an Error | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy