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7.63k reviews for:

Macbeth

William Shakespeare

3.83 AVERAGE

dark reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous hopeful slow-paced

Okay, so I didn't read much of this but we did read a lot of quotes, sadly I can't figure out how to shelve it without marking it as read but I did read a good portion of it. And it was good, I guess? I mean kind of a brutal story but some very interesting themes and ideas to discuss. Are the witches liars? What is fate? Was Mr. Will a RAGING feminist compared to those around him in that time period? The world may never know. I mean, it's interesting to look at these quotes in Shakespeare and realize how much we see them in pop culture and even use them in our own lives! Talk about impactful! But yeah, it was a fascinating story, all throughout discussing it in class I had the Take a Break section from Hamilton in my head. If ya know, ya know. Would recommend if you're... um, in need of food for thought, or you wanna witness a lot of murder I guess? Moral of the story? Don't have a sleepover at your friend's house. Consequences will be catastrophic.
adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

"Macbeth" is een absoluut meesterwerk en een van de meest indrukwekkende stukken die ik ooit heb gelezen. Ik leerde het stuk voor het eerst kennen in de vijfde klas tijdens Engels, waar we het op de literatuurlijst hadden staan. Eerlijk gezegd deed ik toen niet zoveel, maar alles veranderde toen we in de les de performance van Sir Ian McKellen keken. Wat een ervaring! Zijn interpretatie was zo meeslepend dat ik thuis meteen de hele uitvoering heb aangezet.
Niet lang daarna besloot ik het boek zelf te kopen, en daar heb ik absoluut geen spijt van. Het stuk zit vol met intensiteit, intriges, en thema’s die zo tijdloos zijn dat ze vandaag de dag nog steeds relevant voelen. Macbeth’s ambitie, Lady Macbeth’s manipulatie, en de duistere sfeer maken dit verhaal zo krachtig.
Wat ik ook supercool vind, is dat The Lion King deels gebaseerd is op "Macbeth". Simba’s verhaal met Scar als de sluwe tegenstander die alles wil overnemen, heeft duidelijke parallellen met Macbeth. Dat maakt Shakespeare ineens een stuk toegankelijker en laat zien hoe invloedrijk zijn werk is, zelfs in moderne popcultuur.
Shakespeare's taal kan uitdagend zijn, maar dat maakt het juist zo mooi. De poëtische teksten en de gelaagdheid van de karakters zijn ongelooflijk. Of je nu van drama houdt of niet, "Macbeth" is een stuk dat je niet loslaat. Ik weet zeker dat ik dit nog vaak opnieuw zal lezen. 5 sterren, zonder twijfel!
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

3-3.5 for enjoyment of reading, 4 for its overwhelming significance as a bedrock of modern fiction. The themes and tropes (though they were more inventions than tropes at the time) are rich and familiar to us now, if only though the countless other stories which have borrowed - explicitly and not - from this timeless tale of greed coaxed into violence. It’s hard to even read this now and not see Frank Underwood or Logan Roy in Macbeth’s quenchless thirst for glory, or Vesper Lynd in the shower with James Bond in Lady Macbeth’s bloodied hands, or Anakin’s struggle with his destiny in Macbeth’s turmoil over his, or every post-Vietnam movie ever in the king’s guilt over those he’s killed.

It’s a rich text because it’s a rich text, with $100 sentences and micro and macro poetry, but also because it’s a foundational text. If I enjoyed it a little less than I might’ve because I read all its children first (call it the Anchorman effect), then that’s not ol’ Billy Shakespeare’s fault. He wrote a classic - of course it got ripped off!

easier to follow than I thought — i’d only see it as a play prior id never read it
challenging dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The audiobook performance was good, but it confirmed that you need the visuals to follow what’s going on. In this version Shakespeare’s scene setting is narrated, in addition to the prose.
 I love the play but this would not be a good way to first experience the work.