Wednesday, January 07, 2009

One to miss ...

... Chicago’s MacBeth Angry and Awful.

This may be, as Nigel says, a gut level response, but it sounds about right to me. The best way to arrive at an understanding of Macbeth himself is to bear in mind his last lines: "Lay on, Macduff, /And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!' " That heroism in the face of destiny is what connects the man he has become with the man he had been. Ed, in his comment - if I understand him correctly - seems to be suggesting that Macbeth is a sociopath. I've known a few of those, and their dominant characteristic, as any psychiatrist will tell you, is their peculiar lack of affect. In fact, in dealing with them it is good if you can project, as it were, a certain lack of affect of your own, as it is the only thing they seem to understand and respect. The true sociopath is never, as Macbeth was, heauton timoroumenos.
It is also worth noting that the Macbeths love each other.

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