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26 November, 2014

Follow the White Heron

The cathedral bell rang from the distance, a hollow sound that bounced over the toy town, never settling in one place or the other. You guessed He could hear them too. You were sure He was timing how long you have been away, tracking the seconds between the toll of the bells, not caring that you were gone, but aggravated that you had left the house. The sun would be setting soon and the music from your ear phones was filling your head and blotting out all the pain that only just managed to stay within. The French blue river laid ahead of you, twisting like a caterpillar, the water passing so quickly it seemed. You looked at the river differently from everyone else, seeing every single atom of water and aware that you could never separate one atom from the others. Crashing into each other. Moving onwards, onwards.  You now know the perils of stagnating water, oh too well.
            The bench had been gored. The pen in your hand had moved alone. The blue ink scratched into the wood and flooded into its little veins, mimicking the river. You wrote Lewis Carroll’s words ‘I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it”. You remember the last time you wrote these words and how much they had helped you feel less like a fool. You draw images of eyes and trees. Your hands felt cold. The cathedral bell rang again; you had been out a while. The ringing made you think of going back home to Him. Across from you and over the river the tall grey building looked like a house of cards. You loved that game, steady the hand and hope for the best. Looking solid yet being fragile. All of the colours long faded but the shape of each card stood out to the eye, no more suits, and no more pictures. You had forgotten that if it falls down you start again.
You noticed three sculptures that stood awkwardly on the sharply cut lawn, towering, looking like large drowned ghost birds trying to dry them selves. You had seen them before on a day out in the summer, but never looked in detail at them. They were dead in the eyes, water in the lungs. You asked yourself why were they still standing, did they not know that they had drowned?
            You were very cold now. The extra layers clung around your throat and you stood and walked away from the bench. Leaving your feelings scratched into the bench for someone else to feel. Discarding them for all the use they were to you.
You walked around the corner; you stood upon the floating bridge and looked down closely at the drowned birds. All their feathers had been taken away and they had burned into a dark stone as the night had fell around them. You could see a glimpse of white in the marshy islands in the river. Maybe it wasn't safe here, maybe you should move? Go back to the bench? Your feet start moving. You hear the cathedral bell.
             The bench is busy; a young man with dark hair underneath a black hat had taken it. He had a black leather jacket on and was watching the geese. So you moved on. You stand upon the road bridge above the river light and watch the flies’ circle and twirl together into a sort of soup in the air. That’s how He made you feel today. There were geese standing on the water weir that leads down to the marshes. You look over to the Hatted Man on the bench; he is staring like you had done hours ago. You see the fleck of white again, back to the left of the river your eyes chase it around the blades of grass and Indian Balsam, with their hot pink flowers and tough emerald stems that are hollow inside.
            The plants make you think about who you are, who you were. You remember using these plants as a child. Peashooters, you called them. You had to look up their name when you grew older. The smell of them is sweet and humid. It seems like a mist of thick, pink aroma is being breathed out from their tips, as if the long blue caterpillar river is smoking them. As you inhale it your feel you mind growing calmer, able to more away from reality and search with ease for the white.
            Sure enough the white moves from its concealment and you see the Heron. You stare deeply at it and seem to loose track of time, you’re not seeing anything, yet you are not unable to see.  You are just lost within your thought of being so thoughtless lately.
When time comes back, the white Heron has gone and you are staring at the geese again, they are eating the weeds that grow in the river, sinking in their legs to get smaller and pulling them out to grow larger. The sun has set completely as the cathedral bells rang, left is only the lonely moon, missing his round brother.
            You feel someone pass you by, much closer than the other people who had passed you by, desperate to dry out them selves rather than talk to you. Running so quickly in circles around the fire that is life. Never getting anywhere new. The Hatted Man stood to your left. He leans forward on one arm against the bridges ledge and is smoking. The amber flame seems to be the only colour left in the sea of blue that clings to everything. You eyes are drawn to the glowing like a bright grin elevated in the otherwise colourless world.
            You don’t want to look at him. You stare down into the river and see yourself under the water staring back up at you. You turn off your music and let yourself hear the sounds of the river passing, let yourself hear the Hatted Man breathing in and out his own smoke.

            “What time is it?” Your voice shocks you. What shock you more is that he lowers the flame slowly away from his mouth and guesses you a time you instantly forget. He jokes about you being late for something. You joke back. He tell you his will ask the next person who passes for the time for you and he moves closer along the wall
of the road bridge and leans with you to look down into the river. You see his reflection in the water stood next to you and know that he is drowning too.
            You decide to walk to the cathedral for the time as the drying people will not stop, they don’t know that they have already drowned, just like the birds, why are they still standing? You wonder how long until they burn too. Until you burn along with them. Was it too late?
            “No” the Hatted Man said to you and he told you it wasn't your fault, that you should leave Him as He was the one who took everything away. He told you that you had to take back your life. He told you that life was too short to waste being unhappy. He told you his name was Jamie.
            You both were sat on the cathedral steps, directly below the time that rang and pointed up to the heavens. You eventually realized that you never cared about time or that the bells rang, that you had an ignorant loyalty to a thing that only made the life inside you rot. Jamie tells you all about his twenty three years alive, all about how long he has been drowning and all about the details that had turned to crystallised water in his throat. You think that he has been drowning too long. He tells you that it doesn't matter how long you are drowning, it’s when you stop trying to swim back up that you start to burn. You both wonder how you can burn under the water. You both suppose that everyone wonders that, but know that wondering isn't the thing that stops it from happening.
            You almost cried when the time ended. Said you would never see him again. He said you would, but you never did. You both hugged and you can still remember the smell of his leather jacket. You watched him walk away until there was nothing left of Jamie, your Hatted Man.

            You turned and walked slowly to the ‘home’ you used to live. All his words stayed inside your head for days. You couldn’t shake them. You didn’t want to. You moved two weeks later. 

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18 November, 2014

I Write A Dream


 It’s night-time, everything is a dark shade of blue and the air has a grain to it, as if it is full of dust or soot. I am walking very slowly down a dirt path way that is lined by reflective white stones and I seem to be waiting for something to happen. In the distance I can see the sea, but can not hear it as it seems to be paused from motion. I am walking towards it. I hear my dog, Cap, barking. The sound echoes and he runs to me from a dark pebbled beach to the left and in front of me. He has a spring to the way he runs which always amuses me, he is a far too old a dog to move like that. The white of his fur is as reflective as the stones, where as the black makes him almost invisible. We seem to be the only living things around and the only things moving.
            We continue, now in silence, and to the right of us we begin to see a curve of a concrete staircase that twists around an abandoned Lighthouse. We are drawn to it.
             At the point when we are close it, the waves pulse into motion and the sound is deafening, I focus on the steps and stand very still, my breath is in the air. Cap barks very loudly so I look down to him. I see his face very clearly and his eyes look inky in this light. He barks again softly whilst holding my gaze and then runs away, up the Lighthouse steps.
            I don’t want to let him go but I am unwilling to follow him. So I stand at the foot of the Lighthouse and stare up at the entirety of the building. It impresses me how large and solid it is as I have never seen one close up before. I wonder why its light is not on and why the thin windows look like sheets of ice in wooden frames. I have an overwhelming urge to pick up a white stone and break them all, but I do not.
            I start to walk up the steps, very cautiously, as the steps are very cold and seem damp. I really don’t want to slip as there is no one there to catch me. Then I am looking at the glass at the peek of the Lighthouse as if I am elevated equal to it and I see shadows within. My vision scopes down the height of the Lighthouse and I see that the steps are choking around it. I then see myself walking at a steady pace to the top. I am dressed in a black trench coat and a long scarf; it has lost its colour in the darkness.
            Something must have happened in the windowed room as I now see myself moving much quicker down the stairs, I am worried for myself as there are no hand rails, and I feel like I am going to fall. I don’t know where Cap has gone.
            I am now seeing out from in my own body again and I am still moving downwards, only now the spiral is evening out, and the further I progress, the slower I move and tomb stones appear around me, at first a few then many. The air becomes denser as I descend.
            I am unable to turn around and look back at the Lighthouse, but the fear I felt at the top has gone. I am clearly now in a cemetery, it is still night and I can make out the dark emerald colour of the grass beneath me. Like the stars, the blades are wet and I can feel cold beads of dew frozen to them, as if I am also the grass. This time there is no barking and my eyes look into a space which is cluttered with tomb stones, and between the two most striking graves Cap steps out from the one to the left.  I really want to walk forwards and stroke him or even call out to him, but, again, I can not. I feel like I’m not aloud to.

Trying to write a dream is difficult. If you attempt to write a dream, as I have attempted above, you may find yourself  using the word 'I'. However, the prospective in a dream is hard to place as it often shifts and you identify with many of the 'characters', perhaps even becoming them and all of these people are all creations and segments of oneself (like the movie Inspection, 2010). The 'I' in a dream may indeed change or disappear completely. If  you are watching your self in a dream, then in many ways that 'I' is not you. It cannot be. You must be the one watching that 'I' as you would in the logic of life. Yet it is you just as much as the background is you, as it is your dream and your creation. It all is you. Also the process of constructing a random and often nonsensical dream into a piece of writing means adapting it, to put it into writing means changing it into a form that is expressive and concise. This adds to the difficulty of writing a dream. You may have to examine the relationship between your dreams form and writings consciousness that is trying to control and find seance in the dream in order to successfully. I would recommend reading Maxine Hong's 'The Woman Warrior'; Memoir of a Girlhood Among Ghosts' as it shows how to successfully write in a dream like voice throughout.  And most of all I would recommend giving writing from this prospective a try.


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12 November, 2014

My Top Twenty, Part Two


This is the second part of a list of my favorite books. I have written a small review next to each book, as previously, and I intend to write a full review at a later date or as requested, so please leave a comment. They are in no particular order as I love them all for very different reasons. For part one please click here.




Junior

Culkin, Macaulay (2006)

Good-read rating; 3.15

Definitely a good read for when your Home-alone (couldn't resist), as it will have you laughing unpredictably and loudly, and you won't be entirely sure why.I have only just started keeping a readers journal as of 2013 and my initial response was "Very quirky writing style and content. A MUST re-read. Enjoyed immensely. 9/10". Now a lot of that comes from the fact I was having a reading binge in celebration of finishing University ("I can finally read what ever I want to!" sort of thing) but it is an enjoyable, surreal read.



Memoirs of a Geisha

Golden, Arthur (1997)

Good-read rating; 4.03

I read this novel after watching the film (2005) but I love them both. I don't really like watching the film before reading the book but sometimes that happens. I found that the book helped me flesh out a lot of the film and it seemed a shame that the film left a lot of the original story absent. Golden creates an overview to life as a Geisha during 1929 Japan.
Golden was sued in 2013 by Mineko Iwasaki as her life story was used as a source of inspiration for this novel. As Golden acknowledged her in the publication, Iwasaki faced a lot of negativity and even death threats because of this, due to what was seen as her breaking the Geisha code of silence. She when on to write Geisha, a Life (2003).




Bastard Out of Carolina

Allison, Dorothy (1992)

Good-read rating; 4.05


Initial response; "Enjoyed very much despite the darker themes. Found it [the child abuse] to be dealt with very sensitively. Very believable characters, I reacted to this a lot emontionally, especially liked the 'Earl' Character. Watched the film version soon after and enjoyed it too [I loved the fact that Michael Rooker, aka Merle from 'The Walking Dead' played Earl] but was saddened that they didn't include the character Shannon Pearl [I was also excited about it having Christina Ricci, who I love in Buffalo 66 (1998) and Sleepy Hollow (1999), as 'Dee Dee'. Yet her character was reduced to a few minutes of dialogue] 8/10."



A Spot of Bother

Haddon, Mark (2006)

Good-read rating; 3.45

This novel is an exceptional piece that deals with humanity. Fear, hopes, love, betrayal. Its is a feel-good read that really makes you work for it. The protagonist, George, is a hypochondriac which leads to some minor gore in the plot through out, but he is oddly loveable dispite his short falls, as are all of the main characters. It is very entertaining, Michael Dirda of The Washington Post adding "...half the time while reading A Spot of Bother you won't be sure whether to laugh or cry. Which is, I suppose, precisely the point."



Wuthering Heights

Brontë, Emily (1847)

Good-read rating; 3.79

I first read this when I was around ten after seeing it in ballet form on a school trip. I didn't understand a thing I was reading and promptly gave up, as I wasn't a strong reader back then. However for my A levels we studied Wuthering Heights and I found it so captivation that I have reread it many times as well as viewed many of the films and series that either fall flat or outright butcher it. It is a classic that isn't praticually demanding due to its shortness and as it is in popular culture, somewhat due to Kate Bush's 1978 Song  of the same name (check out the video, utterly terrifying). Mainly I would recommend reading this so that you can form an opinion on the notorious faux-romantic Heathcliffe. I think he's a bastard.




Dracula

Stoker, Bram (1897)

Good-read rating; 3.94


Another A Level read, we were studying the Gothic Genre, and again another classic, this is slightly more challenging than the last but the language is surprisingly modern and the use of  Victorian innuendos and allegories are rather amusing as well as off putting. Any vampire fan must read this and dispel their sparkly views of the vampire (yes Twilight, I blame you). I will be posting an article on Vampires soon, so be sure to check back for that. The link for that will be here. THe plot follows a group of high class men and women during the Victorian era. After Harker, one of the narrators granted by the novels epistolary format, meets and becomes imprisoned by Count Dracula he is barely able to  escapes. Dracula comes to England soon after and begins to prey on the groups women.



The Sound of My Voice

Butlin, Ron (1987)

Good-read rating; 4.16


Written entirely in second person, but very well written. You love to write in second person and you love to read second person novels. I personally love to write in second person as long as it is done well, so apologies for the latter, and due to its shortness I think that it is a good first stop for anyone who has never tired second person texts. The plot is centered around the protagonist, Morris Magellan, and his alcoholism. The novella offers an insight into the mind of an alcoholic and attempts to describe how one would view the world. I can not say if this is an accurate portrayal however it is hauntingly saddening yet its use of humor is well timed and I personally found some lines hysterical and other lines poetically beautiful. I intend to write a full view for this and the link for that will be here.




To Kill a Mockingbird

Lee, Harper (1960)

Good-read rating; 4.23


Classic southern Americana. This novel is very much about right and wrong, racial and gender equality, the perils of prejudgement and growing up in a world when all cultural morals are being reset. There are section which are focused so intently on the environment that when paired with Lee's Southerly use of language that you begin to believe you are in Alabama, This novel is amazing. Go read it. I personally enjoyed the story of Boo Radley.





Morvern Callar

Warner, Alan (1995)

Good-read rating; 3.68


I enjoyed the protagonist in this, Morvern, she is utterly unexplained, she behaves intrinsically and without any usual logic. I was recommended this novel in college and read it in two sittings, I had never read anything with a main character quite like her before and I am still not sure why I still liked her. It is written in a colloquial style, perhaps with a touch of  Scottish slang and Warner uses her language to show her limited education.The tone of the novel is very gritty and tense, almost like a thriller, yet is slow paced. In the novel Morvern is constantly providing a playlist of music that a number of readers have paired with reading the book to add to its impact (Slowthrills.com have created a playlist on Spotify of some of the mention tracks). The narrative begins with Morvern discovering her dead boyfriend after he committed suicide. Quiz time;Do you?
a) Collapse to the floor in shock and cry for your lost love?
b) Hyperventilate and ring the police?
c) Take all of your boyfriends money, publish his book, and depose of the body yourself?
Answers
 A; You are normal. B; You are normal and logical. C; You are Morvern Callar. Fancy a Silk-cut?






Snow


Maxence, Fermine (1999)

Good-read rating; 3.76


Translated from Japanese by Chris Mulhern, this short text is written in haiku form. Although the plot is a little sexist to both genders (the female characters only existing as a form of muse for the males, and the males being incompleate without a female). However it is an ascetic piece that is full of lovely imagery and is also a kind of transformation piece inspired by snow white. There were some part that seemed odd and mispleced tat illuded to the protagnists sexuality as the form make them seem abrupt and ugly when comparted to the beauty that followed, but that added some realism to the fantasy themes. You are able to easily read this in one sitting.



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06 November, 2014

Anonymous; We are Legion 5.11.14




You may see on the news today that Anonymous held the 'Million Mask March' from congregation on Trafalgar square, marching to London's Parliament at 6.30 pm, moving on to Buckingham Places on the guy Fawkes night, 2014. The V for Vendetta inspired masks and anti-establishment slogans (such as "One Solution, revolution!") were used by the protesters, some as young as 14, to demand change in the parliamentary system, saying that their country should be run buy the mass population, who in many ways already run the country. The protest was not limited to London England, as protesters gathered in many of capitals, worldwide.



MUST WATCH
Anonymous on YouTube

WHO ARE THEY? 
The group surfaced in 2003, but have become more know in later years from 2008 and are part of the rising trend of ‘Hackivisum’ that promote freedom of speech and include many other sub groups of hackivists such as the 1985’s ‘Peoples Liberation Front’, which made attacks on government websites and have had several arrests. They have no leaders but are a mass collective of people from around the globe, some of which are hackers and work as an anarchist global Internet intelligence. Any one may join.




The Mirror- Video

Violence broke out during the Parliament protest but at this point it is unsure if the protesters were provoked. Their use of fireworks aimed at the Parliament building, the use of laser pointers, graffiti, pushing over bins and hitting people and objects will yellow tubing may have warranted the police response which were present throughout, in full riot gear. The police also attempted to remove all mask to aid prosecution.

Yet on the UK Anonymous website it is stated that a peaceful protest was intended which will take place 5th November 2015 as it had done every year before and every year that will follow until revolution. A list of their protest intention can be found there.

Russel Brand, a English comedian and actor whom hosts a news program on YouTube called the 'Trews ' (true-news) was present in the protest, and seemed to attempt to keep the protest peaceful and expressed he wanted (along with cheering protesters) the government of london to work for the people of London, rather than corporate London . A sighting of designer Vivian Westwood has also been reported.



MUST WATCH
Hacktavist Speaks


Ten people were arrested this year, and fifteen were made last year. Throughout the history of the hacktavist group, their seriousness has been questioned. Whether this event will aid or hinder their cause is uncertain at this point.

UK Anonymous  

"Every year, the November 5th Resistance movement in the UK grows bigger and stronger. In 2011 there was 500-600 people, in 2012 there was over 2000 people, this year in 2013 there was over 2500. This Idea is not going away.In 2014, we will once again march on the houses of Parliament in London, as will we in 2015 , leading up to 2016 when November 5th falls on a Saturday! The standard has now been set , next year we will have bigger banners, louder voices, more fireworks, more people and a louder sound systemWhy are we doing this?.... simple... Because governments need to be reminded that the people will NEVER be oppressed again. The Internet Awakening is on-going and the people will not be divided by subject, race, age or religion. We are a diverse collective of human beings fighting for overall human freedom, we will not be silenced and we will not be negotiated with, we have no leaders, only ideas!We are Anonymous We are LegionWe do not forgive We do not forget
 
EXPECT US ..."





All images in this post are not copyright by me but were provided through 'Google Images'.

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05 November, 2014

Short Essay- Macbeth and Hamlet; Supernatural and the Diabolical




Examine the representation of the Supernatural and the Diabolical in Shakespeare’s Tragedies of Macbeth and Hamlet, with reference to how these themes may have influenced the formation of the Gothic genre.



In this essay I will be examining how Shakespeare, through the tragedies of Macbeth and Hamlet, addressed anxieties of his era including regicide (the diabolical), religion and witchcraft, and how these anxieties were explored through the means of the supernatural in order to combat the contextual restraints of this era. I will also investigate his use of expressing these concerns through the use of allegorical supernatural beings, considering the Gothic dimensions within these two plays and how they may have influenced the creation of the Gothic genre. I will be paying close attention to contextual influences that may have lead to the creation and inclusions of these dark themes in these text, and how these influences are factors that also contribute to my argument of Macbeth and Hamlet being stimulation to the initiative of the Gothic genre.

The first Gothic text was Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764), which pre-date these two plays by a century, however as the Gothic genre is a product of the gothic revival, originating in the 18th and 19th centuries, we can see how the works of Shakespeare may have had an influence in this genres conception due to its experimentation with elements now found in the Gothic and topics common in the Gothic genre. The Gothic genre has always been one that is unstable, and I argue that these two Tragedies are cosmetically Gothic. Botting writes that;

These days it seems increasingly difficult to speak of ‘the Gothic’ with any assurance […] adjectives often need to be inserted to supplement the indefinition of the category: ‘the eighteenth century Gothic’, ‘Victorian Gothic’. (Botting, the Gothic; Essays and Studies 2001’Preface: the Gothic’, p.1)
In saying this, I believe that it is appropriate to look at these two texts of Shakespeare’s along side Gothic criticism, especially when considering the use of Supernatural within them. I will also be taking into consideration the use of themes that are used in these two plays which are now fundamental within the shaping of the Gothic text, for example;

Gothic fictions since Walpole have most often been about aspiring but middling, or sometimes upper middle-class, white people caught between the attractions or terror of a past once controlled by overweening aristocrats…and forces of change that would reject such a past yet still remain held by aspects of it (including desires of aristocratic or superhuman powers). (Hogle, Introduction: the Gothic in west culture, p.3)
In other words, Hogle argues that a Gothic text deals with the theme (as well as other which I will later explore) of a person caught between classes and aspiring to gain power. This is very easy to relate this to the characters of Macbeth, who is determined to achieve power, and Hamlet, who is exploring the past in order to change who holds power in the present. Whilst building upon this argument, I will be looking into other Gothic athletics within these two plays, using Gothic criticism in order to explore them in order to support the idea that Shakespeare’s work was an anticipation of this genre.

Hamlet was most likely written in 1600, yet the precise date is uncertain due to the complexity of this text, being that there is several editions of Hamlet, all varying to different extents from each other. It is a plot that is based upon the story of Amleth, from Danish History, compiled by Saxo during the late 12th century. It is a text that is;
Fraught with uncertainty, it is tempting to think that our unresolved questions [in the text] are largely as a result of the perplexities that must inevitably come with the passage of time and the vagaries of editors’
(Greenblatt, Hamlet, ‘Introduction,  p.287)
 Greenblatt continues to write that the audience is never truly certain of many things within this play, including; the extent to which the ghost is trustworthy, the nature of the ghost, the amounts of Gertrude’s (Hamlet’s mother) guilt for the marriage of her husband brother, the sincerity of Hamlet’s madness, if Hamlet loves Ophelia, whether Ophelia’s suicide is intentional, and so forth. Greenblatt goes on to write that its language and use of dramatic poetry seems to mark an significant shift in Western drama, disclosing dark themes that were usually concealed, showing the complex nature of human kind and their physiological structure, this could have helped to inspire the way in which the Gothic genre explores similarly dark themes. It is also notable that, due to the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, critics have speculated over Hamlets possible Oedipus complex, a common psychosis explored within Gothic texts.
Hamlet, as well as Macbeth, uses many pioneering changes within dramatic writing. This is seen in how Shakespeare utilized a blending of the elements of Comedy and Tragedy, which was usually rigidly separate in drama at the time, and how this blending invented comic relief, something that Aristotle’s conventions of the Tragedy (‘the Unities’, Poetics, 335 BC) would not have allowed. Gothic texts are often a osculation between mundane and extraordinary, dark humor and macabre actions, and it is easy to see how the revolutionary work of Shakespeare could have been a key factor in this inclusion in the Gothic. More over, classic drama did not allow more than three performers to speak in a scene and were never to talk to the audience or themselves. In this way Shakespeare plays were pioneering to dramatic literature and in the creation of experimental texts and genres. Bryson writes;
[Shakespeare] could […] kill off the title character with the play half done […] write a play like Hamlet, where the main character speaks 1,495 lines (nearly as many as the number of words spoken all the characters combined in The Comedy of Errors) but disappears for unnervingly long stretches […] He constantly teased reality, reminding the audience that they were not in the real world but in the theater. (Bryson, 2007, p.102) 
It is through this method of theater production that Shakespeare was able to explore tabooed topics within society, safe from judgment and prosecution, something that could have influenced the Gothic text as this genre deals with the prohibited and forbidden within the texts contextual society.

Macbeth first printed in 1623 (first folio), however this play is usually dated 1606 due to a joke (Macbeth, 1.3.135- 2.2.11) in which there is a subtle reference to treason which could allude to the execution of Henry Garnet (detailed in Macbeth,‘introduction’, Greenblatt, p.783 -791).This play is mostly a creation of Shakespeare that was as a result his company becoming the King’s men, using themes and ideas that where interests of James I, including regicide and the role of women/witchcraft. This could also be why this play is much shorter than Shakespeare’s others, due to James preference towards shorter plays.  Indeed, Shakespeare’s Company was popular with the King, Bryson writes;
James remained a generous supporter of Shakespeare's company, using them often and paying them well. In the thirteen years between his accession and Shakespeare’s death, they would perform before the King 187 times. (Bryson, 2007, p.132)
The source of the plot of Macbeth is most likely from Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1587) however key changes to this text, such as; suppressing Banquo’s involvement in the assistance in the murder of King Duncan, exaggerating the extent of Macbeths evilness, shortening Macbeths the rein as king and ageing King Duncan. As James I believed himself to be a descendant of Banquo, it is clear why Shakespeare alters these elements in the plot as all changes help to highlight Banquo as a honorable descendent, thus implying that James is as equally as honorable. James I was a Protestant menarche that preceded a Catholic rein, and this caused a duality of attitudes towards the King.
The severest Catholic challenge to a Protestant rule was […] when a group of conspirators placed thirty- six barrels of gunpowder […] in the cellar beneath the Palace of Westminster in advance of the state opening Parliament […] taking with it the King, Queen and their two sons. […] the reaction against Catholics was swift and decisive. They were barred from key professions and, for a time, not permitted to travel more than five miles from home. (Bryson, 2007, p. 133- 134)
It is because of this conflict between Catholics and Protestants that Shakespeare focuses upon supernatural beings such as the Hamlets Witches and the Ghosts for both texts.

The use of ghosts in both of these texts shows a link to the Gothic supernatural, linking with the conflict between Catholics and Protestants. It is notable here to point out that Catholicism is the only religion to believe in ghosts as they believe they are the result of a sole caught in purgatory, forced to live in the in between of  life and death to serve as penance, haunting the living to act as a caution for sin. Due to Catholicism being virtually illegal at the time, Shakespeare use of Catholic idea within his place was quiet radical being that he was openly exploring a side of religion that was prohibited which, interestingly, he performed in front of the King.
Hamlet deals mainly with the Supernatural through the ghost of the dead King of Denmark, Hamlet’s father. The plays first line ‘Who’s there?’ (Hamlet, 1.1) is important due to its initial questioning upon the state everything, including ghosts. What are they, are they real, and are they who they say they are? The answer to this is, we do not know and can never know. By asking this question Shakespeare is challenging everything about the structure of a ghost, thus questioning everything about its creator; religion. The characters never fully believe it is the King, referring to it as an apparition, and being like the King in appearance.
HAMLET: Angles and ministers of grace defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin of the dammed. 
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable, 
Thou com’st in such questionable shape 
That I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane. O answer me! (Hamlet, 1.4, 20-26)
In this quotation we can see how Shakespeare is using Hamlet to question the validity of appearance and motive of a ghost. The ghost motives are compared to the two beliefs of Christian afterlife’s, heaven and hell, Hamlet wishes to know if this apparition is present for good or evil means, however due to the nature of ghost and their ‘questionable shape’, Hamlet is unable to deduce which moral side this ghost is from. In other words, he is aware that his presence is a paradox. He is neither of heaven or hell but of the between and just as he is also the between of life and death. Hamlet says that he will call him ‘Hamlet, King, father’ (1.4, 26) and in Shakespeare scripting this line the audience sees, as Hamlet himself believes, that this ghost is not entirely the dead King. This idea is explored later in the play in the quotation below. These lines also explore my previous points about religion, detailing what it is to be in purgatory, exploring aspects of Catholics.
GHOST: I am thy father’s spirit,
Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confined to fast in fires
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. 
[…]
If thou dist ever love thy dear father love – 
[…]
Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. (Hamlet, 1.4, 11- 25)

This shows that even the apparition is not stable within his self definition. He begins with saying that he is indeed Hamlets father, yet ends by referring to the dead King in the third person, implying a distance between the ghost and the dead King, furthering the audiences and Hamlet’s suspicions that the ghost is not the King, but a fraud present to create conflict. Yet when Claudius is seen struggling to pray and reacting so badly to the play within the play, the audiences’ believability with the validity of the ghost is altered yet again. I believe that Shakespeare's use of ghosts in this play is to emphasize the contradictions within religion, as he wasn’t overly religious himself he may have found the conflict between the two branches of Christianity to be impractical.

In Macbeth, ghosts and the spectral are used for different effect. They appear mainly alongside the witches in order to associate them further with the abnormal, seen in Macbeth 3.5 and 4.1, which are strange in tone that has often lead to questioning the authenticity of these section within the play. However, the madness of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are explored with the inclusion of astral hallucinations such as the dagger (Macbeth,2.1, 33) and un-washable blood in the hands of Macbeth (2.2, 55- 60) and Lady Macbeth (5.1, 24- 58). Also guilt is explored through the ghost of Banquo (3.4, 36 – 106 and 4.1, 127 -139) the armored head (4.1, 85) and bloody children (4.1, 92 -110). Indeed ghosts are not as significantly used as in Hamlet, as in Macbeth, witchcraft is the most prominent use of the supernatural in this text, which also addresses the diabolical. It is difficult to believe today the extent to which this society believed and feared witches. Notenstein writes that;
It was a matter that concerned all classes from the royal household to the ignorant denizens of country villages […] thrifty peasants worrying over their crops, clergymen alert to detect the Devil in their own parishes, medical eager to profit by the fear of evil women, justices of the peace zealous to beat down the works of Satan—all classes, indeed—believed more or less sincerely in the dangerous powers of human creatures who had surrendered themselves to the Evil One. […]T he crime of sorcery had been dealt with in a few early instances by the common-law courts, occasionally (where politics were involved) by the Privy Council, but more usually, it is probable, by the church. This, indeed, may easily be illustrated from the works of law. Britton and Fleta include an inquiry about sorcerers as one of the articles of the sheriff's tourn. A note upon Britton, however, declares that it is for the ecclesiastical court to try such offenders and to deliver them to be put to death in the king's court, but that the king himself may proceed against them if he pleases.
(Notenstein, 1911, A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718, p.1 - 6) 
In this quotation we can see how close the associations with witchcraft and the devil, therefore religion, was within the time of these plays and the effect being accused of witchcraft would have upon a person. James opinions were very strongly against witches, linking them and their supernatural powers as a threat (regicide) and plotting against the throne, the apparent theme in Macbeth; Notenstein goes on to write;
James had very definite opinions on the subject and hesitated not at all to make them known. His views had weight. It is useless to deny that the royal position swayed the courts. James's part in the witch persecution cannot be condoned, save on the ground that he was perfectly honest. He felt deeply on the matter. It was little wonder. He had grown up in Scotland in the very midst of the witch alarms. His own life, he believed, had been imperilled by the machinations of witches. He believed he had every reason to fear and hate the creatures. (Notenstein, 1911, A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718, p.94)

In this text the witches represent perversion of nature and fate, but also aid the representation that man is weakened and corrupted by wayward women, seen also with Lady Macbeth. This idea has been rife in English society due to its origination within the Christian religion (Eve tempting Adam with the forbidden fruit). We encounter them firstly in Macbeth, 1.1 and then again in 1.3, in which these three Weird/Wyrd Sisters (the second word ‘Wyrd’ from the old English for fate, perhaps Shakespeare referring to the three Greek Fates, or Moirai, who controlled the thread of life for all mortals from birth to death, eluding to the idea that the witches have supernatural control over Macbeth and the events within this play) discuss where they have come from, what wicked things they have done and when they will next meet. In the line;
FIRST WITCH: But in a sieve I’ll sail. 
        Like a rat without a tail (Macbeth, 1.3, 8 - 9)

We can see how Shakespeare is looking at the unnatural elements that accused witches represented at the time such as representing distortion in natural order, this is seen in the quotation above as is not possible for a permeable object, such as a sieve, to be able to be buoyant enough to enable her to sail upon. Also in this quotation we can see how Shakespeare emphasizes the witches’ abnormality through the use of rhyme and rhythm throughout their dialogue. This is highlighted additionally, as they rhyme with each other, keep a rhythm together and speak together, creating the inhuman idea of these three people being very close to being just one. This could link to the fear of women conspiring together in order to overpower men. It is notable that witches powers and equipment are all from the domestic life of women, which are subverted to implicate evil; such as the sieve in the quotation, the broom, the cauldron etc. They also use an odd logic within juxtaposition, seen in the lines ‘when the battle’s lost and won’ (1.1, 4) as obviously when one side win, the other loses, and ‘All is foul, and foul is fair’ (10) which is virtually repeated by Macbeth ‘so foul and fair a day I have not yet seen’ (1.3, 36) which helps to extend the idea that the witches control Macbeth. They also use the second apparition to say ‘laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth’ (4.1, 95- 97), using the misleading logic of McDuff being extracted from his mother womb, rather than born. As well as the third apparition to say ‘Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him’ (106- 109) leading Macbeth to believe through these two predictions that he is unbeatable, as woods can not naturally move, which adds to his horror as the army hides behind trees to reach him. This feature of prophesy is used frequently with the witches, a feature that is now common within the Gothic.
FIRST WITCH: All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.
SECOND WITCH: All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor.
THIRD WITCH: All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!
[… to Banquo …]
FIRST WITCH: Hail! 
SECOND WITCH: Hail!
THIRD WITCH: Hail!
FIRST WITCH: Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 
SECOND WITCH: Not so happy, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH: Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
         So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! (Macbeth, 1.3, 46 – 66)

This quotation is the first example of prophesy made to Macbeth.  I have written previously, James I was obsessed with witchcraft and fearful of regicide, believing himself to be Banquo’s descendant, in this quotation we can see very obviously how Shakespeare is appealing to the ego of James by accentuating the grandeur of Banquo and linking the witches to the diabolical and scheming associated with regicide. Through the course of the play we can see how Shakespeare is showing the outcome of treason in the fate of Macbeth.

It is clear that Shakespeare was very involved within the history of England as well as its current issues and how great of a power the culture around him affected what he wrote about and the ways in which he explored old and current ideas and themes. As result he created works that were significant during their first performances, which are still as compelling presently. His use of the supernatural is indeed an interesting topic, as he uses supernatural beings not only to explore topics that his society would not have allowed, but also to address matters of life and psychology of mankind. Through addressing regicide (the diabolical), religion and witchcraft, I believe that I have shown how closely they relate to the Gothic method of focusing upon anxieties, with the intention of expressing his own views upon the hypocrisy within his culture. These texts indeed show how these two and simular text have clearly influenced the shaping of many genres in form and context, including the genre of the Gothic.




Primary texts

Greenblatt, Stephen; Cohen, Walter; Howard, Jean E. and Eisaman Maus, Katherine (eds.1997) The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Edition, Tragedies, ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Hamlet’. New York and London; Norton & Company.

Secondary texts

Botting, F. (2001) the Gothic; Essays and Studies 2001. Suffolk; Boydell and Brewer Ltd.
Buchanan, J (2005). William Shakespeare; the great comedies and tragedies, ‘Introductions’. Wordsworth Editions; Hertfordshire. (p.481-486 and p.819-823).
Bryson, B (2007). Shakespeare, the World as a Stage. Harper Press; London.
Greenblatt, Stephen; Cohen, Walter; Howard, Jean E. and Eisaman Maus, Katherine (eds.1997) The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Edition, Tragedies, ‘Introductions’. New York and London; Norton & Company.
Hogle, J. (2002) The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction- Introduction: the Gothic in Western Culture. Cambridge; Cambridge University press.
Notenstein, W (1911). A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718. Project Gutenberg. Available: <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31511/31511-h/31511-h.htm> Last accessed 12th May 2013.
Watts, C (2005). Macbeth, William Shakespeare, ‘Introduction’. Wordsworth Editions; Hertfordshire. (p.9 -23).


Source- https://lingos.co/blog/shakespeare-and-the-english-language/


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