The Situation:

Act III of Macbeth is where it all starts to come unravelled for our intrepid hero. He sends murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance, and then is almost immediately confronted by his BFF's ghost at a feast, which results in some enjoyably twitchy awkwardness.

It all seems fairly straightforward, except for one thing: the mysterious appearance of a third murderer in Act III sc iii. Once again, Shakespeare has decided to toy with us, and give us what seems to be an unsolvable puzzle: Who is the Third Murderer?

The interwebz will lead you to several suspects (Macbeth himself, Lady Mac, Lennox, Ross...one badly supported student essay online is certain that it's Macduff, and another fairly legitimate seeming article will suggest that he's not really a man at all, but the physical manifestation of Macbeth's paranoid willpower), so there's not much joy to be had in just Googling it. Guess you'll just have to hash it out amongst yourselves and make up your own mind.

The Assignment:

a) In an informally written blog post of about 500 words, choose a suspect for the Third Murderer and attempt to prove, using evidence from the play itself and your native wits, that your suspect is the most likely candidate.

b) Make specific references to the text (plot elements, speech patterns, quotations, etc.) to support your theory. You may also make reference to life, movies, other things you've read, etc., so long as it's relevant and supports your idea. Be sure to cite or quote your supporting material.

c) Finally, somewhere in your blog you must make a detailed comment about at least one classmate's posting, agreeing, disagreeing, or taking the discussion in a different direction.

*Include your NAME in the title of your entry.
**You may use graphics and images to help illustrate your points (Breaton loves some delicious memes).
***To make a new post, look in the top right corner of this blog page for a "New Post" button.

HEADS UP!
You may notice that there are a lot of people in this blog, and not necessarily folks from your class. That's because this is the first time I've invited two concurrent classes to the same blog for a giant cage-match discussion. So, you're not just competing against your own classmates, you're also in it against my other English class as well. Heh heh. Have fun!
Dig deep. Take no prisoners.

Saturday, 29 September 2018

Theory: The Third Murderer - Zaina Siddique

Zaina Siddique

ENG3U1

Mr. Breaton

28th September 2018
Theory:  The Third Murderer

  In the play, Macbeth, Act 3 is the turning point in the play. It begins with Macbeth plotting the murder of Banquo and convincing the murderers to kill Banquo. While the two murderers were awaiting the arrival of Banquo a third murderer comes in and contributes to the murder. With all the characters taken in perspective, the third murderer is Hecate. The Goddess wanted to mend the damage done by the three witches, she was the one who put out the light to save the heir to the throne and they have the powers to know the future i.e. the murder plot.

The Goddess of Magic, Hecate, was angry at the three witches for speaking out the prophecy to Macbeth, “Have I not a reason, beldams you are? Saucy and overbold, how did you dare to trade and traffic with Macbeth.” (III.v.2-5). Because Hecate has control over the three witches, she now wishes to control the damage they’ve created. Since they are witches, they are already aware of the future, in this case, they are aware of Banquo’s murder plan. She wants to make sure that no further damage is done and intervenes at the murder scene as the third murderer.

Image result for macbeth hecate memes

Goddess Hecate was the one who put out the light before the assault that was being done on Banquo. If we carefully look at scene 3, while Banquo was being stabbed by the other two murderers, Hecate took this opportunity to light out the lamps, as all the attention was towards Banquo. And immediately after, Hecate says, “who did strike out the light?”. (III.iii.20). She did this so that the suspicion is off her and onto someone else. The main motive behind Hecate being present there, was to help the heir to the throne, Fleance, from being killed. There was no light which made it very easy for Fleance to escape, then the murderers would not be able to carry out another murder.

The three witches and Hecate, as seen in Act 1 scene 1, can tell the future. “That will be ere the set of sun.”. (I.i.5). Although Macbeth kept the plot a secret from everybody else, he couldn’t stop Hecate from being aware of the plan. Another thing to note is that the main component of the murder plot was the knowledge of pathways and what way Banquo uses to get around the palace. “Almost a mile, but he usually does – so all men do – from hence to the palace gate make it their walk.”. (III.iii.13-15). Hecate was already aware of this, she didn’t need to be told by Macbeth the whereabouts of Banquo like the other two murderers.

Image result for macbeth hecate memes

From all the points mentioned, I strongly feel that the third murderer is Hecate. Hecate had the powers and the knowledge, she wanted to mend the mistakes of the witches and wanted to save the throne. Another thing to note is that Goddess Hecate didn’t appear there in her original form, she had the powers to transform herself into any other character who Banquo was familiar with. The third murderer’s form could’ve been any other character, whose presence wouldn’t make Banquo alert, but it doesn’t change the fact that the true being behind the transformed character was Hecate.

Karina Tavernese mentioned in her blog that she certainly feels that Macbeth is the third murderer. I disagree with this opinion because the reason Macbeth appointed murderers was so that he may flee from the suspicion of the Thanes and that he couldn't kill his own best friend. I will also disagree with anyone who mentions the thanes and Queen as, the second murderer clearly says, "the rest that is within the note of expectation already are i'th' court.".(III.iii.12-13). He says that all the king's guests, which includes Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, as they are hosts, are in the court and cannot be the third murderer.

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Toronto: Nelson Education. Print.




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