Hello Mrs. Henry,Here is my proposal for my essay, i know I am turning it late, but would you please read it and grade it as you would like.
Thank you, In the essay I will be writing, i am planning to explain and demonstrate how two of the most important themes are used and applied in the play, Macbeth; these are the themes of being hungry for power, such as Macbeth is, and the appearance of ambition in the play. I will be writing about Act 1, Scene 7, Lines 1-96. This entire Act of the play represents the ambition that Macbeth is feeling to finally kill Duncan, but Macbeth faces some problems, as he knows he is supposed to protect the King, not kill him. He knows that Heaven will come down on him with rage and anger for committing such a crime as killing the King he is supposed to serve and protect to the death. In this Act, Macbeth thinks long and hard about his feelings for killing King Duncan. He does not want to in the end, but his wife, Lady Macbeth, enters after line 18, interrupting Macbeth, who is describing what a tragedy it would be on the kingdom if he killed the beloved King. Lady Macbeth questions his manhood, if he really is what he said he was, if he would go through with his promises, even asking if he even is a man.
Macbeth had refused himself from killing Duncan, for he had no just reason to kill him, until his wife entered; he regains all confidence in himself, and collects all the ambition he needs to go through with the deed. He now truly believed what the witches had said to him during the start of the play, that he will become king, but consequences will arise. For this passage i will use many quotes, including, “Art thou afeard / To be the same in thine own act and valor / As thou art in in desire?”, and this Macbeth quote that ultimately makes him believe in himself that he is a man; “I dare do all that may become a man.” For my essay, i will focus mostly on one literary element, which contains two subtopics.
The element is theme, so i will be focusing on the themes of ambition and the hunger for more power. By the theme, “power hungry”, i will prove and demonstrate with quotes to show the progression of Macbeth’s love for more power, and the ambition he needs to just reach that point. Macbeth himself, starts out a gentle soul, then he meets the three witches who tell him about the future and what he is destined to become. Macbeth at first does not believe him, but as the play goes on, he starts to realize that the prophecies depicted by the witches, are real. He continues killing more, and more people until he reaches his end, the path he chose had consequences that he did not think could happen to him. He becomes selfish and doesn’t care about what could happen to him, because he believes he cannot be “touched” by who he has not hurt, yet. As for my outside sources, I plan on using the book, Macbeth, that we are using to read in class.
I choose this because it contains all of the quotes I need to reference with my essay, and is a legitimate source to use, as it is found in the “Folger’s Shakespeare Library”. I plan to organize my essay, or prompt, in five paragraphs. In the First, I will insert my essay topic and thesis for the prompt given. For the Second, I will write a summary and paraphrase the Act and Scene i have chosen.
Next, in the Third paragraph, i will analyse and “close read” the Act and Scene. In the Fourth, I will connect the passage to other important moments in Macbeth. Finally, in the Last paragraph, the essay will end with an explanation of how important the two themes of ambition and “power hungry” are in the passage.
Throughout each paragraph, when either theme comes into context, I will insert a quotation form either of my two outside sources. At the time, i do not have any questions regarding this essay. Adrien Steunou
