Story and History in Things Fall Apart.

Things Fall Apart, is a famous novel written by Chinua Achebe in 1958. This novel reflects different aspects of the African culture and traditions because the story is focused in how an African man called Okonkwo faces his everyday struggles in his clan and community. The literary era of this novel is the post-colonialism, where the most remarkable aspect is the dominance of the British over the indigenous people. Things Fall Apart is infused with this fact of the history, because this novel somehow addresses the problems and consequences of a territory, in this case, of Umuofia, after the arrival of the "white" race. 

Achebe exemplified through a tragic story, some of the cultural aspects and traditions of the African society before the British conquered the indigenous land. The story in Things Fall Apart relates the life of Okonkwo and his surroundings and how after the arrival of the first white men, his life completely changed. In Umuofia, the first man who tried to help the Africans was Mr Brown and his intentions towards them were beneficial for the clans because the education improved and the Christianity was spreading all over the village, in many cases, this religion helped the african people because it gave them hope in their future.

In addition, the second man who replaced Mr Brown was Mr Smith, the difference was that Mr Smith didn't like the African people and he was always rude to them. The attitude of this man towards the Africans is more related to the colonization of Africa. For example, when the British arrived to Africa, they were not interested in a social improvement in the african territories. Therefore, they were only interested in conquering those territories and the Africans were treated as a minority. 

In conclusion, story and history in Things Fall Apart have similarities and differences between both because one of the main purposes of Achebe was to create a story with many aspects from the African culture and traditions, but even though it may include things from what happened in reality, at the end it is just a novel that states Achebe's point of view about the influence of the white race towards the Africans. Nevertheless, the story is also influenced by the African history (colonization) that helped build the Africa that we know nowadays.

  

Things Fall Apart.- First Impressions.

Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe

My first impression of Okonkwo (personality, attributes and faults). 

  

Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist who was highly admired by many other authors and readers because of his most famous novel, Things Fall Apart, where he includes different cultural aspects from the African society and literature. In this novel, Achebe achieves to create a different perspective about the African environment and also includes aspects such as the interaction between the africans as human beings, their beliefs and traditions. 

So far, the book has been about the everyday experiences of a man called Okonkwo whose life is a mere example of the African culture and beliefs.

Okonkwo has shown to be a strict man due to his good reputation in the community and because he is one of the most admired men in the village. He learned to be strong and brave because he hated the way he father was. His father was a very lazy man and everybody in the village disliked him because he wasn't productive in comparison with other men. Therefore, Okonkwo started to think that any men who didn't fight or participated in battles, wasn't men at all and he was also afraid to become like his father. This can be one explanation of his personality and behavior towards other people. 

Okonkwo's most important attribute is that because of his strong personality, he is capable to control his three wives, and he decides how he wants to raise his children. On the other hand, one of the biggest faults of Okonkwo is that sometimes he gets to be so rude that he hurts people without noticing it. He even hurts himself because he keeps all his feelings and emotions inside and do not express them, in other words, he keeps the guilt provoked by his actions inside himself and he can be seen by as a careless man. 

In conclusion, it is important to highlight that the African culture and beliefs are certainly exemplified in the novel, for example, the fact that despite Okonkwo showed to be brave, rude and mean, in the inside, he really cared about the others but the reason why he didn't express his feelings was because he wanted to prove to everyone that he was strong enough to be the "leader" and a good example of a "real man". 

 

Joseph Conrad's style

Conrad's style in Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), was a novelist whose texts have been admired for almost a century. He is highly recognized by many other literature authors and readers because of the style and word choice in his stories. One of the most famous books he has ever made is Heart of Darkness, a story full of adventure that allows the reader an imaginary journey to the Congo. Conrad’s style in this story is mostly based on hyponyms, words of more specific meaning than a general or superordinate term applicable to it. 

The firt chapter of the story starts with many descriptions about Marlow’s, the main character, surroundings. Conrad is environmentally descriptive, in comparison with Edgar Allan Poe, who uses a lot of descriptions in the characters’s aspect, temperament or thoughts. These descriptions can be expressed with the use of hyponyms, because they create a text that appears semantically richer and with more meaning compressed into each clause.

For example, in Heart of Darkness, Conrad constantly mentions the word “darkness”, and it can be related with different aspects of the story, in other words, this witty author says a lot in just a word. Through my own interpetation of the word “darkness”, I realized that it is written in different scenarios of the story but it can allude to the discrimination suffered by the Africans or to the fear of Marlow of experimenting a whole new adventure.

Summarizing,  Joseph Conrad uses hyponyms to give each sentence much more information to the reader, even though each sententence only uses a certain number of terms and has no additional words. Hyponyms allows the reader to have a more general interpretation of Conrad’s story.

Edgar Allan Poe and the Romantic Era.

Edgar Allan Poe, was an American author who created the term "short story" in the literary world. He is highly admired by many other authors and readers due to his poems and stories that encompass a macabre, dark and mystery environment. In addition, he was considered part of the American Romantic Movement, therefore, most of his works are product of a mix between aspects from the Romantic Era and characteristics from the Gothic Fiction, such as "Hop Frog", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Murderers in the Rue Morgue" and "The Pit and the Pendulum". 

 Moreover, in the Romantic story, the setting is usually set in a distant time in the past, in other words, this setting can be a dark, mysterious or unknown place. Hence, Poe created new worlds in each of his stories, so that the readers would only concentrate on the themes, motifs and the chartless environment. For example "The Murderers in the Rue Morgue" is set in France instead of America and in this detective fiction, the environment is full of mystery and astonishment because the descriptions give the reader and idea of how the setting can be in real life, but it is actually a place distant from the present, this means that, Poe creates in this work a Romantic distance from the reader. 

Equally important, the Romantic Era is also recognized because of the rejection of the rational and the intellectual, establishing an importance to the intuitive and emotional. In his critical theories, Poe emphasized that the importance of art should be related with emotions, therefore, this theory is infused in most of his works. For example, in "The Pit and the Pendulum", the main character is being tortured by his own thoughts and emotions and he is transmitting them to reader, and the beauty of this short story is in sensing and being focused on his fears and terrors. Also, in "Hop Frog" and "The Cask of Amontillado", the dwarf and Montresor committed homicide because they were driven by his emotions and the madness was impulsing them to look for revenge. 

In conclusion,  most of Poe's short stories and poems are influenced by the Romantic Era, emphasizing the human nature by giving a huge importance in the emotions of the characters. Also, it is interesting how the macabre, mysterious and dark environment is caused by the consequences of expressing those emotions and feelings. 

Margaret Atwood.

Margaret Atwood.

After reading some of Margaret Atwood's texts, I realized that she always includes Canada in them, either she describes some of the culture or important aspects (just like in "Tour-de-farce") or she just mentions the name and relates it with the rest of the text (just like in "Happy Endings"). Somehow I've learned how she admires the country she was born in and how she compares Canada with other countries such as England. I bet she is proud to be Canadian and that is one of the things I appreciate about her because instead of talking how wonderful are other countries, she talks about her natal country and makes me want to go to Canada, on the other hand, it can also be boring because everything she's relating everything with some Canadian aspects, excluding the rest of the world. But in "Tour-de-farce", even though its pretty obvious that she misses Canada, when she moves to England she realizes how much she loves her natal country but has to accept a different culture and needs to get used to it. 

Post-modernism.

What I've learned about post-modernism is a way to explain reality. It looks for a way to explain that reality and is not only how humans see or understand about it. In Post-modernism, the mind tries to understand its own reality, this is why is skeptical of explanations or arguments that claim to be valid for all groups because is focused in each person and how they consider something to be valid or true. 
The interpretations is essential in Post-modernism because as I mentioned before, it depends on each person how they consider something to be valid, so the interpretation is the most important thing because through them we can see what the world means to us and, therefore we can see how reality is constructed, individually. 

"Post-modernism cannot on its own principles ultimately justify itself any more than can the various metaphysical overviews against which the postmodern mind has defined itself." 

-Richard Tarnas (philosopher) 

Atwood and post-modernism?

 Relating post- modernism with Margaret Atwood, we can see that some of her texts contain a lot of post-modernism aspects in them, for example, in "Happy Endings" is not necessary to analyze if the text is valid or not because we can get a personal interpretation of that and give it our own validity. Another example is "Tour-de-farce", because in this text we can see that there are some important aspects of post-modernism such as self-awareness, intertextuality, deconstruction and pastiche. 

John Donne's poetry.

"The Sun Rising" and 

"The Canonization".

During this last period, in my Literature class, we've been analyzing John Donne's poetry, and two of the poems that we analyzed are "The Sun Rising" and "The Canonization". After reading them, my impressions about Donne's work didn't change at all, because the first Donne's poem that I read was "The Flea", so I realized that he has the same "essence" in all his poems (at least in the ones that I've read). He uses a lot of rhetorical figures, and of course, his famous "wit" is always present.  

Somehow, Donne uses words that seem to be simple, but when you read it again and again you realized that they can have more than one meaning. I believe that decided to use a lot of literary devices to have an unique impact in each reader, because even though he transmits a message in each of his poems, at the end, everyone can have a different interpretation because of the words he uses. There is one out of two possibilities, either you totally understood what he's saying or you didn't understand anything, and again, it is all because of the meaning of the words that he uses. 

Also, Donne is recognized due to his majestically wit, included in all his poems. He had a genius way to transmit his thoughts, feelings and beliefs. 

For example, in "The Sun Rising", he uses a lot of hyperbole and metaphors, and the poem is about two lovers being bothered by the Sun, in comparison with "The Canonization" that also has implied the theme of "love" and/or "couples" and it's mainly focused on that, in contrast with "The Sun Rising" that it's mainly focused on the Sun. "The Canonization" is about two individuals that are in love and they tell others to not criticize them for their love. They state that their love is indestructible and everyone can feel however they feel about it, because their love is going to be an example for future generations to follow.  

Now, every time I read a Donne's poem, just by reading the title I know that is going to be about religion, death, love, women or sexuality. 

Satire III

"Satire III"

 

During the last weeks, we've been reading John Donne's poetry in my Literature class. There was a poem that caught my attention immediately because it made me think a lot about God, devil and religion in general, this poem is called "Satire III". This poem mainly talks about man and religion.
It's interesting that in someway, Donne's poem makes me want to have a religion and do the "right thing" by following the word of God. Another interesting fact about "Satire III" is that he establishes that when human follow their temptations, they're not actually feeding their soul and that religion is the solution for everything they need.
This is related to the fact that people actually have a religion because they feel more confident and less scared of real life. Therefore, I can conclude by saying that it is essential for humanity to have a religion because it is a guide that will make them feel less afraid of their future.
What I learned about John Donne when I finished to read this poem is that he thought religion was the right thing for him and wanted to transmit that message to everyone else.
He was a person that really, really liked metaphors and we can see one in the beginning of "Satire III", when he says "Death be not proud".
My experience with "Satire III" is that at first, I didn't understand what he was talking about because his constant use of metaphor, so I had to read it again and again. Also I realized that for a lot of people, religion (how Donne describes it) is their answer and guide for everything, but not for me. 

 

 

 

 

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is.

Albert Camus

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 "I would rather live my life as if there's a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is." 

-Albert Camus

John Donne

John Donne 

In our English class we've been reading poetry lately. We've read a lot about John Donne's poems and I've discovered that his poetry is literally unique. There are not other words to describe it because when I first read "The Flea", I realized how intelligent he was for writing something with double meaning that at first sight looks really simple but when you read it again and again, you realize that its more than simple. 

At first sight, when reading "The Flea", I thought that he was talking about a real flea, but once I started to analyze it, I realized the intellect of Donne's because he choose words that are not related to each other at all, but once you give them meaning, you realize that they have a lot in common and can be interpreted as something else. For example, in "The Flea", the "flea" represents marriage between a man and a women. 

 John Donne is famous for his wit, this means that his poems are full of multiple meanings because he uses a lot of words that have double meaning but because of the context of the other words, we can understand what he is talking about. 

Undoubtedly he is different from other poets because in comparison with others, he uses a lot of "common words" in his poems that have a hidden meaning and other poems use a lot of "complex words" that can cause confusion towards the reader because sometimes we don't know what do they refer to. 

My opinion about his poetry is that its universal in the way that he talks about a lot of themes such as love, war, religion, etc. I believe that he mainly used "common words" with different meanings because he thought that the importance of the message in his poems, depends on every person and their own interpretation.

 

"Since you would save none of me, I bury some of you."

-John Donne

”Donne is in the habit of elaborating a figure to the furthest stage to which ingenuity can carry it."

-Joan Bennett 

Since you would save none of me, I bury some of you.

John Donne

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Since you would save none of me, I bury some of you.

John Donne

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Since you would save none of me, I bury some of you.

John Donne

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Poetry.

Poetry. 

In Literature class, we have been reading about poetry and I would the discussions and readings have changed my point of view in some way because there are some facts I already knew about poetry. One of the things we discussed was that something becomes "poetry" when the author transmits his/her feelings in words and make them in such a perfect way because the words have rhyme without affecting the meaning of the message. I also believe that poetry is a way of interpreting the world in all its manners. The feelings you have inside are what make you write poetry and this poetry causes more feelings on the readers. Poetry is about express your feelings without saying something, is about writing those feelings. 

A poem needs to have rhyme and meter because these elements are what makes a poem unique. It can also have rhetorical figures, therefore, readers will have to reflect deeper when reading the poem, and its meaning will be stronger and richer.

  

Personally, I prefer romantic, heartbreaking or motivational poems over all. What I like about them is that most of the times whenever you don't understand something, at the end, the important thing about reading a poem, is the interpretation you give to it.

The discussions in class made me realize the importance and purpose of poetry. I realized that poems are written based on experiences and feelings. 

A poem must have poetry, if not, it wouldn't be a poem. Poetry still exists without being in a poem, because it can be created without intentions. Also, a poem becomes a poem when a man uses poetry to express his feelings, thoughts or experiences.

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.

Robert Frost

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A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.

Robert Frost

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 "A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness."

-Robert Frost

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.

Robert Frost

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Semiotics and insights

Semiotics and insights 

The perspective that Semiotics brings me to my every day life is a new one, because it helps me with the interpretation and analysis of symbols, it also helps me to give those symbols the right meaning according to the context. Since there are a lot of words with a lot of meanings and if someone tells me "you may see a rainbow in May" or even if I read it in an article, the words "may" sound the same, but because of my knowledge acquired by society, I can give meaning to those "may" according to the context of the sentence, therefore, I can conclude that person told me that I am probably going to see a rainbow in the month of May. 

In conclusion, it helps me understand better the symbols in society. 

After watching Throne of Blood and after reading Macbeth, I concluded that humans are naturally ambitious and they are going to be looking for power all the time because they will never be satisfied. It doesn't even matter everything you have to do to achieve your goals, you'll always want to have the best.  This means that whenever someone wants something so much, that person can even forget about his/her inner humanity, and can commit crimes such as murder. 

As conclusion I learned from Throne of Blood and Macbeth, that karma exists and what you give is what you receive, so, for your bad actions, you'll receive worse things. If you kill, sooner or later the guilt is going to attack you, therefore, you're either going to commit suicide or going to be killed by someone else. 

"As long as karma exists, the world changes. There will always be karma to be taken care of."

-Nina Hagen

Throne of Blood and Macbeth

"They say dreams manifest our basest desires."

-Throne of Blood (1957)

Throne of Blood and Macbeth

Throne of Blood, a novel written by Kurosawa, is a Japanese adaptation of Macbeth by Shakespeare, except that Macbeth is derived from historical events in the eleventh-century Scotland and Throne of Blood is derived from the civil war in medieval Japan. 

Many people consider Throne of Blood as an adaptation of Macbeth, others don't. However, both of them have a lot of similarities. For example, Shakespeare's play contains ideas of kingship, ambition, murder, evilness, among others. On the other hand, Kurosawa in Throne of Blood, also demonstrates how a human becomes from being a moderated person into a blinded one due to the hunger of power. Kurosawa dramatizes in Throne of Blood murder and evilness, which can be considered as themes. Other similarity between these two plays, is the encounter with the witch, however, we can infer from Kurosawa's movie, that when Washizu saw the witch for the first time his reaction towards her was serious and unrelenting, in contrast, in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth's first reaction towards the witches was of eagerly confrontation.  

                            

When Washizu met the witch, he wasn't the one that asked about the omens demonstrating that we wasn't anxious and/or ambitious about the outcome of his future. In contrast with Macbeth, Macbeth was the one that insisted the witches to tell him about his future and fame that was predicted by them. Washizu left the forest after his encounter with the witch but Macbeth didn't show an eager reaction, instead, he decided to stay and had a discussion with Banquo. 

Another difference between both is that Washizu became speechless after he hear the prediction of the witch but Macbeth asked Banquo if his sons would be kings, because he was wondering about how many impediments he had to eliminate for the fulfillment of his desire: becoming king. 

Another similarity between both, is the atrocities Washizu and Macbeth need to commit to achieve their purposes created due to the wicked prophecy. Washizu assassinated the Great Lord and Macbeth assassinated King Duncan. Both cracked under pressure when they decided to take away someone else's life, they also longed to have more power.

 There is a similarity between Lady Macbeth and Asaji-donno, both manipulated their husband and led them take the wrong way. It is important to say that as well as their husbands, they both were ambitious, they wanted to have power. However, there is also a difference between them, Asaji-donno was not the most word-expressive woman, instead she used a lot facial expressions to imply her  thoughts, this made Washizu feel vulnerable and weak. On the contrary, Lady Macbeth seemed to be  very word-expressive with his husband. Asaji-donno told his husband several times that the seeking  of power and crown was a conduct that shouldn't cause guilt nor pain. On the other hand, Lady  Macbeth did several wrong actions, she blamed herself for causing the irrevocable sin with remorse  and made his husband murder others. 

It is  possible that Kurosawa choose to emphasize certain aspects over other Shakespeare emphasizes because of his culture, he was Japanese and Shakespeare was English. Maybe Kurosawa adapted Macbeth in Throne of Blood, taking in consideration the interests of the Japanese society. One of his purposes was to show the world the most important values of the Japanese culture and how Japanese society decide to face situations according to their principles and values. 

 

Shakespeare and human nature.

Macbeth

Part II 

Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, better known by most of the world due to his unique works. In them, he uses metric for an specific purpose because he wants to transmit something to the reader. It is amazing how he achieved to have a giant impact on the readers with his words, it obviously that he knew how to express his feelings in a piece of paper. Undoubtedly, his works were, are and will be some of the most precious and privileged creations in Literature.

One of his most famous creations is Macbeth, which I talked about in my last post. The thing here is that Macbeth contains a message related to human nature in the seek of power. According to Hobbes's philosophy, all men are equal by nature but each one of them looks for their own conservation that leads to competition and mistrust between each other, starting to live in a permanent war field. 

Each and every one of  humans on Earth, look for their own benefit. At the beginning of the "competition" in their seek for power, they may seem to be caring towards others but at the end the main priority is themselves. It doesn't matter if at the end they end up hurting someone as long as they have what they wanted, they will be satisfied.

The problem is that whenever humans achieve what they wanted in first place, they will be happy momentarily, but will want to have more and more. It's in the nature of humans be competitive and to have an unfulfilled appetite of having infinite power, just as Hobbes said: "man is a wolf to man".

There is no such thing as perpetual tranquillity of mind while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense.
Thomas Hobbes
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There is no such thing as perpetual tranquillity of mind while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense.
Thomas Hobbes
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There is no such thing as perpetual tranquillity of mind while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense.
Thomas Hobbes
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"There is no such thing as perpetual tranquility

of mind while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense".

-Thomas Hobbes 

In comparison, Shakespeare exemplifies in Macbeth this philosophy. At the beginning of the novel, we can see that Macbeth is a man that would do anything in order to have a place in the throne, even if this means that he has to take away someone's life. He killed his own cousin and best friend, that caused him to be blinded by his hunger for power. 

It is inferred from this novel that there is always a karma that makes people have in return what they have done. This karma is not necessarily bad but it is just about the rules of life, you get what you give. Macbeth is the example of human nature in its very worst way, that is the reason why Macbeth ended up being murdered. 

"It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood"

—After Banquo's ghost has gone, Macbeth feels that his crime is pursuing him.

In conclusion, this play shows that everyone can choose the path they want to take in life, whether they make bad choices or not and how this decisions affect the outcome of someone's future.

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair." 

-The witches's philosophy of life.

Macbeth- William Shakespeare

Macbeth

This novel dramatizes the story of an Scottish general called Macbeth who had an unexpected encounter with three witches that made a prophecy about his future. His destiny is about to change just at the moment he gets to know that he is going to be the king of Cawdor; but, how is this possible if the current king of Cawdor is still alive? 

Themes in Macbeth

The most notable theme in this novel is certainly ambition. Macbeth is a man that would do anything in order to get the throne and fulfill his desires and aspirations, even though his personality and values make him regret his crimes, he continues doing such crimes but at the end he is not capable to bear the consequences of his acts. Similarly, Lady Macbeth is a highly ambitious woman who shows everyone her strength and her ability to control the relationship between her and Macbeth. As his husband, she aspires to have power and position in the throne. At the beginning of the play, she shows as the evil character that would commit atrocities or make others commit crimes just to assuage her desires and temptations. 

Furthermore, the relationship between these two characters could also be another theme, because they constantly show their love in an unique and cruel way*. They are presented as being in love and they commit crimes together. Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth's behavior, making him commit acts he hadn't planned, therefore, he seems insecure to act for himself. 
*Cruel because they are in a constant fight of who is in charge of the relationship. Also, Lady Macbeth constantly bothers his husband by questioning his manhood and skills he doesn't have. 

Between these two characters exists a noticeable exchange of personalities as the play progresses. At the beginning of the novel, Lady Macbeth seems to be really firm because of the decisions she made and how she command over others.
Macbeth may have the idea of committing the crime on his mind, but there's something missing that will force him to commit the atrocities, this is where Lady Macbeth has an important role, because she's the one that impulses his husband to act in such way.

Lady Macbeth's behavior can be exemplified in the next quote (Act I, scene 5):

Lady Macbeth: 

"The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th’ effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry ‘Hold, hold!’"

We can infer from this quote that Lady Macbeth would have commited murder in order to have power and position in the throne. This speech demonstrates the audience that she is the engine behind every decision that Macbeth makes. Because of the first impression, we can easily say that the ambitious one is Lady Macbeth. I believe that both are ambitious because Lady Macbeth manipulates his husband, but in some way Macbeth's ambitiousness makes presence because if he had not wanted to make such acts, he would deny to do them, but there was something inside him telling him that he must do such atrocities (his ambition). So, I can conclude that both committed the crimes together, it wasn't just about Lady Macbeth's manipulation over his husband.

 

 

What I have liked by far about Macbeth, is that is kinda based on the life of James I. Also that it shows how karma interferes in the story, making the criminals regret for their actions. Another interesting aspect is the presence of Lady Macbeth; she is not the stereotypical woman that is manipulated by his husband, conversely, she shows in a certain way, the strength of women in relationships. I really like the way ambitiousness is exemplified in this novel and what can the man do to fulfill his desires.

The only thing I don't like about Macbeth is that is written as a play. I understand that it was the main purpose for it, but I would have liked it better if it wasn't written like that. 

"Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,

As the weird women promised, and I fear

Thou pay'dst most foully for't"

-Alone, Banquo reflects on Macbeth's rise to the throne.