Macbeth's Soliloquy

One of the soliloquy of Act 1 scene 1 is spoken by Lady Macbeth. In this part of the soliloquy, Lady Macbeth has already developed the thought of murdering Duncan. She has decided to persuade Duncan of this horrible deed. This soliloquy is her talk to herself about securing and strengthening the thought of doing this violent action. She wished for the evil spirits to take away all her thoughts of human conscience and kindness, to change her personality into an evil one. She wanted the darkness of night to cover up the evil deeds she was going to do so that no one who is just can stop her. This foreshadows how Duncan might really be killed during his stay at Macbeth’s castle. It also shows a little about Lady Macbeth’s feminist side of controlling her husband and her sureness of her influence on Macbeth. This soliloquy contributes to the story line by bringing about Duncan’s death. The other soliloquy is revealed by Macbeth about his opinion on death. The news of Lady Macbeth’s death plunged him a little more into misery. However, the news also made him gave up on himself. He conveyed the thought of how every person has to die on day. It is just a matter of time. Macbeth thought that life is short and line an illusion. He compared life to a candle that does not last long and a poor actor whose time on stage is short and unimportant. To Macbeth at this point, life to him is already lacking meaning. It is just like a drama that is full of conflicts and troubles but without goals to achieve. I think this soliloquy contributes to this scene’s mood of sympathy toward Macbeth and desolation of Macbeth. It also foreshadows how Macbeth’s depressions may lead him to his eventual downfall.

Should We Live for Today?

Many people think that people should live for the moment and have fun as much as you can because you only live once. However, I have always disagreed with that viewpoint. In my viewpoint, I think people should cherish their life time for every moment and make good use of it for every moment. After all, don’t you only live once? Don’t you want to seize the chance of being a successful for your life time because you don’t know you will have another chance after you died? Seizing the day for just the moment can lead to a downfall in the long run. For example, students often think that they can have fun or rest first before they finished their homework. The truth is, they often procrastinate for too long and ended up rushing on their homework and sleeping late. This negative cycle can repeat again and again and eventually lead to a downfall of grades and academic achievement. People can easily see the negative effects of seizing the moment if they plan everything with a vision and not just wanting to have fun for the moment and think that they can finish everything in just a short period. Only working continuously for the long term or work before having fun is the solution in my opinion.

What is the Role of Death in Life?

I think I treat the concept of death in a very respectful and maybe somehow a fearful way. Three years ago my grandfather was diagnoses with stomach cancer. The doctor said it is best to take away two thirds of my grandfather’s stomach where the tumor is found. The doctor also mentioned how although the infected stomach is removed, there is a chance the cancer cells can still spread to other parts of the body. I still remember the time when I dealt with the thought of losing my grandfather. I suddenly regret the many times I felt impatient when my grandfather reminded me to study hard. I suddenly felt very grateful for the time when my grandfather is still healthy and has the strength to cook my favorite dish. After this close knowledge of death, I think I became more thankful for my grandfather existence and even his nagger for me to study harder. I know that it is because he loves me and cares for me that he bothers to remind me. I begin to cherish the time that I spend with my grandfather. After my grandfather came out of the hospital, I visit him more often. Because of my grandfather’s experience, I began to mind my own diet. I try to eat breakfast everyday and more vegetables. I do truly appreciate life more. I  learned to cherish it more because we can’t predict what happens next.

What Should We Expect from Our Leaders?

I think the qualities of intelligence, working ethics, morality, courage, eloquence, charisma, and devotion are all important qualities. I think the most important quality would be the charisma of a leader. Sure is intelligence important. If a person does not have the quality of intelligence, he will she will never know what it the best policy to make and what is the best decision. However, with no charisma, even if a leader has the best policy to enforce, no one will trust or support the viability of the policy. Charisma is essential for a leader to persuade his or her citizens and to make his or her companions agreeable to his or her ruling.

 A great leader would be Gandhi. At a time when Indians were facing unfair treatments, Gandhi used his intelligence to think in the long term of what is best for all Indians. In his mind, Britain treating India unfairly is morally wrong. He then decided they should fight back for their own rights or else they would never get fait trade. At that time, no one dared to revolt against the powerful Great Britain. Gandhi had the courage and took the initiative and boycotted against British goods. He must have been a great speaker, too. He persuaded people to follow him at the risk of being punished by Britain.

Why is Memorizing the Sonnet harder than Memorizing Beowulf

Today my recitation did not go as smooth as I thought it would. I immediately thought that memorizing the sonnet is harder than memorizing Beowulf after trying to memorizing the first four lines of Sonnet 18. One of the reason is that Shakespeare uses a lot if unusual grammatical structures. For example, Shakespeare may alternate the usual structure of subject plus a verb to a clause that starts with a conjunction or a preposition. He used this to gain parallelism of the sentence structures. Another reason is the usage of really formal or old-fashioned words. I need to spend more time trying to define the words and apply it to the general meaning of the whole sonnet.I think it is harder for me to understand without the basic and direct sentence structure. Another reason is the lack of a story plot or story line. For Beowulf, other than the quite straightforward language, there is a story line that conveys its details in order. Conversely, in Sonnet 18, there is generally no story line that I can make it into a continuous “slideshow” of images in my head. It really helps me memorize. I think that a reason for me to do not as smoothly is my lack of sleep. Sleep can really determine the efficiency and amount a person can memorize. In conclusion, I think the many grammar and rhetoric usages combined with formal English words is the reason why it is harder than the relatively modern-day English Beowulf.

Can You Ever Be Too Ambitious

In my opinion, people can sometimes be too ambitious. In today’s society, competition is very fierce. Thus being successful is very important to many. However, this success can lead to overwhelming greed or ambition. Once people tasted the sweetness of victory, they tend to yearn for more and to want to achieve something even more advanced. One example is Napoleon’s loss of power. Initially, Napoleon is successful at gaining power over a few countries. However, he became too confident. He became too ambitious and tried to take over too many countries than he could handle. In the end, his people revolted against him and he spent the rest of his life in isolation. I think there are many failures, like the example of Napoleon, which resulted from being overly ambitious. Of course a little ambition is needed to achieve success. Nevertheless, if someone could not handle fame and praise well, they can become too confident and then lead to the state when they develop too much ambition. This is usually when bad decisions are made about actions that are often out of their lead. In conclusion, too much ambition can lead to failures.

Differences of The 13th Warrior and Beowulf

        The 13^th warriors, in my opinion, is not totally different from Beowulf. They have many similarities and differences. The two have generally the same central idea of trying to find an epic hero and trying to rescue people out of the monster’s atrocity. Firstable, one of the smaller difference are the names of the characters. Beowulf is called Buliwyf in the film and the addition of the 13^th warrior to fight with Beowulf called Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan. The perspective of the two is also different. The story of the 13^th warrior is filmed through the perspective of the 13^th warrior, Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan. However, in Beowulf, the story is described through a third person perspective. I would say that different form the poem Beowulf, the warriors in the film are somewhat confused about the goal of the journey and at times of decision making rather than devoted to whatever the decisions Beowulf made as in the poem. For example, the 13^th warrior is confused why he is chosen to fight, for he is not even a warrior. However, we can see the different personalities of the warriors. Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan is actually a sympathetic man because he saves the child who was running away from the attack and has a compassionate heart for those who are suffering. I will also say Beowulf in the film is more of a kind and sympathetic man who wishes to purge the monsters rather than like in the poem, he came to Herot to prove his almightiness in battling. In all, the film shows more of the parts of how each warrior show of their own personalities and physical strength rather than just Beowulf gaining the credits and fame himself.

        There are also small changes in characters. For example, in the film, there are more than one monster. There are others dragons who accompany Grendel rather than just Grendel who appears. It was like a race. Also, Beowulf in the film did not kill the monsters the first time compared to the poem. He only killed the monsters the second time and get scratched and poisoned by the mother monster. In the poem, Beowulf was hurt by another dragon ho guards treasure in the mountains. Another different fact is that the monsters only take away the dead man’s head rather dragging the whole body down to his den to devour, as in the poem, to devour themselves.