Macbeth's Netflix Queue

Dexter:  Dexter revolves around Dexter Morgan, a forensic scientist and serial killer who rectifies crimes by killing those who committed them.  Neither Macbeth nor Dexter can seem to get away from blood, since Dexter analyzes it for a living and Macbeth is haunted by the blood of the people whose deaths he is responsible for.  Macbeth agrees with Dexter’s methods of solving his problems: kill people who would be better off dead.  Furthermore, both Dexter and Macbeth understand the importance of maintaining a normal facade to continue living their lives as they please.

Marco Polo:  This show is about Marco Polo, a trader on the Silk Road, and his adventures in a China ruled by the brutal Kublai Khan.  Macbeth likes this show because of the ruthless and conflicted Kublai Khan.  This emperor reminds Macbeth of himself and his own personal struggles with his power and actions.  

Game of Thrones:  In this intense and complex show, various royal families fight each other for complete power over Westeros, a mythical land with technology similar to medieval Europe in the 1400s.  Macbeth loves this show because it ascribes to male stereotypes of strong men fighting valiantly for their territory and families.  He also enjoys the power struggle seen in the show because it reminds him of his own fight to maintain power.

The Flash:  The Flash is a young man who gains superhuman speed when he is struck by lightning and decides to use his powers to fight crime in New York City.  Macbeth enjoys the supernatural element in this show, since one of the characters can see and tries to control the future just like the three witches.  He also likes that the Flash has to hide behind a mask when he fights bad guys, because Macbeth also has to mask his true self.  Lastly, Macbeth loves to see a man saving the day and defeating evil, because it reminds Macbeth of his past when he fought with his comrades to destroy traitors.

Macbeth the Evil Protagonist

To be evil is to go against the ethical rules of a society both in action and thought.  In a culture that values respecting others, evil could manifest itself in a person who kills other people for his/her own benefit.  Furthermore, if being noble in a society means being selfless, an evil person could be someone who only thinks of him/herself regardless of other peoples’ values or well-beings.  In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the main character Macbeth shifts from being a respected nobleman in Scotland to a ruthless, evil murderer of the king and his best friend.  

In the beginning of the tragedy, Macbeth is not the least bit evil, but he soon takes the first step into evil because of a prophecy that three witches tell Macbeth in Act One of the play.  The witches say, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! / All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!” (Macbeth, 1.3).  The witches imply that Macbeth will one day be Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland by addressing him as such.  Macbeth very much believes in fate, as shown by his remark later in the play, “If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me, / Without my stir” (Macbeth, 1.3).  Through the use of the word “chance,” Macbeth shows that he values the witches’ beliefs and thinks that their words were prophetic.  The witches’ prophecy therefore enticed Macbeth’s greed for power by making him wholeheartedly believe that he is destined to be the ruler of Scotland.

Although the witches sparked Macbeth’s lust for power, Lady Macbeth played an important role in Macbeth actually killing the king and thus taking his first step into evil.  Lady Macbeth encourages her husband to kill the king so that he can fulfill the prophecy: “And live a coward in thine own esteem, / letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ / Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage?” (Macbeth 1.7).  To persuade Macbeth to murder Duncan, she insults his manhood by calling him a “coward” and using a simile to compare him to a cat who refuses to get its paws wet even though it wants a fish.  Later, Macbeth agrees to kill the king so that he and his wife can become powerful: “I am settled, and bend up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat” (Macbeth, 1.7).  In this line, Macbeth conveys that he will commit the “terrible feat” of killing Duncan because he is “settled,” in other words, he has made up his mind.  Macbeth becomes evil, because he decides to kill another human being to get what he wants.  Although he is described in the beginning of the play as heroic, brave, and respectable, his actions after hearing the words of the witches and being persuaded by his wife to kill the king show that he is also easily manipulated.  This flaw, combined with his desire for power that the witches helped plant in him, result in him taking his first step into evil.

As a consequence of Macbeth becoming evil, he suffers from guilt and insanity.  After killing Duncan, Macbeth demonstrates his massive guilt: “What hands are here? Ha!  They pluck out mine eyes!” (Macbeth 2.3).  Macbeth is horrified by the crime he has committed, as shown by his shocked exclamation marks as though he cannot believe what he has done. He uses personification to show his guilt, saying that his bloody hands seem to rip his eyes out of his head every time they remind him of what he has done.  Later, after Macbeth sent two Murderers to kill Banquo, Macbeth’s guilt and insanity manifest themselves into Banquo’s ghost.  When he sees his best friend’s ghost, he begins to talk to it and says, “Approach thou like a rugged Russian bear, / The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger; / Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves / Shall never tremble” (Macbeth 3.4).  In this quote, Macbeth says that he would not be afraid if the ghost looked like a bear, a rhinoceros, or a tiger.  But since the ghost looks like the dead Banquo, Macbeth is terrified.  This display of insane fear of an imagined ghost shows how Macbeth’s character has been totally changed by his shift to evil.  While Macbeth used to be described as brave and courageous, he is now fearful and crazy.  Ultimately, becoming evil has caused Macbeth to become a different character from the man that was introduced in the beginning of the play.  While he used to represent the ideals of Scottish society, Macbeth's character has shifted to go against all that his culture values and he is now an insane, fearful, greedy man that will sacrifice anyone to maintain his power.

 

    The title of this 1585 art piece is "Ewer," and the structure is about 13 ⅝ inches tall. The porcelain was made in China and once it arrived in England, a silver-gilt mount was made for it in London.  

 

    This art piece represents a fusion of Chinese and English cultures.  The porcelain was created in the Wanli period of China (1573-1620), which was a time within the Ming dynasty rule.  The Ming dynasty emphasized the recurrence of more traditional Chinese culture in art like realistic composition, bird and flower pairings, narratives, and large landscapes.  Although this piece was created relatively late in the Ming dynasty’s rule, it was still influenced by the earlier Mongol Yuan dynasty traditions that mixed Chinese and foreign customs.  This is why the porcelain has a blue and white pattern, because that color pattern is common in Islamic art and is therefore indicative of the Muslim influence that occurred through trade during the Mongol Yuan dynasty.  

In the 16th century, Chinese craftsmen began to make porcelain pieces specifically for a European market, making functional forms like ewers, mugs, and candlesticks that were not used in China.  Chinese porcelain, however, was still very rare in England at this time, so the most worthy silversmiths were instructed to create beautiful mounts for each piece.  Queen Elizabeth ruled England when this silver-gilt mount was made, and during her rule, English arts and economy flourished.  The most popular works were often decorative, which is exemplified in this piece with its intricate carvings.  In fancy dishes of the time, foliage designs were often used, which is probably why the extensive decorations on the mount are leaves and flowers.  As the middle and upper class grew due to the booming economy, silver was becoming much more popular, which is probably the mount of this ewer is made of silver.  Creating gilded sculptures with bronze was also popular, which is why this mount has a bronze gilt tinting its silver color.

The compositions of both art forms are telling.  In the porcelain, the base pattern of the trees and birds seem to be arranged chronologically by the seasons, since one panel contains two birds in a flowering tree and the next one contains the same two birds in the tree that has fruit where the flowers used to be.  The neck of the ewer has a more decorative purpose, since it just contains leaves.  Both of these techniques allude to traditional Chinese art forms containing vegetation and bird landscapes, as well as narratives like this one involving the seasons.  The structure of the mount is also interesting, since the majority of it contains small leaf- or flower-like carvings in the metal but it also contains a strange merman-creature.  The mount’s largest section is of a merman-creature with wings and a snake-like tail, arching up to create a curved handle.  Below this strange creature are strips of silver curving down the large base of the porcelain containing carved flowers and leaves.  The textures of the mount’s metal differ depending on the item--the merman’s tail is poked with dots to feel scaly while the face was fashioned to feel smooth.  Ultimately, all of these artistic techniques show the popular trend of opulence at the time, because the techniques enrich the work so that it is more decorative than functional.

The subject matter of both pieces greatly influences their significance.  Both the porcelain and the mount contain extensive vegetation.  The subject of the porcelain is a landscape containing birds in trees found in China, while the mount contains vegetation like leaves and flowers.  The significance of the Chinese porcelain could be to demonstrate the customs of China to the European world, since the narratives and vegetation-bird landscapes within the porcelain were a tradition of Chinese art.  The mount seems to follow this trend of establishing traditions with its vegetation, however it also shows something more unexpected--the merman-creature.  I believe that this creature is the most important part of the mount, because I think that it demonstrates the mount’s significance.  The creature could be representative of the supernatural world, because it seems to contain a mixture of different beasts--mermaids, angels, and devilish serpents.  In Queen Elizabeth’s time, the belief in the supernatural was prevalent in England.  This belief went contrary to what Elizabeth desired because Protestants like the Queen were not supposed to believe in such things like the supernatural.  Outlawed Catholicism, on the other hand, involved the belief of the supernatural.  Although many people claimed to be Protestants, this belief in the supernatural was still prominent in the region in this time period.  Ultimately, the meaning of this mount could be that Catholicism was prevalent within England during this mid-late 1500s even though it was outlawed.  

    Although the function of this ewer is to demonstrate rich British peoples’ wealth because of the rarity of Chinese porcelain, popularity of vegetation in decoration, and expensiveness of silver-gilt, by looking closer at the subject matter the more deep significance can be revealed.  For the modern audience, looking at the cultural and religious significance of this art piece results in a better social understanding of this part of British and Chinese history.

Freebie for the Blog Post #4

Greedy Advertisement

This is advertising...jewelry?  Makeup?  Surprise, it is advertising clothing!

This advertisement shows a young woman model looking into the camera with strands of opulent pearls in the foreground.  Interestingly enough, this advertisement is not for jewelry or makeup, rather, it is by the California clothing company PacSun for the company’s 2015 spring collection (although no clothes are shown in the image).  The pearls cover almost half of the advertisement in a curtain of unfocused shades of ivory white, silver, and pale gold.  The jewelry reflects small rainbows into the other parts of the picture, where the model’s face is shown in perfect focus.  Only the woman’s face can be seen; the pearls conceal her neck and shoulders.  A tiny rainbow obscures part of her eye, while another one dances behind her on an unfocused tan-gold wall with flowery decorations.  

    The advertisement above demonstrates the deadly sin of avarice through its color choices and composition.  The colors of gold and silver dominate the photograph--the luscious pearls, the woman’s pale face, and the gold background all emphasize wealth.  This color choice, as well as the inclusion of flowery decorations, rainbows, jewelry, and the woman model indicate that the target audience is wealthy women of a high social status.  Furthermore, the domination of pale colors also implies that the targeted audience is white, which inadvertently reinforces the stereotype of white supremacy in socioeconomics.  The model in the picture upholds the rich, white, upper class American women’s definition of beauty--thin, white, and young with thick straightened hair.

The blurriness of the wealth in the foreground implies its unattainability, which furthers the ad’s demonstration of greed.  Greed is an incessant desire for something one does not have, even if it is impossible to obtain.  In this advertisement, the contrast between the fuzzy foreground and crisp model’s face indicates that the audience’s intense desire for wealth and beauty is similar to a mirage or a realistic dream--they seem so possible and real, but in reality the greed for prosperity and fairness can never be truly satisfied.

Names and Individuals in Society

My first name, Vanessa, does not have a deep significance for me as an individual.  I do not dislike it; I enjoy it because it is not extremely common and does not start with an “O” like my sister’s name (that is something cliche and ridiculous that some parents choose to do with twins in an attempt to be cute).  I do not believe that my name defines me in some deep way, but I do find it interesting that the name Vanessa means butterfly (the genus name of numerous butterflies is Vanessa) and I am coincidentally fascinated by nature.  Another interesting connection with my name is that in my favorite Broadway musical, Wicked, the protagonist's sister’s name is “Nessa” which is very similar to my own name.  These connections are intriguing, but they do not add a profound personal significance to my name.

           I did have an experience of profound personal significance this past summer at Governor’s School. While there, my fellow students and I were required to attend an “Area Three” class.  Area 3 was a class concerned with individuals and society, and during one of the first Area 3 classes every student was assigned a “Creativity Project.”  The Creativity Project assignment was simple--create something that shows who you are.  Five days later, we were going to present our creations to the class.  My project was simple-looking, but time-intensive because it required a level of self-reflection that I had never engaged in before that point.  I drew various objects on a piece of copy paper, each of them representing a facet of myself, and I presented it to my class in detail.  I described that the blue and brown blue jay feather that I had drawn in the middle showed how I felt like two people--shy and cautious at some points  while outgoing and rash at other moments.  On the right side of the paper was a teardrop falling on the world, representing my empathy for other people’s struggles and frustration about my inability to act and help those people.  Near the top was a perfect square with a chip in it, representing my impossible perfectionist tendencies.  In the bottom left-hand corner was a bird cage trapping a music note and a heart inside, symbolizing how my fear of not expressing my emotions perfectly hinders me from writing poetry like I used to.  While creating these drawings I learned more about myself than I ever had in the past, and then I laid it out, raw and bare, in front of these people I barely knew.  They applauded and accepted me--the me that was contradictory and confused and a perfectionist and emotional and unsure and simply me.  Before that moment, I had never felt more like myself, or more connected to people whom I had just met.  

          Within the Governor’s School society, I allowed myself to show my soul to strangers, and this in turn allowed me to become more open to the rest of the world.  This is especially difficult in high school, because in school there seems to be an unspoken rule that when you are talking to your friends at lunch you complain about school and homework and gossip about insignificant things.  If someone says something racist that is supposed to be funny you laugh.  If a friend asks you a question you answer the way you should, you do not necessarily answer with your actual opinion.  After creating and presenting my Creativity Project I try not to socialize like I have in the past.  I attempt to be the open form of myself that I found in that classroom--I try to talk about significant subjects with my friends, not encourage things that I find to be immoral, and answer questions with sincerity.  But it is difficult.  I have gotten used to acting; acting how I am expected to in the judgmental social setting of school.  At least I now have recognized that I have been pretending and can begin to change that.

Blog Post 1: The "Others"

http://photos.wingyounghuie.com/p709406511/e770c11cf

Wing Young Huie’s untitled photograph within the “We are the Others” album was published between 2012-2013.  It focuses on a young white woman and black man standing close to each other in the very center foreground of the photograph; the man on the right and the woman on the left.  Both are likely in their late teens or early twenties.  The man is wearing a gold chain necklace, a blue t-shirt with a black design partly covered by a short-sleeved denim blue shirt buttoned halfway down his chest, a bag strapped across his chest, baggy dark gray sweatpants that sag slightly, and gray Adidas with white stripes.  He is standing straight with his hands in his pockets, his stance relatively wide and his body positioned toward the camera.  Half of his face is shadowed, and his face is tilted slightly up while he looks at something in the distance to the right of the camera.  His forehead is slightly creased and he is not smiling, making him appear sad and longing.  The woman is wearing a large, baggy, dark gray hoodie over a black shirt; black cargo pants, and black Adidas with white stripes.  Her body is angled toward the man beside her, and her weight is shifted away from the camera onto her right leg; her left leg is slightly bent.  She is looking down at the ground with an unsmiling face partially in fading sunlight and mostly in shadow; she looks sad and a bit self-conscious.  The woman is smoothing her long black hair behind her right ear; her bent right elbow gently touching the man’s left arm.  Their closeness and the way that her body is angled toward the man while her elbow touches his arm indicates that they are a couple.  They are standing on dark gray, cracked asphalt under a blue sky filled with swaths of white clouds.  Behind the asphalt is a stretch of long, dead, brown grass and weeds that partially obscure the white, flat-roofed building in the left of the background. In the right part of the background is a two-story white house with a neatly trimmed cedar tree, which implies that the house is part of a wealthy neighborhood that desires a well-kept aesthetic appearance.  The distance between the two people and the neighborhood and the unkemptness of the area in which they are standing implies that they are in the poor outskirts of a town.  This could symbolize that they are impoverished because they are standing far away from a rich area, and that they are outcasts of society because they are physically apart from civilization.  The reason that they are outcasts could be because they are an interracial couple, something that is relatively uncommon and that is not accepted by all.   They are therefore estranged from the aristocracy and the “normal;” the ones who have contempt for poor people and believe that acceptable relationships are ones of the same race.  

Young Wing Huie in this untitled photograph and Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale present the concept of “othering” in similar ways through the use of color and structure.  In both, color is vital in conveying the “others.”  In The Handmaid’s Tale, colors are used to represent castes; for example, Wives wear blue, Commanders wear black, Handmaids wear red, etc.  Each of these castes is explicitly separated by their different colors, and people of the higher castes treat the people below them as “others” by displaying their power over and contempt of them in various ways.  In the photograph, racial context can be used to infer that the two young people are “others” because of the physical colors of their skin.  Furthermore, the intense colors of the two people in the foreground--white and black skin, a bright blue shirt, dark clothing and hair against pale skin--contrasts with the muted wash of tan and white behind them.  This is similar to the sharp contrast of the castes’ differing colors in Atwood’s novel; the different colors emphasize the radically different people.  The structure of both texts also aids in the depiction of “others.”  In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood breaks Offred’s narration into Night sections and sections that occur during the day.  Offred acts and thinks, for the most part, as an obedient Handmaid should during the day: “I compose myself...What I must present is a made thing, not something born” (Atwood 86).  Offred understands that in the Gilead she is valued as an item with the purpose of having babies, therefore she acts like an indifferent item during the daytime.  In contrast, she is rebellious at night; for example, she says, “The night is mine, my own time, to do with as I will…” (Atwood 49).  Offred implicitly states that she is human in this thought by using the possessive word “mine”--she is not the item that is possessed, she is the human who controls the item.  This is contrary to the Gilead’s ideal that Handmaids are sexual objects.  Ultimately, the distinction between what Offred is supposed to be and how she truly feels results in the understanding that she is radically different from how she should be--she is not like the Handmaids that the Gilead desires and is therefore an “other.”  In the photograph, structure leads to the recognition that the man and woman are outcasts.  They are literally separated from society, implying that they are too unusual to be accepted into it.  The structures of the two texts, although different, convey the same message of “otherness” within society.

Citation

Atwood, Margaret.  The Handmaid’s Tale. New York: Ballantine Books, 1985.  Print.