“What purpose do the Weird Sisters have for confronting the hero—or what is their masters’ purpose, if they in fact have such masters?” asks Susan Snyder in her contribution to Macbeth. She doesn’t think the play gives a clear answer, and she adds that the play doesn’t explain Macbeth’s motivations either: “Even Macbeth’s personal motives are mystified. In early soliloquies he explores at length the moral and political consequences of killing Duncan but not his reasons for doing so. Does... Read more

In a contribution to Harold Bloom’s collection of essays on Macbeth, Robert Lanier Reid observes that ” Interpreters of Macbeth have focused almost exclusively on the first murder, the killing of a king in Acts 1–2, as the basis for understanding the play—its social, psychological, and metaphysical meanings. Macbeth’s subsequent two assassinations, of Banquo in act 3, and of Macduff ’s wife and children in acts 4–5, either are ignored, or are treated simply as efforts to secure the usurped... Read more

In a contribution to Harold Bloom’s collection of essays on Macbeth, Robert Lanier Reid observes that ” Interpreters of Macbeth have focused almost exclusively on the first murder, the killing of a king in Acts 1–2, as the basis for understanding the play—its social, psychological, and metaphysical meanings. Macbeth’s subsequent two assassinations, of Banquo in act 3, and of Macduff ’s wife and children in acts 4–5, either are ignored, or are treated simply as efforts to secure the usurped... Read more