The Reader Travels

So, despite my dresser, I’m more inclined to believe in karma than an after life Hell.  I’m all about the golden rule. I believe that what goes around comes around. I believe that to live by the sword is to die by the sword and that fighting monsters can turn you into a monster. But I don’t buy into the fire and brimstone routine.

In a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy, the hero is defeated by some personal flaw. He creates his own hell by succombing to  jealousy, greed, paranoia, lust, hubris.

One of the coolest movie versions of MacBeth has to be Men of Respect starring John Turturro. It’s all mobsters and fortune tellers, plotting and back stabbing. Turturro’s own wife plays the Lady MacBeth (aka Ruthie Battaglia), and man is she vicious. Mike Battaglia is a badass. He lies and cheats and murders people to get to the top.

Here’s the question about MacBeth, though. What is our hero’s most serious flaw? Is it that he’s a power hungry murderer? Or is it that he lets his wife tell him what to do? Either way, he’s in Hell long before he goes down.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 11:19 am and is filed under Shakespeare in the Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.