Lifetime Reading List: Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Out of the 100 books on the Amazon/Goodreads Lifetime Reading List, three are plays by William Shakespeare. I read Romeo and Juliet in February and Hamlet in March. Although I believe both plays are tales worth viewing, I don’t think these have any place on a reading list—I think these works should be viewed as they were intended when penned.

The third work of Shakespeare’s on this list is Macbeth, which I read today. It’s a quick script, hardly more than a hundred pages. And like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, I don’t believe this play has any place on a reading list. William Shakespeare was a playwright, not a novelist; his works are meant to be watched and enjoyed live, not in print. As I read, I found elements of the macabre and would-be-ominous moments in the lines of Lady Macbeth that failed to pack the punch I believe Shakespeare intended because I was reading the words rather than hearing them. In my experience, there is a different impact for the viewer/reader in hearing one lament a murder as opposed to reading about it. While I can see how Lady Macbeth is one of the most acclaimed roles in all of theater for the past four centuries, I would much rather watch her recite her lines than read them myself.

As you can see in my posts about these other plays by Shakespeare, I asked myself a different question: Do I believe these plays are a must-watch, even though I don’t think they’re a must-read?

In the case of Macbeth, I say “no.” There is a great deal of murderous scheming that is lost on us moderners, and the superstitious factors for Macbeth regarding The Weird Sisters hold a weight that is missed to a modern audience. As a Tudor history buff, I have an idea of the importance members of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries places on fortune tellers and the like. However, without that understanding, much of what Macbeth and his fellow players endure doesn’t make a lot of sense. In today’s age, many of us may have our palms read for fun without really applying what is said to our future or Fate. However, in Shakespeare’s time, the history of nations could be decided by what a fortune teller said, as evidenced by those Henry VIII employed during his pursuit of Anne Boleyn to bear the male heir he craved (spoiler alert: Anne gave him Elizabeth I and no living sons).

There were two lines in Macbeth that stood out to me, but I’ll talk about those in my review next week. Stay tuned!