Future as we make it or is predestined?

Macbeth (2015)


It is amazing that a writer in the 16th century can pen out such a play so intricate in its emotional interplay. This is, of course, the work of a particular man of commoner stock from Stratford-upon-Avon. Playing the main character of this play seem to the lifetime ambitions of many an actor including Orson Welles, Patrick Stewart, Sean Connery, Richard Burton and Lawrence Olivier. Michael Fassbender reprises the role of Macbeth in this 2015 production.

Perhaps the only people in the world who do not have a sense of guilt are the psychopath. Otherwise, most of us are drilled upon us to build a wall of guilt within us that sometimes makes us lose our balance. The guilt that we are made to feel eventually eats us up. Despite the urge to survive and need to outdo and overrun others to succeed is there, most of our upbringing makes it mandatory for us to fell guilty. Sometimes, we dig our own graves, and our actions themselves push us in. 

The evil that lurks that compels us are not necessarily imbibed within us. They sometimes come to us by association. Despite the claim of many major religions of the world, the perception that one about them is one of misogynistic. The fairer sex is always portrayed as conniving or at least appear to think by emotion rather than by volition. They are also painted to act partial, incapable of meting justice.

Victorious soldiers Macbeth and Banquo return home after defeating Nordic soldiers. In the twilight of confusion, three witches with a child and an infant appear before them. They prophesied that Macbeth would be Thador of Cawdor and future King while Banquo would be the father of Kings. They passed it off with giving much attention until he receives news that he indeed had been appointed as the new Thador after the previous one was executed for treason. Macbeth narrates the prophecy to his wife. 

When King Duncan decides to visit Macbeth, Lady Macbeth instigates her husband to grab his chance for the throne. Macbeth kills the King. The guilt of the killing and subsequent crimes drives Macbeth to paranoia. Lady Macbeth, upon seeing her husband's brutality in burning women and children at the stake drove her to suicide.

Sure enough, the predictions of witches do come true when Macbeth, who thought, had the invincibility of having the boon of not being killed by a "no man born of woman" is killed by Macduff. Macduff was probably delivered by Caesarean Section (from his mother's womb / untimely ripp'd).

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
— To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

— Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

Figment of fiction

Anonymous (2011)
One thing laudable about a mature society is the acceptance of alternative versions to the widely accepted version. This is the stark contrast to what is seen in an infantile society where people go up in arms if a little creativity or critical thinking is given to the official version. With things neither black or white in the modern world, they forget that the truth is almost always hidden somewhere between 'the truth' and 'the rumour'. For the longest time, we have been shoved down our throats half truths and lies. Now, those days are long gone. Information is king. As the French philosopher, Jean-François Lyotard predicted, we are now at a crossroad where we have way too much information and the time has come where nations would go to war to gain control over this commodity and cow their fellow beings into submission!
There has been a famous conspiracy theory going around which suggests that it is most likely that William Shakespeare could not have written all the evergreen plays that the history books claim he had. In those days, knowledge and artistic indulgence were the privilege of the royalty and aristocrats. Shakespeare haling from the working class just could not have done himself, writing all those historical tragedies and comedies set in a different era, all written in poetic English that had stood the test of time.

Here, Shakespeare is depicted as a drunkard, a semi-illiterate and a womanizing actor who blackmails the original writer of the scripts Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford. 

The Queen and the real 'Shakespeare'

The Earl is madly indulged into writing plays that he basically wastes his whole property away. He alleges that a voice compels him to write. He keeps stacks and stacks of stories until he met a playwright, Ben Johnson, to stage his plays. You see, they were living in a time when art, stage and drama was considered unholy, the work of Satan.

The Queen at that time, however, Queen Elizabeth I was a sucker for stage performances. The other fictional part of the film is about the monarch herself. Even though, Queen Elizabeth I has always been embodied as a virtuous queen with the title 'The Virgin Queen', here she is displayed as a nymphomaniac. She has many illegitimate sons without knowledge, all covered up by her scheming minister advisor William Cecil.  

De Vere, the Earl and writer, starts an affair with the Queen after she is fascinated with his play. That union resulted in him to sire a son who is given to adoption. History says that she was the last monarch from the Tudor Dynasty who did not have a heir. In this film, Willian Cecil and his son deviously throne King James I of Scotland as the king after her. 

We are also told De Vere had an incestous relationship as the Queen is also his mother that he did not know!

The film progressed with excellent backdrop of the 16th century England with stories of deceit and vice. 

After the death of de Vere, Ben Johnson is given the remaining manuscripts. The truth of the real author remains a mystery. 

As you can see, the story is quite treacherous and putting many people of high standings in history in a very bad light. In the name of artistic license and freedom of expression, nobody really creates a ruckus. They all know it is a work of fiction.... Just like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy!