Lady Macbeth's Netflix Queue

Seventeen Again

Seventeen again is a movie with the Mowry(Tia, Tamera, Tahj) siblings. They’re (Tia and Taj’s) grandparents are constantly bickering and are on the verge of divorce. While the siblings’ parents are away, the scientific brother creates an anti-aging formula that spills on a bar of soap which the grandparents use to bathe. The next day, the grandparents are 17 years old. Throughout the whole movie, the grandparents remember the things that they use to love about each other and learn valuable lessons. Lady Macbeth would enjoy this movie because it represents a time where things were better. Lady M realizes throughout the play that what they did/ are doing was wrong. She genuinely cares about Macbeth and wishes she could go back in time to when things were less complicated--before the prophecy. In the film, the grandparents learn why it is that they love each other despite their bickering. Lady M wants to be Macbeth’s equal  partner again and she wants things to be the way they once were. This movie shows that Lady M, although seeming ruthless, still has characteristics such as being caring and loving. It also shows that she is reminiscent of the past.

How to Get Away with Murder/Scandal

This show is full of crime and, as the title suggests, murder. Annalise Keating is a law professor, and she, along with 5 of her students become involved in a murder plot while also solving different cases of murder each episode. This show is full of lies, adultery, crime, and secrets. Lady Macbeth has most of these elements. For this reason, Lady M would also enjoy, Scandal, a show with similar elements and written by the same person. Lady M enjoys a good drama, especially seeing as she pushed her husband into killing King Duncan. She could relate to the show because she is good at keeping secrets, but like the show, secrets are meant to be found out. This is demonstrated in the play when Lady Macbeth sleepwalks and reveals all the murders, she and Macbeth committed.

Cutthroat Kitchen

This is a cooking show where 4 contestants are given $20,000 and can use that money to sabotage the other contestants. For example, they can bid as much money as they want to say, not let any contestant taste their food, or force them to cook with a camp stove, or force them to use an unfitting food in their dish. At the end of the show, whoever wins keeps the money they didn’t use to bid. Lady M would love this show because at the end of the day, she is a good wife, and she cares about Macbeth. She would like to learn new ways to cook these dishes. However, Lady M is also very calculated. She would enjoy seeing them struggle to win. This show demonstrates that Lady Macbeth is a wife first and foremost, but she also has a darker side to her. She also would like that the winner benefits by getting money in the show. Lady M wanted more in the play, and one lucky contestant will get more than the others.

Final girl

This movie is about a teen girl, Veronica, who has, since childhood, been trained to kill. Her goal in the movie is to murder 4 teenage guys who are taking their blonde female classmates into the woods and killing them. Lady M would love this movie. It’s all about a female being able to do the job a “man” would typically have the ability to do. This also reflects her “unsex me” soliloquy. Lady Macbeth wanted to be “unsexed” so she could be powerful and so she could kill Duncan. Lady M couldn’t go through with the murder of King Duncan, **SPOILER** unlike Veronica. It’s likely that Lady Macbeth would look up to Veronica because of her resilience, ability to go through with things, and her hardiness. This movie on Lady M’s Netflix queue demonstrates her ID, her deepest desires/thoughts, and how she’s truly conniving and envious of others or of what could be.

Citations:

Netflix

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Again

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiX7L24t_zQAhUI6CYKHa9QBk4QjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthegameofnerds.com%2Fpost%2F153616541993%2Fhow-to-get-away-with-murder-s3e9-whos-dead&bvm=bv.142059868,d.eWE&psig=AFQjCNHUZzN8zzP7diKmfx66f_6uve-fpw&ust=1482105513873680

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjqw6fDuPzQAhXMOCYKHUIHDiYQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drodd.com%2Fhtml7%2Fscandal.html&bvm=bv.142059868,d.eWE&psig=AFQjCNH-zDiOMzyTXfo3tO17rv1XfIpa7Q&ust=1482105782356783

https://www.google.com/search?q=seventeen+again&biw=681&bih=642&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwit7cWOt_zQAhUG5iYKHY4CBb0Q_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=cutthroat+kitchen&imgdii=SDrAp2wnInnHwM%3A%3BSDrAp2wnInnHwM%3A%3BQQEJytOzsGoqEM%3A&imgrc=SDrAp2wnInnHwM%3A

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi1uOGwufzQAhVFKiYKHTN4Ax8QjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2Fentertainment%2Fmovies%2Ffinal-girl-review-awful-amateurish-film-article-1.2324657&bvm=bv.142059868,d.eWE&psig=AFQjCNFNeB85LsrWcpiPtgqpTMHmq9tiEQ&ust=1482106018569357

Evil

Evil is defined as being “morally reprehensible” and “arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct”.

I think that people who aren’t “evil” take the first step into it because of the curiosity. All of their lives, they’ve known one way, one lifestyle, one behavior. Being offered something different from what they’re accustomed can make someone change. I also think that there is a natural human desire to be a little rebellious. I think that there is an innate wish to do what society doesn’t expect or accept.  People who aren’t evil that take the first step towards being it want a change. They want someone to be able to offer them something new and, what at the time, seems exciting.

Another approach as to why people who aren’t “evil” take the first step is because of pressure. You see someone else acting reprehensible or in an unusual manner and then you begin to think that you should follow in their footsteps or that it’s okay to start acting in those same ways.  What our peers or other people around us are doing, most certainly has the ability to influence or decisions and can hinder our choices of ‘right’ from ‘wrong’.  Not knowing the differences between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ can affect our morality and our ethics. From that point, we begin to act hastily and are willing to do whatever’s necessary to reach that change we so desire. This was the case for Macbeth who was so consumed with the desire of a better life that he was willing to kill for this position, although he was already in a good place in his life. His morals were tainted by our innate human desires to be rebellious in order to reach a higher status, and his aspirations caused his evil tendencies and behavior. The ends justified the means in the eyes of Macbeth. He was to be the “thane of Glamis… [and the] thane of Cawdor” (Macbeth 1.3). Knowing that there was something strange in the prophecy, he questions “I know I am thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? The thane of Cawdor lives, a prosperous gentleman” (Macbeth 1.3). The witches told him what his life could be, he just had to go out and “get it”-- this was his first step into evil.

I think that what’s involved in taking the first step is something negative happening in your life, or something better being offered than what you currently have. This was certainly the case for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Another step is the imagination one has of what could be. Our minds convincing us that acting evil will get us to better places in life is a step into becoming entirely evil.

The consequences of walking "down the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire" (Macbeth, 2.3) can occur soon after the evil behavior, or a while afterwards. For Macbeth, the consequences occurred soon after. A lot of the times, the consequence of acting evil consumes the person’s conscience. They feel a sense of remorse, regret, anger, and they seem to go through all of the stages of grief. After realizing what they did, they are going to be disappointed in themselves and will have a surge of emotions, unless they’re a sociopath.

Macbeth demonstrates that his actions have greatly affected him internally, to the point of him seeing the ghost of his once best friend. “Avaunt! And quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with” (Macbeth 3.4)

Citations:

Shakespeare , William. Macbeth. Folio, 1623. Print.