Poll: What is your favourite play by Shakespeare?

[Citrus]

I think you may have entirely missed the point of my post.

Who ever suggested that Macduff was magically imbued? The witches made a prophecy that no man of woman born would kill MacBeth, and then the "loophole" in that prophecy was that MacBeth's mother had a C-section, and therefore that somehow made him not "of woman born", thus resolving the prophecy. That's what I thought was a stupid twist: that a C-section makes you not of woman born. I really have no idea what you thought I was talking about.

Well if the problem is as simple as THAT, then an even simpler answer awaits. No lit crit, no comprehension of plot themes, etc.

Just this: back in the day, they didn't have C-Secs, basically. Caesar's kid got out that way, and it was considered that the child had not been born properly; it went against all they thought they knew of medical science. So to have been delivered by C-Sec was not a standard operation, but a way of completely bypassing the normal and correct way to do it. So it is both an impossibility to Macbeth (no man is not "born") and something which makes Macduff lucky and monstrous (he impossible because he has broken the laws of nature).

Yes, yes, yes. I was not asking for an explanation, and I'm probably much more familiar with the play than you seem to think I am. I know that a C-section was seen as a strange and unnatural occurrence in Shakespeare's time and I know how that could make someone "not of woman born", and I know that Shakespeare didn't know any better, but that doesn't mean I can't still find it a disappointing twist. After the clever "pound of flesh" twist from The Merchant of Venice, I was just expecting something more elaborate/clever. That's all.

My original post was a throwaway comment. You really don't need to explain anything to me.

 

[Hashime]

Has anyone read all of the plays by him here?

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

Has anyone read all of the plays by him here?

Yep, including several quarto versions of a few of them (like the 1603 "bad" quarto). That's the one where Hamlet's famous speech starts off:

[blockquote]To be, or not to be? Aye, there's the point.
To die, to sleep, is that all? Aye, all:
No, to sleep, to dream--aye, marry, there it goes.[/blockquote]

 

[Yureina]

Hamlet.

I love it.

 

[poet_lawreate]

I should very much like to point out to everyone I have been waiting for a Shakespeare thread SINCE I JOINED (because I don't start threads; the pressure is unbearable).

I do like Will very, very much actually, and am hoping to start an academic career in studying him. My favourites are King Lear and Much Ado. Winter's Tale is also wonderful. Shakespeare was possibly the best man wot ever lived... discuss?

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

I have read macbeth, but I like the story in Romeo & Juliet or A midsummer nights dream more.

 

[pelopelopelo]

Othello, naturally. It has it all - tragic love, engaging, idealistic, nobly endearing fools of protagonists, and a truly evil-to-the-core villain, who also happens to be a thinking man, subterfuge, intrigue, jealousy, lust, hate...all wrapped up in Shakespeare's poetry. Brilliant.

This, o! this!

Othello was always my favorite, I love The Tempest and Twelfth Night too. Still haven't read Hamlet or A Winter's Tale yet, two I've been meaning to for ages.