_______ Vfo r Vendettax A Graphic Retelling of Macbeth
59
I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet,
And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.
Though Bimam wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou oppos’d, being of no woman bom,
Yet I will try the last: before my body
I throw my warlike shield: lay on, Macduff;
And damn’d be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’ (5.8.2734)
By placing Macbeth’s actions alongside those of V it becomes apparent that
there is something Macbeth does that is greater than his regicide, or his murders,
or his failure. Whether he is right or not cannot be said, but Macbeth fights for
his country and his life. Like V he is a “destroyer,” a “bogeyman,” a “villain,” a
“king,” and a hero, and he never gives up his integrity. For Shakespeare to end
his play, his tragedy, like that raises questions about the character of Macbeth.
Perhaps by allowing the reappropriation of Macbeth to influence our thinking it
can become apparent what could not be displayed outwardly in Shakespeare’s
day—Macbeth, while broken, insane, and a murderer at the end, is still some
kind of hero.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Jessica McCall
Notes
1Ostriker describes the “depersonalizing effects of myths on persons” (212) and says that
“historic and quasi-historic figures like Napoleon and Sappho are in this sense mythic, as
are folktales, legends, and Scripture. Like the gods and goddesses of classical mythology,
all such material has a double power” (213). Ostriker claims that “whenever a poet
employs a figure or story previously accepted and defined by a culture, the poet is using a
myth, and the potential is always present that the use will be revisionist.” (212) 1 would
claim all of Shakespeare’s famous characters, especially those of the tragedies—Hamlet,
Othello, and Macbeth—have become myths of modem culture; Guy Fawkes has become
myth as well. This is evidenced by the belief that there is a “universal reading” of
Macbeth and Guy Fawkes Day.
2 Kenneth Muir says, “there is every reason to believe that Shakespeare, even if he had
secret sympathies with the old religion, would have been horrified at the ‘dire
combustion’ of the Gunpowder Plot and would have agreed with his royal master on the
subject” Macbeth, xxi.
3 Fingermen are members of the police force. They are dressed as civilians making them
similar to undercover agents.
4 For further reading see Will Eisner’s Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative,
Stephen Weiner’s Faster than a Speeding Bullet: The Rise o f the Graphic Novel, and
Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics.
Works Cited
Asquith, Clare. Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics o f William
Shakespeare. New York: Public Affairs, 2005.