Free Essays on Macbeth

Macbeth Macbeth is the tale of an over ambitious man pushed into committing a brutal murder that escalated into a massacre of people. Shakespeare’s depiction of women in this play shows how manipulating they can become when they lack physical strength. Both the witches and Lady Macbeth played key roles in shaping Macbeth into a power hungry tyrant. But the blame for the murders cannot be places solely on one person for each one was guilty in their own way. Through out the play, we encounter three witches who represent Fate. The witches were known to toy with people using their magic as they described in Act1 scene 3 when they sent a storm out on a poor sailor. Being able to see the future, they met with Macbeth and hailed him as three things, Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and shalt be king hereafter. They knew that once Macbeth was honored as Thane of Cawdor, his ambition and lust for power would be revealed. Macbeth had fallen into their power when their predictions came true. If they had never spoken with Macbeth, the idea of Macbeth becoming king would have never been raised, preventing these murders. When the play began, Macbeth was more of an easily manipulated person and so was pushed into proceeding with his initial reaction. Lady Macbeth was as ambitious as her husband was and stronger. She wanted the power for herself and her husband. We see how badly she wanted this when she prays to the spirits to â€Å"unsex her† and to â€Å"stop up the access and passage to remorse† so that they could follow through with this cruel act. She was so heartless that she planned on framing innocent men for the murder of the king showing her masculine thoughts in this woman’s body. Lady Macbeth knew that her husband would talk himself out of the plan and so she manipulated him by questioning his manhood and calling him a coward if he didn’t go through with it. This pushed him over the top and he continued with the scheme so as to ... Free Essays on Macbeth Free Essays on Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth is the tale of an over ambitious man pushed into committing a brutal murder that escalated into a massacre of people. Shakespeare’s depiction of women in this play shows how manipulating they can become when they lack physical strength. Both the witches and Lady Macbeth played key roles in shaping Macbeth into a power hungry tyrant. But the blame for the murders cannot be places solely on one person for each one was guilty in their own way. Through out the play, we encounter three witches who represent Fate. The witches were known to toy with people using their magic as they described in Act1 scene 3 when they sent a storm out on a poor sailor. Being able to see the future, they met with Macbeth and hailed him as three things, Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and shalt be king hereafter. They knew that once Macbeth was honored as Thane of Cawdor, his ambition and lust for power would be revealed. Macbeth had fallen into their power when their predictions came true. If they had never spoken with Macbeth, the idea of Macbeth becoming king would have never been raised, preventing these murders. When the play began, Macbeth was more of an easily manipulated person and so was pushed into proceeding with his initial reaction. Lady Macbeth was as ambitious as her husband was and stronger. She wanted the power for herself and her husband. We see how badly she wanted this when she prays to the spirits to â€Å"unsex her† and to â€Å"stop up the access and passage to remorse† so that they could follow through with this cruel act. She was so heartless that she planned on framing innocent men for the murder of the king showing her masculine thoughts in this woman’s body. Lady Macbeth knew that her husband would talk himself out of the plan and so she manipulated him by questioning his manhood and calling him a coward if he didn’t go through with it. This pushed him over the top and he continued with the scheme so as to ... Free Essays on Macbeth Lady Macbeth Responsible For Duncan's Death John Keating English Honors Lady Macbeth Must Take Some Blame for Her Husband’s Destruction In Macbeth, a play written by Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth is partially responsible for the destruction of her husband. Lady Macbeth is not a monster without feelings, however she is tricky and cunning when she influences Macbeth to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth’s ability to influence her husband leads the audience to believe that she is the primary cause for the destruction of Macbeth. The audience is also led to believe that Lady Macbeth is responsible because she makes up the details of the plan to kill Duncan, while Macbeth was considering not even going through with the murder. Although Macbeth had the thought of killing Duncan, he would not have acted on that thought unless Lady Macbeth persuaded him. Lady Macbeth is sly person, able to manipulate her husband, and this ability to manipulate Macbeth makes her partially responsible for the destruction of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth knows that her husband is too kind to kill Duncan without her help she fears â€Å"thy nature; / It is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness / to catch the nearest way† (I.v.16-18). She is very much aware of the fact that she needs to push Macbeth to kill Duncan or else he will not do it. We see Macbeth’s hesitance to murder the king when he lists reasons not to kill Duncan in Act 1, when he says, â€Å"He’s here in double trust: / First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, / Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, / Who should against his murderer shut the door, / Not bear the knife myself† (I.vii.12-16). Macbeth then says, â€Å"Besides, this Duncan / Hath born his faculties so meek, hath been / So clear in his great office, that his virtues / Will plead like angles, trumpet-tongued, against / The deep damnation of his taking off† (I.vii.16-19). We s... Free Essays on Macbeth The Tragedy of Macbeth There are many themes in the play Macbeth that apply to today’s world. Greed is one of the main themes in this particular Shakespeare play. An example of a person who is greedy in this play is Lady Macbeth. There are many power struggles that occur in Macbeth. Many people wanted to be kings and have power, but couldn’t. Macbeth wanted to have power, but he couldn’t control himself when it came to doing something about it. The third theme would have to be self-control. People need to know how to think or what to do in certain situations such as the problems that go on in the play Macbeth. Everyone, at some point in time in their life, feels greed. I know that I have felt greedy at least once in my life. A lot of people do not realize it until they are told by someone else. Lady Macbeth would be considered a greedy person in Macbeth. She is a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and position. She begs her husband, Macbeth, to kill Duncan and seize the crown. Lady Macbeth is eventually taken to madness and suicide by her guilt over all of the problems that have occurred. Greed is one of the reasons why Lady Macbeth killed herself. There were always very many power struggles that went on throughout the entire play. Power was pretty much all that anyone wanted in Macbeth. Macbeth kills Duncan in order to become the king of Scotland. Macbeth is also Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth wants power more than anything. He hires a group of murderers to kill Banquo. The witches tell Macbeth that he cannot be harmed by any man born of woman, and he will be safe until Birnam Wood moves itself to Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth feels pretty relieved with those ideas. During the play Macbeth, Macbeth goes through many times where he has no self-control. An example of that would have to be when at the royal feast, Banquo’s ghost visits Macbeth, causing him to cry out and startle... Free Essays on Macbeth Like so many of Shakespeare's plays, Macbeth is also a tragedy. There are many events in the play, which prove this. They are the murders of many innocent people. Three such murders are the murder of the king Duncan, and the murder of Banquo, which was ordered by Macbeth, and the murder Macduff's wife and son. These events are what make Shakespeare's, Macbeth a true tragedy. The murder of Duncan, the king of Scotland, was one of the main events of this tragedy. Every one, his subjects, his generals, the noblemen of Scotland, and all others liked Duncan. However, for the greed of power the General of his own army, Macbeth, murdered Duncan. When the news of Duncan's death spread across Scotland, people were terrified. Duncan was an innocent person. He had done nothing wrong. Macbeth's reason for murdering Duncan was to be his successor. He wanted to be king badly; this is what drove him into coming up with the plan of killing Duncan. This murder pleased Macbeth, and his wife. However, the murder of Duncan does not please the people of Scotland, or Banquo, Duncan's other military general. Banquo suspects, Macbeth of killing king Duncan. Macbeth was driven to the craze of power, when the three witches, told him, that he would be king after Duncan had passed away. â€Å"All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!†(Act1 sc.3 p17) said the first wi tch. ! â€Å"All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!†(Act1 sc.3 p17) said the second witch. â€Å"All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!† (Act1 sc3 p17) said the third witch. Macbeth was not patient enough to wait for Duncan to die of natural causes and so he killed him. An innocent person killed for the greed of power. The second event, which caused this play to become a tragedy, is the death of Banquo. Macbeth was also told by the witches that Banquo's children would be Macbeth's successor. Macbeth got worried that he will lose his throne. â€Å"To be thus is nothing, But t... Free Essays on MACBETH Macbeth AP English 1* While reading Macbeth many questions concerning the interpretation of scenes may arise in one’s mind. Shakespeare’s depiction of various important actions in the play allows the reader to personally decide how each scene is being portrayed. This variability in the interpretation of some key scenes makes it possible to give an in depth analysis of the events effecting many outcomes. One of these perplexing questions that arose throughout the reading was whether it was the witches’ and their prophecies or Lady Macbeth that had a greater influence on Macbeth’s murderous actions. A second inquiry that came up was one having to do with fate and Macbeth’s actions in attempts to change it. Did Macbeth have to take any action in order to meet his fate or was it inevitable that certain things would occur? A third and final question that persisted throughout the play was the uncertainty of Lady Macbeth’s feelings towards the murders. Did Lady Macbethâ €™s guilt lead to compassion for the victims, thus showing that she did indeed have a conscience or was she purely evil, feeling no remorse at all throughout the entire play? Although there is really no right answer to these questions, one can try to analyze the way in which Shakespeare hoped each scene would be interpreted. Perhaps Shakespeare himself purposely left these vital scenes open-ended in order to allow the reader to get what they wanted out of the play. Was it the witches’ prophecies in the first scene of the play that had the greatest impact on Macbeth’s murderous rampage or did Lady Macbeth convince him to do these evil things through her demeaning comments and persuasive mockery? The witches did shock Macbeth with their prophecies, that to him seemed impossible, but it was Lady Macbeth who ultimately talked Macbeth into slaughtering his first victim. The prophecies merely planted a seed in Macbeth’s mind that continued to gro... Free Essays on Macbeth People are often influenced by their peers to make certain important decisions. Even though most have the strength and self-control to make their own decisions, occasionally one may make the wrong decision due to the pressure of another person. Obviously it is wrong to persuade someone to make a bad decision, but it is just as bad to make that wrong decision. Moreover, It is very hard to say who would be guiltier. In the play by Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are both very guilty for different reasons. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a trusted soldier, who is honest and noble. Unfortunately, he meets three witches who tell him three prophecies; that he will become thane of Cawdor that he will become king and that Banquo’s sons will become kings. These three prophecies slowly change his opinions on life and turn him into a greedy, dishonest, tyrant, full of ambition. Lady Macbeth’s thoughts change as well when she is told about the three prophecies that were told to Macbeth. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is ambitious, controlling and domineering. She is the one who encourages him to kill the king, she not only encourages him, she makes all the plans herself, which shows her determination and persistence, which proves her more guilty. â€Å"Yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’th milk of human kindness. To catch the nearest way thou wouldst be great. Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it." (Act 1, scene 5) . Lady Macbeth is the force behind Macbeth’s sudden ambition and she tries to manipulate him into feeling guilty and unmanly for not following through with the murder, by using her husband’s emotions, she manages to convince Macbeth to murder Duncan. After the death of King Duncan, Macbeth becomes the more controlling one, and Lady Macbeth’s guilt eventually becomes too much for her to handle which leads to her death. Which shows that she... Free Essays on Macbeth â€Å"Trace the Use of Blood Imagery Throughout the Play and Discuss it’s Significance† Throughout the story of Macbeth blood plays a sickening yet significant role. Blood is used as a symbol of guilt, but is also used to signify death. In the beginning of the play Macbeth is showed to be a faithful knight who could do no wrong, but as his days continued he proved to be a man obsessed with the future. Unfortunately, his future involved many disgraceful things including murder upon murder. Macbeth’s first murder is the first time we see the significant use of blood. After murdering Duncan, Macbeth says this, â€Å"Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.† (II, ii, 59-62) Macbeth is feeling his guilt and believes that this â€Å"blood† will never be washed from his hands. The blood he is referring to is not only the actual blood but the guilt he is facing. The blood in this situation is used to signify Macbeth’s guilt. Another instance of the use of blood is when Macbeth states, â€Å" Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ the’ olden time, Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been performed Too terrible for the ear. The times has been That, when the brains were out, the man would die........† (III, iv, 76-80). This is an example of how Macbeth feels about how death is treated. He believes that blood is shed because government made it seem not as bad as it really is. The last time we see an imagery of blood in Macbeth is when the apparitions visit him after Macduff’s death. The second apparition was a bloodied symbol of Macduff. Shakespeare tells us that the second apparition is a bloody child, a symbol of Macduff at birth. â€Å" Be bloody, bold, and resolute! Laugh to scorn The pow’r of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth† (I... Free Essays on Macbeth The story of Macbeth, like most of Shakespeare's plays, tells a story that has a moral lesson attached to it. Macbeth was essentially a man who craved power but when a prophecy was revealed that he would indeed gain that which he sought, Macbeth wasn't satisfied. Instead, he went to great lengths to ensure that his power lasted longer than it should have. He ahdered to the evil whims and plans of his wife, Lady Macbeth, and put himself in a position that destroyed his self respect, ruined his pride, degraded his honor, and spoiled his integrity... all in order to possess...and maintain the crown... Macbeth is a character of powerful contradictions. He is a man who, for the simple sake of his own ambition, is willing to murder his king and his best friend. At the same time, Macbeth has a conscience so strong that the mere thought of his crimes torments him to no end. As with any of Shakespeare's work, what we learn is essentially up to us as is the way we view the story. Reading Macbeth, one could easily infer that the pursuit of power and control bare a great price. We see that Macbeth essentially loses his integrity and honor as a direct result of his own actions. Macbeth is no longer happy with who he is or what he has done despite the fact he gets all that which he set out to gain. This is a very common lesson indeed: Macbeth failed to realize that he needed to be more proud of himself than of the material things he could gain. And thus, in trying to acquire his idea of "everything" Macbeth tragically lost everything instead.. The ends simply didn't justify the means nece ssary to attain them. And it is this very theme... this very idea and so many others pertinent to the study of Macbeth In 1606 William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, wrote a play which would go down in history as the cursed Scottish play after numerous mishaps during production. It was written for his new patron, James I (James VI of Scotland), following ... Free Essays on Macbeth Aristotle defines tragedy as â€Å"an imitation of action that is admirable, complete and possesses magnitude.† A tragedy must be preformed by actors and not through narration and, if done correctly, produce a feeling of catharsis at its finale. A tragedy must contain six essential parts to be complete according to Aristotle; plot, character, dictation, thought, spectacle, and song. Macbeth, by William Shakespeare is a perfect example of an Aristotelian tragedy due to into numerous structural parallels to Aristotle’s Poetics. Macbeth, through it use of many principles laid out in Aristotle’s Poetics, is regarded as an Aristotelian tragedy. The plot is referred to as the â€Å"soul of a tragedy† by Aristotle. In the case of Macbeth the plot is complex. In order for a complex plot to be complete it must contain numerous aspects. There must be an instance of suffering, some form of active circumstance and a change in fortune brought about by a reversal, recognition, or both. A reversal is an occurrence when a character produces an opposite effect than originally intended, whereas, recognition is a change from ignorance to knowledge. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth both recognition and a reversal are present. Macbeth experiences a state of recognition when he realizes that which prophesies are unfolding to a fuller extent than he had expected. Macbeth believes that he is invincible because, the witches prophesized that no man born of woman could harm him in any way. However upon meeting Macduff in his final hour he learned that Macduff was not of natural birth because, he was untimely ripped from his mother’ s womb. This scene is also an example of a reversal. Macbeth is under the impression that he will defeat Macduff due to the fact that all men are born of woman. However, the opposite effect is produced when he learns of Macduff unnatural birth. Another aspect of Aristotelian thought that is exhibited in Macbeth is that the story is univ... Free Essays on Macbeth Macbeth is a play full of darkness, evil, and tragedy. It is the story of a man who goes against his conscience and commits a horrible deed which leads to his destruction and loss of everything he has around him. This includes the relationship he has with his wife, Lady Macbeth. In the end, he can blame no one but himself. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have a very strong relationship and this deteriorates later. Act 1 Scene 5 is a key scene which shows just how close Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were at the beginning of the play; it shows their original relationship. Macbeth has written a letter to Lady Macbeth telling her of everything and in this letter states algo that she helped him to get everything for him. The following speech where Lady Macbeth doubts that he can get to the title of King "he is too full of the milk of human kindness" shows just how close they were. It establishes the fact that she knew him so well, she knew what he was like and it emphasises the closeness of their relationship. She speaks of how he has enough ambition but not enough courage. His "overiding ambition" is not enough. When Macbeth and Lady Macbeth speak, they speak to eachother with such closeness and bond; he calls her his "dearest chuck", his "partner of greatness". She knows that he is too weak to do anything and states her position in the murder "leave the rest to me". In Act 1, Scene 7 establishes the force and power that Lady Macbeth posseses over her husband. Upon hearing of Macbeth's decision not to kill Duncan, she is outraged and starts to work her force and power upon him. She knows where he is most vulnerable and attacks him at his weak spot. She strikes him at his manhood and courage. This of course works on Macbeth and she knows that it will. No one calls Macbeth a coward. She says that he is a coward and attacks his manliness. "to be more than what you are, you would be so much more the man". She challeng... Free Essays on Macbeth Macbeth King Duncan of Scotland = Duncan is a mature and effective king who rules Scotland during a time of political upheaval and turmoil. He is too old to command the armies himself and his sons are too young and inexperienced to fight in wars, but he has several great captains under his command, which allows him to remain in power. Those that remain loyal to him do so because they see that his rule is divinely sanctioned. When Macbeth hesitates in his decision to assassinate Duncan, the reason is that he fears Duncan’s â€Å"virtues / Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against the deep damnation of his taking-off† (I.vii.17-18) – that the very heavens will object to the murder of a king so holy. It turns out that Macbeth’s fears are justified – on the night of his murder, chimneys are blown down, the earth shakes, owls scream and kill falcons, and horses run wild and eat each other. Malcolm = The elder son of King Duncan, Malcolm is named the Prince of Cumberland and heir apparent early on in the play. After his father is murdered at Macbeth’s castle, he and his younger brother, Donalbain, decide to split up and flee for safety because they will probably be the next targets of the murderers. Although they are safe abroad (Malcolm in England, Donalbain in Ireland), they are not at home to defend themselves against accusations by the Scottish thanes (the equivalent of English earls), that they murdered their own father for the crown. In time, it becomes clear that Macbeth perpetrated the regicide on Duncan, and Macduff seeks out Malcolm in the English court to return to Scotland to claim his birthright and rescue them from Macbeth’s tyrannical rule. Malcolm has since been prospering in the English court of Edward the Confessor, a figure remarkably similar to Duncan, and he has learned much about politics and warfare. By the time Macduff comes looking for him, he has already enlisted the aid of Siward, Earl of Northumb... Free Essays on Macbeth â€Å"Lady Macbeth Far Worse than Macbeth† Lady Macbeth is depicted as being much worse than her husband in Shakespeare’s play , â€Å"Macbeth† . Although they both think of murdering King Duncan as soon as they hear the witches' prophecies, Macbeth thinks more about what he may or may not do, whereas Lady Macbeth immediately appeals to evil spirits to give her the strength to kill Duncan. When Macbeth first hears the prophecies, and when the prophecies begin to be fulfilled, he does think of killing the king, but also, towards the end of Act 1, Scene 3, he thinks that perhaps he doesn't need to do anything to become the king: "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir." On the other hand, Lady Macbeth, on receiving the letter telling her about the witches' prophecies, she immediately thinks that she and Macbeth will have to kill King Duncan. She also decides that Macbeth is too nice to kill the king, sayin that he "is too ful o' the milk of human kindness" and when she hears the Duncan will visit their castle that night, she immediately appeals to the evil spirits, to (ironically) give her the strength to kill the king. In Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth is doubtfull of Lady Macbeth's plot to kill the king. He doesn't think that he will be able to live with the guilt of killing his king while he is staying under his very roof, and then decides tha t he will not kill the king. This shows that Macbeth is thinking about what he is going to do, and shows that he does feel guilt and is weighing up the situation, unlike Lady Macbeth who never thinks twice about killing the king. When Lady Macbeth notices that Macbeth has left the room, she goes to speak to him. Macbeth firmly tells her that they will not kill the king: "we will proceed no further in this business". Lady Macbeth, however, tells him that his love is worth nothing if he refuses to go through with the plan, saying that his love is as accountable as hi... Free Essays on Macbeth Macbeth Essay In Macbeth, a play by William Shakespeare, the character Macbeth runs into many misfortunes that bring him to a terrible end. Three witches first introduce him to many strange and curious prophecies. Then his controlling wife, Lady Macbeth, pushes him to commit crimes that not even God could forgive. In the end though, Macbeth is the true master of his own destiny when he believes the prophecies that the witches feed him, when he lets Lady Macbeth control him, and then when he betrays his friends and becomes disloyal. Macbeth is the master of his own destiny when he believes all of the witches prophecies. After a long and gruesome war, Macbeth and Banquo are traveling home together and they come across three witches who give them three prophecies. The prophecies state that Macbeth will first become Thane of Cawdor, then he will be king, and then they state that Banquo’s sons will be king. Then not even a few minutes later the first prophecy given to Macbeth comes true. â€Å"He bade me from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor... For it is thine† (335,105). The king named Macbeth Thane of Cawdor for all his good deeds in war. This started Macbeth thinking that his second prophecy and Banquo’s prophecy might come true. â€Å"Glamis and Thane of Cawdor! The greatest is behind... Do you not hope your children shall be kings when those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me promised no less to them† (335,117). Thinking that these prophecies may come true will later lead Macbeth to do many horrible deeds. Macbeth is the master of his own destiny when he allows Lady Macbeth to control him and attack his ego. Macbeth sends word to his wife as soon as his first prophecy comes true, explaining all that has happened to him. Lady Macbeth immediately devises a plan to kill King Duncan so that her husband can become king. â€Å"Be the serpent under’t. He that’s coming must be provided for: and you shall put this ni... Free Essays on Macbeth In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were alike in several ways, but they were also different in some ways. Both had similar views of what they wanted, but had different ways of getting this. This similarities and differences were shown throughout the play. Macbeth was a man of great loyalty and was well respected at the beginning of the play. Lady Macbeth was also respected in the beginning of the play. After Macbeth met with the witches and they told him about his future, he didn’t think much of it until he was named Thane of Cawdor. After he was named Thane, he began to think of what else the witches had told him. He began thinking of bigger and better things, like becoming king of Scotland. Macbeth was eager and ambitious to find out if the witches were correct about his future. He immediately wrote home to Lady Macbeth after he was named Thane of Cawdor, telling her that the king was coming to reside at their house. Lady Macbeth immediately began thinking of power and how she would love to be a queen. She began thinking of ways to murder king Duncan. After Macbeth arrived home, he didn’t like the idea of killing Duncan until Lady Macbeth questioned his manliness. After she questioned his manliness, he went along with the idea to murder Duncan because he didn’t want his wife to think less of him. They were both so ambitious that they murdered the king. Greed was also a big problem for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They both wanted power so badly they would do anything to get it, even if it meant killing innocent people, which was exactly what Macbeth did. He murdered Duncan; he also had Banquo murdered along with Macduff’s family. Lady Macbeth was also greedy because she convinced her husband into Duncan’s murder. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were also similar in the ways that they suffered. They both suffered emotionally, mentally and physically as the play progressed. After they began their murdering spree, the... Free Essays on Macbeth There are many things that tempt people to do some wrong things, something what is not allowed. Most of the time it’s easier and more fun to do wrong things than the good ones. For example it is easier to steal than to earn money by working; it easier to lie than to tell the truth. We define good and strong people by their ability to resist different kinds of their temptation. And another part of our society consists of people who are weak, who are tempted to go by an easier way but sinful. And a good example of such people is Macbeth. The witches could foretell the future for him, they could add temptation, and influence Macbeth, but they could not control his destiny. They didn’t lead him to his destructions; his ambitions and desires have destroyed him. Macbeth, at the beginning of the play seems to be a very noble person. We see him as loyal and honorable. He fights in the battle against Norway which proves his loyalty, then he is appointed Thane of Cawdor which proves that he is honorable and respected by the king. However, as soon as the witches tell him their prediction: â€Å"all hail, Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter†. (I, iii, 52) He is no longer trustworthy and becomes evil and deceiving. The witches have a great influence, but in the end, it's Macbeth's decision to fall for the temptation. Even before he reaches his home, thoughts of murder spark in his head and he is overcome with the desire to be powerful. Lady Macbeth has played an important part in tempting Macbeth for murdering even more then the witches. She was like Eve who tempts Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. Seeing that Macbeth is unsure about the witches’ prophecies she encourages Macbeth to kill the Duncan. Lady Macbeth is very ambitious person. She even says: "Thou wouldst be great/ Art not without ambition". (I, v, 80-81) Macbeth also says: "his beset... Free Essays on Macbeth Macbeth Ambitious hero or Tragic fool Shakespeare’s play â€Å"Macbeth† deals with events that demonstrate contrasts between good and evil, treason and honour. The supernatural element of the play provides a dilemma for Macbeth, which ultimately leads to his tragic down fall. In the opening scenes Shakespeare introduces Macbeth as a courageous soldier and a nobleman. â€Å"What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won† Act 1 scene 2 Macbeth is thought of very highly and is pronounced Thane of Cawdor. I think Macbeth deserved this title, because he evidently showed great courage in battle, and was highly supported by his wife. In addition to this, he showed great loyalty and tremendous ambition. In the last scenes of Act 1 Shakespeare shows how a partner can influence a person when making decisions. Macbeth greatly loved his wife, L. Macbeth he displayed this firstly his actions and speech and secondly in the way he respected her thoughts and views. Macbeth was a loyal husband and a noble thane as opposed to the tragic mistakes he made such as killing to fulfil his ambitions â€Å"O worthiest cousin† Act 1 scene 4 The king trusted Macbeth and the king tells him what a worthy Thane he is but Macbeth thinks it is just his duty. Some of Shakespeare’s language is quite archaic. Shakespeare uses great characterisation he doesn’t give each character a lengthy description, but from his writers’ craft, we can grasp their good qualities and also their bad. One of Macbeth’s traits is he was easily led astray, he might have appeared to be a strong character but L. Macbeth still managed to talk him into murder. L. Macbeth was very much in control, although it was visions that also influenced him. â€Å"Is this a dagger which I see before me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Act Scene Just before Macbeth kills Duncan he sees a dagger in a vision. The dagger is leading him towards Duncan’s chamber. I think the dagger made Macbeth n... Free Essays on Macbeth Macbeth â€Å"Macbeth† by William Shakespeare is a play, which involves the downfall of its male protagonist. Like many of Shakespeare’s plays, the hero has a tragic flaw or personal weakness, which is responsible for their downfall. In this case it is Macbeth’s â€Å"vaulting ambition† which is considered his great weakness. In this essay I will discuss to what extent I agree or disagree with this view of Macbeth’s character. As with a number of Shakespeare’s heroin’s Macbeth’s personal flaw is to some degree responsible for his eventual downfall. The only reason Macbeth and Lady Macbeth originally give for planning the murder of Duncan is this â€Å"vaulting ambition†. This is unmistakable in Act 1, Scene 7 when in lines 26 and 27 Macbeth himself says, â€Å"To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself†. This dialogue in the first act of the play lets us know that Macbeth is aware of his vaulting ambition. There is no doubt that his personal flaw is to blame for his decision to kill Duncan, but his eventual downfall, in my opinion has more to do with his fascination with the witch’s prophecy. The witch’s proclaim that Macbeth will be king and so too shall the sons of Banquo. He knows that to become king he must kill Duncan, and he also knows that it would be robbing his country of a great king. He allows Lady Macbeth and greed to cloud his judgment and he finally agrees to commit the murder. I believe the reason for Macbeth killing Duncan is due to the persuasive Lady Macbeth and his vaulting ambition. Despite this being the reason for Macbeth committing the murder of Duncan, the rest of Macbeth’s crimes, murders and his eventual downfall are due more to his obsession with the witch’s prophecy. The evil witches deceive Macbeth by giving him vague and unclear truths in their prophecies. As a result of these vague truths, Macbeth makes rash decisions that lead him to ... Free Essays on Macbeth Shakespeare’s Theme in Macbeth Macbeth is essentially a play about rebellion and the price of disorder. It is a deeply conservative play, a reactionary attack upon the enemies of kingship dressed up as a poetic mediation upon the pathology of evil. As with all classic tragedies, theatre is used to purge anti social feeling and so reinforce the status quo In the summer of 1606, Shakespeare sat contented as King James I, rapt with awe, watched Macbeth. Shakespeare had much wanted such a reaction from the King, who was well known for falling asleep during plays. Indeed it is said that his very purpose for writing Macbeth was most likely to be to honour the new King from Scotland. The Tragedy of Macbeth was based in legend, a story that James had been told repeatedly during his childhood, because of his own direct link to the story (James was one of Banquo’s foretold descendants to sit on the throne of Scotland). Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in full consciousness of these facts, knowing that writing a play that had personal connections to James, and which promoted negative feelings toward rebellion and disorder, would put him in good favour with the King. It is not only the Kings historical affiliation with the play that hints at Macbeth being written as a form of propaganda promoting peace and order. King James had personal ties with Shakespeare himself. As King, one of James’ first acts was to take over Shakespeare’s company and to promote them to be his own servants, so that henceforth they were known as the King’s Men. They acted very frequently at Court, and prospered accordingly. It was in Shakespeare’s interest to write a play that would appease James and advocate his Kingship. Perhaps of the most important pieces of evidence from a contextual perspective, supporting the above theory, are some of the events that took place during James reign. Indeed many of the events that occur in the play have a direct correlation to... Free Essays on Macbeth The Witches Are the Key The three witches in Macbeth are the key to the stories turn of events. They control the lives and destiny of every single character in the play. Everyone’s lives in this play wouldn’t have been as drastically changed if it wasn’t for the witches and their deceptive fortune telling. Actually, it should be called, â€Å"misfortune telling†. Ever since Macbeth returned from his battle, he was intrigued by the witche’s call that he would soon be King. â€Å"All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter.† (I.iii.50). The greed and pre-planning of his future rule was already taking place in Macbeth’s mind. Macbeth might have even been able to accept his rule more gracefully if the witches wouldn’t have been so vague in their predictions. Macbeth had to act on a whim, guessing what he had to do next, when he receives his title. Murder and lying clearly weren’t the right solutions to Macbeths future successes. Towards the end, after several â€Å"misfortune telling† from the hags, the gave Macbeth another hint, or tip. The second apparition said, â€Å"Be bloody, bold, and resolute! Laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.† (IV.i.80-82). This only added to Macbeth’s excessive greed and willingness to stop anyone that’s poses a threat to his advance in the hierarchy. The apparition also ceases Macbeth’s ability to think things through. He did not realize that there are some people that aren’t born to conventional methods. This sure did kick the last leg out from under Macbeth’s not so sturdy table. Macbeth’s death shows that the witches were some bad dudes. Should they have been trusted? I guess so, but Macbeth’s actions were clearly traveling faster than his mind could think. Bad, bad witches they were.... Free Essays on MacBeth Macbeth Essay – Is Macbeth A Tragic Hero Tragic Hero – Someone who by a weakness of character brings about their own downfall. By this definition Macbeth is a tragic hero. It is Macbeth’ s ‘vaulting ambition’ that lead him to his downfall. It clouds his judgement and eventually he grows into a evil and cruel man who doesn’t care if he kills anyone. At the start of the play we hear about how noble and brave Macbeth is. In the next scene Macbeth meets the witches who give him the prophecies. Then when the first of these comes true and Macbeth is made Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth is shocked. His mind soon turns to murder but at this moment in the he is repelled by the idea and will not interfere with fate. ‘If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir’. But later, when Macbeth hears that the Malcolm is named as the heir to the throne, Macbeth's thoughts turn to Murder again because he now thinks that he should be king. ‘The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step, which I must fall down or else o-er- leap, For it lies in my way. Star’s hide your fires! Let light not see my deep and dark desires’. This shows that aspiration to become king clouds his judgement and he eventually kills King Duncan. Macbeth's ambitions also turn him against his best friend. Banquo knows how ambitious Macbeth is and ends up suspecting that he murdered Kind Duncan: ‘Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, as the weird women promis’d; and, I fear, Thou play’dst most foully for’t’ When Macbeth becomes king he realises that the witches prophecies about Banquo might also come true: When they first put the name of king on me, and bade speak to ;then prophet- like, They’d hailed him father to a line of kings, Upon my head they’d placed a fruitless crown. He convinces the two murders that Banquo was their enemy and sends them to kill Banquo and Fleance. Ambition also tore apa... Free Essays on Macbeth MacBeth A tragedy is a literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw and a moral weakness. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is an example of such work. In this drama we discover that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are, in fact, tragic characters in that they suffer to a greater extent than their misdeeds and their ultimate come to ruin and complete destruction further defines them as tragic figures. A prosperous and powerful warrior, Macbeth was respected by soldiers and commoners alike. King Duncan of Scotland, Macbeth’s brother, highly valued and appreciated Macbeth’s fearless warfare accomplishments. Duncan expressed gratitude by honoring his brother with the Thane of Cawdor and saying â€Å"more is thy due than more than all can pay†(1.4, line 24). Despite this, Macbeth became incredibly ambitious to become king when he discovered that King Duncan named his eldest son, Malcolm, the heir to the crown of Scotland. This envy lead Macbeth along with his wife, Lady Macbeth, to attempt to â€Å"o’erleap† Duncan’s appointment of the next king by committing numerous of dreadful murders. Although Macbeth reaches his objective, he is thrown into pool of insecurity, guilt, and paranoia. Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s â€Å"dearest partner of greatness†(1.5, line 11), has greater ambition and desire to make her husband king. The play illustrates that although they both think of murdering King Duncan as soon as they hear the witches' prophecies, Macbeth thinks more about what he may or may not do, whereas Lady Macbeth immediately appeals to evil spirits to give her the strength to kill Duncan. Upon Macbeth refusal to proceed with the plan Lady Macbeth pressures her husband to commit the murder and states: â€Å"and live a coward in thine own esteem†(1.7, line 47). After the assassination of Duncan is complete, Lady Macbeth acquires the highest position ... Free Essays on Macbeth In MacBeth, William Shakespeare sets the mood of the entire play with extraordinary occurrences in the natural world. They signify the dark, cold and demented manner of MacBeth’s killing spree. From the thunder and lightning that accompany the three witches’ appearances to the terrible storms that follow the murders of King Duncan and Banquo. The supernatural occurrences reflect a break in the Chain of Being, the corruption in the moral and political orders that are considered unimaginable. Therefore, the supernatural occurrences in the natural world order are most severe and unsettling when that Chain of Being is broken. The three witches are an unnatural phenomenon and are directly related to the supernatural occurrences, this reflects their link to an unsettled and chaotic natural world. The sense of violence and foreboding that is evoked by the unnatural imagines create an aura of darkness, deception, and horror seen throughout MacBeth. The darkness creates th e image of horror with the deaths’ of King Duncan and Banquo at night or in darkness, and the second meeting with the three witches in a dark place shows the horror yet to come. The unnatural scenes in MacBeth are central to the foreshadowing of what is to come of MacBeth’s actions. The first three scenes establish a dark, gloomy mood that permeates the entire play. The play begins with a storm, and the supernatural forces immediately appear in the form of the three witches. The three witches are wicked and sinister, and whenever they appear the play links them to unease and lurking chaos in the natural world by insisting on thunder or thunder and lightning. The first witch says, â€Å"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?† This gives the impression that whenever there is thunder, lightning, or rain that the witches are lurking in the â€Å"fog and filthy air† (I.i.13). In his description of MacBeth and Banquo’s heroics th... Free Essays on Macbeth Macbeth- - God or a Power-hungry Mortal? â€Å"†¦I go and it is done. The bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.† (II, i, 71-73) â€Å"†¦It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight, If it find heaven, must find it out tonight.† (III, i, 157-158) â€Å"†¦Only for them, and mine eternal jewel Given to the common enemy of man To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings! Rather than so, come, Fate, into the list, And champion me to the utterance! Who’s there?† (III, i, 72-76) In the first passage, Macbeth was preparing to kill King Duncan. The toll of the bell was a signal used in order to show Macbeth that she had taken care of the guards and the coast was clear to kill Duncan. As he neared Duncan’s room, he silently prayed that Duncan wouldn’t hear the bell, for it was an omen for his death. Even worse, Duncan lead an innocent life, yet Macbeth still wondered whether Duncan would go to heaven or hell. In the second passage, he once again wondered whether his innocent friend would go to heaven or hell, once again playing god. In the third passage listed above, Macbeth acted very selfish. He explained why he didn’t want to give up a throne that he worked so hard for, up to children that weren’t even of his blood. The reason he was expecting the children that weren’t of his blood was because it was prophesized by the witches. In response, he decided to defy fate so that it wouldn’t interrupt his vaulting ambition. These passages show how power-hungry Macbeth was, obviously revealing that he felt that he was equal to God. First, he judged people for where they would be in the afterlife, even though it was God’s duty, and only God’s duty. Macbeth had absolutely no right and not even close to enough power to assume God’s responsibility. He had enough audacity to do this not only once, but twice. Another time that Macbeth w... Free Essays on Macbeth Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a very dark play. The first of the play introduces readers to the importance of darkness. Throughout the play most key events occur at night, often in dark and gloomy places. I think the â€Å"darkness† in the play was used to make the plot more interesting. The very first scene takes place in the middle of a thunderstorm. The three witches are calling to each other through the storm, and preparing to meet Macbeth. The witches create a dark force over the play. Shakespeare used nature as darkness. Nature behaves in frightening and strange ways in the play. In the first act, Lady Macbeth reads a letter that Macbeth wrote her. He tells her in the letter that he is now the thane of Cawdor. Then, the messenger tells Lady Macbeth that king Duncan is coming to her castle. At that point, Lady Macbeth invites â€Å"darkness† and evil to come live in her. She wants Macbeth to kill Duncan, so he can become the kind of Scotland. Macbeth tells her no, that he can’t kill Duncan, because he has been good to him. The â€Å"darkness† and evil inside of her persuades Macbeth to go through with her plan and kill Duncan. The â€Å"darkness† starts to take over Macbeth. In the second act, Macbeth sees a dagger in front of him, with the handle turned toward his hand. He can see it, but he can’t touch it. The dagger guides Macbeth to Duncan’s room. Duncan is asleep, and his servants are drunk, because Lady Macbeth drugged their wine. Macbeth kills Duncan with the daggers. Then, he comes down with the daggers still in his hands. Macbeth is in shock with what he has just done. The â€Å"darkness† inside him overpowered the goodness. Lady Macbeth takes the daggers from him, to go smear the servants with the blood, so it appears that they killed Duncan. Macbeth doesn’t know what is happening to him. He is terrified about what he just did. Then someone knocks at the door. Lady Macbeth tells him they need to go change cloths an... Free Essays on Macbeth â€Å"Cowards die many times before their death.† Macbeth displayed many noticeable characteristics throughout Shakespeare’s play of the same name. He was courageous at times and cowardly at others. The most noticeable characteristic in Macbeth was his ambition throughout the play. He also seemed to be a moral coward as he depended on others more than himself to make decisions. His cowardly ambition soon lead to his tragic death at the end of the play. At the beginning of Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth was described very clearly as a hero. In the opening scenes he was very loyal to the king, and then grows very ambitious to be the king. This is shown in the quotation â€Å"If chance will have me king, why / chance may crown me / Without my stir.† His ambition to be king dissolved his good nature and morality. When Duncan arrives at Inverness, Macbeth controlled his ambition for the time being and thought very firmly on the plotting of Duncan’s murder. Lady Macbeth stated, â€Å"My hands are of your color; but I shame / To wear a heart so white.† MacBeth being called a coward changed his ambition, then soon after the murder was taking place. After the successful murder of Duncan, Macbeth entered a life of evil. Ambition was also clearly stated when he thought of killing his friend Banquo to protect the kingship. The witches’ predictions sent Macbeth into his own world where he could not be stopped on his way to becoming king. Macbeth overcame his personal matters to plot the death of the king. In the scene where the murder of Duncan is taking place, he shows he is a coward when he will not complete the successful murder by taking the daggers back and placing them with the guards. This also showed a sense of insecurity, as Macbeth seemed no longer confident in the success of the murder. Macbeth, who no longer needed any encouragement from Lady Macbeth, started to leave her to deploy his plans. The power of ... Free Essays on Macbeth Macbeth’s Tragic Flaw Every one has a character flaw. Some are more serious than others. For instance, some people pick their nose, while others drink milk directly from the carton. After a while a person’s character flaws will come back to haunt them. Shakespeare is a master at pointing out one’s character flaws and showing how those flaw bring down that person or society in general. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth he does just that. Macbeth is a tragic hero whose character flaws are ambition and avarice. The play opens with Macbeth, a popular noble who quells a military coup against the King of Scotland by a Scottish nobleman, Macdonwald. This is looked at by other nobles as and honorable deed. The King then gives Macbeth the late Macdonwald’s former title. In this instance ambition is a good thing: but alls to week for brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name (I ii 16). The king even said â€Å"O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman†(I ii 24). His ambition was use to do a good thing, but if you stop to think; would any of this happened had he not killed Macdonwald. In the next scene we see the witches doing things that witches like to do. Then enters Macbeth with Banquo. They spot the witches and Banquo insults them. The witches turn to Macbeth and tell him he will be king: All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter (I iii 50). That single line is what sparks Maspeth’s evil ambition. This is the also the point when Macbeth start to turn evil. The witches also tell Macbeth he will become Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth replies to all this: to be king stands not within the prospect of belief (I iii 75). At this point Macbeth is skeptical, but then Ross tells him he is thane of Cawdor. Macbeth starts to believe he can become king. He is now successor to the throne of Scotland. Since Macbeth is heir to the throne of Scotland, all he has to do is get rid of King Duncan. In scene IV Duncan names his son the Prince o... Free Essays on Macbeth Greed of One Man At the end of the play, Malcolm refers to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as: â€Å"Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen† (Act V Scene VII line 69), consider the accuracy of Malcolm's judgment by reference to their speeches and actions throughout the play. In Malcolm's eyes, Macbeth is just a tyrannical murderer who snatched the throne away from him and his father and reigned a rule of terror in all of Scotland. Looking carefully from a different point-of-view, we see that Macbeth is driven by the powerful contradictions in his character. Unlike other villains, Macbeth does not enjoy doing evil; he has not totally renounced the idea of morality, although it is apparent that his ambition is stronger than his conscience. At first, Macbeth had the itch to be king, but he did not have the will to scratch it. We can see that Macbeth is not a cold-blooded monster in that the very idea of killing Duncan horrifies him, and in Act II he tries to tell Lady Macbeth that he will not go through with the murder. The character of Lady Macbeth is therefore required to provide Macbeth with the extra will power to fulfill his royal ambitions. Macbeth is almost 'forced' by Lady Macbeth to murder Duncan. After committing the murder, Macbeth seems almost delirious and he says, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand" (Act II Scene III Lines 59-60). We can already see that he is sorry for what he has done. When Macbeth orders Banquo's murder, he is still in torment, but the cause of his anguish seems to have been changed. He is afraid of Banquo, because Banquo knows about the witches and their predictions of his descendants being kings. Banquo's death, he says, will put his mind at rest. Banqu o's murder, he figures, will serve as an aspirin to his aches and pains. We are never told how Macbeth feels about the murder of Macduff's wife and children. Their killing gains him nothing. He has good reason to fear Ma... Free Essays on Macbeth Bloody Macbeth The story â€Å"The Tragedy of Macbeth† by William Shakespeare begins in a mythical way. It first scene is an open place in Scotland where three witches have met. They tell the main character Macbeth that he will become king. This weighs on his mind, and he kills the present reigning king, Duncan. He becomes king, and many people become suspicious of him. An uprising is held against him where he is killed, and the son of King Duncan is crowned. The many conflicts in the story lead to the frequent use of blood. The use of blood adds to the effect of the story. Lady Macbeth speaking of blood after she learns she will be queen adds to the effect of the story. After the witches tell Macbeth he will be crowned at the first of the story, he writes a letter to his wife, telling her what he has heard. She begins to see that she has the chance to become the Queen of Scotland, and she must do anything possible to make it happen. She realizes that she must change as a person in order to do the things needed to become Queen. She begins to speak of herself, and the changes she must undergo to become the cruel person she needs to. She wants her blood to thicken to make her more cold-hearted, â€Å"Make thick my blood, Stop up the access and passage to remorse.† Act I, sceneV, lines 43-44. This adds to the intensity of the story, by making it clear she wants to become different in any way needed in order to become. If the changing of the very blood of her body is necessary, then she is prepared for it to change, which strengthens the effect of the story. The blood mentioned in the plans to kill Duncan add the effect of the murder. Lady Macbeth is very intent on becoming Queen. She and Macbeth make a plan of how they will kill King Duncan. They plan to kill him in his own chamber, with the daggers of his to guards, after the guards have been drugged. When the king is dead, and the guards... Free Essays on Macbeth Macbeth Essay: Many Feel Lady Macbeth is to Blame for Macbeth ¡Ã‚ ¦s Failure, Agree or Disagree? Lady Macbeth was not to blame for Macbeth ¡Ã‚ ¦s failure in this tragedy because it was Macbeth ¡Ã‚ ¦s ambition which leaded him to his downfall instead of Lady Macbeth ¡Ã‚ ¦s persuasion, nobody could force anyone to do anything which he didn ¡Ã‚ ¦t want to unless Macbeth himself really wanted to do so and also, Lady Macbeth felt guilty and regretted at the end to show her human kindness, but Macbeth didn ¡Ã‚ ¦t. At the beginning of the story we learned that Macbeth was a very superstition person who believed in the prophecies of the evil witches. He was also a person full of ambition who wanted to take over the kingship of King Duncan. Those two characteristics were the main concern of his failure. Lady Macbeth had never met or known anything about the witches because Macbeth had never mentioned it before. So Lady Macbeth was not involved in Macbeth ¡Ã‚ ¦s  ¡Ã‚ §evil plan ¡Ã‚ ¨. Before we had met Lady Macbeth in the play, we had already known that Macbeth had the thinking of taking over the kingship from Duncan. This showed that to murder Duncan was not suggested by Lady Macbeth but, instead, Macbeth was the one who came up with this idea first. Later on, Macbeth decided to kill Banquo as well as Macduff ¡Ã‚ ¦s family. Lady Macbeth never known that Macbeth had became such a ruthless person. She didn ¡Ã‚ ¦t persuade Macbeth to do these murders so we couldn ¡Ã‚ ¦t blame on her. On the other hand, I believed that nobody could force anyone to do something unless the person himself really wanted to do so. Even through Lady Macbeth had persuaded Macbeth to kill Duncan but she never do anything to force him. She only accused Macbeth of his inconstancy, cowardice and unmanliness. It was Macbeth who couldn ¡Ã‚ ¦t stand the accusation and decided to do something wrong. Macbeth ¡Ã‚ ¦s lack of loyalty and patriotism was the main causes of his murder to Dun... Free Essays on MacBeth In reading Shakespeare’’s well-known play, Macbeth, one will always notice the many influences that Macbeth encounters before his downfall. Each one of these may have had some bit of impact on the final outcome. The three most controversial and popular causes of the tragedy of Macbeth are the main character’’s ambition, the witches’’ fateful prophecies, and Lady Macbeth’’s dominance. Each one of these can be argued as the main source of influence on Macbeth for murdering so many people. Some people would argue that the main source causing this tragedy was his wife, Lady Macbeth. However, this would not support all of the events that took place in Macbeth. Other people might argue that Macbeth’’s own, personal ambition is what led to the bloody death of so many people, but in this case, it is obvious that there was some other force behind him that helped him to change from a respectable, trustworthy man, to a deceiv ing murderer. In his encounters with the witches, Macbeth was introduced to that fact that he could have more power, and in hearing what he had to do to earn it, he was scared. However, with the witches making this power sound so grand, he was eventually convinced that his dignity was no longer essential. The witches, therefore, were what caused the legacy of Macbeth as a heroic individual to lead to his ultimate death and destruction. In the play, there are many interesting sections that concentrate on the suspense and the involvement of the supernatural. With the sense of the supernatural and interference of the spirits, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are led to dangerous, tempting things. The three witches are introduced right at the beginning of the play, on Macbeth’’s way home from fighting in the battle for his country. They recount to Macbeth three prophecies. The first is that he will become the Thane of Cawdor, the second is the Thane of Glamis, which he already was titled as, and the third was sta...

Failure is feedback Why objective opinions improve your work

Failure is feedback Why objective opinions improve your work Oftentimes in life, the difference between a crushing setback and an opportunity is perspective. HealthRise Solutions David Farbman believes that a â€Å"failure† is simply a time for feedback, an opportunity to make yourself better. Business is a long and winding road, and the ability to see opportunities for what they are (without lying to yourself) is a crucial skill for anyone trying to navigate it. [Source: Daily Fuel]

You Are an Entrepreneur Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

You Are an Entrepreneur - Essay Example My business will be referred to as Business Post Enterprise. With the increased demand for information relating to formation and running of enterprises, I realized that my writing hobby can be converted to a business that will involve writing business articles on a magazine that is known as Business Post. In this way, I will be in a position to provide the information that is needed by individuals who intend to venture into small and middle level businesses. Additionally, I am focused at creating advertising spaces that will create an opportunity for the existing and new firms to advertise their products. It is worth to note that with the current cut-throat competition, most firms have turned into extensive advertisement in order to create a strong customer awareness thus increasing their sales. In this regard, my objective is to capture that market segment and provide adequate advertising spaces that will meet the needs of my clients. In order to achieve my goals, I will require a w orkforce that is experienced and adequately motivated. Members of staff will include office administrator, advertising manager, sales executives, messengers, writers, information technology expert, receptionist, driver, an accountant and a cleaner. My duty will be to manage the whole business. The office administrator will oversee the general running of the office as well as the evaluation of the other workers. The advertising manager on the other hand will ensure that orders have properly been acquired by the sales executives, advertisement artworks are received on time, leading the sales executives as well as organizing interviews with the customers. The sales executives will be responsible for contacting the potential clients both the one seeking to advertise and those who need to purchase the magazine copies. Messengers will be responsible for taking the magazines to the customers as well as taking correspondents

Lab report paraphrasing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Lab report paraphrasing - Essay Example According to Experiment 1 observations, the T value of the signal when increased to 2 seconds from 0.5 seconds in 0.5 increments, the Fourier Transform accuracy also rises. Consequently, it is also evident that when the value of T is 0.5 seconds, the graph appears exceptionally different from the other 3 graphs since the period is not a big number to show the 2 tasks. These roles are actually the ones indicated on with line with the other one being made from the size of the troughs and peaks. This can clearly be seen when T=2 seconds in the graph in experiment 1. A correct value could not be displayed by the power spectrum because T value was too tiny. As illustrated, whenever the value of T rises, the power spectrum begins to exhibit the 2 co-sinusoids. When the experiment is over, it becomes clear that the magnitude of code required to solve the FFT is much shorter and simpler than the substitute DFT code. The other point to put into consideration would be the results obtained in section 3 of experiment 2.Thus, these results showed the time consumed to determine the DFT as well as the FFT, something that demonstrates that the FFT is quicker and realistic for determining the Fourier Transform. Consequently, FFT can be utilised in different methods through the entire electrical engineering comprising of researching on audio waves as well as the technique involving the audio signals, especially in recognition of pattern in instances where an engineer is searching for definite similarities or points, in addition to medical imagery like MRI scans etc. The above are just a few of numerous uses that electrical engineers are provided for by FFT at

Takeover and Strategy Proposal

Takeover and Strategy Proposal The following strategy and takeover proposal examines the contracting division of Masters Building Company Limited. The proposal undertakes a SWOT analysis, used as the foundation for strategy in marketing, division structure, and teamwork. Each area of concern is examined based on what has previously occurred, what is proposed to occur, and what the expected outcomes are. The strategic initiatives seek to prompt Masters Building Company Limited into a new era of relationship marketing, decentralised managerial structure, and strong employee morale. The firm’s strengths are that it has a strong consumer base with a positive history and social status. This is assumed from the long tradition of the firm in its operative area. The firm has very low debt and is profitable. There is some growth in the contracting division. The firm’s weaknesses are the lack of new client contracts, the recent decision to open new offices requiring overdrafts for the new offices of the contracting division. The contracting division also has low employee moral. Another weakness is that there is little work in the Exerter area and low complexity of projects. The firm has opportunities in altering its managerial and team structures to create stronger employee moral. It has opportunities in creating more complex projects through regional marketing of the new offices. The firm’s external threats are the credit crisis and recession, increased pressure from creditors for early payment and delays in receiving stage payments. The firm can overcome these threats by focusing in its strengths of tradition and customer relationships which can be implemented through stronger marketing strategies. The construction industry is highly competitive, and the ability of management to use marketing as a valuable service is imperative to gaining contracts (Shutt 1995). The focus of the takeover proposal is to generate more complex construction work for the betterment of the company. In doing so, the takeover proposal recognises that Masters has the potential to increase its commercial bids through a stronger marketing mix. Commercial bids are preferred due to their work complexity, which generates revenue and knowledge based experience for the firm (Finkel 1996). Furthermore, commercial bids are understood to have mixed uses and are often allocated by internal funds, thus they have minimal effects of interest rates and public policies (Finkel 1996). Since the scale of major construction projects is a barrier to small firms, it is imperative that Masters be placed under a strong examination of capital requirements in terms of current and necessary tools and materials, as both time and money are required to create jobs in commercial markets (Shutt 1995). Specialty contract work in commercial industry is the focus as this allows for small to medium sized businesses such as Masters to enter the market, generating stronger income (Canter 1994). The focus will be on small, complex projects in renovation and alteration. The takeover proposal is to include the past customers with new potential in a stronger marketing strategy as the firm moves towards the development of new offices it will require more marketing resources in Plymouth, Bristol and Bournemout. The takeover proposal must include a strategic business outline as: Figure 1 Marketing Strategy The current structure is very linear and hierarchical. While this has worked in the traditional construction industry, it bars open communication. It is recommended that the structure be evaluated and redistributed to increase communication between areas of the contracting division. This is imperative as the firm is expanding to add new estimators and managers. The takeover proposal is not to remove Frank Burton, but to readdress his position as an authoritarian manager into one of quality leadership that allows for stronger determination of the firm’s detection of, allocation of, and income from, the contracting division. Deficiencies in structure occur when there are low knowledge flows, which constrict planning techniques and lessen control of the contractual position (Finkel 1996). Figure 2 Structure Strategy Under Frank Burton’s traditional authoritarian management, the contracting division has low morale. Change management is required to rejuvenate the team. The contracting division has multiple intricacies that are dependent on the ability of management to integrate capabilities (Shutt 1995). The contracting division has a discontinuous business environment due to temporal bidding and allocation concerns, creating less efficient workloads (Shutt 1995). Establishing measures for efficiency is imperative to increase productivity, variables in staff periods, job roles, training incentives, and operations should be set to overcome staffing issues (Shut 1995). Figure 3 Team Strategy The impact of previous changes in the structure of the contracting and specialist service divisions have lead to a third reduction in overhead costs as staffing levels have been reduced, however turnover has increased. The contracting division has a turnover of 4,377,000Â £ with overheads at 9.5% and profits at 2.1%. Thus, net profits are only 91,917Â £, while overhead is 415,815Â £, which shows a negative cost efficiency strategy. Overhead costs are higher in Bristol and Bournemouth, where net profit is also lower, and that regional office has a smaller staff. This is likely due to the increased debt of the Bristol and Bournemouth locations. The common economic pathway for reducing overhead costs is not always to strategically move staff and relocate management or offices in new regions. This may lead to a false economy, since overhead costs were not lowered, just moved. Therefore, the takeover must consider strong evaluation of Masters complete economic position for the sake of reducing the high overhead costs. Market economic show that overhead cost reduction is found in low-cost production, availability of quality products and effective supply chain management (Rockley 1984). Cost concerns require a more efficient use of temporary and low-complexity work, and examining the markets in the regional offices to evaluate their cost effectiveness (Rockley 1984; Shutt 1994). It is not clear if the move to the regions such as Bristol was cost effective, however it is assumed that this was not an efficient move since it has higher overhead and lower profits (Rockley 1984). Therefore, it is likely that these regional offices ar e simply geographically out of place for the construction market (Shutt 1994). Furthermore, the construction industry itself is highly labour intensive, therefore it stands to reason that staff turnover and quality control as well as the product supply chain must be streamlined to lower costs and increase profitability (Shutt 1994). Activity name Project Leader Estimated start Estimated finish Market Analysis of Service Differentiation Len 4-Jan-09 4-Mar-09 Market Analysis of Relationship Management Len 20-Jan-09 21-Feb-09 Market Analysis of Marketing Mix Len 6-Feb-09 16-Apr-09 Restructuring from Hierarchical to Decentralised Gordon and Frank 24-Feb-09 25-Apr-09 Communication Pathways Open Door Policy Gordon and Frank 8-Mar-09 18-Mar-09 Communication Pathways Between Regional Offices Gordon and Frank 19-Mar-09 29-Apr-09 Examination of Job Roles Gordon and Frank 10-Apr-09 20-Apr-09 Examination of Training Gordon and Frank 10-Apr-09 22-Jun-09 Examination of Employee Resources Gordon and Frank 18-Apr-09 30-Aug-09 Supply and Production Analysis Sammy 30-Jun-09 30-Aug-09 Quality and Effectiveness Analysis Frank 30-Aug-09 21-Jul-09 Regional Market Analysis Frank 14-Jun-09 12-Aug-09 Figure 4 Milestones Canter M.R. (1994) Resource Management for Construction, London: Macmillan Finkel, Gregory (1996) Economics For Construction Industry. London: M.E. Sharpe Rockley L.E. (1984) Finance for the Non-Accountant, USA: Business Books Shutt R.C. (1995) Economics for the Construction Industry, London: Longman

511 Midterm

511Part 1. Zomeworks: Four Decades of Design-Driven Innovation in the New Mexico Desert 1. )I believe that no, Zomeworks should not aggressively pursue the solar water heater market. I believe this for many reasons. Number one being that natural gas is one of the most abundant natural resources that the world has and if individuals are not being compensated for using a different technology then they will not change, it is sad, but it is reality. In today’s present society individuals do not like change nor do they like more expensive change.What I mean by that is it is quite expensive to have a solar water heater installed. I think that Zomeworks has a great opportunity to further maximize their current portfolio as long as they really start to focus on it. Zomeworks is a leader in Passive Solar Technology. I feel that this type of technology is not well known and that by pursuing the solar water heater market they are going to jump their innovative wave too soon. I think a go od indication of this is the fact that Zomeworks is producing products right here in New Mexico and I have not heard about them until this midterm.Zomeworks need to capitalize on the very valuable assets it has to offer. For example, Zomeworks Passive Solar Tracker is a great product for them to get their brand name recognized. While all of this is just my opinion I believe that in order to really make an educated analysis on whether or not Zomeworks should pursue the water heater market, the first thing I would look into is the overall goals of the outside investors, since they hold the majority stake in the company. I would want to look at the actual finances of the company.I would conduct research to find actual amount of quantities sold, revenues generated by each product type, and production costs associated with each product. In addition, it would be important to know the firm’s costs of optimizing its existing portfolio and its benefits against the costs and benefits i nvolved in focusing on the solar water heater market. Minimum Winning Game is defined as, â€Å"the first major market opportunity for a new technology that is limited enough to provide a clear target for the technology and product development efforts in the short to medium term and, nd sufficiently large enough to establish the foundation for the long term business and financial success. It requires iterative double linking process of understanding the business opportunity for the technology and linking that to technical priorities. † For example, a minimum winning game for Zomeworks would include many different facets. A winning strategy at Zomeworks would include further product and technological development that energizes and inspires its target consumer.The company knows that its target consumer base is mostly comprised of either â€Å"going green† supporters or those off the grid who require their specialized products. Zomeworks simply needs to use a more effecti ve strategy to communicate its message of â€Å"why† consumers should purchase its solar water heater. El Bulli accomplished the communication of its vision by highlighting an expression of innovation and a team that â€Å"constantly sought new techniques and new equipment with which to experiment†, rather than the message of running a restaurant to make money.Zomeworks needs to focus on redesigning the core meaning behind its entire portfolio before it can successfully expand its reach in promoting its solar water heater, Zomeworks currently caters to the niche buyer who has a definitive need for a solar product. If Zomeworks is going to expand into the consumer solar water heater segment, work needs to be done on communicating the environmental benefits of this product. A winning strategy at Zomeworks would include leveraging their customer target segments that show the most growth potential. . ) Full Credit Leadership is one of the key drivers in running a company. Leaders have many techniques and organizational structures to choose from depending on the type and size of the firm. When it comes to Zomeworks I think that an informal organizational structure and leadership technique would be the best. What I mean by informal organizational structure is the acceptance of input from all employees. Since Zomeworks is of a smaller scale they can afford the diverse inputs of their employees.While it is important for a business to have a structure in place as it grows, I feel a formal structure can have unique drawbacks while a company is still small. Employees in a startup business need to feel more like partners in the company's vision. Placing employees in rigidly defined roles when the company is small enough to ensure that all employees’ work together can create a rift in the relationship between business owners and employees, which can greatly affect the performance of the company.Strategic decision-making is generally more centralized in smaller organizations than in larger companies, again due to the relatively fewer number of managers found in small companies. What I mean by informal leadership is very well illustrated in the Monnalisa Clothing Case. â€Å"The founder is an essential element of our system of control,† says a Monnalisa product manager. â€Å"He knows when to feed the creative forces of the company or when to draw attention to critical production, financial, or quality indicators. As stated in the case, Monnalisa is a medium-sized Italian company that designs and sells clothes and accessories for children. Monnalisa is a great example of a company that has formal (results control) and informal (social control) mechanisms to manage its concurrent and ongoing need for creative design and efficient production processes. At Monnalisa, there’s no intention to limit creativity, but increasingly the company is trying to offer the stylists a minimum structure by running a series of internal meetings at the beginning of every collection.This collection briefing enables the team to define the objectives in terms of what to create (and its quality standards), when to create it (fashion weeks and availability at the shops for the beginning of the season dictate the timing), and at what target cost. Significantly, the company has introduced new software that allows the stylists to monitor the consequences of their creation(s) in financial terms (through cost cards) and in development terms (through technical cards) as ideas progress. With this tool, we don’t want to limit creativity at all—actually we want to maximize our creative potential and avoid the problems we had in the past when collections ended up to be incomplete on the shelves because we decided not to produce some low margin prototypes,† the CFO emphasizes. I think that for Zomeworks this type of managing between creativity and business would actually be pretty easy. Zomeworks management str ucture seems like it is very strong and they understand what each of their roles is.I think that the hardest part for Zomeworks would be the fact that the employees that work there are so smart and have so many different ideas that if would be hard keeping input to a minimum and explaining why management chose one idea over the other. 3. ) Full Credit Today, in order to be competitive it is essential to recognize the value of â€Å"knowledge† and to strive for an improved ROI and better management of your organization’s knowledge assets. Perhaps your organization has already recognized the value of the knowledge that it has spent its hard-earned capital to obtain.If so, you may already be taking steps to formalize the collection of valuable knowledge gained from experience and organizing knowledge in ways that benefit the entire organization. These new approaches are collectively referred to as â€Å"Knowledge Management†. â€Å"The fact is [knowledge managemen t and best practice sharing] is good for business. The faster and more effectively we can share ideas, the better we can make our product, the better we can serve our customers, the better we can build a committed team of employees, and—bottom line—the better we can earn profits for our shareholders. One way that Zomeworks can increase its internal knowledge capture and internal knowledge sharing is to build their collaborative competency. Collaborative competency is a firm’s ability to realign its internal resources and capabilities to the changing environment by leveraging on external resources and capability-acquiring mechanisms such as strategic alliances, acquisitions, and joint ventures. Zomeworks could greatly benefit from collaborating and sharing their passive solar technology.For example, lets say that Zomeworks collaborates with the company that is selling the majority of the solar water heaters in Europe. They could use this collaboration to learn fl aws that the Europe product might have or vis versa. Also, if they partnered with this European company their brand name would be out there more and this type of collaboration could eventually lead to a joint venture and the entrance into a new economy for Zomeworks. 4. )When it comes to the question of determining your target market you have to take into consideration what your product is and how your product is going to be used.Whether or not suburban residential southwestern United States is the right target market for the solar water heater is not the biggest concern for me. I think the bigger question to ask is, is it the only target market for the solar water heater and the answer is no, it’s not. I would agree that solar water heaters are more effective in the southwestern United States. I do not think, however, that the southwestern United States is the only target market to approach.If we again refer back to the scenario of just the Albuquerque area we know that the residents that live close to the natural gas lines are the residents that are going to be using gas water heaters because it is extremely cost effective. Therefore these individuals will have no financial incentive to give up their gas water heater for a solar water heater (refer to figure 1. ) The real target market for residential Albuquerque would be those residential areas that are further away from the gas lines since they are most likely using electric and propane heaters, which are around 10X as much to use than gas water heaters.Since customers are spending a lot more on electric and propane heaters they would be the best residential target market for the solar water heaters since even though the instillation of a solar water heater will be expensive in the beginning it will quickly earn its value compared to how much the resident owner was originally paying to operate an electric water heater. Figure 1 The key to remember is that there has to be a real problem that solar wa ter heaters solve in order to warrant mass adoption, something I don’t see happening in the United States, at least in today’s society.It appears that Zomeoworks is best positioned to pursue emerging markets, because these markets have conditions that produce problems that Zomeworks can solve. The Chotukool refrigerator further exemplifies the importance of having used a product to solve a problem. In rural Indian villages, traditional refrigerators were too expensive and an unreliable power source made them unconventional. The Chotukool merged the gap between having a functional and inexpensive refrigerator (something the Tata nano also did). Obviously this product would never serve as a primary cooling unit in the U.S. and I feel like solar water heaters fall into a similar category. The only target markets worth actively pursing are either idealists and those homeowners living off the natural gas line (self-centered). Since people with no gas lines typically use cos tly and inefficient electric and propane water heaters, installing a solar water heater would be a cost effective solution. The difference of course is that idealists have an emotional drive toward the product while those living off the natural gas line have a functional, self-centered need for the product. . ) I think that currently the company has a reserve the right to play strategy see figure 3 below. This means that the company invests enough to stay in the game, but avoid premature damages. This strategy may work for them now, especially since customers find them due to very little outside advertising, besides of course a magazine ad that targets the same consumers who are already are knowledgeable in the technology. Basically, Zomeworks is following a strategy aimed at maintaining production for the relatively localized and sporadic level of demand.I don’t see the company having as much potential by encroaching on the traditional energy market. Instead of adapting, Zom eworks needs to use a shaping strategy to redefine what it means to actually use solar. Lets face it, at the end of the day consumers are going to buy what they are most comfortable with and whatever is most popular. Incidentally the people making decisions for businesses act the same way. People want to be energy conscious consumers. Zomeworks needs to step into the wave and excite customers about the solar philosophy.How about designing a marketing campaign that shows which companies use Zoneworks products and how it has impacted the earth. This creates a popular group where individuals and businesses get social recognition for supporting rentable sources of energy. If I was going to make a shaping view for Zomeworks the biggest part would be for the based of Steve Baer’s philosophy. I think that Steve could have his engineers work quite diligently on producing a solar water heater that could be a leading example in the industry.It would set out and educate that population of what a big deal this type of technology is and how good it is for our world. I would really push advertising since we want to create a lot of demand. Figure 3 6. )B2C is defined as any business who sells primarily to the end customer while, B2B refers to any business who sells primarily to other businesses both online and offline. B2B markets are generally small vertical markets, often niche in size, comprised of a few thousand sales prospects to maybe as large as 100,000 prospects.B2C markets are typically large broad markets of tens to thousands to millions of sales prospects. I believe that Zomeworks should try a B2B approach instead of a B2C for the solar water heater market. I think that a B2B approach would be better for Zomeworks to pursue for many reasons. I think that the greatest reason that Zomeworks should go to B2B is to benefit their Research and Development department. If Zomeworks uses a big-box retailer to sell their products than it can increase the funding it h as towards R;D projects.If Zomeworks wants to have better product placement it needs to improve dealer relationships and further relationships with businesses that are possible customers. The benefit of using a B2B approach is that more effort can be spent on support and instillation, assuming that B2B results in a lower number of buyers. Instead of trying to cater to individual consumers, Zomeworks could appeal to servicing multiple needs of entire organizations and cultivating lasting relationships with its clients. Zomeoworks also needs to find a partner in the appliance industry.A reputable business partner would add credibility to Zomeworks and its products, and marketing multiple variants of its products would help diffuse solar technology into the market. Plus since brand identity in B2B markets is created through personal relationships and consultative selling with the other business Zomeworks doesn’t have to worry about product advertising. They can use the other bus inesses and resellers to do the marketing for them if they used the B2B approach. With their client base typically being repeat customers the transition would be easy. The lifetime value of a B2B customer is much higher due to the higher cost of sales and the likelihood of repeat or add-on sales to the same customer. † I think that with a B2B approach it would be easier to have multiple product configurations. I think that my having multiple product configurations Zomeworks is helping sell more of their product without the annoyance of pushing all of their products onto the customer, which in return could make them not want to buy the product since they will then be locked in. I elieve that by having a B2B approach it will help facilitate the diffusion of technology. I believe this because if you have many or even just another business selling your product they are able to advertise and speak to the value of the product. I believe that the one of the greatest ways to diffuse t echnology is to educate people of that technology. When individuals are fully educated on what the different products are used for etc. , they will be able to make an educated decision on whether or not the different products would be a right fit for them and their needs.The ever-changing market that is technology can very easily influence people, so by having resellers be able to answer questions and explain the products they are helping Zomeworks diffuse the technology. I think that a good example of a situation in where technology was diffused is in the example that Everett Rogers gives, â€Å"the implementation of water boiling to obtain higher health and wellness levels of the individuals living within the village of Los Molinas. † In this case the residents of the village have no knowledge of the link between proper sanitation and reduced levels of illness. In Los Molinas, a stigma is linked to boiled water as being something that only the â€Å"sick† or â€Å"u nwell† consume, and thus, the idea of healthy residents boiling their water prior to consumption was frowned upon, and those who did so wouldn't be accepted by their society. †3 Much of the reason for the lack of success is because the social norms and standards of acceptance into society greatly outweighed the idea of taking on this innovation. Zomeworks could also levarge what there target market should be in order to diffuse technology. With the proper market the customer base will be very accepting of this new technology.For example, bringing the technology to individuals that are very environmentally friendly. 7. )I believe that although Zomeworks is great at the R&D aspect of their company. I think acting as an R&D laboratory and licensing out technology and products would be a smart move for Zomeworks. They currently have a limited manufacturing layout (I am assuming since the one location is in Albuquerque), so switching to a pure R&D structure would be relativel y easy. If Zomeworks focused more on the R&D aspect of the business they could contract out to companies that would pay very well.TTTech faced a similar problem when deciding to either license out its time triggered system or become an engineering partner. The benefits of licensing its technology would be faster diffusion into the marketplace through various product variants. Its possible that firms would see alternative uses for Zomeowrks technology and products, just like how coolcell was designed because of a outside firms asking for a solution to cool batteries and increase there usable life. Another benefit of licensing includes focusing more on invention and innovation, which would help Baer diffuse his solar philosophy into a wider range of products.They could become a B2B company, which would free up the amount and time it would take set up stores everywhere and sell directly to the customer. I think that if Zomeworks handed over the sales operations to one or multiple compa nies then it would be a lot better off in the sense that it would really have the opportunity to perfect the products that it currently has and the time to invent new ones. I think that there are pros and cons to both solely being a R&D company or readjusting their sales strategy. I feel that with R&D come two main types.The first type of R&D is going to be the hardcore image processing and specialized stuff, which is giving you substantial competitive advantage. This is usually less than 5 percent of all the software developed, takes years, and gives you an edge and the ability to do projects others just won't or can’t do. For example, I currently am an intern at Sandia National Laboratories and the company performs a lot of WFO (work for others) and R;D research, but at the same time Sandia has corporate tools that they would not share with anyone simply on the fact that the knowledge an product are so valuable and crucial for the company.The second type of R;D can be descr ibed as general utilities written to spare time. For everything that falls under section one you have to be careful since this kind of stuff can either simplify the life of your competitors too much. To have in-house SW of this kind also usually means hiring a master in computer science or a genuine mathematician to actually develop it. For everything under section two you are doing a proactive disservice to the community by keeping these closed. You could spare a lot of people a lot of grief by giving them access to what you have, and get the same in return.The pros and cons of just revamping the sales process would be the fact that you would be able to monitor how your products are being sold and used. You could know that the purpose of your product is being used for what it is actually meant for. I personal feel that for Zomeworks I wouldn’t become solely an R;D company, but a lot of my attention would go to this aspect of my business. 8. )Steve Baer I believe is a very go od leader. He takes care of his employees and values the company’s vision and mission.A deeper meaning of Zomeworks’ products is that they present society with a decreased dependence on high technology, and therefore a more direct relationship with the sun and the natural world. â€Å"Industrialist, manufacturers, and scientists have made man so successful that he is becoming rude to nature. Let us not allow this. Engineers and businesses must lead the way a to good manners. With more energy, more experiment, and more study, man can spread throughout the universe while being polite to nature at home. Appropriate industry utilizing science will allow part of the earth to be left alone.Packing up to leave would show good manners. † I believe that the above quote really emphasizes what Steve Baer is trying to convey with the hidden meaning in Zomeworks’ innovative technologies. I believe the true meaning of the solar water heater is not that we can passively heat our water by ourselves, but is more about the idea of not subsidizing our natural resources mainly the sun in this case. I think it is greatly related to the fact that we should be able to take care of ourselves and if we continue to deplete the world of our natural resources then we are going to destroy our species.For Steve Baer I believe that the acceptance of the passive solar water heater would show that the world is moving towards a place where they are starting to appreciate the world around themselves. Zomeworks needs to communicate its products reliability and functionality in ways that support and augment high technology. A big question would be, how does one publicize the purchase of a water heater and how will they be socially rewarded for the purchase that sits hidden in the home.A water heater is much different than sporting a recycled water bottle or eco friendly clothing, but what if there was a way to publicize the product? 9. ) Full Credit When thinking about how Zomeworks could help the public in understanding its products I think that one of the first questions they should ask themselves is â€Å"who are our customers? † By asking themselves this question they put into perspective whether or not their customer will have any questions about their product. Usually Zomeworks customers are highly inquisitive individuals so making sure that their products are explained well is very important.Also, since many of the customers are returning customers they will want to be consistent on how they explain their products. The case illustrates to us that the potential United States solar water heater market is lower in comparison to foreign markets such as the European Union. Solar water heaters definitely have a positive public image, but public awareness is low due to poor publicity. If Baer does decide to produce his solar water heater he will definitely have to explain the benefits well enough so that the general public would be interes ted and want to purchase one.One way that Baer could inform the public on his products is through quick vignette tapings that he could easily post to his website or you-tube. I think that if Baer did want to pursue the solar water heater market he would have to explain the product to the public more. I think that he could easily do this without compromising his vision. He doesn’t have to offer bribes or subsidiaries in order to communicate the benefit that the solar water heater has to offer. He just has to explain how great the solar water heater is that way people will want to buy it on their own.I think that explaining the products better will actually help Baer in the selling of his products because to be honest people don’t want to buy something they know nothing about. I believe that no, Zomeworks should not expand into producing educational tools; I believe that the market is too small to make anything more than breaking even. Plus I think that if they were to e xpand into any other market they should shoot for what they are passionate about which is solar water heaters. Whether or not Baer’s water heater is an invention or an innovation is a good question.An invention is defined as, â€Å"A new device, method, or process developed from study and experimentation. † An innovation is defined as, â€Å"The act of introducing something new. †So in essence innovations lead to inventions. An innovation is the idea and invention is the creation and actual outcome of innovation. So based on what I understand the differences between the two to be I believe that the solar water heater is an invention that was based on the innovation of having a more direct relationship with the natural world. I feel that Zomeworks models a design process like Bang and Olufsens.It is very similar to a â€Å"Manhattan Project† type production place. Manhattan project design is a type of production development where many ideas are explored in parallel in early stages. It is a very design driven process. I think that the amount of controls in Zomeworks is pretty spot on. I think that everyone in the company shares the same values, which leads them stay on route to the mission. I don’t believe that Zomeworks engages their customers like Lego did. I think that they rely really on only the engineers and Steve Baer for the designs and input of the designs.I think that it would be very beneficial if Zomeworks did decide to leverage its passionate customer base. I think that by leveraging their customers they would be able to gather very innovative and diverse responses on their current products, or they could get ideas for new products. 10. ) I believe that Zomeworks’ innovations are not too radical for conventional houses. I think that the products they design are good for any type of house I think that their designs may be too radical for the conventional person.Conventional people don’t need the produc ts that Zomeworks produces. There is little incentive to buy a solar product that requires a labor-intensive expensive instillation, and periodic adjustment. Furthermore, its not likely that Zomeworks would be able to convince consumers to purchase multiple products to install in their â€Å"conventional homes†. Again, there is no problem conventional homeowners have that need to be solved with solar technology, unless they live off the grid or in an area with unreliable electricity, which is unlikely in the U.S. In today’s world there are all sorts of different people you have minimalists compared to the materialistic, you have the environmentalists compared to the contaminator. Zomeworks sell product not for the general public it sells products to a very specific kind of person and although the world in moving towards more an an eco-friendly environment there are still many people out in the world that will not buy Zomework products based on the fact that they are re ally not value added in a personal way.Unless there is a cost benefit to use these products Zomeworks is going to have a hard time appealing to the individuals who are just concerned about how it affects their personal bottom line. I think that Zomeworks should continue to sell their products to anyone who will buy them I think that there is definetly not a big enough market for Zomeworks to bring back the production of Zomes. What would be smart is to make Zomes available as an order to make strategy. You could order custom homes such as Lego did with the custom lego sets.This way you could personalize your Zome with all or none of the other Zomeworks products. I feel that Zomeworks would increase they sales of products quickly because everyone would want the most up to date Zome. 11. ) Zomeworks technology is different than a Nintendo game system or smartphone operating system. Zomeoworks cannot lease out the sun in the same way that Nintendo can demand money and incentives from g ame developers. If Zomeworks decided to sell its technology as a platform it wouldn’t work the same way as traditional â€Å"conventional† products.Whereas game system manufactures usually have tight controls over their platforms, Zomeoworks technology is not that advanced. Likewise, why would you give your technology away so that others can imitate your products? This is one reason why TTTech decided against leasing out its technology or even co-engineer products using its proprietary technology. The only product that I think Zomeworks could position as a platform are the Zomes. They could encourage architects to purchase their Zomes to build modern, environmentally friendly homes.Just like Apple pushed third party developers to come up with different Apps that individuals can download to their different Apple products. I think that Zomeworks should keep all the other products and possible just have re-sellers for them because I feel like the other products are what g ives Zomeworks their competitive edge. A winner-take-all strategy is defined as; a company – usually in a new space that is growing very quickly – should spend a lot of money today in order to achieve the top spot in market share, because they will likely keep that spot in the future.The polarization of winners and underperformers is intensifying. Once, a chief executive officer could claim that the performance of the industry, not the company, was the prime mover for stock prices. But with the advance of globalization and technology, companies whose products or service models have the slightest edge over the competition can quickly exploit that advantage. Investors are scrutinizing companies one by one, screening out those with merely average performance and investing the bulk of their money with the top one or two players in each arena.This phenomenon has created a â€Å"winner-takes-all† dynamic. There will be many companies who will destroy their companies i n the next 18 months by pursuing a winner takes all strategy. They will think they are doing what’s needed now to assure their future success. Instead, their reckless spending will exhaust their cash and they will likely find investors are too skeptical to keep giving them more money in the future. I don’t believe that the solar water heater market is a winner take all. I don’t believe this because although it is new space it isn’t growing quickly.The solar water heater product is going to have to be perfected before if can even become its own market. Yes, Zomeworks is going to be up against network effects in the because as time moves on competitors are going to start coming out to the woodworks in American and put peer pressure on Zomeworks to develop faster and develop a better product. Also, I believe that the R&D segment at Zomeworks is going to constantly be pushing themselves on different innovations to become the best solar water heater available. 12. )I think that Zomeworks has a very loyal customer base and really need to optimize the relationship between them.Zomeworks could even reward companies or individuals who buy their products by advertising a list of â€Å"socially responsible companies†. I think that Zomeworks could mimic the practices of Bang an Olufsen especially how Bang and Olufsen â€Å"think how their customer lives. † When you work with very specialized products you are not going to sell to that general public you are going to be selling to individuals that believe in the product just as much as you do. I feel that a very smart tactic that Zomeworks could use in order to leverage their customer base is to develop a loyalty program.All loyalty programs are unique, and they require ongoing and complex communications. If customers don’t understand a program or if the terms change, they will become disinterested at best or feel betrayed at worst. The characteristics of a good loyalty progr am might include: †¢ Clear benefits †¢ Achievable rewards †¢ Consistency †¢ Sustainability †¢ A feeling of appreciation †¢ Engagement †¢ Personalized, ongoing communications (print and electronic) †¢ Reward for referrals Loyalty programs in general are a huge opportunity for print and value-added services.These programs can be used for program planning, creative collateral development, customer support, or rewards and redemption management. In today’s market, success requires defining a targeted market, becoming an expert in understanding customers’ business issues, taking a cross-media approach to engaging customers’ clients, leveraging cross-media to drive interaction between print and electronic communications to improve and measure campaign response, and leveraging loyalty programs to generate ROI for you and your customers. I used to work for BCBG Max Azria, which is a high-end clothing store for women.Because our pri ce points were so high our sales greatly relied on the consistent client. This company uses a loyalty program and that is why I think they do so well. They make sure that every client that goes into the store is treated like a queen with a personal shopping experience. All of the clients at BCBG Max Azria always get first choice on sale merchandise. They do this by having events strictly for clients the day before the sale actually begins for the general public. Also, Zomeworks could give out samples of its technology in the form of small prototypes.Recall that G&B tested out its product experiments at religious festivals attracting thousands of people. After considerable excitement stewed among the participant, G&B used community members to distribute its Chiotokool in Godrej. Zomeowrks is not leveraging its current customer base or future customer base. Current customers need to be rewarded and leveraged to promote the products to untapped markets. 13. ) Full Credit I think that Z omeworks should create a business model for the solar water heater like the business model Tequila Mobile has.I think that a multi-sided would be the best choice for Zomeworks because it would allow them to have the best of all worlds. Their technological environmentally friendly products would prosper in this type of market. They would be able to have an R&D side that could sell solar water heaters to large industrial firms, and other large entities. They could supply solar water heaters to construction companies that are building homes and along with the solar water heater look into selling Zomes to the construction companies.To take that scenario a step farther Zomeworks could contract out interior decorating companies that can make household decorations (couches, desks, beds, etc. ) to fit nicely in the odd shaped Zomes. Some of the Indirect/Direct network effects that Zomeworks would run into are the having lower operational/overhead costs since re-sellers will take over the du ties of selling most of the items. They will also have lower advertising costs since the re-seller would take on those costs too. Also they would benefit from developing the Zomes and specialized products to equip the Zomes for example, the solar water heater.Users Traffic Partners 3rd Party Developers Billing Partners Multi-sided Platform 14. ) I think that Zomeworks would never use social media as a way to commercialize their water heater. I feel that Zomeworks could either greatly benefit or greatly suffer. Let’s talk about the negative aspect of using social media firkst. I think that Zomeworks would suffer greatly if they even tried to. I believe this because of the simple fact that Zomeworks is so against the use of high technology just because it is available to us.I think that if Zomeworks did try to use social media it would send the wrong message to the customers that know what Zomeworks believes in and stands up for. I will discuss below, the underlying causes of s ocial failures may be very different. Social failures represent opportunities for firms to step in and provide social functionalities that enable people to pursue new relationships or strengthen existing ties. Most of us are not accustomed to think about the social world in terms of social failures. We have been conditioned to think about the world in terms of the relationships and interactions we do have, rather than those we do not have.However, a moment’s thought will reveal that you may be facing some of these social failures yourself. Maybe you and your closest friend wish you could spend more time together, but you cannot, because you are separated by thousands of miles. Perhaps you and your dad wish that you could confide in each other more, but both of you are afraid of making the first move for the fear of being rebuffed by the other. When talking about Zomeworks I believe that social media would not solve any social failure besides advertising.When even considering advertising Zomeworks would have to consider the fact that they are a company that is completely against the use of high technology because the company believes that â€Å"high technology has disempowered us†. The company could come off hypocritical if the advertising choice they decide to use is one that involves the idea of high technology. On the beneficial side, Zomeworks use popular issues such as climate change to create a Facebook presence. Increasing exposure is not a joke. Zomeworks needs to make an emotional appeal to people and Facebook is the easiest way to communicate it.A lot of ideas could be generated for the R&D team at Zomeworks and real time demand information could be obtained by following the social media posts. Part 2. : Expressing the Terroir of Rioja 15. )If you refer to figure 3 on page 6 you can see that with a shaping view we are trying to take on the leadership role of deciding how an industry operates. The winemaker that I choose to make a shaping view for is Maria Jose Lopez de Heredia who runs the Marques de Murrieta Bodega. The reason that I picked Maria is the fact that I believe from the way she talks in the case to be very passionate about Rioja.I would want to base the shaping view on the fact that her grandfather was very modern and had the courage to change many of the historical and traditional practices of Rioja. I feel that she would be the most accommodating winemaker to challenge the process, which is the main goal of a shaping view. I think that it would be a good start to come up with a mission and vision, as well as the values that could be held by all in the industry. Our vision would center on keeping the traditional style of Rioja with bringing in modern flavors. Since there isn’t much research on the grapes the use to be used there would be a lot of rial and error. I think that from being a family member of one of the region’s most historic estates, the other bodega owners will most likely respect Maria and follow in the values that we set up for the industry. 16. )The term ‘dynamic' refers to the capacity to renew competences so as to achieve congruence with the changing business environment; certain innovative responses are required when time-to-market and timing are critical, the rate of technological change is rapid, and the nature of future competition and markets difficult to determine.Innovation occurs in a network of relationships between firms. Collaborative competency is a firm’s ability to realign its internal resources and capabilities to the changing environment by leveraging on external resources and capability-acquiring mechanisms such as (strategic alliances, acquisitions, and joint ventures. ) Nintendo’s strategy is open innovation. Open innovation is where you start optimizing your secondary talents that in return it creates a brand new market. So instead of competing head on, you bypass the other competitors by creating your own market.Dynamic marketing competencies enable firms to move into new territories by market sensing and technological shifts. Apple’s strategy is one of simplicity that was greatly fostered by the former CEO Steve Jobs who was probably one of the greatest visionaries ever. The company executed this strategy of simplicity by executing the timing of their products to the â€Å"T†. Also all of their products are capable of doing pretty much anything and all with just one button. I feel that I would use a mixture of those approaches.I would not fully commit to the idea of open innovation because I don’t think that it would be wise to leave the market of Rioja. It is not like a game console to where you can switch into different markets quite easily. I like the idea of using Apple’s competencies of innovation and superior quality. When markets are dynamic and ever-changing two things that you want to stay constant are your ability to always be innovative and the reputation of superior products. If I were a winemaker in Rioja I would reach out to the other Bodegas and see if any of them would want to start a strategic alliance.First off there is power in numbers and secondly you get access to more resources during all the different phases of development. 17. ) Full Credit The first scenario is that if I had a client that didn’t have a budget or didn’t care about the mass market I would want them to follow the business model of Elbulli. Elbulli didn’t care about anything except making the best most innovative meals and providing the most amazing experience. The only reason that I think my client should model the elBulli model is because money isn’t an option and the only thing that is a requirement is high quality.Elbulli has a very unique model in the sense that it isn’t about the bottom line, in fact ElBulli went out of business for a period of time and is now currently out of business again. Elbulli serv es this meal that is worth at least 800-1000 euros but is only charging 230 Euros, why is that? Ferran Adria the owner and top chief of Elbulli says it isn’t about the money it is about the customers and what they get out of the experience. Adria also teaches many culinary students how to develop this menu throughout most of the year. My client would manage the organization and their innovation strictly by creativity.I think that my client would express the Rioja Terrior in a very positive light since their whole process is run by passion. The second scenario is that my client wanted to be â€Å"born global† and compete internationally in the mass market I would recommend that they run their business like nano. My client could make a first mover advantage into different foreign markets. The first step in this move is they would have to conduct a lot of research in order to determine the different demographics that they would be selling to. Different individuals have di fferent taste buds for wine.They would have to know about the different market drivers for each area. I think that their attitude toward expressing Rioja terrior would vary depending on which foreign market it chooses. I think that yes the same company could operate with both of the two preceding goals. I think that it would probably be more difficult but that it could be done. All the company would have to do is be able to be both creative and structured. I think that if a company did decide to operate with both goals the leader of the company would have to know the happy medium between how to lead with creativity and structure.This company that wants to operate with both of the two preceding goals would want to follow the business model of Monnalisa. Monnalisa is a great example of a company that has formal (results control) and informal (social control) mechanisms to manage its concurrent and ongoing need for creative design and efficient production processes. At Monnalisa, there ’s no intention to limit creativity, but increasingly the company is trying to offer the stylists a minimum structure by running a series of internal meetings at the beginning of every collection. 18. I don’t think that the expression of terroir should be limited by tradition, but I do think that it should be tied to regional identity. Terroir is a traditional view, but I think that when things get stuck in tradition they loose innovation and change is good. I think that terroir has been limited by tradition and that is probably why there are so many arguments between the different bodegas because some are ready to accept the change and some are not. I do think that terroir should be tied to regional identity because along with regional idea comes culture and along with culture comes values.When the Rioja winemakers have the same values it would be easier to discuss issues that might arise in the industry as a collective group. Yes, I believe that the marketplace shoul d determine which expressions of terroir are â€Å"classic†. The reason that I think this should be the case is because there is no one else more suited for judging what is â€Å"classic† or not than the actual individuals that are involved in the market. You would never ask clothes salesmen to change your oil just as you would never ask a mechanic to judge you wine. I think that the authority of this decision should be given to the local market.I also believe that terroir should be combined with â€Å"locally produced† I think that by giving your product a local background it adds to the value. For example in the Zomeworks case how they refused to offshore their production. By being made in the U. S it showed how much Zomeworks cares for the local community. I think that it would be wise to have a board of directors for the Rioja and they could meet and discuss what the breakdown of payment should be, but if all of the Rioja territory is going to be considered â€Å"locally produced† then they all need to make the necessary payments.Just because a market is transnational, doesn’t mean that the expression of terroir should be transnational. I don’t think that by selling your product internationally you have to give up your cultures identity. 19. ) Full Credit Terroir is concerned with the relationship between the characteristics of an agricultural product (quality, taste, and style) and its geographic origin, which might influence these characteristics. The concept of terroir is frequently used to explain the hierarchy of high-quality wines. It can be defined as an, â€Å"interactive ecosystem, in a given place, including climate, soil and the vine. To understand the way terroir functions, it is essential to take into account the interactions among the factors that contribute to terroir. While very high quality wines are grown in various climates, it is impossible to define the ideal climate for fine wines in terms of temperature, rainfall (amount and distribution), or solar radiation. Nor can one define the best possible soil for growing high-quality wines in terms of pebble, clay or lime content, soil depth or mineral content. These factors of the natural environment have to be considered in terms of their interaction with the vine.Human factors, such as history, socioeconomics, as well as viticulture and oenological techniques, are also part of terroir. I believe that the actual managing of the terroir is a technology and a process, but I do not believe that the expression the terroir is a technology. The expression of terroir to me is more of a value that in engraved in the local community and culture. I think that terroir should be both expressed and managed. This could also relate back to Apple. While simplicity is the company’s strategy on how they execute their products it is also a vision for their company.It’s the belief that this is how they execute and will always execu te. Same goes for terroir, it is much more than just managing the land a certain way. It is an expression of local history. 20. ) Full Credit Are the denominacion de origen and France’s appellation d’origine controlee effective examples of regulation. Products labeled Denominacion de Origen, apart from being of superior quality, are expected to carry specific characteristics of geographical region or individual producer and be derived from raw materials originating within the region.Like most of these designations, a fundamental tenet of a DO label is that no product outside of that region is permitted to bear the name. I believe that yes the denominacion is a good/effective way of regulation I just don’t believe that there will be any such regulation that will help the winemakers at Rioja. Each winemaker is always going to believe that they have the superior product no matter what regulation is being used. I think that the government has gotten involved enough on the regulation aspect.I feel that regulation or no regulation the marketplace is going to always have its own view. I feel that a simple solution of an unbiased tasting took place. Even with that thought I feel that every individual has very different tastes which could again not provide a solution to this ever heated debate. Another way the this matter could be resolved is from the article Peer Power, from Potholes to Patents, â€Å"For two centuries, we have lived in a mass society defined by passive consumption, vast corporate hierarchies and the centralized control of state power.Those organizations didn't seem artificial to us because we couldn't imagine alternatives. But now we can. Peer networks are a practical, functioning reality that already underlies the dominant communications platform of our age. They can do things as ambitious as writing a global encyclopedia or as simple as fixing a pothole. † The bodegas could start a peer-networking group that could listen to the problems that the Rioja territory is having and come to an unbiased solution. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. http://www. scribd. com/doc/61931601/Minimum-Winning-Game [ 2 ].Susan Elliott, â€Å"American Productivity & Quality Center Conference Attendees Discover the Value and Enablers of a Successful KM Program,† Knowledge Management in Practice, Issue 5, December 1996/January 1997, p. 1 [ 3 ]. http://www. mymarketingdept. com/comparing-b2b-versus-b2c-marketing/ [ 4 ]. Rogers, E. â€Å"Diffusion of Innovation† 1962 [ 5 ]. Baer, S. Appendix 1 [ 6 ]. http://www. answers. com/topic/invention [ 7 ]. http://www. answers. com/topic/innovation [ 8 ]. SEGUIN, G. (1986) ‘Terroirs’ and pedology of vinegrowing, Experientia, 42, 861–873. [ 9 ]. Johnson, S. Peer Power, from Potholes to Patents. 2012