Macbeth Assignment
Author's Note: This was just some little activity we had to do while we were reading
Macbeth for English class. I don't remember the exact criteria, but as you'll soon see,
I wrote from the point of view of a young servant in Macbeth's castle. Also, please forgive
my probable misuse of all the archaic words...I was trying to give this story more of a
Shakespeare-type flair, but it didn't work so well! ^^;
"Julia, thou can never imagine what I have witnessed," I say to a fellow servant
and good friend.
"Prithee, do tell! Do nae leave thy good friend waiting!" she cries eagerly.
"Well, dear friend, methinks our heroic master Macbeth has been gripped by the icy
fingers of insanity. I saw him, nigh five minutes ago, talking to himself and trying
to grasp the very air!"
"Thou art lying!" she gasps. "Macbeth is nae an insane man! Surely thou cannot tell
me what thou speaks is true!"
"I swear to thee, dear Julia, that every word I speak rings true. I stood in the
hallway where he couldn't see me and listened. 'Is this a dagger which I see before me,'
he says, trying to grasp the air! Then he drew his own dagger...I thought for certain that
he had seen me and meant to kill me!"
"Oh, what didst thou do?" Julia asks, placing her cleaning rag upon a table. "I would
have run, screaming for help!"
"I almost did," I admit, "but then our Master began to talk once more. He talked of
most dreadful things, like blood and witchcraft, and then begged the earth to muffle his
footsteps. But never shall I forget what he said then." I lean forward and she does too, her
eyes wide and frightened.
"What did he say?" she almost whispers.
"He said, '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.' Methinks that he plans to murder our dear King
Duncan."
"Say that thou art lying!" Julia shrieks. "Our dear king! On what canst thou prove thy
story?"
My face becomes somber as I turn away. "Julia, thou can only wait until the morrow, for
that day shall become a shroud of sorrow."
Contents copyright � 1996-2001 by Amber White. No
reproduction permitted.
Back