5-21: Shakespeare Learning Journal

 Today I continued reading Shakespeare. I read about the ethics in Shakespeare's works, including Shakespeare's concept of personality. The book described the nature of evil in the play Othello, stating that "It is futile to demand motivation from the Vice, for the point about evil is that it is absurd, unmotivated, and inconsistent," which I do not totally agree with, because sometimes acts with good motives may become evil because they are unethical. In Macbeth, I read about the consequences of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. I learned that Shakespeare does not provide us with a map of an ethical system. The playwright's task was not to expound ethical problems, but to convey a lively and unforgettable impression of its reality.