Topic Research

Here I explored Macbeth on Wikipedia and I have an idea to write a story about Lady Macbeth being behind all the mayhem. Unlike Macbeth, she has no hesitation to killing the king to become queen herself, and that made me think of her scheming with the witches to entice her husband to commit the murder and tell the story from her point of view as a villain. It will tell the entire story, in a much more condensed form - This could be an entire storybook in itself broken up as:

Introduction: Lady Macbeth's unhappiness with her status, meeting the witches and asking them to help her become queen (starting out without malice).

• Link for witches:
• Sacred Texts
• British Library

1. She receives the letter confirming the witches have started the chain of events and becomes malicious. Here she plots, and then commits the act with her husband, continuously manipulating him to keep killing others

2. She is haunted by the same ghosts that Hamlet is, where they guilt her for manipulating him and pointing out she is still worthless even as a queen - will she feel guilt? Rage? I'm not sure yet.

• Links for ghosts:
• Sacred Texts
• British library

3. Hamlet kills himself instead, and she is left with the aftermath. Once revealed, they mistake her for a witch rather than someone who asked witches for help and they burn her at the stake.

• Salem witch trials:
• Wikipedia

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Topic Brainstorm

1. Diseases: I was thinking of writing stories pertaining to my major by finding myths about diseases and creating stories about them. Possibly from the disease's point of view, the disease as an entity instead of a microbe, or stories about people infected by diseases that were thought to be cursed by witches/Salem era stories of people who went mad and killed "witches" that were actually innocent - which brings a whole component/idea of intertwining the supernatural with diseases somehow. I could even do a storybook about major supernatural beings and the story of their changes in a medical/magical standpoint i.e. the stages a werewolf goes through after being bitten and then monthly cycles, vampires, zombies or any monster that appears on the TV show Supernatural (one of my favorites). This could be supplemented by finding stories about the origin of monsters. Here I just searched for the word "disease" and found many stories with the word "disease" appearing 28 times. This link is a search for the term witch, which wow there is a lot of information on witches - I definitely would have to spend some time sorting through it. This link is the shortest in the search engine result for vampires. Here is a link I would need for werewolf information.

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2. Underworld/Dante's Inferno: I know it has been used a lot, but it is such an interesting idea. I haven't read Dante's Inferno but knowing how famous it is there is an ample supply of stories that I could use to relate my own version of the layers of hell. One idea that could be explored how a person has to go through the layers of hell, varying degrees depending on their crimes, before they can get to heaven or reincarnation depending on their outcome of the trials (kind of like going to jail/prison and then getting out to experience freedom or commit the same crimes until you learn your lesson). I am not sure if I would use the Underworld or Dante's Inferno because from what I understand, the Underworld is basically a recreation of Dante's Inferno or vise versa.

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3. Cupid: I learned about the story of Cupid and Psyche and fell in love with its complexities. The weird way Cupid became her husband, Psyche's family betrayal and the trials she had to go through. It was one of very few Greek stories that had a happy ending. I didn't know till I looked at this link that the story paralleled with Beauty and the Beast - my least favorite Disney movie because it's basically stockholm syndrome.Here is a link with ample information about it.

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4. Shakespeare: I loved the movie versions of Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet, and I made a short film depicting the story of A Midnight's Summer Dream for a senior project in high school. There are so many weird, tragic, and funny stories he has come up with that I like the idea of further exploring his work; although, this would be one I would be curious as how to go about. Can I really just research Wikipedia plots of the stories as this link says?

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