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macbeth 1 11/7
(Re)introducing Shakespeare; What makes drama unique as an art form? What makes Shakespeare distinct?; Shakespeare's language; What's TRAGEDY, really?
Introduction to Macbeth: What kind of a play is it? What will our focus be?
Then we’ll move to 1.1-2. The play begins in two ways: first with a scene of supernatural chanting and second with a mid-battle update to the Scottish King Duncan. The Scottish forces are apparently being attacked by three enemies: the Norwegians, the Irish, and rebels from Scotland. What do we learn about Macbeth before we even meet him? Notice how these scenes are expertly connected: How does the witches’ prophecy from the first scene come true in the second scene? Shakespeare is one hell of a dramatist.
macbeth 2 11/8, 11/11
The problem of Shakespeare’s witches
Today we’ll move into 1.3 and 1.4. 1.3 is a critical scene in which I think a good performance needs to show whether or not their Macbeth has had thoughts of regal ambition before the play begins. We’ll look closely at the relationship between Banquo and Macbeth and the awkward situation they now find themselves in. As a side note, what more do we learn about what these witches really are?
Let’s make sure we look closely at a crucial speech from Banquo:
“Tis strange,/And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,/The instruments of darkness tell us truths;/Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s/In deepest consequence.” What’s Banquo’s fear? What’s he talking about? How do you explain this phenomenon?
One of my favorite tools of the dramatist has to do with what we call 'levels of awareness': To this point in the play everything has been public knowledge. The play really picks up, though, when Macbeth and Banquo have private exchanges and especially when Macbeth speaks on stage alone. What do these levels of awareness add? HINT: When characters have the chance to start lying to one another or withholding the truth, then you get real drama!
macbeth 3 11/12,11/13
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth dominate the play, and though they're not alone on stage as a pair for more than a few hundred lines of a 2000-line play, their relationship -- the way they manipulate and feed off of each other -- accounts for most of the intellectual and emotional intrigue the play offers, and, really, is what most people remember the most about this play. Today we'll examine their first scene meticulously:
1.5.53-73: Is there any indication that Macbeth has sent this letter to Lady M, knowing how she will react? Is there any psychological manipulation in the letter he sends her? In her subsequent soliloquy, is it apparent that she knows her husband well? What is her attitude toward his moral ambivalence? Then Macbeth enters: Notice for a moment just what Macbeth says and doesn't say. He tells her Duncan is coming tonight, but gives no indication that he's thinking about killing Duncan. Does he want her to come to the idea on her own? Given Macbeth's earlier passionate commitment to murder, this exchange seems strangely quiet. In this sense, who has the upper hand in the exchange? What does each character want out of the other at this point in the play?
macbeth 4 11/14
Macbeth’s first soliloquy!
Soliloquy literally means talking alone, and it has been used as a form since the Greeks, though popularized by Shakespeare and his contemporary playwrights. In the theater, no thinking can be made directly available to the audience unless it is brought to speech, so it was necessary to propose a convention: the character would speak aloud, and the audience would understand that what they were to imagine they were hearing was what the character was saying to himself, or what he would say if he were to give voice to his thought.
I’ve already mentioned in class that real drama occurs when characters keep things from each other. The ONLY time, in fact, that an audience should accept that what characters are saying is absolutely true is when a character is in soliloquy. In all other instances there’s the possibility of deceit. So it’s the responsibility of the playwright in a soliloquy to communicate what is absolutely true. Macbeth, for instance, struggles with the morality of his potential action. Today we’ll look closely at that struggle and then the way Lady Macbeth serves as the “spur to prick the sides of [his] intent.”
macbeth 5 11/18
Today we’ll look back at Act 1 before moving into Act 2.
We’ll watch from the 24:00 mark of the Patrick Stewart production the very end of Act 1.
ACT 2: Why introduce Banquo’s son, Fleance? We’ll watch a couple different versions of the famous “dagger” soliloquy and analyze the two performances. The remainder of Act 2 is best watched first and then selectively studied in the text, so that’s what we’ll do with both the Globe production and the Patrick Stewart production.
macbeth 6 11/19, 11/20
Today, after Duncan’s death, we’ll begin to see Macbeth and Lady Macbeth cope with what they’ve talked themselves into—regicide and the beginning of the cover up. What’s Macbeth’s initial reaction to what they’ve done? Why’s he so concerned about sleep?
Macbeth takes quite a risk in 2.3 by admitting to the killing of the guards. Why does he do this? Is it wise?
We’ll finish with the beginning of 3.1, an awkward scene to say the least between Macbeth, Banquo, and Banquo’s boy, Fleance.
macbeth 7 11/21
Today we’re going to try to get through the rest of Act 3 focusing on the following two exchanges between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth:
3.2.9-59: What has happened to each character since their previous exchange? How have these events changed the way each thinks about the other? How has each's attitude toward his/her actions evolved? What does the fact that Lady M says one thing to herself, but something contradictory to Macbeth tell us about her at this point? What is Macbeth keeping from his wife, and why? What has happened to their bond, if they ever had one? 3.2.53-59 are some of the most telling lines in this scene. How do they help to indicate a total reversal in their relationship?
3.4.123-145: What has happened to each character since their previous exchange? How have these events changed the way each thinks about the other? How has each's attitude toward his/her actions evolved? What does Lady M blame Macbeth's hallucinations on? What effect does each character have on the other at this point? What indicates, if anything, a complete deterioration of their relationship?
macbeth 8 11/22, 12/2
Into Act 4 we go.
Back in 3.2, Macbeth warned(?) Lady M that “[g]ood things of day begin to droop and drowse/Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.” Here’s another prophecy it seems as the black agents rise to the surface in 4.1. What do the events of 4.1 suggest about Macbeth’s personal determination, about the nature of evil in the play?
What is the dramatic function of the lengthy dialogue between Malcolm and Macduff in 4.3?
macbeth 9 12/3
Act 5’s pace hastens dramatically. The act interlaces scenes in Macbeth’s camp and Macduff’s. What do you make of Lady Macbeth’s ultimate demise and its suggestion about the effects of stepping into the world of evil? How do you account for Macbeth’s reaction to his wife’s death?
macbeth 10 12/5
Today, after a final quiz, we’ll put it all together, looking at patterns and motifs in the play and what they convey thematically.
“But tis strange: And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the Instruments of Darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray’s in deepest consequence.”
what's due?
Bring Macbeth - 11/5
The Remains of the Day Essay - 11/22
The Power and the Glory Reading Test - 12/9, 12/10
current text to bring daily
current productions we’re watching
2013 Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe, directed by Eve Best
2011 Macbeth adapted from London production, directed by Rupert Goold
current outside reading
Fall 2019 Outside Reading Assignment
macbeth STUDY LINKS
ONGOING EXTRA CREDIT
Required reading can at times feel like drudgery. And while it's important to do the reading I set for the class, I fully recognize that you'd rather have a say in what it is we read. Unfortunately the freshman curriculum has little student choice built in, so your ongoing extra credit gives you the opportunity to read an outside text in your own time at some point during the semester. I'm very happy to reward you with additional course credit if you take it upon yourself to read a text outside of class and meet with me to discuss it. A few things:
(1) This must be a text you've never read before.
(2) It should be imaginative and of recognized literary merit. The text must be approved beforehand.
(3) The amount of credit awarded is variable depending on the chosen text and how our follow up conversation goes.
(4) While you may read as much as you'd like, I will only award extra credit once per semester.
enjoying literature
Literature's emotional lessons
Authors on the power of literature
How reading makes us more human
STUDYING LITERATURE
"6 reading habits from Harvard"
Achebe, "The Truth of Fiction"
Questions for analyzing novels
Poetry videos
