EA 190 Outline Week 3

Gunpowder Plot November 5, 1605 ("remember, remember the fifth of November") was a "terrorist" plot in which a group of Catholics hid 36 barrels of gunpowder packed with nails in the basement of a building adjacent to the House of Parliament, with the intent of blowing it up along with the King (who was supposed to visit Parliament that day). How would this have affected the mood of the country and the king? Why were the punishments of traitors so horrific?

Equivocation as a technical term (AKA the Doctrine of Mental Reservation) allowed the speaker to employ double meanings of words to tell the literal truth while concealing a deeper meaning. It was used by Jesuits faced with government suppression, speaking a partial truth to the interrogators while reserving the full truth mentally for only God to hear.

Doubleness is thematized again and again in Macbeth. Failure to correctly interpret the double meanings (literal/metaphorical, surface/true) seduces Macbeth into murdering Duncan, fools Duncan into trusting Macbeth, etc.

Banquo to the Weird sisters: "you should be women,/and yet your beards forbid
me to interpret/that you are so." 1.3.47-49 p. 17

Also boundaries: male/female, sleep/waking, life/death, fair/foul, heaven/hell, night-dark-shadow/morning-light

And ultimately we will want to consider the question of whether Macbeth is fated to kill Duncan or has a choice (or if this is deliberately left ambiguous). In this it is important to consider a basic concept of tragedy first stated by Heraclitus: Ethos Anthropos Daimon "A man’s character is his fate/destin".

From internet (lost the place!!):
"Heraklitos thought that character, the essence of the individual, determines his or her experience; Character, the tone of the individual, resonates with the music of his destiny. It is the flaws of character that are tragic. Viewing destiny in this way, the fates are not outside us, in the heavens, weaving and cutting the threads of our lives. Instead, they are consonant with our character. This consideration is at the root of the world view that good things happen to good people."

If we believe this conventional concept that the tragic events that unfold are caused by flaws in the main character what is Macbeth's tragic flaw?

We will work our way through the text, focusing particular attention on the lines that were assigned last week. We will also focus on the development of character and how imagery is used to support themes of doubleness and boundary-crossing, and fate.

I. Poetic language in Macbeth

A. A major innovation of Shakespeare was the idea that character can be evoked through style of speech. Previously, dramatists such as Christopher Marlow clearly marked upper-class characters by their use of verse (usually iambic pentameter) versus lower-class characters who used prose.

Shakespeare gives characters verse, blank verse or prose to speak, without regard to class status.

1. Some useful definitions of prose, verse and blank verse and how to recognize them. Click here for another link that specifically analyzes these forms in Macbeth.

2. Who speaks verse in Macbeth? Who speaks blank verse? Prose?

B. Major forms of rhetorical language in Macbeth

1. Apostrophe: speaking to an object as though it were animated ("Ode to a Nightingale")

2. Personification: endowing an object with human characteristics ("Mother Earth is being raped by stripmining.")

3. Puns: these play a lesser role in Macbeth but occur at key moments ("gild/guilt")

The first two techniques in particular create a very intense “poetification” of Macbeth’s use of language. Macbeth's speech is marked by an extraordinary poetic imagination -- it is one reason we feel sympathy for him even as he descends into evil.

1) Act 1 Scene 3 Lines 140-155 p. 23

2) Act 1 Scene 5 Lines 45-60 p. 33

3) Act 1 Scene 7 Lines 1-16 p. 39

4) Act 2 Scene 2 Lines 45-57 p. 57

5) Act 5 Scene 3 Lines 45-58

6) Act 5 Scene 5 Lines 20-30

II. Character

A. Major characters in Macbeth: choose one of the following to answer.

1. Trace the development of Macbeth’s character over the course of the play, listing page numbers and lines.  

How does Macbeth understand himself as a man? How is gender (masculinity) related to ruthless ambition in his mind? What are the key moments for his decision-making process? When do things change for him? How is he influenced by the witches? Does he have a choice or is he fated?

2. Trace the development of Lady Macbeth’s character over the course of the play, listing page numbers and lines.

How does Lady Macbeth understand herself as a woman? How is gender (masculinity) related to ruthless ambition in her mind? What are the key moments for her decision-making process? When do things start changing for her? How is she related to the witches? Does she have a choice or is she fated?

B. Minor Characters in Macbeth: choose one of the following to answer

1. How do the witches function in Macbeth?  Are they a source of evil or do they simply reflect an evil that already exists in Macbeth’s heart? 

Optional: News from Scotland and Daemonology

Optional: A "Prophecy" performed for James I in 1605

III. Imagery in Macbeth: Choose one of the following kinds of imagery to analyze. How does the imagery function in the play to support the development of theme, mood, and/or character? SIGN UP HERE by April 17 at 10 pm.

Weather imagery, especially as a sign that social relations have been disturbed.

Animal imagery (ravens, owls, horses etc.).

Blood imagery (in war, relating to guilt).

Play imagery -- look for places where Macbeth seems to be describing his situation as if he is a character in a play. Why would he think of himself this way?

Clothing (indicating new rank or status, mental state etc.)

Hallucinations – how do they function in the play? Are they real or simply projections of the character’s imagination?