WEEK 2 DISCUSSION NOTEBOOK QUESTIONS AND IN-CLASS PRESENTATION #1

The answers to the following two notebook questions should be typed (NOT handwritten) so that they can be used for class discussion. They will be turned in at the end of class. To get full credit: 1) the answers are typed 2) they answer the questions 3) they provide lines/page numbers for quotations that support your points. For further info on grading rubric, click here.

Macbeth (The Play)

We will discuss a number of themes in Macbeth over the two weeks we will spend on it. The following themes in Macbeth, which I talked about briefly on the first day of classes, are related to the specific historical context of Shakespeare from 1590-1612, which we discuss in the first hour of class. The readings "Contextual Overview" and "Chronology" will provide helpful background.

I. THEME: Equivocation, deception, doubleness

A. Second week we will address equivocation and the Protestant Reformation, as well as doubleness and deceit in Macbeth. Please do the reading in Contextual Overview so you understand the basics of what is happening at the time. You also have a discussion notebook question on this topic.

1) General definition of equivocation: "To use unclear or ambiguous language, especially to deceive someone, conceal the truth, or avoid committing oneself."

2) 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. 

B. Language and images related to equivocation, deception, and doubleness appear throughout the play: saying one thing but meaning another, hiding your true feelings, telling a smaller truth that hides a larger untruth, or telling a small lie that hides a larger truth.

C. Other kinds of doubleness:

1. Gender amiguity (who is female? who is male? what constitutes manhood? womanhood?)

2. Doubleness of contrasting pairs/crossing boundaries: fair/foul, light/dark, visible/invisible etc.

D. Second week we will concentrate on the first kind of doubleness (equivocation and deception). Third week we will discuss other kinds of doubleness.

NOTEBOOK QUESTION #1: Look for places in the play where equivocation/doubleness appears to occur (hint: the Weird Sisters), or where deception is used to cover true intent (hint: by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth). Is equivocation and deception clearly distinguished in Macbeth? Who is equivocation most strongly associated with in the play? Who is deception most strongly associated with?

List the page numbers/line #s with a brief note on how the equivocation functions at that moment in the play, so we can discuss them in class.

II. Witchcraft and the Reformation

James I was an ardent believer in witches; he had several "witches" tortured and put to death who had supposedly participated in fomenting a rebellion against him in Scotland, as reported in Newes [News] from Scotland 1591 (Macbeth: Text and Contexts pp. 313-325, see also this shorter excerpt) and he wrote an essay Daemonology, 1597 (Macbeth: Text and Contexts pp. 325-328) arguing that the power of witches came from their contract with the devil. In Macbeth, a number of the details of how witches act came from these two texts, which introduced new ideas about witches from Europe, such as using sieves as boats, or having the power to control winds and cause tempests (storms).

For James I, witchcraft theory merges with the Divine Right of Kings theory, so that witchcraft becomes a form of treason: "The true aim of witches is to assault the body of the king." So in this period, "the discourse of witchcraft intersected with many other controversial issues of the time, from the place of women and the nature of supernatural power, to treason and regicide." (William Carroll, ed. Macbeth: Texts and Contexts p. 306).

Click here for an online essay about witch belief in Shakespeare's time.

MESSAGE BOARD/FORUM QUESTION:

Do the prophecies a) mirror his already murderous thoughts b) anticipate/predict his murderous thoughts or c) determine (fate) his murderous thoughts?

NOTEBOOK DISCUSSION QUESTION #2

1. Why do you think Macbeth decides to act on the Weird Sisters' prophecies? At what point does he make his decision? Is there any indication that he might be possessed?

2. What about Lady Macbeth? What is her relation to the Weird Sisters? What imagery in her speech seems to link them together?

List supporting page numbers/line #s for your argument, so we can discuss them in class.

III. Language and Imagery in Macbeth

In the third hour of class we will work on understanding the language of Shakespeare and how he uses imagery (see definitions of rhetorical language on the outline for week 1). We will continue this third week. For second week do the following:

IN-CLASS PRESENTATION 1 (3-4 minutes). Please type out your notes (they do not have to be complete sentences, just what you need to present in class); you will turn them in at the end of class for grading. See grading rubric.

1. Choose one of the speeches by Macbeth or Lady Macbeth listed below. Use the sign-up sheet for week 2 to let me know by Tuesday April 11th at 5 pm. which speech you have chosen, so I can set up the class.

2. Describe the context of the speech. What is the situation in which Macbeth or Lady Macbeth makes this speech? What is the point of the speech: Is the character commenting on his or her state of mind? Urging action? Making a more general comment?

3. "Translate" the lines into modern English as best you can (you may use the internet or other sources to help you figure out what the lines mean, but do not simply quote the "translation" verbatim and make sure you cite your sources). What is lost when you rephrase and reorder the lines into modern English?

4. What are the main images or metaphors employed? How do these images help develop our understanding of the character or help develop a theme seen elsewhere in the play?

Suggestion: watch your lines in performance on the DVD to see how the actor/s indicate meaning. Feel free to look for other versions of the play on Youtube to see if the actor appears to understand the lines differently. Click here to see Ian McCllellan and Judi Dench doing the Macbeth soliloquies in 1978. If you send me the Youtube URL I can show those in class.

EXAMPLE: Ian McKellen analyzes Act 5 Scene 5 lines 20-31 ("Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow")

EXAMPLE: See also, these examples of rhetorical language in Macbeth.

1) Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 140-1: book p. 23, video 9:40
(Macbeth: "Two truths are told...And nothing is, but what is not")

2) Act 1 Scene 5, Lines 45-60: book p. 33, video 16:45
(Lady Macbeth: "The raven himself is hoarse...To cry, 'Hold, hold!'")

3) Act 1, Scene 7, Lines 1-16: book p. 39, video 20:07
(Macbeth: "If it were done....Not bear the knife myself.")

4) Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 45-57: book p. 57, video 34:45
Macbeth: " Methought I heard a voice....Macbeth shall sleep no more.")

5) Act 5, Scene 3, lines 23-33: book p. 169, video second half, 33:00
(Macbeth: "I am sick at heart when I behold....which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not.")

6) Act 5, Scene 3, Lines 45-58: book p. 171, video second half 35:50
(Macbeth and the Doctor: "How does your patient, doctor?....Throw physic to the dogs, I'll have none of it.")