1.Act I as exposition: begins with our meeting of the 3 witches and their prediction of his becoming king. They plant a seed and spur the action. Macbeth thinks this means he has to kill to be king. After having doubts, is persuaded by Lady M, they decide to kill D in his sleep in their castle.
Analysis: we are exposed to characters, foreshadowing through the riddles of Macbeth's coming ascent, murder. Atmosphere set that is ominous: animals such as the raven, serpent. It is also dark, with darkness as setting holding a big role in the speeches of characters. We are introduced to treachery, moral conflict and consequences of regicide, fight for power. Internal conflict between morality and one's own ambition. This is key for Macbeth because he is the king's soldier, thane: we are dealing with a feudal society based on king/vassal relationship. First impression of Macbeth: good vassal, loyal, warrior who was won the battle and defeated the traitor. Pattern of effect of one character upon another. The way Macbeth is manipulated shows his desire and his naive/weak side. Is Macbeth a "tool"?
We are now anticipating: the breaking of natural order with regicide--murder is going to happen, corruption, chaos in nature and in society.
Play began with the witches, switching up literal exposition to atmospheric.
of note: we see that Macbeth's thirst for power is questionable because he doesn't look past the murder to the aftermath, being king. He thinks about consequences--he'd be stupid if he didn't. upsides and downsides? clearly thought about them before but not so much now. In the process, thinking, gets it, and both come into action. Imperial theme overrules consequences.
Will it be secure? Will the plan work? Will they be safe? other things not focused on.
2.qualities and weaknesses:
Macbeth--indecisive: goes to Lady M and tells her he's changed his mind about killing the king when he'd brought that up in the first place. Weakness: doesn't know what he wants. He can't go through with his own decision. His choosing not to kill the king--moral switch is a good thing, but his indecisiveness will make him switch again. He can't stick to his decision. He uses reasoning, however, which is a quality. He evaluates possibilities and thinks things through first.
Lady M--thinks of his indecisiveness as a flaw and spurs him on. She just wants to get things done. Not indecisive. does what needs to be done if she says: she'd kill her baby brutally. She thinks this is a sign of strength and masculine. Femininity is indecisive in her mind. This runs to the context of the play: male, warrior society where brutality and murder are omnipresent, glorious. People usurped and that would not have surprised. She emasculates him so we consider her to have a masculine character. King offers her a diamond: she has a feminine quality, femme fatale.
Banquo--realistic pt of view. Foil to Macbeth. Brings out his flaws: with the witches, Banquo was more reticent to believe, could see the witches like chaos, but Macbeth was thinking that he would be king. Banquo more rational: shows how Macbeth doesn't think rationally about the witches. Banquo not willing to be a traitor for his ambitions. He keeps a cool head, won't murder, no loss of honor. As power hungry as the other 2--he does want to know his future. He doesn't fall into the same moral dilemma.
Chief quality for both B and M, male qualities, revolve around warrior accomplishments and loyalty. To be compared with the thane of cawdor.
lady M as foil to M: not same as B, but how she can manipulate and make him do vs while he is more moral. She tests his morals without having tested her own. Ultimately, they are both weak. Since they both trust each other (write letters, share secrets) shows that some security between them, will give her an advantage over him. She took the partner in greatness concept and took full advantage.
Why did they marry? for love? Women can only acquire power through men. He's perfect for her: weak in the house but strong in action. Not weak in the mind morally, necessarily, but in the house.
will she be the weaker one when the blood is shed?
3. witches real--not supernatural, but metaphysically, could be part of his mind. They appear in different places that confirm their reality. Banquo sees them too. They would have to appeal to the evil in everybody's imagination. Allegorical notion: same pattern of evil in the imagination but different eventual paths. one will follow, one will not.l
Act II , Scene II:
Recap:
· State of mind of Macbeth when he starts to se things: His mind is starting to unravel a bit. He is seeing images of the murder he is about to commit.
· He doesn’t have full motivation to kill his king: he does not have the spur.
Notes:
· In this scene, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are fighting. Macbeth is sad, and feels guilty because of killing the king when Lady Macbeth wants him to forget about it and stop being so sensitive.
· She talks about having your hands be red but you’re heart be white: “You should be able to kill someone and not feel about it” à But not sure that she actually believes what she says.
· In the beginning of the scene lady Macbeth is alone, waiting, while Macbeth is committing the deed à She seems anxious (she hears noises and shrikes made by the night bugs like Owls and crickets) She is not at peace. She says that if the king didn’t look like her father she would have killed him à She has moral issues.
· The killing is of stage because it is not the most important part of the play as we could have thought: it is not the climax since it’s in Act II. The killing is a little cowardly since he kills the kind in his sleep therefore we do not know the reaction of the king when he finds out that Macbeth is a traitor to him which makes the scene a bit dull. And also the king was in the audience, so it is not good to perform the killing of a king in front of a king.
· “Cawdor shall sleep no more” à The traitor shall feel guilty and not sleep anymore à Also anticipation of when Macbeth will be king with use of the future: Macbeth will be a king threatened by guilt.
à The guilt of the killing is contagious: if he puts his hand full of blood in the green sea, the sea will turn red. Lady Macbeth also has blood on her hands since the plan got messed up when Macbeth brought the daggers back with him when he was supposed to frame the guards.
Act II, Scene 3:
· Comic relief from the Porter: Lots of sexual and gross jokes.
· The porter is saying that farmers overcharge you for the grain, tailors will cheat you because they also over charge you, and lawyers lie and they are all welcome in hell (because he is the “porter of hell”
· Ice for Hell? Or Fire for hell? à Both are extreme temperatures.
· The natural elements where going crazy because the natural chain of being was disturbed.
11/10/11
End of act II
11/10/11
End of act II
- We learn Macbeth is going to be crowned in Scone.
- New character: Macduff - seems suspicious - decides to not appear at the coronation, why?
- Act II Rising action. Macbeth "risen" to king-to-be.
- Exposition: M = thane of Glamis
- Rising action: M = thane of Cawdor
- Climax: M = King
- Donalbain says people are hypocrites and fake (goes back to "fair is foul and foul is fair" and false face and false heart and the serpent)
- Malcolm and Donalbain seem aware of what is going on unlike naive father.
- Macbeth killed the guards, why? because scared they will denounce his dreadful dead. Brings suspicion onto M because not logical to kill the guards out of fury of the king's murder. His being king will therefore not be very secure as Macduff is already suspicious
- Lady Macbeth plays the "flower" when faints to show her grief. Secretly freaking out because of Macbeth's "unprofessionalism".
- On p. 69 Macbeth makes speech. If had died an hour before, King would still be alive -- feels guilt.
- Dramatic irony because characters think he feels sad because loyal.
- Life is a game, meaningless.
- Chain of being broken - weird unnatural happenings. "Traveling lamp" metonymy for sun - eclipse so very dark out.
- Owl (image of Macbeth) ominous animal. Falcon (compared to king, majestic) killed by owl - world is upside down.
- p. 75, clothing motif. Macbeth has "new robes". Macduff doesn't believe story going around in country about Macbeth and his guards.
- Duncan's beautiful horses went crazy and ate each other - image for humanity destroys itself, foreshadows war.
- Imagery in Act I and Act II:
Clothing motif:
The Thane of Cawdor robes are given
“The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me with borrowed robes” (114-115) [ Act I scene 3]
Clothing starts in Act I and then in Act II
Act II page 77
“Less our old robes sit easier than our new.”
a recurring theme about the clothing
(Macduff talking)
Clothes are like a metonymy
The clothes represent the man
These clothes don’t fit him correctly
Animals:
Act I: wolf, raven, owl, snake, sparrows and heir, eagles and lions
Act II: horses
Wolf is the sentimental for the murder
Their bravely is compared to animal figures in Macbeth but some weaknesses can be proven also thanks to animals such as Macbeth’s downfall
Growing Image:
Act I scene 4 p.27
Duncan says: “I have begun to plant thee and will labor”
Macbeth is like a seed that he is going to grow and Duncan will help him to become a better person.
Too many seeds in Macbeth with the witches, Duncan, and Lady Macbeth
Macbeth will grow for his own benefit
Banquo says: “There, if I grow
The harvest will be your own.”
He says that Duncan will benefit
Image of blood:
Blood is motif that is repeated in the book.
First one is with the noble blood with the captain
But, later with the daggers and the blood on them and then with the blood on the clothes of the guards of the king, we can see how blood is going to evolved throughout the book.
We see the image with the daggers and the blood all through Act II Scene 2
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
He was friends with Shelley’s father
This story mirrors Frankenstein’s story
It’s a narrative poem
It’s a ballad and so it should be accompanied with music
They come from the Middle Ages
They are sometimes with supernatural ideas.
The romantics made the Medieval era become popular again
This is a literary ballad in contrast to a folk ballad
It’s more sophisticated than a medieval ballad.
He uses repetition, rime scheme (abcb) typical of the medieval poetry.
He had notes, for explanation of his ballad
It’s in 7 parts, it so long
Rime is an old spelling, bringing back the Middle Ages
The painting is from the 19th century.
The painting are gothic (skeleton)
Part 1:
A wedding and a wedding guest.
There are 3 wedding guest
“And he stoppeth one of three”
The old sailor “mariner” stopped one of the three
“Eftsoons” a made up word
He sounds like he’s dead
He can hypnotize people
“He cannot choose but hear”
Pay close attention to the quotations:
Quotations mean the mariners story
No quotations means that we are in the wedding and the original narrative
The bride is coming with the “bassoon”
The sun is setting and the ship is going out to sea, leaving the image of the ship.
The albatross is good, the albatross being killed is a curse
Albatross is a symbol and a metaphor
The bird is loved but he has to be killed
The comparison with Frankenstein
Ice is found in both the book and the poem
Crossing the threshold with the killing of the albatross
The “crack of the ice” is an onomatopoeia
Sometimes there are approximate rimes (“flew” line 67 and “through” line 69
He also rimes in the middle of the line
He uses the same words a lot in his riming making his language a bit simpler even if it is written in Old English.
Landscape: in the middle of nowhere from the wedding to the nothingness.
They killed something that was good for them, and so they have more consequences to the mariners
The albatross is like the perfect life of the mariner, and he shot it and so his perfect life is spoiled and so it was out of the blue, it was a sort of urge. He has messed up his life.
Part II:
Dead bird around his neck
Albatross is his burden like the cross.
He has caused all if the problems.
Like in Macbeth, nature reacts to the death
First the shipmen were happy because the sky was clear, the mist was gone
They have become selfish
They have become accomplices to the crime of the death of the albatross
There is no wind and there is no water to drink
Hellish place (slimy place, no water, and burning environment)
The sun exposes the crime and opposes to the image of the ice in Part I.
Sun ? image for justice
Part III:
He’s desperate, he’s also being dramatic
He makes a synecdoche about the sail
Supernatural because the movement is missing but the boat is moving
It’s a ghost ship
She is an image of syphilis
She says she has won the game
She says she has beaten death
The 200 men died and the night came
The moon has arrived
Were are not sure if the men are dead because only their souls are gone
He must live with the burden of the death of the albatross and the death of the men
The stanzas are become different (when the intensity grows so do the stanzas)
Part 4:
They are going to no man has gone before
They are bursting into something unexplored
Sounds are making an echo
Anaphora in “alone” we can see the desperation that this mariner has and the guilt that he hold for having killed this bird.
The dead men have the easy way out by having their souls taken out of their body
He needs to suffer, but he will be taking the easy way out by suicide.
He can’t pray “I look’d to heaven, and tried to pray ”
We are in a supernatural world, he cannot die. “And yet I could not die”
He looses his guilt because the albatross falls off
He was able to get the snakes into his heart
He has done thing well but he’s not off the hook.
Part 5:
The rain appears and then the men rise
And so that the bodies are working but they are soulless.
They have been taken over by spirits to gear the ship (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Part 6:
The polar spirits are going to decide the outcome for the mariner.
They are going to talk
The curse is over but he feel that he is going to be walking with the burden behind him (Frankenstein with Creature)
He is coming home
The bodies are dead with spirits above them
So the men are dead and they can go to heaven
The pilot and his boy arrive
The hermit can cleanse the mariner
Part 7:
The ships is not normal and so the hermit is freaked out by it
The ship is sinking
But the mariner is saved but the bodies and the ship have sank
The pilot thinks that the mariner is the devil
He needs to tell the tale to the same people as him (like Frankenstein with Walton)
Back to wedding,
He tells the wedding guest that going to the church is what he needs to do.
He tells that the church is where safeness is.
The mariner will never dies and needs to tell the story to the people who need to hear the story
The wedding guest left the people he loves and has exiled himself from his community.
Act III
- Why are is coronation not shown? -maybe not important to the plot, Shakespeare wants us to focus on before and after.
- Banquo and Macbeth's reactions to the prophecy of the weird sisters are very different: while M rushes to act, B stands afar and waits for thins to go into motion
- SCENE 2: Macbeth wants to kill Banquo = his friend
is this surprising ? yes and no. he already killed the king, so it might be easier. however, killing your superior and killing you king is very different. coward murders: killed in the dark, but now hires people to do the dirty job. the way he speaks to the murderers is weird: he is speaking like Lady M, using her repertoire --he is questioning their manliness. but that doesn't mean he has become that kind of man? he has learned from the best. turning the murderers against B > reason of their suffering.
Lady M isn't as blased as before (blood on one's hands can easily be washed) "t'is safer to be the thing that we destroy than dwell in doubtful joy" (p91) oxymora alliteration in d = harsh words - to harsh perhaps? she's in a bad place. the crime finally catching up to her, causing unrest. is it due to the uneasiness or her conscience? Anyways, she puts on a happy face before Macbeth. he says the deed is not done, he scorched the snake, but didn't kill it completely, only a part of it is done. snake = obstacle to power and safety, fear own monster, their. devilish connotation. cannot stop the killing until utterly defeated. like the six headed monster, cannot kill all at once, and for all he kills, more will come to oppose to him. before the murder, they tough the crown would be their Eden, but the temptation/snake will always be there. the snakes leads them to destruction. happiness is like horizon, you can never reach it. Macbeth is honest with his feelings with his partner in greatness: "restless ecstasy". he is tortured by scorpion in his head. M tell her his feelings but not lady M, one way partnership, its pulling them apart. he however starting to work on his own, killing Banquo, when lady M told him to act nicely. - SCENE 3:
this time, 3 murderers - only 2 the first time, weird... ominous Banquo dies, killed by murders, but Fleance flies. the snake is scorched again > prophecy of Banquo's sons being king does not end. another flaw in Macbeth's plan, he is only walking to his downfall.
3rd murderer is suspicious, is he someone of the play? maybe permited Fleance to escape... mystery.
Murder on stage > much more important than thus of the king. remember this is the climax. we need to see it because we have to hear Banquo's last words to his son. - SCENE 4:
Macbeth learns from the murderer that Banquo has been killed (on his orders). Fleance, however, has fled. This is a major blow to Macbeth's plan: where he else was perfect ("whole as the marble", "founded as the rock"), this mistake is disastrous and could bring his downfall. Use of vocabulary suggests increasing confinement: "cabined, cribbled, confined, bound". - During the royal dinner, Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo appear; he is the only person to see it. Macbeth feels guilt and fear; he reacts violently to what seems nothing to others. The guests are confused and attribute his behavior to loss of sanity; in his "fit", Macbeth hints to and comes near confessing his crimes: "the time has been that, when the brains were out, and there an end. But now they rise again..."; some begin to become suspicious of Macbeth's role in Duncan's murder.
- Lady Macbeth: does not want her power taken away, tries to keep everything together by trying to tell everyone Macbeth is okay. Frustrated with Macbeth for messing everything up over and over again. Type of woman who wants to do everything well. Macbeth keeps on messing up over and over again, and she is keeping it all in, so when she will "explode" it will be very very bad. Macbeth is taking credit for everything, yet she is the one who plans everything and always needs to cover up for everything Macbeth does. If she were the 3rd murderer, then she would understand what Macbeth is going through, and it would be easier for her to cover for him. But she might just think Macbeth is breaking down, because of everything that has happened and the guilt that haunts Macbeth. Type of woman that will take down as many people as she can with her when she explodes. Tries to act manly, but when she breaks down will she do it in a violent way or a hysterical way?
- Big Bad Witch Hecate, ticked off at the other three witches for telling Macbeth about his prophecy without including her, and doesn't understand why they would want to help Macbeth. Wants to take down Macbeth, making him feel secure, and then bring him down. FUN! they have the gift of sight and enjoy playing with peoples lives. Macbeth cannot go any further up, he can only go down.
- Macbeth has not been a benevolent king, not as good as Duncan, and making the people of Scotland suffer. Conditions are so bad that the people are happy to go to war with England. As a person and a character, he becomes less and less popular while he gets more and more power. Huge contrast between what he was in the beginning of the play and what he becomes during the play. He was a good and loyal person and now he is the complete opposite.
- For Macbeth, his morals were set by his surroundings, once he became king, he completely changed.
- ACT 4 Wednesday December 7th
- SCENE II
- Macduff has fled to England, leaving his wife and son --Is it wisdom or fear ? He sends a messenger, telling them to leave Macbeth's land before they could get harmed. But, a Murderer enters and stabs Macduff's son, killing him, then he kills the wife. We learn more about the scene in scene III, where Ross reports to Macduff : "Wife, children, servants, all that could be found [was murdered]" (Page 155).
- The King was not killed on the stage, but Banquo was, and both now a child and woman are. We didn't see Macbeth's coronation -> he didn't deserve it, as he is an usurper. Now, Macbeth is randomly killing people, he is really upset about the prophecy, really worried. Since Act 3, Macbeth is acting pretty much "solo", and he seems to be ready to sacrifice the whole universe for his own good, he is losing his moral values.
- Every time Macbeth does something to get better, another one pops up, he can "scorch" the snake, but not kill it. Moreover, "Good guys" seem to multiply. Hydra, every time he kills someone, more and more people are going against him. Also, killing Macduff's family is gonna give him even more motivation to kill Macbeth, nothing else.
- Macduff's wife is freaking out about the fact that he fled, she says he's dead, he's a traitor, etc. while her son is "cool", staying rational, with good morals, keeping his faith into his father, still believing in him. When he dies at the end of the scene, he stands for his father's honor, the murderer says the father is a traitor, and the son responds "thou liest, thou shag-eared villain!", and murderer stabs him.
- SCENE III
- At first, when Malcolm sees Macduff, he is not willing to trust anyone, as his dad has been murdered because of that. Malcolm is "testing" Macduff, to see if he can trust him.
13.12.11
- ACT V
- Lady Macbeth's death
- Lady M dies without last message (only scream "cry of women" - no tragic soliloquy) > She doesn't have dignity of tragic hero. > shows that her feeling to want to be "unsexed" useless -- as if she had never counted. Dies off-stage, instead of hearing her words, we hear Macbeth's speech. Beginning of play, we meet Lady M when as she reads Macbeth's words. Chiasma
- Killed herself with her own hands (suggested) which she used to wash.
- Macbeth's soliloquy
- M responds to his wife's death indifferent -- Macbeth's soliloquy, calls Lady M and everyone a fool because we all end up dead anyways
- Says life is short - metaphor
- "Life is but a walking shadow" -- unnoticed, unimportant, forgotten
- He says everyone is a fool and everyone will die
- "mise en abyme" -- Macbeth speaks for Shakespeare: art is imitating life which is imitating art -- we want anagnorisis and catharsis but we don't get it. No didactic purpose apart from "bad guys" die
- "signifying nothing" -- two words no iambic pentameter
- nihilism
- camouflage -- moving forest
- scared of Macduff's confidence and prophecy that says he is the only one that can kill him because Macduff was born with a c section
- Malcolm says of the Macbeth's "a dead butcher and his fiend like queen" --from our pov harsh because we know the whole story and they have aroused sympathy from us but accurate from Malcom's pov who doesn't know
- Shift of pov when Macbeths die, satisfying yet dissatisfying. Even if Macbeth's antiheroes -- we are more attached to them because we've followed them since the beginning
