Macbeth Small Assignment #2

Lady Macbeth’s Soliloquy   Act 1, Scene 5

The raven himself is hoarse

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan

Under my battlements. Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,

And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;

Stop up the access and passage to remorse,

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,

And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,

Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night,

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,

That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,

To cry ‘Hold, hold!’

Answer the following questions.

1. What happened immediately before this soliloquy?

2. What happens immediately after this soliloquy?

3. What is Lady  Macbeth’s psychological state in this soliloquy?

4. Find three lines in this passage that show Lady Macbeth believes her femininity will prevent her from achieving the goal of killing Duncan.

Macbeth Small Assignment #1

Macbeth’s First Soliloquy   Act 1, Scene 3

This supernatural soliciting

Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,

Why hath it given me earnest of success,

Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.

If good, why do I yield to that suggestion (145)

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,

Against the use of nature? Present fears

Are less than horrible imaginings:

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, (150)

Shakes so my single state of man that function

Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is

But what is not.

Answer the following questions. Your answers should be written in complete sentences and be as thorough as possible.

1. What happened immediately before this soliloquy?

2. What happens immediately after this soliloquy?

3. What is Macbeth’s psychological state in this soliloquy?

4. Macbeth speaks of a  “horrid image (that) doth unfix my hair/And make my seated heart knock at my ribs.” What is that image in his mind?

5. At this point, who does Macbeth doubt more: the witches or himself? Give your belief and two reasons for your belief.

Macbeth Big Assignment

“Macbeth” is a play rife with images. Your assignment will be to analyze four images from the play in detail.

Instructions:

1. Choose four images from the list below. All of these images figure prominently in “Macbeth.”

1. blood
2. night and darkness
3. light and darkness
4. animals and birds
5. the unnatural
6. weather
7. clothing
8. disease and sickness
9. fear

1. Find four quotes from the play for each image.

1. For each quote, identify the speaker, the act, and the scene.

1. For each quote, identify the situation; that is, determine where the scene takes place, and what has just happened before and after the lines are spoken. In other words, what is the context of the lines?

1. Now explain the significance of the quote. Why is the quote important within the context of the play? What does the quote mean? Be specific and give details. Go to the internet or to the many, many, many sources available that discuss “Macbeth.”

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To recap, your assignment:

Image #1: 4 quotes explained 

Image #2: 4 quotes explained 

Image #3: 4 quotes explained 

Image #4: 4 quotes explained 

DUE DATE: MAY 2, 2016

Example of How to Do This Assignment:

Image: Night and Darkness

Quote:

Old Man: Three score and ten I can remember well:

Within the volume of which time I have seen

Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night

Hath trifled former knowing.

Ross: Ah, good father,

Thou see’st, the heavens, as troubled with man’s act,

Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, ‘tis day,

And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp;

Is’t night’s predominance, or the day’s shame,

That darkness does the face of earth entomb,

When living light should kiss it?

Act 2, Scene 4, Lines 1 – 11

Speaker: Old Man and Ross.

Situation: Outside Macbeth’s castle. Duncan has been murdered. Ross and the Old Man are about to be told by Macduff that because the king’s sons have fled, they are the murder suspects.

Explanation: Elizabethans believed that when the natural order of the universe was violated, nature would reflect the disorder and be thrown into chaos. There might be a storm, for example. In this case, when there should naturally be sunshine in the daytime, there is darkness. Ross is saying that because a king has been murdered, the universe is in chaos and that is shown by the darkness in daytime. The heavens are withholding light because of the shock that the king has been murdered. The Old Man says that in his lifetime he has never seen such a dreadful, unnatural (going against God’s laws) thing as the murder of a king.

Monday October 5

Today, you’ll be going over the Elements of the Short Story. Your TOC will find them in the pink and blue bins on the front desk. The Elements of the Short Story will be on the first page of the test you will be taking on Friday. On Wednesday, we’ll be playing Jeopardy. Be prepared!

If you have time in class, continue writing out point form notes on the quotes from the story. Everything is on the board at the front of the room.

Shakespeare: Who’s the man?

Lord of the Flies Critical Thinking

• Golding has Simon discover the nature of evil. Do you think some people are more insightful and aware than others? Why/why not?
• What’s the difference between bad behaviour and evil? Explain without relying on an example.
• Does Jack actually believe in the Beast or does he use the boys’ fear of the Beast to maintain control?
• As leaders, both Ralph and Jack create a type of order. There are rules in both “governments.” What is the difference?
• After the boys are rescued, Ralph weeps for “the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.” Was Piggy wise? Was he a good friend to everyone, or just to Ralph? 
• What is innocence? When does it end? How do we know it’s over?
• There are three types of relationships in the story: relationship with self, communication/understanding between two people, and membership in a group. Describe one character who understands himself. What does he do? What self understanding do you see? Describe two characters who communicate with each other. How do they interact? What is the result? Describe a group interaction. Is there a leader? What happens when the interaction is spontaneous?
• After is killed, Piggy rationalizes his involvement in the killing, saying Simon “was batty, he asked for it.” Ralph feels guilty. Later when a boy says “Didn’t we kill it?” Jack easily redirects their thoughts? What makes some people so able to not acknowledge their behaviour?

Chapter 8

Today’s grim chapter had Beelzebub lecturing Simon, Jack and the boys killing a pig, and Ralph flitting in and out of a disassociative state. And a gigantic storm is brewing overhead. Things look ominous.

To see the assignment — one you seem to like — attached to this chapter, go to Term 2 assignments. 

Lord of the Flies

Chapter 3: Read the chapter as a class. Answer the following in paragraph form. Hand in at the beginning of next class.

The boys are now settled on the island and doing their best to cope with a stressful situation. How, specifically and individually, do Ralph, Simon, Jack, and Piggy cope? Hint: Each boy focuses on one specific thing or does one specific thing. (eg. If we answered the question for the littl’uns, the answer would be that they avoid talking/thinking about the beastie.) Your answer should be in paragraph form and be at least ten sentences in length. 

7Up, the Documentary

By now, you’ve all seen the documentary from 1964, featuring 14 kids. Here are some of the notes I took while watching it. Many of the themes and comments in the documentary match Lord of the Flies, simply because Golding is dealing with the same issues the documentary is.

The 14 kids:

• John, Charles, Andrew: 3 posh boys on the sofa
• Paul, Simon: the two boys in the orphanage
• Bruce: the boarding school boy with blond hair (has a girlfriend in Africa)
• Suzi: the posh boarding school girl who takes ballet classes
• Tony, Susan, Jackie, Lynn: the kids from the East End of London
• Neil, Peter: the two boys from Liverpool who talk about “catchable, kissable” girls
• Nicholas: the little boy from Yorkshire who doesn’t want to answer “those kinds of questions”

Connections to Lord of the Flies:

• school bells in the East End school and at the Boys’ School dinner table represent authority/power, just like the conch
• the posh boys would be from the same social background as Ralph
• the boy leading the exercises (who kicks the younger kids in the ankles) would be like Jack leading the choir
• the boy named Tony from the East End would have the same background as Piggy
• when you see the boys fighting on the steps of the East End school and being ignored by the teacher, that’s the background Piggy would have come from; he would have been bullied and ignored
• Bruce, the boy who wants to be a missionary, is very much like Simon in Lord of the Flies; almost identical temperament

lllThemes:

the themes in Apted’s documentary can be found in Lord of the Flies, either in a subtle or a clear way

Lord of the Flies Student Blogs

Go to the Lord of the Flies site to access your Student Blogs. Click here.