Julius Caesar
1. Help with Act III sc ii & iii questions (see below).
2. Time to study for Act III quiz Monday.
3. Current marks (if you want to arrange writing missed quizzes, you must have this plan in place ahead of time. Deadline to write/re-write is Thursday, December 19th).
English 11
Macbeth
1. Act I Quiz
2. Read Act II sc i & ii
3. In-Class: Completed questions for Act II scenes i and ii.
4. Notes
Motifs:
- Blood - Gender (masculinity vs. femininity) - Masks/Deception - Time - Children/Babies - Madness
Themes:
Appearance/Reality
Prophecy
The plot is set in motion by the prophecy of the three witches. The prophecy fans the flames of ambition within Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, serving as the primary impetus for the couple to plot the death of Duncan. Consider: Would Macbeth have committed such heinous crimes if not for the prophecy? What if he had ignored the witches’ statements?
Guilt and Remorse
Some of the most famous and poetic lines from Macbeth are expressions of remorse. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?”
In what concerns ghosts and visions, the relation of the natural to the supernatural in Macbeth is unclear.
The Natural/Supernatural
If the witches’ prophecy
is understood to be imposing a supernatural order on the natural order of
things, the natural order can also be understood as responding with tempestuous
signs. Dichotomy and Equivocation
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair / Hover through the fog and filthy air” (I i 10-11). The first scene of the first act ends with these words of the witches, which Macbeth echoes in his first line: “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (I iii 36). In a similar fashion, many scenes conclude with lines of dichotomy or equivocation: “Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell / That summons thee to heaven or hell” (II i64); “God’s benison go with you, and with those/ That would make good of bad, and friends of foes” (II iv 41-42). Such lines evoke an air of deep uncertainty: while polarities are reversed and established values are overturned, it is entirely unclear as to whether the dichotomous clarity of “heaven or hell” trumps the equivocatory fogginess of “fair is foul, and foul is fair.”
Ambition and Temptation
Ambition and temptation both play a key factor in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s decision to kill Duncan. Macbeth possesses enough self-awareness to realize the dangers of overzealous ambition: “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself / And falls on th’other” (25-28). And yet, the temptation to carry out the witches' prophecy is ultimately too strong for Macbeth to curb his ambition. In Lady Macbeth’s lexicon, incidentally, “hope” is also another word for “ambition” and perhaps “temptation.” As Macbeth expresses his doubts about killing Duncan, she demands: “Was the hope drunk / Wherein you dressed yourself” (35-36)?
4. Marks posted.
5. Monday: Finish Act II.
