Introductory Comments to Part Six of
this Series
Please read below how I would handle reading,
explanation, and discussion of Part Six of this series on how to teach Macbeth, as an example of how I go about
presenting Shakespeare to students.
I am using my compressed version of Macbeth.
Know that I read every word of the original play with my students and
then perform my compressed version at our annual banquet. I am using the latter version to demonstrate
some of the many explanations I give and questions that I ask when I present a
Shakespearean play to my students.
Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth
All original lines by William
Shakespeare
Compressed for Presentation at Spring 2019
New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet
by Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.
Director, New Salem Educational Initiative
From Macbeth,
Act IV, Scene Three
[England. Before the King’s palace.]
[Enter Malcolm, Macduff, and Ross]
Macduff:
Stands Scotland where it did?
Ross:
Alas, poor country! Almost afraid to know itself.
Macduff:
How does my wife---
and all my children?
Ross:
Your castle is surprised;
your wife and babes
Savagely slaughter’d.
Macduff:
My children too?
Ross:
Wife, children, all that could be found!
Malcolm:
Dispute it like a man!
Macduff:
I shall do so;
But I must also feel it as a man.
Heavens, cut short all intermission; front to front
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland to
myself.
My Comment/Question >>>>>
57)
Macduff, Ross, and Malcolm gather in front of the castle of the British
monarchy. Macduff asks if Scotland is
still in turmoil and danger, to which Ross replies, “Alas, poor country! Almost afraid to know itself.” What do you think this means, for Scotland to
be afraid to know itself?
What do you make of Macduff’s response to
the murder of his wife and children? When
Malcolm tells him to “dispute it like a man,” what do you think Malcolm is
suggesting as to the attitude that Macduff should have and the action that he
should take in responding to the murder of his family?
What does Macduff mean that he must “also
feel it as a man” ? Who is the “fiend”
(ferocious and terrible creature) of Scotland that Macduff says he wants to
square off against, “front to front” ?
[Dunsinane. Anteroom in the castle.]
[Enter Lady Macbeth.]
Lady Macbeth:
Out, spot--- out, I say!
What need we fear who knows it,
when none can call our power to account?
Here’s the smell of blood still:
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten
this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!
Wash your hands, put on your nightgown;
Look not so pale.
There’s knocking at the gate:
Come, come, come, come,
give me your hand.
What’s done cannot be undone
To bed, to bed, to bed!
[Exit]
My Comment/Question >>>>>
58)
The anteroom is a waiting room or sitting area, this one outside Lady
Macbeth’s own bedroom or chamber. Her soliloquy
here is one of the most famous of the many well-known soliloquys in Shakespeare’s
plays. She has clearly become unglued
and is experiencing wrenching pangs of guilt for the murder against Duncan that
she plotted for Macbeth. What
conflicting emotions is she expressing when she says the following?
Out,
spot--- out, I say!
What need
we fear who knows it,
when
none can call our power to account?
Here’s
the smell of blood still:
All
the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten
this
little hand. Oh, oh, oh!
If Lady Macbeth and her husband need have
no fear because of the power that they wield, then why is she apparently in
fact apparently so terror-struck and weighed down with guilt? What are the words that convey that Lady
Macbeth thinks that the guilt she is feeling will never go away? Have you ever known anyone who felt so guilty
about an action on her or his part?
To whom is Lady Macbeth talking when she
tells someone to get on a nightgown, not look so pale, not to fret over a deed
that cannot be undone, and to get on to bed?
From Macbeth,
Act V, Scene Four [Country
near Birnam Wood.]
[Drum and colors. Enter Malcolm, old Siward and his Son,
Macduff, Mentieth, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, Ross, and soldiers, marching.]
Malcolm:
Let every soldier hew him down a bough
And bear’t before him: thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host and make discovery
Err in report of us.
My Comment/Question >>>>>
59) “Hew”
means to cut down. “Bear’t (“bear it”)
it before him” means for each of the soldiers to hold a bough from a tree out
in front of him (only males were soldiers in patriarchal societies) as they are
walking. “Host” means a large group, in
this case the troop of soldiers. “Make
discovery err in report of us” means to fool their opponents (Macbeth and his
few remaining supporters) into thinking that there are more soldiers than there
actually are. What prophecy of the
witches will seem to Macbeth to becoming astonishingly true in this scene?
From Macbeth,
Act V, Scene Five
[Dunsinane. Within the castle.]
[Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with
drum and colors.]
[The cry of women within.]
Macbeth:
Wherefore was that cry?
Seyton:
The queen, my lord, is dead.
Macbeth:
She should have died thereafter;
There would have been time for such a word.
Tomorrow , and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the
stage
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by and idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
[Enter a messenger.]
Macbeth:
Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.
Messenger:
As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
I look’d toward Birnam, and, anon,
methought,
The wood began to move.
Macbeth:
If thy speech is sooth
I begin to doubt the equivocation of the
fiend
That lies like truth: ‘Fear not, till Birnam Wood
Do come to Dunsinane.’ And now a wood
Comes toward Dunsinane.
Arm, arm, and out!
My Comment/Question >>>>>
60) Everything
falls apart for Macbeth in this famous scene from the play. In his response to the news that Lady Macbeth
is dead (either from suicide or from the level of stress from her guilt), Macbeth
says that she died too young, before her time should have been up. Consider how the remainder of his soliloquy
breaks down >>>>>
Tomorrow
, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps
in this petty pace from day to day
To
the last syllable of recorded time,
Every day unfolds the same as the one
before it and will do so eternally.
And
all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The
way to dusty death.
Each of our days merely lights the way to our
eventual death.
Out,
out brief candle!
Life’s
but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That
struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And
then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told
by and idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying
nothing.
So, let me just go to my death, for life is
but an illusion and we are but actors in a farce (comic but cruel tale, as if
told by one of limited intelligence) who go through the pretenses and struggles
of our lives until our time on the stage of life ends and we die, not to be heard
from again; the tale of our lives is
full of great sounds that we make and emotions that we feel but ultimately has
no meaning. The author, William
Faulkner, used this phrase as the title to his novel, The Sound and the Fury .
What would you say to someone who feels
this way about life?
Consider the report from the messenger. Know that “Methought” means “I thought”; “anon” (often used in Shakespearean plays) means
“soon”; and “sooth” means “truth.” How does Macbeth react to the news that
Birnam Wood is seemingly on the move:
Why is he so shook and what does he seem about to do?
From Macbeth,
Act V, Scene Eight
[The battlefield.]
[Enter Macbeth, with Macduff close behind.]
Macduff:
Turn, hell-hound, turn!
Macbeth:
Thou losest labor.
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield
To one of woman born.
My Comment/Question >>>>>
61) To
what hope is Macbeth clinging here?
Macduff:
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast
served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s
womb
untimely ripp’d.
My Comment/Question >>>>>
62) “[F] rom his mother’s womb untimely ripp’d” means
taken from his mother’s uterus ahead of projected time of delivery--- a reference to a caesarian section.
Macbeth:
Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cowed my better part of man!
And be these juggling fiends no more
believed,
That palter with us in a double sense.
My Comment/Question >>>>>
63) “Cowed”
means intimidated. “Palter” means to play
with words. In the prior scene, Macbeth
refers to the “equivocation of the fiend.”
Compare this utterance to “juggling fiends” here. What trait of the witches is Macbeth
identifying in these two phrases? What
does “double sense” mean?
Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Lay on, Macduff.
My Comment/Question >>>>>
64) What
two predictions of the witches is Macbeth now admitting have come true, to his
disadvantage? What does he mean when hs
says, ”Yet I will try to the last. Lay on Macduff” ?
[Exeunt, fighting. Alarums.]
[Retreat.
Flourish. Enter, with drum and colors,
Malcolm, old Siward, Ross, the other
Thanes, and soldiers.
[Reenter Macduff, with Macbeth’s head.]
Macduff:
Hail, king!
For so thou art; behold, where
stands
The usurper’s cursed head.
Hail, King of Scotland!
[Flourish.
Exeunt.]
My Comment/Question >>>>>
65) Macduff,
having gotten the best of Macbeth in their duel, greets Malcolm, points to the
head he severed from Macbeth after killing him, and salutes Malcolm as the soon
to be enthroned king.
All:
Hail, King of Scotland!
Malcolm:
We shall not spend a large expense of time
Before we reckon with your several loves.
And make us even with you.
So thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.
My Comment/Question >>>>>
66) Malcolm
in telling those in the crowd that he (“we” is the “royal ‘we,’ used by
monarchs to refer to themselves) will “reckon with your several loves, and make
us even with you,” meaning to reward their loyalty with titles and land,
acknowledging the support of those gathered and the need to give equal loyalty
and respect in return. Scone was the
traditional site where new monarchs were crowned.
Please reflect on the play as a whole for
our big wrap-up discussion.
No comments:
Post a Comment