December 1st was the first day we switched from covering William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies to Shakespeare’s Macbeth. However, we did not cover any of the pages, but instead examined the context behind the story through 3 important recurring themes, achieving the Aim of Familiarizing Ourselves with Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
The first theme that is introduced is superstition with the Whole Class Discussion, asking “Do You Consider Yourself to be a Superstitious Person? Why/why not?” All responses were “no,” but beginning with Elizabeth’s response, people began to answer that they may have incorporated superstitious beliefs into their habits, because they were instilled by their parents.
When one student seems uncertain of their answer, Ms. Peterson asks another question: Why do we say God Bless You? Among several answers (some which were about the plague, others which brought up the interesting point that in other languages “God Bless You” is replaced with “I wish you well.”) Ms. Peterson’s answer is that the blessing was to prevent the devil from stealing away the person’s soul, and was incorporated as a tradition throughout the centuries, with most of its superstitious background being stripped. She concludes that Superstitious Beliefs are All Around Us, Even If We Don’t Realize It.
Superstition is the first of the three themes.
It moves onto Shakespeare’s life, with the undertone of paranoia -- it is emphasized that Shakespeare possessed a deep fear of having his works stolen. There are also some circumstances which otherwise wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, but when compared with the future slides clearly act as an introduction to the second theme: those being the included facts that all of his children never lived to see adulthood, and that he himself died on his birthday. Strange circumstances around death incur the fear of the thought that it was something at play beyond just coincidence, and therefore Curses are our second theme.
It is explained how his remains are cursed in an Epithet, which cannot be said for certain was written by him. It concludes:
“And curst he be that move my bones.”
It is then asked what the class thinks of Shakespeare. In line with the responses from the question of whether or not they were superstitious themselves, most students saw Shakespeare as an absolute nut, describing him as paranoid.
The conversation shifts from Shakespeare himself to the work of his that we are reading, Macbeth, but without disclosing any of the writing itself. Instead, it focuses on the writing of the play: Macbeth was made anywhere between 1603 and 1606 and was one of Shakespeare’s shortest tragedies, written as tribute to King James I after Elizabeth, who he had previously written for, was deposed.
Much like Shakespeare, King James I was also quite loony. Holding the title of the Royal Witch Hunter, King James I was a protestant who believed that witches and demons walked freely alongside man, sent by God to test his faith & conviction. The zealotry in his beliefs comes from an encounter he had with witches before, where several women went out to sea on sieves to sink King James I’s vessel. When this story was questioned, one of the women had seemingly divined what King James I had said behind closed doors to Princess Anne on their wedding night.
Divination and sorcery are our third theme. Although outwardly the weakest theme, Ms. Peterson explains further that we should expect the supernatural to play an important role in Macbeth.
In contrast, the theme of Curses is prominent within the backstory of the play. It is revealed that Macbeth had been cursed for over 400 years, cursed by practicing witches who had their ordeals exposed with the exposure of Hecate, their goddess.
A number of Superstitions arise from the idea of the play being cursed, such as having to spin thrice around, say a curse-word (other kind), and then spit on the ground, only to then quote Hamlet “Thrice around the circle bound, evil sinks into the ground.”
Much like earlier, the idea that the play is cursed is established with a number of events that pile one on top of the other, until it no longer seems like just coincidence. Several incidents where the actors would die either from illness or from other means that were subtly off, like a blunt dagger being exchanged for a very real one. These circumstances number 10 in total, beginning with the very first performance, where Macbeth’s intended actor got fatally ill, and lasting until 1972, with several robberies and fires.
We are left to ponder if we will be the next victims in this long list of tragedies.
This is where the conversation changes yet again, away from the background behind the play, and more towards the dynamic of the production and writing.
It is discussed that, when in a play:
Only men can perform, as women were too emotionally weak
Young boys or effeminate men took their place
Costumes were one of the most valuable assets for any acting stage.
The universality of plays is also discussed with The Globe Theatre. Ms. Peterson asserts that this was entertainment for everyone, from the lowest of peasants to the highest of kings. The scale of The Globe Theatre, with several sections of nosebleeds & a lower standing section, emphasizes the popularity of plays.
Expectations Ms. Peterson sets for us that Macbeth will hold a great deal of the Three Themes: Superstition, Curses, & The Supernatural, as well as more human themes of tyranny, cruelty, and ambition running free.
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