Blogger #29 - Ryan Wang - Period 3 -12/3/21

AIM: How do The Witches set the mood and foreshadow events for the play?

Do Now (Pair/Share):

We were tasked, as a group, to share our personality traits and our perfections, along with our imperfections. Then, we are supposed to explain to one another why we think what we said was a perfection or an imperfection. Charles said that he is introverted and quiet, and doesn’t like to speak. He says that this is an imperfection, as he wants to be more outgoing and speak more in conversations with people he doesn’t know. Edward said that he likes to talk, and it’s a good and bad thing because sometimes he talks about random things that don’t make sense. Ms. Peterson ended off the “Do Now” with a fact about her; she’s an extremely hard worker, and it’s a double edged sword. It’s good in the sense that she gets all of her work done efficiently, but it’s also bad because there are coworkers that slack off, knowing that she will do the work before the deadline anyways.

Characterization:

Direct Characterization: The writers directly tell us about the character and their motive, through the use of descriptive words or phrases. The manner in which the author reveals traits about the character is straightforward and easy to understand.

Indirect Characterization: The author shows us the character through thoughts, speech, other characters’ reactions, and actions. They allow the reader to decide for themselves on the character and their motives.

The Difference: Indirect characterization shows us what the character does in a situation, and we get to decide for ourselves, while in direct characterization, the author explicitly tells us what the character is like.

Extra Material: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRW6yVOHCQc&ab_channel=HannahSchreiber

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifvA9fejgrk&ab_channel=TheELAConnection

The second video is a great video to find out more about the STEAL method, a technique used for characterizing characters.

Spirit Reading: 

We acted out Act 1 Scene 2 of Macbeth.

Teamwork - Characterization: 

We were tasked to characterize the main characters that we have discovered in the new scene, Banquo, Macbeth, and Macdonwald. The image above is what our group did along with what the class said.

Teamwork:


1. The captain has proven himself to be a valuable asset according to Malcolm because he fought hard to prevent the capture of Malcolm, the king’s eldest son. It was really important to have Malcolm safe, because if their opposition got hold of Malcolm, they would’ve had leverage over King Duncan, and the war would’ve been over.


2. In the first act, we see Macbeth introduced by the “3” witches, and there was a negative vibe to the whole scene. He feels associated with these witches, which makes the reader think that he’s up to no good. In the second scene of the first act, everyone describes him as brave and honorable. We think that the second scene fits him better, because everyone else thinks that he is courageous and noble, and he even killed Macdonwald the rebel, so he can’t be evil.


3. Macdonwald betrayed King Duncan and Macbeth, and he was also like the figurehead of the whole rebellion.


4. King Duncan asks the Captain if they were scared in the war, to which the Captain says “Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.” This was verbal irony as sparrows and the hares are the prey of the eagles and the lion, respectively. The Captain means that they weren’t scared, and was being sarcastic in describing the situation as “sparrows eagles”.


5. The defeat of Macdonwald is good, but the execution itself was ruthless and brutal. Apparently killing their enemies would be portrayed as brave, but in reality, they’re just ending the lives of other people. This perfectly illustrates the “Fair is Foul…” phrase.


6. In Duncan’s last 3 lines, it states that the Thane’s title is being passed onto Macbeth, but we also know that the Thane was also a traitor. The Thane of Corridor lost his land, life, and title, and it was given to Macbeth instead. This is ironic because Macbeth was portrayed as a good honorable guy, but he’s getting the title of traitor passed onto him.


7. We believed that not letting the reader meet Macbeth early on in the play lets us see other people’s opinion on him, and it’s also to build suspense. And then as we meet Macbeth, we can make our own assumptions and opinions on him.




Reflection:


Today’s lesson was really interesting and helped me understand a lot more of Macbeth, compared to the short scene 1. There was a lot of information in what seemed like 2 short pages. There was a lot of figurative language, like irony, that I didn’t even know about until my classmates pointed it out to me. There’s still a lot of unknown stuff, like who Macbeth is, as we haven’t met him yet, and people’s motives. This scene also had a lot of direct and indirect characterization, like the direct characterization of Macbeth, but also the indirect characterizations of him. Macbeth was directly described as brave and honorable, but through his actions, we also find out that he isn’t as noble as people think he is. Through the perspective of an outsider, Macbeth seems like a monster who would kill anyone and do anything for his ambitions, which makes him seem like a loyal soldier to King Duncan. The phrase “Fair is foul, and foul is fair '' can apply to this situation and many more, even in our current real world society. What may seem good can be bad, and what’s bad can be in reality, good. For example, the current world’s thoughts on climate change. To combat the greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the cars, there has been an increase in interest in electric cars. While these might seem good for the environment at first, studies have shown that these may be more dangerous for the environment than regular oil cars. It just shows how Shakespeare’s work can still apply in current day society.