Blogger #32 Maggie Yang Pd5 12/3/21

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

Do Now: PAIR/SHARE

After discussing in groups, there was a class discussion where students volunteered to talk about their character traits, namely their perfections and imperfections. A response from Rory included traits like “intuitive, creative, brilliant” as well as “violent, competitive, apathetic” for the imperfections. When promoted about whether or not being a hard worker was considered positive or negative, it was noted that it can be seen as both, as it means that you finish what needs to be done, maybe even beyond the minimum. However, because of this, others may try to manipulate you. 

Revisiting the topic of characterization, we briefly touched upon direct and indirect characterization. Using the acronym STEAL, we can analyze the Speech, Thoughts, Effects on Others, Actions, and Looks of a character.

Direct and Indirect Characterization - 2:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRW6yVOHCQc 

Teamwork/Discussion

After acting out Scene I Act II with volunteer voices, in teams, students had to gather the traits of three characters: Banquo, Macbeth, and Macdonwald. They were then shared aloud with the class. The most important of the responses are listed below: 

Macbeth: (Direct)

• Captain of the army

• Brave

• Valiant

• Worthy gentleman

• Lucky

Macbeth: (Indirect)

• Hero

• Ruthless

• Loyal to the king

Banquo: (Indirect)

• Captain alongside Macbeth—also brave, valiant

• Less recognition, same praise

Macdonwald: (Direct)

• Traitor 

• Rebel

• Villainous

• Merciless

To get a sense of what it was like in the classroom, here are voice acted lines of Act I Scene II below. 

https://myshakespeare.com/macbeth/act-1-scene-2 

Giving more insight into Act I Scene II, the dialogue was looked into and simplified. From this, we learned that Malcom, the King’s eldest son, was saved from captivity by Macbeth, thereby proving himself to the King. From the Witches’ foreshadowing, namely the “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”, we can conclude that this describes the death of Macdonwald and the victory and honor of Macbeth. This goes back to the aim of the lesson, which talks about the Witches in Act I Scene I, who seemed to be scheming, which set an overall mood of ominous beginnings.

Student Reflection

I learned more about how to look deeper into the meaning of the Shakespearean way of writing, as almost everything has meaning. Although Shakespearean is difficult to understand, we can learn to connect the details to get a sense of what is going on. For example, focusing on the use of antithesis in Act I Scene I, we were able to pinpoint two phrases. These were “When the battles’ lost and won” and “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” When putting these phrases in the context of foreshadowing, we can tell that the war has ended in Macbeth’s victory in Scene II, although he may face some losses as he begins to win more and more. As we will be using this type of analysis and reading in the future, I will keep this in mind as well as find new ways to better understand the text, as well as any other difficult to interpret stories. This is not just limited to Old English, but other types of literature, which may include hidden meanings with allegory, more modern stories with incredibly detailed scenes, etc.