Blogger #33 - Reiko Zheng - Period 9 - 12/9/2021

Blogger #33- Reiko Zheng- Period 9 - 12/9/2021

Aim: How does an evaluation of Macbeth’s soliloquy validate his character as being both round and dynamic, and with many complexities?

At the start of today’s lesson, we finished up the lesson from yesterday on Act 1 Scene 5 which was the scene at which Lady Macbeth was first introduced. To tie up yesterday’s lesson together, each group discussed Lady Macbeth’s perception of her husband as well as the reason why she feels as if she needs to assist him in becoming king by answering a set of questions.



Milana started off the class discussion by explaining that their group thinks that Lady Macbeth’s perception of Macbeth was one that undermines Macbeth and that Lady Macbeth “wears the pants in the relationship.” The class then goes on to discuss lines 16-18 from Act 1 scene 5 because it reveals the reasoning behind Lady Macbeth’s plotting to help her husband.
Lines 16-18, Act 1 Scene 5:
“Yet I fear thy nature; /It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness/ To catch the nearest way ”

We discussed how these lines reveal what qualities Lady Macbeth felt that her husband possessed; She felt as if her husband possessed a purpose but not the characteristics to reach that purpose. Marianna brought up another quote , “Art not without ambition but without The illness should attend it,” where “Art” is referring to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is expressing how she doesn’t believe that Macbeth has the ruthless mind needed to seek out the ambition’s achievement (Shakespeare 1.5.19-20).
We then transitioned into question three, addressing what qualities that Lady Macbeth feels as Macbeth needs. The class agreed that Lady Macbeth felt that Macbeth possessed too much compassion and needed to be more cruel and calculating in order to become the king.
Because of her lack of faith in his ability to go through with committing treason to become king, she plans to subtly influence him into going through with the treason. This answers the fourth question of “How does she plan to assist him in obtaining what he lacks.” Line 29 from scene 5 was brought up because the line , “That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,” reveals that she plans on planting her idea into his mind in a manner similar to how poisons can be administered through the ears, just as how her ideas may be poison to Macbeth.

By discussing these four questions, we gained a better understanding of the role that Lady Macbeth may play in this play which contrasts the usual role of women of the time: a passive role of staying at home and being dependent on a man.


Today’s lesson
With this understanding, we started our next lesson which was on Act 1 Scene 6.

The aim of the lesson was “How does an evaluation of Macbeth’s soliloquy validate
his character as being both round and dynamic, and with many complexities?”

Despite the aim, this lesson heavily plays on our understanding of Lady Macbeth.
We started the lesson with a do now where we Interpreted and Agree/ Disagree with two statements.

The statement:
“The female of the species is more deadly than the male.”
NOTE: "The Female of the Species" is a poem by Rudyard Kipling.
Margaret Thatcher once stated, “… If you want something done ask a woman.”

Margaret Thatcher- UK prime minister 1979-1990

My group discussed how the second statement from Margaret Thatcher can both be interpreted as how women used to be treated as servants so if you wanted something to be done in the past,you would ,oftentimes quite literally, ask a woman. However, our group believes that another interpretation is more likely. The interpretation that we believed was more likely is that Margaret Thatcher was saying that women were able to get things done better than men. We tied in the identity of Margaret Thatcher, the first prime minister of Europe, to how the second interpretation was more likely. Margaret Thatcher was a powerful woman and this quote would express her belief in the power of women.
During the class discussion, the first statement was one that we believed is somewhat situational. In the first statement, “species” rather than just “women” was used, opening up the interpretation to the animal kingdom as well. In regards to humans, Emily’s group believed that it wasn’t completely true because the perceived “deadliness” of someone depended on personality rather than the gender of the person. On the other hand, John Pierre’s group leaned more towards agreeing with the first statement because they believed that women attract men more than men attract women so that women are more influential than men. This ties into Macbeth because of how Lady Macbeth is planning on using her influence over Macbeth to kill the king and so she is the “deadlier” one.
Other animal species often reflect this same concept of females being deadlier. In a pride of lions, the female lions are the ones that hunt, just like what Lady Macbeth is planning on doing in the sense of aiming to kill someone. Other species such as praying mantises, black widows and angler fish also possess stronger females than males, especially since the female would kill the males after mating. This occurs despite how the males are often physically stronger, just like how Macbeth possesses more power in a literal sense because of the privileges men had over women in that time period. However, the class also agreed that this question was not referring to women’s ability to kill but rather to cunningly plot which is something that we agreed women are generally better at.
In regards to the second statement from Margaret Thatcher, we talked about how it can foreshadow how Lady Macbeth is the one who will get it “done” in comparison to Macbeth who is believed to be too soft to become a traitor. What she believes has to be done is for the king to die so that Macbeth can be king. If Lady Macbeth gets it done, she would be the one to kill the king, showing that she is the more dangerous one of the pair.

We then saw this plotting in action by watching the movie Macbeth Act I, v & vi [18:47-28:50].
After watching this part of the movie, we continued to read the play starting from page 33 Act 1. Sc. 5 after line 60. We left off at line 60 last lesson and so we continued until we finished both scene 5 and scene 6.

We then tried to discuss four questions together as a group before discussing it as a class.
We attempted to discuss:

        1) According to Macbeth, when does King Duncan plan on visiting and departing Inverness (Macbeth’s estate—See Map)?
        2) Explain Lady Macbeth’s true intentions and plan when she states about King Duncan: “O, never / Shall sun that morrow see!”
        3) Explain Lady Macbeth’s figurative language when she explains: “Look like th’innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t.” What is the meaning? What is the biblical allusion (Previously Learned)?
        4) How does Lady Macbeth’s statement compare with King Duncan’s from scene IV: “There’s no art / To find the mind’s construction in the face”?

The first question is straightforward with both my group and the class agreeing that King Duncan was planning on visiting at night and departing the next morning.
This question aided the class in answering the second question because Lady Macbeth stated that King Duncan “O, never / Shall sun that morrow see!” along with the king’s intentions to leave the next morning meant that she didn’t plan on allowing the king to live to see the next day; the king will not leave alive.

<--- map with inverness


With the intention of killing King Duncan, Lady Macbeth’s figurative language when she explains:”Look like th’innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t,” means that she intends for Macbeth to hide their true intentions. This is a biblical allusion regarding the serpent in the garden of eden. The serpent symbolizes the devil in the bible as well as evil. She means to hide the evil that is within them by pretending to be innocent because her intention to commit treason is dangerous if discovered.

<-- the serpent is symbolism for the devil (evil) in the bible

Even though we did not manage to discuss the last question together as a class, my group thought that Lady Macbeth’s statement proves King Duncan’s previous thoughts right. In scene IV, King Duncan says that there's no way to find out what a person is thinking by solely looking at them. Lady Macbeth is exactly trying to use this to her advantage by intending to fake innocence despite plotting treason.

Reflection:
In today’s lesson, I better understand the role of Lady Macbeth in this play. Originally, I thought that she would not play a major role in the play because of the usual role of women in this time period. Usually in this time period, women would be dependent on their husbands and stay at home. Society was patriarchal so I expected that Lady Macbeth would play a background role in the play. However, as I read scene 5 and 6, I realized the character of Lady Macbeth is not a passive one but she is rather a character who is willing to do anything to fulfill ambitions, even if it is not hers but rather Macbeth’s. The internal dialogue of Lady Macbeth reveals that her intentions were to kill the king so I expect for her to possess a major role in the coming acts. We learned about Lady Macbeth’s character in order to realize the true influence that she possessed as someone who is willing to do anything in realizing a goal. This is important in realizing that even though Macbeth is the one who seeks to be king, he does not have complete control over his decision to commit treason. Lady Macbeth’s idea to plant ideas in Macbeth also reveals to me that deception will not be one sided, even if the deception is to help Macbeth reach his goal. Her character is fleshed out due to the conflicting nature of what she is trying to do. On one hand, she is assisting her husband but on the other hand, she is planning to kill someone. I think that this lesson tries to help us understand this to characterize Lady Macbeth in preparation for her future actions. Not only that but this lesson helped me realize a lot of common connections between Macbeth and both other literary works and modern ideas. These connections included “The Female of the Species” by Rudyard Kipling, a modern statement from Margaret Thatcher as well as the Bible. These references are spread apart through thousands of years yet, Macbeth presents an idea related to each of these references. This makes me realize how well themes in literature hold up over time, especially those tied to human nature (which in this case is mainly deception and power).