Aim: How are the major symbols in Macbeth used to create allusions and connections? (continued)
We continued what we left off on Friday, with a group discussion on Macbeth’s 3rd Soliloquy “Is this a dagger…”. We had to interpret the meaning and obtain a central idea. This is the full text. Macbeth – Act II, scene i
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
A bell rings
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pusU90ov8pQ&t=26s
(third soliloquy; different version than one we saw in class)
In the lines “Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” he talks about how he sees a dagger before him, but he cannot seem to touch/grasp (clutch) it although the handle is facing in a direction which he would be able to grab. One can assume that this is because of some kind of hallucinations due to his high fever. This soliloquy is questioning whether he is hallucinating or suffering from an effect of an illness.
In the next lines, “A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” These lines talk about a hallucination, false from the mind.. “Am I imagining or hallucinating this, or is this something that’s really there?” We become concerned when we hear that someone starts to run a very high fever because it can be fatal. If your fever is high enough, you might even start seeing things.
In the lines “Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” he talks about how he sees a dagger before him, but he cannot seem to touch/grasp (clutch) it although the handle is facing in a direction which he would be able to grab. One can assume that this is because of some kind of hallucinations due to his high fever. This soliloquy is questioning whether he is hallucinating or suffering from an effect of an illness.
In the next lines, “A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” These lines talk about a hallucination, false from the mind.. “Am I imagining or hallucinating this, or is this something that’s really there?” We become concerned when we hear that someone starts to run a very high fever because it can be fatal. If your fever is high enough, you might even start seeing things.
https://www.healthline.com/health/fever-hallucinations#what-you-can-do (something I found while trying to see more about fever hallucinations)
The next lines are “I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw.” So on his own body, he has in a sheath (cover for knife/dagger) he draws out the dagger he planned to use on Duncan and says, you look just as solid as the one he has right there but yet he just can’t seem to be able to grasp it.
“Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going”... talks about how he was on his way to kill Duncan & this dagger just happens to be coincidentally facing him in the direction he was setting off to? (weirdly convenient). He realizes it was the violence on his mind taking the form of the dagger.
“And such an instrument I was to use,” talks about the dagger he was going to use to kill Duncan. Remember, at this time, there are no hand guns, or special weapons designed for this; your options were pretty limited. (hanging, suffocation, strangling, using a knife/sword). "Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
The next lines are “I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw.” So on his own body, he has in a sheath (cover for knife/dagger) he draws out the dagger he planned to use on Duncan and says, you look just as solid as the one he has right there but yet he just can’t seem to be able to grasp it.
“Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going”... talks about how he was on his way to kill Duncan & this dagger just happens to be coincidentally facing him in the direction he was setting off to? (weirdly convenient). He realizes it was the violence on his mind taking the form of the dagger.
“And such an instrument I was to use,” talks about the dagger he was going to use to kill Duncan. Remember, at this time, there are no hand guns, or special weapons designed for this; your options were pretty limited. (hanging, suffocation, strangling, using a knife/sword). "Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still", talks about how he thinks his eyes could really just be playing tricks on him at this point.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There's no such thing: It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes.
Here, he references the murder he was about to commit (bloody business) was the reason why his eyes were playing tricks on him; all the conflict between him and himself, and him and Lady Macbeth, between wanting to do it or not wanting to.
Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, He is in his own home, at a castle. In an old castle, no matter how hard you try, you’ll hear creaking when you walk, and this was exactly what Macbeth was afraid of. He begs for his footsteps to be silent so nobody can hear where he’s going. As soon as people hear footsteps from Macbeth going towards Duncan’s room, it’ll bring people from all over the place. Someone asks if there could be a not so literal meaning behind this, but we learn that this soliloquy is mostly straightforward and literal (very few & rare).
And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives: Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. In public schools, there is something called conflict resolution, or remediation (not that we know :)). If you get into a conflict with somebody, the expectation is that you won’t take matters into your own hands and would instead seek out resolution specialists (which we have). Their goal is to prevent a real fight from happening (physical). If we make two hot headed people sit down and talk about their conflict, all their heat goes into their words, but physical fights do not usually occur after that because when you talk about something over a period of time, all your heat and anger leaves. This is the same thing that is happening to Macbeth; too much talk about killing Duncan is causing him to lose his nerve. He might not be able to go through with the plan.
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. A bell rings. The bell here is talking about the signal that Lady Macbeth will give Duncan when it is time to do the deed.
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell. A knell is a funeral bell (symbolizing Duncan’s death). The last line is about how we don’t know which direction Duncan is going (heaven or hell), even though he is a good man because if he didn’t go through all those funeral rites and purging of sins, then he would go to hell. This adds onto a conflict he has.
We were also given hints to do the research the following allusions, Hecate and the Rape of Lucrece.
From prior knowledge, I know that Hecate is the Greek chief goddess of witchcraft & sorcery (head witch). The three witches had to consult her before making any actions. She witnessed Persephone (Demeter’s daughter) get abducted into the underworld and assisted her in the search for Persephone. Pillars called Hecalaca stood at crossroads and doorways for this reason, and to keep away evil spirits, possibly. This directly relates back to the soliloquy because Hecate is referring to the three witches. The abduction is their way of explaining why 6 months of the year is cold and 6 is warm. She is also the daughter of Titan Perses and the nymph Asteria. (greek mythology :))).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pjgIB4cVTk
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There's no such thing: It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes.
Here, he references the murder he was about to commit (bloody business) was the reason why his eyes were playing tricks on him; all the conflict between him and himself, and him and Lady Macbeth, between wanting to do it or not wanting to.
Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, He is in his own home, at a castle. In an old castle, no matter how hard you try, you’ll hear creaking when you walk, and this was exactly what Macbeth was afraid of. He begs for his footsteps to be silent so nobody can hear where he’s going. As soon as people hear footsteps from Macbeth going towards Duncan’s room, it’ll bring people from all over the place. Someone asks if there could be a not so literal meaning behind this, but we learn that this soliloquy is mostly straightforward and literal (very few & rare).
And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives: Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. In public schools, there is something called conflict resolution, or remediation (not that we know :)). If you get into a conflict with somebody, the expectation is that you won’t take matters into your own hands and would instead seek out resolution specialists (which we have). Their goal is to prevent a real fight from happening (physical). If we make two hot headed people sit down and talk about their conflict, all their heat goes into their words, but physical fights do not usually occur after that because when you talk about something over a period of time, all your heat and anger leaves. This is the same thing that is happening to Macbeth; too much talk about killing Duncan is causing him to lose his nerve. He might not be able to go through with the plan.
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. A bell rings. The bell here is talking about the signal that Lady Macbeth will give Duncan when it is time to do the deed.
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell. A knell is a funeral bell (symbolizing Duncan’s death). The last line is about how we don’t know which direction Duncan is going (heaven or hell), even though he is a good man because if he didn’t go through all those funeral rites and purging of sins, then he would go to hell. This adds onto a conflict he has.
We were also given hints to do the research the following allusions, Hecate and the Rape of Lucrece.
From prior knowledge, I know that Hecate is the Greek chief goddess of witchcraft & sorcery (head witch). The three witches had to consult her before making any actions. She witnessed Persephone (Demeter’s daughter) get abducted into the underworld and assisted her in the search for Persephone. Pillars called Hecalaca stood at crossroads and doorways for this reason, and to keep away evil spirits, possibly. This directly relates back to the soliloquy because Hecate is referring to the three witches. The abduction is their way of explaining why 6 months of the year is cold and 6 is warm. She is also the daughter of Titan Perses and the nymph Asteria. (greek mythology :))).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pjgIB4cVTk
(short videos on Hecate)
Rape of Lucrece, poem by William Shakesphere about a legendary Roman noblewoman Lucrece (married).
Rape of Lucrece, poem by William Shakesphere about a legendary Roman noblewoman Lucrece (married).
- Tarquin, last Roman king, pissed off a lot of nobility when he abducted Lucrece and nobles revolted. Lucrecia is a married woman, who is protrayed as being chased and he keeps pursuing her until one evening he gets to her and wounds up raping her. Lucrece committed suicide and they paraded her body in the Roman forum by the king’s nephew. This started a revolt against the Tarquins which was led by Luciua Brutus, the banishment of the royal family and the founding of the Roman Republic
- This relates because it shows Macbeth stalking after what he wanted (the throne), as Tarquinis did to Lucrece to get what he wanted (she had no defense like Duncan).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29cNROlz8nM (link to the audiobook for The Rape of Lucreces)
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/Poetry/RapeOfLucrece.html (link to poem)
We then watched this part of the movie, Macbeth—Act II, i, Macbeth’s 3rd and famous Soliloquy, “Is this a dagger” (access via syllabus), [36:09—42:10 approx. 6:01]
After we finished, we moved onto the next set of slides.
Aim: How is the tone, mood and theme in Macbeth illuminated by the symbols in Act II, scene ii, while contributing to the work as a whole?
Do Now: We worked as a team to compile a list of tactics that someone might implement to evade getting caught, after they have committed a crime.
As a group, we came up with lying, fleeing, framing someone and becoming good friends with people in power. When we discussed as a class, we came up with coming up with an alibi, disposing of the body, harming yourself so it looks like you were a victim too, saying you were manipulated into doing what you did, or commit suicide. Someone else also said hide fingerprints, denial, fake witnesses, and bribing the judge. John said to kill all the witnesses and minimize interactions. We can see some of these in Lady Macbeth’s behavior. She was planning to pin the blame on the chamberlains. After they are accused, Lady Macbeth will say all these things about how she can’t believe he’s dead and what a great man he was, to hide her guilt.
Reflection:
This lesson I learned about Hecate and The Rape of Lucrece. Hecate was the chief goddess of sorcery and helped Demeter find her daughter who was abducted. Because of this, pillars named after her, stand on crossroads and doorways, to keep away evil spirits. The Rape of Lucrace was a poem of Shakesphere’s about Tarquin and his pursuit of a married woman, and what he couldn’t have, he forced upon her and raped her. It was nice to see how something from prior knowledge from Greek Mythology could tie back to a new piece of writing like this. In addition, I further learned and reinforced my knowledge on Shakespeare’s style of writing. Today, we read the third soliloquy in this book. At first, I assumed that Shakespearean writing was not comprehensible because of the complex way things were worded, but once I broke it all down with my group and class, things started to make so much more sense and I saw how it tied together to the plot of the story. Additionally, this soliloquy was quite straightforward which surprised me because usually his writing was not as literal and much more figurative and made my comprehension clearer. As we got to analyze and annotate the third soliloquy, I began to see that there were many allusions like Hecate and the Rape of Lucrace, as stated before. Furthermore, I find the movie parts of the scenes really helpful to my understanding of this book. Reading it on its own is fine but watching the movie sums and clarifies well and definitely deepened everything since I like to see it visually for a more whole understanding. The soliloquy also showed me one aspect of someone about to commit a crime. He starts to hallucinate and has doubts of whether he should really do this, after all this talk with Lady Macbeth about it. He wants to be king really bad but a part of him knows this isn’t right. It’s interesting to see self conflict and the ways it manifests themselves in a person’s actions and thoughts. Although this might be a simple lesson or maybe even obvious, it’s interesting how it plays out in Macbeth’s situation. Overall this was a great lesson because it cleared up a lot of events and ideas that I was unsure about.
- This relates because it shows Macbeth stalking after what he wanted (the throne), as Tarquinis did to Lucrece to get what he wanted (she had no defense like Duncan).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29cNROlz8nM (link to the audiobook for The Rape of Lucreces)
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/Poetry/RapeOfLucrece.html (link to poem)
We then watched this part of the movie, Macbeth—Act II, i, Macbeth’s 3rd and famous Soliloquy, “Is this a dagger” (access via syllabus), [36:09—42:10 approx. 6:01]
After we finished, we moved onto the next set of slides.
Aim: How is the tone, mood and theme in Macbeth illuminated by the symbols in Act II, scene ii, while contributing to the work as a whole?
Do Now: We worked as a team to compile a list of tactics that someone might implement to evade getting caught, after they have committed a crime.
As a group, we came up with lying, fleeing, framing someone and becoming good friends with people in power. When we discussed as a class, we came up with coming up with an alibi, disposing of the body, harming yourself so it looks like you were a victim too, saying you were manipulated into doing what you did, or commit suicide. Someone else also said hide fingerprints, denial, fake witnesses, and bribing the judge. John said to kill all the witnesses and minimize interactions. We can see some of these in Lady Macbeth’s behavior. She was planning to pin the blame on the chamberlains. After they are accused, Lady Macbeth will say all these things about how she can’t believe he’s dead and what a great man he was, to hide her guilt.
Reflection:
This lesson I learned about Hecate and The Rape of Lucrece. Hecate was the chief goddess of sorcery and helped Demeter find her daughter who was abducted. Because of this, pillars named after her, stand on crossroads and doorways, to keep away evil spirits. The Rape of Lucrace was a poem of Shakesphere’s about Tarquin and his pursuit of a married woman, and what he couldn’t have, he forced upon her and raped her. It was nice to see how something from prior knowledge from Greek Mythology could tie back to a new piece of writing like this. In addition, I further learned and reinforced my knowledge on Shakespeare’s style of writing. Today, we read the third soliloquy in this book. At first, I assumed that Shakespearean writing was not comprehensible because of the complex way things were worded, but once I broke it all down with my group and class, things started to make so much more sense and I saw how it tied together to the plot of the story. Additionally, this soliloquy was quite straightforward which surprised me because usually his writing was not as literal and much more figurative and made my comprehension clearer. As we got to analyze and annotate the third soliloquy, I began to see that there were many allusions like Hecate and the Rape of Lucrace, as stated before. Furthermore, I find the movie parts of the scenes really helpful to my understanding of this book. Reading it on its own is fine but watching the movie sums and clarifies well and definitely deepened everything since I like to see it visually for a more whole understanding. The soliloquy also showed me one aspect of someone about to commit a crime. He starts to hallucinate and has doubts of whether he should really do this, after all this talk with Lady Macbeth about it. He wants to be king really bad but a part of him knows this isn’t right. It’s interesting to see self conflict and the ways it manifests themselves in a person’s actions and thoughts. Although this might be a simple lesson or maybe even obvious, it’s interesting how it plays out in Macbeth’s situation. Overall this was a great lesson because it cleared up a lot of events and ideas that I was unsure about.
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