Aim: How are the major symbols in Macbeth used to create allusions and connections?
We started today’s lesson by analyzing allusions or references in Macbeth’s third soliloquy, “Is this a dagger…”
Work collaboratively with your teams and review Macbeth’s 3rd Soliloquy “Is this a dagger...”
Interpret the meaning and obtain a central idea.
Helpful Hints: Research the following allusions
1) Hecate
2) The Rape of Lucrece
“Handle towards my hand?”- handle of the dagger facing towards him
“ I have thee not, and yet I see thee still”- his hands are going through the dagger and can’t grab it
“A dagger of the mind, a false creation”- he questions that this dagger is not real and does not exist, “heat oppressed brain”- hallucination/ sick mind
contemplating whether to kill Duncan makes him feel unstable
“Which I draw” - he drags his dagger he can see it and uncovers it, but can’t grab it
In the era of Macbeth, the only way to kill people was asphyxiation by a pillow or rope or a dagger
“Mine eyes are made the fools o’ th’ other senses”- Macbeth thinks his eyes are playing tricks on him
“Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still, And, on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood, Which was not so before.”- Macbeth sees that his dagger is covered in blood
“There’s no such thing. It is the bloody business which informs”- Macbeth thinks there’s no real floating dagger and that his obsession with murder is causing him to see it
“and wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep.”- Macbeth has been having nightmares
“Pale Hecate’s off’rings, and withered murder,
Allusion to Hecate: She was the chief goddess presiding over magic and spells. She witnessed the abduction of Demeter's daughter Persephone to the underworld and, torch in hand, assisted in the search for her. Thus, pillars called Hecataca stood at crossroads and doorways, perhaps to keep away evil spirits. Hecate was represented as single-formed, clad in a long robe, holding burning torches: in later representations, she was triple-formed, with three bodies standing back to back, probably so that she could look in all directions at once from the crossroads. She was accompanied by packs of barking dogs.
Before the three witches do anything they have to consult Hecate. Macbeth is questioning where these nightmares are coming from and thinks the witches and Hecate are demonstrating their rights and rituals to account for his nightmares.
Alarumed 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 whereabouts”- he is scared that they will find him footsteps are loud. scared someone will hear him walk to kings chambers hopes no one hears
Tarquin is an allusion to the Rape of Lucrece:
In 509 BC, Sextus Tarquinius, son of the king of Rome, raped Lucretia (Lucrece), wife of Collatinus, one of the king's aristocratic retainers. As a result, Lucrece committed suicide. Her body was paraded in the Roman Forum by the king's nephew. This incited a full-scale revolt against the Tarquins led by Lucius Junius Brutus, the banishment of the royal family, and the founding of the Roman Republic.
Macbeth thinks he is going to commit atrocities as bad as Tarquinius. Both of them are committing crimes in the middle of the night for their own greed. Both Duncan and Lucrece were innocent and their deaths will bring a lot of backlashes because both of them were loved by the people.
“Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.”-the more he talks about murder and killing Duncan the more it cools him down and he’s scared he’s not going to go through with the murder
“The bell invited him” -sign that lady Macbeth is ready to kill Duncan
“For it is a knell”- death and funeral bell for Duncan
“That summons thee to heaven or to hell.”- Macbeth doesn’t know if Duncan will go to heaven or hell. In Catholicism, it is believed before you die if you pray or cleanse your soul you will go to heaven and if you don’t you will be stuck in hell or purgatory
Afterward, we watched Macbeth’s third soliloquy.
Notes:
The last time Banquo and Macbeth were together they were discussing being truthful
Macbeth says he hasn’t been thinking bout witches and brings up their previous discussion
Macbeth hopes Banquo will back him if Macbeth becomes king
Banquo says he would back him up if he becomes king honorably
This foreshadows that there will be a conflict between Macbeth and Banquo
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:
TEAMWORK
Work collaboratively to compile a list of tactics that someone might implement to evade getting caught after they have committed a crime?
My group discussed ways to evade suspicion
alibi
destroy teeth
get rid of all evidence
bury body
hide the body
stab yourself to divert attention and become the victim
self-report to seem less suspicious
frame someone
Class discussion
scape goat-like Lady Macbeth
fake sympathy and try to help out
bury them upright harder to see on satellite
dissolve the body in acid
feed to pigs
Bribery
eat them
suicide
assassin
blame on supernatural causes
Self Reflection:
In this lesson, I learned about the extensive list of allusions and references that Macbeth. Each line is full of purpose and the third soliloquy shows why it is a classic. I learned how to read between the lines to fully understand the text. For example, the first time I read the soliloquy I did not know that he was seeing a dagger floating in the air. However, looking at it more in-depth the dagger is Macbeth’s guilt and indecisiveness. This lesson will make me look closer into a text to make sure I get the main points.
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