Aim: How is the motif of promises highlighted through the use of imagery?
Do Now: If a man and woman argue, what methods could she use to make the man see things her way? Why?
Although we did this question last week on Friday, some answers I remember were that the women could manipulate the scene by crying to be pitiful (Amy), saying she won’t tend to him (Rory), talk to him in bed (Julianna), and talking down on him and make him look weak.
Today, we first had a kahoot test to check our knowledge of the book and characters.
We then discussed the different types of characters, flat and round. Flat characters are characters that have only one or two traits and are less developed, while round characters are characters that are fully developed and are multi-dimensional. Examples of flat characters were Crabbe and Goyle, who were lackeys in the Harry Potter series. They were not developed as much as the main characters: Harry Potter, Ronald, and Herimmone, who were round characters since they were developed enough and felt like real people.
We then read Macbeth act I vii, with Byran as Macbeth and Amy as Lady Macbeth. During the act, Macbeth was contemplating whether he should kill King Duncan or not and gave many reasons why he shouldn’t. Later in the scene, Lady Macbeth sees that Macbeth is hesitant about killing and steps up to give him the final push. After that, we did not have enough time to do anything else as the Kahoot took up most of our time.
12/14
Firstly, we watched part of the Macbeth movie where we left off.
Macbeth—Act I, vii “If It Were Done” [28:50-36:09—approx. 8:41]
A quick summary of the movie was that in the beginning, Duncan and some other people were having a feast and partying while there was a thunderstorm outside. Macbeth is contemplating whether he should kill the king or not. He recognizes that to only rely on ambition to kill isn’t enough and is hesitant. His wife, Lady Macbeth persuades him to by saying he was not a ‘man’ and that if he does his part, they wouldn’t fail. She also says that she’ll drug the men by Duncan’s side. Macbeth doesn’t do anything to stop her and the segment ends with the people partying and dancing.
We then did the following assignment, copied Macbeth’s soliloquy and completed the following tasks.
1. Re-read the soliloquy of Macbeth in I, vii with your teams. Have your team leader read aloud while the rest of you follow along.
2. Complete a close-reading of the soliloquy and annotate.
My groupmates annotated that he was hesitant and questions why he should kill the king and he lists all the bad things of killing Duncan. He is the king’s host, and as a host, he should be inviting and take care of the king (xenia) instead of killing him. He knew that if he got caught, there would be bad consequences and it might come back to bite him in the back later. Additionally, he is afraid of getting haunted by Duncan and knows that in heaven's judgement that he’ll be wrong and there is no reason to kill off such a good king. The only reason to kill him would be his selfishness and ambition for the throne. During the soliloquy, Amy wrote that we can see that he is very conflicted about whether or not he should kill the king - if he kills and gets away with it, he would be given endless glory, riches, and honor, but if he fails, death is the only way out.
After that, we answered the questions:
To Kill or Not to Kill” I, vii “If it were done” soliloquy [Macbeth’s 2nd Soliloquy]
3. What reasons does Macbeth give for not wanting to kill King Duncan?
Reasons Macbeth gives for not wanting to kill King Duncan were that he might suffer divine punishment, especially after he gets the throne because the gods look down on him. Rory says the higher beings might send his country earthquakes or some other natural disasters. Additionally, the act of killing the king might come back to him in karma, since Duncan was a good king, as said by Mrs. Peterson. Justin also added that if news of Duncan’s death gets around, people would start rioting and demand the reason why he was killed, especially since he died in Macbeth’s castle, so he needs to find a reason. Finally, as Mrs. Peterson saids, Macbeth is related to Duncan since the king calls him cousin, so he should be a loyal subject, protecting the king instead of killing him.
4. What is the only reason Macbeth provides in favor of killing King Duncan?
As Amy says, the only reason Macbeth can provide in favor of killing King Duncan would be his own ambition, which isn’t a strong enough argument.
5. How does Macbeth explain the consequences for this world and his belief of heaven?
As Vincent said, on Earth, we can judge whether our thoughts and actions are wrong and we have the power to change this decision and try to restrain it. However, in heaven, we cannot change our previous actions and if he actually does kill King Duncan, then he cannot say that he was innocent.
6. Based on King Duncan’s characterization, and how Macbeth views him, how does he feel heaven would respond to Duncan’s death?
Since King Duncan is a good king that is loved by the people, Justin feels that heaven would kind of curse him and his kingdom and wouldn’t like him becoming king. They might make his life a living hell. Furthermore, Rory says everyone else in the kingdom would probably search for the person that killed Duncan.
7. What is Macbeth’s final decision at the end of this soliloquy?
Amy states that Macbeth’s final decision at the end of this soliloquy is that he doesn’t want to kill the king and bring about all of the unnecessary trouble upon him. He also feels that his motive for killing the king is weak and not worth killing King Duncan over.
8. What can be concluded about Macbeth’s characterization after hearing all of his thoughts? Consider not only this soliloquy, but through the beginning of the play.
From hearing all of Macbeth’s thoughts, Asdaq concludes that he isn't as much of a bad person as we thought he would be. He was loyal to the crown and was brave and valiant. Plus, when thinking about killing the king, he thought about the pros and cons about killing Duncan and uses reasons to convince himself not to. As Mrs. Peterson says, he is a relatively self-aware person and attempts to rationalize instead of acting upon his emotions.
Each team then got a sheet of paper to write down the pros and cons of killing King Duncan.
Here is the list of pros and cons our team made:
Some other pros and cons that my team didn’t write down were that for the pros, Julianna stated that his prophecy would be fulfilled so he wouldn’t need to obsess over it anymore and then Vincent included the fact that King Duncan’s sons were also in the castle so it would be easy to get rid of all of them at once. For the cons, Vincent also pointed out that it's tough being king, especially with all the work that follows up King Duncan’s death. Plus, Annie added that he may not be good in political affairs and only Lady Macbeth is on his side; the others would be suspicious of him as the king died at his place. Another excellent point that Mrs. Peterson pointed out is that Banquo also knows the prophecy and is a potential threat to Macbeth since the witches said his children would be king, which might come true.
Reflection:
We learn deeper about Macbeth as a person and how the good and rational in him is hesitant about killing the king rather than before, which portrayed him as someone that’s easily swayed. However, his wife, Lady Macbeth is shown to be ruthless and covets the position of queen in both the movie and the book. Whenever Macbeth is faltering and doesn’t want to kill King Duncan, Lady Macbeth swoops in, tells him he’s less than a man, and convinces him to kill. From this we can learn and see that in these situations, Lady Macbeth is the one taking control and acts more of a ‘villain’ then Macbeth does. She is mostly the manipulator of the scenes so far and it makes sense since she would benefit the most from it as she becomes the queen, the highest position for a female. This reminds me of how when we were introduced to the topic, the girl that got her fortune told didn’t hesitate and immediately took action and sabotaged one of her competitors to win a spot. Both of them would have a better place to be if they took the more ruthless and easiest route. Macbeth so far doesn’t take action unless the risk is greater than the reward, and generally tries to think things through while however, Lady Macbeth saw a chance and was willing to risk everything to get to her goal. She keeps on promising that they will get the throne and there is little chance of them failing.
No comments:
Post a Comment