Macbeth ACT 1

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• Leerjaar 4

  MACBETH

  ACT I

Shakespeare's language: Prose vs (Blank) Verse

Prose is the form of speech used by common, and often comic, people n Shakespearean drama. There is no rhythm or meter in the line. It is everyday language. 

Blank verse contains no rhyme, but each line has an internal rhythm with a regular rhythmic pattern - iambic pentameter (a ten-syllable line with the accent on every other syllable). 

(da-DUM)

Drinking turns your nose red, it outs ou to sleep, and it makes you urinate. Lust it turns on but also turns off. What I mean is, drinking stimulates desire but hinders performance. 

What had he done to make him fly the land? 

The Witches: trochaic tetrameter

stressed followed by unstressed syllable (DUM - da). Tetrameter - eight syllables per line. 

Double, double toil and trouble,

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.' 

cauldron: a large metal pot with a lid and handle, used for cooking over an open fire.

The Witches Act 1, scene 1

Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Let's fly away through the fog and filthy air. 

Motif: What is considered good is in fact bad, and what is considered bad is actually good. 

You will understand/master the terms below; 

You will answer the questions in Hand-out nr 1 (uploaded in SOM)

thane                                       dramatic irony           metonymi

soliloquy                                metaphor                     synecdoche

pathetic fallacy                   personification         antithesis 

imagery                                   simile

alliteration                              anaphora

assonance                              hyperbole

paradox                                    simile

Metonymy - is the use of a word or phrase to represent a thing, an entity, a group of people, an institution. ' The church' for example may represent clergymen who make decisions on moral issues.

Synecdoche - is the use of a part to represent a whole. 'Take thy face hence.' Face represents a person of his body.

Antithesis - is the use of contrasting words in a phrase/sentence 'When the battle's lost and won'.

                     SOLILOQUY

A soliloquy is a speech performed by a single character, usually in a play. In a soliloquy the character speaks his thoughts out loud, to himself. This literary device allows the audience to know what the character is thinking, though the other characters are not present and therefore do not know this information.

A soliloquy - from the Latin solus ("alone") and loqui ("to speak") - is a speech that one gives to oneself.

In a play, a character delivering a soliloquy talks to himself/herself - thinking out loud, as it were - so that the audience better understands what is happening to the character internally.

Macbeth - Thane 

• (in Anglo-Saxon England) a man who held land granted by the king or by a military nobleman, ranking between an ordinary freeman and a hereditary noble.
  
• (in Scotland) a man, often the chief of a clan, who held land from a Scottish king and ranked with an earl's son.

                               "the Thane of Cawdor"

Aside (soliloquy versus aside)

An aside is a short comment or speech that a character delivers directly to the audience, or to himself, while other actors on the stage appear not to hear. Only the audience knows that the character has said something to them.

Aside versus soliloquy. The difference between them is that an aside is a shorter comment, while a soliloquy is a longer speech. Further, an aside reveals hidden secrets or judgments, whereas the soliloquy reveals motives, inner thoughts, or internal struggles going on in the mind of the character.

Pathetic Fallacy

Pathetic fallacy is a literary device that attributes human qualities and emotions to inanimate objects of nature. 

Pathetic fallacy is a kind of personification that gives human emotions to inanimate objects of nature; for example, referring to weather features reflecting a mood. Personification, on the other hand, is a broader term. It gives human attributes to abstract ideas, animate objects of nature, or inanimate non-natural objects.

For example, the sentence “The somber clouds darkened our mood” is a pathetic fallacy, as human attributes are given to an inanimate object of nature reflecting a mood. But, the sentence “The sparrow talked to us” is a personification because the animate object of nature – the sparrow – is given the human quality of “talking.”

Macbeth - setting

Macbeth, Act I

1. How is pathetic fallacy used in Act 1, Scene1? (p.3)
2. Explain the quote ' fair is foul and foul is fair'? What textual feature is used in this quote? (p. 3) 
3. After hearing he is Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth speaks of an suggestion that ' it makes my hair stand on end and ,my heart pound inside my chest?' What is this idea? (p.21) 
4. In an aside to the audience, Macbeth states that Duncan's intention to name Malcolm as his heir is a 'step' he must 'fall down or overleap ' [ I'm either going to step over him or give up.]. What does it mean? (p.27)
5. Macbeth then says: ' stars hide your fires, let not light see my dark and deep desires.' What does he mean by this? (p.29) 
6. Why does Lady Macbeth worry about Macbeth? Recall a quotation. 
7. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to look like the ' innocent flower' but be the 'serpent'(p.35) under it.  What does she mean by this metaphor? (p.35)

Thunder - creates an ominous and frightening atmospehere, reflective of the evil nature of witches. 

Good and bad / right and wrong don't exist - they are subjective cpncepts. The witches introduce the idea that nothing is as it seems: ' Fair is foul, and foul is fair.' This theme is central to the play. 

First thoughts of commiting regicide. 

That if Duncan dies then Malcolm would become king - this is something that obstructs Macbeth's plan. ' 

That he intends to hide these evil thoughts. The use of rhyming couplets reflects the Witches' style of speech, thus hinting at evil plotting. 

' You are too full of the milk of human kindness to strike aggressively at your first opportunity.'

Hide the evil thoughts. Appearance versus Reality/Deception. 

QUESTION 1: In Act 1 find the examples of the following textual features: a) metaphor, b) verbal & dramatic irony, c) imperative, d) paradox; and be prepared to explain their meanings and effects.

QUESTION 2: Determine which adjectives can be used to describe a character of Lady Macbeth. Support each adjective with concrete examples from the text.

Question 2: ANSWER Determine which adjectives can be used to describe a character of Lady Macbeth. Support each adjective with concrete examples from the text. 

Manipulating: ' Will you take the crown you want so badly, or will you live as a coward, always saying " I can't" after you say "I want to"? You are like the poor cat in the old story.' (Act 1, scene vii)

Cruel: ' I have suckled a baby, and I know how sweet it is to love the baby at my breast. But even as the baby was smiling up at me, I would have plucked my nipple out of its mouth and smashed its brain out against a wall if I had sworn to do that the same way you have sworn to do this.' (Act 1, scene vii)

QUESTION 3. Based on Act 1, Scene 5 of Macbeth, describe what Lady Macbeth and the witches have in common.

QUESTION 4: Macbeth, Act 1, scene vii

Soliloquy, P. 41

1. Listen to Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 1, scene vii.
2. Summarize this soliloquy in one sentence. (Explain what audience learns about Macbeth's thinking at this stage of the play). Share your answers via Lesson Up, slide 17. 

QUESTION 4. Macbeth, Act 1, scene vii. Analyze/ summarize the soliloquy on page 41 in one sentence. ' It this business would really ... . ' (Explain what audience Learns about Macbeth's thinking at this stage of the play).