Introduction video

2. Introduction video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD5goS69LT4 • Ted Talks- 6 min

3. Act II sci-iii Complete the quotations. Fill in the blank. Macbeth: Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder _________.” Lady Macbeth: “My hands are of your color, but I shame To wear a heart so __________.”

4. Tracing Macbeth’s Downfall- 1 Act I, Sc. ii • Macbeth is a valiant warrior who is greatly respected by his peers and the King. • He is praised for the valor and bravery he displays on the battlefield

5. Tracing Macbeth’s Downfall- 2 Act I, Sc. vi • Macbeth is torn, he wavers back and forth between murdering Duncan and staying out of the way of fate. • He is truly conflicted, desperate to hold on to his virtue but becoming drunk on power.

6. Tracing Macbeth’s Downfall- 3 Act II, Sc. i • Macbeth’s angst is palpable. He is hallucinating, seeing a bloody dagger that draws him towards Duncan’s chamber to commit his murder. • Power and manipulation have seized Macbeth.

7. Tracing Macbeth’s Downfall- 4 Act II, Sc. ii • Macbeth is an emotional wreck. His hands are gilded in Duncan’s blood. • Lady Macbeth chastises his infirmity. • At this moment, he simply cannot carry on with the plan any further. • The reader can still see shades of Macbeth’s character from Act I.

8. Tracing Macbeth’s Downfall- 5 Act III, Sc. i • Macbeth, now fully corrupted by power, maliciously plots Banquo’s murder. • He himself becomes a manipulating force in the play, when he convinces the hired murderers that Banquo is their true enemy.

9. Tracing Macbeth’s Downfall- 6 Act III, Sc. iv • Macbeth’s dissent into paranoia is on full display, as he sees Banquo’s ghost on his banquet table. • There are no traces of once brave and noble Macbeth

10. Theme: Ambition Ambition and the devastation which follows when ambition oversteps moral boundaries. • Act I, Sc. v: Lady Macbeth receives Macbeth's letter, analyses his character, and invokes the forces of evil. • Act I, Sc. vii: Macbeth reflects on what is needed to achieve his ambition and Lady Macbeth taunts him to 'screw your courage to the sticking place.' • Act III, Sc. i: Macbeth determines to kill Banquo in order to prevent his children succeeding to Scotland's throne.

11. Theme: Fate and Free Will Fate and free will and the extent to which we control our own destinies. • Act I, Sc. iii: Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches on the heath. Macbeth reflects on their prophecies. • Act II, Sc. i: Macbeth talks with Banquo about their encounter with the witches, sees a visionary dagger and makes his decision to kill Duncan. • Act IV, Sc. i: Macbeth visits the witches who offer him further prophecies.

12. Motif: Nature Nature /The natural world and its disruption when the bounds of morality are broken. • Macbeth’s evil deeds are symbolized by disturbances in nature • ''Tis unnatural,/ Even like the deed that's done.' • Act II, Sc. iv • 'And his gash'd stabs looked like a breach in nature' • Act II, Sc. iii • 'Boundless intemperance/ In nature is a tyranny.' • Act IV, Sc. iii

13. Motif: Light and Darkness Light and darkness, representing innocence and evil. • 'Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires' • Act I, Sc. iv • 'that darkness does the face of earth entomb,/When living light should kiss it?' • Act II, Sc. iv • Come, seeling night,/ Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day' • Act III, Sc. ii

14. Motif: Blood Blood, representing evil plans and consequences of overreaching ambition. • 'Make thick my blood' • Act I, Sc. v • 'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?' • Act II, Sc. i • 'Here's the smell of blood still.' • Act V, Sc. i

15. Motif: Sleep Sleep, a natural process and its disruption as caused by the fracture of the moral order. • 'Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse / The curtain'd sleep' II.i • 'There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried 'Murder!'‘ II.ii • 'MethoughtI heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep' II.ii • 'we may again / Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights‘ III.vi • 'A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching!' V.i

16. Blank verse Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter • The majority of Macbeth is written in blank verse • Effective for drama b/c it closely approximates the natural rhythms of English speech • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5lsuyUNu_4

17. Tragedy Elements of a tragedy • Central character who makes mistakes and is high-ranking • Catastrophe near the end or conclusion Tragic flaw - a trait in a character leading to his downfall, and the character is often the hero of the literarypiece • Macbeth • Lust for power

18. Additional Notes • Malicious - intending or intended to do harm. • Weird sisters’ tale of the sailor • Barren scepter • No heirs to the throne • Figurative language • Simile, metaphor, personification, symbolism, etc • Lennox speaks about Macbeth’s sorrow in a sarcastic tone - III.vi • Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow - V.v • Macbeth thinks life is a meaningless path to death

19. Unit Vocabulary Virtuous Unmerited Depravity Hubris Inversion Stage action Elizabethan Valor/valiant Weird Harbinger Palpable Infirm Gild Sacrilegious Posterity Treachery Malevolence Paradox Monologue Blaspheming Avarice Interdiction Perilous Purgative Soliloquy Aside Dramatic irony Motif Theme

20. Background information • You don’t have to watch this. I show it in class if we have extra time • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFYE3XglSpE • Timeline: The Real Macbeth video