MRS. CONTRERAS Language Arts 9 th Grade – Eng I IGCSE Honors Room C209

1. Welcome Braddock Bulldogs!!! MRS. CONTRERASLanguage Arts9th Grade – Eng I IGCSE Honors Room C209 2006-2007

2. Home Learning PASS TO THE FRONT: • Nothing due.

3. Announcement… • Please do not throw out any handouts I’ve given you unless these were reading packets we’ve already covered. • Save all writing and grammar handouts.

4. Weekly Forecast1/8/07 – 1/12/07 • Monday – FCAT Practice (LAA244,LAA247, LAA248 packet pg 16-20. Read/discuss Shakespeare's "Macbeth" Act V • Tuesday – District FCAT writes prompt. Distribution of Research Project. • Wednesday – Read/discuss Shakespeare's "Macbeth" Act II & III • Thursday – Read/discuss Shakespeare's "Macbeth" Act IV • Friday – Verbs (Progressive, Emphatic, Shifting, Voice- Passive/Active 151-156). Read/discuss Shakespeare's "Macbeth" Wrap up text

5. Home Learning By Tuesday, 1/16: • Read Introduction to Shakespeare, Globe and plays (slides to follow). • Read & Complete Literary Analysis Form on "As You Like It." Critically analyze the play (structure/arrangement, language/diction, significance, patterns, etc.). You will be asked to share your best insights on the play next week (Bloom’s Taxonomy: analysis & evaluation). • Read about sonnets pg 804, Petrarch, Ronsard, Shakespeare pg 806-817. • Finish grammar handouts 151-156. • Film showing of "Othello" after school Tuesday, 1/16 (extra credit towards class participation). Have a great week!

6. District FCAT Writing Prompt: • Many teenagers feel that the voting age should be lowered from 18 to 16. • Think about the effects of lowering the voting age from 18 to 16. • Now write to convince your state legislator whether the voting age should be lowered from 18 to 16. You have 45 minutes Planning is essential!

7. Verb Tenses Review: Base form – default/non-inflected - talk Present – base form (third person he/she/it add –s or –es) – talks Present participle – add –ing to base form + helping verb - are talking Past – base form + -d or -ed (regular verbs)– talked. Irregular verbs take on variety of forms - came Past participle – add –ed or –d to base form + helping verb – The sisters have talked. Future – add will to base form – She will talk. Present Perfect – past tense of verb + has or have – I have talked – She has talked Past Perfect – past participle + had – They had talked before we did. Future Perfect – past participle + will have – They will have talked before Saturday.

8. Renaissance Theater Globe Playhouse. Courtesy of Google Images.

9. Renaissance Theater • Renaissance audiences were not new to drama. In fact, they were accustomed to miracle and mystery plays, the medieval version of drama, which evolved as reenactments of biblical stories and church ceremonies and were put on in marketplaces of towns. These morality plays, as they became known taught people how to live (Holt, Rinehart and Winston 283). Noah’s Ark morality play. Courtesy of Google Images.

10. Renaissance Theater • By the mid-sixteenth century, drama in England was three centuries old, but the idea of housing it in a permanent structure was new (284). • Even after theaters were built, plays were performed in improvised spaces, such as the large houses of royalty and nobility (284). Globe Playhouse. Courtesy of Google Images.

11. The Making of Shakespeare’s Globe • In 1576, James Burbage, the father of Shakespeare’s partner and fellow actor Richard Burbage, built the first public theater in the northern suburb of London (284). • After this initial theater, the Curtain followed, as well as the Rose, Swan, Fortune, Globe, Red Bull and the Hope (284).

12. The Globe • Famous because many Shakespearean plays were initially performed there. • The structure was built from salvaged timbers from when the Theater burned down in 1599. • The more expensive seats were those placed literally on either side of the stage. This made certain patrons more conspicuous but would have been a nuisance to other audience members and actors. • The theater could squeeze together up to three thousand spectators, a reason theaters would close during epidemics. Globe Playhouse. Courtesy of Google Images.

13. The Globe • Since the blueprints of the Globe are not available to us, most scholars accept as accurate the reconstruction of the Globe by C. Walter Hodges, whose drawings appear to the left. • The structure was three stories high surrounding a spacious inner yard open to the sky. The theater was probably a sixteen-sided polygon, giving it a circular appearance. • Shakespeare commonly referred to the Globe as “this wooden O” in his history play Henry V. • There were probably two entrances to the building, one for the public and one for theater company. Globe Playhouse 1599-1613 by C. Walter Hodges. Courtesy of Google Images.

14. The Globe • Admission cost one penny, entitling a spectator to be a groundling. This person was allowed to stand next to other groundlings which would gather around the wooden platform (stage) which projected into the yard seen to the right. • Because actors were so close to the audience, every tiny nuance of an actor’s performance greatly impacted the audience. Globe Playhouse and groundlings. Courtesy of Google Images.

15. The Globe • Actors were highly trained. They could sing, dance, wrestle, fence, clown, roar, weep and whisper. • Large sensational effects were also plentiful. For example, if someone was to be carried into the heavens. The actor would be strapped to a rope and everyone pretended he was being lifted towards the Heaven, the top of the stage. • The ceiling was painted with elaborate suns, moons and stars, also containing trapdoors for angels, gods and spirits to descend onto the stage or flown over the actors’ heads. • Also, spectators loved to see witches or devils emerge from trapdoors in the stage, which everyone pretended led down to Hell. Globe Playhouse. Courtesy of Google Images.

16. The Globe • The third part of the theater was the tiring (from tire, an archaic form of “attire”). • This was a tall building that contained machinery and dressing rooms, providing a two story backwall for the stage. As seen on this picture, there is a gallery above (perfect for Romeo climbing up to Juliet’s window) and a curtained space below. • The gallery also had other purposes. Spectators could sit there. Musicians could perform there, or parts of the play could be acted there. • The curtained spaces could serve as rooms from which the actors would step out onto the stage to be heard better. Globe Playhouse. Courtesy of Google Images.

17. The Power of Make-Belief • Renaissance audiences took for granted that the theater cannot show “reality.” • What this meant was that whatever happened onstage was make-belief. • When the audience saw actors carrying lanterns, they knew it was night, even though the sun was shining brightly overhead. Often, instead of seeing a scene, audiences heard it described, as when Shakespeare has a character in Hamlet exclaim over a sunrise, “But look, the morn in russet mantle clad / Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill” (I.i.166-167). • When a forest setting was required, bushes or small trees were pushed onto the stage. There were no painted sceneries. “The Fog.” Courtesy of Google Images.

18. Renaissance Pomp & Pageantry • Theaters were very ornate, and their interiors were brightly painted. • Backstage area could be covered with colorful tapestries or hangings. • Costumes were rich elaborate and expensive. • Audiences also enjoyed the processions – religious, royal, military- that occurred in many plays, entering through one stage door and exiting through the opposite. Actors quickly changed in the tiring house, keeping the processions going. Queen Elizabeth I. Courtesy of Google Images.

19. Renaissance Pomp & Pageantry • Audiences not only expected to see comedy or tragedy in the Renaissance, but they also expected music, both vocal and instrumental. • Trumpets announced the play’s beginning and important arrivals within the play. • High up in the gallery, musicians played between acts and at other appropriate times during the performance. In fact, scattered throughout most of the plays, especially comedies, were songs. • The music of Shakespearean plays were the best of this kind, for the playwright excelled in lyric and dramatic poetry. Ladies playing instruments. Courtesy of Google Images.

20. Renaissance Pomp & Pageantry • Audiences not only expected to see comedy or tragedy in the Renaissance, but they also expected music, both vocal and instrumental. • Trumpets announced the play’s beginning and important arrivals within the play. • High up in the gallery, musicians played between acts and at other appropriate times during the performance. In fact, scattered throughout most of the plays, especially comedies, were songs. • The music of Shakespearean plays were the best of this kind, for the playwright excelled in lyric and dramatic poetry. Each song was spontaneously sung during the play but adapted to the scene and actor. Renaissance Music. Courtesy of Google Images.

21. Varying the Venue • Acting companies performed at other locations besides the public theaters. • These two locations were often great halls of castles and manor houses like those shown above. • Portable stages were used for performances that would not include a need to depict the heavens. • Other than plays, typical performances at the above referenced locations were those of bears being attacked by dogs. Performance at castle. Courtesy of Google Images. Amboise Manor House. Courtesy of Google Images.

22. Sir William Shakespeare • Shakespeare wrote more than 36 plays and over 150 poems. • The poet’s work has generated much speculation, to include whether someone else could have written the works themselves. • Part of the reason for such speculation is that little is known about the poet’s life, even though his life is better documented than other dramatists of his time. Ben Jonson is perhaps the exception. The two acted together and knew each other quite well. • Jonson praised Shakespeare after his death, claiming that he was “not of an age, but for all time.” Shakespeare (1564-1616). Courtesy of Google Images.

23. Sir William Shakespeare • Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avalon, a historic and prosperous market town in Warwickshire, England. • William’s father was John Shakespeare, a merchant once active in the town’s government. • His mother, Mary Arden, came from a prominent family. • Young William attended grammar school, where he obtained an excellent education in Latin, the Bible, and English composition. • Students were expected to translate a Latin work into English and then translate back to Latin. • It is speculated that Shakespeare learned various trades prior to his fame. • At eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and had three children, a daughter named Susanna and twins named Hamnet and Judith. Shakespeare’s birthplace (Stratford-on-Avalon). Courtesy of Google Images. River Avon. Courtesy of Google Images.

24. Sir William Shakespeare • No one is sure how Shakespeare supported his new family, but according to tradition, he taught school for a few years. • His two daughters grew up and married, but the boy died when he was just eleven. • It is speculated that Shakespeare became interested in theater by seeing the regular performances that came to Stratford. • To become a dramatist, the place to be was London, as the theaters were thriving in the 1580s. • From 1592 on, there is plenty of documentation about Shakespeare’s work and life. • Shakespeare worked from 1592 until retirement in about 1613. • Even though actors had a very low social status, they did enjoy the patronage of noblemen and royalty. For instance, The Rape of Lucrece (1594) was dedicated to a rich noblewoman. Poets under the patronage system often wrote poems alluding to their patrons. As word of mouth spread, a poet could gain greater notoriety. • He became famous after his publishing of his erotic narrative poem Venus and Adonis (1593). • The extraordinary thing about Shakespeare’s work – each being different from others – is the fact that they deal with perennial themes, the principal reason why they are still revived and performed.

25. Sir William Shakespeare • By 1596, Shakespeare was prospering. He had his father apply to the Heralds’ College for a coat of arms, signifying that they were now “gentlefolk,” or people of high social standing. • The poet also bought New Place, a beautiful and elegant house and grounds in Stratford. After Susanna inherited the house, the queen stayed there one time. • By 1598, Shakespeare was earning money as a playwright, actor and shareholder in a theater. • By 1600, Shakespeare was regularly associating with aristocracy, with six of his plays performed at the court of Queen Elizabeth. • Shakespeare also prospered under Elizabeth’s successor, King James of Scotland, performing several plays at court. • King James loved performances, taking Shakespeare’s company under his patronage and renaming it the King’s Men, giving them patents to perform anywhere in the realm. This much patronage brought Shakespeare great wealth and notoriety. • After 1601, Shakespeare wrote some of his greatest tragedies, and many critics feel that he must have been unhappy as these are deeply preoccupied with evil, violence and death. This is an invented “tragic period” as it would be a mistake to assume a one-to-one correlation between work and a poet, like Shakespeare, who wrote to impress patrons.

26. Sir William Shakespeare • After retirement in about 1610, Shakespeare continued to remain busy with the running the King’s Men and their two theaters: the Globe (1599) useful for outdoor performances and the Blackfriars (1608), used for indoor performances. • When the queen died in 1603, Shakespeare did not praise her in print. It was speculated that Shakespeare was an admirer of the earl of Essex, whom the queen had executed for rebellion. • The Globe caught on fire in 1613 at the firing of the cannon at the end of Act I of Henry VIII. • After Shakespeare’s death in 1616, his partners gathered all his plays. These works, known as the “first folio” were later published in 1623.

27. Shakespearean Works… • Timon of Athens (1607-1608) • Pericles (1607-1608) • Cymbeline (1609-1610) • The Winter’s Tale (1610-1611) • The Tempest (1611-1612) • The Two Noble Kinsmen (1612) • Henry VIII (1613) • Richard II (1595-1596) • Henry IV (1596-1597) • Henry V (1599) • Julius Caesar (1599) • A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595-1596) • The Merchant of Venice (1596-1597) • Much Ado About Nothing (1598-1599) • As You Like It (1598-1600) • Twelfth Night (1600-1601) • Hamlet (1600-1601) • The Merry Wives of Windsor (1600-1601) • Othello (1601-1602) • All’s Well that Ends Well (1602-1603) • Measure for Measure (1604) • King Lear (1605) • Macbeth (1606-1607) • Antony and Cleopatra (1606-1607)

28. TRAGEDY: a kind of work in which human actions have inevitable consequences. The characters’ bad deeds, errors, mistakes, and crimes are never forgiven or rectified. In tragedy, an ill-judged action will remorselessly lead to a catastrophe. COMEDY: By contrast the character in a comedy do not live under this iron law of cause and effect; they can do whatever they please as long as they amuse their audience and as long as the funny mess they have created is cleaned up at the end of the play. Courtesy of Google Images.

29. “Fate has given this man a spirit Which is always pressing onwards, beyond control, And whose mad striving overleaps All joys of the earth between pole and pole. Him shall I drag through the wilds of life And through the flats of meaningless, I shall make him flounder and gape and stick And to tease his insatiableness Hang meat and drink in the air before his watering lips; In vain he will pray to slake his inner thirst, And even had he not sold himself to the devil He would be equally accursed” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, from Faust (German 1749-1832)

30. Introduction to “Macbeth” (1605-1606) • Play conforms to the general rule of Renaissance tragedies, in which the drama had to be about real people whose deeds are recorded in history (legendary figures). • Shakespeare took the main events of Macbeth’s career as king of Scotland (1040-1057) from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577). • There were significant differences between the real Macbeth and Shakespeare’s fictionalized character. First, the real Macbeth had a more legitimate claim to King Duncan’s throne and gained the throne with the help of other nobles dissatisfied with King Duncan. The real Macbeth also ruled successfully. • In contrast, Shakespeare’s Macbeth has no supporters except his wife. Their union brings nothing but disaster and violence to Scotland. • Shakespeare wanted to examine the attitudes of this time. As a backdrop to the play, the Gunpowder Plot scandal of 1605 was still fresh in people’s minds. Catholic zealots had plotted to blow up King James I and his Protestant Parliament. For Shakespeare’s audience, this play would have been a thriller, threatening an anointed king and the perceived evil behind such an act. • Indeed Macbeth threatens the social order in a Scotland of the distant past.

31. Introduction to “Macbeth” (1605-1606) • Because King James had recently survived an attack, the play would have appealed to him, particularly as Duncan is depicted as a good king. • James also was a Scot who defended the ideal that he ruled by “divine right.” • James also claimed to be a descendant of Banquo, to whom the witch says, “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.” • Because James hated sitting through long plays, Macbeth is also one of the shortest plays Shakespeare ever wrote, lending proof that this play was intended for court performance even if there is no evidence that this ever took place. • Macbeth is also more concerned with psychological truth than historical fact. For this reason, it’s all about human nature. • Moreover, the story foregrounds the importance of our choices and decisions, particularly when the consequences of just one action can alter the entire course of a person’s life. • Could one selfish impulse lead to a chain of decisions that result in greater anguish of soul? The seeds of tragedy often lie in the most insignificant or excusable actions. Macbeth’s ambition and corrosive guilt compel our understanding of the darkness of the human soul.

32. Literary Analysis Form • Tragedy • Paradox • Characters • Conflict • Resolution • Contrast • Irony • Foreshadow • Suspense • Mood • Images • Symbol • Comic Relief • Soliloquy • Metaphor • Turning Point • Dumb Show • Asides • Meter • Parody • Climax • Tragic Hero • Themes • Figurative Language • Context • Protagonist • Antagonist • Rising Action • Falling Action • Complications

33. More on Tragedy… • Macbeth is mentioned for the first time. He is the tragic hero. This is usually a man of high social rank, usually dignified and courageous whose downfall (tragic flaw) or error in judgment may result from forces beyond his control. The tragic hero usually gains some self-knowledge yet is doomed to death or defeat. • Basing his work on Greek drama of the fifth century BC, Aristotle noted the elements necessary to tragedy, which in turn influenced Elizabethan interpretation of tragedy. Aristotle wrote that tragedy centers on a hero, generally of high status, who possesses a weakness, or tragic flaw, that ultimately causes the character’s downfall. The catastrophe and its resolution leave the audience with a sense of catharsis, which is a purgation or cleansing.

34. Act I Questions to Ponder… • What are your impressions of Lady Macbeth at the end of Act I? What is her relationship with Macbeth (beyond being his wife)? What details in this act support your impressions? • In the very first scene of a play, a dramatist must tell the audience what kind of play they are about to see. What does the brief opening of Macbeth reveal about the rest of the play? How does the weather reflect the human passions revealed in the rest of the act? • How does the witches’ prophecy of Macbeth’s coming greatness act as a temptation for him? • Explain the paradox in the witches greeting to Banquo in I.iii: “Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.” How is this paradox true?

35. Act I Questions to Ponder… 5) How does Banquo’s reaction to the witches differ from Macbeth’s? What do you think Macbeth’s reaction suggests about his character? 6) One of the most interesting parts of any serious play is what goes on in the characters’ minds. What conflict rages in Macbeth after he hears the witches’ prophecy? What resolution to this conflict does Macbeth express in his aside, in I.iv.48-53? 7) Find details in the play that point to temperamental contrasts between Macbeth and his wife. Who is more single-minded and logical? Who is more argumentative and sensitive? Which one wins the argument? 8) What irony would the audience feel as they watch Duncan enter the castle and her him praise its peacefulness? 9) One critic has said that the witches are “in some sense representative of potentialities within Macbeth. How could that statement be explained? Is there any evidence in this act for the argument that Macbeth has wanted to king before?

36. The Melody of Language: Blank Verse • Almost all of Macbeth is written in blank verse or unrhymed iambic pentameter, a form of poetry that comes close to imitating the natural rhythms of English speech. • An “iamb” is a metrical foot that has one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. For example: Măc/béth, sŭc/céss, tǒ wín. Banquo: Good Sir, why do you start and seem to fear…

37. Act II Questions to Ponder… • What was your reaction to the murder of Duncan? Why do you think Shakespeare decided to murder Duncan and his guards offstage, employing the dramatic technique of elision? • Though Macbeth encounters no actual opposition until long after Duncan is murdered, Shakespeare must foreshadow some trouble for him and, to build up suspense, must start one character edging toward suspicion of Macbeth. Who is this character and what inkling does he have of his dissatisfaction with Macbeth? • In I.vii, Lady Macbeth seemed to be planning to murder Duncan herself. But at the last moment in II.ii, she is unable to wield her dagger. Consider the reason she gives, and decide what her actions and explanation reveal about her character. • In II.iii, when Duncan’s corpse is discovered, Macbeth utters a hypocritical lament. Is it truly hypocritical? The critic A.C. Bradley argues that, although the speech is meant to be a lie, it actually contains Macbeth’s profoundest feelings. Explain the apparent contradiction. • Lady Macbeth’s fainting spell, like everything else she has done so far, has a purpose. What message do you think she wants to convey?

38. Act II Questions to Ponder… 6) Macduff becomes an important character in the three remaining acts. Describe how Shakespeare characterizes him in II.iii-iv. 7) What would you say is the mood of Act II? What images and actions help to create this mood? Why might images of blood and water appear in II.ii? What do they symbolize? 8) A terrible murder is commited in this act. How do various characters respond to the violence? 9) In some productions of the play, II.iv is cut. Why would this be done? Is there any dramatic purpose for keeping it? Why do you think the Old Man is included in the scene?

39. Act III Questions to Ponder… • What title would you give Act III? • Why do you suppose Shakespeare did not have Macbeth kill Banquo with his own hands, as he killed Duncan and his two guards? What can you infer about Macbeth’s changing character after seeing how he engages in this complex plan involving professional murderers? • The relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth has changed in several ways since they become rulers of Scotland. Find details in this act that reveal some of these changes. What reasons can you suggest for these changes? • In II.ii, Macbeth describes his surroundings by saying, “Light thickens, and the crow/ Makes wing to th’rooky wood.” How can these remarks also be seen as a metaphorical commentary on the events of the play? What other remarks by Macbeth function in this way?

40. Act III Questions to Ponder… 5) In Shakespeare’s tragedies, a turning point usually occurs in the third act. At this moment, something happens that moves the action ever downward to its tragic conclusion. How is Fleance’s escape a turning point in the play? 6) How does the banquet scene blur the clear-cut and common-sense distinction that most of us make between the real and the imaginary? In what other scens has this distinction also been blurred? 7) At the beginning of III.ii, Lady Macbeth quietly tgells herself, “Nought’s had, all’s spent, / Whare our desire is got without content.” What does she mean? At this point would her husband agree? 8) Nobody except Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost. In some productions of the play, the ghost does not appear onstage; in others it does. If you were the director, which would you choose?

41. Act IV Questions to Ponder… • What effect did the brutal murders of Lady Macduff and her son have on your? Have your feelings for Macbeth changed from the opening of the play until now? How do you account for your reactions? • In this act, Macbeth seeks out the witches, just as they initiated the encounter in Act I. How has Macbeth’s situation changed since he last talked with the witches? How has his moral character deteriorated? • Do you think the witches have cause3d any of these changes, directly or indirectly? Explain. • In IV.i, the eight kings appear in what was called in Shakespeare’s day a dumb show- an interpolated brief scene in which nothing is said. What is the point of this show? • In IV.ii, the lines spoken by Macduff’s wife and son illustrate Shakespeare’s great skill at characterization. Using only a few words he brings the woman and child to life. How would you describe them?

42. Act IV Questions to Ponder… 6) Both the murderer and Lady Macduff herself call Macduff a traitor. In what sense does each mean it? Do you think Macduff is a traitor, in either sense? 7) In IV.iii, Malcolm deliberately lies to Macduff. What does this behavior, and the reason for it, reveal about Malcolm that wasn’t true of Duncan? 8) In IV.iii, Malcolm and Macduff decry the chaos Macbeth’s rule has brought to Scotland. How are these related? 9) The murder of Macduff’s small son is one of the most pitiful and shocking scenes in Shakespeare. Do you think it might have been better to use elision rather than showing the carnage onstage? What would be lost and gained?

43. Act V Questions to Ponder… • How do you feel about what happens to Macbeth’s body after he is dead? • Theatrically, the spectacle of Lady Macbeth walking in her sleep is one of the most striking scenes in the play. It is entirely Shakespeare’s invention. Why do you suppose the playwright has her walking in her sleep? How is this related to the remarks Macbeth makes about sleep in II.ii, just after he kills Duncan? • In the sleepwalking scene, Lady Macbeth refers to many of her waking experiences. For example, words “One: two” may refer to the moment in II.I when she struck the bell for Macbeth to kill Duncan. Find traces of other experiences in what she says. • At the end of Act IV, Malcolm says, “The night is long that never finds the day.” In what metaphorical sense does he use the terms night and day. How does his remark foreshadow the outcome of the play?

44. Act V Questions to Ponder… 5) The last of Macbeth contains the play’s climax – the most emotional and suspenseful part of the action- the moment when the character’s conflict is finally resolved. Which part of Act V do you consider the climax? 6) Shakespeare gave most of this tragic heroes an impressive dying speech in which they say something significant about their own life and death. Although he did not write such a speech for Macbeth, do you think such a speech would have served the dramatic effect of the play? How so? What would Macbeth have said? 7) What are your reactions to the idea expressed by Macbeth that life “is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing”? 8) William Davenant, who claimed to be the son of Shakespeare, added another sleepwalking scene to Macbeth. The ghost of Duncan chases Lady Macbeth. Do you think this diminishes the characterization of the ghost, it’s impact on the play?

45. Act IQuestion #2 2) In the very first scene of a play, a dramatist must tell the audience what kind of play they re about to see. What does the brief opening of Macbeth reveal about the rest of the play? How does the weather reflect the human passions revealed in the rest of the act? PLAY slideshow to view effects/sounds The brief opening on Macbeth, stating there is thunder and lightning, serves as a clue to what you can expect from reading Macbeth. The brief opening reveals a spooky, gloomy, and mysterious atmosphere. I could forebode that, in the play, I would encounter numerous tragic deaths, driven malicious people, and many accounts of misfortune. The bad weather reveals how several characters in the play will experience a chain of horrible days that may include: a quarrel, a dirty conscious, a stab in the back, a lost war, or even an atrocity. Human passions reflected by the murky weather are greed, deceitfulness, viciousness, sinfulness, naughtiness, enticing, wickedness, and power-hungry.

46. Act 1 # 3 The witches prophecy of Macbeth’s coming greatness act as a temptation for him? The witches prophecy is that he will become king. Therefore he wants to go out and actually become the king, and actually he has a driving force of ambition, he wants to go out and pursue the witches prophecy.

47. "LESS THAN MACBETH AND GREATER" Act I # 4 • When the witches say this to Banquo they mean to say that he in rank is lesser than Macbeth. But in life, he is a greater person and has better characteristics as well as a better personality. Like saying he is more noble.

48. Banquo’s reaction can be described as curious and respectful in a way because he doesn’t automatically want to know who they are to judge whether or not the witches are an enemy, as Macbeth does. “Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear your favors nor your hate” (I.iii Line 60) Banquo does not fear them, on the other hand he likes them, and especially after they speak their prophesy for the witches say he will have kings for sons. “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none” (I.iii Line 67). Macbeth on the other hand seemed paranoid, apprehensive and afraid, and right off the bat wanted to know who they were and what they were doing there “Speak if you can: what are you?” (I.iii Line 46). This reaction suggests that he has something to hide, and that his conscience is bothering him. This prophesy was like wood for a burning fire of ambition for Macbeth. As I previously stated, Macbeth was not to thrilled about having the witches there, but once they told him he was bound for kingship he wished that they would stay a little longer and continue to feed his ego and power hungry self. He says “Would they have stayed!” (I.iii Line 82). This also implies in a way that Macbeth was only happy to hear of his future political position because it benefited him (distrust and disloyalty) some qualities that we come to find clearly later. It also implies that Banquo is a better man when he is thrilled simply because his sons will achieve greatness in the future demonstrating loyalty and kindness (the opposite of Macbeth) the witches even agree “Lesser than Macbeth, and greater” lesser in rank, but better a man. Act I # 5 - How does Banquo’s reaction to the witches differ from Macbeth’s? What do you think Macbeth’s reaction suggests about his character?

49. Act I #7 - Find details in the play that point to temperamental contrasts between Macbeth and his wife. Who is more single-minded and logical? Who is more argumentive and sensitive? Which one wins the argument? Temperamental contrasts between Macbeth and his wife include: Macbeth If we should fail? Lady Macbeth We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place, and we’ll not fail… Macbeth We will speak further. Lady Macbeth Only look up clear: to alter favor ever is to fear. Leave all the rest to me. Lady Macbeth is more single-minded and logical because she makes sure that no matter Macbeth will get his crown. She makes a plan, and doesn’t care what has to be done in order for him to get the crown. On the other hand, Macbeth is more argumentive and sensitive because he argues towards Lady Macbeth about her opinion. Lady Macbeth wins the argument.

50. Act I: #9 One critic has said that the witches are “in some sense representative of potentialities within Macbeth. How could this statement be explained? Is there any evidence in this act for the argument that Macbeth has wanted to be king before? The witches in the story are representatives of evil, deceit, and plotting resembling that of the Fates in Greek mythology. In the beginning of the play, the Weird Sisters plotted against a sailor’s wife. Later on in the story, Macbeth finds himself plotting against various characters such as King Duncan and Banquo in order to fulfill his ambitious plan. Macbeth shows himself to be brave yet violent; courageous yet lacking of virtue. (I.ii.16-18) King Duncan himself favored Macbeth and was the one to appoint him Thane of Cawdor. It is likely to correctly assume that Macbeth acted to win the favor of King Duncan and later betray him. The predictions of the Weird Sisters asserted that Macbeth would become king. In Act I Scene 4, Macbeth said “Stars, hid your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires…” This could mean that this desire had already been deeply instilled in his mind before the witches uttered the prophecy. This only acted as a push of confidence that fed a thirst he had long ago acquired.