Lesson 7

1. Guilt: Psychology on the SoulObjective: To consider how the goals of certain characters are catalysts of conflict in the narrative. Lesson 7 [Guilt]A feeling of worry or unhappiness that you have done something wrong and are responsible in some way. [Mental health]Aperson’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being.

2. TEACHER’S GUIDE

3. Based on the scenarios given,decide who is guilty and who is innocent. SCENARIO GAME – PLAY THE JUDGE

4. Act 3 Scene 4The Feast at Macbeth’s Castle CLASS READING

5. How does Shakespeare present Macbeth’s deteriorating mental health in this scene? PEEL TASK

6. Act 3 Scene 3 Analysis • Scheming - Macbeth has planned to kill both Banquo and Fleance because the witches told them that Banquo’s sons would be kings - Macbeth’s murder plot shows that he is challenging fate – same fate that crowned him Thane of Cawdor and the Crown – wants to outsmart prophecies if they go against him. • Witches prophecies – real danger is Fleance. • Significant murder scene – sends third murderer after the first two – this shows his lack of trust for anyone – the downward spiral – Second Murderer - “we’ve lost the best half of our affair” • Selective - Macbeth is so inconsistent and changeable, he believes what he wants to believe – prophecies that benefit him (yes), prophecies that don’t (no) – immature character, not a clever and noble man. • Playing with fate - If he believes in the same fate that has brought him to this point, his efforts to murder Banquo and Fleance are useless.- What’s worse – murdering them or trying to counter fate? • Macbeth is on a ‘downward spiral’.

7. Act 3 Scene 4 Analysis • The Celebration Feast- attempts to endear himself to society – going overboard to make everybody welcome.- Macbeth’s chance to put all deeds to rest.- “The hearty welcome”, “We will require her welcome”, “They are welcome”, “Be large in mirth”, “Love and health to all”- Macbeth can’t hide the evil that he’s indulged in. • Coincidence - The fact that the murderer enters just as everyone is seated for the feast is very important. • Supernatural - Macbeth is unable to sit with his guests just as he is unable to stand with them in society (in terms of honour and respect).- Macbeth’s seat at the banquet is taken by Banquo’s bloodied ghost.- Dramatic irony and dramatic tension – Macbeth is confronted by an apparition that only he can see – symptom of guilt (hallucination?) - - After conspiring for Banquo’s murder, to find his ghost sitting at the table in his seat is profound dramatic irony.- Macbeth panics, becomes hysterical and upsets all of his guests.- Echoes prophecy from the witches that Banquo’s son will come to the throne. • Lady Macbeth tries to allay the guests’ fears:- tells them that he sometimes behaves like this – nothing to worry about.- “sit my worthy friends, my lord is often thus and have been from his youth”. • Chaos - Despite Macbeth’s efforts, the feast ends in disorder and disarray – symbolic of how he is trying to get people on his side – to bring society together – fails spectacularly.- The reason for his failure are the deeds that he has committed to get to this point. • Escalation - M and LM hoped to just kill King Duncan and no more – but the crime has opened up a sequence of events where escalating crimes are to be committed – the whole plan is unravelling. • Alienation - Macbeth’s attempts to fit in with nobles and lords from society – however, this outburst alienates him – everything begins to crumble and he starts to feel that he is alone in the world.- Macbeth and wife – LM tries to rally round him, but then tells them to leave, then becomes quiet (drained by her broken spirit).- The only time we see LM after this point is when she is sleepwalking where we see the full torment of her mind.- Macbeth’s murderous tendencies are now increasing. • Rivers of blood – “I am in blood, stepped so far”, “That I should wade no more, returning were as tedious as to go o’er” – past the point of no return – Macbeth’s murderous nature has grown whilst LM has shrunk.

8. Macbeth Lady Macbeth King Duncan Banquo Macduff Macbeth is a Scottish general and the Thane of Glamis who is greeted by prophecies from three witches that he will be made Thane of Cawdor. This comes true. He longs to become King and is then tempted into murder (partly by Lady Macbeth) to fulfill his ambitions to the throne. Once he commits his first crime (killing King Duncan), he is crowned King of Scotland. He is brave but not virtuous. Macbeth is courageous on the battlefield but ill-suited to politics, quickly becoming a tyrant. He becomes suspicious of even his close friends like Banquo. His response to every problem is violence and murder. Macbeth is never comfortable in his role as a criminal and this leads to a psychological regression. A Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeth’s kingship from the start. He eventually becomes a leader of the crusade to unseat Macbeth. The crusade’s mission is to place the rightful king, Malcolm, on the throne, but Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s wife and young son. Macbeth’s wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and position. Early in the play she seems to be the stronger and more ruthless of the two, as she urges her husband to kill Duncan and seize the crown. After the bloodshed begins, Lady Macbeth falls victim to guilt and madness to an even greater degree than her husband. Her conscience affects her to such an extent that she eventually commits suicide. Interestingly, she and Macbeth are presented as being deeply in love, and many of Lady Macbeth’s speeches imply that her influence over her husband is primarily sexual. Their joint alienation from the world, occasioned by their partnership in crime, seems to strengthen the attachment that they feel to each another. The good King of Scotland whom Macbeth, in his ambition for the crown, murders. Duncan is the model of a virtuous, benevolent, and farsighted ruler. His death symbolizes the destruction of an order in Scotland that can be restored only when Duncan’s line, in the person of Malcolm, once more occupies the throne. The brave, noble general whose children, according to the witches’ prophecy, will inherit the Scottish throne. Like Macbeth, Banquo thinks ambitious thoughts, but he does not translate those thoughts into action. In a sense, Banquo’s character stands as a rebuke to Macbeth, since he represents the path Macbeth chose not to take: a path in which ambition need not lead to betrayal and murder. Appropriately, then, it is Banquo’s ghost—and not Duncan’s—that haunts Macbeth. In addition to embodying Macbeth’s guilt for killing Banquo, the ghost also reminds Macbeth that he did not emulate Banquo’s reaction to the witches’ prophecy. KEY CHARACTERS IN ‘MACBETH’ Malcolm -  The son of Duncan, whose restoration to the throne signals Scotland’s return to order following Macbeth’s reign of terror. Malcolm becomes a serious challenge to Macbeth with Macduff’s aid (and the support of England). Prior to this, he appears weak and uncertain of his own power, as when he and Donalbain flee Scotland after their father’s murder. Hecate -  The goddess of witchcraft who works to enact her mischief on Macbeth (one of the three witches). Fleance -  Banquo’s son, who survives Macbeth’s attempt to murder him. At the end of the play, Fleance’s whereabouts are unknown. Presumably, he may come to rule Scotland, fulfilling the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s sons will sit on the Scottish throne. Macdonwald – Traitor to the King whose army is defeated in battle by Macbeth and executed by King Duncan. Lennox -  A Scottish nobleman. Ross -  A Scottish nobleman. The Murderers -  A group conscripted by Macbeth to murder Banquo, Fleance, Macduff’s family (fails). Porter -  The drunken doorman of Macbeth’s castle. The Three Witches Three “black and midnight hags” who plot mischief against Macbeth using charms, spells, and prophecies. Their predictions prompt him to murder Duncan, to order the deaths of Banquo and his son, and to blindly believe in his own immortality. The play leaves the witches’ true identity unclear—aside from the fact that they are servants of Hecate, we know little about their place in the cosmos. In some ways they resemble the mythological Fates, who impersonally weave the threads of human destiny. They clearly take a perverse delight in using their knowledge of the future to toy with and destroy human beings.

9. Key Terms Glossary

10. PLENARY In books– write three ingredients that make a good party and how to prevent things going wrong.