Shakespeare: Tragedy
“The poem, the song, the picture is only water drawn from the well of people
and it should be given back to them in a cup of beauty so that they may drink—
and in drinking, understand themselves.”
--Lorca
This
unit will give students a chance to look at Shakespeare from a personal
and cultural perspective. The class will break of the structure of the
play Macbeth and discuss how metaphor and symbol, plot and theme work
in conjunction with the development of characters and ideas.
Macbeth
is a play about the corruption of power, about the moralistic failings
of blind ambition, about the difference between appearance and reality
(things are not as they seem), about superstition and how it affects
human behavior, about the individual vs. society (or how an individual
revolts against society for personal gain). Ultimately students will be
asked to relate Macbeth to contemporary times and to write an essay.
OBJECTIVES: At the end of this unit students will be able to
Knowledge:
1) List the five elements of tragedy
2) List the five elements of a tragic hero
3)
Define theme, plot, setting, foreshadow, oxymoron, soliloquy,
personification, dramatic foil, metaphor (three types), symbol, simile
Comprehension:
4) Identify a metaphor (direct, implied, extended), simile, pun or symbol within the play
5) Give a brief description of all the characters and their roles in the play
6) Given a line of dialogue identify the speaker
7)
Outline the plot and break in up into exposition, inciting event,
rising action, climax, falling action and catastrophe (or resolution)
8) Summarize each scene into a headline
9) Identify the tragic hero and his/her tragic flaw
10) Discuss the motivations of all major characters (why they do the things they do)
Application
11) Demonstrate an understanding of a scene in a drawing
12) Demonstrate a relation of characters to contemporary times through a simulation
13)
Demonstrate an understanding of characters and acting techniques by
writing out a script (including the lines, subtext, emotion or tone, and
blocking) and acting out the scene from memory
14) Demonstrate an
understanding of the play by writing journal entries and in-class
writing assignments including a Dear Abbey Letter, interviews, diary
entries from characters’ perspective, personal responses, and in-class
presentations on characters.
15) Demonstrate an understanding of parts of the play by translation Shakespeare’s lines into contemporary English
16) Write a poem or a rap about Macbeth
17) Research a character: the different critical views and present findings to class
Analysis
18) Write a analysis paper on some element or question of Macbeth
VOCABULARY (from Macbeth)
1) Mirth
2) Liege
3) Parricide
4) Verity
5) Avarice
6) Avaunt
7) Posterity
8) Homage
9) Cloistered
10) Equivocator
11) Eminence
12) Avouch
13) Thralls
14) Malevolence
Macbeth
Unit Learning goal: At the end of this Unit students will be able to
analysis a motif found in Macbeth, create a thesis, and connect the
motif to the meaning of the play as a whole by writing a short 2-3 page essay.
Scale/Rubric relating to learning goal:
4 – The student is able to combine more than one motif into a thesis
statement, and answer it by evaluating the text and using specifics to
back up his/her position.
3 – The student can choose a motif, develop it into a thesis statement,
and analyze the text using specific evidence to back up their position.
2 – With some direction/help from the teacher the student can choose a
motif, develop it into a thesis statement, and analyze the text using
specific evidence to back up their position.
1 – Even with help from the teacher the student is unable to choose a
motif, or develop it into a thesis statement, and analyze the text using
specific evidence to back up their position.
OBJECTIVES: At the end of this unit students will be able to
•
List the five elements of tragedy
•
List the five elements of a tragic hero
•
Discuss Macbeth’s tragic flaw
•
Discuss who wins in Macbeth and why? Who is the hero?
•
Define soliloquy and monologue and point to examples from Macbeth
•
Outline
the plot according to the six elements of plot: exposition, inciting
event, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution (give at least
three events for the rising and falling action)
•
Identify the following characters and discuss they roles in the play (Who they are, What they do, Why the do what they do)
Macbeth
Macduff
The Porter
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macduff
The Witches
Duncan
Lennox
The Doctor
Malcolm
Ross
The Bloody Captain
Donalbain
Seyton
Fleance
Banquo
Menteith
Siward
•
Discuss and give examples of the following THEMES:
--Blind Ambition
--The Corruption of Power
--Appearance vs. Reality
--Superstition and how it affects human behavior
--Good vs. Evil
•
Discuss the following symbols/motifs (what people and/or ideas the represent and connect them to a theme)
--washing of hands
--blood
--planting of seeds, things growing
--the atmosphere of Macbeth’s castle
--spells or chants and supernatural beings
--weather
--daggers
--spirits, scorpions, snakes and things in the mind
--birds and flying:
Eagles
Crows
Sparrows
Geese
Owl
Wren
Martlet
Falcon
•
Identify the speaker and the significant of important and famous quotes from the following characters:
Witches, Apparitions, Banquo, Duncan, Macduff, Malcolm, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, The Bloody Captain, Lady Macduff, Ross
•
Know and
review your study questions for each Act (you should have done these
for homework). Some of these questions will be on the test.
•
Act out from memory a scene of at least sixteen lines
Macbeth Study Questions
ACT I
Scene 1:
1)
The play opens with thunder and lightning as the three witches enter.
What does this tell us about the mood of the play? What do the witches
symbolize beyond just superstition? Do you really believe that they
are witches?
2)
What doe the witches mean when they say, “Fair is foul, and foul is
fair”? What does this tell you about what is likely to go on during the
play?
3) How can a battle be “Lost and won”? What foreshadow might this set-up? What is the real battle in this play?
4)
Graymalkin and Paddock are familiars (a cat and a toad). What does
this suggest about the action of the play? What might they symbolize?
Scene ii
1) What does the bloody man report?
2) Why is Macdonwald a worthy rebel?
3)
What similes or metaphors does the captain (the bloody man) use to
describe Macbeth and Banquo? What is significant about these
descriptions?
4)
“Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, or memorize another
Golgotha.” What is the allusion? What is significant about the
statement? What does it suggest? Please keep in mind the
religious/superstitious images/symbols already presented.
5) Who was Scotland fighting?
Scene iii
1) Why do the witches talk in poetry?
2) What do the witches predict for Macbeth? What is the dramatic irony involved?
3) What do they witches predict for Banquo? What irony is involved in this promise?
4) What is your first impression of Macbeth in scenes ii-iii? What is your first impression of Banquo?
5) How do Macbeth and Banquo differ in their reactions to the witches predictions? What does this tell us about their characters?
6) What message does Ross bring?
7) “But
‘tis strange! And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of
darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray us in
deepest consequence.” Who speaks the above quote? What is the
significance or meaning of the quote?
Scene iv
1) What is Malcolm’s description of Cawdor’s execution?
2) What is the King’s response to this description?
3) Who does the King name as his successor? How does Macbeth react to this information?
4) “Stars hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep
desires. The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be, which the eye
fears, when it is done, to see.” Who speaks this quote and what is the
significance of it?
We will also reread and review scenes 1-3 and discuss plot outline.
Remember - if you have trouble with Shakespeare's lines you can always go to
NO FEAR SHAKESPEARE
NOTES:
Dramatic Foil – A foil is a secondary character who contrasts with a major character as a way to bring out personality traits.
In Romeo and Juliet, the Nurse, the Frair, Benvolio, Mercutio are all dramatic foils.
Act A major division in the action of a play. The ends of acts are
typically indicated by lowering the curtain or turning up the
houselights. Playwrights frequently employ acts to accommodate changes
in time, setting, characters onstage, or mood. In many full-length
plays, acts are further divided into scenes, which often mark a point in
the action when the location changes or when a new character enters.
Scene In drama, a scene is a subdivision of an act. In modern plays,
scenes usually consist of units of action in which there are no changes
in the setting or breaks in the continuity of time. According to
traditional conventions, a scene changes when the location of the action
shifts or when a new character enters.
Drama Derived from the Greek word dram, meaning "to do" or "to perform,"
the term drama may refer to a single play, a group of plays ("Jacobean
drama"), or to all plays ("world drama"). Drama is designed for
performance in a theater; actors take on the roles of characters,
perform indicated actions, and speak the dialogue written in the script.
Play is a general term for a work of dramatic literature, and a
playwright is a writer who makes plays
FIVE ELEMENTS OF TRAGEDY:
1) Play must have a tragic hero
2) The hero must be fated to fall
3) The hero must have dramatic foils
4) The hero must have internal and external conflicts
5) The play raised some question about the nature of existence
ELEMENTS OF A TRAGIC HERO:
1) The tragic hero is a man of noble stature. Usually he is of noble birth
2) The tragic hero is good, though not perfect, and his fall results
from his committing what Aristoltle calls “an act of injustice” either
through ignorance or from a conviction that some greater good will be
served. This act is, never-the-less, a criminal one ad the good hero is
responsible for it even if he is totally unaware. Translated: the hero
is usually virtuous in many ways, loyal to friends and family, has high
moral standards, but some flaw in personality and it is this flaw that
causes his downfall.
3) The hero’s misfortunate is not wholly deserved and the punishment far
exceeds the crime. The audience leaves saddened by the sense of waste
of human potential.
4) Though the hero may be defeated, he has dared greatly, and he gains
understanding from his defeat and must become an example for others.
(Simplified: 1) Noble birth and of noble character; 2) Virtuous and
loyal; 3) Has a tragic flaw; 4) Tragic flaw causes downfall; 5) The
audience learns something through the characters failing).
