Macbeth New Arden Series Two Edited by Kenneth Muir Assignment for April 13th:
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- What does the first speech reveal about the Weird Sisters, their business?
- When the play opens, why is Duncan engaged in a war? With whom?
- What does the bloody sergeant reveal?
- What does wyrd mean? How does the term apply to the Weird Sisters? What kinds of activities do the Weird Sisters describe as their typical pastimes?
- Describe the verse in the Sisters’ incantations? How does their verse differ from normal speech (iambic pentameter)? Why should it so differ?
- Who actually sees the Weird Sisters? Why is that important?
- How does Macbeth parallel Cawdor?
- Describe the individual responses of Macbeth and Banquo to the Sisters’ pronouncements. What important decision does Macbeth express when he says, “If Chance will have me king, why Chance may crown me without my stir”? Why is he so easily and frequently described as “rapt”?
- Why is the title Prince of Cumberland important to Scots? Before Duncan and Malcolm, how did Scots select a king? What important decision does Macbeth express in his response to Malcolm’s becoming Prince of Cumberland?
- Why does Duncan want to visit Macbeth’s castle at Inverness?
- Describe Lady Macbeth’s reaction to Macbeth’s letter describing the Sisters’ predictions as well as Duncan’s actions and intentions?
- From her initial appearances, how can we characterize Lady Macbeth? Why does she desire the spirits to “unsex me now”? What is her hold over Macbeth? Describe the conversations between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth about murdering Duncan.
- What omens accompany Duncan’s arrival at Inverness?
- Why exactly does Lady Macbeth not kill Duncan? Who else must die because of Duncan’s murder? And who commits those murders? Contrast the ways Macbeth and Lady Macbeth respond to blood, to murdering, to potential discovery.
- What kind of fellow is the Porter? What are his topics of conversation with himself? What is his attitude toward disturbance? Explore fully the Porter’s speech and its relationships to what happens above with the Macbeths.
- Who has disturbed the Porter, demanding entrance at Macbeth’s castle? Why is that significant?
- Who discovers the murders? Where does suspicion fall, and why? Describe the responses of those with cause to fear suspicion.
- Shakespeare writes many asides and soliloquies for Macbeth, and they are important to our sympathy with Macbeth. What do we learn from his asides and soliloquies in acts 1 and 2? What kinds of images leap to his mind? How does he respond to blood? To the fear of being discovered a murderer? To fear of damnation?
- Identify and discuss instances of:
- equivocation
- confusion of nature/natural/unnatural
- disjunction between eye and hand
- attempts to act in darkness, without light of day/stars/discovery
- images associated with ill-fitted or inappropriate clothing