review

Final Exam Review English 276

Fall 2006

 The following are selected slides from this

semester. They are meant to supplement, not

replace, your notes.

 The exam also covers explanatory material in

the text.

 For identifications, know the dialogue of the

plays and the characters. Be able to identify

themes.

 For example, in response to a quotation, you might write,

“Friar Laurence‟s statement that flower contain medicine

and poison also illustrates the nature of tragedy, where

one‟s good or admirable qualities may produce disaster.”

Rules for Action Statements

 Only one character can perform the key action of the

scene.

 Decisions do not count.

 Anything planned before the scene starts does not

count.

 The action is something the character does in

thoughtful response to some cause or causes.

 Talking to the audience can be an action.

 When writing a full statement, put the main action in

the main clause of the sentence.

What are some differences

between drama and film?

 Plays stress dialogue; movies stress visuals.

 Plays tend to stay in one physical location;

films often move over vast distances.

 Plays are organized by scenes; films are

organized by camera shots.

Aristotle‟s Six Elements of

Tragedy (and comedy)

 Plot--art of choosing and arranging events

 Character--revealed by action

 Thought--making choices

 Diction--sometimes heightened language

 Melody--music

 Spectacle--landscape, horses

The Taming of the Shrew

How does Zeffirelli‟s movie differ

from play?

Probably the main difference between the

text and movie is that Zeffirelli gives

agency to Kate but takes it away from

Tranio. He makes her a thoughtful

personality who performs significant

actions.

How does Shakespeare soften the

taming?

 He includes line that “both will fast” (4.1.173)

 He has Petruchio give his “falcon” taming

speech to his men, whom he must impress

(he may only speak this way publicly, but not

think so: cf. his comparison of his falcon and

his wife at 5.2.65)

 Clever construction of the play: 1) the double

plot; 2) the fourth act

How does Zeffirelli soften the

taming?

 eliminating P‟s hawk-taming metaphor, with its

offensive imagery

 use slapstick humor, even in the “starving” scene at

table

 writing a new bedroom scene to show:

 that Petruchio can restrain his sex needs, implying he is no

cruel husband

 that both are attractive and sexually attracted to each other

 that Kate can give (bed-warming pan) as good as she gets

 (cont.)

How does Zeffirelli soften the

taming?

 Emphasizing song “Where is the life that once I led” implying that

Kate is taming and transforming Petruchio as well

 Using star quality of Taylor and Burton to make them attractive

(also suggesting that strong personalities must yield to marriage)

 Using mood music and Taylor‟s ability to project longing to

suggest that deep down, Petruchio and Kate are really attracted

to each other, despite their public posture that he is a drunk and

she a shrew.

 Adding stage bits to suggest P‟s transformation rather than

Kate‟s: at first afraid of water at Hortensio‟s house, he later

washes his hands before attempting to go to bed with her (some

guys will do anything . . . )

How does the double plot work?

 Sets up a comparison between the wily servant

Tranio--clever but misguided--and Katharina--clever

but misguided.

 To some extent, unseen elements of Kate‟s

transformation can be guessed by looking at Tranio:

1) the off-stage wedding as Tranio plans for a

“supposed” Vincentio and Lucentio thinks of eloping

(3.2.128); 2) the time between Kate‟s not agreeing it‟s

2 o‟clock and agreeing the sun is the moon, during

which Tranio‟s plans start to fall apart

Other questions

 Where do you think, if anywhere, Kate first feels attracted to

Petruchio?

 Is Petruchio ever cruel? How far can he go?

 What motivates Tranio? Is he like Kate? She he accept his

position as servant as she accepts wifehood?

 Explain the thematic unity of assuming poses (“supposes,” from I

Suppositi, the Ariosto play that is the basis for the Lucentio plot):

Who pretends to be what? Does this theme of people adopting

roles influence our view of Katharina?

Romeo and Juliet

Many words have double meanings, or

refer to fate or the stars



From forth fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross‟d lovers take their life.

-- Prologue

Juliet also imagines Romeo among the

stars in heaven, foreshadowing his death.

(In tragedies, thoughts come true,

because action follows feeling.)





Come, gentle night, and, when I shall die,

Take him and cut him out in little stars,

And he will make the face of heaven so fine

That all the world will be in love with night.

3.2.21-24

Romeo ignores his dream.



I fear, too early, for my mind misgives

Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

With this night‟s revels.





1.4.106-07

Tragedy results when a virtue

becomes a vice.

Even plants have a double

meaning: a lesson, says the friar,

that applies to people.

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,

And vice sometime by action dignified.

Within the infant rind of this fair flower

Poison hath residence and medicine power.

2.3.21-24

Shakespearean tragedy requires

(bad) timing and a near miss (not).

Romeo steps between them.]

Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!

[Tybalt under Romeo’s arm thrusts Mercutio in.] Away Tybalt

[with his followers].

....

Ben. What, art thou hurt?

Merc. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch, marry, „tis enough. . . . No, „tis

not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door, but „tis

enough, „twill serve.

3.1.90 ff.

Richard III

Act 1



Richard eliminates Clarence.

1.1









Plot: Richard arranges the death of his

brother Clarence.

Action









1.1. Richard pauses before following Hastings to

the king to inform of us of his plans. So

methodical, mechanical.

1.2









Plot: Richard seduces Lady Anne, the widow of

Henry VI‟s son Edward.

Action: 1.2









Richard tells pall-bearers he will come after her before confiding

to us that he will not keep Anne long, then enjoying the thought

that he is better looking than he knew. So we see the first two

scenes are structured in parallel: Richard lying to someone, sending

them off, then confiding to us.

Hollywood addition









Added sex scene (well, not quite). Like Italian neorealist

directors, Locrine explains Richard‟s murderous ambition by

suggesting he is homosexual or at least cruel to women). As

elsewhere, lack of dialogue clues you that something has been

added to Shakespeare’s play.

Hollywood addition









Good people take drugs when life gets tough. (I hope you realize

how crazy this is: not just the drug taking, but that she “medicates”

not after she marries this creep who killed her husband, but after he

rejects her flirtations.)

4.1









Plot: Lady Anne‟s curse on herself is working. Locrino puts this

scene before the ‘crowning’ scene, probably just to break up the

sequence of male dominated scenes, since he added so many

bits for Ian McKellen (lounging around, smoking).

4.1 After Anne notices that she has inadvertently

cursed herself, Queen Elizabeth prays to the stones

of the Tower to guard her children.

4.2









Plot: Richard crowned.

Action, 4.2









4.2 Richard refuses to give Buckingham what he wants, refusing

him to his face. This is a complete switch in the pattern, appropriate

for the counterstroke of act 4, since Richard before would tell the

audience, not his enemies, his thoughts.

5.4 Offering, in vain, his kingdom for a

horse, Richard refuses to withdraw.

5.5



Richmond wins

5.5 Richmond prays that his heirs will

promote peace.

Act Summary

 Act 1: Richard eliminates Clarence.

 Act 2: Richard eliminates the queen‟s influence.

 Act 3: Richard eliminates popular opposition.

 Act 4: Richmond rebels.

 Act 5: Richmond triumphs; Richard eliminates himself.

Hamlet

What is Hamlet about?



Centuries of debate

T. S. Eliot: “Certainly an artistic

failure”

Hamlet



Good play for anyone having trouble

figuring things out.

Good play for anyone who isn‟t having

trouble figuring things out--yet.

Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200),

Historical Danica, book 3

 Story of a hero who assumes madness or stupidity for

purpose of revenge. His father kills King of Norway in

single combat. His enemies send a courtesan to

seduce him, but he rapes her (the ur-Ophelia). He

goes to England, wins the king‟s daughter there,

returns and kills usurper in a sword exchange. Saxo

has fratricide, incest, king‟s love of drink. Tone is more

brutal: Amleth boils the Polonius figure and feeds him

to the pigs. He is vigorous (burns down the palace)

but somewhat melancholic.

Renaissance version



It‟s about a man called on to exact

revenge for the murder of his father.

Problems:

 The murderer is a king.

 The source of the information is a ghost.

 The revenge must be honorable.

 There are spies everywhere.

Hamlet‟s doubts

 Why should his mother remarry such an unattractive

man?

 What does the appearance of his father‟s ghost

mean?

 Why has he lost his mirth?

 Did his uncle kill his father?

 Why doesn‟t he kill his uncle right away?

 Why do women behave the way they do?

Disease and death imagery

 Francisco: “Tis bitter cold, and I am sick at

heart” (1.1.10)

 Horatio: “I‟ll cross it, though it blast me”

(1.1.130)

 Horatio: “It is a mote to trouble the mind‟s eye”

(1.1.116: the war preparations and ghost)

 Gertrude: “All that lives must die, / Passing

through nature to eternity” (1.2.72)

Disease imagery



Hamlet: The world

. . . is an unweeded garden

That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in

nature

Possess it merely” (1.2.133)

Oh, that this too too sullied flesh

would melt (1.2.129)

Upset by his mother‟s remarriage to his

nasty uncle, Hamlet contemplates

suicide and sees the world as an

“unweeded garden.”

What a piece of work is man. How

noble in reason, how infinite in

faculties (2.2.304)

Hamlet tells R & G that he is

melancholy (depressed), does not

exercise, the world seems diseased,

however noble seem the heavens.

“Man delights not me--no, nor woman

neither, though by your smiling you

seem to say so”

 The audience is not privileged in this play, where soliloquies

merge with speeches.

Oh, what a rogue and peasant

slave am I! (2.2.55)

Hamlet berates himself for doing nothing,

even when motivated by a ghost, in

comparison to the player whose

emotions run away with him due to

nothing but a fiction.

So he plans the Mousetrap.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I

pronounced it, trippingly on the

tongue (3.2.1)

Hamlet instructs the actors

Relevant to theme of play (words,

appearances, exposure of Claudius)

but not to Hamlet‟s state of mind (not a

soliloquy)

„Tis now the very witching time of

night (3.2.387)

Hamlet is in the mood for murder (having

exposed Claudius‟s guilt) when on the

way to his mother.

How all occasions do inform

against me (4.4.33)

 Just as he was moved by the player to berate

himself, Hamlet is moved by Fortinbras to take

action, even for nothing.

 Yet he meditates on the difference between

men and beasts (unsaid: sense of right and

wrong, which makes the play so powerful)

To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why

may not imagination trace the noble dusty of

Alexander (5.1.204)







Hamlet raises issue that too much

thinking is bad for anyone.

Hamlet, like the play, strangely finds

consolation in the grave-yard, not more

melancholy.

There is a special providence in the fall of a

sparrow. If it be now, „tis not to come . . .

The readiness is all (5.2.217)



Beautiful, but ironic, since Hamlet

seems very unready to face the king‟s

threat.

As philosophy, this sounds consoling

but fatalistic. A dangerous combination.

Hamlet‟s tragedy: he tries to accept the

world, and it kills him.

Classical Tragedy



 It‟s about a man whose admirable intelligence

leads him through a sequence of decisive,

moral actions that, due to circumstances he

cannot control or reasonably foresee,

unfortunately kill him.

 Counter-argument:

 Most of his actions are mean.

Olivier Version



The play is about a man who cannot

make up his mind.

Problem:

 Oedipal longing for mother and jealousy of

the man married to her.

 Emotion clouds reason.

Feminist Hamlet

 This is a play about a woman who has no control over

her life, goes mad, and kills herself.

 Her problems:

 Overbearing father, jerk for a boyfriend,hothouse existence,

no female companionship or understanding, ignorance about

the facts of life.

 Modern versions make her angry

 p. 631 for Helena Bonham Carter in Mel Gibson version

Zeffirelli Theory



This is a play about a man who reminds

one of Mel Gibson‟s “mad max.”

Problem:

 How can a man remain a hero in a world of

random violence?

Almereyda version



A play about a man whose intentions are

thwarted by impersonal forces like an

uncurious mother, and a ruthless uncle,

and corporate capitalism (symbolized by

New York high rise money):

Almereyda

 The film takes its epilogue from lines Hamlet

perhaps wrote for the Player King:



Our wills and fates do so contrary run

That our devices still are overthrown;

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:

(3.2.209-211)

Problems with Almereyda verison

 The lines that immediately follow reveal Hamlet‟s obsession with

his mother.



So think thou wilt no second husband wed;

But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.

(3.2.212-213)

 This may be a second-rate thought, like the rest of the play within

a play.

 The film therefore alters the context of the lines it takes as an

epilogue

 just as Olivier, but here the reason may be anti-Freud, where Olivier

stressed Hamlet‟s attraction to his mother).

Problems with Almereyda verison

The film does not focus on Hamlet‟s

idealism.

 Not enough emphasis is given to what

Hamlet says about the difference between

his ideals and the sordid reality of the

world. The film perhaps tries to get us to

take the Dahli Llama stuff seriously(the

best part of the film), but fails to carry

through in the second half.

Alm Problems with Almereyda

verison ereyda

 The film wrongly debases Hamlet‟s

stature,

It does not do enough to show that side of him that is intelligent and

courageous (able to out-duel a man whom Lamord (death) called

the greatest swordsman in France--4.7.90)

The film dresses him like a be-drugged tramp, hardly the man

Ophelia called “Th‟expectancy and rose of the fair state, / The

glass of fashion and the mold of form” (3.1.155-156), even after

Hamlet berates her (unless the knit hat and period motorcycle and

electronic gadgetry is meant to be ultra-cool).

R & G Are Dead

 Hamlet says “whiff and wind” speech during dinner

with R&G , suggesting it‟s on his mind

 but indoor setting loses force of “overhanging firmament”

 Film eliminates problem of tedious fourth act by

avoiding question of Claudius‟s guilt

 since R & G died in act four, act 5 is presented as a mime in

the play-within-a-play scene

 Claudius sees his past in Mousetrap, but R&G can‟t see their

future

R & G Are Dead

 Makes Hamlet a romance rather than a

tragedy.

 Romances hide social domination, which

define good and evil, but projecting good and

evil as magic.

 Acting can be good or bad, so it‟s magic

 Fortune can be good or bad, so it is really about

social domination

R&G Are Dead

 Modes of social control change as economy

changes

 R & G fore-feel modern science

 but they can‟t escape their world or

 they wonder if they should follow instructions to put

Hamlet to death

 but they can‟t escape hierarchy of power (orders from the

king), meaning they glimpse fact that but can‟t understand

that they are actors in that “world” (like all of us in our

worlds)

Professor Ross‟s view

 This is a play about not knowing, or being

certain, how to behave.

 Customs seem to determine what is right and

wrong, not the other way around.

 Hamlet wonders about Purgatory, mourning,

dating, fencing, remarriage, succession, action,

acting, drinking, custom itself, believing a ghost.

 See Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead for

film approach to these issues.

Customs in Hamlet



Customs define society

They are determined by the mores (pn,

morays), that is, example and

experience, and are not necessarily

rational.

Customs in Hamlet

 Customs give social certainty to uncertain situations, but what if one

does not know the local custom?

 When to put on one‟s hat or take it off (Osric in 5.282-193)

 What to believe (“defy augury” or see providence in the fall of a

sparrow [Ophelia?], 5.2.219)

 Why does Hamlet duel, knowing the king is trying to kill him?

Suicidal, thinking of Ophelia? Afraid to act? Thinks he has time?

Perhaps it is not his custom to kill: he rejects the unwritten law,

the customs or honor and revenge.

Much Ado about Nothing

Horses and Hollywood

 Film is static, unlike stage, which changes every night,

but horses constantly move, even on the static screen,

and so are always interesting.

 shots of hooves, different gaits (walk, trot, cantor, gallop) give

illusion of change even when seen twice

 No deer in the headlights: horses always natural,

unlike actors or trained animals

 Three taboos of stage: real death, real sex, live horses

galloping--only last is impossible, needs film.

Missing Horses

and Shakespeare on Film

 Ironic my kingdom for a horse in R3, when

jeep is stuck

 Dogberry‟s pretend horse

 The hobby horse (worn around the waist

 Hamlet, Much Ado, also fake rape in R&G Are

Dead)

Plato



 Comedy offers malicious enjoyment through

the spectacle of those deficient in self-

knowledge (agnoia, Philebus 48c) and the

ridiculous consequences which follow from

exaggerated self-esteem.

 The “ridiculous” is the bad state of a mind that

does not “know itself” (the lesson of the Oracle

of Delphi)

Theory of Comedy

Tragedy is about the break-up of civilization.

Comedy is about the establishment of social harmony.

Both are dramatic terms of art: thus “tragedy” is not the

same as “horrible” and comedies can be bittersweet

as well as funny.

Drama is not life, but ritual: thus Shakespeare ends

comedies in weddings as a sign, not a proof, of social

stability: 3 weddings in MSND; 2 in Much Ado

(What happens after, who knows? Cf. the marital problems of Oberon and

Titania: but you need hope.)

Comedy

 From Shakespeare: Script, Stage, Screen, pp. 73-75

 Impossible to define

 Definite kinds, low to high

 Reformation of a (ridiculous) character

 Holiday spirit

 Ritual element (marriage)

 Comic diction

End of Monty Python and the

Meaning of Life

 Sense of moral uplift for vile humans

 “Montage” of death

 Dinner party as image of social communion

 Outsider/scapegoat to remove evil

 Hint of heaven

 Rebirth after death

 Music and harmony

 Message: be kind to others

Comedy: For you to think about.



What elements of comedy do you find in

Much Ado About Nothing that makes it

“serious” art?

Does Branagh leave any out?

Does he add any?

Hint: Why does Hero seem to die and

then come back to life?

Endings

 Where film must start strongly, it is arguable that

drama must end strongly.

 Compare the whirling camera at the end of Branagh‟s

Much Ado to his use of stage show motifs in his

Love’s Labor’s Lost and the same motif that ends The

Meaning of Life, the 1983 Monty Python film.

 Perhaps this uplifting harmony is the comedic version

of Aristotle‟s emphasis on the effect of drama on the

audience.

Music in Much Ado, to reinforce

sense of social harmony

 Benedick asks Claudio “In what key shall a man take

you to go in the song?”

 Beatrice reacting to Hero‟s impending marriage: “the

fault will be in time to the music: wooing, wedding, and

repenting” (2.1.73)

 Balthasar‟s song is part of Don Pedro‟s plot (2.3)

 Beatrice, appearing in love in 3.4, says she is “out of

tune”

 Benedick calls for a dance to end the play.

“Nothing/Nothing” as the

Ridiculous?

 This is a play about “nothing,” scrutinizing for little

signs of truth, relying on fallible eyes, as when

Beatrice and Benedick ignore the other‟s words and

look for signs that the other loves them.

 While B and B are examining minutia, Claudio is

deceived by the overly obvious impersonation of Hero

by Margaret. He is not at all interested in the signs of

love but in marrying an heiress with the sought after

qualities of beauty and meekness (neither one said to

belong to Beatrice, whose name, rather, suggests

beatitude, or cosmic happiness, while Benedick

means “blessed”)

pun on “nothing” 2.3.48

BALTHASAR

Because you talk of wooing, I will sing;

Since many a wooer doth commence his suit

To her he thinks not worthy, yet he woos,

Yet will he swear he loves.

DON PEDRO

Now, pray thee, come;

Or, if thou wilt hold longer argument,

Do it in notes.

BALTHASAR

Note this before my notes;

There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.

DON PEDRO

Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks;

Note, notes, forsooth, and nothing.

Sigh no more … men were

deceivers ever

 Sung just before men deceive Benedick

 Balthasar says the song is about how men deceive

women by wooing falsely.

 But Don Pedro wants the music (Note, notes) and

“nothing” of that meaning but rather, here, a set-up for

the “nothing = noting” by Benedick of their feigned

conversation about how Beatrice loves him.

 So the play harmonizes or softens male deception by

turning it from a slander to a merry plot, re-enacting

origins of comedy as a form.

Film v. Drama

 Film stresses opening; drama depends on how the

captive audience leaves the theater: stunned in

tragedy, uplifted by comedy.

 Film is static: the interpretation never changes, no

matter how many times we see the film; but drama

can change every night, as an actor gives different

emphasis. Even on the same night, the same play

may seem different, depending on the angle and

distance of the spectator.

Much Ado About Nothing

 Why does the play have a double plot?

 To suggest contrast between physical attraction and

intellectual compatibility

 After all I have said about spectacle, what argument

can you make for reading the play?

 thinking about “Beatrice” as a name meaning beatitude, for

example, which reminds us of heaven, harmony, uplift, role of

comedy.

 Don Pedro especially is very thoughtful, a master of

ceremonies, a user of heightened language that we need to

ponder over at leisure; see 5.3.24-28, as he announces the

new dawn, new day, after mourning ritual for “dead” Hero

Macbeth



Notice how closely the supernatural

opening of Macbeth duplicates the

complex elements used for elevate

comedy at the end of Monty Python‟s

The Meaning of Life and the long dance

at the end of Much Ado About Nothing.

 Monty Python

Shakespeare uses short and “headless”

lines to suggest the supernatural









 ] When shall we three meet again?

 In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Irony and ambiguity:

Ross

1.2: He reports how Macbeth defeated

the Thane of Cawdor and Sweno, the

king of Norway.

This repeats what the Captain has said.

Is Ross Macbeth‟s agent?

Polanski makes him the “third murderer”

The set up for irony

 Macbeth tells Duncan he will “make joyful / The

hearing of my wife with your approach” 1.4.45

 Lady Macbeth says “The raven himself is hoarse /

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan / Under my

battlements” (1.5.38-41)

 And Duncan: “This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air

/ Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself / Unto our

gentle senses” (1.6.1-3)

1.3: Adventurers of the first witch



 A sailor‟s wife had chestnuts in her lap,

 And munched, and munched, and munched.

“Give me,” quoth I.





 Outlandish revenge for small insults typical of

incompetent witches.

 Not in Polanski

1.3: More adventurers of the first

witch

 “Aroint thee, witch!” the rump-fed runnion cries.



 Her husband‟s to Aleppo gone, master o‟th‟ Tiger.



 The second line does not scan: essentially prose, as the witch turns to

short, happy verse as she plans her revenge:





 But in a sieve I‟ll thither sail,

 And like a rat without a tail

 I‟ll do, I‟ll do, I‟ll do.

1.3: More adventurers of the first

witch

 limited powers

 the witch cannot kill

 Control of the weather



Second witch: I‟ll give thee a wind.

...

First witch: Though his bark cannot be lost,

Yet it shall be tempest tossed.

Clothing and baby images



 Macbeth (1.3.108):

The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress

me in borrowed robes? (prose)



• Macbeth (1.3.108):

[Aside to Banquo]:

Do you not hope your children shall be kings?

Moral clarity



Contrast Hamlet

Compare to theme of doublings





Banquo (1.3.121):

And oftentimes to win us to our harm

The instruments of darkness tell us truths.

Time (tomorrow and tomorrow)

 Macbeth struggles with predestination, restlessness.

 Ignores Banquo‟s garment image and completes either

Banquo‟s verse line or his own! (1.3.145-149)



If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me

Without my stir.

Banquo: New honors come upon him

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold

But with the aid of use.

Macbeth [aside]: Come what come may,

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

Double dealing

Duncan: There‟s no art

To find the mind‟s construction in the face.

He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust. (1.4.11-12)





Lady Macbeth:

Your face, my thane, is as a book where men

May read strange matters. (1.5.62) ( true? Or hallucination?)

Highly charged language









If it were done when „tis done, then „twere well

It were done quickly. If th‟assassination

Could trammel up the consequence, and catch

With his surcease success . . . . (1.7.2-4)

Reasons for not killing Duncan:





 Bad precedent (“teach bloody instruction”)

 Double trust of guest and kinsman

 Virtues and popularity of king

 No “spur”

Film technique:

“If it were done”



 Use multiple shots

 Move through space

 Find visual equivalents for word images:

 Musicians

 Dinner and toast

 Singing Fleance

 Wind and lamps

 Storm and horses

 Castle in distance

Dinner = hospitality (trust as

guest)

Thunder prelude to music

Musicians

Boy singing

 “Equivocal love song, a warning

 Young boy as prophet, cf. 4.1.

 Ross in control

 Dinner = Harmony; communion,

 Lady Macbeth flirts

Back to head shot

Stormy night



 Horses = passions of Macbeth‟s soul

 Visual equivalent for Lennox‟s description of

the night (2.3.55 ff.)

Macbeth alone

 Follows text: “left the chamber”

 Rain

 Head shot = mental cogitation

Mixed metaphor



 Lady Macbeth: Was the hope drunk wherein

you dressed yourself? (1.7.37)

 Is this part of Lady M‟s character?

Mixed metaphor



 Lady Macbeth: If he

do bleed, / I‟ll gild

the faces of the

grooms withal, / For

it must seem their

guilt (2.2.62)

 Is this part of Lady

M‟s character?

Lady Macbeth‟s arguments for

murder

Don‟t be drunk or sleepy

Show you love me

Banish fear

“ornament of life”

Don‟t be a coward

Be a man, not a beast.

Be a man

Lennox? Motivation?

1.7: Action



 “Away, and mock the time with fairest show.

 False face must hide what the false heart doth

know.”

Moral moment (2.1.27)

2.1.36

Multisyllables v. Monosyllables

Will all great Neptune‟s ocean

wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No, this

my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas

incarnadine,

Making the green one red.

Dramatic irony



 “A little water clears us of this deed” (2.2.72)

Macbeth as tragic



 admirable, meditative man

 not a happy murderer, like Richard III

 not immune to temptation

 caught in a world of equivocations

 himself a bit of a liar, like all of us

 shows how a good man can go horribly wrong,

producing pity and fear