january 25

JOURNAL TOPIC:
What do you think of when you see the word FUTURE?  Do your ideas depend on your experience in the past, or your imagination, or both?  Please explain.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
3. Macbeth post
3. Continue reading (if time)

POST:
Answer the following questions from the scenes we've read so far.  Instead of numbering your answers like a high school student, write the answers in complete, connected sentences that form paragraphs, so that your post looks like your own original explanation of the play -- and you look like a boss. (title: THE BEGINNING OF MACBETH, EXPLAINED)

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 do 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?