Macbeth  

 

 

Study Guide Macbeth by William Shakespeare Directed by Alan Stanford Cast Macbeth: David Whalen Lady Macbeth: Gayle Pazerski Also featuring: Justin R.G. Holcomb, Patrick Jordan, James FitzGerald, Martin Giles, J. Alex Noble, Karen Baum, Erin Whitcomb, Lily Davis, Cassidy Adkins, Amy Wooler, Luke Hafferty, Dylan Marquis Myers, Tom Driscoll, Alex Knell, David Bielewicz, John Henry Steelman, Julian Ludwig Scenic design by Michael Essad Costume design by Michael Montgomery Lighting design by Cat Wilson Sound design by Liz Atkinson Study Guide Prepared by Kristen L. Olson, Ph.D. © 2014 Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre

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Education and Enrichment Program Sponsors:

ARAD, First National Bank of Pennsylvania, Henry C. Frick Educational Fund of the Buhl Foundation, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Levin Furniture, Maher Duessel, McKinney Charitable Foundation through PNC Charitable Trust Grant Review Committee, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, PPG Foundation, Ryan Memorial Foundation, United Concordia Companies, Inc., UPMC Health Plan and generous individual donors.

Additional sponsorship from the National Endowment for the Arts

for previous productions of Shakespeare.

 

Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre (PICT) is one of 40 professional theater companies selected to participate in Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national program of the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest, bringing the finest productions of Shakespeare to thousands of middle and high school students in communities across the United States. This is the eleventh year of Shakespeare in American Communities, the largest tour of Shakespeare educational productions in American history.

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Greeting to Teachers:

Our aim in assembling this guide is to help you integrate your class’ experience of the PICT production with your existing classroom activities. PICT’s “3 ACTS” program combines Pre-Performance Activities, Attendance at the Student Matinees, and Post-Performance Activities including assessment of student writing. PICT’s goal with our “3 ACTS” approach is to encourage students in the analysis and interpretation of great literature, providing students another audience for their writing, and teachers additional support for multiple educational initiatives. In addition to the English class, Macbeth has cross-curricular implications in psychology, philosophy & religious studies, theatre arts, music, and social studies. We offer these suggestions to supplement your own vision in the classroom. We encourage you to freely adapt any of the exercises offered here to fit your particular needs and those of your students. We also invite you to send your students’ writing to us for feedback. Each student will receive a personal response to his or her written work. We do not give grades, leaving that to your discretion. These essays make a nice contribution to a student’s personal writing portfolio! All suggested writing activities are founded on the PA Core Standards in English Language Arts and take into account the Literacy Framework of Pennsylvania as well as the guidelines as proffered by the National Council of Teachers of English. The PA Core Standards include: 1.2 Reading Informational Text 1.3 Reading Literature 1.4 Writing 1.5 Speaking and Listening We’re delighted to have you join us this season.

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Plot Summary Act 1 Three witches stand on a gloomy heath, anticipating an encounter with the noble warrior Macbeth. They utter an enigmatic contradiction: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” The action shifts to a battle. The elderly Scottish king, Duncan, asks a soldier fresh from the battlefield how the fight is progressing. He is especially anxious for news of his young son Malcolm. The soldier reports that Scotland’s generals, Macbeth and Banquo, have defeated enemy troops led by Macdonwald, a traitor to Duncan. Macbeth has killed Macdonwald, displaying his severed head on the castle battlements, and Malcolm has been rescued from capture. A nobleman, the Thane of Ross, enters from another part of the battle with more good news: another enemy army has been defeated, and its leader, the Thane of Cawdor, another traitor to Duncan, has been captured. Duncan declares that Cawdor will be put to death and that Macbeth will assume the title of Thane of Cawdor in gratitude for his leadership and loyalty. Unaware of these developments, Macbeth and Banquo make their way back to Duncan’s court. The witches appear out of the darkness, and greet Macbeth by name. They call him Thane of Glamis, his current title, but also Thane of Cawdor, and foretell that he will become king and that Banquo will become the father of kings. The witches then vanish, leaving Macbeth and Banquo to puzzle through their predictions. Before the men get very far, they are met by Ross and another nobleman, Angus, who inform them of Duncan’s orders and that (voila!) Macbeth has been named Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth is fascinated by the witches’ accuracy, wondering what power they have and how their other predictions might come true. Banquo warns him that evil forces can use knowledge to exploit humans’ weaknesses: “instruments of darkness tell us truths…to betray us in deepest consequence” (1.3.133-35), but Macbeth remains preoccupied with the witches’ words. When they arrive at court, the king thanks Banquo and Macbeth for their loyalty. With his kingdom secure, he announces his plan to pass the throne to his son. He is confident that Malcom will be a strong king with the support and protection of the loyal thanes. Macbeth thanks Duncan for the title of Cawdor, and earnestly reiterates his loyalty, while silently noting that Malcolm now stands in the way of the witches’ prediction. Plans are made for Duncan to visit Macbeth’s home, a great honor, and Macbeth goes to prepare for the arrival of the king’s entourage. Macbeth is preceded by his letter to his wife telling her of his ascension to Thane of Cawdor. In it, he also shares his encounter with the witches. As their prophecy did for Macbeth, the letter awakens in Lady Macbeth a glimpse of a future in which they become the country’s rulers. When Lady Macbeth learns that Duncan will be in their home that night, she conceives a plan to make that vision a reality, by murdering the king. Macbeth initially refuses, reasoning that Duncan is a good and virtuous ruler who has placed his trust in Macbeth, perhaps no more so than tonight, when he sleeps under Macbeth’s protection. Macbeth is also loyal to his wife, and wants to provide for her everything that he can. He further sees in her the potential to be a strong queen, and to raise sons with the same virtues of strength and courage. He also knows he would be a good king, and is eager to lead the country. Macbeth concludes that he must wait, however; that his own ambition is not sufficient reason for killing the king. Lady Macbeth views this change of heart as a lack of courage, and accuses him of failing in his duty to her and to the country in the most fundamental ways. She resolves to carry out the murder herself. She plans to let Duncan’s guards become drunk, and as they sleep, fatally stab the king and smear his blood on the guards so that they appear responsible for his death. Macbeth still hesitates, but then agrees to the plan.

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Act 2 Late that night, Banquo and his son Fleance are walking through the dark corridors of Macbeth’s castle. Banquo has been haunted in his sleep by thoughts of the witches. When Macbeth encounters them, he tells his friend to dismiss those thoughts, like he has done—words of comfort, but also a lie. Left alone, Macbeth sees a foreboding vision of a dagger floating in the air. It seems so real that he reaches for it, but concludes that his mind is simply unsettled. He firms his resolve just as he hears a bell, Lady Macbeth’s signal that the guards are asleep. Moments later, we see Lady Macbeth standing alone while Macbeth carries out the murder in the next room. She hears a scream and fears the plan has failed. Macbeth rushes out, badly shaken, his hands covered in blood. Lady Macbeth comforts him, but then notices that he still has the daggers in his hands. Furious, she rushes back into the room to stage the crime scene. Macbeth hears knocking at the castle door. The two are nervous, since their hands are figuratively and literally covered in blood, but Lady Macbeth insists that all will be well once they firm their resolve again: “A little water clears us of the deed. … Be not lost so poorly in your thoughts” (2.2.78-83). Macbeth cannot suppress his emotions, however. His response to Lady Macbeth reveals that he knows the action cannot be undone, and that he’ll never be able to reconcile it with his own sense of himself: “To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself” (2.2.84). The serious mood of the previous scenes is balanced by the comic entrance of the Porter. Dramatically, the audience needs a break at this point; things will turn dark and intense again quite quickly. The knocking that sent fear through Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is, to the Porter, simply a huge nuisance. It isn’t all a joke, however, since the Porter does compare his job to that of his counterpart posted at the gates of Hell. In one sense, the doors of Macbeth’s home have become portals to the darkest elements in human experience: murder and betrayal. In Dante’s Inferno, for instance, the lowest part of Hell is reserved for people who’ve betrayed those closest to them. But the Porter interlude diffuses some of the dramatic tension before the action accelerates again. The men admitted to the house are Lennox and Macduff, noblemen Duncan had asked to see. Macduff shortly discovers the murdered king, and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth act horrified and outraged. Malcolm and Donalbain, Duncan’s other son, arrive shortly and learn of the murder. They are told that the guards were suspected of the murder and that an enraged Macbeth has killed them in retribution. As these chaotic discoveries are unfolding, Lady Macbeth faints, and is carried off stage. Macbeth and Banquo convene the noblemen to discuss the actions to be taken now that Duncan is dead. Afraid for their own safety, the sons flee—Malcolm to England and Donalbain to Ireland. The scene closes Ross’ a foreboding recollection that unnatural events had taken place all week. Macduff emerges from the council of noblemen and shares the news that Macbeth has been named Duncan’s successor since the princes, having fled, are suspected of paying the guards to murder their father. Macbeth will travel to Scone to assume the Scottish crown. Act 3 The scene opens with Banquo thinking uneasily about the witches’ prophecy. Macbeth and Mady Macbeth enter, now king and queen, and invite Banquo to their coronation feast that night. Macbeth also quietly mentions to Banquo that they should discuss the looming threat of Malcolm

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and Donalbain. Everyone but Mabceth exits, leaving time for him to contemplate the rationale for his next actions. Macbeth reasons that his kingship is meaningless if not secure. He further resolves that it would be futile for him to have sacrificed all that he has if only on behalf of Banquo’s descendants, and that therefore he must kill both Banquo and Fleance to preserve his own kingship by preventing the second part of the witches’ prophecy from coming true. Two men are brought to Macbeth: murderers he has hired to complete that task. He convinces the murderers that Banquo is a threat, and that their actions are noble. Macbeth shares his plan with his wife. Though he feels anxious, he attributes it to uneasiness over not having the crown fully secured, with the final steps of the plan still to take place. As night falls, Banquo and Fleance make their way to Macbeth’s feast. The murderers find them and kill Banquo, though Fleance escapes, leaving open the possibility that he will avenge his father’s death and fulfill the witches’ prophecy. The feast is underway, when one of the murderers brings Macbeth the news that the plan was only partly successful. Returning to the table, Macbeth believes that he sees Banquo’s ghost in the empty chair. Macbeth addresses the ghost, though nobody else at the table sees it. Lady Macbeth explains her husband’s strange behavior by saying that he has these fits occasionally, and that they should pretend it isn’t happening or it will get worse. She takes Macbeth aside and criticizes his weakness of mind. They return to the table, clamed, but the ghost appears again. Unable to control her husband’s rantings, Lady Macbeth dismisses their guests. Alone, they calm each other. Macbeth resolves to seek out the witches again. Lady Macbeth suggests he needs to rest, and they retire. The witches appear on the heath amid thunder. They have angered Hecate, their queen and chief goddess of witchcraft, because they have spoken to Macbeth without her approval. The overturning of the natural order in the witches’ world parallels that of the human world. Hecate is most angered by the witches’ efforts on behalf of Macbeth, who she says “Loves for his own ends, not for you” (3.5.13). Hecate will pick up the witches’ work, playing on Macbeth’s (and, she says, all humans’) primary vulnerability: “He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear his hopes ‘bove wisdom, grace, and fear” (3.5.30-31). She will give him what he wants to hear: a prophecy that seems to ensure his future. Indeed, it does, but not in the way he thinks. Meanwhile, some of the nobles suspect Macbeth is behind the events that have led to his kingship. Although Banquo’s murder has been blamed on the absent Fleance, as Duncan’s had been on Malcolm and Donalbain, it all seems too perfect. The nobles have begin to resent Macbeth’s power, and begin to see him as a tyrant. Macduff goes to England, after Malcolm, to elicit aid from the king. Macbeth has learned of these plots, and considers them to be treachery. Act 4 Macbeth finds the witches, now led by Hecate, and insists that they answer his questions about his future. They produce three apparitions that confirm that he will remain king under several conditions. The first, a floating head clad for battle warns him to “beware Macduff” (4.1.77). Macbeth is happy to have his suspicions confirmed, and concludes he is therefore taking proper steps to ensure his place. The second, a bloody child, riddlingly urges, “Be bloody, bold and resolute: laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth” (4.1.85-87), and the third, a crowned child holding a tree branch, likewise confirms that Macbeth will only lose power when the seemingly impossible happens and a great forest moves up a hillside.

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Macbeth completely overlooks any ambiguity in the prophecies. They can be interpreted in a way that confirms the future Macbeth wants to ensure, so he does not consider any alternatives. The final vision troubles him, however: a line of eight kings with Banquo at the end carrying a mirror that makes the line appear to go on infinitely. Macbeth rages against this vision, but sharpens his resolve to preserve his rule as the witches abruptly vanish. Upon learning from Lennox that Macduff has gone to England, Macbeth orders the killing of Macduff’s wife and family. Macduff’s family represents the antithesis of Macbeth’s household. It is a nurturing environment for children, making the murder that much more tragic. When Macduff learns that his family is dead, he sinks into deep grief, but Malcolm urges him to transform his emotion to anger and exact revenge on Macbeth, and help Malcolm regain his rightful throne. Act 5 The scene shifts to the king’s household, where Lady Macbeth is rumored to have lost her mind. She wanders through the castle imagining her hands are covered with blood: “What, will these hands ne’er be clean? … Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”(5.1.40-47). Her words throughout the scene echo Macbeth’s upon his initial outrage after the murder, and become the direct inverse of her earlier words of comfort to her husband. Macbeth’s loss of introspection in the exchange with the witches in Act 4 is paralleled in Lady Macbeth’s more blatant loss of mental faculty. The other aspects of Macbeth’s world have begun to crumble, as well. The Scottish nobles universally consider Macbeth a tyrant, and are uniting the Scottish and English forces now led by Malcolm. The play compresses the action, shifting between Macbeth’s fragmenting interior world and the rising tide of battle against him outside. As Macbeth observes his wife’s mad ranting, he senses his plans are breaking down, though he cannot reconcile this suspicion with his certainly over the witches’ prophecy, which he believed made him invulnerable. He ultimately resigns himself to fate, accepting whatever will come. His final resolution is simple: he will fight against whatever threat presents itself. As the armies advance, carrying branches from the forest to disguise their numbers, Macbeth and Macduff square off. Macbeth learns that Macduff was not “born” in the traditional way, making the prophecies come true one-by-one. Macbeth fights valiantly, but is overthrown. Macduff enters with Macbeth’s severed head, the very same defeat Macbeth had exacted on the traitorous Cawdor. Malcolm declares that the nobles will be rewarded with new titles and lands. The play concludes with Malcolm’s invitation to the nobles to attend his coronation at Scone, as they had done for Macbeth not long before. The witches’ prophecies have been fulfilled, bringing the play full circle. The PICT production adapts the structure of the playscript to a more concise division of scenes, intended to represent, in director Alan Stanford’s words, a “universal cycle of tyranny”: The Prophecy: Macbeth learns he will rise to power, becoming king. The Murder: Macbeth murders the king and inherits the throne when the king’s sons flee. The Betrayal: Banquo is murdered. The Genocide: Macduff’s family is murdered; Macbeth will preserve power at all coasts. The Revenge: Macduff slays Macbeth; Malcolm is restored to the throne.

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“…how did you dare To trade and traffic with Macbeth

In riddles and affairs of death?” Riddles: Reasoning Through Language The opening scene of Macbeth sets a tone of ambiguity that persists deep into the play. Throughout the text, Shakespeare gives riddle after riddle, spoken not only by the witches but also by characters trying to make sense of their own experience. Below are some of the play’s most enigmatic word puzzles. Work through the possibilities for what these riddles say. There will be more than one option. Reason through the quote on its own first, then after you have a few plausible interpretations, set the quote in context and see how many of those possibilities remain relevant within the play. Fair is foul and foul is fair. (1.1.12) Naught’s had, all’s spent, Where our desire is got without content. ’Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. (3.2.6-9) Blood will have blood. (3.4.152) Twice done and then double done. (1.6.19) To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus. (3.1.51) Nothing is but what is not. (1.3.154-55)

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“Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valor

As thou art in desire? “

The Art of Persuasion Persuasion defines much of human experience. The dramatic turning point in this tragedy is Lady Macbeth’s persuasion of her husband to kill the king, a person to whom Macbeth is especially loyal. This exercise traces Lady Macbeth’s manipulation of Macbeth’s sense of duty Act 1.

1. Separate students into groups of 3 or 4. For each of the situations listed below, ask one student to play the part of the persuader, and another person to play the person who the persuader is trying to influence. The remaining students in the group should note the different tactics and tones used by the persuader. (Do not give specific instructions to the persuadee at this point; run the exercise first with focus on the persuader.)

Situation 1: Persuade your best friend to loan you money.

Situation 2: Persuade your parents to let you stay out later.

Situation 3: Persuade a teacher to take your late homework.

2. Once you’ve run the exercise initially, shift the focus to the persuadee. Give the student playing the persuadee role a responsive tone, having him or her react first in a positive, next in a negative, and finally in a neutral manner. As in the initial exercise, have the remaining students in the group record the different tones and tactics used by the persuader under these new conditions. Ask students to discuss the differences they noticed.

Pre-Performance Textual Analysis:

Have students examine Lady Macbeth’s persuasion of Macbeth that takes place across scenes 5 – 7 in Act 1; scene 7, in particular. What similarities to their own persuasion strategies do they notice in the exchange? Can the students pinpoint a moment where Macbeth turns to Lady Macbeth’s perspective? Is it in a word? Would it be performed with a gesture?

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Post-PICT Performance:

What do the actors do in their performance to indicate the relationship between persuader and persuadee?

List some specific actions that demonstrate the degree to which Lady Macbeth’s admonitions penetrate Macbeth’s sense of loyalty.

Explain how the blocking/staging reinforces this relation.

Further Writing Prompts: Self-Persuasion: Describe a situation in which you were persuaded by someone to do something that you did not expect you would do or to believe something you did not expect to believe. Did it change how you felt about yourself? About the person who changed your mind? We can affirm our own beliefs just as we would attempt to lead another person to rationalize a particular act. Describe a decision you made where you had to convince yourself of a certain idea or to take a certain action. Examine Macbeth’s self-persuasion in his two early soliloquies: “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly … Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’other” (1.7.1-28) “Is this a dagger which I see before me … I go and it is done: the bell invites me” (2.2.40-69) What initiates his action in each scene? What makes him hesitate?

“Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life

And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would?”

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“See, see our honored hostess!—

The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love.”

Hosts and guests At one time in their etymological history, the words “host” and “guest” were the same: “ghosti.” It is still easy to see pieces of each modern word in this root. Even though they are opposites in today’s usage, “host” and “guest” remain inherently connected. Their shared linguistic origin preserves the idea that hosts and guests are interdependent, that one does not exist without the other. The murder of Duncan is especially poignant because Duncan is a guest in Macbeth’s home when the act is committed. Macbeth even remarks on it:

He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. (1.7.12-16)

Writing Prompts If you are a guest, what do you expect from your host? What do you need from your host? As a host, what do you feel toward your guest? Who has more power in a host/guest relationship? If you are a host, are you stronger/more dominant in the relationship than your guest, or is your guest stronger than you? In what way is the king a host of a country? Is that relationship reciprocal?

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“Thou com’st to use thy tongue: thy story quickly.” Group Activity: One-Minute Macbeth Instructions to be given to students: If you’ve ever seen the Reduced Shakespeare Company, you’ll know that they are famous for skits such as “The Great Literature of the World in 30 Minutes,” “The Five-Minute Hamlet,” “The Two-Minute Hamlet,”...even “The Backwards Thirty-Second Hamlet.” In that spirit, compose, with your group members, your own version of the “One-Minute Macbeth,” which you will then perform for the class. Your “script” will be comprised of quotes from the play, spoken by the appropriate character(s). (Usually, the shorter the line, the better.) Be sure that you include relevant characters in your version, be sure to hit the major themes, and be sure to follow, as best you can, the dramatic momentum of the play. You may have one person play more than one character (the “doubling” of roles was a frequent practice in Shakespeare’s company), but be certain that it doesn’t confuse your audience; or better—use it to raise interesting parallels between characters through this performance strategy. The primary objective is to think through the entire narrative of the play, determining which actions are crucial, which actions lead to one another, and how these actions represent the major themes of the play. Post-Activity Writing Prompt What part(s) of this exercise proved to be the most challenging? Why do you think that is? How did you solve that problem?

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“…all you have done Hath been but for a wayward son,

Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do, Loves for his own ends, not for you.”

Machiavellian Rationale Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are able to rationalize actions that would seem impossible to justify. From their perspective, even murder and treason against a virtuous and benevolent king are noble acts that will benefit not only their personal ambition but also the wellbeing of the entire country. The 16th-century political philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli, authored an influential treatise titled, The Prince, which influenced Shakespeare’s own queen, Elizabeth I. Elizabeth remained a strong and stable ruler—a rarity at the time, and England grew into a prosperous and influential nation under her successful reign based in part on ideas having their roots in Machiavellian precepts. A key tenet from The Prince is often distilled down to the aphorism: “The ends justify the means.” The idea behind it is a bit more complex, but the premise follows that the perspective of a ruler acting on behalf of his/her nation has the duty to benefit him/herself because doing so will benefit the nation:

In the actions of all men, and especially of princes…one looks to the results. Therefore, let a prince win and maintain his state: and the means will always be judged honorable and lauded by everyone. (The Prince, XVIII)

Of course, the problem with perspective is that you can only see your own. It becomes difficult for “princes” to distinguish their personal desires from national ones. This is a fundamental tendency of human nature…not just the particular tendency of those with access to power. We want what we want, and we can rationalize that desire very effectively. We can often surprise ourselves. Writing Prompts: Describe a time where you rationalized something you did that you’d never thought you would do, because it helped you get something you wanted. Would you do the same thing again? Would you do something like it? What would you change? There are countless examples in popular culture where virtuous and ambitious characters lose sight of themselves. Only rarely are these characters kings, queens, or superheroes. Consider Andrea in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), for example. Can you think of other examples in popular culture?

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Textual Analysis Activities: Where in the play do you hear Lady Macbeth and Macbeth rationalizing? What lines, specifically? Why do these thoughts seem like rationalizing? In this scene, the noblemen look to Macduff to bring justice to the country again:

LORD: The son of Duncan, From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, Lives in the English court and is received Of the most pious Edward with such grace That the malevolence of fortune nothing Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff Is gone to pray the holy king upon his aid To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward That, by the help of these (with Him above To ratify the work), we may again Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives, Do faithful homage, and receive free honors, All which we pine for now. … ………………………………. LENNOX: … a swift blessing May soon return to this our suffering country Under a hand accursed. (3.6.25-52)

Was Macbeth any less honest or earnest than Macduff in wanting to protect his homeland? Than Malcolm? What are the differences between these characters? Not only leaders rationalize—citizens also rationalize their acts based on what we want to happen. When everybody likes Macbeth, they sing his praises as king. When nobody likes Macbeth anymore, they find rationale to hate him, and to kill him. Identify things characters say about Macbeth and about Lady Macbeth throughout the play, noting especially the act, scene, and line number. Place these lines in chronological order. Is there an abrupt change or is it gradual? What is the turning point? Fill in the key event(s) in between the change in perspective and underline that sentence. Compare the comments on one side of the line to those on the other.

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Remember the Porter: Minor Characters Speak the Truth Minor Character I: The Porter

“Knock, knock, never at quiet! What are you?” The Porter provides some much-needed comic relief amid all of the serious action and nearly desperate pace of the play. Writing Prompts What elements are funny about the Porter? What concerns occupy his mind the most? What are his chief ambitions? In what way(s) is he relatable? What would you have him wearing if you were the costumer for the production? Why? The Porter’s joking lines about the inherently contradictory properties of liquor, such as “It provokes and unprovokes” (2.3.26), echo Lady Macbeth’s much darker observations in the preceding scene about alcohol’s effects on the guards and on her resolve to carry out the murder: “That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold. What hath quenched them hath given me fire” (2.2.1-2). What other images or actions from the Porter’s scene have counterparts elsewhere in the play? What truths about human nature does the Porter observe that are important to the play?

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Minor Character II: Hecate

“I, the mistress of your charms, The close contriver of all harms,

Was never called to bear my part Or show the glory of our art”

Though Macbeth mentions her twice, Hecate appears only briefly in the play. She is angry when she does appear, because even her subordinate witches have overlooked her importance. We, the audience and readers—even scholars—tend to do the same. Some of Hecate’s aphorisms, however, contain the clearest articulation in the play of truths about human nature. When Macbeth first puzzles through the witches’ prophecy, he reasons, “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus” (3.1.51), concluding, essentially, “What good is power if you don’t have the power to retain power?” Subsequently, he exercises poor or partial judgment in nearly every action he takes. Writing Prompts What central vulnerability in human nature is revealed in Hecate’s claim about how humans exercise judgement based on their need for, or assumptions about, the “security” of their position? How does Hecate plan to exploit this vulnerability in Macbeth? Thither he Will come to know his destiny. Your vessels and your spells provide, Your charms and everything beside. I am for th’ air. This night I’ll spend Unto a dismal and a fatal end. Great business must be wrought ere noon. Upon the corner of the moon There hangs a vap’rous drop profound. I’ll catch it ere it come to ground, And that, distilled by magic sleights, Shall raise such artificial sprites As by the strength of their illusion Shall draw him on to his confusion. He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear His hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear. And you all know, security Is mortals’ chiefest enemy. (5.3. 16-33)

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“Where the place? Upon the heath.

There to meet with Macbeth.”

PICT Production-Specific Writing Prompts Pre-performance writing prompts A set can be elaborate or minimalist. In a famous Royal Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth directed by Trevor Nunn in 1978, the set consisted only of a dark playing space occasionally defined by pools of light. The characters wore simple black garments. The only additional elements were glimpses of white cloth, and red blood. Essentially, this minimal color contrast was the setting.

Ian McKellan as Macbeth; Judi Dench as Lacy Macbeth Dir. Trevor Nunn, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1978 Think through the different options for shaping a minimalist set: Set Design: What would the playing space look like? Would it be realistic, looking like actual rooms or natural environment? Would the scenery change or would the set remain the same throughout the play?

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Lighting Design: How would you light the production? Would the setting be predominantly dark or light? Would the tones be black-and-white? Would you use colors? Which colors? Would the light change or stay the same throughout the production? How do those choices affect the mood of the play?

Judi Dench as Lacy Macbeth Dir. Trevor Nunn, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1978 Costume Design What would your characters wear? What materials would you use? What color palate would you choose? Natural tones? Vibrant colors? Would the actors blend into their surroundings or stand out in stark contrast?

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PICT Production: Set Model by Michael Essad:

Writing Prompts What mood does the staging establish for the play? Does the set seem real or dreamlike? What three words come to mind at first glance?

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PICT Production: Costume Drawings by Michael Montgomery:

Hecate

Lady Macbeth

Writing Prompts In what ways are the costumes for Hecate and Lady Macbeth similar? In what ways do they differ? Do the two characters seem as though they will move in the same way? Describe the way in which you anticipate each character moving and speaking? What does that visual comparison suggest about the characters?

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PICT Production: Post-Performance Writing Prompts: Describe the set used in the PICT production of Macbeth.

How was it like what you expected?

How was it different from what you expected?

What did the choices made about the set add to the performance? What mood did the lighting establish? Did the lighting change significantly from scene to scene or was it constant?

What effect did that create?

The battle scenes were stylized using a slow-motion technique.

What is the effect of staging the action of battle in this way?

What impression did it create as you watched the play?

How did the battle scenes seem to relate to the other events in the play?

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“Round about the cauldron go.”

Supplemental Class Activity: Physicalizing Shakespeare’s Verse

The shifts between types of verse are especially prominent in Macbeth. Attending to these transitions is important as an academic exercise, but making this discrimination second-nature takes some practice. We say that, as with music, we need to develop an “ear” for verse. Doing so often means getting the entire body involved. Several of the exercises suggested by Rex Gibson and Janet Field-Pickering’s Discovering Shakespeare’s Language effectively engage children—and students of all ages—with rhyme and meter. The exercise below is adapted from this text and Field-Pickering’s lesson on the Folger Institute website: In introducing Shakespeare to elementary students, the best place to start is with the rhythm of the language in Shakespeare's songs. Children respond to the sound and beat of Shakespeare as much as they respond to his wonderful stories and characters. Shakespeare's predominant verse meter was iambic. A unit of iambic meter, called an iambic foot, consists of a soft stress followed by a sharp one: da-DUM. (A good example of an everyday word that acts as an iambic foot is toDAY.) Shakespeare wrote most of his poetry in iambic pentameter, five units of iambic beat to a line: "But SOFT, what LIGHT through YONder WINdow BREAKS." daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM But a lot of the songs from his plays are written in iambic tetrameter, four units of iambic beat to a line: You SPOTted SNAKES with DOUble TONGUE daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM Spells and incantations are also often written in a tetrameter pattern, using a trochaic stress pattern—the reverse of the iambic: instead of daDUM, it goes DAdum: DOUble DOUble TOIL and TROUble. This rhythm is especially easy for children to physicalize, and is the basis for a game called “Round the Cauldron Go”: Students are asked to march in a circle to the rhythm of the witches’ speeches in Macbeth as the text is read aloud to them. Instruct students that when the reader pauses they should, in time with their marching, chant, “DOUble, DOUble TOIL and TROUble: FIre, BURN; and, CAULdron BUBble.” Have students begin marching with the reading of the line, “Round about the cauldron go,” continuing with the text as follows:

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Reader: Round about the cauldron go; In the poisoned entrails throw.— Toad, that under cold stone Days and nights has thirty-one Swealter’d venom, sleeping got, Boil thou first in the charmed pot. Students: Double, double toil and trouble: Fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble. Reader: Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog… Students: Double, double… Reader: Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing, . . . . . . . . . . . . For a charm of powerful trouble, [In the cauldron] boil and bubble. Students: Double, double… Reader: Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf; Witches’ mummy; maw, and gulf, Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark; Root of hemlock, digged in the dark… Students: Double, double… Reader: Add thereto a tiger’s chauldron, For the ingredients of our cauldron . . . . . . . . . . . . Cool it with a baboon’s blood: Then the charm is firm and good. Students: Double, double…

(4.1. 4–38)

In this exercise, the students experience a physical recognition of the metrical pattern of these lines. In addition, the circular pattern in which they march replicates the imagined stirring of the cauldron’s contents, thus the students are enacting not only the metrical pattern but also dramatizing the action of stirring being described.

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Sources:

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince. Trans. and ed. Angelo M. Codevilla. (Yale University Press, 1997).

Rex Gibson and Janet Field-Pickering, Discovering Shakespeare’s Language (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998).

Teaching Materials and Resources. Janet Field-Pickering, “It’s Elementary: Romping and Stomping with Shakespeare.” February 2000. The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Folger Institute. <http://folger.edu/eduLesPlanDtl.cfm?lpid=515>;

Teaching Materials and Resources. Janet Field-Pickering, “32-Second Macbeth.” December 2001. Folger Shakespeare Library, Folger Institute. <http://www.folger.edu/eduLesPlanDtl.cfm?lpid=616>

Teaching Materials and Resources. Lee Wilson, “Persuasive Speech in Shakespeare.” December 2006. The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Folger Institute. 29 March 2007. <http://folger.edu/eduLesPlanDtl.cfm?lpid=766>.

Line references are to the RSC Shakespeare edition of Macbeth, eds. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen (New York: Modern Library, 2009)