- Last week, we spent some time discussing the relationship between power and the supernatural. We talked specifically about the way Billy Pilgrim, in Slaughterhouse V, uses the supernatural (or at least unnatural) power of time travel to escape the forces of history. How, though, do we see characters in Macbeth succumbing to or escaping supernatural powers? By looking closely at IV.i, think about the specific powers of the supernatural in Macbeth. What can the three witches do? To what extent can characters in Macbeth escape this power? What is the category crisis here?
- What categories of gender does Macbeth set up? How does the play throw these categories into crisis? Think both about the larger structure of the play -- particularly its emphasis on inheritance and succession -- but focus on one or two speeches that taclke the suggestions and ambiguities of gender. There are many moments you might think about; here is a smattering of lines:
- I.v.40ff: "Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here..."
- II.iii.83ff: "O gentle lady, / 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: / The repetition in a woman's ear / Would murther as it fell"
- III.iv57: "Are you a man?"
- IV.i.79ff: "laugh to scorn / The pow'r of man; for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth"
- V.viii.17f: "Accursed be the tongue that tells me so, / For it hath cow'd my better part of man!"
- Prof. Dubrow has spoken about the significance of naming and predication as rhetorical systems in Macbeth. Think about a third (but related) system: lists. How do lists relate to naming and predication? How do they work as speech acts -- what are their direct and indirect effects? IV.i is rich with lists, but look also at lists elsewhere in the play, e.g. III.i.91ff.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Discussion questions (week 11)
Our focus in discussion this Friday will be IV.i, the show of kings scene. You might answer the following questions in reference to this specific scene, but I urge you to think about the relationship between the way these images and techniques appear not only in IV.i but everywhere in Macbeth...
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3 comments:
I understand that we are allowed to post up to 5 online discussion responses for participation points so here it goes.
I thought it was interesting when the class discussed the idea of whether or not the characters possessed free will--specifically with the supernatural. I believe the supernatural do in fact have free will and they use it to control the mortal characters of the story, much like what happened in Midsummer Nights Dream with the fairies and the lovers. I almost feel like Shakespeare is presenting an idea that we as humans are inherently good natured creatures that find ourselves incapable of controlling our actions--if they be good or bad. Everything we do is because of what some supernatural entity wants us to do. Humans are inherently good and innocent because essentially all decisions we make are not of our own. Humans almost appear to be pawns in a larger than life game of chess between the super/mythological/supernatural powers.
Carl Kaiser
Discussion 307
Ahhh, I desperately hope that we humans are not pawns in someone/something’s game. You can argue that the characters of MB are destined to make the choices they do, but is that the same thing as having their decisions made for them?
If Macbeth's actions had been made for him by the supernatural I do not believe we would have seen the remorse we do from him at the end of the play.
I would like to suggest that the behavior of the witches, their ridiculous and almost irritating role in MB, is meant to be seen as ludicrous. Shakespeare includes the witches in MB to make the point that humans are not controlled by the supernatural. We humans are not under the spell of these crazy women rhyming about a stew made with strangled baby fingers and a Jew's liver, rather humans need to take responsibility for their actions and stop looking for someone or something to blame for their bad decisions.
I, like Kathy, seriously doubt the supernatural power as being external beings in Macbeth, and not at all like Oberon or the fairies. Rather, I believe that Shakespeare included the witches and the supernatural nature as a way of helping explain the human condition that leads people such as Macbeth to kill their friends in order to become more powerful. It seems that the witches are, in essence, Shakespeare's way of portraying what really goes on the in the heads of murderers. To quote Kathy, "I would like to suggest that the behavior of the witches, their ridiculous and almost irritating role in MB, is meant to be seen as ludicrous." I agree with this completely, but think that it should be seen under a different light. People's minds, especially those of a guilt-ridden murderer, or even a person who is preoccupied with something else, are often reduced to being completely ridiculous and utterly irritating. Under this viewpoint, Macbeth did have complete free will, but, when he thought about it, he on a whim decided to do it, and then regretted it (when the witches give Macbeth the prophesy about his death, and his slowly going insane), which, under normal circumstances, would be an average response. Many have done things on a whim and lived to regret them.
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