Discussion questions (week 12)

1. [This question is more or less a repeat of question 3 from our last discussion. You are welcome to recycle your notes.] Look back at your notes from Prof. Dubrow’s lecture about soliloquies from two weeks ago, and particularly the way she connects the soliloquy to a specific function—the creation of sympathy between character and audience. Do the same with a different form: the list. What is the function of the list? Why are there so many in this play? Answer this question by looking closely at one list, e.g.
   • II.iii.28
   • III.i.91ff
   • IV.i passim
2. I am interested in seeing if we can use the form of discourse that seems to be at the heart of Macbeth to better understand its characters. How do Macbeth and Lady Macbeth soliloquize differently? How can we see the way they soliloquize as representative of differences in their characters?

   Look at four soliloquies: Lady Macbeth's "Unsex me here..." (I.v.38-54), Macbeth's "If it were done..." (I.vii.1-28) and his "Is this a dagger which I see before me..." (II.i.33-64), and Lady Macbeth's "Out, damn'd spot" (V.i.35-68). Here are some specific questions to work through:

   • How do the contexts of these soliloquies differ? Are they -- like the "Two truths are told" soliloquy -- just vocalizations of what the character is thinking? Are they spoken out loud? What do these differences mean?
   • What are the purposes of these soliloquies -- answering questions, a là the Senecan monologue? Giving the audience insight into characters' psychologies?
   • How do they use metaphors (and other figurative language) differently?
   • How do they refer to the physical world differently?

Lecture notes and videos, 11/27

Here are the lecture slides from 11/27 in a variety of formats:

• PPT (1.8 MB)
• PDF (14.1 MB)
• RTF (40 KB, no images)

...and here are a couple of the clips that we looked at in lecture:

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and tomorrow"

"Unsex me here"

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...

1. 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?
   
   
2. 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!"
     
     
3. 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.
   
   

Discussion questions (week 10)

Remember to type out your answers to these questions if you want to get credit for ideas that you don't have a chance to share in discussion!

1. Our discussions of Shakespeare often return to his discussion of power -- perhaps the power sought by monarchs (Theseus, Henry, Macbeth) or the power sought by private citizens (Hermia and Lysander, Shylock, Pistol). But how does Kurt Vonnegut discuss power and the powerful in Slaughterhouse V? How is this discussion of power different from and similar to the discussion of power in the Shakespeare plays (and sonnets) we have read -- particularly Henry V and Macbeth? Why is Vonnegut treating power similarly to the way Shakespeare treats it? Why is he treating it differently?
   
   
2. [This question might be rewritten later this week if I can think of a better way to phrase it.] In what ways does Shakespeare's narrative technique in Henry V and in Macbeth seem similar to Vonnegut's narrative technique in Slaughterhouse V? Think, here, about the order in which the two writers put their plots together: the use of the Chorus in H5, say, or of the problematic narrator in S5. You might think about how all three texts move between the supernatural (God in H5, the Tralfamadorians in S5, the witches/Fates in M) and the ordinary.
   

Upcoming movies

Here are the movies that TAs will be showing over the next five weeks:

• Tue. Nov. 27: Scotland, PA (2001)
  
• Wed. Nov. 28: Macbeth (1948)
  
• Wed. Dec. 5: Henry V (1944)
  
• Wed. Dec. 12: Macbeth (1979)
  
• Thur. Dec. 13: Prospero's Books (1991)

All movies begin at 6:30 in Humanities 1101. Be sure to sign in before you leave!

Essay 2 assignment

Here, in case you wanted it, is a PDF of the assignment for the second mini-essay and the second essay.

Essay 2: a preview

Your second essay isn't due for two months. That sounds like a good thing, but since it will be due at the very end of the semester you might want to begin thinking about it now so that you don't find yourself crushed by all the work you have to do in the last week of classes.

You will be able to write on any one or two performances (cinematic or theatrical) of any of the plays we read from now until the end of the semester: The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Macbeth, or The Tempest.

Although I reserve the right to change the wording in the next month, the essay topic will look more or less like this: 

How does this performance respond to the themes of the play? What themes does it emphasize? What themes does it ignore? What themes does it add? As a scholar of Shakespeare, why do / don't you feel that this interpretation was successful?

In your analysis, take into consideration at least two of the following:

• Directorial decisions, including the setting
• Actors' interpretations of their roles
• Blocking, intonation, and other features of actors' performances
• Costume design, scenery and stage design, music, lighting, and (if applicable) camera work

Your essay should focus on a single performance, but you are welcome to refer occasionally to a second performance if you feel you can make your point more successfully through comparison.