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Macbeth. HELP PLEASE
6 Answers
1. Why do you suppose Shakespeare opened the play with the three witches? They don't actually reveal much about the plot to come. They only say that they go to meet with Macbeth "upon the heath."
2. Why would Shakespeare later on include a scene where the first witch talks about a sailor's wife who refuses to share her chestnuts that she is eating so the witch is going to take it out on her sailor husband. "I will drain him dry as hay/ Sleep neither night nor day/Weary sev'nnights nine times nine/Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine." This doesn't have anything do to with Macbeth directly.
3. Macbeth and Banquo seem more intrigued by the witches than afraid of them: "Stay you imperfect speakers and tell me more!"/
...I know I am the Thane of Glamis/But how of Cawdor?/...Say from whence you owe this strange intelligence/or why upon this blasted heath you stop our way/With such prophetic greeting?/
Speak, I charge you." The witches then disappear before their very eyes. Why are they not terribly afraid of their encounter with the witches?
4. What is your first impression of Lady Macbeth? How do you know that she will help her husband in any way to become king?
2. Why would Shakespeare later on include a scene where the first witch talks about a sailor's wife who refuses to share her chestnuts that she is eating so the witch is going to take it out on her sailor husband. "I will drain him dry as hay/ Sleep neither night nor day/Weary sev'nnights nine times nine/Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine." This doesn't have anything do to with Macbeth directly.
3. Macbeth and Banquo seem more intrigued by the witches than afraid of them: "Stay you imperfect speakers and tell me more!"/
...I know I am the Thane of Glamis/But how of Cawdor?/...Say from whence you owe this strange intelligence/or why upon this blasted heath you stop our way/With such prophetic greeting?/
Speak, I charge you." The witches then disappear before their very eyes. Why are they not terribly afraid of their encounter with the witches?
4. What is your first impression of Lady Macbeth? How do you know that she will help her husband in any way to become king?
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heavens these are long questions
I did MacB for O level in 1966.
q1. written for James VI and I and he was interested in witchcraft.
bit of a short answer - note it is in a tetrameter (four feet and not the usual five) and this may have significance
q2 - erm not sure about this one. Not everything has to be about MacB. OR it refers to a contemporary event OR...it refers to what witches do - bewitch someone
q3 don;t forget: thous has it now, King Cawdor Glamis /
all that the weird women promised/
and yet I fear thou playest most foully for it/
for it was said i was to be root /
and father or many kings to come
Act 3 sc 1 line1 -5
yes taht was the only bit of Shakey I memorised for the exam and out it comes - whoooops - forty years later
kinda fits in with the q
Their view of wtiches are different to ours
perhaps witches were guns for hire and could be employed to tell the future and ruin OTHERS crops if you paid them enough
that is were controllable and not autonomous
I did MacB for O level in 1966.
q1. written for James VI and I and he was interested in witchcraft.
bit of a short answer - note it is in a tetrameter (four feet and not the usual five) and this may have significance
q2 - erm not sure about this one. Not everything has to be about MacB. OR it refers to a contemporary event OR...it refers to what witches do - bewitch someone
q3 don;t forget: thous has it now, King Cawdor Glamis /
all that the weird women promised/
and yet I fear thou playest most foully for it/
for it was said i was to be root /
and father or many kings to come
Act 3 sc 1 line1 -5
yes taht was the only bit of Shakey I memorised for the exam and out it comes - whoooops - forty years later
kinda fits in with the q
Their view of wtiches are different to ours
perhaps witches were guns for hire and could be employed to tell the future and ruin OTHERS crops if you paid them enough
that is were controllable and not autonomous
Speak I charge you
There is an idea that one can control these things - that is their ideas about witches are different to ours
In cases of possession by spirits (Devils of Loudon), it was possible to make the spirits answer questions.
4. This is a q about Act 1 - re read the murder of Duncan how she plans it (quote needed)
then carries it out
(who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him)
then frames the guards by rubbing blood on them (quote needed)
and for extra style points point out the number of references to blood to show she is rather a erm bloody woman.
that the owl that shrieks a warning - is a reference to the old way of looking at an owl as a bird of the night and not the ninetheenth century way of looking at an Owl as a wise old thing (defintiely greek and classical)
that the porters speech -knock knock kncok
is plain text and can be ad libbed - one sevneties production had a ref to Tommy Steele the singer who was definitely NOT around in 1600. The original speech has a ref to equivocation which referred to the jesuit infiltration of 1600-1606
and finally the first scene of Life on Mars - that is with the policeman taken back to the seventies and I dont mean the 1570s which involves the murder in the cotton mill and the guy dead on the floor in the cotton mill, one of the mill girls says - 'who wouldhave thought the old man had so much blood in him?' der daaah
that's just about it for Act 1 MacBeth
COnflict ;I was taught English by a rather famous teacher called Robin Atthill who ended up with an obituary in the Times. You can see that if I can remember his lessons after forty years that he must have been rather special
Good luck - MacB is the shortest Shakey play
There is an idea that one can control these things - that is their ideas about witches are different to ours
In cases of possession by spirits (Devils of Loudon), it was possible to make the spirits answer questions.
4. This is a q about Act 1 - re read the murder of Duncan how she plans it (quote needed)
then carries it out
(who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him)
then frames the guards by rubbing blood on them (quote needed)
and for extra style points point out the number of references to blood to show she is rather a erm bloody woman.
that the owl that shrieks a warning - is a reference to the old way of looking at an owl as a bird of the night and not the ninetheenth century way of looking at an Owl as a wise old thing (defintiely greek and classical)
that the porters speech -knock knock kncok
is plain text and can be ad libbed - one sevneties production had a ref to Tommy Steele the singer who was definitely NOT around in 1600. The original speech has a ref to equivocation which referred to the jesuit infiltration of 1600-1606
and finally the first scene of Life on Mars - that is with the policeman taken back to the seventies and I dont mean the 1570s which involves the murder in the cotton mill and the guy dead on the floor in the cotton mill, one of the mill girls says - 'who wouldhave thought the old man had so much blood in him?' der daaah
that's just about it for Act 1 MacBeth
COnflict ;I was taught English by a rather famous teacher called Robin Atthill who ended up with an obituary in the Times. You can see that if I can remember his lessons after forty years that he must have been rather special
Good luck - MacB is the shortest Shakey play
1) Well it's the eternal question isn't it? Would he have still done all he did without the interference of the wiches? Like in the matrix, if she'd not said the vase was there, would he still have dropped it? That's why I think they start the play.
2) Demonstration of power perhaps. Plus the sexual aspect.
3) I don't know. I think they are a little but they're big tough warriors and probably think that all the magic in the world won't help them if they get their heads cut off. The placement of women in society at the time, regardless of withces could have something to do with. However the newws they're giving isn't threatening either so more reason to be curious than afraid.
4) She's an ambitious lady with a keen eye for social standing and she wants power. She's not exatly the warm hearted female type.
2) Demonstration of power perhaps. Plus the sexual aspect.
3) I don't know. I think they are a little but they're big tough warriors and probably think that all the magic in the world won't help them if they get their heads cut off. The placement of women in society at the time, regardless of withces could have something to do with. However the newws they're giving isn't threatening either so more reason to be curious than afraid.
4) She's an ambitious lady with a keen eye for social standing and she wants power. She's not exatly the warm hearted female type.
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