June 4, 2018
1:45 PM
Bring a quote sheet with no extra notes - make sure you know the Act, scene, and line number, the context, and who is speaking.
Goal of literary essay: "Looking at the text as a work of art, demonstrating clear critical judgment and explaining to the reader of your essay how the enjoyment of the text is assisted by literary devices, linguistic effects and psychological insights; showing how the text relates to the time when it was written and how it relates to our world today."
Betrayal and Loyalty
-play starts with an act of betrayal - Macdonwald betrays Scotland - he is hanged
-Duncan rewards the Thane "absolute trust" - shows how important loyalty is (also that he trusts easily)
-Banquo stays loyal "so I lose none in seeking to augment it" (II i)
- The Thane stays loyal to the witches' prophecy - to his own detriment
- Strange that Fleance doesn't become king
- [witches betray the Thane with "the fiends that lie like the truth" (V)
- [is the Lady loyal?]
- What are the characters' priorities
- Macduff betrays his family and technically the country - it is considered treason (but he is getting rid of a tyrant) - Macduff stays loyal to Duncan and his offspring - convinces Malcolm to come back
- King and country are seen as synonymous (Old Scotland)
- Macduff is loyal to the people of Scotland ("bleed Scotland" IV iii)
- Beginning the Thane defends Scotland - look at I vii to see the Thane's belief
- War hero - risked his life to protect the country
- [how important is loyalty in your own life? What or whom are you loyal to? What happens when someone is disloyal to you?]
- Treatment of his wife and servants are different
- [is loyalty related to morality?]
- Leaves the Lady out of his plans after killing Duncan - he does not share his plan to kill Banquo or Macduff's family
- When is he loyal to himself? Seems like he is only loyal to the prophecy: "Thou wast born of woman!" (V vii)
-Lady stays by her husband's side throughout - fainting when the guards are killed, making excuses for the Thane's reaction to Banquo's ghost
-she doesn't order the deaths of Banquo or Macduff's family - she does know about it - sleep walking scene (V i)
Self interest, personal responsibility
Morality
-knowing the difference between right and wrong = the Thane says "look on it again I dare not" (II ii) - he can't face the scene of Duncan's death again
-compare Macduff's morality with the Thane
-Thane has some moral code - he's a war hero at the beginning [is it okay to murder people in war? Why?]
-"I am in blood stepped so far" III iv
-taking responsibility for actions [does the Thane]
-"the ends justify the means" - it does for Macduff - what he does to save the country - sacrifices his family
-consequences [what is the consequence of the Thane's actions? Does he enjoy being king]
-[what is your moral code]
-Lady sleepwalks - retribution for her guilty conscience
- Never be able to sleep peacefully again: "After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well" - referring to Duncan - III ii
- Does he ever take true responsibility for what he's done (he says "my way of life has fallen into the sear" V iii)
- Banquo doesn't tell everybody - he knows that the Thane had a prophecy - he wants his own prophecy to come true - see III i for his soliloquy
- Lady starts off asking for help from the "spirits that tend on mortal thoughts" (I v) she also says "a little water clears us of this deed" (II ii) but in Vi, "all the Perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten this little hand" - does this show that she has morality?
- The Thane says "oh, full of scorpions is my mind" (III ii) after killing Duncan - but after that he has "forgot the taste of fears" (V iii)
- He becomes aware that he has "mouth honour" only, rather than "troops of friends" (V iii)
- Temptation, greed, consequences, rewards, ill-gotten gains
Ambition
- "art not without ambition, but without the illness to attend it" - Lady says this about the Thane in I v - turns out - he does have "the illness to attend it"
- Lady's ambition starts of high to kill Duncan, but diminishes over time
- Goals change over the play -
- [there's no time mentioned in the prophecy - what's the rush? - impatience]
- Banquo has ambition - remains quiet over his own personal interest of his sons becoming king - "last night I dreamed of the three weird sisters, to you they have showed some truth" (II i)
- Banquo's prophecy is less immediate - applies to his sons, but not to him
- [how much ambition is too much ambition?]
- Ambition can drive people away - the Lady and the Thane start off close - but he does so much to protect his power that he drives all friends and family away
- Unchecked ambition
- "let not light see my deep and dark desires" (I iv) - this is when Malcolm is named Prince of Cumberland
- He must have had ambition to become the General of the King's army
- Was the Thane ever happy - he seems to become unhappier as the play develops
- [Bible quotes:
Proverbs 10:2 E
Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.
Proverbs 1:19
Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors. ]
From
- Are the witches ambitious? Why do they "trade and traffic with Macbeth" - they sabotage him in the end - Hecate thinks they wasted their powers for a "wayward son" (III v 11)
- "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition which overleaps itself and falls on the other" (I vii 25-27) - the Thane is interested in gaining power
- If the Lady were so ambitious, wouldn't she have killed Duncan herself? She's ambitious enough to make someone else do her dirty work
- Banquo asks for his prophecy - but doesn't want them - he calls them "instruments of darkness" (I iii)
- Macduff's ambition - to kill the Thane "bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;/ Within my swoard's length set him; if he 'scape,/ Heaven forgive him too: (IV iii 230-233)
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