User talk:Topazkcn

Shakespeare's Macbeth[based upon Oxford Edition]

Act 1, Scene 1

The play opens with the three witches ("weired Sister") discussing their upcoming meeting with Macbeth.

A. In what ways does this opening creat suspense? What questions does it make you ask?

By thunder and lightening effect, something inevitable has occured and someone's bad fortune is foreshadowing. What ambition did Macbeth have? Does Macbeth possess all three of masculinity, violence, and ambition? Will the witches, servants of the devil, and their dark prophecy steer Macbeth through the play?

B. How does the setting of this scene suggest evil and disorder?

Macbeth struggles with morality and ambition, trying desparately to reconcile the two.

[Performance] ''Imagine that you were staging this meeting. How would you position the three witches?''

Place is desert. Ceiling is thunderstorm. They set Background that is somewhat concaved; so, witches can point out towards the heath.

Act one. Scene two
A. What do you learn about the battle from the captain's speech?

Macdonwald weakly smiled and swarmed upon him from the western isles of kerns supplied with gallowglasses. Macbeth carved out his passage with his brandished steel and faced the slave.



B. What contrasts between Macdonwald and Macbeth are drawn in this description?

Macdonwald is not as courageous as Macbeth.

C. Count the number of references to blood in this scene. What atmosphere do they create?

D. Look carefully at the Captain's three speeches describing Macbeth's actions. The language is deliberatelly formal, in order to create a special mood that emphasizes Macbeth's nobility and heroism.

a) What comparison does the Captain make? What does it add to his account?

b) What examples of personification can you find in these speeches? What is their effect?

Act one. Scene three.
A. Explain why the witches have decided to persecute the captain of 'Tiger'?

B. What examples of the witches' magic can you find in this scene?

C. What important limitation on their spells is mentioned at line twenty-four? What does this suggest to you about their power?

D. Three and nine were considered to be magic numbers. What details in this scene suggest that they are special numbers for the witches?

E. Lines twenty-eight to thirty-one all rhyme with each other. Why do you think this is so?

F. How do Macbeth's first words here echo the very first scene of they play? What is the effect of this?

G. Why do you think the witches gesture for Banquo to be silent?