MacBeth

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MacBeth

Part 1—Key passages

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First Witch.  Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.

  Sec. Witch.  Thrice and once the hedge-pig whin’d.

  Third Witch.  Harper cries: ’Tis time, ’tis time.

  First Witch.  Round about the cauldron go;

In the poison’d entrails throw.

Toad, that under cold stone

Days and nights hast thirty-one

Swelter’d venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.

  All.  Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

  Sec. Witch.  Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

  All.  Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

  Third Witch.  Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,

Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf

Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,

Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,

Liver of blaspheming Jew,

Gall of goat, and slips of yew

Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse,

Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips,

Finger of birth-strangled babe

Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,

Make the gruel thick and slab:

Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,

For the ingredients of our cauldron.

  All.  Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

  Sec. Witch.  Cool it with a baboon’s blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

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MacBeth

Act 5 Sc 5 17 -2 8

MacBeth

Act 2 Sc 1 33—48

MacBeth and Witches

Act 1 Sc 3 46—78

Part 2—Critical Thinking Model

Consider MacBeth’s actions in the eponymous play.

What is it about his actions that make them increasingly wrong?

Wrong

Right

Text Box: In order to answer this question thoroughly, think about Shakespeare’s characterization of MacBeth’s victims.

Part 3— MacBeth as Tragic Hero

Text Box: What specific evidence characterizes MacBeth as a tragic hero? Use the following categories. Nobility through lineage and/or intellect A fatal character flaw (hubris) that leads to his downfall The empathy of the audience A tragic death having made an irreversible mistake An honourable death, nonetheless

Part 4— Fate

The Elizabethan conception of world-order has in its outlines medieval thought, although it had discarded much medieval detail. The universe was a unity, in which everything had its place, and it was the perfect work of God. Any imperfection was the work not of God but of man; for with the fall of man the universe underwent a sympathetic corruption. . . . But . . . the actual order of the world presented itself to the Elizabethans under three different, though often related, appearances: a chain, a series of corresponding planes, and a dance to music.
As a chain, creation was a series of beings stretching from the lowest of inanimate objects up to the archangel nearest to the throne of God.

Text Box: Lessons in tragedy In medieval works, the tragedy of those who fell was often less the result of any failing in their lives or actions than the result of the capriciousness of Fortune. But by the Renaissance, the moral effectiveness of pointing out the dire result of vice and sin meant that the protagonists were more often shown to be responsible for their falls.

Part 5— Temptress

Some literary critics see a parallel between the Biblical account of Eve and Lady MacBeth.

Part 6— Weird Sisters

How was it that some women were perceived to be witches?

Think about women today who are considered to be outcasts from society. Women who do not conform to society’s expectations.

Compare your brainstormed list of ideas to the characterization of the witches in Polanski’s MacBeth.

Compare movie scenes here