DAY 3 - CYCLE 5 - SEMESTER 2

Today, you took a quiz on Act I. The quiz contained five quotes and five quotes demonstrating literary terms in action. Because we have not spent as much time on the literary terms as on the play itself, if the literary terms section of the quiz averages below 80%, I will drop that portion of the quiz.

Afterwards, we looked at Act I, scenes i and ii. Here, Macbeth starts telling lies. He lies to Banquo, saying he never thinks of the witches, and he lies to his servant saying that Lady Macbeth is to ring the bell when his "drink is ready." That, of course, is her terrible signal to do the deed. In addition to deceiving his friend, he shows other signs of undoing. He hallucinates a dagger, which grows bloody as he watches and beckons him toward Duncan's sleeping chambers while he draws his own dagger. He gives himself a pep talk and off he slinks. The next scene finds Lady Macbeth excited but nervous, claiming that she herself would have done the deed had Duncan not looked like her father as he slept.

Macbeth returns from the murder, greatly troubled. He clutches the daggers, knows that he shall never sleep again (you can see how he mourns the loss by his listed and rich descriptions of sleep), and claims that to wash his bloodied hands in the oceans would not cleanse them, but turn all of the waters red. Wow. Lady Macbeth takes charge, marches off with blades in hand, and comes back as bloodied as he. As the couple hears knocking at the castle gate, She states that a "little water clear us of this deed," and marches her husband-gone-tharn off to change into his nightgown so they may look as though they were in bed.

Afterward, I had you play "Mr. & Mrs. Macbeth visit the marriage counselor." In that activity, you enthusiastically berated your spouse for his/her failings; he's too wimpy, she's too controlling; he's too indecisive, she's too ambitious; he's too virtuous, she's too callous; he's too timid, she's too over-reaching. You brought up his femininity, her masculinity. The Great Chain of Being is now toppling!

HOMEWORK
Continue reading in Lord of the Flies.