Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 7 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth is speaking to himself and listing the reasons he should not kill Duncan. [ Macbeth: ] He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels trumpet-tongu’d against The deep damnation of his taking-off; And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, hors’d Upon the sightless couriers of the air Excerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 2, scene 3 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth, who has murdered Duncan, is describing why he has just killed the sleeping guards who were supposed to be protecting Duncan. Macbeth: Who can be wise, amaz’d, temperate and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: The expedition of my violent love Outran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood; And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature For ruin’s wasteful entrance: there, the murderers, Steep’d in the colours of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breech’d with gore: who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make ’s love known? How does Shakespeare most develop the universal themes "the conflict between loyalty and betrayal” and "the quest for power” in these excerpts?
Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 5 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that Duncan is coming to their castle tonight. Lady Macbeth hints at her plot to kill the king. Lady Macbeth: O! never Shall sun that morrow see. Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under ’t. He that’s coming Must be provided for; and you shall put This night’s great business into my dispatch; Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. This excerpt develops the universal theme "the conflict between loyalty and betrayal” by suggesting that betrayal
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 7 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth has just told Lady Macbeth that he no longer thinks it is right to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth is trying to convince Macbeth to move forward with the murder by accusing him of being a coward. Lady Macbeth: Was the hope drunk, Wherein you dress’d yourself? hath it slept since, And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ Like the poor cat i’ the adage? Excerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 5, scene 1 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and rubbing her hands together as if she were trying to remove a spot from them. A doctor and a gentlewoman are observing her. Lady Macbeth: Out, damned spot! out, I say!—One: two: why, then, ’tis time to do’t.—Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. Doctor: Do you mark that? Lady Macbeth: The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with this starting. How does the universal theme "the quest for power” relate to the universal theme "the consuming power of guilt” in these excerpts?
Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 7 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth, who is alone in his castle, is contemplating whether to kill Duncan. Macbeth: If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly; if the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor; this even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poison’d chalice To our own lips. How does Shakespeare develop the universal theme "the inescapability of justice” in this excerpt?
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 5 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has just read Macbeth’s letter about the witches’ prophecy and his promotion to thane of Cawdor. [ Lady Macbeth: ] Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top full Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood, Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry, "Hold, hold!” Excerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 2 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth has killed Duncan, but he warns Lady Macbeth that they are still in danger. Macbeth: We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it: She’ll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth. But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave; After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well; Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing Can touch him further. How does Shakespeare most develop the universal themes "the relationship between violence and human nature” and "the consuming power of guilt” in these excerpts?
Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 5 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has just finished reading Macbeth’s letter about the witches’ prophecies. Lady Macbeth: Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promis’d. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way; thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it; what thou wouldst highly, That [wouldst] thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win; thou’dst have, great Glamis, That which cries, "Thus thou must do, if thou have it”; And that which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone. How does Lady Macbeth’s reaction to Macbeth’s letter develop the universal theme "the quest for power”?
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 2, scene 2 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth has just killed Duncan. He refuses to take the daggers back to the room, so Lady Macbeth takes them. Macbeth is alone and staring at his bloody hands. Lady Macbeth: Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures; ’tis the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal; (70) For it must seem their guilt. [ Exit. Knocking within. ] Macbeth: Whence is that knocking? How is ’t with me, when every noise appals me? What hands are here! Ha! they pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red. Excerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 4 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth is hosting a feast when he sees Banquo’s ghost and starts speaking to it. No one else can see the ghost, and Lady Macbeth tries to explain away Macbeth’s behavior to the guests. Macbeth: Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with. Lady Macbeth: Think of this, good peers, But as a thing of custom: ’tis no other; Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. Macbeth: What man dare, I dare: Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, The arm’d rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger; Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble: or be alive again, And dare me to the desert with thy sword; If trembling I inhabit then, protest me The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence! How does Shakespeare most develop the universal themes "the relationship between violence and human nature” and "the consuming power of guilt” in these excerpts?
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 2, scene 1 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth, who is about to murder Duncan, imagines that he sees a dagger floating in front of him. [ Macbeth: ] Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw. [ Pulls out his dagger. ] Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going; And such an instrument I was to use. Excerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 4 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth has seen the ghost of Banquo sitting at the banquet table. Lady Macbeth is trying to get Macbeth to come to his senses. Lady Macbeth: O proper stuff! This is the very painting of your fear; This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, Led you to Duncan. O! these flaws and starts— Impostors to true fear—would well become A woman’s story at a winter’s fire, Authoriz’d by her grandam. Shame itself! Why do you make such faces? When all’s done You look but on a stool. How does the universal theme "the tension between truth and illusion” relate to the universal theme "the consuming power of guilt” in these excerpts?
Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 5 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Hecate is speaking to the three witches about Macbeth. [ Hecate: ] He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear His hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear; And you all know security Is mortals’ chiefest enemy. What is the universal theme in this excerpt?
Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 4 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth is speaking to Lady Macbeth after their coronation and feast. Macbeth: It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood: Stones have been known to move and trees to speak; Augurs and understood relations have By maggot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth The secret’st man of blood. What is the universal theme in this excerpt?
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