Winter Session: English 3 & 4
Macbeth
Course Description
This is a very fast paced course with a lot of material to cover. For that reason, our course will focus on one unit play, the tragedy Macbeth. This course will help develop your reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. There will be 2-3 graded assignments each day, homework assignments each evening, a test, and a final exam. You will need your laptop every day, as most of the assignments must be completed and submitted online.
MacBeth: The Entire Play
The Witches
Lady Macbeth
Macbeth
Relax, this course is intense, but I'll make it as enjoyable as possible.
Welcome to Winter Session!
This course focuses on the play Macbeth. As upperclassmen, I expect you to perform at higher levels than your previous English courses in order to prepare for graduation, university, and the workplace. Since you are here in order to pass a previously failed course, it is important you adhere to the higher expectations placed upon you in order to reach your goals.
Important Info
Email: aburley@houstonisd.org
Website: http://padlet.com/ariann_burley/6o9q88vwdc2o
Location: 8501 Howard Drive, Houston, TX, United States
Phone: 7134956950
DO NOW - 350 words minimum. Submit via turnitin.com
Tragic heroes are found in stories throughout time, and many of Shakespeare’s characters follow the classic formula for a tragic hero. Many believe Macbeth fits this definition perfectly—they argue that it was a tragic flaw that leads to Macbeth’s clear downfall at the end. Still, others contend that Macbeth was fully aware of the choices he was making throughout the play; that his downfall wasn’t caused by a flaw he realized too late but rather the series of bad choices he made throughout the play. In your opinion, does Macbeth fit the formula for a tragic hero?
In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either one of the two points of view given, or you may present a different point of view on the question. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.
Macbeth Act 5 Questions (submit answers via turnitin.com)
Macbeth, Act 5
Act 5, Scene 1
1. Where does this scene take place? From the information in this scene, who resides there?
2. Write a detailed summary of what happened in this scene. Be sure to explain what each character said and did.
3. Translate these lines (you can use No Fear Shakespeare):
a. 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?
b. Doctor: Do you mark that?
c. 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.
4. Using the answers from #3, what is Lady Macbeth doing in this scene and what does it tell you about her emotional state?
Act 5, Scene 2
1. Where does this scene take place?
2. Who does Menteith say is leading the English army? What reason does he give that these three people going to battle?
3. What are people saying about Macbeth?
4. Find the simile in this scene. Copy it down, cited correctly, and explain what it means.
5. Write a detailed summary of what happened in this scene. Be sure to explain what each character said and did.
Act 5, Scene 4
1) Where does this scene take place?
2) What does Malcolm’s open lines mean? What is he referring to?
3) Why is the place they are meeting significant?
4) Translate the following lines:
Malcolm: Let every soldier hew him down a bough,
And bear’t before him: thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host, and make discovery
Err in report of us.
5) According to Siward, where is Macbeth?
6) According to Malcolm, Who is fighting with Macbeth?
7) Write a detailed summary of this scene
8) What words or lines did you not understand?
Act 5, Scene 5
1) Where does this scene take place?
2) Why do you think Macbeth is having banners hung on the wall?
3) How does Macbeth think the battle will turn out? What is his mood?
4) Translate the following lines:
Macbeth: I have almost forgot the taste of fears:
The time has been, my senses would have cool’d
To hear a night-shriek, and my feel of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in’t: I have supp’d full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start me.
Wherefore was that cry?
5) What was the scream?
6) How does Macbeth take the news?
7) Explain Macbeth’s metaphor about life.
8) What news does the messenger bring?
9) What will the messenger’s punishment be if he is lying?
10) What is Macbeth’s mood at the end of the scene?
11) Write a summary of this scene.
12) What words or lines did you not understand?
Act 5, Scene 6
1) Where does this scene take place?
2) What does the sate direction mean by “with boughs”?
3) Translate the whole scene sentence by sentence.
4) What words or lines did you not understand?