2. Read Macbeth 2.4-discuss the emphasis on the unnaturalness and beginning suspicions of those who talk together.
3. Show 3.1-point out that Macbeth uses Lady Macbeth’s same tactics to convince the murderers to fulfill the ugly deed.
4. Read 3.2-point out how Lady Macbeth and Macbeth begin to change places. In the scene with Lady Macbeth that follows, Macbeth again echoes her previous comments. She told him earlier that he must “look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t” (I.v.63–64). Now he is the one reminding her to mask her unease, as he says that they must “make [their] faces visors to [their] hearts, / Disguising what they are” (III.ii.35–36). Yet, despite his displays of fearlessness, Macbeth is undeniably beset with guilt and doubt, which he expresses in his reference to the “scorpions” in his mind and in his declaration that in killing Banquo they “have scorched the snake, not killed it” (III.ii.15). While her husband grows bolder, Lady Macbeth begins to despair—“Naught’s had; all’s spent,” she says (III.ii.6). It is difficult to believe that the woman who now attempts to talk her husband out of committing more murders is the same Lady Macbeth who earlier spurred her husband on to slaughter. Just as he begins to echo her earlier statements, she references his. “What’s done is done” (III.ii.14), she says wishfully, echoing her husband’s use of “done” in Act I, scene vii, where he said: “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well / It were done quickly” (I.vii.1–2). But as husband and wife begin to realize, nothing is “done” whatsoever; their sense of closure is an illusion.
5. Both characters seem shocked and dismayed that possessing the crown has not rid them of trouble or brought them happiness. The language that they use is fraught with imagery suggestive of suspicion, paranoia, and inner turmoil, like Macbeth’s evocative “full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife” (III.ii.37). Each murder Macbeth commits or commissions is intended to bring him security and contentment, but the deeper his arms sink in blood, the more violent and horrified he becomes.
6. Show 3.3, read 3.4 (if there is time) 3.4 shows how guilt is destroying Macbeth. It also demonstrates Shakespeare’s use of the supernatural and the unnatural appearing in grotesque form as harbingers of wickedness, moral corruption, and downfall. Here, the appearance of Banquo’s silent ghost symbolizes the corruption of Scotland’s political and moral health. In place of the dramatization of Macbeth’s acts of despotism, Shakespeare uses the scenes involving supernatural elements to increase the audience’s sense of foreboding and ill omen.
7. Remind Act II and Act III word tracers to begin their assignment now. Their due date will be Wednesday.
Homework Collected: None
Homework Given:
Word Traces are due on Wednesday, March 4,Persuasive Research Paper: 1st Draft Due: March 10,
Research Portfolio Due: March 17,
2nd Draft Due: March 24,
Final Paper Due: March 31,
Reflection Paper Due: April 14
Handouts given out: None
To Read:
Macbeth 2.4, 3.1-4
