1. Show 3.1-point out that Macbeth uses Lady Macbeth’s same tactics to convince the murderers to fulfill the ugly deed.
2. Show interview with Patrick Stewart.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Show 3.3 - The extra murderer is there to clean up after the murders (ie. kill the murderers).
To Read: Macbeth 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3
Assignments Given: Word Trace due on Thursday, March 8, Macbeth Portfolio due at the end of the unit; keep everything!
Argument Final Draft Due on March 8 or March 19 - Your choice.
