...A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET CLASSIC EDITION OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S MACBETH LINDA NEAL UNDERWOOD S E R I E S E D I T O R S : W. GEIGER ELLIS, ED.D., ARTHEA J. S. REED, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, EMERITUS and UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, RETIRED A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth 2 INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare developed many stories into excellent dramatizations for the Elizabethan stage. Shakespeare knew how to entertain and involve an audience with fast-paced plots, creative imagery, and multi-faceted characters. Macbeth is an action-packed, psychological thriller that has not lost its impact in nearly four hundred years. The politically ambitious character of Macbeth is as timely today as he was to Shakespeare's audience. Mary McCarthy says in her essay about Macbeth, "It is a troubling thought that Macbeth, of all Shakespeare's characters, should seem the most 'modern,' the only one you could transpose into contemporary battle dress or a sport shirt and slacks." (Signet Classic Macbeth) Audiences today quickly become interested in the plot of a blindly ambitious general with a strong-willed wife who must try to cope with the guilt engendered by their murder of an innocent king in order to further their power. The elements of superstition, ghosts, and witchcraft, though more readily a part of everyday life for the Renaissance audience, remain intriguing to modern teenagers. The action-packed...
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...Being Macbeth ENG 125 Instructor: Sahag Gureghian 03/11/2014 Being MacBeth Talk about a difficult read! Macbeth is definitely a difficult read, but it is also a very good read. There is something about the way it is written that has you raising your eyebrow and widening your eyes, as well as, questioning what was just read. Shakespeare used many elements when writing Macbeth. He was able to express each and every idea vividly using the elements. The three elements that I chose to discuss in this essay are foreshadowing, symbolism, and language. The first element that I would like to discuss is foreshadowing. A lot of foreshadowing took place in Macbeth. Clugston defines foreshadowing as “a technique a writer uses to hint or suggest what the outcome of an important conflict or situation in a narrative will be” (2010). Sometimes when foreshadowing is used in Macbeth it is very unclear of what the outcome will be. When you read a certain part and think one thing, Shakespeare uses foreshadowing and the reader is left asking questions and wondering what will happen, and why. In Act 1 Scene 1, the three witches are talking about Macbeth. They are discussing Macbeth’s future during thunder and lightning. I believe that not only does the witches conversation lead the reader to believe that something will happen, but the thunder and lightning also play an important role in what is to come for Macbeth. In scene 3, the witches appear again. This time they are not alone....
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...five feet tall and two feet wide, the face of the rectangle is a dull mauve color, and at the center of the rectangle rests a bean-shaped oblong, jutting out like a flaccid balloon. It’s a fetus, one may think, or a bladder...but what is the point of the piece? The exact purpose of the art piece, the meaning or explanation is not written there plainly. To understand a piece of art like this, one must engage in their own interpretation. Some people appreciate art because they consider it beautiful; some consider it pointless; some consider art necessary to society, and many refrain from further evaluation of art. In his essay “Art for Art’s Sake,” E.M. Forster explores precisely what this essay title proclaims. Forster acknowledges his argument is an “unpopular” one, but strives to ratify some misconceptions about art for art’s sake. In my initial reading of the essay I am not exempt from resisting the idea of art for art’s sake. Immediately, the notion seems to say that art can have no effect on society, and be appreciated nonetheless. I would like to believe, as a green and optimistic young artist, that art should and does have a purpose in society, and Forster’s support of art for art’s sake seems frivolous and occasionally slightly pretentious. To explain why art is in fact eternal, according to Forster, he writes that art has “internal order,” a unique quality that allows the significance of an art piece to last even as time goes...
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...Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ and John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ written in the 17th and 20th century, separated by hundreds of years of development and change within the world, both reflect the ideologies, treatment and representations of women in their respective eras. The principal feminine representatives are Lady Macbeth and Curley’s wife who throughout both texts demonstrate similarities and differences in their portrayal of their relationships with their male counterpart, the description of their tragic deaths and the conventional role of men and women and how they fit or break the stereotype. In this essay, I will refer to the aforementioned depictions, analysing the techniques the writers use to create their characters, and how a Jacobean audience, one during the Great Depression of the 1930s and a modern audience would react. Rather than supporting her husband in a subservient manner, Shakespeare makes Lady Macbeth the ruthless mastermind of a fiendish, venal and daring enterprise aimed to ensure her husband would ‘catch the nearest way’. In Act 1 Scene 5, when attempting to convince Macbeth to commit this necessary deed, she utters the heartless words ‘you shall put this night's great business into my dispatch’ inferring she intends to commit Duncan's murder herself. ‘Dispatch’ would lead a modern audience to believe she will only manage and oversee the murderous plan, however, in Elizabethan England, it would have meant to kill with quick efficiency; thus, Lady Macbeth prepares...
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...Basic techniques for generating ideas. Brainstorming. Brainstorming consists in writing series of words or sentences just as they flow from our mind, although they have no logical order or connections. Once the words are written down, we have to establish relationships among them. This is the embryo of the future text. Free writing. Free writing is a similar technique to the brainstorming. Consists in writing a text without previous decisions or ideas about how we want to write it. Just choosing a topic and writing about it, and then we can summarise the main ideas. Organisation of information. There are some basic rules for writing a well - structured text. The text should be organised in a clear way; it must not be a twisted or an incomprehensible lot of ideas. We have to try to write according to certain conventions about hoe the text is organised. We have to structure our text in paragraphs. Each paragraph must express one idea. Some rules referring to the paragraphs: A paragraph must be clearly separated from other paragraphs, either by an empty line or by indenting the first line, or both. There must be no blank spaces or half-empty lines inside the paragraph. A paragraph in academic prose does not begin with a dot, a line or a kind of mark, except in special circumstances. Each body paragraph must normally have a topic sentence, and more than one sentence. Types of paragraphs. The introductory paragraph. There must be at least one...
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...forms of verse, prose and of Drama. The conquest of England in 1066 by William of Normandy displaced English as medium of literature. The language of new rulers was French. Saxons dealing with the King had to learn French and French was the language of court and the law for three centuries. Four genres of Middle English are: i. 1. Fabliau 2. Lyric 3. Dream Allegory 4. Ballad Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer is the best story teller and the narrative poet. Chaucer tells his stories in a most effective way. He has the knack of transforming an old tale into a new one in such a manner that its appeal increases manifold and its human interest becomes perennial (lasting/permanent). An important feature of Chaucer's descriptive power is that his individual portrait also represents the type. Initially perhaps the sketches were devised to provide representatives of the chief classes of English society under the higher nobility. The portraits of the pilgrims are not all drawn in the same way. It is true that Chaucer...
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...Mr. Macomber English 3 AP Syllabus 1.5 English 3 AP Course Overview Students in this introductory college-level course read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of nonfiction prose selections, deepening their awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Through close reading and frequent writing, students develop their ability to work with language and texts in order to establish greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own composing abilities. C16 Students examine rhetoric in essays, images, movies, novels, and speeches. They frequently confer about their writing by conferencing in class. C 14 Feedback is given both before and after students revise their work to help them develop logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence. Rhetorical structures, graphic organizers, and work on repetition, transitions, and emphasis are addressed. I comment on individual drafts, and I write memos to the class in a blog about whole-class concerns such as specificity of quotations, parallelism, and transitions. C13 Simultaneously, students review the simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence classifications. We examine word order, length, and surprising constructions. Loose and periodic sentences are introduced. We examine sample sentences and discuss how change affects tone, purpose, and credibility of the author/speaker. In addition, feedback on producing sentence structure variety...
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...Comparative Writing What is a comparative writing? Comparative writing asks that you compare at least two (possibly more) items. These items will differ depending on the assignment. You might be asked to compare • positions on an issue (e.g., responses to healthcare in Canada and the United States) • theories (e.g., capitalism and communism) • figures (e.g., Auto production in the United States and Britain) • texts (e.g., Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth) • events (e.g., the Great Depression and the global financial crisis of 2008–9) Although the assignment may say “compare,” the assumption is that you will consider both the similarities and differences; in other words, you will compare and contrast. Make sure you know the basis for comparison The assignment sheet may say exactly what you need to compare, or it may ask you to come up with a basis for comparison yourself. • Provided by the question: The question may ask that you consider the gradual loss of morals by major characters in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The basis for comparison will be the loss of morals by central figures in each text. • Developed by you: The question may simply ask that you compare the two novels. If so, you will need to develop a basis for comparison, that is, a theme, concern, or device common to both works from which you can draw similarities and differences. Develop a list of similarities and differences Once you know your basis for comparison...
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...Some definitions of literary devices, techniques and style from searching via http://www.ferretsoft.com/ LITERARY DEVICES http://mrbraiman.home.att.net/lit.htm Literary devices refers to any specific aspect of literature, or a particular work, which we can recognize, identify, interpret and/or analyze. Both literary elements and literary techniques can rightly be called literary devices. Literary elements refers to aspects or characteristics of a whole text. They are not “used,” per se, by authors; we derive what they are from reading the text. Most literary elements can be derived from any and all texts; for example, every story has a theme, every story has a setting, every story has a conflict, every story is written from a particular point-of-view, etc. In order to be discussed legitimately, literary elements must be specifically identified for that text. Literary techniques refers to any specific, deliberate constructions of language which an author uses to convey meaning. An author’s use of a literary technique usually occurs with a single word or phrase, or a particular group of words or phrases, at one single point in a text. Unlike literary elements, literary techniques are not necessarily present in every text. Literary terms refers to the words themselves with which we identify and describe literary elements and techniques. They are not found in literature and they are not “used” by authors. Allegory:...
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...my evil classroom lair. In order to become full-fledged evil “minions,” you need to read this handbook carefully. It explains everything you need to know. “English,” as you may know, is shorthand for “English Language Arts.” Being that we are in an Arts school, but one where academics must and always do come first, it is important that we approach the subject as what it is: an art form. How does one study the arts? What exactly do we do when we study drawing, sculpture, music, or dance? Well, anyone who has studied the arts will tell you that studying the arts essentially involves two things: • Learning about, and developing an awareness of and appreciation for, existing works of art in that particular form; • Developing the skills and techniques associated with the art form, in order to create our own works. In the case of language arts, much like any other art form, we will be studying existing works of art (i.e., reading books, stories and poems), and developing the skills to produce our own (i.e., writing). That’s what English Language Arts is. We will also be preparing ourselves for New York State’s Regents Comprehensive Examination in English, which we’ll all be taking in June. This two-day, six-hour, four-part exam requires no specific knowledge or content, but it does require the skills to listen, read, understand, respond, interpret, analyze, and of course, write. Everything we do in class is designed to develop those skills, and prepare your for that exam. So, So what...
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...THE BARD & CO Book Review - The Bard & Co: Shakespeare’s Role in Modern Business Editors – Jim Davies, John Simmons & Rob Williams Published – Cyan Books Year – 2007 Place – London No author perhaps has had the kind of influence Shakespeare has had on our lives in different forms. This book is another example of Shakespeare’s influence, this time on the business world of today. Twenty six contemporary writers have paired with a Shakespeare play and one of the lead actors of the First Folio list to give us this delightful new insight of the play and the role. The book is a delightful collection of essays on Shakespeare’s role in contemporary business world. That we have very little biographical sketch to go by demands that “imagination has had to work harder than memory”. And given the “breadth, vivacity, wit and life” of Shakespeares’ plays and their performances, one cannot help but imagine that those actors would be chuckling in sotto voce behind their masks, at our attempt “to capture some sense of their lives and their contribution to the world” It is fitting that a book on Shakespeare’s role in modern business should be introduced by Dominic Dromgoole, the artistic Director of Globe Theatre. According to him, the theatre actor is the most impermanent of all artistes, considering that once a play is over, there is no remanence of his work except the printed “dramatis personae at the beginning of the published play”. He bows in obeisance to that “mysterious...
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...emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked. (Eliot, 1919) William Shakespeare’s King Lear is considered by many to be one of his most powerful pieces. Its universal themes and messages that seep through have inspired many other works and allowed room for several adaptations. In his influential critical essay on Hamlet, T.S. Eliot suggests that one could “examine any of Shakespeare’s more successful tragedies…” and always “… find this exact equivalence” (1919). His term ‘objective correlative’ encompasses the phenomena of emotional reaction being created in the audience by the writer or poet or playwrights combination of images, objects or description which evoke the appropriate emotions. This balance of emotions inspired by a narrative determines the success of the objective correlative. Directors in film use the camera to produce and emotional algebra, through which a sequence of images added together form a more complex and prompt emotional reaction in the audience. This essay hopes to explore and discuss the artistic formulas used in Sir Trevor Nunn’s...
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...Senior English Curriculum Map: 2010-2011 School Year English IV * Note: “Sacred Book List” Addendum is at the end of this document Quarter #1 August 23 to October 22 Essential Questions: 1. How do writers and artists organize or construct text to convey meaning? 2. What does it mean to be a stranger in the village? Unit Goals 1. To understand the relationship between perspective and critical theory. 2. To apply critical theories to various texts studied and created. 3. To control and manipulate textual elements in writing to clearly and effectively convey a controlling idea or thesis. Student Published Portfolios: For each of the first three quarters, students are required to complete three to four published writing portfolio products. Quarter 4 is devoted to completion of the Laureate Research Project. . Pacing: This map is one suggestion for pacing. Springboard pacing guides precede each unit in the “About the Unit” sections and offers pacing on a 45-minute class period length. Prentice Hall Literature – Use selections from Prentice Hall throughout the quarter to reinforce the standards being taught as well as the embedded assessments within the SpringBoard curriculum. QUARTER #1 SpringBoard Curriculum Pacing Guide August 23 – October 22 Standards and Benchmarks | Unit Pacing Guide | SpringBoard Unit/Activities | Assessments | SpringBoard Unit 1Literature * The students will analyze and compare significant works of...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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...Министерство образования и науки Республики Казахстан Кокшетауский государственный университет им. Ш. Уалиханова An Outline of British Literature (from tradition to post modernism) Кокшетау 2011 УДК 802.0 – 5:20 ББК 81:432.1-923 № 39 Рекомендовано к печати кафедрой английского языка и МП КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, Ученым Советом филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, УМС КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова. Рецензенты: Баяндина С.Ж. доктор филологических наук, профессор, декан филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова Батаева Ф.А. кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры «Переводческое дело» Кокшетауского университета им. А. Мырзахметова Кожанова К.Т. преподаватель английского языка кафедры гуманитарного цикла ИПК и ПРО Акмолинской области An Outline of British Literature from tradition to post modernism (on specialties 050119 – “Foreign Language: Two Foreign Languages”, 050205 – “Foreign Philology” and 050207 – “Translation”): Учебное пособие / Сост. Немченко Н.Ф. – Кокшетау: Типография КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, 2010 – 170 с. ISBN 9965-19-350-9 Пособие представляет собой краткие очерки, характеризующие английскую литературу Великобритании, ее основные направления и тенденции. Все известные направления в литературе иллюстрированы примерами жизни и творчества авторов, вошедших в мировую литературу благодаря...
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