LELE T2 ANGO

  JAct 1 ,Scene 5 extract 2      A) Pick out elements revealing that Lady Macbeth: -       is plotting -       is determined -       is cunning (smart and deceptive) -       lacks humanity I   B)  What makes us think that the woman is the real villain in the play? C) Going further:  a) Compare Richard and Lady Macbeth: -  common points : -  differences: b) Why do they illustrate the notion “the character and his/her representations”?     c)  Do you know modern “villains” who remind you of these Shakespearian characters?

Enter Macbeth’s Messenger.  What is your tidings? Macbeth’s Messenger The King comes here tonight. Lady Macbeth Thou’rt mad to say it! Is not thy master with him? Who, were’t so, Would have inform’d for preparation. Macbeth’s Messenger So please you, it is true; our thane is coming. One of my fellows had the speed of him, Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message. Lady Macbeth Give him tending, He brings great news. Exit Macbeth’s Messenger.  The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe topful Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th’ effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my m...

The character and his/her representations/ the villain Lady Macbeth Before reading: A)    What do you know about Macbeth ?   (the play, the setting,   the real characters…) B)    Do you remember the meaning of “thou”? “thee” ? Read the text C)   What is Lady Macbeth doing at the beginning of the scene? D)   What did the witches tell Macbeth? E)    What do the words “thane   of Glamis” and “thane of Cawdor” mean? F)    What does Lady Macbeth intend to do? How? G)   What do the following words mean: -       “golden round” (l.28) -         “raven” (l.38)

Inverness. Macbeth’s castle. (Lady Macbeth; Macbeth’s Messenger; Macbeth) Enter Macbeth’s Wife alone, with a letter. Lady Macbeth Reads. “They met me in the day of success; and I have learn’d by the perfect’st report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burnt in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanish’d. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the King, who all-hail’d me “Thane of Cawdor,” by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referr’d me to the coming on of time with “Hail, King that shalt be!” This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing by being ignorant of what greatness is promis’d thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.” Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promis’d. Yet do I fear thy nature, It is too full o’ th’ milk of human ki...

After a battle in Scotland, Macbeth and his friend Banquo meet three witches , who make three prophecies - Macbeth will be a thane (a title in Scotland) , Macbeth will be king and Banquo’s sons will be kings.    Soon afterwards, King Duncan names Macbeth Thane of Cawdor as a reward for his success in the recent battles. The promotion seems to support the prophecy. The King then proposes to make a brief visit that night to Macbeth's castle at Inverness. Lady Macbeth receives news from her husband about the prophecy and his new title. She vows to help him become king by whatever means are necessary..

Shakespeare and History A)     Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485, at the age of 32, in the Battle of Bosworth Field . He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty . His defeat marked the end of the Middle Ages in England . But Shakespeare’s character is different from the real Richard even if there was a king who really died in the Battle of Bosworth field at the end of the war. Indeed Richard's death encouraged the furtherance of this later negative image by his Tudor successors due to the fact that it helped to legitimise Henry VII's seizure of the throne. So a lot of what people thought they knew about Richard III was pretty much propaganda and myth building. The Tudor characterisation culminated in the famous fictional portrayal of him in Shakespeare's play Richard III as a physically deformed Machiavellian villain, a...