Thursday, 17 December

Class began with students writing about and discussing the similarities and differences between regret and guilt.

Regret / Guilt
How does it feel?
What does it look like?
How are they similar and different?
What can a person do when experience the one or the other?

Class then viewed Act III scenes i-iv.

Then students were asked to consider the following questions before working in small groups on a prompt book mark up of "the banquet scene."

Why does Macbeth see the ghost, but no one else does?

Why does it seem OK to Lady Macbeth and Macbeth to say that he has an “infirmity”?

How would the scene be different if the other lords also say a ghost?

Is it better for the audience to see the scene from Macbeth’s point of view or from the point of view of the other lords such as Lennox and Ross?

Do you think Lady Macbeth sees the ghost?

What emotions was Macbeth feeling before the murderer comes into the banquet? After he learned that Banquo was dead? After he learned that Fleance was alive?

Is the ghost meant to be a supernatural spirit or a symbol for something else?

How does the appearance of a ghost relate to the chain of being?

Act III scene iv. “The Banquet Scene” Is there a ghost? Does the audience see it?

In this scene of Macbeth, you, the director must decide what it means that Macbeth thinks he sees the ghost of Banquo? Does he really see a ghost? (There are witches in the play.) How does the audience relate to Macbeth differently if they too can see the ghost? What do you want the audience to be thinking about Macbeth, his actions, and The Chain of Being?

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Stage Directions  MACBETH There's blood on thy face.        Directions to Actors

First Murderer 'Tis Banquo's then.

MACBETH 'Tis better thee without than he within.

Is he dispatch'd?

First Murderer My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.

MACBETH Thou art the best o' the cut-throats: yet he's good

That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,

Thou art the nonpareil.

First Murderer Most royal sir,

Fleance is 'scaped.

MACBETH Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect,

Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,

As broad and general as the casing air:

But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in

To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?

First Murderer Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,

With twenty trenched gashes on his head;

The least a death to nature.

MACBETH Thanks for that:

There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled

Hath nature that in time will venom breed,

No teeth for the present. Get thee gone: to-morrow

We'll hear, ourselves, again.

Exit Murderer

LADY MACBETH My royal lord,

You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold

That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making,

'Tis given with welcome: to feed were best at home;

From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;

Meeting were bare without it.

MACBETH Sweet remembrancer!

Now, good digestion wait on appetite,

And health on both!

LENNOX

May't please your highness sit.

The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH's place

MACBETH Here had we now our country's honour roof'd,

Were the graced person of our Banquo present;

Who may I rather challenge for unkindness

Than pity for mischance!

ROSS His absence, sir,

Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness

To grace us with your royal company.

MACBETH The table's full.

LENNOX Here is a place reserved, sir.

MACBETH Where?

LENNOX Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your highness?

MACBETH Which of you have done this?

LordsWhat, my good lord?

MACBETH Thou canst not say I did it: never shake

Thy gory locks at me.

ROSS Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.

LADY MACBETH Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,

And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;

The fit is momentary; upon a thought

He will again be well: if much you note him,

You shall offend him and extend his passion:

Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?

MACBETH Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that

Which might appal the devil.

LADY MACBETH O proper stuff!

This is the very painting of your fear:

This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,

Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,

Impostors to true fear, would well become

A woman's story at a winter's fire,

Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!

Why do you make such faces? When all's done,

You look but on a stool.

MACBETH Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!

how say you?

Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.

If charnel-houses and our graves must send

Those that we bury back, our monuments

Shall be the maws of kites.

GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes

LADY MACBETHWhat, quite unmann'd in folly?

MACBETH If I stand here, I saw him.

LADY MACBETH Fie, for shame!

MACBETHBlood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,

Ere human statute purged the gentle weal;

Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd

Too terrible for the ear: the times have been,

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,

And there an end; but now they rise again,

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,

And push us from our stools: this is more strange

Than such a murder is.

LADY MACBETH My worthy lord,

Your noble friends do lack you.

MACBETH I do forget.

Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends,

I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing

To those that know me. Come, love and health to all;

Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine; fill full.

I drink to the general joy o' the whole table,

And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;

Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,

And all to all.

Lords Our duties, and the pledge.

Re-enter GHOST OF BANQUO

MACBETH Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!

Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;

Thou hast no speculation in those eyes

Which thou dost glare with!

LADY MACBETH

Think of this, good peers,

But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;

Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.

MACBETH

What man dare, I dare:

Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,

The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;

Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves

Shall never tremble: or be alive again,

And dare me to the desert with thy sword;

If trembling I inhabit then, protest me

The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!

Unreal mockery, hence!

GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes

Why, so: being gone,

I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.

LADY MACBETH You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,

With most admired disorder.

MACBETH Can such things be,

And overcome us like a summer's cloud,

Without our special wonder? You make me strange

Even to the disposition that I owe,

When now I think you can behold such sights,

And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,

When mine is blanched with fear.

ROSS What sights, my lord?

LADY MACBETH I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;

Question enrages him. At once, good night:

Stand not upon the order of your going, / But go at once.