Thursday, September 25, 2008

Act 4 Blog questions

This is the place where you can ask your questions about Macbeth, answer one another's questions, and post comments about your understandings to help one another learn. Remember this is NOT education as usual. It is up to you to help one another learn.

36 comments:

john c said...

Well, So far I just have a few questions. First, i was wondering about the significance of the apparitions. Do they have any correlation to the event they are speaking about, for example how an "Armed Head" warns Macbeth about Macduff, and so on

Second, I was confused on why Lady Macduff was so quick to denounce her husband as a traitor? I mean, it doesn't seem like he has been gone that long.

Oh, and by the way- The blog post (From Ms. Smith) seems suspiciously familiar.....
hmm....

Thanks

John

sammiet2012 said...

John- the witches were telling the lead witch (sorry I forgot her name), but they were telling her that they were going to make Macbeth over confident and that his confidence would be his down fall.

Also I was wondering the same thing as John’s second question about Lady Macduff.

Anonymous said...

Johnc- the first appration is an Armed head-that represents battle and that macbeth will be going to battle with MacDuff. Second apparation was a bloody child-that represented a new born baby because the apparation told Macbeth that he would could never be killed by a living thing (man) born from a woman. the third apparation I am confused about as well. I mean what does a child with a tree in its hand represent? A forest can't just walk over to a hill.

my haunch on the second question- I think Lady macduff was hurt that her husband left so quick, maybe they had a shaky relationship. Also, Shakespeare doesn't seem in-favor of women in this play, actually all the women in Macbeth are awful and unfeeling creatures. ie the witches, Hecate, Lady macbeth, lady Macduff

TaylorG2012 said...

Okay I am so confused and lost in this book.

kailynw2012 said...

I was wondering what Hecate symbolizes? I know she is the queen of witchcraft, but I don't see how she is doing anything that the other witches aren't, it doesn't seem as if she is necessary, so I must be missing something. I don't think there are extras.

alexandriab2012 said...

Johnc2012-
I think that the significance of the apparitions is that it changes Macbeth's mind and because the last prophecy was correct (because he made it right)he thinks that this new one created by the witches (which they probably created so then they could have more entertainment)would be correct again so, he would to do anything in his power to get what he wanted.

I think that Lady Macduff calls her a husband a traitor because back then that was basically like sinning and once you left no one really talked anymore to you because you were a "traitor" to your country. Honor was everything back then.

Hope that helped.

kaleidoscope_eyes said...

taylor-
Shakespere's language is generally very confusing. It helps a lot if you stop every scene and tell yourself what happened in your own words. You could even write it down. It helps to make notes that you can understand :)

jacobs2012 said...

Taylor G, it would be helpful if you gave some specific examples of what you are confused about. Otherwise it is really hard to help you if I do not know what you are confused about. I would strongly advise you to revise your comment so others can help you more effectively.

mariep2012 said...

OK, I know that this is far-fetched about the forest walking, but maybe the witches put a spell on the trees so they grow legs and feet and walk over or something. Or, the more logical reasoning would be that there is a deeper meaning. Maybe soldiers take lumber, walk up the hill with it and set Macbeth's castle on fire. Just a thought...

brookem said...

Marie- that’s an interesting way to think about the forest moving, but I highly doubt that Shakespeare would write walking trees into a play that he wrote for a king…but that’s just my opinion. Also, you must really have a great imagination, because I never thought that they might take the trees and burn down the castle.

Also, I think that how the second apparition says that nothing human would kill Macbeth, well, maybe he’ll kill himself. I mean, he is human, but how he has been acting sort of seems un-human. And another thing that might be foreshadowing to that is that Lady Macbeth always asks him if he is a man, maybe this is Shakespeare’s way of saying that he is something else. Also, when the porter was drunk in act 2, he pretends to be the gatekeeper to hell, and the devil isn’t human (as far as we know) is he?

robertc2012 said...

I am curious (like everyone else) as to what the trees-moving-over-the-hill prophecy is about. How does that happen? Is it really going to happen, like in the second Narnia movie? Or is it just a figure of speech?

BernardoT2012 said...

Robert- I think that the prophecy about the trees is going to be very loosely related to what we imagine. We think (and so does Macbeth) that the trees are going to walk on their roots and stop on the castle grounds. I think that Fleance will get some of the trees cut down and made into weapons and rams. Then he would use the wooden tools to take over the kingdom.

I know that shakespeare probably won't do something like this in a story, but it's a good example of what I mean by the prophecy being very loose. All we know for sure from the prophecy is that the forest is going to move in some sense. The forest may also be an army from england.

chelseac2012 said...

I have an overall question about Macbeth quizzes:
What's the best way to study for them?

BernardoT2012 said...

When Ross lies about Macduff's family then breaks it to him, it reminded me of a classic brazilian joke.
Anyway, I'd like to point something out about Macduff. We know that Macduff is meant to be the good parallel of Macbeth, and yet whose family gets murdered and who is forced out of the country? Macduff is the good guy and he is the one who get's the short stick.

Macbeth who falls to temptation and performs every evil action he can (murder for example)is the king, the most powerful man in the country.
Shakespeare is showing the saying "no good deed goes unpunished" in this relationship between Macduff and Macbeth.

robertc2012 said...

Yeah, Chelsea, I wonder if anyone has ever aced any of the Macbeth tests. I do pretty bad on them... does anyone else feel like that? If not, how do you do a good job?

BernardoT2012 said...

Chelsea- I think the best way to study is to skim the act and re-read what you think is important in the act.
There's probably a much better way to do this, but it is unbeknown'st to me. (I think I spelled it right.)

katiez2012 said...

I do a bad job on the quizzes too. I think a way to study that I might try is reading the act summarys on spark notes to get the jist of the acts. But also the the quizzes have shown that when need to know who said certain things. So any suggestions on how to remember those?

treyjb2012 said...

Guys Why does Macbeth want to kill Macduffs family? Whats that going to do?

bridgetL said...

Taylor- I think the best way to understand what is happening is to have your online text infront of you as well as the book. Then read in the book and make sure to read all of the side notes and then write comments in the online text so that you are sure you get everything that is going on.

Chelsea- I think what I said above is the best way to study for the quiz. Dont study so much as just go home and re-read the scene at a slower pace so that you really understand everything that is going on.

Trey- I think Macbeth wants to kill Macduff's family because Macduff is a threat to him, and therefore anyone associated to or loyal to him is also a threat. He is paranoid of anyone and everyone. I dont think he ever thought of the fact that in killing his family, he may have only angered Macduff more against him and given him more reason to build an army. I think Macbeth really needs to work on his strategy.

And I have a question myself. It doesnt pertain to this act so much as the assignment over all. You know how she told us to get an online text and then showed us how to put comments in it? Well, are we going to turn those in like annotations at the end, or is it purely to help ourselves understand better?

chelseac2012 said...

Thanks everyone! I think I will just reread, skimming and looking for important info. Katie, that's a pretty good idea to look up the summary on spark notes. I may try that too. :)

chelseac2012 said...

Bridget - I really don't know, that's a good question...

kinzerinz said...

Ok so I'm a little confused and just need some clarification. So at the beginning of Scene 3, Macduff does not know that his family is dead but he says that he has no reason to go back because Macbeth is leader? Right? And isn't this a little harsh to his family? I mean if he still thought they were alive but didn't want to go back anyway, isn't that a little mean? Also, why is it significant that Macbeth is not in scenes 2 and 3, considering he has been in almost all the other scenes?

Megg2012 said...

Briget,
I honestly think it is just to better our learning. I don't think we are going to turn it in. Also, for me, I re-read the act to study, and try to take notes in my head, or on the online text. It is also important to listen to what Mrs. Smith emphasizes in class. Another key thing that helped me was to look at the character index at the beginning of the text before I read the text.
Taylor,
I think the whole thing is really confusing, but what I realized is that I need to spend time actually looking at the side notes, and then reading the text.
Johnc,
I also think that one significance of the apps. is to confuse Macbeth. The witches whole goal is to confuse him right? What is more confusing then a little kid holding a tree? Just kidding. I think that the apps. encourage him and reasure him that his plan, and deeds were in the right, and that his plot to kill Macduff is okay.
Brooke,
I think that the second app. "no human can kill him," is false. The witches are trying to confuse him, and it's not like they cast a spell on him or anything. (did they?) However, I have to agree, figuratively, Macbeth is killing himself already. Evil is dominating his whole body, and it is taking over him, just like in Lord of the Flies, how a little evil spread little by little until it evolved into the fate and disaster of the whole island.

I also have a question: What do you guys think Macbeth will do about Fleance? I mean, doesn't he know that Macbeth is the murderer? Why wouldn't he announce that?
thanks ya'll
MEG

kailynw2012 said...

Hey, i know that with all the blogs things can get a little confusing, but I was wondering if any one had any ideas about my earlier ques.


In it I was wondering about the purpose of Hecate - you could refer back to the ques for the exact wording

Thanks!!

bridgetL said...

Megg- I would say that the witches have no magical power strong enought to actually change things like the future. They don't seem to have the power to make trees walk or Macbeth immortal. Only the power to "make predictions" which create the outcome. So, in saying that no man born of a woman will kill Macbeth, they cannot actually make Macbeth unharmable by man, they can only plant that idea in his head. Also, his killing himself would still be him being killed by a man born of a woman wouldn't it? I mean, he is a man.

Kailyn- I'm not sure about Hecate. If you read the side-note. It mentions that Hecate was possibly added in after Shakespeare's death simply because the audiences liked the witches. So, she may not be necessary. Viewers simply responded well to the witches so they added another one for more excitement I think.

brookem said...

Kailyn-
I have a different copy of Macbeth than the class, mine is a Barnes & Noble copy and it has this really cool index of the character, and under Hecate, it says that she is the “goddess” of witchcraft. Also, back then, she was blamed for a lot of evil happenings and such. So she’s probably in Macbeth because of how (as you know) King James likes witchcraft. And because the Weird Sisters are witches, Hecate is sort of there to supervise them and make sure that they are using their powers wisely

carolineb2012 said...

Did anyone else catch the comment on how Macbeth could "heal just by touching people" or something like that? Wasn't King Jmaes rumored to be able to do that? Does anyone else think that this chapter is probably the biggest tribute to him out of the whole play? It has witchcraft, which he loved and mentioned him... Hmmmm.
Yes I was in the group on him.

treyjb2012 said...

I i don't know but isn't that sort of ironic because he practically kills people just by touching them so how is he healing them?

bridgetL said...

Brooke- I do not think Hecate was a tribute to King James and his love of witches because it says in our book that Hecate was a character added by another writer later on.

Caroline- I did catch that but it is not Macbeth that can heal people with his touch. It is the king of England that is helping Malcolm and Macduff. And yes, that is a tribute to King James because he was rumored to have the same ability. So it is not Macbeth that can heal people, but rather the king of England

Zivenc2012 said...

Who is Hecate and what is his or her purpose?

bridgetL said...

Ziven- Hecate is like the witch goddes. She comes in and gets mad at the three witches for doing a bad job with Macbeth and she tells them to make him overconfident, and that is exactly what they do.I don't think she is really important. She wasnt even in the original play, she is just an added character

lsadler2012 said...

My only question after reading act 4 scene 3 was number one, why doesn't Malcom want to seize thrown since it it really his in the first place? Does he feel that Macduff is better suited for the job? And also what does the doctor in the same scene have to do with the story? I was just a little confused on his significance.

Anonymous said...

Taylorg, what are you confused about? Maybe I could help, I think I possibly have the faintest idea of what is going on. But I could have the whole book wrong in my head because Macbeth is sooooo hard to understand.

Alexandriab- I totally agree with you about the whole "honor was everything back then." Honor and the position you were in was so important, Macbeth and all the evil things he does to become king just show how much people really wanted honor and a good position. If you were a peasant back in Macbeth's time, life really sucked for you; your life would be dictated by the person who owned the land you were living on and it was extremely hard to move up in the cast system of sorts.

I'm still confused about the trees walking business of the 3rd apparition.

Brookem- good observation about the 2nd apparition. It could be very possible that Macbeth kills himself. But, I just have a feeling that something or someone is going to kill Macbeth. Maybe the witches meant it figuratively. But Bridget had a good point, Macbeth is born of a woman so technically he won't kill himself either.

Bernardot- I never thought of the trees being made into weapons used to take down Macbeth but that seems logical. Then again it makes too much sense to be Shakespeare. he never spells anything out does he?

chelseac- best way to study for macbeth: read the summaries for each scene in the act, read the all the comments and questions and think about what stood out to you when we were reading it in class.

meg- Fleance doesn't know Macbeth is the guy who is behind all the treachery, he just saw murderers and ran away remember? he never saw macbeth doing anything "wrong"

Isadler- Malcolm doesn't seize the throne right away because he would be murdered right after he took control of it. I think he figure that if he goes away the guy who wants the thrown will come to power and then all the other guys who don't want Macbeth or the murderer , to be king will come to help support Malcolm in his efforts to restore peace and take his rightful throne.

Am I the only one who writes late at night? Does anyone else check the blog out at night because then my comments aren't really helpful if no one reads them.
Thanks
asr

alisonr2012 said...

Lauren – I have the same question about the doctor.

Kinsey - I also want to know why it is significant that Macbeth isn’t in scenes two and three.

So Hecate isn’t really important but just an added character? Why did they add Hecate then? It seems weird to me that Hecate just shows up in act 3. If Hecate has no real purpose then I don’t think she should be in the book.

katieh2012 said...

AlisonR-

If Hecate really isn't a major character, and therefore shouldn't be in the book,there are alot of others characters that shouldn't be there either. Just because we've only seen her once doesn't necessarily mean shes not important- She may not do much, but she is the goddess of witches which means she has control over what they say and what spells they cast. This means she has some influence on Macbeth's prophecies.

brookem said...

Bridget-
If I were you I wouldn’t be so sure that Hecate wasn’t in the original play because the book says that she could have been added. But then again, nobody really knows because almost all of Shakespeare’s original manuscripts have been lost or destroyed because there weren’t copy write laws then and people could change them if they wanted to and nothing would happen. But just keep in mind that even though the book says that Hecate may not have been one of the original characters, she still is and she still has a part in the play and is maybe a little bit significant.