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Shakespeare - the myth |
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Macbeth & Witches [Extract]:
Our present-day generation no longer accepts the standard
prototype of the witch as scaring. To
make witches disturbing for a modern audience is a real
challenge, as Amita Dhiri, a young British actress,
describes in Shakespeare Shorts (1999, BBC 2, Learning
Zone): 'In the 1930s Orson Wells tried to do so by creating
a rite-like atmosphere, using powerful images and music. The
effect is frightening, it is as if they have created a baby
out of clay.' Amita Dhiri herself has been asked to play one
of the witches in a recent production, which has a modern
setting, with Macbeth a returning war hero, from the Gulf
War perhaps. It has reinterpreted the witches to make them
more convincing to a present-day audience: as young and
attractive women rather than old and haggard, strong
personalities who are very much aware of their own
sexuality, plotting together to ensnare their victim in an
evil scheme. [more] |

Macbeth bewitched |
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Macbeth
/ etext
/ translation (1 MB)
/ Original
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Central Aspects |
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Villains' propensity to
commit crimes |
POV: Villains v Victims |
Social Setting |
Formal
Consideration:
Monologue v
Dialogue |
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Formal Aspects |
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Formal Considerations Source:
Literary Terms and Definitions *
SOLILOQUY: A
monologue that is spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the
character believes himself to be alone. The technique frequently reveals
a character's innermost feelings, such as thoughts, state of mind,
motives or intentions, or provides necessary information to the
audience. The convention in terms of drama is that whatever a character
says in a soliloquy to the audience must be true, or at least true in
the eyes of the character speaking (i.e., the character may tell lies to
mislead other characters in the play, but whatever he states in a
soliloquy is a true reflection of what the speaker believes or feels).
The soliloquy was rare in Classical drama, but Elizabethan and Jacobean
playwrights used it extensively, especially for their villains.
Well-known examples include speeches by the title characters of
Macbeth and Hamlet, and Iago in Othello.
MONOLOGUE: (contrast with soliloquy and interior
monologue) An interior monologue represents not spoken words, but rather
the internal or emotional thoughts or feelings of an individual, such as
William Faulkner's long interior monologues within The Sound and The
Fury. Monologue can also be used to refer to a character speaking aloud
to himself, or narrating an account to an audience with no other
character on stage. Cf. dramatic monologue.
'DIALOGUE: the lines spoken by a character or
characters in a play, essay, story, or novel, especially a conversation
between two characters, or a literary work that takes the form of such a
characterization. Bad dialogue is pointless. Good dialogue either
provides characterization or advances the plot. In plays, dialogue often
includes within it hints akin to stage directions. For instance, if one
character asks, "Why are you hitting me?" the reader can assume that on
stage another character is striking the speaker. |
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Macbeth Soliloquies
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Key scenes from the play
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RSC Shakespeare |
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Shakespeare
Sonnets
Sonnet 18
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Sonnet 18 (1609)
*

Shall I compare
thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. |
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Commentary This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the
sequence of Shakespeare's sonnets; it may be the most famous
lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeare's works, only lines
such as "To be or not to be" and "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art
thou Romeo?" are better-known.
more .. |
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The Sonnet A fixed
form of lyric poetry that consists of fourteen lines,
usually written in iambic pentameter. There are two basic
types of sonnets, the Italian and the English.
more .../
other source |
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Shakespeares Sources
Duncan
I (d. Aug. 1, 1040, near Elgin, Moray), king of the Scots from
1034 to 1040. He was the grandson of King Malcolm II (ruled
1005-34), who irregularly made him ruler of Strathclyde when
that region was absorbed into the Scottish kingdom (probably
shortly before 1034). Malcolm violated the established system of
succession whereby the kingship alternated between two branches
of the royal family. Upon Malcolm’s death, Duncan succeeded
peacefully, but he soon faced the rivalry of Macbeth, Mormaor
(subking) of Moray, who probably had a better claim to the
throne. Duncan besieged Durham unsuccessfully in 1039 and in the
following year was murdered by Macbeth. Duncan’s elder son later
killed Macbeth and ruled as King Malcolm III Canmore (1058-93),
and the younger son, Donaldbane, ruled Scotland from 1093-1097.
(Vol. III; p. 706) [more] |
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