FIRST WEEK OF YEAR 2, NEW YEAR!! NEW START!!

   FIRST WEEK OF YEAR 2, NEW YEAR!! NEW START!!

Alex Beattie , TEACHER FOR THIS YEAR!! :D

Today all of us got our booklets from Alex which is called 'The Pack' with all our assignment briefs, grading criteria, upcoming units, Year Plan and our Shakespeare scripts. These main units include Introduction to Classical Theatre, TV & Film Techniques and Concept Design. With our Classical Theatre unit we have been put into small groups (pairs mainly). All of us have each been given scenes from Shakespeare's tragedy's which is 10-15 minute's and this will be performed to the 1st Year Performing Arts. I'm pretty much looking forward to this project to gain more knowledge about Shakespeare and understand the languages that are used in the text. My partner for the Shakespeare project is Prince and the text/play that our piece is from is 'Macbeth' (played by Prince), I've been cast as 'Macduff'. The scene that both of us will be performing is the fight scene between Macbeth and Macduff .In this scene Macbeth has left the scene after killing Young Siward (Siwards son). After that Macbeth thinks about whether to kill himself, at this point would be his better option, Macduff enters the scene with the bold challenge..............where all the action begins !!

MACBETH PLOT

 (Orson Welles as Macbeth)

      (Dan Oherliy as Macduff)

The play begins with amidst thunder and lightning and the Three Witches decide that their next meeting shall be with Macbeth. In the following scene it opens with a wounded sergeant who reports to king Duncan of Scotland that his generals- Macbeth, who is the Thane of Glamis and Banquo have just defeated the allied forces of Norway and Ireland who were led by the traitorous Macdonwald and the Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth, the King's kinsman, is praised for his bravery and fighting prowess. Following their pitched battle with these enemy forces, Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches as they cross a moor (A broad area of open land). The witches prophesy that Macbeth will be made thane (a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland. They also prophesy that Macbeth’s companion, Banquo, will beget a line of Scottish kings, although Banquo will never be king himself. The witches then vanish and Macbeth and Banquo treat their prophecies skeptically until some of King Duncan’s men come to thank the two generals for their victories in battle and to tell Macbeth that he has indeed been named 'Thane of Cawdor' and that he shall "be King hereafter." Macbeth appears to be stunned to silence. When Banquo asks of his own fortunes, the witches inform him that he will father a line of kings, though he himself will not be one. While the two men wonder at these pronouncements, the witches vanish, and another thane, Ross, arrives and informs Macbeth of his newly bestowed title: Thane of Cawdor as the previous Thane of Cawdor shall be put to death for his traitorous activities. Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility that the remainder of the witches’ prophecy that he will be crowned king—might be true, but he's  uncertain what to expect. Later on he visits King Duncan and they plan to dine together at Inverness, Macbeth’s castle. Macbeth writes ahead to his wife 'Lady Macbeth', telling her all that has happened. Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husband’s uncertainty. She desires the kingship for him and wants him to kill Duncan in order to gain his throne. As soon as Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she overrides all of her husband’s objections and persuades him to murder King Duncan on that very night. So Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncan’s two chamberlains (an officer who manages the household of a king) drunk so they will black out; Next morning they will blame the murder on the chamberlains, who will be defenseless as they will remember nothing. While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and a number of supernatural portents, including a vision of a bloody dagger. When Duncan’s death is discovered the next morning, Macbeth kills the chamberlains—ostensibly out of rage at their crime—and easilyassumes the kingship. Meanwhile Duncan's sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to England and Ireland, respectively, fearing that whoever killed Duncan desires their demise as well.

Feared that the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs (Legally entitled to the property or rank of another on that person's death)  will seize the throne. Macbeth hires a group of murderers to attack Banquo and his son Fleance, suddenly Fleance escapes and Macbeth becomes furious and fears that his power remains insecure as long as an heir of Banquo remains alive. At the banquet, Macbeth invites his lords and Lady Macbeth to a night of drinking and merriment. Banquo's ghost enters and sits in Macbeth's place. Macbeth raves fearfully, startling his guests as the ghost is only visible to himself. On the other hand the others panic at the sight of Macbeth raging at an empty chair, until Lady Macbeth desperately tells them that her husband is merely afflicted with a familiar and harmless malady. The ghost departs and returns once more, causing the same riotous anger and fear in Macbeth. This time, Lady Macbeth tells the lords to leave, and they do so. Macbeth, disturbed, visits the three witches once more and asks them to reveal the truth of their prophecies to him. To answer his questions, they summon horrible apparitions, each of which offers predictions and further prophecies to allay Macbeth’s fears. First, they conjure an armored head, which tells him to beware of Macduff . Second, a bloody child tells him that no one born of a woman shall be able to harm him. Thirdly, a crowned child holding a tree states that Macbeth will be safe until Great Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill. Macbeth is relieved and feels secure, because he knows that all men are born of women and forests cannot move. Macbeth also asks if Banquo's sons will ever reign in Scotland: the witches conjure a procession of eight crowned kings, all similar in appearance to Banquo, and the last carrying a mirror that reflects even more kings. Macbeth realises that these are all Banquo's descendants having acquired kingship in numerous countries. After the witches perform a mad dance and leave, Lennox enters and tells Macbeth that Macduff has fled to England. Macbeth orders Macduff's castle be seized, and, most cruelly, sends murderers to slaughter Macduff’s wife and children. Everyone in Macduff's castle is put to death, including Lady Macduff and their young son.

As soon as the news of his family execution reaches Macduff in England , Macbeth is stricken with deep sorrow and vows revenge. Prince Malcolm (Duncan's son) has succeeded in raising an army in England, and Macduff then joins him as he mount's to Scotland to challenge Macbeth's forces. Scottish nobles are appalled and frightened by Macbeth's  tyrannical and murderous behaviour and the invasion has support of the Scottish Nobles. Meanwhile Lady Macbeth becomes plagued with fits of sleepwalking in which she bemoans (Express discontent or sorrow over something), what she believed to be bloodstains on her hands. Before Macbeth's opponent's arrive, he receives news that she has killed herself, this causes him to sink into a deep and pessimistic despair but nevertheless, he awaits the English and fortifies Dunsisnane to which he seems to have withdrawn in order to defend himself, certain that the witches’ prophecies guarantee his invincibility. Macbeth is struck numb with fear, however he learns that the English army is advancing on Dunsinsnane shielded with boughs cut from Birnam Wood. Birnam Wood is indeed coming to Dunsinane, fulfilling half of the witches’ prophecy.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606. The political context in which it was written, as that is the key to the main theme of the play (excessive ambition) will  have terrible consequences. Shakespeare was writing for the theatre during the reigns of the two monarchs, Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth the plays he wrote such as A Midsummer's Night's Dream were often seen to embody the generally happy, confident and optimistic mood of the Elizabethans. Those plays he wrote during King Jame's reign such as Macbeth and Hamlet are darker and more cynical which reflect the insecurities of the Jacobean period. After the gunpowder plot that is when Macbeth was written.

After Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603, she had no children, or even nephews or nieces. The throne was then offered to James Stuart, James VI of Scotland who then became James I of Britain. James was a distant cousin of Elizabeth, being descended from Margaret Tudor, the sister of Elizabeth's grandfather, King Henry VIII . He was the son of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, who had been deposed and imprisoned when he was a baby, and later executed on Elizabeth's orders. Brought up by Protestant regents, James maintained a Protestant regime in Scotland when he came of age, and  was an acceptable choice for England which had become firmly Protestant under Elizabeth. James accession was by no means a popular choice with everyone. Since he was not a direct descendant of Elizabeth, there were other relatives who believed they also had a strong claim and James feared that discontented factions might gather around them. At first the Catholics had hoped James might support them, since his mother had been such a staunch Catholic, but when they realised this would not happen conspiracies developed, one of which was the Gunpowder Plot. Guy Fawkes and his men tried to blow up James and his parliament in 1605. The conspirators were betrayed, and horribly tortured on the rack until they confessed.

FINAL SCENE

In the battle, Macbeth hews violently, but the English forces gradually overwhelm his army and castle. On the battlefield, Macbeth encounters the vengeful Macduff, who declares that he was not “of woman born” but was instead “untimely ripped” from his mother’s womb (what we now call birth by cesarean section). Though he realizes that he is doomed, Macbeth continues to fight until Macduff kills and beheads him. Malcolm, now the King of Scotland, declares his benevolent intentions for the country and invites all to see him crowned at Scone.

ACT 5 SCENE 8

[Enter MACBETH]

MACBETH :  Why should I play the Roman fool, and die
On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes
Do better upon them. 

[Enter MACDUFF]

MACDUFF: Turn, hell-hound, turn!

Macbeth: Of all men else I have avoided thee:
But get thee back; my soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.
But get thee back; my soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.

Macduff:  I have no words:
My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!

[They fight]

Macbeth: Thou losest labour:
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,
To one of woman born.

MACDUFF: Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.

Macbeth: Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow'd my better part of man!
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee. 

Macduff: Then yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time:
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted on a pole, and underwrit,
'Here may you see the tyrant.' 

Macbeth: I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'

MODERNISED VERSION

MACBETH: Why should I commit suicide like one of the ancient Romans? As long as I see enemies of mine alive, I would rather see my sword wound them than me.

MACDUFF: Turn around, you dog from hell, turn around!

MACBETH: You are the only man I have avoided. But go away now. I’m already guilty of killing your whole family.

MACDUFF: I have nothing to say to you. My sword will talk for me. You are too evil for words!

MACBETH: You’re wasting your time trying to wound me. You might as well try to stab the air with your sword. Go fight someone who can be harmed. I lead a charmed life, which can’t be ended by anyone born from a woman.

MACDUFF: You can forget about your charm. The evil spirit you serve can tell you that I was not born. They cut me out of my mother’s womb before she could bear me naturally.

MACBETH: Curse you for telling me this. You’ve fightened away my courage. I don’t believe those evil creatures anymore. They tricked me with their wordgames, raising my hopes and then destroying them. I won’t fight you.

MACDUFF: Then surrender, coward, and we’ll put you in a freakshow, just like they do with deformed animals. We’ll put a picture of you on a sign, right above the words “Come see the tyrant!”

MACBETH: I’m not going to surrender and have to kiss the ground in front of Malcolm, or be taunted by the common people. Even though Birnam Wood really did come to Dunsinane, and I’m fighting a man not of woman born, I’ll fight to the end. I’ll put up my shield and battle you. Come on, let’s go at it, Macduff, and damn the first man who cries, 'Stop! Enough!'