Shakespeare

Shakespeare, Macbeth. 
Skill use. Comprehension and production.
<Read the text and answer the following questions

1. characters: who are the characters in the scene?
2. Setting: where and when does the action take place?
3. action: What are they doing respectively?
4. What’s strange about Lady Macbeth’s behaviour?
5. Does the doctor believe the Gentlewoman at first?
6. Language What words does the Doctor use to define Lady Macbeth’s behavior? Why?

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ACT V

SCENE 1. Dunsinane. A room in the castle

Enter a Doctor of Physics and a Waiting-Gentlewoman.

DOCTOR I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?

GENTLEWOMAN Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.

DOCTOR A great perturbation in nature , to receive at once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching! In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances, what, at any time have you heard her say?

GENTLEWOMAN That, sir, I will not report after her. (...)

Enter LADY MACBETH with a  taper

Lo, you! here she comes. This is her very guise; and , upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.(...)

DOCTOR You see, her eyes are open.

GENTLEWOMAN Ay, but her sense is shut.

DOCTOR. What is it she does now? look, how she rubs her hands.

GENTLEWOMAN It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her to continue in this a quarter of an hour.

LADY MACBETH Yet here’s a spot.

DOCTOR Hark! she speaks. I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.

LADY MACBETH Out, damned spot out I say! One, two; why then, ‘tis time to do’t Hell si murky! Fie,my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?

DOCTOR Do you mark that?(...)

LADY MACBETH Here’s the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!

DOCTOR What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.(...)

LADY MACBETH  Wash your hands, put on your night gown; look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on ‘s grave,(...)

                        Exit

DOCTOR Will she now go to bed?

GENTLEWOMAN Directly.

DOCTOR Foul whisperings are abroad. Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds to their deaf pillows will disharge their secrets; more needs she the divine than the physician (...).

WHILE READING

7. Inference Why does Lady Macbeth wash her hands?
8. Context What Macbeth’s words do her words remind you of?
9. “What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account” . What moment of the drama is she referring to? What is “our power”? These words by Lady Macbeth are full of bitter situational irony (unconsciously said by the character). Considering her present condition, what did not Lady Macbeth take into account when she chose the path of murder?
10. Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him, what is Lady Macbeth referring to?
11. Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on ‘s grave,(...) Why, what happend to Banquo in your opinion? Di Macbeth think about it? why?

AFTER READING

12. Themes Why does Lady Macbeth behave the way she does?
13. What themes can you identify in her behaviour?
14. Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles, what reference is here about the Renaissance weltaanshaung of order and disorder?
15. “More needs she the divine than the physician”, what does the doctor mean?

SCENE V

What does Macbeth compare life to? Why? What suggestions are there in the images?

SEYTON        The queen my lord is dead.

MACBETH     She should have died hereafter.

There would have been a time for such a word.

To-morrow, and to-morrow- and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllbale of recorded time;

And all our yesterday’s have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle! 

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

image	metaphor	suggestion	implication
1	brief candle	brevity
2
3
4

ON THE SUBLIME (E:Burke)

On the idea of sublime, by Edmund Burke.

Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 1756

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear. Whatever therefore is terrible, with regard to sight, is sublime too whether this cause of terror be endued with greatness of dimensions or not. There are many animals, who though far from being large, are yet capable of raising ideas of the sublime, because they are considered as objects of terror, as serpents and poisonous animals of almost all kinds. And to things of great dimensions, if we annex and adventitious idea of terror, they become without comparison greater. A level plain of vast extent of land, is certainly no mean idea; the prospect of such a plain may be as extensive as a prospect of the ocean; but can it ever fill the mind with any thing as great as the ocean itself?

 To make any thing very terrible, obscurity seems in general to be necessary. When we know the full extent  of any danger, when we can accustom our eyes to it, a great deal of the apprehension vanishes. Every one will be sensible of this, who considers how greatly night adds to our dread, in all cases of danger, and how much the notions of ghosts and goblins, of which none can form clear ideas, affect minds, which give credit to the popular tales concerning such sorts of beings.

Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 1756

Gothic, picturesque, romantic, sublime...all in one single page....

Sacer, May 10th, 2014

Ann Radcliffe

1764-1823

THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO

(1794)

Though the deep valleys between these mountains were, for the most part, clothed with pines, sometimes an abrupt[1] opening presented a perspective of only barren rocks, with a cataract[2] flashing from their summit among broken cliffs[3], till its waters, reaching the bottom, foamed along with unceasing fury; and sometimes pastoral scenes exhibited their “green delights” in the narrow vales, smiling amid surrounding horror. There herds and flocks of goats and sheep, browsing under the shade of hanging woods, and the shepherd’s little cabin, reared[4] on the margin of a clear stream, presented a sweet picture of repose.

Wild and romantic as were these scenes, their character had far less of the sublime, than had those of the Alps, which guard the entrance of Italy. Emily was often elevated, but seldom felt those emotions of indescribable awe[5] which she had so continuously experienced , in her passage over the Alps.

Towards the close of day, the road wound into a deep valley. Mountains, whose shaggy steeps appeared to be inaccessible, almost surrounded it. To the east, a vista opened, that exhibited the Apennines in their darkest horrors, and the long perspective of  retiring summits, rising over each other, their ridges covered with pines, exhibited a stronger image of grandeur, than any that Emily had yet seen. The sun had just sunk below the top of the mountains she was descending, whose long shadow stretched athwart the valley, but his sloping rays, shooting through an opening of the cliffs, touched with a yellow gleam the summits of the forest, that hung upon the opposite steeps, and streamed in full splendour upon the towers and battlements of a castle, that spread its extensive ramparts along the brow of a precipice above. The splendour of these illuminated objects was heightened by the contrasted shade, which involved the valley below.

“There” said Montoni, speaking for the first time in several hours “is Udolpho.”

Emily gazed with melancholy awe upon the castle, which she understood to be Montoni’s; for, though it was now lighted up by the setting sun, the gothic greatness of its features, and its mouldering walls of dark grey stone, rendered it a gloomy and sublime object. As she gazed, the light died away on its walls, leaving a melancholy purple tint, which spread deeper and deeper, as the thin vapour crept up the mountain, while the battlements above were still tipped with splendour: From those too, the rays son faded, and the whole edifice was invested with the solemn duskiness of evening. Silent, lonely and sublime, it seemed to stand the sovereign of the scene, and to frown defiance on all, who dared to invade its solitary reign. As the twilight deepened, its features became more awful in obscurity, and Emily continued to gaze, till its clustering towers were alone seen, rising over the tops of the woods, beneath whose thick shade the carriages soon after began to ascend.

The extent and darkness of these tall woods awakened terrific images in her mind, and she almost expected to see banditti start up from under the trees. At length the carriages emerged upon a heathy[6] rock, and soon after, reached the castle gates, where the deep tone of the portal bell, which was truck upon to give the notice of their arrival, increased the fearful emotions that had assailed Emily. While they waited till the servant within should come to open the gates, she anxiously surveyed the edifice. But the gloom that overspread it, allowed her to distinguish little more than a apart of its outline, with the massy walls of the ramparts, and to know that it was vast, ancient and dreary.

From the parts she saw, she judged of the heavy strength and extent of the whole. The gateway before her, leading into the courts, was of gigantic size, and was defended by two round towers, crowned by overhanging turrets, embattled[7], where, instead of banners, now waved long grass and wild plants, that had taken root among the mouldering stones, and which seemed to sigh, as the breeze rolled past, over the desolation around them. The towers were united by a curtain, pierced and embattled also, below which appeared the pointed arch of a huge portcullis, surmounting the gates: from these the walls of the ramparts extended to other towers, overlooking the precipice, whose shattered outline, appearing on agleam, that lingered in the west, told of the ravages of war. – Beyond these all was lost in the obscurity of evening.

While Emily gazed with awe upon the scene, footsteps were herd within the gates, and the undrawing of bolts; after which an ancient servant of the castle appeared, forcing back the huge folds of the portal, to admit his lord. As the carriage-wheels rolled heavily under the portcullis, Emily’s heart sunk, and she seemed, as if she was going into her prison: the gloomy court, into which she passed, served to confirm the idea, and her imagination, ever awake to circumstance, suggested even more terrors, than her reason could justify.

(from The Mysteries of Udolpho, chapter V, vol. 2)

Setting, character, plot,

CONTENTS

1. summarize in five lines the contents of the passage.

2. Many artists and painters during the romantic age show a new, deep interest in nature. This new interest can be summarised in the picturesque vogue and in the sublime. Which of them is present here? Justify.

3. The setting plays an important part in the atmosphere of the Gothic Novel

3. How is nature presented?

3. What is the role of nature in the passage?

3. There is a great attention to nature in the gothic novels and throughout the romantic age. What aspects of nature are emphasised in this passage? Are they functional to the story? Why?

3. The landscape, as seen by the heroine Emily, is the protagonist of this excerpt; two aspects of the landscape can bee seen. What are they? Which one is dominant? Why?

8. What relationship can you see between nature and the human protagonist? What is the effect upon the reader?

9. What are Emily’s feelings and emotions in her perception of nature.

9. The reader may be brought to think that nature is a kind of mirror of Emily’s psychological situation. Can you find any parts in the text which may support this idea?

9. Kant says that the sublime lies  not in the object of perception but in the subject. Does the passage reinforce this idea or not? Why?

12. How would you describe the general atmosphere of the passage?

12. Light and darkness alternate in the description of landscape. Can they acquire a symbolic meaning?

14. The use of language and vocabulary is fundamental in the creation of an atmosphere. Can you give examples from the text?

14. Many words in the passage suggest the idea of the human mind which succumbs in the effort  to grasp the immensity of nature. Can you find examples in the text?

14. The narrator uses  the words romantic, wild and sublime : have they got a special relation in your opinion?

17. There is in the text an ambivalent, ambiguous portrayal of nature, how can you justify that?

18. What idea of the sublime is dominant in the passage?

18. Edmund Burke wrote that the sublime is a mixture of terror and pleasure. Is that true for Emily? Is that true for the reader  also? Give reasons.

18. Kant distinguishes between matematic and dynamic aspects of the sublime referring to size and power

21. Imagination and reason have an important role in the psychology of the main character. What is their role in the

22. Is nature presented by the narrator or through Emily’s eyes? Why? Give examples. What is the effect upon the reader?

BACKGROUND

SETTING

TIME

            What moment of the day is described in the passage? Has it got any meaning?

SETTING AND CHARACTER

CHARACTER

ATMOSPHERE

LANGUAGE

THEMES

THEMES

CULTURAL BACKGROUND

POINT OF VIEW

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