1. Get out your Act 4 script for Macbeth.
Skim and scan Act 4 and be ready to answer the following questions:
What is the setting?
What characters are in the scene?
How many apparitions appear in the scene? Name each one.

2. What characters are in the scene?
What is the setting?
What characters are in the scene?
How many apparitions appear in the scene? Name each one.
A Cave
3 witches, Macbeth, apparitions, Lennox 3—
1st—Armed Head
2nd—Bloody Child
3rd—holding tree branch

3. Act 4: Three Scenes
Things to Notice…
Shortest Act
Clarifies Macduff as Macbeth’s Foil
Shows the witches’ “false security” plan for Macbeth
Shows Macbeth’s deterioration and total descent into evil and cruelty.

4. Act Four, Scene 1
Plot summary: Macbeth seeks out the witches, and the witches prophesy further but leave out details t
Then, Lennox tells Macbeth that Macduff is raising an army against him.

5. "An armed Head" "A bloody child"
Act 4:__________will return to ruin Macbeth
Macbeth thinks: it doesn't matter; he's born of woman so I'm safe.
Act 5: Macbeth's Realization:
"An armed Head"
Act 4: "no man of woman born shall harm Macbeth--means
Macbeth thinks: Everyone is born from a woman--I'm safe!
Act 5: Macbeth's realization:
"A bloody child"

6. "a child wearing a crown and holding a tree"
Macbeth need not fear until great Birnam wood shall come to Dunsinane.
(Macbeth thinks: how can trees move up a hill: Impossible! I'm safe.)
Act 5: Macbeth's realization:
"a child wearing a crown and holding a tree"
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Act 5 Realization Moment:

7. Imagery:
The show of eight kings; ends with Banquo holding glass (glass = mirror)
Discuss the meaning of this:

8. Foil: a character who is presented as a contrast to a second character so as to point to or show to advantage some aspect of the second character.
Who is emerging as Macbeth’s Foil in this scene?

9. Scene 2—Macduff’s castle
Plot summary:
Assassins surprise and kill Macduff’s family at their castle.

10. Pathos:
Great feeling. How has Shakespeare set this scene up with great pathos, so the audience feels strong emotion?

11. Juxtaposition of Contrast:
the powerful effect of two very different images
Placed side-by-side
A touching “mother-child” scene; the innocence and playfulness of the dialogue between them; the mother’s worry that they are unprotected.
The brutal murder by the assassins that Macbeth has sent to kill Macduff’s family.

12. Demonstrating your knowledge of Act 4:
Choice #1:Create a Macbeth Prop Box—transform a shoebox into a display for an “artifact”—an object related to the play Macbeth. Include three related quotations, and an explanation of how the object is significant to the play and its themes and/or characters.

13. Choice #2: Graphic Design/Comic book…trace a character’s transformation throughout Macbeth with one “comic book” page from each act of the play~4-5 total. Each page should show a significant plot event related to the character that shows how s/he was at the beginning of the play, and how s/he changes throughout the play. Each page must include a significant quote from the novel that reveals characterization.

14. Choice #3: Macbeth: Quality Cartoon Quote Posters
Draw 3-5 cartoon illustrations that feature a significant quote from Macbeth.
Make sure that the quote is written in large, attention-getting letters that communicate the idea of the quote.