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FALLOUT Act 2, Scenes 2 – 4
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Hands Water Sounds
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How does this reflect and enhance the dramatic tension in the scene?
Stichomythia A type of dialogue in which actors exchange short remarks. It is usually characterised by repetition and antithesis and delivered at speed. It has also been called cat-and- mouse dialogue and cut-and- thrust dialogue. The device was first used in the ancient Greek theater to intensify the drama of an exchange. Nowadays it is mainly used for comic effect or to create tension. LADY MACBETH My husband! MACBETH I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? LADY MACBETH I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak? MACBETH When? LADY MACBETH Now. MACBETH As I descended? LADY MACBETH Ay. MACBETH Hark! Who lies i' the second chamber? LADY MACBETH Donalbain. MACBETH This is a sorry sight. [Looking on his hands.] LADY MACBETH A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. How does this reflect and enhance the dramatic tension in the scene?
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Act 2, Scene 3 As Macbeth and his wife leave the courtyard, the porter, who has been slowly wakened from his drunken sleep by the repeated knocking on the gate, staggers upon the stage. Evidently he is not quite sober yet; he is in no hurry to open the gate, and he improves the time by a whimsical speech on the duties of the porter of hell- gate. The porter seems for a time to imagine himself that position, and tires his imagination in guessing who the offenders may be that are so loudly demanding admittance to the infernal regions. The authenticity of this scene has been denied by some famous critics and editors; but there seems no good ground for any such suspicion. In the first place, an intervening scene of this kind is absolutely necessary to give Macbeth time to wash his hands and change his dress; in the second, the porter's speech contains several distinctly Shakespearean phrases, "old turning of the key," "devil- porter it," and "the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire." The jokes about the farmer, the equivocator, and the tailor seem rather flat to modern audiences, but they are topical 'gags' which likely enough set the audience laughing when first spoken. A 'gag' can hardly be expected to retain its charm for three centuries.
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A person who speaks ambiguously or doesn't tell the whole truth
The equivocator Shakespeare made direct references to the Gunpowder Plot right in Macbeth. To commemorate the discovery of the dreadful scheme, King James had a medal created picturing a snake hiding amongst flowers. Another significant allusion is to a Jesuit priest named Father Henry Garnet, who had concealed his knowledge of the conspiracy. When Father Garnet finally confessed, he insisted that his previous perjury was not really perjury because he lied for God’s sake. For this excuse, he became known as the great “equivocator” and was promptly hanged. Later on, when Macbeth’s Porter wonders what kind of people would enter the gates of hell, he declares: Faith, here’s an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator. A person who speaks ambiguously or doesn't tell the whole truth
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Act 2, Scene 3 A porter stumbles through the hallway to answer the knocking, grumbling comically about the noise and mocking whoever is on the other side of the door. He compares himself to a porter at the gates of hell and asks, “Who’s there, i’ th’ name of Beelzebub?” Macduff and Lennox enter, and Macduff complains about the porter’s slow response to his knock. The porter says that he was up late carousing and rambles on humorously about the effects of alcohol, which he says provokes red noses, sleepiness, and urination. He adds that drink also “provokes and unprovokes” lechery—it inclines one to be lustful but takes away the ability to have sex. Macbeth enters, and Macduff asks him if the king is awake, saying that Duncan asked to see him early that morning. In short, clipped sentences, Macbeth says that Duncan is still asleep. He offers to take Macduff to the king. As Macduff enters the king’s chamber, Lennox describes the storms that raged the previous night, asserting that he cannot remember anything like it in all his years. With a cry of “O horror, horror, horror!” Macduff comes running from the room, shouting that the king has been murdered
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Act 2, Scene 3 Macbeth and Lennox rush in to look, while Lady Macbeth appears and expresses her horror that such a deed could be done under her roof. General chaos ensues as the other nobles and their servants come streaming in. As Macbeth and Lennox emerge from the bedroom, Malcolm and Donalbain arrive on the scene. They are told that their father has been killed, most likely by his chamberlains, who were found with bloody daggers. Macbeth declares that in his rage he has killed the chamberlains. Macduff seems suspicious of these new deaths, which Macbeth explains by saying that his fury at Duncan’s death was so powerful that he could not restrain himself. Lady Macbeth suddenly faints, and both Macduff and Banquo call for someone to attend to her. Malcolm and Donalbain whisper to each other that they are not safe, since whoever killed their father will probably try to kill them next. Lady Macbeth is taken away, while Banquo and Macbeth rally the lords to meet and discuss the murder. Duncan’s sons resolve to flee the court. Malcolm declares that he will go south to England, and Donalbain will hasten to Ireland.
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Appearance vs. Reality How does Shakespeare present the theme of appearance vs. reality in Act 2, Scene 3? Highlight every line that represents the theme of appearance vs. reality in the extract
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MACDUFF O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee! MACBETH What's the matter. MACDUFF Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence The life o' the building! MACBETH What is 't you say? the life? LENNOX Mean you his majesty? MACDUFF Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon: do not bid me speak; See, and then speak yourselves. Exeunt MACBETH and LENNOX Awake, awake! Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason! Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake! Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, And look on death itself! up, up, and see The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, To countenance this horror! Ring the bell. Bell rings. Enter LADY MACBETH LADY MACBETH What's the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? speak, speak! MACDUFF O gentle lady, 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition, in a woman's ear, Would murder as it fell. Enter BANQUO. O Banquo, Banquo, Our royal master 's murder'd!
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LADY MACBETH Woe, alas! What, in our house? BANQUO Too cruel any where. Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, And say it is not so. Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with ROSS. MACBETH Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time; for, from this instant, There 's nothing serious in mortality: All is but toys: renown and grace is dead; The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of. Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN. DONALBAIN What is amiss? MACBETH You are, and do not know't: The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd. MACDUFF Your royal father 's murder'd. MALCOLM O, by whom? LENNOX Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't: Their hands and faces were an badged with blood; So were their daggers, which unwiped we found Upon their pillows: They stared, and were distracted; no man's life Was to be trusted with them. MACBETH O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them. MACDUFF Wherefore did you so?
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MACBETH Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: The expedition my violent love Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood; And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers, Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make 's love known? LADY MACBETH Help me hence, ho! MACDUFF Look to the lady.
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Act 2, Scene 4 Ross, a thane, walks outside the castle with an old man. They discuss the strange and ominous happenings of the past few days: it is daytime, but dark outside; last Tuesday, an owl killed a falcon; and Duncan’s beautiful, well-trained horses behaved wildly and ate one another. Macduff emerges from the castle and tells Ross that Macbeth has been made king by the other lords, and that he now rides to Scone to be crowned. Macduff adds that the chamberlains seem the most likely murderers, and that they may have been paid off by someone to kill Duncan. Suspicion has now fallen on the two princes, Malcolm and Donalbain, because they have fled the scene. Macduff returns to his home at Fife, and Ross departs for Scone to see the new king’s coronation.
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Supernatural Phenomena
Old Man Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time I have seen Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. ROSS Ah, good father, Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp: Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame, That darkness does the face of earth entomb, When living light should kiss it? Old Man 'Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, A falcon, towering in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. ROSS And Duncan's horses--a thing most strange and certain-- Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make War with mankind. Old Man 'Tis said they eat each other. ROSS They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Macduff. Negative lexis
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Supernatural Phenomena
Shakespeare extracted three of the four omens associated with King Duffe's murder from the Holinshed’s Chronicles, and applied them to the murder of Duncan. Holinshed writes: "Monsterous sights also that were seene within the Scottish kingdome that yeere were these: horses in Louthian, being of a singular beautie and awiftnesse, did eate their own flesh, and would in no wise taste anie other meate ... There was a sparhawke also strangled by an owlq. Neither was it anie lesse woonder that the sunne, as before is said, was continuallie covered with clouds for six monthe space" (237). As Henry Paul points out in his book The Royal Play of Macbeth: "[Shakespeare] improved Holinshed's portents (1) by assigning the horses to Duncan, thus dramatizing the events; and by converting the strange behaviour of the horses into a protest against the inhumanity of man ... (2) by transforming the hawking owl into an image of the witches malign power; and (3) by confining to the murder day the darkness which the Chronicle ruinously diluted by protracting it for six months" (200).
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