Today in the 11th grade we introduced the idea of the "Great Chain of Being". We contrasted the idea with the study in "upward social mobility" that we talked about in September. In September we looked at this image:
And we read the scene from Raisin in the Sun from which these lines of dialogue come:
Walter: Son -- son, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Travis: A bus driver.
Walter: A what? Man, that ain’t nothing to want to be!
Travis: Why not?
Walter: ‘Cause, man -- it ain’t big enough -- you know what I mean.
Today we returned to this image and I asked them what they remembered about our discussion. They talked about following dreams and rising above difficulty, and being independent.
All good comments to contrast with the idea of the Great Chain of Being, which establishes the following power hierarchy:
We established that this was not considered a ladder in Renaissance Europe. You were born where you were born and didn't move from that point. In fact, people believed that violation of this "natural order" would result in disorder and chaos within the natural world.
I asked students, in pairs, to find lines from the play that foreshadowed disorder in the natural world. They did so much better than I expected them to! They picked up right away on everything that the Witches tell Macbeth and Banquo, ("Thou shalt be King hereafter," "Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.") By saying these things, argued A., they give rise to the idea in Macbeth's head that he ought to violate the chain of being. Besides, S. added, the witches indicate from the very beginning that "Fair is foul and foul is fair," foreshadowing chaos.
Others noted that Macbeth is aware of the consequences that his rupturing the chain will have, and tells nature to look away: "Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my dark and deep desires".
Banquo also identifies the "Instruments of evil" who will "betray us in deepest consequence." A. pointed out that when Macbeth talks about "bloody instructions which, being taught, return to plague the inventor", he expresses the idea of a "plague" that certainly violates natural order.
I was so impressed how quickly they jumped on this idea, and the energy with which they pursued it in the text.
The rest of the class was dedicated to a game. Students were in teams of four. We established that the setting of our scene was Macbeth's castle when Duncan arrives for dinner. They were very familiar by this point with Macbeth's hesitations/vacillations on the subject of killing Duncan, and with Lady Macbeth's desire to encourage Macbeth to do the deed. I projected six quotes in sequence, and had them identify the speaker for each, and to note the use of either violent/masculine diction or gentle/feminine diction in one or two words.
These are the quotes from scenes six and seven.
1. We will proceed no further in this business.
He hath honored me of late, and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people. (Macbeth)
2. Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly,
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, hostess. (Duncan)
3. What beast was it
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man. (Lady Macbeth)
4. If we should fail? (Macbeth)
5. Screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we’ll not fail. (Lady Macbeth)
6. I am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. (Macbeth)
I was uncertain how this would go. I've never tried to use a guessing game to cover an essential scene like this - usually we do something more studious; I have often given a handout with the speeches like this and they have to identify the speakers, but it's not a game setting. But given how well they knew the context, this seemed to work, especially on a rainy day when many were absent taking the SATs.
Once we clarified the answers, the bell rang, so we didn't get to discuss the diction choices very much, but this may be one of those cases where the learning is fairly complete by the end of the activity, even without the plenary. At any rate, we'll probably return to this scene at the beginning of next class just so we can watch this film adaptation with Judi Dench and Ian McKellan. The relevant scene starts at 29:00.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpKWWK0Pj34
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