Macbeth's Inner Committee

The 11th grade spent two full days on Macbeth's monologue, in which he vacillates between killing the King and remaining a loyal subject. Here's his monologue from Act I:

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well

It were done quickly: if the assassination

Could trammel up the consequence, and catch

With his surcease success; that but this blow

Might be the be-all and the end-all here,

But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,

We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases

We still have judgment here; that we but teach

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice

Commends th’ingredients of our poison'd chalice

To our own lips. He's here in double trust;

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,

Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,

Who should against his murderer shut the door,

Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been

So clear in his great office, that his virtues

Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against

The deep damnation of his taking-off;

And pity, like a naked new-born babe,

Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed

Upon the sightless couriers of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself

And falls on the other.

On Wednesday we got into a circle and two students came into the middle, tasked with reading the monologue in alternation, switching speakers each time they reached a ; : or .

Both classes did remarkably well at this task and read the challenging language with confidence. Then, the entire class had the same task: we split into to sides of the circle, and alternated reading the whole thing together. Then, still in the circle, I asked them what seemed to be going on. I love this. They hear the words at first, and are completely convinced they have no clue what Shakespeare is talking about, then when they start to piece together meaning with little phrases, they put their powers of analysis and intuition seriously to work. I was particularly impressed with how the larger section honed in on some of the most important but also the most abstract and metaphorical lines right away: O. noticed the sense that something bad once created will return to plague the inventor. Bingo! S. saw that, yes, that was the same idea expressed by the poisoned chalice returning to our own lips. "Karma!" chimed in M. from across the circle.

With one class, I asked them to break into groups to split the monologue into six distinct voices in Macbeth's head. This was during first period, with the more generally focused class. This task produced some of the best group work I've witnessed - students perennially off task during group work were engaged in discussion of where the new argument or thought started.

With the other section, meeting during the notorious fourth period and generally less focused during group work, we established these six voices together, and they were brilliant. I was worried I'd have to find gentle ways to tell many people they were actually breaking sentences right in the middle of significant meaning, or to continually remind them that the end of a line doesn't mean the end of a thought. But they nailed it, every time. Some of their interpretations were new to me, but they defended them well.

Then, in their groups of six, they practiced reading the monologue in six parts, emphasising the different voices. Some entertained British accents for the occasion!

I was planning to move on to Lady Macbeth's attack on Macbeth's manhood on Thursday, but I realised that the monologue still had some important potential. At the beginning of class I asked students to look at the graphic above and remember the class from the day before. Then I asked for an improvisation volunteer. B. came to the front, and I said "Please strike a pose that shows what you think Macbeth might look like during this monologue." He contemplated for a moment, then asked if he could do one simple repeated motion instead of a freeze frame. "Yes." He started pacing back and forth, using his hands to indicate contemplation of two paths. It was quite convincing. I asked him to continue and asked S. to show another image of Macbeth during the same monologue. She looked thoughtful. Then Z added a Macbeth brandishing a knife. I asked the class to identify lines or sentiments from the monologue they saw represented in their classmates' poses.

I remember doing this kind of thing with Monica last year with Romeo and Juliet. After a day of successful acting and role play, we once included a visual recap like this one, involving a gesture to the role play of the day before to bring that visceral understanding of the text back to the forefront ofthe students' minds. It worked quite well yesterday, as I then sent them to work in groups of three on a small section of the monologue (divided along colour lines above) to identify the meaning and the stylistic elements that contributed to meaning (the metaphors, similes, word choices).

Sometimes when I circulate I have the impression that groups I'm not working with are not doing anything productive. This impression is greatly diminished with Shakespeare - they carry the momentum of class discussions into group work because it's such a puzzle. Sometimes with simpler text they can easily convince themselves that they know what's going on even when there is much left to mine. With the Shakespeare, they know they have to work for it, and they want to.

With 20 minutes left, I asked them to annotate the projected passage, then the groups presented their findings. I'm so glad we spent another day on this passage, because by the end I think they must feel very good about the thorough understanding they have. Their homework is to write a paragraph about what makes the passage notable.

At the end of class with the larger section, they moved efficiently between their presentations and we had time for Basket of Doom- the last round of the semester. N. spelled sufficient, interrogation and accompany correctly to earn her class a star. That section is getting cookies for this quarter.