Wednesday, April 22, 2015
today's journal topic
Macbeth won't be king, his wife will most likely control him when he's on the throne just like she does when he's off. He'll probably be known as a tyrant because she'll be having him behead people left and right. Shakespeare shows, again, how impressionable Macbeth is, when the three witches are making some stew thing and conjuring apparitions. One of them basically tells Macbeth that he shouldn't fear any mortal man, so Macbeth gets all this bravado and is like, "So I don't need to be afraid of anyone? Sweet." and he says that he'll spare Macduff. I could see that backfiring.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
blog feedback
should have put this up earlier... oops
questions? comments? improvements? let me know!
questions? comments? improvements? let me know!
what about my masterpiece?
I haven't done any work on my masterpiece this week. I have thought a lot about it, though. I'm going to be going to the Getty Museum on (hopefully) April 25th. Anyone who wants to go can contact me at lillieedmondson17@gmail.com for more information. I think I have a really cool idea for how I want to present my masterpiece (no technology involved, which means less headaches for me). Yes, Shakespeare had all the time in the world to write, and we only have so much time to work on our masterpieces. But it was his job to write, and ours right now is to go to school and have lives.
love is blind
For those of you that haven't seen the movie Chicken Run, Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy are two of the main characters and they have striking similarities to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (in personalities). Mr. Tweedy is afraid of Mrs. Tweedy and therefore does whatever she wants him to, not out of love, but out of fear. So does Macbeth. He views her as a superior, in a way, and the audience views her as a parasite that the world would be much better without. The audience can't comprehend why Macbeth would listen to her, and I don't think he does because "love is blind"; I think he might think he loves her, but in reality he's just scared shitless. Much like Mr. Tweedy.
Monday, April 13, 2015
meet macbeth
Macbeth is introduced indirectly by what others say about him when he is not in the room. They talk of what they have seen him do when he is in battle, which is why the opening feeling about him is that he has a heroic demeanor. Macbeth is easily deceived, and readily believes what the witches say to him. I don't know what direct characterization there is. I don't think that, yet, anyone has called him names or anything.
The witches sort of predict things that might happen. In putting ideas into Macbeth's mind, he probably makes things happen, whereas if the witches hadn't suggested anything, they wouldn't. They say something good will happen, it might. They say something bad will happen, it might. It depends on how Macbeth reacts to what they've said, but what they've said is what provides the foreshadowing.
He sets the play in the most prominent place where the play takes place. He says that there is bad weather, which is foreshadowing. The characters he introduces are usually smaller characters, talking about what's happened in the past. That gives the reader to know about the main characters and who they are, and then the smaller characters give a little bit about current events. Basically, Shakespeare brings the audience up to date about past and present events, but doesn't go into what will happen.
The witches sort of predict things that might happen. In putting ideas into Macbeth's mind, he probably makes things happen, whereas if the witches hadn't suggested anything, they wouldn't. They say something good will happen, it might. They say something bad will happen, it might. It depends on how Macbeth reacts to what they've said, but what they've said is what provides the foreshadowing.
He sets the play in the most prominent place where the play takes place. He says that there is bad weather, which is foreshadowing. The characters he introduces are usually smaller characters, talking about what's happened in the past. That gives the reader to know about the main characters and who they are, and then the smaller characters give a little bit about current events. Basically, Shakespeare brings the audience up to date about past and present events, but doesn't go into what will happen.
my macbeth resources
(I have no idea how to copy stuff as a link. I'm not technologically gifted.)
This is a link to the Wikipedia page about Elizabethan England. Not only is it super interesting, but it could provide some helpful background to what Macbeth pulls from.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan_era
This is also a link to a Wikipedia page, this one about James I. Preston was talking about him in class and how the play takes a lot from the king's life, so I thought this might be good to read about. (Also, for anyone else who's a history buff, James I is the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was the cousin of Elizabeth I, daughter of the infamous Henry VIII. You know, the one with six wives? Just fyi)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_VI_and_I
This site calls itself a "Macbeth study guide." Just good for clearing any confusion up.
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth/macbethresources.html
Schmoop
http://www.shmoop.com/macbeth/
This is a link to the Wikipedia page about Elizabethan England. Not only is it super interesting, but it could provide some helpful background to what Macbeth pulls from.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan_era
This is also a link to a Wikipedia page, this one about James I. Preston was talking about him in class and how the play takes a lot from the king's life, so I thought this might be good to read about. (Also, for anyone else who's a history buff, James I is the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was the cousin of Elizabeth I, daughter of the infamous Henry VIII. You know, the one with six wives? Just fyi)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_VI_and_I
This site calls itself a "Macbeth study guide." Just good for clearing any confusion up.
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth/macbethresources.html
Schmoop
http://www.shmoop.com/macbeth/
Sunday, April 12, 2015
poetry essay (i felt a funeral, in my brain)
Prompt: Write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poem's organization, diction, and figurative language prepare the reader for the speaker's concluding response.
This prompt fits the poem I chose because the poem is organized in the order of a funeral and the whole poem is figurative.
"And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down -
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing - then -"
Prewrite: dickinson's poem revolves around an imaginary funeral. the entire thing is figurative. it explains the feelings of the author as she feels that she's losing her sanity. Diction--the way she capitalizes words like Sense, used to mean "rational" and talks about capitalized words like they are names of something, almost like people
Dickinson writes the poem in the order of a funeral, using figurative language to allow the reader to see the events as they unfold. Certain words are chosen, aware that they will have an effect on how the reader perceives the poem--in this case, that the poem will not have a happy ending. While the last stanza is very abrupt, sounding almost unfinished, it is not wholly unexpected.
A funeral inside the mind of the author that involves Dickinson's sanity is the setting of the poem. "I felt a funeral, in my Brain" is the title of the poem, as well as the first line. This, right away, affects the mood of the poem. The use of figurative language is evident throughout the work, as the entire poem is figurative. The author says that "then a Plank in Reason, broke" and the reader then knows that she has, in her own opinion, lost her sanity. There are Mourners treading. Dickinson chooses this word perhaps because it sounds like "dreading", a word used when unhappy events are about to unfold. The last stanza is not the typical ending to a funeral, and there was nothing Dickinson did to prepare the reader for this. However, given the earlier content, it makes sense to the reader, and it can be inferred that the author has lost her sanity.
Dickinson's uses of organization, diction and figurative language are, as usual, constructed to form something rather ambiguous. Her poetry, though intriguing, does require an analysis to gain its full meaning. In the case of "I felt a funeral, in my Brain" the author's use of literary techniques is central to understanding what is being said.
A funeral inside the mind of the author that involves Dickinson's sanity is the setting of the poem. "I felt a funeral, in my Brain" is the title of the poem, as well as the first line. This, right away, affects the mood of the poem. The use of figurative language is evident throughout the work, as the entire poem is figurative. The author says that "then a Plank in Reason, broke" and the reader then knows that she has, in her own opinion, lost her sanity. There are Mourners treading. Dickinson chooses this word perhaps because it sounds like "dreading", a word used when unhappy events are about to unfold. The last stanza is not the typical ending to a funeral, and there was nothing Dickinson did to prepare the reader for this. However, given the earlier content, it makes sense to the reader, and it can be inferred that the author has lost her sanity.
Dickinson's uses of organization, diction and figurative language are, as usual, constructed to form something rather ambiguous. Her poetry, though intriguing, does require an analysis to gain its full meaning. In the case of "I felt a funeral, in my Brain" the author's use of literary techniques is central to understanding what is being said.
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