Primary Source Material for Macbeth Analysis from AC Bradley

Primary Text Supplement for AP Lit:

AP Literature and Composition
Literary Criticism of the Macplay by A.C. Bradley
(from his series of 17 lectures on the play, presented in 1935)

4. SIMILARITIES BETWEEN MACBETH AND LADY MACBETH

. . .From this murky background stand out the two great terrible figures, which dwarf all the remaining characters of the drama. Both are sublime, and both inspire, far more than the other tragic heroes, the feeling of awe. They are never detached in imagination from the atmosphere, which surrounds them and adds to their grandeur and terror. It is, as it were, continued into their souls. For within them is all that we felt without the darkness of night, lit with the flame of tempest and the hues of blood, and haunted by wild and direful shapes, 'murdering ministers,' spirits of remorse, and maddening visions of peace lost and judgment to come. The way to be untrue to Shakespeare here, as always, is to relax the tension of imagination, to conventionalize, to conceive Macbeth, for example, as a half-hearted cowardly criminal, and Lady Macbeth as a whole-hearted fiend.
These two characters are fired by one and the same passion of ambition; and to a considerable
extent they are alike. The disposition of each is high, proud, and commanding. They are born to
rule if not to reign. They are peremptory or contemptuous to their inferiors. They are not children
of light, like Brutus and Hamlet; they are of the world. We observe in them no love of country, and no interest in the welfare of anyone outside their family. Their habitual thoughts and aims are, and, we imagine, long have been, all of station and power. And though in both there is something, and in one much, of what is higher honour, conscience, humanity they do not live consciously in the light of these things or speak their language. Not that they are egoists, like lago; or, if they are egoists, theirs is anegoisme a deux. They have no separate ambitions. They support and love one another. They suffer together. And if, as time goes on, they drift a little apart, they are not vulgar souls, to be alienated and recriminate when they experience the fruitlessness of their ambition. They remain to the end tragic, even grand.

Definition: egoisme a deux: 1. "Selfishness of two" or "double selfishness"; a satirical description of love, variously and dubiously attributed sometimes to the French medieval writer of romances, Antoine de la Sale (circa 1385-circa 1460), to the 18th century philosophe, Antoine de Lassalle, and to the Swiss-French belle-lettrist, Madame de Staël (1766-1817): "L'amour est un égoïsme à deux," which translates as: "Love is a selfishness of two."

2. A situation in which two people are in love with each other but lack brotherly love for others.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

NOTE: I am leaving very quickly after school today for an appointment, so if you need help with a college essay or an existential crisis, please see me during A or B lunch. I will be in 313 during A lunch and 315 during B lunch.

NOTE NOTE: Poetry Reading is Friday after school from 2:30-4:00 in room 315. Bring a beverage; I will bring cookies.

NOTE NOTE NOTE: Project X-Mas is having an organizational meeting Thursday after school in room 313. The meeting itself is fairly short--we need you to "pimp the cause" to your various teachers and clubs--but afterwards Katie C. will be hosting crafts for sale for the cause.

Gifted English II: Reading Day for The Count of Monte Cristo. You get 10 points for reading, so BRING YOUR BOOK.

AP Lit and Comp: Finish the questions for Macbeth, then do an amazing MacScavenger Hunt to prepare for the inevitable, but fun, Mactest, which I think is Friday. I could push it to next week, but why would I? I LOVE THIS PLAY.

PTSA Parent Night Update

Dear Students,

As I mentioned in class today, no form was sent home via the English classes today regarding your schedule. Please write down your schedule for your parents OR print one off of ProgressBook to show your parents where your classes are, and let them know that maps will be distributed at the end of the PTSA presentation which begins at 6:30. Parking will be a nightmare, so try to arrive early, and if you are a late-arrival senior, please tell your parents that they can come early and pick up a handout from my class if they'd like and go home without having to hang around and wait forever.

Here is my schedule, for your own planning purposes. Classroom visits are supposed to begin around 7 (rain notwithstanding) and are scheduled to last seven minutes each or so, with six minutes for pass time.

Period One: Gifted English II

Period Two: Gifted English II

Period Three: AP Lit and Comp

Period Four: Writing Center

Period Five: AP Lit and Comp

Period Six: AP Lit and Comp

Period Seven: AP Lit and Comp

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Tonight is PTSA Parent Night. You are welcome to attend with your parents. Please don't forget to bring home the form you received today in either first period or your English class (mine) that lists your schedule and has a helpful map of the school for your parents to navigate. And hopefully it won't rain this time!

Gifted English II: Author of the Day is Shel Silverstein, after which we have a vocabulary quiz for the final list of literary terms. We will be transitioning into SAT/ACT vocabulary words forthwith, but we needed to start with 120 literary terms so that you have the necessary diction for literary analysis this year. After the quiz, I will distribute the take-home Antigone essay test and go over the expectations for it. We will have an in-class objective test on the same play on Thursday, complete with clip art and festive multiple choice questions, but the take-home is your opportunity to express yourself in written form. THE TAKE-HOME TEST MUST BE POSTED ON TURNITIN.COM SO IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN ACCOUNT YET (AFTER ALL THIS TIME--OY) SEE ME ASAP.

APees: MacScavenger Hunt, followed by more Macgoodness. And if you thought you escaped the necessity of a Macpaper, well. . .

Here is my favorite, favorite speech from the entire play. A dear friend of mine e-mailed it to me last week as inspiration, and I was struck again by how eternally evocative these few words are, even today:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Macbeth, Act V, scene v.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Autumn is upon us, and Homecoming Week is approaching swiftly! I have a puppet show prepared for all of you that may or may not make a difference in your lives, but I assure you of this: at least you will know which fork to use at dinner, and the origins of a cummerbund, and what the Cow of Despair has to say about making bad moral decisions to celebrate a dance. You are precious young people with your whole lives ahead of you, and I want you to be safe, and happy, and well. Thus: The Homecoming Puppet Show. Brace yourselves. And if you mess up, you will see my face, and it will not be happy.

Gifted English II: The Author of the Day today is David Foster Wallace, a talented young writer who died last fall after a life-long battle with depression. I might get teary; he is one of my favorite writers, and his death left me shellshocked last year. I do think you need to know about him, though, as his words are his legacy. Afterwards, we will review Lit Terms 101-120, then finish Antigone: The Exodos and final Ode. If all goes well this week, we can have another Monte Cristo Reading Day on Wednesday. Note: Some of you need to get serious about this course, and I will be inviting a handful of you to change seats to best ameliorate your temptation to chat in class or focus only on the humor. I know we laugh a lot in class, but the goal is to learn while we are laughing, and some of you are just lost in a sea of adolescent giggles. No more, my peeps. No more.

APees: MacStuff, Act V. This entire act is pretty much all falling action, leading to an inevitable denouement. Will MacDuff exact his revenge? Will young Malcolm be worthy of his new responsibilities? Will Lady Macbeth manifest her guilt in a shocking way? Will the witches make another appearance? Will Kanye West have something to say about the final battle sequence and its choreography? Inquiring minds want to know, and merely have to attend AP Lit to find out!!!

POETRY READING HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9. SNACKS WILL BE PROVIDED. YOU MIGHT NOT LIKE THEM, BECAUSE I MIGHT BAKE THEM.

PTSA Parent Night is Tuesday, October 6 at 6:30 p.m. Please encourage your parents to attend.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Today is bi-week, which means that there is no football game on the schedule. Regardless, it's still ORANGE AND WHITE DAY which means that according to Ms. McMillen, you can leave third period one minute early for lunch if you are wearing our school colors.

(I will be wearing what I normally wear, thus manifesting my school spirit radiantly from the inside while clad in black on the outside. It's my oeuvre.)

That said: There is a horrible rumor going around about Senior Skip Day being tomorrow. It's awfully early in the school year to start these shenanigans, people, and you already have two three-day weekends on the calendar in the humble month of October. So let this be known: If you are absent tomorrow, and it turns into an EXCUSED absence (college visit, dental work, major existential crisis pre-approved by a parental unit, illness, slight case of death, robot attack, intervention from neighboring countries) then I might let you make up the awesome quiz I am planning for tomorrow. If not, you lose out. If you are there--regardless of period you choose to attend--you will receive full credit for a quiz that gloriously asks you mundane questions like "What are you wearing?" and "What room are you in, right now?" COME TO SCHOOL. IT WILL SERVE YOU WELL. SKIPPING CLASS IS SUCH A FRESHMAN BEHAVIOR. BE A ROLE MODEL.

Announcements!!!

1. Guidance is working assiduously to fix the transcript problems; I assure you it is not them, but a glitch that might be affecting more than just BHS. Please try to be patient, and if you feel that you are going to lose your temper, come to my room and have a peppermint. Peppermints are known to improve moods instantly (or at least mitigate halitosis.)

2. POETRY READING AFTER SCHOOL TOMORROW in my room, hosted by Covert and Hilley. Totally optional, but totally worth it. I forgot to advertise it because, honestly, I forgot that October 2 was this week. Bring a beverage; the enlightenment is free of charge. We plan to start around 2:30 and close a little after 4:00.

3. College Essay Workshop went very well, but some of you are still in denial. COME SEE ME ASAP if you need help. I care. I am paid very little to care a lot. Feel the love, people. :-)

Gifted English II: Due to lack of organization on the part of your instructor, you have no vocab quiz today. Woot! So we will review the words from 101-120, then try to finish Antigone. I also want to share some samples from Wednesday's timed writing--some of your essays were hilarious and/or insightful.

APees: MacStuff. What will happen to Lady MacDuff and Egg McDuffin? Will Malcolm turn out to be a liar or a jerk, hiding in England and eating scones and crumpets? Will Macbeth get his just desserts? Will the witches break into song again? WHAT WILL HAPPEN? OMG!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Gifted English II: MONTE CRISTO READING DAY IS FINALLY UPON US! I have lollies for all of you. Thank you so much for being patient yesterday and helping with the FCAT.

APees: Macbeth, Act IV, scene i. This scene is almost painfully offensive, but it has to be analyzed carefully.

REMINDER: Today I will be happy to help anyone with college woes--both lunch shifts, and after school.