For This Unit Students Should Have Read Act 2, Or Have a Knowledge of the Key Events

Unit 5: Act 2 – Murder and sleep

Assessment focus: A01, A02 Suggested number of lessons: 2-3 Resources: Outcomes: Resource Sheet 9(a): Order & chaos  To have a sound understanding of the prime Resource Sheet 9(b): Answer grid participants in the events of Act 2 and their Resource Sheet 10: Acting tense contribution to the action  To understand the contribution punctuation, sound, and variety of line lengths make to the dramatic effect

►Initial work For this unit students should have read Act 2, or have a knowledge of the key events. ▲ Activity 1: Ask students to look at Resource Sheet 9(a): Order and chaos and put the quotations into the order they are said. Students will also need to identify who is speaking. Draw out the idea that the four scenes of this act are all very different in tone and substance. Act 2 Scene 1 deals with Macbeth’s sounding out of Banquo, and then shifts to his own personal battle with his conscience. Scene 2 is concerned with the claustrophobic comings and goings of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Scene 3 involves the discovery of the murder and its aftermath. The final scene acts almost as a chorus – a view from afar on the events of the night before.

►Focused work In Act 2 Scene 2 a number of key ideas from the play come together in a highly dramatic way. It is important students get a sense of the different aspects of the writer’s craft that are employed. ▲ Activity 2: Students work in pairs to read the scene through aloud two or three times, until they are comfortable with the language and style. Then ask them to look at the opening lines up to ‘A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight’ and discuss:  what they notice about the variety of sentence lengths  the use of punctuation and questions How do these things contribute to a sense of tension within the scene? Display Resource sheet 10: Acting tense and model how the rest of Lady Macbeth’s speech and their first dialogue might be acted. Encourage students to take their cue from what is in the script: Lady Macbeth’s response to sounds; her concerns that the murder may have been unsuccessful; her reflections about Duncan looking like her father (would this be said in an almost ‘confessional’ tone?) etc. Then elicit how the short breathless exchange about the sounds they may or may not have heard adds to the suspense.

*****Please supply text for copyright and footer notes***** ▲ Activity 3: Students should now reread the rest of the scene in small groups, then discuss:  what happens in the remainder of this scene (Macbeth refusing to go back with the daggers etc.)  Macbeth’s state of mind. What does he keep talking about? What is the ‘chief nourisher in life’s feast’?  Lady Macbeth’s response to his fears and concerns. Does she feel the same?  whether this scene seems to follow naturally from previous scenes between Macbeth and his wife Feed back the students’ responses, ensuring they are clear about the key plot developments, as well as how their knowledge of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth has been advanced by this scene.

 Aim High In the scene which follows, Act 2 Scene 3, Lady Macbeth faints when Duncan’s murder is discovered. It is convenient to believe she does this to divert attention from the difficult questions being asked of Macbeth, but ask students what other interpretations can be put on this act?

 Moving On Students should make an independent study of the short, final scene of this act, looking for the interesting parallels between the actions in nature described by Ross and the Old Man, and the murder – the idea of a world turned upside down, in which tame horses break out of their stable, and the ‘pathetic fallacy’ of the darkness which ‘strangles the travelling lamp’.

Check the web ‘Pathetic fallacy’. Look for a succinct explanation of this literary term at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathetic_fallacy

Summary of key learning The tone and mood of a dialogue and scene can be set as much by the punctuation, selection of line lengths and structures, as by what is actually said. Act 2 Scene 2 is a pivotal scene from the first half of the play in that it seems to confirm our views that Lady Macbeth is the prime mover in the events, and that Macbeth is still highly ambivalent about what he has done.

*****Please supply text for copyright and footer notes***** Resource Sheet 9(a): Order and chaos

The following lines are spoken by characters at various points during Act 2. In groups of two, identify who is speaking, and then put the quotations in the order they were said.

I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done't.

O, yet I do repent me of my fury That I did kill them.

O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!

Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?

Ah, good father, Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Threaten his bloody stage. By th’ clock, 'tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp

A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it, then!

There's daggers in men's smiles; the near in blood, The nearer bloody.

I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again I dare not.

I dreamt last night of the three Weird Sisters. To you they have showed some truth.

*****Please supply text for copyright and footer notes***** Resource Sheet 9(b): Order and chaos – answer sheet

Banquo: I dreamt last night of the three Weird Sisters. To you they have showed some truth. Act 2 Scene 1

Macbeth: Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Act 2 Scene 1

Lady Macbeth: I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done't. Act 2 Scene 2

Macbeth: I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again I dare not. Act 2 Scene 2

Lady Macbeth: A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it, then! Act 2 Scene 2

Macduff: O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee! Act 2 Scene 3

Macbeth: O, yet I do repent me of my fury That I did kill them. Act 2 Scene 3

Donalbain: There's daggers in men's smiles; the near in blood, The nearer bloody. Act 2 Scene 3

Ross: Ah, good father, Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Threaten his bloody stage. By th’ clock, 'tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp Act 2 Scene 4

*****Please supply text for copyright and footer notes***** Resource Sheet 10: Acting tense

Short sentences create sharp, staccato, breathless effect

Could spin round – not sure MACBETH who is speaking; her words [Within] Who's there? What, ho! suggest that Macbeth might have failed LADY MACBETH Moves away Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, from door to And 'tis not done. Th’ attempt and not the deed chamber, then Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; stops in her He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled tracks on ‘Hark’ in response to My father as he slept, I had done't. My husband! imagined noise Enter MACBETH Clearly hears Macbeth entering chamber; eyes now fixed on the door 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.