Final Point 4

These are the articles that we looked at to get an idea of the critical conversation surrounding Macbeth. As you will see some of them applied more to our selected high school audience than others. We offer a general summary and reaction to each article and then mention if and how the article would or would not inform our own edition.

Lady Macbeth's Indispensable Child

Marvin Rosenberg

Educational Theatre Journal , Vol. 26, No. 1 (Mar., 1974) , pp. 14-19

Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

Article DOI: 10.2307/3206576

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3206576

I liked this article. Rosenberg is trying to prove that Macbeth has a son. He cites that the witches prophecy about Banquo’s posterity reigning in the kingdom would not bother him if Macbeth did not have any sons. Because “if Macbeth were childless, the succession of Fleance would be no great matter, it could come after Macbeth had been peacefully paid.” Also, Macbeth’s tyranny is not manifest until after he learns that Banquo’s son has remained alive. Lastly he says that even though Macbeth had been guarenteed the safety he had hoped for by the witches in his last encounter with them that one thing still troubles his mind: “shall Banquo’s issue ever rule the kingdom?”

He also of course cites that Lady Macbeth says that she has given suck as evidence. I liked the article but I honestly think that high school students would not care for it. It does change our reading of the play a little bit, but not enough that you would want to bog high school students down with it. Basically, the revelation isn’t worth the reading for high schoolers.

Questions being asked: Does Macbeth have a son? Is passing on his kingdom a motive for Macbeth's actions? How does this justify (or not justify) Macbeth?

"Macbeth" Lives Again

Mary N. Gallman

The English Journal , Vol. 41, No. 7 (Sep., 1952) , pp. 370-371

So this wasn't criticism like the assignment entails but somewhat of a report by a high school teacher of how students responded to an assignment that she gave them. The assignment was to tell the story of Macbeth through the eyes of one of the characters. She said the responses were amazing. Especially those in which Macbeth psychoanalysis himself. The article is only a page and a half so if we wanna do a teacher edition I think this would be useful to put in it.

Question being asked: How would the play be different through the eyes of another character?

Macbeth, the Murderers, and the Diminishing Parallel

Joan Hartwig

The Yearbook of English Studies , Vol. 3, (1973) , pp. 39-43

Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association

Article DOI: 10.2307/3506854

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3506854

This was pretty cool. Hartwig examines how Macbeth’s humanity diminishes into nothing just as the murderers that he hires. Hartwig points out that the murderers did not need to be persuaded to kill Banquo but that Macbeth still insists on persuading them. She also shows how Macbeth has gone from being the persuaded to the persuader. So his diminishing humanity can be seen from his first needing to be persuaded to murder to his then persuading others to murder to his statements at the end of the play that signify almost a complete loss of humanity. Statements such as ‘I’ll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack’d” and “I have liv’d long enough.”

The ideas in this article would work for high school students because it illustrates a significant topic. But she cites a lot of other scholars and primary works so if we could have a summary of her article in our edition that would be the best I think.

Question being asked: Does Macbeth lose his humanity and become more like the murderers?

Purgation, Exorcism, and the Civilizing Process in Macbeth 

Bryan Adams Hampton. 

On MLA

Hampton talks about the binaries presented in Macbeth, and how the binary that is less commonly treated is that of spritually “dirty” and “clean” elements. He talks about the binary of the witches against that of the ghost. The work is important in showing the importance of binaries in Macbeth and in showing holy and unholy “split” in the play. His thesis shows the importance of the argument:

“Saunders's list of binaries, however, ignores an important cultural context: the ritual and spiritual dimensions of "clean" and "dirty" as the "sacred" and the "profane." But what do we accomplish by adding another set of binaries, and how do they impinge on the action of Macbeth? First, domestic cleanliness, brought about by the everyday household tasks of purgation, have spiritual purchase in the civilizing process, not just for the individual household, but also for the nation. As Robert Cleaver describes, English householders understand that their particular vocation distinguishes them from "Papists, Atheists, yea, Turkes and Infidels," who equally provide the necessities for their children, and from their fellow Englishmen that merely "pretend to be great protestants, and sound professors of the Gospell." For Cleaver, their task of "reforming their own houses" is "a most necessary discipline" because if the owner has "a Church in his house," these seeds eventually bloom into an ordered English Church.16 Domestic disorder, depicted by Cleaver as servants who habitually "shew any lewd tricke[s]," as a "cruell" and tyrannical husband who fails to "love, cherish, and nourish his wife, even as his owne bodie," or as an unruly "street-wife" who wanders abroad or fails to keep a thrifty house, reflects poorly on the national, Protestant identity of England and draws the judgment of God.17 Second, in examining the cultural binaries of "sacred" and "profane," we will also complicate, or even dissolve, their rigid distinctions and trouble Saunders's description of the neat economy of the nation's civilizing process, whereby Scotland's disease and dirtiness is purged in exchange for England's vigor and cleanliness, or Macbeth's fiendlike foulness is exorcised by Edward III's saintly fairness.”

This article shows the importance of reading the play under the lens of this holy binary and it adds depth to the meaning of the play.

Fantasizing Infanticide: Lady Macbeth and the Murdering Mother in Early Modern England

Stephanie Chamberlain 

Found on MLA

This article is pretty shocking, but helpful in understanding Lady Macbeth as a character and her indifference (and almost passion) toward the tragedy that befalls Macduff. It also adds more depth to the famous scene of her walking in the night trying to clean her hands. The article talks about how infanticide was actually a small trend among English women in the early modern period and how Shakespeare was aware of this trend and thus wove it into his play. The article references practices surrounding motherhood including nursing and raising children and how some mothers felt a disconnect with these practices and therefore reacted violently. The article cites lots of subtle references to these issues in Macbeth and relate them back to the character of Lady Macbeth. Here’s a paragraph to illustrate the point of this article:

“Lady Macbeth's reference to motherhood and infanticide near the end of act one of Macbeth remains one of the more enigmatic moments in all of Shakespeare's drama. Fearing Macbeth's wavering commitment to their succession scheme, Lady Macbeth declares that she would have "dashed the brains out" (1.7.58)2 of an infant to realize an otherwise unachievable goal. Scholars have traditionally read this as well as her earlier "unsex me here" (1.5.39) invocation as evidence of Lady Macbeth's attempt to seize a masculine power to further Macbeth's political goals. To overcome her husband's feminized reticence, Lady Macbeth assumes a masculinity she will prove unable to support. While she clearly seeks power, such power is, I would argue, conditioned on maternity, an ambiguous, conflicted status in early modern England. Indeed, the images of nursing and infanticide that frame Lady Macbeth s act one fantasy invoke a maternal agency, momentarily empowering the achievement of an illegitimate political goal.”

“Born of Woman”: Fantasies of Maternal Power in Macbeth 

Janet Adelman

She discuses the power woman have in this play. She talks about how the witches have power over Macbeth and they are the reason for everything he does. She also discusses, obviously, Lady Macbeth and the power she has over Macbeth. She talks about Macbeth unconsciously wanting to escape the domain of women. She mentions that the women only exist in this play to disappear. She talks about how each female character falls out of the story and how aware the reader is or is not aware of it happening. The author alludes to lots of other works. References Cymbeline and the quote “Is there no way for men to be but women?/ Must be half-workers?” And then the author also talks about The Tempest where we see an almost womenless world. And so on and so on….

Her concluding statement is:

“In Macbeth, maternal power is given its most virulent sway and then abolished; at the end of the play we are in a purely male realm. We will not be in so absolute a male realm again until we are in Prospero’s island- kingdom, similarly based firmly on the exiling of the witch Sycorax.”

There were things I liked and disliked. Overall I felt like there were some good points made. I think it is way too long for a high school edition but I think if we cut a lot of it out, or even had summaries… that’d be cool. I don’t know,  just a thought.

Macbeth: The Sexual Underplot 

Ralph Berry

The author just basically would dissect parts of the text and explain that it really had sexual meaning and then why. I didn’t feel like he had a great argument. It could be just because I don’t feel like other people talk about that for this play much and I also felt like he was making a stretch to connect it to sexual meaning. I could be wrong, but that’s how I felt.  

“The Way To Study Death”: New Light On A Variant In F2 MACBETH

Todd Borlik 

Explicator 70.2 (2012): 144-148. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

“Out of context, Macbeth’s ensuing

monologue—“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow”—stands as one of

Shakespeare’s Olympian meditations on the human predicament. But the

overlooked preamble in effect frames the speech as a kind of blasphemous

eulogy for Lady Macbeth.”

This article discusses a different edition of the play in which “dusty death” was changed to “study death.” Overall, it analyzes Macbeth’s famous “Tomorrow” speech. This type of text could be useful in our edition because it analyzes a famous part of the play that addresses major themes. It is not very long, just six pages, and easy enough for a high school student to read without getting lost.

Shakespeare's Macbeth 

Bill Delaney

The Explicator 63.4 (2005): 209+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

This article talks about the metaphors Shakespeare uses in Macbeth, particularly in this part of the play:

Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!
   Macbeth does murder sleep"--the innocent sleep,
   Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
   The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath.
   Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
   Chief nourisher in life's feast. (1)

Basically I think this article might be helpful for high school students reading the play because it is pretty simple but still engages readers into critical conversation.

Final Point 3

We have chosen to write our own edition of the play Macbeth. Our edition will be geared toward high school English students. We chose to do Macbeth because it is relatively short and therefore will keep high school students interested while still providing them with a play that highlights Shakespearean features and skills. Additionally, Macbeth deals with a lot of the themes that are highlighted in other Shakespeare tragedies. We feel that doing our own version of Macbeth will be helpful because there was very little introductory material and commentary in the edition that we read, and therefore we can approach our own edition with a "blank slate," focusing on what we think high school students should be focusing on, but not pushing them to view the play in a certain way.

Final Point 2: Annotations

For our edition we plan only to annotate "tough language." We liked the way that both Richard III and Measure for Measure did this in the editions that we are going to read. This tough language could be classified as definitions to words that may be misunderstood (or not understood), difficult metaphors or symbols, or cultural references that would be over the heads of our main audience, high schoolers (which we just changed by the way). We feel that by doing this we will encompass the "average Joe" audience as well, but it gives us a more concrete audience to work with while we are thinking about our edition.

For our example we chose the dagger scene from Act II Scene I. Once again, the "tough language" is what we would annotate here. Phrases like "heat-oppressed brain," words like "Alarumed" or "knell," and cultural references to "Tarquin" or "Hecate" would be annotations in our edition.

The point is to clarify the tough language for the high schoolers. Obviously we could provide more in depth readings of the play for them through footnotes that could perhaps enhance their reading of the play, kind of like the annotations in our edition of As You Like It. But we feel that high schoolers would be too easily influenced by these "authoritative" readings and adopt those opinions as their own without much, if any, push back. We would rather simply make the play accessible to them by defining and describing language that would otherwise be over their head and then let them develop their critical thinking skills on their own through their own interpretation.