Now, that we have read the entire play, read the following propositions. If you are the first person to respond, you must write on the first proposition. If you are the second, the second proposition is yours and so on. Write a response that supports or refutes this proposition. YES, you must take one side and one side only. This isn't Switzerland. No credit will be given if you do not stay on one side of the issue. (The deadline to post a response is midnight, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013,)
1) Lady Macbeth's problem is that while she understands herself, she does not understand Macbeth.
2) Lady Macbeth is totally evil; she is, in fact, the fiend-like Queen described by Malcolm at the end of the play.
3) The witches so manipulate Macbeth that he has no control over his fate.
4) Shakespeare didn't write the silly Hecate bits, so out they come. If you were producing a performance of Macbeth, explain why you would or would not include the Hecate scenes.
5) The story of a bad man who commits a crime is not a tragedy but a straightforward tale of evil. Macbeth, however, is about a good man who becomes evil and that is his tragedy.
6) Far from being the strong character he is often portrayed as being, Macbeth is essentially a weak man; he allows the witches and Lady Macbeth to manipulate him into an act which, if left alone, he would never contemplate, never mind commit.
Here is another opportunity for those of you who have AP English IV second semester to get some extra credit prior to the beginning of class. As Huck and Jim travel the Mississippi River, they learn many lessons about mankind. Select one episode and explain what lesson is learned during this event and how he changes/matures Huck. (The deadline
Today, as we read poetry by John Donne, William Shakespeare, and Richard Lovelace, we also mentioned Nelson Mandela and the fact that the world is both better for his having lived and less for his having dead. We talked about the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley. Here is the poem. (Mandela wrote the last two lines on the wall of prison cell.) Select a work of literature that you have read that conveys the same theme as this poem. Explain how it does so. (The deadline to post a response is midnight, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013.)
Now, that we have read the entire play, read the following propositions. If you are the first person to respond, you must write on the first proposition. If you are the second, the second proposition is yours and so on. Write a response that supports or refutes this proposition. YES, you must take one side and one side only. This isn't Switzerland. No credit will be given if you do not stay on one side of the issue. (The deadline to post a response is midnight, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013,)
