Point 4

Macbeth High School Edition

Overview of Secondary Works 

Introduction

Play Topics:

1. Historical/Character Background

A historical background of MacBeth will help our reader have a more comprehensive understanding of the play. With this additional information, our reader will be able to contextualize the play and frame it within the society and current events that influenced how and why it was written and inspired. A broader knowledge of the society and culture will help foster questions of why Shakespeare chose to write Macbeth how he did and create some comparisons and contrasts with our modern times. Historical background information will create a foundation on which Macbeth can alive. Our high school audience will be able to envision the impact and influences on and by the play, and the Macbeth will take on greater realness and appreciation when it is put into context.

"Banquo." Princeton University. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

Bezio, Kristin M.S. "Politics and Play: The National Stage and the Player King in Shakespeare's Henry V and Macbeth." Qidditas 31 (2010): 11-21. The Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association. Web.

Kinney, Arthur F. Lies like Truth: Shakespeare, Macbeth, and the Cultural Moment. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2001. Print.

"Macbeth: Background." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

2. Gender

One major topic that comes up when discussing Macbeth is gender, both in regards to the Macbeths and the witches. Lady Macbeth is really the driving force in the play in defining the aspects of what both genders should be, but then doesn't exactly follow her own rules. Lady M is constantly pulling Macbeth's masculinity into question, explaining to him that he must commit the necessary crimes in order to truly be a man. I mean let’s be honest, Lady M’s qualifications go way beyond being as swift as the coursing river, more like being a creepy murder of men, women, and children. I personally prefer the former, but I’m not a Scottish queen. It isn't until Lady M sees the true potential of masculinity that was hidden underneath the surface in her husband that she reverts back to being a scared, guilty woman who desires cleanliness. Then there are the witches, who are never given a specific gender, they are the ones who reveal the hidden desire of Macbeth and Lady M to become king and queen, which can only be achieved through murder. Lady M is the one who makes the decision for her husband to kill King Duncan, but none of this would have happened had the witches kept their mouths shut. Even Hecate didn’t want them to speak to Macbeth, but the damage was already done. Overall, gender is the force that leads to the murder of most of the characters that die, but it also shows how it can be used as a force against murder.

Listor, William T. “‘Male and Female Created He Them’: Sex and Gender in Macbeth.” College Literature 16.3 (1989): 232-39. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb. 2014 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25111824>.

Thomas, Catherine E. “(Un)sexing Lady Macbeth: Gender, Power, and Visual Rhetoric in Her Graphic Afterlives.” The Upstart Crow 31 (2012): 81-102. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE|A323037688&v=2.1&u=byuprovo&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w&asid=e004548e92c83fb35baec9a7f780ddc5>.

Ramsey, Jarold. “The Perversion of Manliness in Macbeth.” Studies in English Literature 13.2 (1973): 285-300. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/449740>.

3.  Power, Politics, and Crime

Macbeth is apparently a loyal subject to the king, but upon learning about a possibility about becoming king, he almost immediately changes his position.  What makes him change so quickly and why?  Samuel Johnson said that every reader rejoices at Macbeth’s fall.  Yet, what makes the character of Macbeth so compelling is how human he is.  Macbeth shows the quick slope to corruption with power.  Show the mortal thoughts and relatability.  By studying the human side of Macbeth and his motivations, it will create a more interesting view for our high school readers to study and discuss about.  Since there is not a concrete answer, it can open the door to discussion and introduce very briefly to critical viewpoints.

Carr, Stephen Leo, and Peggy A. Knapp. "Seeing through Macbeth." PMLA 96.5 (1981): 837-47. Print.

Favila, Marina. ""Mortal Thoughts" and Magical Thinking in "Macbeth"." Modern Philology 99.1 (2001): 1-25. Print.

Marsh, Derrick.  “‘Macbeth’: Easy Questions, Difficult Answers”. Sydney Studies in English vol. 8 (1982): 3-15. Print.

4. Adaptations: Plays and Movies

With the incredible amount of adaptations of this play, most critical essays seem to focus on eastern/Oriental versions of them. This begs the question: why is Macbeth so popular in the east? What is it about this particular play that attracts Oriental people? The metaphors used in the two adaptations spoken of specifically (“Kingdom of Desire” and “Story of the Bloody Hand”) will be described in a way that helps high school students understand that Shakespeare is not only English in popularity, but global.

Also, the very first movie of Macbeth, directed by Orson Welles, has begun the stereotype of nearly every Macbeth adaptation since. Welles made it a horror, and every movie since has been along the same lines. It’s totally understandable with what goes on in the play, but why go all the way to horror? There are ways to make the play more a suspense, or a psychoanalysis, or all of the above. Why does everyone choose horror? I’ll be focused on that, as well.

Hsiung, Yuwen. "Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth." Comparative Literature and.Culture 6.1 (2004): n. pag. Purdue University. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

Huang, Alexander C.Y. "Shakespeare and the Visualization of Metaphor in Two Chinese Versions of Macbeth." Comparative Literature and Culture 6.1 (2004): n. pag. Purdue University. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

Smith, Amanda J. "Defining Welles's "Macbeth": Hollywood Horror and the Hybrid Mode." Literature Film Quarterly 39.2 (2011): 151-59. EBSCOhost. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

Final Point 3

Choose a combination of play and audience.  Explain what excites you about this combination and offer some preliminary ideas about what you hope to do with your edition.

Macbeth targeted to high school students

- Purpose: share interesting things that would get students excited about Shakespeare (and English literature in general)

Examples: 

- share background on Shakespeare’s life, but not too in depth (think Macbeth’s beginning without giving a one-sided view)

- have a section in the back dedicated to talking about what other people have written about Macbeth, and talk about how different play adaptations work and stuff (don’t include the actual sources, just quote from the sources

           - I love how our edition seems to be so focused on general high school students, and how I believe it will get those students excited about not only reading Shakespeare but performing it. I want to focus a lot on the different ways the different characters were performed, so that the students have a better way of imagining in their heads how the play pans out. Also, it’s great to give them such a knowledge of the performances, because then in drama class they have more to work with when deciding to actually perform one of Shakespeare’s plays. This edition would be geared towards having them perform this exact play.

- background information to Shakespeare and historical information of the time period (similar to the pelican version).

- Movie and plays adaptations

            - look up major play and movies that would get students excited to watch a production; go through a few different performances and the different ways people have performed the characters.

- how Macbeth would have been performed

- Gender roles during the time (focusing on Lady Macbeth). I love this one, because it would help to generate deeper discussions on political/social issues not only of their time but of ours, as well. This is a good basis for great in-class discussions that teachers would love to have. If it’s displayed in an interesting, fun way, and not just in long scholarly articles (for example, written in an informal tone), the students (I think) would be able to have fun with it and be able to be completely involved in the conversation.

Final Point 2

How each version annotates the texts:

Macbeth: Basic modern explanation for cultural differences

- Pro: Easy to understand; great for first time readers.

- Con: Can be overly simplistic; not everything is explained

As You Like It: A thorough explanation of almost every line; references parts in the introduction and examples of rhetorical devices.

- Pro: A very informative addition, especially if you have read the work before and want more information.

- Con: Can be very overwhelming and largely ignored if you aren’t completely interested in finding more information; not the best for a first time read through.

The Tempest: Good balance between As You Like It and Macbeth; it explains things in more thorough detail than Macbeth, but doesn’t go to quite the lengths that As You Like It does

- Pro: Very informative without being too overwhelming

- Con: The lines aren’t numbered when there’s something to be explained, which can cause confusion and missing of important information

Richard 3: Very similar to Macbeth; the annotations mainly deal in vocabulary words only

- Pro: It’s a great way to expand your vocabulary

- Con: There’s not much more to learn than what you find in your brain and in new vocab words

Measure for Measure: Simple and thorough annotations.

- Pro: Similar to Macbeth, the annotations are easy to read; there are also more references to cultural contexts and situations.

- Con: Sometimes they can be overly obvious, it feels like an insult to the reader.

Re-imagining the annotation:

Macbeth Act 1 Scene 5

I imagine it as somewhere between the actual Macbeth annotation and the Tempest annotation. High schoolers need to be aware of more things in the text than just the basics, but they don’t need too much information to understand enough of the play to have intellectual conversations about it. While the original Macbeth annotations focus mainly on vocabulary words, our version will expand to cultural references and a better explanations of certain phrases that Shakespeare uses that aren’t explained by the original. However, it won’t get as specific and annotated as the Tempest.

Exactly, we would want to get past merely understanding what Shakespeare is saying and start looking into the cultural context and references to make the dialogue easier to connect to in our time as well as in Shakespeare’s. But we won’t go too in depth with the annotations, just enough to give our audience the knowledge that these things weren’t done randomly by Shakespeare, but he actually had a reason for writing the story out the way he did.

For example, Act 1 Scene 5 of Macbeth is when Lady Macbeth first finds out about Macbeth’s prophecy.  We could mark the differences in speech patterns, more so than the Pelican version, so as to modernize some of the words, so no confusion occurs.  Such as, “Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits into thine ear”. However, the purpose of the footnotes is to add to the play (facts, clarification, context), not add opinions.

Other things we could do is add markers (similar in the way Measure for Measure does) so the reader will know when there is a footnote.  It creates smoother reading so the person doesn't have to question if a certain word has an annotation or not while reading.

Final Point 1

Look over the editions for this class.  

1. (a) Who are their audiences? (b) What do the editors do to connect with their audiences?

- Macbeth

  a)  General audience, both new to Shakespeare and somewhat knowledgable

  b)  Short, general information about the time period, Shakespeare, and simple footnotes for clarification

- As You Like it

  a)  Specific educated audience.  They know a lot about Shakespeare and this specific play.  It adds new information based on the most knowledgeable research

  b) Very detailed introduction, footnotes, and appendixes;  

- The Tempest

  a)  Essayist, controversy seekers, and critical thinkers

  b)  Gives many ambiguous subjects with many different writers.

- Richard 3

  a) people interested in what other authors had to say around the time of Shakespeare; many of the essays in the back after the play are from the 1500s about King Richard and the plays of Shakespeare, as well as other plays and poems from the same time that expounded on Richard

  b) focuses on the cinema of Richard 3 and ways in which the character of Richard was created; the focus is more on those performing the play rather than those merely reading it

- Measure for Measure

  a) 16th Century Historians

  b) Brief historical intro, historical context footnotes, long chapters dealing with themes during the time of Shakespeare (such as government, marriage, and religion)

2. What kinds of audience might your group be interested in connecting with?

- General audience, with limited knowledge of Shakespeare. High school or freshman of college level

Why?

- general audience equals more sales

- easier to write; about our same level of understanding

- there is still detailed and new information within Shakespeare editions for general audiences. It allows people to learn more without having to read incredibly in-depth editions that take a lot of time and effort . . . especially when these editions are being read for fun and for individual edification on a busy schedule.