Show what you have learned about Macbeth through a variety of activities based on the play!
CUT-UP POEMS:
For this activity, we got into groups of three or four and chose quotes from the play we liked. Once we got into our groups, we had to write out our quote on paper and cut each individual word. After, we had to create new quotes using all of the words, making sure it still made sense. I was in a group with Rainah, Ruby, and Cayden. These are the quotes we chose:
Paige - “Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself” Act 1 Scene 7, Page 91
Rainah - “Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind” Act 1 Scene 7, Page 91
Cayden - “What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily” Act 1 Scene 5, Page 79
Ruby - “Fair is foul and foul is fair”
These were the three quotes we came up with:
TABLEAUX:
For this activity, we stayed in our same groups and had to create an image of a scene from Macbeth. Using a prop, we had to act like each character. I was in a group with Rainah, Ruby, and Cayden for this activity. We decided to do thee scene where Macduff defeated Macbeth. Cayden's head was going to be on the top of a stick/broom (Macbeth), Rainah was going to be holding the stick (Macduff), I was going to be laying down on the ground (Lady Macbeth), and Ruby was going to be wearing a crown (Malcom). Here is the picture of our tableaux:
TEXT THEME CARDS:
For this activity, we had to find quotes from Macbeth that represent four different themes: ambition, violence, guilt/remorse, and foreshadowing/dramatic irony. After finding quotes, we wrote them down on index card with their corresponding color. No one had the chance to share their group's theme cards because we ran out of time in class, so I only have the theme cards from my group (Rainah, Ruby, and Cayden).
The green quote represents ambition because in that moment, Macbeth was contemplating whether or not he should kill Duncan. He is basically saying that he has no valid reason to kill Duncan and has noting against him. However, Macbeth's "vaulting ambition" ultimately overshadows that and is a good enough reason to kill him. The red quote represents violence because blood is associated with that. This quote was said at the time Lady Macbeth was sleepwalking and it shows not only remorse (next quote), but it also shows how violent the killing of Duncan was. She is saying he had a lot of blood, leaving the reader to infer the murder was very brutal. The blue quote represents guilt/remorse because it was said by Lady Macbeth when she was sleepwalking. Although she was the one to instigate the murder of the King, she felt so guilty that she ended up killing herself. When she is saying to get out the spot, she means she wants the blood off her hands, but more importantly, she wants all of her guilt to go away/forget about what happened. The black quote represents foreshadowing/dramatic irony because the witches just prophesied all of these things about Macbeth and Banquo that the audience knows will come true. The witches foreshadow what will happen in the play by telling them Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor and King soon after. Although Macbeth and Banquo do not believe the witches at the time, the audience know the witches have just told the truth.
My favorite quote out of the ones above was the blue one because it was nice to see the more innocent part of Lady Macbeth (instead of her always being tuff). When I took my own photo for a visualization, I originally thought to color my hand red. I took the picture and start to wash it off. However, it stained my hand. I had the same thought of Lady Macbeth in that moment, to get the red off of my hand. The sink was filled with white bubbles and my hand was still pink. Here is the picture I took and edited:
PLAYLIST-A-LIFE:
For this activity, we stayed in the same groups (Rainah, Ruby, and Cayden) and picked one character from the play. After we chose our character, we had to create a playlist filled with songs we feel represent their personalities and actions throughout the play. The character our group chose was King Duncan. We chose King Duncan because he was one of the only innocent characters in the play and because he died for an unreasonable cause.
For this playlist, we chose four songs that relate to the emotions King Duncan may have felt for the time he was in the play. The first song is Tomorrow by Quvenzhané Wallis. This song is about happiness and saying tomorrow is a new day. It reminds us that tomorrow is only a day away and to look forward to all of the adventures it will bring. This relates to King Duncan because he was a happy person who was grateful of his people. He looked forward into the future, but unfortunately was unable to live to see the next day because he was murdered.
The second song, Call Out My Name by The Weekend is about how he was betrayed by his girlfriend. One of my favorite lines from the song is, “I said I didn’t feel nothing baby, but I lied. I almost cut a piece of myself for your life.” This quote represents how he put all of his trust in her and was willing to give up part of himself for her. However, she did not reciprocate those feelings back to him. This is similar to King Duncan because he put his trust in Macbeth as the Thane of Cawdor. He was there to celebrate Macbeth’s new position at his castle, meaning he trusted Macbeth in giving him a pleasant and hospitable stay.
The third song, bury a friend by Billie Eilish, is from the perspective of the monster under her bed. The monster is asking why she is not scared of him and why she does not run away. It is also about death and wondering what happens when we die (comes from the lyrics “when we all fall asleep where do we go”). This song relates to King Duncan because Macbeth is acting as the monster under his bed and wants to harm him. The monster comes out at night when King Duncan is sleeping to end his life. In addition, King Duncan learned what happens what happens when you die because Macbeth killed him.
The last song, Where is the Love? by the Black Eyed Peas, asks why the world is so brutal. People are killing others and children are hurt. He wants to know where has the love gone and why people cannot love each other. This song has a powerful message and essentially is trying to bring peace to the world. This relates to King Duncan because in the play, he was admired by all. He wanted everyone to get along and love each other. However, one of the people, Macbeth, did not feel this way and let his ambition get the best of him. Just like in the song, people are dying (aka Duncan) because there was no more love inside Macbeth. I feel like King Duncan may have been thinking this moments before getting stabbed, where’s his love and why is he hurting me?