Damn you, Shakespeare!

For English class, we were given an assignment which is worth quite a percentage of our final mark. We were placed in several groups who each are supposed to act out a scene from Shakespeare's widely-known supernatural play, Macbeth. My group is to act out Act V Scene VII-VIII, the last fight between Macbeth and Macduff.

The problem arises with the amount of "important" information we are to take from these 3 pages of lines. After reading, analyzing, reading some more, and analyzing some more, and so on, I couldn't find any important tidbits of information that talks about either the character, the themes, nor any significant events. The only sort of information I gathered was of Macbeth's complete reversal of character when juxtaposed to his characteristics in the beginning; in that, I mean how he has become entirely evil, as opposed to his loyal, honest self in the beginning, as it shows in his megalomaniac self (i.e. can't die by a man from a woman born).

But that's it, that's all I can get from it. It's very short, and hardly shows anything from the play. We aren't given a due date yet, but it's due sometime this week - probably the end. If anyone can help me in this dilemma, It's greatly appreciated.

you could also use the supernatural involvement, i guess. the witches prophecy gave Macbeth the false sense of security, since he wasn't going to be killed by "one born of woman" or whatever it was. which helped bring his downfall.

maybe also something of the honor. you could compare Macbeth to Macduff for this, but i'm not too sure if there's many relevant quotes for this in that particular part of the play... i think there's also something about honor of fighting and dying in battle...

destiny could be another. you could argue about how Macbeth's destiny was finally fulfilled despite what he believed.

i don't remember too much about the play, and i wish i could help you more, but i'm currently cramming last minute for my final tomorrow.



well, cheers, and i hope i helped you out a bit!

They key to the character of MacBeth, and what my English teacher (who was awful, but that's neither here nor there) used him to teach us, was fatal flaws. I don't have the play handy, but if you can see the juxtaposition between the person he was at the beginning of the play with the end product, then you can probably also find his hubris and other sorts of things that relate to his fatal flaw.

Originally Posted by nolan

They key to the character of MacBeth, and what my English teacher (who was awful, but that's neither here nor there) used him to teach us, was fatal flaws. I don't have the play handy, but if you can see the juxtaposition between the person he was at the beginning of the play with the end product, then you can probably also find his hubris and other sorts of things that relate to his fatal flaw.

if you go this route, you could use Macduff to compare to Macbeth, since he's like a foil character in the play. kinda describe how Macbeth fell from grace, and then use Macduff to show how Macbeth could have been if he wouldn't have become corrupted.