Blog #31, Richard Chin, Blogger #7-31

Monday, December 3, 2018
Mrs. Fusaro-Pizzo, Blogger #31
Sophomores 2019, Period 7

Aim: How does Shakespeare employ the use of “comic relief” to simultaneously lighten and darken the play?

Write Now: (On Google Classroom) STEP BACK & REVIEW

“Is this a dagger I see before me..”

“Macbeth does murder sleep”

Let’s review these chunks from Act II

Using your knowledge of symbols, what is Macbeth talking about? Why is this language to describe his act so provocative?

Reviewing on what we sophomores read in “Macbeth” by William Skakespeare in Act II, we analysized what made Act II seem so deep and meaningful: the vivid imagery, the overwhelming senses of emotions, and the symbolism.  For example:

• “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?” —In this quote, Macbeth is hallucinating a dagger which he would use to kill King Duncan (the “will be” formal king of Scotland), due to the harsh consideration Macbeth is having before committing the murder.
• “Macbeth does murder sleep”— In this chunk, Macbeth is having a guilty conscience of killing King Duncan, committing evil by taking advantage of a man’s most vulnerable state (sleeping with innocently)

After the write now/do now, Mrs. Fusaro taught us what passive-aggressive and comic relief was, giving several examples of each one in order for us to understand the concept.

Passive-Aggressive is an indirect resistance to the demands of others.

Some ways people can be passive-aggressive in real-life are:

• Not doing work or do it late for someone else in order to emphasize your unhappiness without directly stating the fact that you're unhappy.
• Complaining and whining to a co-worker (acting like a child while you're an adult), not telling your boss about your problems

The purpose of comic relief in Shakespeare's writing in "Macbeth" demonstrates to play an essential role in the flow of emotions throughout the play. Comic relief allows to lighten up the play, allowing Shakespeare to add even more dankness and intensity to sink into the audience's minds as Macbeth commits even more crimes as well as Duncan's dead body.

The Fool Rule in Shakespeare (Fun Fact): He added fools in his plays/stories as the wisest characters. He did this because he didn't like how the poor had to watch his plays from the balcony because they didn't have the money to enjoy his shows like the rich people did (the rich showing little respect to the poor).

Using these definitions our teacher gave us, we headed on to reading Act II Scene III of "Macbeth."

In the beginning of the scene, a porter is revealed to be the comic relief after the cruel murder of King Duncan. It takes the audience away from the "dark moments" by focusing on the porter, who spouted out humorous ramble about the effects drinking alcohol does for you towards Macduff and Lennox (who came to see Macbeth). The porter also mentions about the theme of equivocation. In this case, "drinking" is the equivocator, which is how the truth of Duncan's death is going to be manipulated into lies.

By observing literary techniques Shakespeare used to make his books the successes they are, we as students can learn to input these literary techniques in our own writing in order to make it more interesting and deep.