12/17/19 Julissa Liang PD5

12/17/19
Julissa Liang
Period 5

Aim: How does Macbeth’s second encounter with the Witches establish Macbeth as a “tragedy?” 

Before we started the act, we were assigned roles to put the scene together. Majority of the class participated and every role given was relevant to the development of the play. With the assistance of lightning sound effects and a dark atmosphere, the room was set for the play to begin.   

In Act 4 Scene 1, the three witches are surrounding a cauldron, while providing strange spells and ingredients into it. Suddenly, Macbeth enters and demands a further explanation of his prophecy. The apparitions appear: armed head, bloody baby and a crowned child. Each have a different meaning and further embellishes Macbeth’s fears. The armed head is a caveat about Macduff. The bloody baby indicates that one not born by a woman will threaten Macbeth’s success. The crowned child shows that Malcolm will find his way to defeat. Lastly, a line of kings walk down. Macbeth wants to know the meaning behind the kings, however, the witches miraculously vanish. Lennox enters the scene and reports to Macbeth about Macduff’s flee.

While reading the strange spells and objects provided by the witches, we find that some of them are extremely bizarre in current standards. “Liver of blaspheming Jew,” is a obvious offensive line, the audience at the time was mostly Christians. There is an obvious cultural shift. “Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,” these were stereotypical features. These lines were seen acceptable at the time but it was certainly offensive.

	Apparitions 1	Apparitions 2	Apparitions 3
Describe the vision	An armed head	A bloody baby	A child crowned
What does the vision say?	Beware Macduff, it is straightforwardly saying that Macbeth should be afraid of Macduff.	SPOILER: Macduff was born a C-section, which indicates that Macduff is the one who will take him down.	Macbeth is not the true king, Malcolm was destined to the throne.
Describe Macbeth’s reaction  to the vision	He is not completely afraid, he brushes it off that the witches are providing him these apparitions.	He is unafraid, since he believes that everybody is born from a woman.	He grows fearful. His anxious thoughts are occupying him now.

This chart was very helpful because it allowed us to deeply analyze the relevance of these apparitions. We can understand that the apparitions depict Macbeth’s future prophecy. However, his reaction towards the witches’ vision displays his unchecked ambitions. Macbeth is too prideful and constantly seeks for more power. His temptations and evil manifested in him causes him to commit acts of violence to manipulate his prophecy.

Reflection:

Based on the lesson, I learned that temptation continues to play an important theme in many stories. Similar to Lord of the Flies, Macbeth seeks for growing power and never feels satisfied with what they already possess. This theme is shown continuously in Macbeth, especially in Act 4 Scene 1 where Macbeth interacts with the witches. The witches show Macbeth’s future prophecy with visions of armed head, bloody baby, crowned child and a line of kings. Macbeth’s overload of pride causes him to dismiss these apparitions, however, he continues to take actions to guarantee his royal position. Once again, this demonstrates the “serpent” (biblical allusion) that lies behind Macbeth.