Download Macbeth Post Play Questions:

Macbeth Post Play Questions:
Tragic Hero
Aristotle – A tragic hero is a man who rises to a high ranking position and then falls from that
position often to death and desolation. Two forces are involved: the tragic flaw (hamartia) and
fate.
Elizabethan Tragic Hero – This is a variant whereby the tragic hero is responsible for his own
downfall, emphasizing a waste of human potential.
1. What conclusion can we draw at the end of the play about justice being served?
Has one unjust monarchy just been exchanged for another? Is this the end of a
cycle or the continuation of one? Does the play assure us that the forces of good
will prevail?
*Polanski shows Donaldbain going to meet the sisters in his film
interpretation.
*What is Macduff’s motivation in the battle against Macbeth? (patriotism or
private vengeance?)
2. Contrast the changes in Lady Macbeth and Macbeth as the play unfolds.
(Consider rehumanization/dehumanization motif.) How can this shift cause a
change in the way readers feel about each one? Is there a substantial gender
commentary here about the way men and woman respectively internalize guilt?
3. Where fate and free will are concerned, is Mac truly the architect of his own
destruction? Or is he simply a puppet of the weird sisters, bent for their
amusement?
*How do the witches function in the play?
*Can there be tragedy without free will?
4. Throughout the play, how does Macbeth show us, even at his cruelest moments,
that he is fully aware of the depravity and moral consequences of his actions?
What does his self-awareness suggest about him? As a tragic hero, is there
anything admirable about Macbeth?
5. What does it mean to be a man?
6. Critic Mary McMarthy suggests in an essay about Macbeth, “It is a troubling
thought that Macbeth, of all Shakespeare’s characters, should seem the most
‘modern,’ the only one you could transpose into contemporary battle dress or a
sport shirt and slacks.” (Signet Classic Macbeth) React to this statement.
Name: ____________________
Macbeth
Assignment Type:
3rd person, expository
Parameters:
thesis, body, conclusion essay
12 pt. Ariel font
1” margins
double-spaced
5 supporting quotes with page numbers (MLA format)
Well-Revised!
Objective:
Select one the questions on the back to answer in a formal essay response. Use at
least five quotes from the play to support your response.
Timeline:
Thesis paragraph due Monday 12/19 (10pts.)
Complete, Typed Draft due Wednesday 12/21 (20 pts.)
Final Draft due Friday 12/23 (100 pts.)
Notes:
1. Final Drafts are due in person in class on Friday. Anything turned in later than
the class period will be late (minimum 10 pts. lost).
2. Papers turned in later than Friday must be emailed to me at my hotmail address
([email protected]), complete and revised, as a Word Document
attachment (not cut and paste). These papers will lose 10 pts. a day.
3. Failure to follow any of the above parameters will result in return of the paper for
correction. Late penalties will apply to returned papers.
Focus: ________________________________________________________________
Content: ______________________________________________________________
Organization: __________________________________________________________
Style: _________________________________________________________________
Conventions: ___________________________________________________________
Overall Score: ______/100