Macbeth Project: Act III Scene IV

The two EQs that my group decided to use for our Macbeth project were:
How does power corrupt?
How far is one willing to "go" to get what they desire most?

During our scene, (3.4), Macbeth is already crowned King (and Lady Macbeth is crowned Queen), and they are having a celebration banquet with their courts people. Prior to our scene, Macbeth has ordered murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. (During scene 3.4), the one of the murderer arrives at the banquet and speaks to Macbeth alone, informing him that they had successfully murdered Banquo, however, Fleance had escaped. After returning to the banquet, Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost in his throne, however none of his guests sees what he is seeing, as Macbeth speaks to the ghost.  Lady Macbeth tells the guests that he often gets these 'visions', and to not worry about his health; to just ignore him for the time being.  Later on during the scene, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth speak privately about their intentions to keep the the throne theirs (doing whatever it takes, asking for the witches' help).

How the scene relates to the two EQs we have chosen is that it shows how much Macbeth desires to keep his throne and his power, and how he is willing to use this newfound power of his to maintain that control.  You can see that the power of the crown has corrupted Macbeth in that it is all he is fixated upon; the decisions he made such as murdering Banquo and attempting the murder of Fleance shows not only that the power was a priority over one of his best friends, but also he was willing to utilize his power as King to 'get the job done'.  Macbeth's desire to maintain his crown creates a long path not only behind him, but infront of him as well. The act of wanting Fleance to be dead upon the prophecy of the Witches ([to Banquo]: "Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.") was the trigger in Macbeth's mental overload.  He became crazy in wanting to stay King so badly that he was willing to murder his best friend's son, and anyone else who got in the way.  In wanting to maintain his crown, Macbeth was also willing to put his full trust and loyalty into the Witches' words, because he wanted to believe that they would guide the way for him. In the scene 3.4, Macbeth also envisions Banquo's ghost at his banquet, proving that the power, and desire went to his brain and that he was not making rational decisions, but instead just following his gut-instinct which perhaps was not the most worthy to trust.

loyalty comment

Great insight and depth in your response on loyalty. Iliked how you brought in several instances where M is loyal and how he is loyal. I also like how you explained your reasons why. Now try and bring in actual quotes from the text to back up your points to prove waht you are saying and you would have yourself a first class paper. I have a question for you. He is loyal to his wife although she questions his manhood, almost mocks him. Do you think he is a weak individual or truly loves her and wants to please her, or is tempted by the prophecies?

Macbeth: Act I

EQ: What is loyalty?

Loyalty is a main component of the first act of Macbeth in that it sets the scenario in which the characters are involved in.

In the second scene, King Duncan finds out that Macbeth and Banquo, two of their Scottish generals had defeated rebel Macdonald, who had captured the King's son.  King Duncan is also told that the thane of Cawdor has betrayed the King, so he sentences him to death and gives Macbeth the title of thane because of his great defeat on the battlefield. This shows where not only Macbeth's loyalty was, but also where Banquo's loyalty belonged to as well: King Duncan, and Scotland.  This one scene also shows you that King Duncan had many loyal followers, however, some did not always remain loyal.  What this shows about loyalty is that it is something to be cherished, and there are responsibilities whether or not you are loyal to a certain person, especially if you have been trusted to be loyal, and have made a commitment to be loyal towards that person. There will be rewards for being loyal towards the right people, but consequences for betraying the loyalty that you once had promised.

Loyalty is dependent on trust, to whom you are loyal to.  In the third scene while going home, Macbeth and Banquo encounter three witches who tell them that MacBeth will become King one day; however, Banquo's children will become Kings.  This prophecy throws MacBeth off, as he begins to wonder how exactly he would become King.  He starts to believe that what the witches day are true, and trusts their word; therefore, putting loyalty into their prophecies.  This brings out his desire into becoming King, and the desire to gain much power that comes with the crown. However, he consciously remains loyal towards King Duncan and does not think much about preforming a dirty deed to gain the crown for himself.  However, this shows that loyalty is given in proportions to whom you choose, to whom one trusts greater than the other, and also it still remains although loyalty may be split.

When Lady Macbeth hears of the witches' prophecy about Macbeth becoming King in scene five, she plots for Macbeth to murder the King in order to become King himself.  She acknowledges her masculine qualities in order to persuade Macbeth in becoming more 'manly' himself- by murdering King Duncan while he is a guest at their home.  This shows that we can be influenced by our multiple loyalties, but one always reigns supreme over the other.  However, this is not a good thing, for one can be manipulated by putting their trust and loyalty into someone with intentions that contradict their own.

Although Macbeth decides that he will not murder the King for his own desire of having the crown, Lady Macbeth continues to push him emotionally in order for him to preform the deed in which he did not want to go through with, (scene seven).  She convinces him that nobody will ever find out he killed King Duncan by framing the guards, and he will gain power over Scotland.  He agrees to murder the King, because of the loyalty that he has for his wife.  This shows that our loyalties can be torn at times, and that we will have to choose amongst them when being pressured and influenced from multiple directions.  It can be hard, and our own emotions can be altered by what others say, depending on the amount of trust and loyalty that we have in them.

YOur response is well written. It wasn't part of the assignment, but thinking about it how could you now weave an EQ into that piece? Someting to think about. As I said before, well done. Oh, next time we need to put page #'s after we quote, but I know the short stroy copy I handed you, they were cut off.
Mrs. C

Ambition

Ambition: an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction and the willingness to strive for its attainment.

Why it exists:

• Life does not hand you everything you want, you have to work towards them. This is ambition.
• Without it, nothing is achieved.
• The things we strive for create purpose in our individual lives.
• It is not only to dream about achieving a goal, but it is the amount of drive that one has in themselves to actually take action in their journey towards it.

Ways to get it:

• To be passionate in achieving a dream, or goal.
• To have a strong drive within yourself to take action in achieving this goal.

Ways to maintain it:

• Continue taking action steps towards your dream.
• Push yourself forward to give yourself motivation and determination.
• Always keep focussed on what you want to achieve.

Ways one would use it:

• It is used to achieve a certain desire.
• It gives one a greater, more positive perspective on life's possibilities, opening doors that may have not been seen prior to having a strong sense of ambition.

Ways one could lose it:

• Discouragement through failure, obstacles, or stress.
• Completely giving up.
• Discovering something else that they are more passionate about; the ambition for the old desire has now disappeared.

How it affects people:

• It makes people strive for something.
• It gives people purpose and determination in life.
• Witnessing another's ambition can inspire or influence your own.

Other things about it:

• Without the ambition of the people, the world would never change.
• The more you have, the more that you can achieve.
• Anything that you want to achieve, you need ambition to accomplish it.
• Ambition creates reality in life, instead of looking at goals/dreams from a distance.
• It helps one recognize what is important to themselves in their life.

Ambition and the other terms:  the word ambition greatly relates to the other terms in that they all have to relate with people, and the way that we naturally are. Ambition is natural within humanity. Another direct connection to ambition is the term power, in which with no ambition in one,  the power that comes with an achieved desire will not exist. The final three words: integrity, loyalty, and self-worth, are characteristics of ambition because they shape one's self and and show the type of drive within them.

Identity: Final Project

EQ: How our identities are affected by our relationships with other people.

[click on image to view full size & to read the text]

Something I forgot to include in the collage:

In regards to 'The Charmer', Zack's character negatively affects his family progressively, as he becomes more and more rebellious, withdrawing his attention from his family and towards unfortunate habits.  His sister, Winnifred is positively affected (stated in the collage), but because of him, Zack's Mother becomes mentally unstable and later on greatly regrets all the wrongs that she had let Zack get away with.

Yeah that's my final project, yayayayaya!!!

"Just Lather, That's All" Visual

This Spider-Man poster is comparable to the short story, "Just Lather, That's All" in that Spider-Man's character relates to the Barber's.  These to characters are paralleled in one another in that Peter Parker is not only himself, but he is Spider-Man as well, and having these two identities do not affect his actions of either of them. For example, when he is Spider-Man, he does not allow his (Peter Parker) grudges affect his task at hand as Spider-Man.  This is just like the Barber.  The Barber is not only a barber, but also is a rebel.  However, the Barber does not allow his Rebel alias affect the job he is doing, for it is also his profession to provide service as a barber, in which he does only, giving Captain Torres a clean-shave without making a slit in his throat.

"Just Lather, That's All" by Hernando Tellez

EQ: How are people transformed through their relationships with others?

In the short story, 'Just Lather, That's All' written by Hernando Tellez, the relationship between the Barber and the client changes both their perspectives on the situation that their town is in.  The two characters are quite different; the client is Captain Torres, the head chief of the soldiers that are raiding the town, while the Barber is secretly a rebel, a member of the Revolutionaries that the soldiers were hunting down and murdering.

Through this beard-shaving encounter between the Barber and the Captain, each of them are transformed by the actions and qualities of one another in which they were not expecting.  Coming into the barber shop, the Barber instantly recgonized the presence of the Captain, and fear struck into him.  The dimlemma of either being professional and strictly shaving the Captain's beard or either taking one for the Revolutionaries and becoming a hero by murdering Torres is present in the Barber's mind throughout the story.  Going into the barber shop, Captain Torres took a risk knowing that the Barber was a rebel, and many people had told him that the Barber would kill him, which is what he expected by the end of his shaving.

However, both of the two characters were taken by surprise through the actions of each other.  The Barber chose to be professional with Captain Torres, for he had come in to get his beard shaven, and the Barber felt it was his job to do just that.  For at the time, he was just a barber, not a rebel.  In addition to that, the Barber came to the realization that if he were to murder Captain Torres, that would make him no better than the soldiers who were hunting down the rest of the rebels.

Captain Torres is surprised by his clean-shaven face by the end of the story, for he had been told that he would die if he went into that barber shop.  Grateful that he came out alive, the Captain came to understand that not all rebels were the same, some did not want to mean harm and damage to everyone they encountered, even if the person was the very Captain of their opposition.

When Captain Torres leaves the barber shop, he briefly tells the Barber what he had heard if he went inside, of how it was thought that the Barber would have killed him.  Through this, I believe that it leaves the Barber with a good feeling, that he had stepped up and become the bigger man in the situation, showing a representative of the soldiers that the Revolutionaries were not terrible people, and they did not deserve what the soldiers were doing to them because when given the chance, on behalf of the rebels, the Barber did not act the same way as the Captain.

Captain Torres is changed by a new perspective on the rebels, perhaps even after this encounter he would have an enlightened attitude towards them.  He is gracious, but still stern.  The Barber is transformed by seeing how difficult it is to murder, and how although the thought crossed his mind, peace and professionality is more important than getting revenge.

"Brother Dear" by Bernice Friesen

The character that I have chosen to reflect on identity with from the short story, "Brother Dear" is Greg.  Greg's current situation is different in his perspective than his fathers, however within this story, Greg has shown to have grown into his own person apart from what his Father wants him to be doing.

The story takes place when Greg comes home from university, where in which his Dad had paid for his tuition, and had planned for Greg to study pre-law and to get good grades.  The pressure of of the Father makes Greg feel insignificant, because his father thinks he has "no drive, (and) no ambition". This only pushes Greg away more from caring about school, and the experience of university life itself has changed the perspective of Greg's life.

The perspective in which Greg now sees things is different than what his family values.  He changed physically, as he "grew his hair long," and "every time (I saw it), it was a different colour". This kind of concerns his family, but also his whole personality had changed as a whole. The protagonist, Sharlene, his sister states that "(He) started preaching to (them) about how materialistic (they) are", and Greg goes on to list things more things concerning to wasting money, and not being environmentally friendly. From the way that Sharlene recaps the conversation, it gives you and idea that Greg didn't really care about these things before, but in which now, he has a strong passion for.

Friesen creates Greg's identity through the things he is passionate about, and portrayed through his actions and words.  In addition to his conversation with his family mentioned earlier, another that creates a sense of who he is and what he cares about is the conversation at the dinner table.  When brought up by his Father, Greg mentions that he no longer eats meat because he's a vegetarian.  He lets his family know he did not do well on his exams, simply because he skipped to go to a protest. Greg also tells his family of how he isn't going back to school, and that he's going to spend his summer planting trees.  These three prime examples gives you a strong sense that Greg is an activist perhaps for animal rights, and also that he has grown to care a lot for the Earth's natural environment.  By skipping his exam, you can tell that Greg is really committed to these passions of his, they're not just a hobby, but they are so significant in his life that Greg really feels he needs to stand up for what he believes in.

Finally, during Greg's conversation with Sharlene before he boards the Grey Hound, Greg and Sharlene both realize something about themselves through their encounter.  Greg shows Sharlene that it doesn't matter what other people want for you if it doesn't make you happy.  Greg explained how he didn't want to follow along the path of just 'making Father happy', but instead, he wanted to do what he loved, and what he was passionate about.  The things that brought him joy were the things that made him his own person, not what he brought joy to other people.

Greg finally begins to accept his identity, and the way he is, because others do too.

How Greg's identity connects to myself is in the sense that he is willing to follow his the things he is passionate about. One thing that I really want to do after post-secondary is firstly, get a Bachelor's degree, then I want to go teach English abroad.  I also want to go on many humanitarian trips within my lifetime in third-world countries.  This connects to my values and Greg's as well, as I am a truly compassionate person and want to have the chance to make a difference in other people's lives. Greg is the same in that he has a passion for the environment, and certain rights, and these are things that he is willing to take action for, just as I am willing to as well.