ORAL PRESENTATION REFLECTION- Macbeth

          One essential question that Macbeth relates to is "How far is one willing to go to get what they desire the most." Macbeth displays his desire to be king in several different ways that go beyond the norm. It all starts when Macbeth encounters the witches.  ''All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter.'' (I, iii, 50) When they tell him that he will be king, his ambition for power blossoms. However, Macbeth realizes that in order for him to become king, he'll need to murder King Duncan. Macbeth goes through with a plan that Lady Macbeth created, and he murdered Duncan during the night. This murder was so significant because of many reasons. For one, Duncan was Macbeth's guest for the night, and its very rude to kill your own guest. Macbeth swore loyalty to King Duncan as a kinsman. Also, when people discovered the death of King Duncan, Macbeth lies and states the guards killed the King because they were drunk. He continues to lie and states that he murdered the guards as an act of revenge for Duncan. "O, yet I do repent me of my fury, that I did kill them." (II, iii, 106-107)  Due to these reasons, Macbeth's actions of killing King Duncan were extraordinary. This is just one of many examples of how Macbeth goes too far to get what he desires.


          Another essential question that Macbeth relates to is "How does power corrupt?" Towards the beginning of the play, Macbeth was a very loyal and bright person. However, when Macbeth becomes king, his traits change completely. Macbeth becomes more dark and depressed. The power Macbeth obtained once he became king began to corrupt him, affecting his personality and actions. For example, Macbeth was so worried that he would lose his power, he murdered Banquo so that he wouldn't lose his power. Another example is when Macbeth discovers that Lady Macbeth commits suicide.


"She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow and tomorrow and to morrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!" (V, v, 17-23)


          This quote displays how much Macbeth has changed throughout the play. Once a loyal man, but now he has changed into a more ruthless being as he shows no love for Lady Macbeth. In this quote, Macbeth talks about how life is short and how he believes it's pointless. Macbeth also starts to treat his servants poorly. All these are examples of how Macbeth's power corrupts him, changing his personality and actions.


          I learned that working in groups has its pros and cons. Some pros include being able to work with others and seeing their different points of view, and the work can be split up between your group members. Some cons include time management, as it can sometimes be difficult to get together as a group and work outside of class. Overall, something important that I have learned is to communicate well with your group members because then you can organize your time management and other things more efficiently. Something I noticed that I need to work on for next time is to manage my time more wisely, because if I do things at an even pace I have more time to put greater effort and changes toward a group project. Overall, something I'm proud of is the creativity of our video because it presents the play in a more humorous way, and also it is possibly easier to understand because it is simpler. If I were to divide a pie with our group's individual work percentages, I would split it evenly between the three of us. I feel that we all contributed evenly in one way or another. We worked together as a team and there was no point in time where it felt as if someone was lacking  effort or participation. We all contributed thoughts and ideas, and did some sort of work towards the final project.

Macbeth Blog 2

The scene I am doing with my group is Act 2 Scene 3. In the previous scene, Macbeth murders King Duncan. To my understanding, this scene presents a lot of foreshadowing that helps create later events in the play. For example, we first encounter Macduff as he enters the play from a gate that the porter references as "hell-gate." "If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key" -Porter
This is ironic as well as an example of foreshadowing as Macduff eventually kills Macbeth later in the play.


The 2 EQ's I choose to connect to are  "How power corrupts" and "How far one was willing to go to get what he/she desires the most." This scene connects to these EQ's because of the actions of Macbeth to attempt to cover up his evil deeds. Macbeth goes as far as framing the innocent guards and making it seem as if they were the ones to murder the king, in order to keep his evil doing a secret. Macbeth states that he killed the guards on behalf of revenge for the king.
"O, yet I do repent me of my fury, that I did kill them." - Macbeth
Macbeth lies to several people in order to successfully transition into the title of king. These actions show how power has corrupted him, and how far he went in order for people to believe his false story.

Act 1 Response

EQ: How far is one willing to ''go'' to get what they desire most?




          In act 1 of Macbeth, there are several conflicts that arise. Many of them happen to Macbeth. At first, Macbeth is seen as a noble, trustworthy warrior, and indeed he is. However, when Macbeth comes across three witches, his desires change. The mysterious witches tells Macbeth that he will eventually be the king. ''All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter.'' (pg 23) This idea imposes a critical change of mindset for Macbeth. His desire now is that he clearly wants to be king. He instantly understands what needs to happen in order for this to come true. He realizes that he will have to plan out an evil deed and murder King Duncan. He ponders the thought of killing the king, but he realizes he is the king's kinsman, and he should stay loyal to that. The only reason he considered assassinating him was because of his own ambition. He wanted to be king so bad he actually thought of killing the king. However, Lady Macbeth gives him even more motivation for killing the king, telling him he would be more manly if he did it. This sparks a fire in Macbeth's motivation, and he ends up assassinating King Duncan.


          At first, Macbeth made up his mind that he would not kill the king. He chose to be loyal. However, when you have so much desire to do something, even just a little bit of extra motivation will carry you through something. Lady Macbeth provided that little motivation which caused Macbeth to fulfill his ambition and desire. Macbeth understood the circumstances, but his desire and ambition were too strong to let things get in the way. Lady Macbeth's motivation was the icing on the cake for Macbeth's decision to kill the King. Macbeth is a perfect example of how far one is willing to go in order to get what they desire.

Macbeth Spark Notes

http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/macbeth/

Response to "Just Lather, That's All"

EQ - How does what I know about the world shape the way we view ourselves?

         In the short story, "Just Lather, That's All," the barber is faced with a dilemma. He is faced with the decision to kill a soldier, or spare his life. What he knows about the world shapes how he views himself. This also affects his decision making. The barber has to take into consideration how his identity will be effected with his decisions. If he chooses to kill the soldier, the world will know about the secret group of rebels that he is apart of. The barber would then suffer consequences. If he chooses to spare his life, then the secret group remains unknown to the public, and the barber keeps his identity as an honest barber. In the end, the barber takes into consideration what he knows about the world to come up with a solution. He chooses to spare the soldier's life, and keep his identity as an honest barber.

Just Lather, That's All

                I chose this picture to connect to “Just Lather, That’s All” because it is a good representation of the dilemma that the barber is faced with. The barber is secretly a rebel, and a leader that he is against comes into his shop to get a shave. The barber quickly realizes who the customer is, and is presented with a dilemma. Should he kill him, or spare his life? There are two different paths that the barber can take. This dilemma connects with the picture, as there is a fork in the road. The road splits two different ways, representing the two different outcomes that the barber could choose.  One path can take the barber a totally different way than the other. This is true as the dilemma that he faces is one of big consequences. If he chooses to kill him, he would be viewed as a hero from the rebel’s point of view. However he would suffer severe consequences. If the barber were to spare his life, he would be considered a coward. In conclusion, the picture is a great representation of the short story as it represents the barber’s epic dilemma.

Sharlene’s Identity

In the short story, Brother Dear, Sharlene’s identity is represented by her personality and her decisions. In the beginning of the short story, it seems as if her father decides Sharlene’s future. It is not until near the end of the story Sharlene comes to the conclusion that she is in control of her own future, and decides to break free from her father’s decisions. From that point on, Sharlene begins to realize that it is necessary to make decisions on your own in order to create her own identity.

I feel that I relate to Sharlene in the short story Brother Dear quite a lot. Sharlene is in grade 11, and she has to think about what she will do in her future. I am in that exact same position. I’m starting the 11^th grade, and I have yet to know what lies ahead of me. Sharlene’s father has his own perspective of what lies ahead for her. He believes without a doubt that Sharlene should go to university. However, Sharlene truly wants to travel to Europe instead, and study languages. My father wants me to go to university as well. However I’m not too sure what I want to do yet. Towards the end of the short story, Sharlene is highly influenced by her older brother’s actions. When she sees that Greg goes against his father, she realizes that it is okay to stay true to herself. She comes to the conclusion that she will go on her own way, instead of doing what her father intends her to do. I as well look up to my older brother. His actions influence me in many ways. If he does something one way, I feel that it is okay if I do it as well. In conclusion, I connect with Sharlene in many different ways.