Macbeth Study Guide
Macbeth Study Guide
Macbeth Study Guide
MACBETH
Blood-In/Blood-Out
Based on The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Adapted by Charlie DelMarcelle and students of La Academia
Directed by Charlie DelMarcelle
Set Design by Robert Klingelhoefer
Costume Design by Anthony Lascoskie Jr.
Sound Design by Andy Hartley
Stage Management by Julie Bunnell
Starring Charlie DelMarcelle, Andy Kindig, Yolanda London, Brian Martin,
Stephanie Jo Wise
Study Guide
“Study is like heaven’s glorious sun that will not be deep searched with saucy looks...”
- Love’s Labour’s Lost
The Fulton Family Theater Ensemble is supported in parts by grants from the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the County of Lancaster. The company has also been
selected for inclusion in the Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour (PennPAT) and the PCA’s
Artist-In-Education rosters.
Tour Sponsors:
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Family Theatre Series Sponsors:
Greetings
Thank you for inviting us and for making the arts a part of your day. We value your
patronage, and hope that our visit is a memorable one that serves as an educational
resource for you. This STUDY GUIDE is designed to enhance learning before and after
our presentation. Background information, discussion ideas, and suggested activities are
included to offer a variety of approaches to your exploration. Among other sorts of
lessons, the content addresses Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Reading,
Writing, Speaking and Listening 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, and 1.8 and
Pennsylvania Academic Standards for the Arts and Humanities 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, and 9.4.
This STUDY GUIDE covers a wide range of grade levels. Please feel free to select the
material most appropriate for your use. We look forward to seeing you soon!
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infect each other and often leave sicker than when they entered. What’s to be done?
In the play Macbeth, Scotland is spoken of as “sick” many times and in many
ways. In fact, the language of “disease” is used throughout the play. Why is Macbeth
“infected” by the witches’ prophesy, but not Banquo? What are the symptoms of this
disease? What are its ravages?
Perhaps the play only poses these questions without answering them. We are
thinking of the story of Macbeth as a kind of “metaphysical case study,” in the same vein
as the 19th century classic “monster” tales: Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
It’s not exactly a fun story, but it’s a thrilling, fascinating, and imaginative one. And, we
hope, maybe a bit instructive.
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Have done to this. (I, vii, 54-59)
The images are brutal and horrifying. The sounds of the words are
harsh and sharp. We can hear how her language is direct and strong, aided
by the evil spirits she has called upon.
She shames Macbeth with her own determination and nerve, and
so spurs him on to the throne. She uses vivid and concrete images, and
gives no outward release of emotion or fear:
These deeds must not be thought
After these ways: so, it will make us mad. (II, ii, 32-33)
But, ultimately, pushed beyond the limits of human endurance, her conscience
haunts her in her sleep and nightly she relives the horror or her deeds:
Unable to escape images of the murder, and divorced in spirit from her violent
husband, Lady Macbeth commits suicide:
Macbeth knows his crime would make the very winds of Heaven
revolt, that his horrid deed would create a tremendous uprising against him
in pity for his victim Duncan. The speech itself, when read aloud, imitates
the very sounds of the wind.
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…or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
(II, i, 33-35)
Have your students read the above passages aloud before discussing what they can teach
us about the characters, and have them find other examples of how Shakespeare’s use of
language helps create characters who are distinct, vivid, and alive.
- / - / - / - / - /
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
- / - / - / - / - /
It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood.
- / - / - / - / - /
And damned be him that first cries “Hold enough!”
Ask your class to find other examples of iambic pentameter in the pages of Macbeth and
to create some of their own.
3. William Shakespeare is given credit for introducing nearly 2,000 words into the
English language either by bringing into usage foreign words, making conjunctions of
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two or three other words, using nouns as verbs, or by inventing new ones. Here are just
some of the word and phrases attributed to Shakespeare that we still use today:
Have your students research more of Shakespeare’s many contributions to our language.
Staging
1. As noted earlier, Shakespeare’s plays were originally presented with little or no
scenery. Sometimes a simple placard would convey a scene’s location, but by and large
it was the Bard’s poetry that stimulated the imaginations of the audience and so built the
world of the play. Have your class look for examples in Macbeth that help create the
Scotland that Shakespeare conceived.
2. Unlike scenery, costuming tended to be lavish and elaborate. As the actors stood
in close proximity to the audience, slapdash or poor quality apparel would have ruined
the illusion of the play. Still, regardless of the piece’s setting, actors always wore
Elizabethan finery. This was largely because back then there was little solid knowledge
of what people wore in other times and places. After seeing Macbeth: Blood-In/Blood –
Out, have your students compare the Fulton’s production elements to those of
Shakespeare’s theatre. How were they the same? How different? What did the design
choices tell them?
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Shakespeare Through the Ages
1. When the English colonists set sail for the New World, they brought only their
most essential possessions along, and these often included the works of Shakespeare. By
the time of the American Revolution, a dozen of his plays had been performed hundreds
of times throughout the colonies. In the 1830s Alexis de Tocqueville remarked: “There’s
hardly a pioneer’s hut that does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare,” and that
included the log cabin of young Abraham Lincoln. Throughout the nineteenth century,
Shakespeare was the most popular playwright in America.
Shakespearean actors from England came
here because the touring possibilities were
plentiful. Shakespeare’s plays were
produced everywhere – in saloons,
churches, hotels, and, of course, in opulent
theaters like the Fulton Opera House. (In
fact, the show that inaugurated the Fulton’s transformation from a
town meeting hall to a genuine theater in the early 1870s was
Englishman E.L. Davenport’s Shakespeare Company who performed Othello as a benefit
for the widows and orphans of the Civil War.) Your students might enjoy researching the
contributions to the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth made by some of the most
famous English actors of all time. For example, ask what David Garrick brought to the
play in the late 1700s. Ask how Sarah Siddon’s performance of Lady Macbeth
transformed the role forever with what one simple stage action. Ask about her brother
John Phillip Kemble who produced a Macbeth in 1794 that was hated. Why? In more
recent times, Lawrence Olivier performed the title role twice, in 1937 and again in 1955.
In the former, his make-up was so thick and stylized that actress Vivien Leigh
complained: “Well, you hear Macbeth’s first line, then Larry’s make-up comes on, then
Banquo comes on, then Larry comes on.” How did his second try at is go?
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alien to a people who once so effortlessly understood their power and meaning. Still,
for more than four centuries, Shakespeare has played a defining role in American
culture. Today he remains the most widely produced playwright in America – his
work performed in theaters, on film, and in schools. Popular
culture has borrowed freely from the Bard. Many books,
movies, and musical scores use phrases from Shakespeare in
their titles, even when the content does not overtly draw upon
his work. Have your students find the Shakespearean source
work of the following. The first should be an easy one,
especially if they’ve memorized the passage suggested above:
Pomp And Circumstance (1901). The famous musical score by Sir Edwin
Elgar played at graduations
The book A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley is based on a Shakespeare play. So is the
musical West Side Story and the sci-fi movie classic Forbidden Planet. Even Walt
Disney’s animated feature The Lion King has its root in a Shakespearean Tragedy. Ask
your students if they can discover the sources.
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4. Although Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare’s Tragedies, it is among the
most enduring of his works. Since its composition in 1606, there has never been a time
when the play wasn’t being performed on stages around the world, this despite a reputed
“curse” that bedevils its production. A synopsis of the play can be found on many
numerous Internet sits, so is not offered in these pages. As early as 1916, Macbeth was
translated into the medium of film, and since then has been made into dozens of movie
versions. It has been adapted in other ways, too. There are versions of this Shakespeare
classic rendered as a tone poem, concept album, and even a rock
opera, and, as shown above, there are references to the play in
many popular culture outlets, including television, video games,
and comic books. Perhaps you can view one or more of the
following film versions of the story with your class: Joe Macbeth,
a 1955 film noir, resetting the story as a gang war in Chicago; Throne of Blood, the 1957
film directed by Akira Kurosawa, placing the story in medieval Japan; Men of Respect, a
1991 film set as a mafia power struggle in New York, told in modern English; Scotland,
PA, a 2001 retelling of the story as a black comedy set against the backdrop of a 1975
hamburger stand; Maqbool, 2004 Hindi adaptation set in the Mumbai underworld; or
Macbeth, a 2005 independent neo-noir version of the play set in an alternate universe
where the United States is led by a totalitarian government. Compare the movie(s) to the
text and to the Fulton’s staged version.
2. Have your students also trace lines of imagery through the play, tracking how
Shakespeare uses language to help depict the dissolution of Macbeth’s character and
world. Blood , storms, sleep and sleeplessness, sickness, darkness, and even clothing are
used metaphorically.
How is Macbeth affected by his actions? How does Shakepeare reveal this?
What role does destiny play in Macbeth’s life? What about his free will?
Why do you think Macbeth “sees” the phantom dagger floating in front of him
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before he kills Duncan?
The play is full of contradictory statements such as “When the battle’s lost
and won” or “fair is foul and foul is fair.” In such lines, what is Shakespeare
suggesting about the state of Macbeth’s world, and how does this mirror what is
going on in his mind?
Are there any modern day tyrants whose lust for power
have lead them to commit savage acts comparable
to those of Macbeth? Are there other parallels that can be drawn between the
circumstances and characters of the play and those of modern times?
Why do you think the Fulton chose to stage its Macbeth as it did?
Resources
Websites
www.absoluteshakespeare.com
www.bardweb.net
www.edhelper.com/shakespeare.htm
http://Shakespeare.palomar.edu
http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/
http://web.uvic.ca/shakespeare/
Books
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. Riverhead Books, 1998.
Epstein, Norrie. The Friendly Shakespeare. Penguin Books, 1993.
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Gibson, Rex. Discovering Shakespeare’s Language. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Kermode, Frank and Stanley Malless. Coined by Shakespeare: Words & Meanings First
Penned By The Bard. Webster, 1998.
O’Brien, Peggy, et al. Shakespeare Set Free. Attria Books, 1993.
Feedback
1. If you are a teacher and can find time in your busy schedule, please complete
the Teacher Evaluation Form you should have received.
2. Also, please have your students let us know what they thought of our
production by sending letters. (And tell them not to be surprised if they hear back from
us with a “Thank You.”) Perhaps you can ask each any or all of the following: What
was…
MACBETH
c/o Barry Kornhauser
The Fulton Opera House
P.O. Box 1865
Lancaster, PA 17608
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Theater
“What revels are at hand? Is there no play
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?”
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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AND AT THE NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK
FULTON OPERA HOUSE
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