10QI: work for Tuesday 20 November 2018

I am in Christchurch on Tuesday, and in class on Monday you all wanted to carry on with your Macbeth work.  Here are some pointers to guide you:

1. The play Macbeth starts with three witches meeting.  This is called the opening scene of the play, as it shows us where the play is set, both in time and place, and gives us an idea of what the play will be about.  We have watched five very different versions of the witches' scene of Macbeth, and then chosen which one each of us like best.  

The five versions are: 
1. Macbeth (1971) directed by Roman Polanski - traditional version with the witches on the beach
2. Macbeth (2005) BBC production - a modern adaptation of the play in which Macbeth is the sous chef of a three star Michelin restaurant. The Binmen who collect the waste from the restaurant are the Witches.
3. Macbeth (2006) directed by Geoffrey Wright. In this modern version of the play, the witches are schoolgirls in a cemetery in Melbourne, Australia.
4. Macbeth (2010) directed by Rupert Goold. This is the one where the witches appear as nurses and which is set in the 1940s in Russia.
5. Macbeth (2015) directed by Justin Kurzel. This has a traditional setting in Scotland, with the added detail of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth burying their child in the opening scene.

You are going to write at least one paragraph describing the scene, and at least one paragraph explaining why you liked the scene. I have made an exemplar below:

I have chosen the traditional version of Macbeth, the one directed by Roman Polanski and released in 1971. In this version, the three witches meet on a deserted beach. They are haggard and two of them look very old. As they dig a hole, and then bury a severed arm, a rope that is shaped in a noose that could be used to hang a person and then place a dagger in the hand of the severed arm, we see that they have some very strange plans, or at least very strange ideas. They all seem to know what they are doing, as they place the items in the hole and then cover it without saying anything. Then they stand, and speak for the first time. They talk about when they will meet again, and that it will be on the heath, where they will meet with Macbeth. As they walk away, the youngest witch is clearly the strongest, and she pulls the cart with a rope over her shoulder. Nobody seems to have seen them, as the beach is clear of anything else except for seagulls.

I liked this scene because I found the three witches intriguing. I was interested in their costumes, and what the costumes suggested about the lives they lead. They seemed to be wearing rags and blankets. The youngest witch had long unbrushed hair, but the two older women had their hair covered as if they might be bald underneath. One wore a black headcovering that looked like a modern balaclava worn by terrorists or bankrobbers, and she seemed to be missing an eye.

This version of Macbeth seemed to take me into another world completely, as the objects the witches put into the hole were so macabre. It showed the idea of a prophecy, that they could or would predict something that would happen, really strongly through their strangeness. I noticed the ritual they used when they covered the hole was quite specific - one witch poured what looked like blood on the ground and then they each spat on the ground to the left, then the right, then the left again. When they did speak, they were very confident in what they were saying, as if they were indeed using knowledge from another world. I found a copy of the script which helped me to understand what they were saying. The phrase "fair is foul and foul is fair" helped me to see that this play is going to be about a time when all the rules are broken. It made me think of the famous saying "all's fair in love and war."

I liked the use of a beach for the setting, because it is so isolated, and the only living creatures who can see what the witches are doing is us the audience, and the seagulls who are screeching around as the witches arrive and as they leave. I think the sound of the seagulls, who are scavengers, makes me think of the witches as scavengers as well, making a living out of other people's disasters.

This exemplar shows how you can describe a scene and explain why you like it.  I've included discussion of costume, props, acting, dialogue and setting.  I'm interested in everything you think about your chosen scene, and especially in how you use examples from the scene to develop your explanation.  If you don't know some of the words in my exemplar, then do take the time to look them up and help each other understand them.  Part of our project in studying Macbeth is to widen our vocabulary and to become more confident with new styles of writing and speaking.

See if you can write 300 words!  We are working towards credits for NCEA, so it is really worth making a big effort.

See you on Wednesday for mentor, and Thursday for English, Ms Quick