Shakespeare
Initial response:
I felt excitement at first when we were told we were doing Macbeth because I had seen Macbeth in movies and I visualised us as a class bringing the words to life, just like the actors in the movies. I had also studied this play before. However, I was also worried that the complex language would sometimes inhibit our performances.
To combat this we used the website 'No Fear Shakespeare' which gave us translations from Shakespearean language to modern day language.
To begin my research into Shakespeare, I watched a YouTube video on iambic pentameter since it was something Shakespeare frequently used in his plays. Iambic pentameter is a metrical speech rhythm that consists of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.
Example: Two households, both alike in dignity.
Shakespeare used speech rhythms to create an atmosphere, for example, the witches in ‘Macbeth’ spoke in trochees (a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, a reversed iamb) to set an ominous or sinister tone.
But what was the reason behind his use of iambs?
It’s been said that writing in iambic pentameter made his plays easy for his actors to perform and easy for the audience to understand as we naturally speak in iambic pentameter without thinking about it. However, others have theorised that because Shakespeare usually incorporated iambic pentameter when a character is feeling a great sense of a certain emotion (happiness, fear, dread), it’s all to do with our heartbeat, as our hearts beat in iambs when in a heightened emotional situation (da DUM/ da DUM/ da DUM).
Themes
I continued my research by looking into the themes that Shakespeare used and explored throughout Macbeth.
Ambition - Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were very ambitious characters, and did whatever they felt necessary, no matter how heinous, to reach the throne.
Appearance and Reality - One of Lady Macbeth's first lines in the play is "Look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under't', coaxing Macbeth to appear as something he's not.
Order & Disorder - Macbeth, and many other plays by Shakespeare, begin with a state of order, giving way to disorder, confusion and chaos.
I felt excitement at first when we were told we were doing Macbeth because I had seen Macbeth in movies and I visualised us as a class bringing the words to life, just like the actors in the movies. I had also studied this play before. However, I was also worried that the complex language would sometimes inhibit our performances.
To combat this we used the website 'No Fear Shakespeare' which gave us translations from Shakespearean language to modern day language.
To begin my research into Shakespeare, I watched a YouTube video on iambic pentameter since it was something Shakespeare frequently used in his plays. Iambic pentameter is a metrical speech rhythm that consists of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.
Example: Two households, both alike in dignity.
Shakespeare used speech rhythms to create an atmosphere, for example, the witches in ‘Macbeth’ spoke in trochees (a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, a reversed iamb) to set an ominous or sinister tone.
But what was the reason behind his use of iambs?
It’s been said that writing in iambic pentameter made his plays easy for his actors to perform and easy for the audience to understand as we naturally speak in iambic pentameter without thinking about it. However, others have theorised that because Shakespeare usually incorporated iambic pentameter when a character is feeling a great sense of a certain emotion (happiness, fear, dread), it’s all to do with our heartbeat, as our hearts beat in iambs when in a heightened emotional situation (da DUM/ da DUM/ da DUM).
Themes
I continued my research by looking into the themes that Shakespeare used and explored throughout Macbeth.
Ambition - Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were very ambitious characters, and did whatever they felt necessary, no matter how heinous, to reach the throne.
Appearance and Reality - One of Lady Macbeth's first lines in the play is "Look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under't', coaxing Macbeth to appear as something he's not.
Order & Disorder - Macbeth, and many other plays by Shakespeare, begin with a state of order, giving way to disorder, confusion and chaos.
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