essay on gender in macbeth

Cliff's Notes
How does Shakespeare play with gender roles in Macbeth ?
How can banks afford to lend out so much money?
What should I consider when deciding whether to invest in a company?
Who was the first female Senator in the United States?
What are the best courses to take if I want to end up doing research in metaphysics?
A friend of mine told me that my favorite TV show jumped the shark." What does that even mean?"
There is a new guy at my school and I think he's cute, funny, and sweet, but he's really shy. I want to ask him on a date, but I'm not sure if I should, and if I should, how?
How do you know a guy likes you?
How much outside class study time is recommended for every hour of class time for college freshmen?
Is it common for people to be scared to go into high school? Can you give me some tips to survive?
What is the easiest foreign language to learn? Which foreign language looks the best on college applications?
How do I get involved in classroom discussions without sounding stupid?
What is organizational design?
Will mentioning my race in my college essay increase my chances of getting in?
Is my summer vacation to Italy a good topic for my college essay? (I have pictures, too.)
How do I pull together all the notes I've taken to study for a test?
To study better, I want to get organized with some of the stuff I see advertised. What should be on my shopping list?
What does it mean to live in a credential society?
What kind of careers are available for someone with a degree in English?
What can I do if I think my teacher gave me the wrong grade?
How do I choose a college major?
I have too many projects and not enough hours in the day. Is 8 hours of sleep really that important?
How do I choose a topic for a personal essay?
What tips can you give me for studying for a test on something I've read?
How do I write a good research paper?
How can I highlight my textbooks efficiently?
How do I convince my parents to spend a few extra bucks to upgrade from a dial-up connection to broadband like a cable modem or DSL? They say I have to give some benefits for spending extra.
What do you do when you're lost; when you can't concentrate and have lost your will to succeed? How can you get back on track?
Is homework important?
What is your opinion of the rise of virtual actors and the fall of live ones, what do you think about virtual actors taking the place of live ones?
My mom and my friends say I should quit doing something [swimming, tennis, violin, honors classes], but I love all the things I do. What can I do?
I started my first job a couple weeks ago (just for the summer). Do you have any tips for getting along with everybody at work?
Is it still important for people who develop Web pages to know HTML? If so, why?
When I am making a speech or a presentation in front of the class, my face or body automatically shivers. My voice gets weird also. How can I stop it?
I want to finish high school in 3 years instead of 4, but I am not sure it is a good idea. What do you think?
What are some occupations involving astronomy?
If I'm going to college for a degree in art, are all of my other classes even worth taking?
Are your freshmen grades important to get into college?
Is Johns Hopkins University a medical school? How long do I have to spend in a medical school to become a doctor?
For Milton Friedman, what are the social responsibilities of business?
What is The Fed and is it good or bad?
What is a Ponzi scheme?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Gross Domestic Product?
What is full employment and why is it difficult to measure?
What's a recession?
What is economics?
My parents and I are looking to buy a car for me I am 17 and I will be added to my parents insurance What cars have the lowest insurance rates but are still cool to drive
What is marketing?
Can you explain to me the impact money will have on the future (or my future. I am 16 years old)?
Are there any Spanish words bearing even a minute similarity to the name Peter? Not a name, but any word that is in any way similar to Peter.
Who led American efforts in Paris to gain French support during the American Revolution?
I need help locating a Web site that has pronunciation of the Spanish alphabet. For example, in English we sing", A, B, C, D, E, F, G . . .etc. Where can I find the Spanish alphabet?"
I know that there is no elision with French possessive adjectives. So what's the deal with: Qui est ton artiste favorite ?
Iâ€™m taking Spanish and need some good ways to study for tests. Do you have any tips?
In Spanish how do I know when to use de, del, a and al?
I'm going to be starting a new foreign language, and I'm not sure which language to take: French or Spanish. I know some French, but only greetings. Which do you think?
What is the term for when the Congressional majority represents the opposite party of the President?
Where in the U.S. Constitution are health and property mentioned?
To what extent did the Cold War shape the American domestic life of the 1950s?
The 10th Amendment does what?
How did the United States respond to Communist revolutions in Cuba and Nicaragua?
Which U.S. presidents also served in the House of Representatives?
What does the FCC regulate?
Who were the major political players during the Reagan Administration? Who helped shape President Reagan's legacy?
Who was the first Secretary of State for the United States?
Do prisoners deserve to be educated?
The death penalty has always interested me. What are the different ways you can execute someone without it being cruel or unusual?
Who were the major congressional participants in developing Social Security legislation?
With so many delegates speaking so many different languages, how does the United Nations get anything done?
I love watching TV court shows, and would enjoy them more if I understood some of the legal jargon, like ex post facto. What does that mean?
What is habeas corpus, and where is it guaranteed by law?
Where is the establishment of religion clause in the U.S. Constitution?
What's the point of making texting while driving illegal?
Have social conservatives captured the Republican Party?
Why are Republicans (or those who favor capitalism) called the right" or "right-wing" and Democrats (or those who favor social issues) called the "left?""
Who were the War Hawks?
What are the differences in the ways the House and the Senate conduct debates on a bill?
What is WikiLeaks?
How long do oral arguments last in Supreme Court cases?
What do you think are some reasons why the President was given almost unlimited military powers? What are some possible positive and negative effects resulting from the scope of the President's military power?
Why is the United States government so worried about North Korea?
Did Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation actually free any slaves?
How were U.S. Senators originally chosen?
What changes in American society have created new issues for the government to address?
What was the Tweed Ring?
What do you think secret service for the Obama girls is like? Is there a dude with a gun and stuff sitting next to them in class? Wouldn't that make it hard for them to concentrate?
How many representatives does each state have in the House of Representatives?
What is the difference between the Senate Majority/Minority leaders and the Senate Whip?
How are justices to the U.S. Supreme Court elected? Is this a good or a bad thing?
What type of education do you need to become Speaker of the House?
I heard a rumor that if you modify the photo by at least 10%, it doesn't matter if it's copyrighted and you can use it however. Is that true?
What do security and infringed mean in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
What did Abraham Lincoln mean by A house divided against itself cannot stand"?"
Who is the only U.S. President who never won a nationwide election?
What is the current law on compulsory vaccinations in the U.S.? Are there any exceptions for people who don't want to get vaccinated?
After the stock market crash, how did President Hoover try to help the economy?
My economics teacher said something about stagflation , what is that, exactly?
How do interest groups play a role in American government?
Has Thanksgiving always been on the same day?
Can someone who's not a Republican or Democrat win an election?
What can you tell me about the 1976 presidential election?
The Electoral College — can anyone apply?
How do lobbyists influence public policy decisions?
What happens if the president doesn't like a piece of legislation?
What are the legal elements of a crime?
How did the Whiskey Rebellion change people's perception of federal laws in the United States?
How do federal judges get their jobs?
If you are dressed to conform to an informal, verbal dress code but a different, written dress code is enforced and you get in trouble, do you have a First Amendment right to challenge it? My teachers enforce the dress code inconsistently.
How does the CIA recruit people? What types of majors do they typically target?
What is the importance of the Declaration of Independence? Why would the founders of our country need to declare" their freedom? Why is it so important today?"
What is Presidential Veto Power?
What is the purpose of government, and how does a bill become law?
Is there a way, other than retiring, to get out of the Supreme Court (such as being dismissed)?
When did the pocket veto start?
Who would serve as the new president if both the president and vice president resigned?
What was the difference in history between the Middle Ages (Medieval Times) and the Renaissance?
What's a Congressional Page and how do you become one?
Differences Between Public Universities and Private Schools
Entering College Without a Major in Mind
Figure Out Your College Preference
Freshman Dorm Life: Choosing a Roommate
Gain an Edge with Community Service
Apply to College Online
Approach AP Essay Questions with Ease
Choose the Right Dorm
Choosing a College: The Importance of the Campus Tour
Choosing Between a Large or Small College
Get a Clue about Community College
The College Admissions Interview
Get College Info from People around You
Getting Into College: Letters of Recommendation
Getting the Most from Your High School Guidance Counselor
Going to College When You Have a Disability
How College Applications Are Reviewed to Determine Acceptance
How Many Colleges Should You Apply To?
Keep Track of Test Time: Exam Calendar
Know What Colleges Are Looking For
Know Which Exam's Right for You
Pack Your Bags for SAT* Exam Day
Plan Wisely for Campus Visits
Planning High School Summers with an Eye toward College Admissions
Prepare for the Revised SAT*
Put Together a College Admission Timeline
Read the Right Stuff for the AP* English Literature Exam
Save Yourself from Senioritis
Start Earning College Credit Early
Student Diversity as an Important Factor in Considering Colleges
Taking a Year Off between High School and College
Take the Right High School Classes to Get into College
Technology and the College Application Process
Understanding Subject Tests and College Admissions
Understanding Your Academic Average and Class Rank
Weighing One College's Degree Program against Another
Write a College Admissions Essay
What Are College Early Action Admissions Plans?
What Are College Early Decision and Regular Decision Admissions Plans?
What Are College Rolling Admissions Plans?
Where Can I Find Info to Compare Colleges?
Find Out about Federal Student Aid
Filling Out the FAFSA
Get to Know the CSS Profile Form
Getting Financial Aid Information at School
How to Consolidate Private Student Loans
Avoid Negotiating with Financial Aid Offers
Avoid Scholarship Scams
Borrow for College without Going Bust
Building a Budget after College with a Financial Diary
Consider the Federal Work-Study Program
Considering a PLUS Loan
Deal with the FAFSA
Dealing with Private Student Loans during Financial Hardship
Debunking Some Common Myths about Financial Aid
How to Gather Information on Your Private Student Loans
The Differences between Scholarship and Student Loan Payouts
The Federal Pell Grant System
Loan Forgiveness of Your Student Loans
Negotiating Rent on an Apartment
Organize Student Loans with a Private Loans Chart
Overpaying on Student Loans for Quicker Payoff
Places You Might Not Think to Look for Scholarships
Put "Sticker Price" in Perspective
Student Loan Deferments and Forbearance
Try to Sweeten Your Financial Aid Package
Transfer Private Student Loan Debt to Low-Rate Credit Cards
Understanding Repayment Periods on Private Student Loans
What Happens If You Miss a Student Loan Payment?
After the Rush: Pledging a Sorority
Avoid Alcohol and Drug Temptations
Back to School Considerations for Adult Learners
College Professors Appreciate Good Behavior
Consider Studying Abroad
Deal with the Roommate Experience
Decide if the Greek Life Is for You
Decide on a Major
Find Yourself a Used Car for College
Fit Sleep into Student Life
Freshman Year Extracurricular Goals
Get By on a Limited Cash Flow
Get Creative for Summer after College Freshman Year
Get the Hang of the Add/Drop Process
Get with the Program: Internships, Work-Study, and Service Learning
How to Evaluate Campus Life during a College Visit
Job Shadow to Explore Careers
Key In to Effective Study Habits
Maintain Your Mental Health
Make the Most of Taking Lecture Notes
Pack Up for College
Prepare for College Instructor/Student Expectations
Put Together a Bibliography or Works Cited
Research on the Internet
Rule Out Academic Dishonesty
Say No to Dating College Friends' Siblings or Exes
Student Teaching: Test Drive Your Career in Education
Taking a Gamble: Gaming on Campus
Transferring from Community College to Four-Year Institution
Understand Types of Research Material
What to Expect from Sorority Rush
Work at a Part-Time Job
Write a Top-Notch Research Paper
Why do some critics want the 22nd Amendment repealed?
What is guerrilla warfare?
Years ago I learned that our national highway system has built-in runways for emergency landing strips. Is this still true?
What newspapers did Frederick Douglass write for?
I know that the days of the week are all named after Norse or Roman gods or the sun and moon, but I can't figure out what Tuesday is named for. Do you know?
Can you give me a brief history of Prussia?
Who were the Ottomans?
Who discovered oxygen?
What have been the major Israel and Arab conflicts since World War II?
1What does the cormorant (bird) symbolize in mythology?
How did Peter I of Russia come to power?
What can you tell me about Kwanzaa?
What is the Alma-Ata declaration?
I've heard that in some countries, everyone has to sign up for the military between high school and college. Is that true?
How were women treated in Ancient Rome?
What is the history and meaning of Turkey's flag?
How are justices to the US Supreme Court elected Is this a good or a bad thing
How did ounce come to be abbreviated as oz.?
Why did Cromwell dissolve the first Protectorate parliament?
Why does The Great Depression end when the United States enters World War II?
What place did the underworld have in Egyptian mythology?
Can you explain Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in words that a teen can understand?
Who was the most famous mathematician?
Where did Christopher Columbus land when he reached the Americas?
Who had control of more states during the American Civil War, the North or the South?
How did Zeus become ruler of the Greek gods?
Why does Santa Claus have so many names â€” Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, and Kris Kringle?
What is antidisestablishmentarianism?
What is Leningrad known as today?
Who were the leading figures in the Classical period of music?
Why didn't the Pope allow Henry VIII a divorce, and who was Catherine of Aragon's relative who came and held siege?
Who wrote, A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still"?"
Was the Spanish Armada large, and did its crews have notable sailing skill?
What was the cause of the War of Spanish Succession?
What is the song Yankee Doodle Dandy" really about?"
What's the story of the Roanoke colony?
How does history reflect what people were thinking at the time?
My teacher says there's more than one kind of history. How can that be?
What were the turning points in World War II?
We just started studying Spanish exploration in North America. What makes it so important today?
What was it like for women in the 1920s?
Have Americans always been big on sports?
Who invented baseball?
What did American Indians have to give up for pioneers?
How did imperialism spread around the world?
How did Imperialism in India come about?
What's the big deal about Manifest Destiny?
How did the Tet Offensive affect public opinion about the Vietnam War?
Why did Christian Lous Lange deserve the Nobel Peace Prize in 1921?
Where do the four suits in a deck of cards originate? What do they represent?
What was the Roe v. Wade trial?
Who is Constantine?
I need to know some info on the Monroe Doctrine. I have looked everywhere but I still can't find any information. Can you PLEASE help?
Where did the chair originate from? I was sitting on one the other day and it said Made in China," but where did it first come from?"
What kind of cash crops did they grow in the South in early America?
Everyone talks about how enlightened the Mayans were, but what did they really do?
What caused the fall of the Roman Empire? Did Christianity play a role?
What was the reason for the downfall of the Russian Empire in 1917?
What prompted slavery? Why were the Africans chosen for enslavement?
How did World War I start and end?
What is The Palestinian Conflict?
I don't really understand the French Revolution. What started it, and what stopped it?
What was the doctor's diagnosis of Helen Keller when she was a baby?
What is the Trail of Tears?
When speaking about Native Americans, what is the difference between an Indian tribe and an Indian Nation?
What happened during the Boston Massacre?
What was sectionalism in America before the Civil War?
How did the U.S. attempt to avoid involvement in World War II?
What is Ronald Reagan's Tear down this wall" speech about?"
Can you describe the United States policy of containment and show an example of an event when the policy was used and why?
How many countries are there in the world?
What did Columbus do besides sail to the New World?
My history teacher said that if your religious denomination isn't Catholic, than you are a Protestant. Is she right?
Do you think that Mormons are Christians? What is the full name of the Mormon Church?
What principles of the Belmont Report were violated in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study?
What is the size of Europe in square miles?
The United States was given the right to establish naval bases in the British West Indies during World War II by the British Government in exchange for what?
How were the Crusades a turning point in Western history?
10 Things You Need to Know about College (but Probably Don’t)
Top 7 Secrets of College Success
Heading Off for College? 10 Must-Do's
What does impertinent mean (from The American )?
I know that the verb pluck means to pull out or pull at, but what's the definition when used as a noun?
Which novels would you recommend to 15-year-olds on the theme of places and forms of power?
In The Pearl, why didn't John Steinbeck give the pearl buyers identifying names?
In the play, The Crucible , why would Arthur Miller include the Note on Historical Accuracy?
What is perfidy (from Sister Carrie, by Theodore Dreiser)?
Is being pedantic a good or bad thing?
Is a termagant a type of seabird?
What is ichor (from The Iliad )?
In The Hunger Games, why did Cinna choose to be the designer for District 12?
Is a rivulet really a river, only smaller?
Charles Dickens has this person called the beadle" in lots of his books. Is that like a nickname for a man with buggy eyes or something?"
In Brave New World, why are family words like father and mother viewed as obscene?
What is the main tenet of stoicism?
What's the meaning of obsequious (from Theodore Dreiser's urban novel Sister Carrie )?
Where are the Antipodes (from Much Ado about Nothing )?
What is a truckle bed (from Romeo and Juliet )?
What does truculent (from Great Expectations ) mean?
If someone inculcates you, should you feel insulted?
What does the phrase Ethiop words" mean in Shakespeare's As You Like It ?"
I was chatting with a neighbor who said I was quite garrulous . Nice or mean?
What does laconic mean?
At a restaurant famous for its rude servers, a waitress told me to lump it" when I asked for another napkin. Can you tell me about that phrase?"
What does urbane (from Daisy Miller ) mean?
I thought necro had something to do with being dead. So, what's a necromancer ? Sounds creepy.
In The House of Mirth, this guy named Gus Trenor is eating a jellied plover." Is that some kind of doughnut?"
What are some well-known novels whose titles are quotations from Shakespeare?
In Orwell's 1984, what does the opening sentence suggest about the book?
Understanding the literary genre Magical Realism
What's a prig?
I asked my granddad if he liked his new apartment and he said, It's all hunky-dory, kiddo." What did he mean?"
What does mephitic (from Man and Superman ) mean?
I hate finding typos in books. Here's one I've seen several times: jalousies instead of jealousies.
On the second week of my summer job at a bookstore, my boss handed me an envelope with what she called my emoluments. Looked like a paycheck to me, though.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, what are some examples of the characters having courage?
What's cud? I was once told to stop chewing my cud and get back to work.
What can you tell me about the word patois from The Awakening ?
What are thews (from Ivanhoe )?
What does pot-shop (from The Pickwick Papers ) mean?
Are all dowagers women?
If someone is the titular head of a political party, does it mean they have all the power?
The word flummox confuses me. What does it mean?
Somebody told me I looked pasty. Does that mean I've eaten too many sweets?
I started taking private bassoon lessons. When I arrived at my teacherâ€™s house, he told me to wait in the anteroom. I wasnâ€™t sure where to go.
Is anomalous the same as anonymous ?
I know that a fathom is a unit of measure used by sailors, but how long is a fathom?
What is a joss (from Victory, by Joseph Conrad)?
What does eschew (from The Pickwick Papers ) mean?
What does excrescence (from The Call of the Wild ) mean?
What does the word covert mean?
In Shakespeare's Sonnet 125, what is an oblation ?
In Moby-Dick , what does vitiate mean?
In War and Peace , what does bane mean?
In Jane Eyre , what are chilblains ?
Does mendacious refer to something that is fixable (mendable)?
Is kickshawses one of those weird words that Shakespeare coined? What does it mean?
You say in CliffsNotes that In Cold Blood was Truman Capote's undoing. How?
What is renege , in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra ?
What is maxim ? I think it's a female name but I'm not sure.
Last Valentine's Day, this guy I barely know gave me a rose and said something about ardent love. What does ardent mean?
In Act I, Scene 1, of King Lear, what does benison mean?
What kind of literature is a picaresque novel?
What does culpable mean?
What's a cenotaph ? Every Veterans Day, I hear about the Queen of England laying a wreath at the Cenotaph in London.
What does gallimaufry mean in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ? My vocabulary is pretty good, but that one has me stumped!
What does it mean to genuflect ?
Someone told me I was looking wistful. What is wistful ?
In David Copperfield, what does superannuated mean?
Does the word syllogism have something to do with biology?
I see the word benefactor a lot in my reading assignments. Is that somebody who benefits from something?
I found a funny word in The Glass Castle. Where did skedaddle come from and what does it mean?
Does sinuous mean something like full of sin"? I saw the word in The Devil in the White City ."
In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, what is the meaning of the word propaganda ?
What are characteristics of Modernist literature, fiction in particular?
What does my brother mean when he says he's too ensconced in his studies to look for a girlfriend?
My grandpa complained about a bunch of politicians making what he called chin music . Did he mean they were in a loud band?
What is melodrama?
In Dracula, what's a missal ?
In the terms abject poverty and abject misery, what does abject mean?
In Moby-Dick, what does craven mean?
What does cicatrize mean?
What is a noisome smell" in Tolstoy's War and Peace ?"
What is an apostasy, from the George Bernard Shaw play, Man and Superman ?
In Jane Eyre, what's syncope ?
I just read Dracula. What's the forcemeat in Jonathan Harker's journal?
Can the word stern mean more than one thing?
Where is Yoknapatawpha county?
What does smouch mean?
I'm supposed to write a comparison of Hektor and Achilles from Homer's The Iliad, but I don't know where to start.
How do you pronounce quay ? And what does it mean, anyway?
What are some examples of paradox in the novel Frankenstein ?
In Ivanhoe, what does mammock mean?
What does rummage mean?
Is a mummer some type of religious person?
Some guy I don't like told his friend I was acting all demure. What does that mean?
When I complained about our cafeteria food, my biology teacher told me he wished they'd serve agarics. Was he talking about some kind of dessert?
Where did the name Of Mice and Men come from?
What genre would you consider the book, The Outsiders ?
In Fahrenheit 451, why would a society make being a pedestrian a crime?
What does the phrase, a worn-out man of fashion" mean from Jane Eyre ?"
Is sagacity a medical condition?
My teacher told me I was being obdurate. Was that a compliment?
What motives inspired Iago to plot revenge against Othello?
Who was the first king of Rome?
What does enervate mean?
What is a parvenu ? I saw the word in William Makepeace Thackeray's book Vanity Fair.
Is salubrity somehow related to being famous?
Do capers have something to do with cops?
What's the difference between a soliloquy and a monologue?
In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce uses the word pandybat . What's a pandybat?
Does the word inexorable have something to do with driving demons out of a person?
Do people who prognosticate have some sort of special power?
What is a hegemony, from James Joyce's Ulysses ?
What are fallow fields ? I'm a city gal who heard the term at a 4-H fair and just read it in Anna Karenina.
What's the difference between parody and satire?
Lord of the Flies uses the word inimical. What does it mean?
What does dreadnaught mean, as itâ€™s used in Bleak House?
I saw vertiginous in Madame Bovary. What does mean the word mean?
What does overweening mean, in Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes?
Can you hear a dirge anyplace but a funeral?
Does imperturbable refer to something you can't break through?
What are the seven ages of man?
What is a chimera , in Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontÃ«?
What's dross ?
What is an injunction ?
For school I had to make a Napoleon hat, which called for a cockade. What is that?
If someone studies assiduously, does it mean they're working really hard or really slowly?
Define mood as it relates to a work of fiction. Distinguish mood from effect.
My sister calls me the Princess of Prevarication." What's prevarication ?"
What's turpitude, as in moral turpitude"?"
What's the definition of tenebrous ?
This biography I'm reading about Queen Victoria says that she refused to remove the hatchment she had for her husband Prince Albert. What does that word mean?
What does sine qua non mean?
What's lugubrious mean?
What's impugn mean, from Ivanhoe?
What does postprandial mean?
I love reading fashion magazines and occasionally come across the word atelier. What is that?
What does King Lear mean when he says that ingratitude is a marble-hearted fiend"?"
What is celerity , from Ivanhoe ?
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , what are disquisitions ?
What's shrive ? My neighbor said she's been unshriven for years, but I think her skin looks quite shriveled.
What's a dobbin ?
What's polemic ? Over winter break, my uncle told me I was polemic and asked if I was on the debate team at school.
I came across a list of homonyms: mu, moo, moue . I know mu is Greek for the letter m , and moo is the sound cows make, but what's a moue ?
What does trow mean?
In Far from the Madding Crowd , what does cavil mean?
What does Charles Dickens mean when he says â€œtoadies and humbugsâ€ in his book, Great Expectations ?
Where can I find the word naught in The Scarlet Letter ?
I found an old diary from the 1800s where the writer describes how he almost died but was saved by a sinapism . What is that?
I know what mulch is, but what's mulct ?
When our teacher was introducing the next reading assignment, he said we'll be using the unexpurgated version. What did he mean?
For some reason, the word dingle sticks in my head after having read Treasure Island years ago. I never did discover what it meant. How about it, Cliff?
In Dracula , what's stertorous breathing?
What does philippic mean?
I'm usually pretty good at guessing what words mean, but have no clue about exigence . What is it?
What's doughty ? How do you pronounce it?
What's sharecropping? I'm kind of embarrassed to ask, because it's one of those words everyone assumes you know what it means.
I'm working on my summer reading list with Kafka's The Trial. The very first sentence uses traduce , and I don't know what that means.
What does the cormorant (bird) symbolize in mythology?
I saw the word badinage in the book Uncle Tom's Cabin . Do you think that's a typo that really should be bandage ?
On a TV modeling contest, a judge said, Her simian walk is unbelievable." Was that a good thing?"
What is the definition of adverbiously , from Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities ?
In Oliver Twist , Dodger refers to Oliver as flash companion . Can't find a definition of this anywhere. What does it mean?
Do elocutionists kill people?
For my English homework, I have to write a love poem. I'm only 13 and I haven't had my first love yet. How would I go about writing about feelings that I haven't felt yet?
Where on the body would I find my sarcophagus ?
What's stolid ? It sounds like someone who's stupid and built solid like a wall.
What's a wonton person?
In which play did William Shakespeare state that misery loves company?
What's comfit ? Is it a different way of saying comfort?
Where did the story Frankenstein by Mary Shelley take place?
What kind of person would a shallow-pate be?
What are myrmidons of Justice" in Great Expectations ?"
Faseeshis â€¦ no clue on the spelling, but I kind of got yelled at in school today for being that. What did I do?
In The Red Badge of Courage , what's an imprecation ?
The word portmanteau shows up in a lot of the literature I read for school assignments. It sounds French. What does it mean?
I did something really stupid yesterday, and my grandfather told me I was hoist with my own petard." What does that mean? And what's a petard ?"
How do you pronounce Cymbeline, one of Shakespeare's early comedies?
What's a bourse ? I read it in my finance class.
In The House of Mirth, what are oubliettes ?
In Tess of the d'Urbervilles, what are thimble-riggers ?
In Wuthering Heights , what's a thible ?
Which Hemingway story references the running of the bulls" in Spain?"
What's a clink? My dad mentioned that his granddad was there for a long time during World War I.
If somebody is toady," does it mean they're ugly?"
Who said all's fair in love and war" and where?"
Why is there so much talk about baseball, especially Joe DiMaggio, in The Old Man and the Sea ?
In the movie Failure to Launch , there's a line that goes, Well, she certainly is yar," in reference to a yacht. What's yar ?"
What does mangle mean in Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities ?
I got detention because a teacher said I was being contumacious . What's that?
What are encomiums?
What are billets in The Three Musketeers ?
In Orwell's 1984 , what is doublethink ?
What are orts ? That's a weird word that reminds me of orcs from The Lord of the Rings .
What are alliteration and assonance?
How is John the Savage's name ironic in Brave New World ?
What's quinsy?
What is a doppelgÃ¤nger?
What is New Historicism?
I found the word unwonted in a book I'm reading. Is that a typo, you think?
In Heart of Darkness , what does cipher mean?
In the play The Glass Menagerie, would you describe Tom as selfish?
What does Kantian mean, from a philosophical perspective?
What's a colonnade ? My girlfriend is freaking me out with stories of her dream wedding where she walks down a colonnade. I know this is the least of my problems, but I'm curious.
My grandma says she knows how I feel when I knit my brows. Is she crazy?
Why is Shakespeare's play titled Julius Caesar , even though he is dead by Act III and plays a relatively small role?
I know bier has something to do with dead people, but what is it exactly?
My brainy brother owns a Harley and says his girlfriend is the pillion . Is he insulting her or just showing off?
I ran across the word mien in a book. Is it a typo?
Is a younker a person or a place?
Does precipitancy have something to do with the weather?
I'm writing a grade 12 comparative essay, and I need a book that I could compare with All Quiet on the Western Front. Any suggestions?
A friend says she suffers from ineffable sadness. What's ineffable ?
What's a scow ?
Is a maelstrom some kind of dangerous weather?
What is the meaning of this saying, The cat will mew and dog will have his day"?"
What is a paradox ?
The Picture of Dorian Gray mentions a panegyric on youth. What does that mean?
In Madame Bovary , what's a mairie?
In The Kite Runner, what's palliative mean?
So what's oligarchy ? In government class, my teacher mentioned that word when we were talking about the Blagojevich scandal in Illinois.
Is intrepidity a good thing or a bad thing?
My grandmother told me that she thinks grandpa should see an alienist. Does she think he's from another planet or what?
Do you have to have licentiousness to get your driver's license?
I ran across the word hardihood in something I read the other day. Is it some kind of clothing?
I saw mention of haversack in my history book. What does that word mean?
I'm guessing the word quadroon is four of something. But what's a roon?
I'm trying to understand Shakespeare's play, King Lear . Can you explain these quotes from Act 1, Scene 1?
In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment , what's a samovar ?
I came across a music channel that featured tejano," and then I saw the same word when I was reading Bless Me, Ultima. What does it mean?"
In The Awakening , there's a term prunella gaiter." I'm guessing that gaiters are a type of covering for your legs, like the gaiters I use on my ski boots to keep snow out. But what the heck is prunella? Is it a purplish color like prunes?"
What's sedulous mean?
In Chapter 2 of Jane Eyre , what are divers parchments ?
A friend of mine said she hopes to get a counterpane for Christmas. What's that?
In Wuthering Heights, what does munificent mean?
The other day, my dad called my friends a motley crew. Is that his way of saying I should hang out with a different crowd?
Why is there an authorship problem with Shakespeare?
What is it called when something is out of place in time, like a jet stream in a movie about ancient Rome?
In 1984 , does Winston die from a bullet at the end of the book or is he in a dream-state?
I saw some old guy in a soldier's uniform selling fake red flowers. He said it was for Veterans Day. What's the connection?
I was kind of flirting with this really cute boy when my teacher told me to stop palavering. Did she want me to stop flirting or stop talking?
My grandmother says when she was a kid in China, she became Catholic because of the Mary Knows nuns. I tried to look that up on the Internet but couldn't find anything. Can you help?
In The Count of Monte Cristo , does cupidity mean love? I'm guessing that because of, you know, Cupid . . . Valentine's Day.
My theater teacher called me a name the other day. I don't think it was supposed to be a compliment. What's a somnambulist, anyway?
Why was Tartuffe such a jerk?
To Kill a Mockingbird has this word fey in it, but I don't know what it means. Does it mean short lived or fleeting?
In Pride and Prejudice , what's probity" &mdash
I never met my grandma, who my mom says lives in a hovel and wants her to move in with us. Then I saw that word in Frankenstein . What's a hovel? I thought it was like a place that had room service.
I have a friend who said something about phantasmagoric. That's not real, is it?
Which of the following literary devices is used in these poetic lines by John Milton?
In Faulkner's A Rose for Emily," what does noblesse oblige mean?"
What is love?
What is suggested by the coin image in Book II of A Tale of Two Cities ?
Why does Satan rebel against God?
I'm reading Candide, by Voltaire, and one of the dudes is an Anabaptist. What's that?
What does the poem Summer Sun" by Robert Louis Stevenson really mean?"
What did Shakespeare want to say about his beloved in Sonnet 18?
In Romeo and Juliet , who was the last person to see Juliet alive?
What is the Catechism?
What is the overall meaning of the poem Before The Sun," by Charles Mungoshi?"
What does ague mean?
Is there a reference to venereal disease in Romeo and Juliet ?
What is fantasy fiction?
What is the exposition in Othello ?
Who is the character Susan in Romeo and Juliet ?
What is a found poem?
What did Alice Walker mean in the essay Beauty"?"
Why did Dr. Frankenstein create his monster?
What is the name of the surgeon and the English ship he's on in Moby-Dick ?
What are the differences between an epic hero and a Romantic hero?
In Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, does Gail Wynand commit suicide or only close The Banner at the end of the novel? I'm in a literary dispute over this!
What did W.E.B. Du Bois mean when he wrote of second-sight?
What is nihilism, and what should I read to get a better understanding of it?
What is the difference between an atheist and an agnostic?
What are intelligent design and creationism and how are they related?
What is misanthropy ?
I would like to understand the poem Blight" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Please help."
Can you explain the significance of the question, Which came first, the chicken or the egg?""
In Little Lost Robot," by Isaac Asimov, why have some robots been impressioned with only part of the First Law of Robotics?"
Can you explain Cartesian Dualism and how Descartes' philosophical endeavors led him to dualism?
When reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice , what does entailment mean?
What does ignominy mean? (From Shelley's Frankenstein )
What does pecuniary mean? (From Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities )
How do I analyze Kant's philosophy?
What is an apostrophe in Macbeth ?
Is music a language?
Why should literature be studied?
In the book The Scarlet Letter , what is a vigil ?
The first week of school isn't even over yet and I'm already in trouble â€” I forgot my textbook at school and can't do my homework! What should I do now?!
What are the renaissance features/characteristics in Hamlet ?
What is the exact quote in Hamlet about something being wrong in Denmark? Something smells? Something is amiss?
What does Utilitarianism mean, from a philosophical perspective?
What was the form of English that Shakespeare used?
At the beginning of Act V, Scene 2 of Much Ado About Nothing, does Shakespeare insinuate that anything is going on between Margaret and Benedick?
What was the "final solution" in the book Night by Elie Wiesel?
With the many novels out there, is there a database of some sort that can narrow down your choices to a specific book of interest for pleasure reading? And if not, why hasn't there been?
How do you pronounce Houyhnhnms ? (From Swift's Gulliver's Travels )
I just took the quiz on The Great Gatsby on this site. How can Jordan Baker be described as a professional golfer? To my knowledge, the LPGA did not form until the mid-1950s. Shouldn't she be referred to as an amateur golfer instead?
What are the humanities?
If Father, Son, and Holy Ghost aren't names, what is God's name?
What classic novels take place in Florida?
In which Hemingway short story is the saying, "Children's shoes for sale"?
Who is the "lady" that Robert Plant speaks of in the song "Stairway to Heaven"?
Was Odysseus the one who planned the Trojan horse, in the Trojan War?
How do I get my smart-but-hates-to-read son interested in reading?
Poetry gives me problems. How can I figure out what poems are about?
How do you analyze a novel?
What does it mean to ululate ? (From Golding's Lord of the Flies )
Is ambrosia a salad? (From Homer's The Odyssey )
What is a harbinger ? (From Shakespeare's Macbeth )
What does it mean to be refractory ? (From Dickens' Great Expectations )
What is a querulous kid? (From Wharton's Ethan Frome )
What does the word runagate mean? (From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet )
What is the word, imprimis ? (From Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew )
What does the word alchemy mean? (From Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter )
What is an estuary ? (From Conrad's Heart of Darkness )
What or who is a scullion ? (From Shakespeare's Hamlet )
What is a schism ? (From Swift's Gulliver's Travels )
What does it mean to be salubrious ? (From Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights )
What is a replication ? (From Shakespeare's Hamlet )
What is vicissitude ? (From Hawthorne's The House of Seven Gables )
Can you define indolent ? (From Wharton's House of Mirth )
What does the word replete mean? (From Shakespeare's Henry V )
What are orisons ? (From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet )
What does it mean to be ephemeral ?
What does it mean to be placid ? (From Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre )
What is a paroxysm ? (From Stoker's Dracula )
My English teacher got really mad when I said I was nauseous . Why?
What does it mean to be farinaceous ? (From Tolstoy's Anna Karenina )
What does dejection mean? (From Shelley's Frankenstein )
What is animadversion ? (From Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter )
What does it mean to be timorous ? (From Shakespeare's Othello )
Someone called me erudite . Is that good?
What is a mountebank ? (From Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter )
What does incarnadine mean? (From Shakespeare's Macbeth )
What does it mean to be puissant? (From Shakespeare's Julius Caesar)
What is a purloiner? (From Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities)
What does it mean to be affable ? (From Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment )
What does it mean to be ostensible ? (From Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court )
What does compunction mean? (From Dickens's Bleak House )
What is behoveful ? (From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet )
What is a precentor ? (From Golding's Lord of the Flies )
What does it mean to be loquacious ? (From Cervantes's Don Quixote )
What does imprudence mean? (From Ibsen's A Doll's House )
What is a conflagration ? (From Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde )
What does it mean to be spurious ? (From James' Daisy Miller )
What is a retinue ? (From Swift's Gulliver's Travels )
What does the word forsworn mean? (From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet )
What does the word hauteur mean? (From Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby )
What are vituperations ? (From Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl )
What are ostents ? (From Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice )
What is a sockdolager ? (From Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn )
What does insuperable mean? (From Shelley's Frankenstein )
What is calumny ? (From Shakespeare's Hamlet )
What is an augury ? (From Sophocles' Antigone )
What does squally mean? (From Dickens' Great Expectations )
What does corporal mean? (From Shakespeare's Macbeth )
What does it mean to be plausible ? (From Sinclair's The Jungle )
What is a dearth ? (From Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre )
What does it mean to vacillate ? (From Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest )
What does it mean to obtrude someone? (From Dickens's Great Expectations )
What is a heterodox ? (From Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter )
What is felicity ? (From Austen's Emma )
What does it mean to be effacing ? (From Adams's The Education of Henry Adams )
What is a repast ? (From Chan Tsao's Dream of the Red Chamber )
What does insouciance mean? (From Sinclair's The Jungle )
What is a soliloquy ? (From Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn )
I was reading The Iliad and there's this word in it: greaves . What's that?
What does the word prodigality mean? (From Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby )
Is there an easy way to understand The Canterbury Tales ?
What does the scarlet letter symbolize?
What is the significance of Grendel's cave in Beowulf ?
How did Hawthorne show that Hester Prynne was a strong woman in The Scarlet Letter ?
What purpose do the three witches serve at the beginning of Macbeth ?
What can you tell me about Grendel from Beowulf ?
What figurative language does Stephen Crane use in The Red Badge of Courage ?
Why is Roger so mean in Lord of the Flies ?
How do Gene and Finny mirror each other in A Separate Peace ?
The old man and the young wife — what's up with story plots like this?
What part does vengeance play in The Odyssey ?
What kind of a woman is Penelope in The Odyssey ?
Do fate and fortune guide the actions in Macbeth ?
How does Frankenstein relate to Paradise Lost ?
How has the way people view Othello changed over time?
How does Henry change throughout The Red Badge of Courage ?
What's so great about Gatsby?
How is To Kill a Mockingbird a coming-of-age story?
Why did Ophelia commit suicide in Hamlet ?
What is the setting of The Scarlet Letter ?
What is a slave narrative?
What's an anachronism ?
Doesn't Raskolnikov contradict himself in Crime and Punishment ?
What is the main theme of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ?
What does Shakespeare mean by memento mori ?
What are inductive and deductive arguments?
How does Alice Walker break the rules" of literature with The Color Purple ?"
What role does Friar Laurence play in Romeo and Juliet ?
Why did Elie Wiesel call his autobiography Night ?
Where did Dickens get the idea to write A Tale of Two Cities ?
What's the purpose of the preface to The Scarlet Letter ?
What role do women play in A Tale of Two Cities ?
Who are the heroes and villains in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
What are the ides of March?
Was Kate really a shrew in The Taming of the Shrew ?
What role does innocence play in The Catcher in the Rye ?
How are Tom and Huck different from each other in Huckleberry Finn ?
What is blank verse and how does Shakespeare use it?
How do the book and film versions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest differ?
What is a satirical novel?
What is the role of censorship in Fahrenheit 451 ?
How can I keep myself on track to get through my summer reading list?
How does Jim fit into the overall theme of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ?
What is a major theme of The Great Gatsby ?
How does Shakespeare use light and darkness in Romeo and Juliet ?
Who is the narrator in Faulkner's A Rose for Emily"?"
In Lord of the Flies , what statement is William Golding making about evil?
How is The Catcher in the Rye different from other coming-of-age novels?
How does Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird show two sides?
Was there supposed to be a nuclear war in The Handmaid's Tale ? I couldn't tell.
What is experimental theater"?"
Does Jonas die at the end of The Giver ?
What is an inciting incident, and how do I find one in Lord of the Flies ?
How does King Arthur die?
In Julius Caesar , what does this mean: Cowards die many times before their deaths
How do you write a paper on comparing a movie with the book?
Please explain this Kipling quote: Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.""
What is a tragic flaw?
What is a motif, and how can I find them in Macbeth ?
Why didn't Socrates write any books? After all, he was supposed to be so intelligent and wise.
Why are there blanks in place of people's names and places in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice ?
Was Othello a king? A prince? He's referred to as My Lord" but I'm not sure of his actual title."
I need to download some pictures of Juliet. Where would I find these?
Why does Odysseus decide to listen to the Sirens, in The Odyssey , by Homer?
What does prose and poetry mean? What's the difference?
In The Scarlet Letter, why is the scaffold important and how does it change over the course of the novel?
Why does the legend of King Arthur hold such a powerful grip over us?
Do you like to read books?
What are the metrical features in poetry?
What are the riddles that Gollum asked Bilbo in The Hobbit ?
Can you tell me what these two quotes from Much Ado About Nothing mean?
What is connotation, and how do you find it in a poem?
What is a dramatic monologue?
What is formal fallacy?
In the movie Dead Poets Society, what are some themes and values that are relevant to Transcendentalism. What is Transcendentalism?
Why didn't Mina Harker realize she was under Dracula's spell when she witnessed her friend fall prey to him, too? Wasn't it obvious?
In The Three Musketeers by Dumas, Cardinal Richelieu is labeled as the villain. How could he be presented as a hero instead?
In Romeo and Juliet , what are the different types of irony used? Um, what's irony?
What is the main theme in Fahrenheit 451 ?
In Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities , what fact in Book the Second: Chapters 1-6, confirms Darnay's release?
Why is Invisible Man considered a bildungsroman?
In A Doll's House , what risqué item does Nora reveal to Dr. Rank that eventually prompts him to disclose his own secret?
What is a definition of short story?
What percentage of people are considered geniuses?
How do I write and publish my own novel?
Do I use the past or present tense to answer this question: What is this poem about?" "
A Closer Look at Internships
Consider Working for a Nonprofit Organization
Create a Top-Quality Cover Letter
Deciding Whether to Go for Your MBA
Dress the Part for a Job Interview
Appropriate Attire: Defining Business Casual
Famous Americans Who Started Out in the Military
The Benefits of Joining a Professional Organization
Five Job Interview Mistakes
Getting Good References for Your Job Hunt
Lying on Your Resume
Make the Most of Days between Jobs
Military Career Opportunity: Translators and Interpreters
Network Your Way into a Job
Prepare for a Job Interview
Preparing for Job Interview Questions
Putting Your English Degree to Work
Putting Your Education Degree to Work
Take Advantage of Job and Career Fairs
Tips for a Better Resume
Understand Negotiable Elements of a Job Offer
Visit the College Career Office
Write a Resume That Will Get Noticed
Write a Thank You Note after an Interview
Writing a Follow-Up Letter after Submitting Your Resume
Your Military Career: Basics of Officer Candidate School
Your Military Career: Requirements for Officer Candidate School
Know What to Expect in Graduate School
Paying for Graduate School
Plan for Graduate Education
Tackle the Graduate Record Exam (GRE)
What Does School Accreditation Mean?
Writing Essays for Your Business School Application
Apply to Graduate School
Basic Requirements for Grad School
Choose a Graduate School
Decide if Graduate School Is Right for You
English Majors: Selecting a Graduate School or Program
Getting Letters of Recommendation for Your Business School Application
Graduate School Application: Tips, Advice, and Warnings
Graduate School: Applying as a Returning Student
How to Find a Mentor for Graduate School
How to Prepare for Grad School as an Undergrad
How Work Experience Affects Your MBA Application
Master's Degree in Biology: Choosing a Grad School
In what countries does Toyota produce and market cars?
How would you use the PDSA cycle in your personal life?
I am confused about adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing negative numbers.
Who are some famous female mathematicians?
Given the set of numbers [7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42], find a subset of these numbers that sums to 100.
The speed limit on a certain part of the highway is 65 miles per hour. What is this in feet per minute?
What is the sum of the angles of an octagon?
In math, what does reciprocal mean?
How many grams in an ounce?
A number is 20 less than its square. Find all answers.
How much is 1,000 thousands?
How do I find the angles of an isosceles triangle whose two base angles are equal and whose third angle is 10 less than three times a base angle?
Explain with words and an example how any number raised to the zero power is 1?
If I had 550 coins in a machine worth $456.25, what would be the denomination of each coin?
What three consecutive numbers add up to 417?
How many 100,000,000s in 50 billion?
Of 100 students asked if they like rock and roll or country music, 7 said they like neither, 90 said they like rock and roll, and 57 said they like country music. How many students like both?
What's the formula to convert square feet into square meters?
In math, what is the definition of order of operations?
What's the difference between digital and analog?
What is the square root of 523,457?
What are all of the prime numbers?
Our teacher told us to look for clues in math word problems. What did she mean?
How do I figure out math word problems (without going crazy)?
What good is geometry going to do me after I get out of school?
I keep forgetting how to add fractions. Can you remind me?
My teacher talks about the Greatest Common Factor. What's so great about it?
Got any tips on finding percentages of a number?
What does associative property mean when youâ€™re talking about adding numbers?
How do I use domain and range in functions?
How do I change percents to decimals and fractions? How about decimals and fractions to percents?
What should I do if my teacher wants me to solve an inequality on a number line?
What is a fast and easy way to work word problems?
How do you combine numbers and symbols in an algebraic equation?
How do I go about rounding off a number?
What is the First Derivative Test for Local Extrema?
Can you describe a prism for me?
How can I double-check my answers to math equations?
How do you factor a binomial?
I get the words mean , mode , median , and range mixed up in math. What do they all mean?
How do you combine like terms in algebra?
Can you make it easier for me to understand what makes a number a prime number?
Explain probability to me (and how about some examples)?
Solving story problems is, well, a problem for me. Can you help?
What's inferential statistics all about?
Finding percentages confuses me. Do you have any tips to make it simpler?
What's a quadratic equation, and how do I solve one?
How do you figure out probability?
How do you add integers?
How do you use factoring in quadratic equations?
What are limits in calculus?
I've looked everywhere to find the meaning of this word and I can't find it. What's the definition of tesseract ?
In geometry, how do you get the perimeters of a square and a rectangle?
What is the absolute value of a negative number?
A rectangle swimming pool is 24m longer than it is wide and is surrounded by a deck 3m wide. Find the area of the pool if the area of the deck is 324m 2 . Where do I even start to solve this problem?
How do you classify numbers, as in rational numbers, integers, whole numbers, natural numbers, and irrational numbers? I am mostly stuck on classifying fractions.
How do you convert a fraction to a decimal or change a decimal to a fraction?
I am trying to find all solutions to this algebra (factoring) problem, x 3 – 3x 2 – x + 3 = 0, and I keep getting the wrong answer. Please help!
Sometimes when I'm doing my pre-calculus homework I need help on some of the problems. Do you know where I can find help on the weekends or whenever?
How do you convert metric measurements?
I'm curious about converting Celsius to Fahrenheit, or Fahrenheit to Celsius. How do I convert from one to the other?
In basic math, the fraction bar shows division. So why does this equation show multiplication instead of division? 9/9 = 1 because 1 x 9 = 9.
I'm taking geometry and I'm having problem with the angles and the degree. Is there a way you can help me out?
The perimeter of a rectangle is 66m. The width is 9m less than the length. What is the length and width of the rectangle?
How many dollars are in 5,000 pesos?
How many ounces in a pound?
I'm having a hard time remembering percent of change. All I have is P (percent) = amount of change over original amount. Is there a better way of understanding it?
How do I figure out tangrams?
What are quadrilaterals?
What is the least common multiple of 8, 6, and 12?
How do you convert decimals to fractions?
How did the planet" Pluto get its name? I know it's named after the mythical god of the underworld, but why?"
What is the difference between the earth's core and its crust?
What does gender really mean?
What does plum pudding have to do with physics?
What is the functionalist perspective in sociology?
What does pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis mean?
Why aren't viruses considered living things?
Why does your breathing rate increase when you exercise?
Everyone says you shouldn't clean your ears with cotton swabs because you could break an eardrum. But if you do break your eardrum, will it grow back?
What is a mole?
How, and why, is body fat stored?
Where on the body do you find ciliated pseudostratified columnar epithelium?
Since she was only married for 72 days, does Kim Kardashian have to give back her wedding gifts?
In the United States, how can you get buried at sea?
What exactly is Salvia divinorum , and is it legal?
What is the composition and volume of whole blood?
Should I refer to a widow as Mrs., Miss, or Ms.?
Is it possible to catch more than one cold at a time?
Why does the Earth have more gravitational force than the moon or some other planet?
Did humans evolve from monkeys or apes?
What is the largest organ in the human body?
How did we end up with both Fahrenheit and Celsius scales?
What is absolute zero?
What is cell theory?
How come when humans flatulate, it smells bad?
How do I convert mL into µL, and vice versa?
What is the most abundant element in the earth's crust?
Is global warming man-made?
What exactly is wind? And why does it blow?
This sounds really disgusting, but I'm curious: Can humans drink animal blood, or any other kind of blood?
Why is space exploration important?
How is photosynthesis essential to life on earth?
What is the highest mountain in New Mexico?
What's the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist?
Who are the unbelievers" referred to in The Koran? What is it that they do not believe?"
What is the difference between Sunnis and Shi'ites?
What happens when you die?
Why is it important to memorize where the 50 states are on a map?
What kind of endangered species are there? Can you give me some examples, please?
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open, so when you drive a car, is it against the law to sneeze?
What are tectonic plates?
I have boy trouble. I want to ask out my friend, but I am not sure he is going to say yes. Plus, he said he had a girlfriend when we talked during school. Plus, my parents don't want me to date.
Why is the sky blue?
Do you really shrink at the end of the day and then grow in the morning?
What is the difference between matter" and "mass"?"
What does "nature versus nurture" mean?
What are closed contour lines?
What is homeostasis ?
What does the periodic table look like?
Do you know anything about the law of conservation of energy? Is it really a law?
I thought I knew what work means, but my physics teacher defines it differently. What's up with that?
How do plants know when to drop their leaves?
What's the surface of the moon like?
How does the number of neutrons in the nucleus of an atom differentiate it from another atom?
How do big rocks wear down over time?
What does genetic recombination mean?
How has DNA matching really made big difference in finding out who committed a crime?
What's the difference between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems?
What is incomplete dominance?
Can hydrocarbons be considered compounds?
Can you explain what molar mass is?
Aren't fungi really plants?
What information is contained in a chemical equation?
What are the endocrine and exocrine systems?
How do electrical charges interact?
Are there more than three kingdoms of life? I can never remember.
What are the characteristics of electrically charged objects?
How does anomie theory explain deviant behavior?
Why would anybody think there might be life on another planet?
What are chemical solutions?
Do you know of any way to simplify the overall subject of biochemical genetics?
Can a loud noise really shatter glass?
How do magnetic fields work?
Did Clarence Darrow really call an animal in to testify at the famous monkey trial?
What role does the thyroid gland play in the human body?
What did Mendel discover about heredity when he was playing around with plants?
How many laws of motion did Newton come up with, and what are they?
What in the world is constructive and destructive interference?
How do viruses do their dirty work?
What do bones do, except give us a skeletal structure?
Do all viruses look alike?
My teacher keeps talking about solubility. What does that mean, anyway?
How do positive and negative reinforcement work?
How does nondisjunction relate to birth defects?
With all the germs in the world today, how come everybody's not sick all the time?
What is thermal equilibrium?
How are sound waves created?
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Clearly, gender is out of its traditional order. This disruption of gender roles is also presented through Lady Macbeth's usurpation of the dominant role in the Macbeth's marriage; on many occasions, she rules her husband and dictates his actions.

The disruption of gender roles is also represented in the weird sisters. The trio is perceived as violating nature, and despite their designation as sisters, the gender of these characters is also ambiguous. Upon encountering them, Banquo says, "You should be women, / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so" (I.2.45-47). Their facial hair symbolizes their influence in the affairs of the male-dominated warrior society of Scotland. Critics see the witches and the question of their gender as a device Shakespeare uses to criticize the male-dominated culture.

Macbeth and Gender

Read this extract from act 1 scene 7 of the play. in this scene, macbeth has just said that he doesn’t want to kill duncan and lady macbeth begins to talk him around., lady macbeth, was the hope drunk, wherein you dressed yourself hath it slept since, and wakes it now, to look so green and pale, at what it did so freely from this time, such i account thy love. art thou afeard, to be the same in thine own act and valour, as thou art in desire wouldst thou have that, which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,, and live a coward in thine own esteem,, letting 'i dare not' wait upon 'i would,', like the poor cat i' the adage, prithee, peace:, i dare do all that may become a man;, who dares do more is none., what beast was't, then,, that made you break this enterprise to me, when you durst do it, then you were a man;, and, to be more than what you were, you would, be so much more the man., starting with this extract, how does shakespeare present gender in macbeth, in your answer you should:, · look at gender in the extract above and, · look at gender in the play as a whole, p1: introduction about gender and outline brief argument, p2: focus on lady macbeth and her deceptive ways, p3: focus on macbeth and his role as victim, p4: conclusion of argument, and modern vs jacobean context, throughout the play shakespeare toys with the stereotypical roles of each gender in jacobean england and most noticeably seems to reverse these roles at several key points in the play. while the traditional roles are seemingly apparent at the beginning, with macbeth being a valiant soldier and lady macbeth being a ‘lady’, the gender roles of both become increasingly ambiguous and indistinct as the plot develops. this fact is somewhat subtly highlighted in the witches’ iconic opening line “fair is foul and foul is fair” which establishes a setting where nothing is as it seems, including the typical roles of each gender. the decisions made by macbeth, which were undoubtedly under the powerful influence of women, and the damaging consequences to these actions are central to this tale of a tragic, ‘brave’ hero and the message shakespeare was trying to get across. he seems to argue that women should not be given too much power as that power can have a detrimental impact on a man’s life, especially a well-respected soldier like macbeth was., in this extract, lady macbeth is berating macbeth, insulting his masculinity as she labels him a “coward” and asks if he is “afeard” of killing the king. this is like a personal attack on macbeth, who at the beginning of the play is established as a ‘brave’ soldier whose sword ‘smoked with bloody execution’, yet lady macbeth is accusing him of being a weakling and a ‘coward’ and therefore questioning his entire ego. her aggressive tone, which is evident by her use of multiple rhetorical questions, makes it clear she is the more powerful person in this relationship. this verbal attack incidentally comes soon after she says, “such i account thy love” which is her way of saying that macbeth doesn’t “love” her if he doesn’t kill the king. this use of emotional blackmail is especially effective as it is clear that macbeth is very much in love with his wife, shown in act 1 scene 5 when he addresses her as “my dearest.” and while the pronoun ‘dearest’ shows that lady macbeth was precious to macbeth, it also has the connotations of expensive, which lady macbeth certainly was to macbeth in the play, costing him his sanity and ultimately his life it is clear in the play that lady macbeth exerts her power through lies and manipulation. by asking macbeth, “ what beast was't, then, that made you break this enterprise to me” she is clearly gaslighting him in a bid to convince him to kill duncan, and we know this because in act 1 scene 5, she asked when duncan would be leaving the castle, macbeth said “in the morning, as he purposes” and then she said “never shall the sun that morrow see.” so she was the one who suggested the murder, yet her deceptive ways manage to convince macbeth that he had suggested it. lady macbeth even encourages macbeth to lie and manipulate when she says “look like th’ innocent flower but be the serpent under it.” but it would seem as though to macbeth, his wife is actually the serpent, tempting him to do the evil deed, just like in the bible with adam. in the play however, macbeth seems oblivious to his wife’s true feelings about him, and his subservience to her is what leads to his downfall. lady macbeth has an influence on macbeth that no one else in the play, apart from the witches, had on him. the way she ridicules him and humiliates him to his face is almost unexplainable to the jacobean audience, given the status of macbeth in society at the time. she even directly questions his manliness when she says, “when you durst do it, then you were a man” even though macbeth had more than proven himself as a worthy man, when he killed the norwegian king by “unseaming him from the nave to th’ chaps,” his wife still questions his willingness to kill, which no one else would have dared done ., macbeth responds to this by saying, “i dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none” this is his way of saying that he has already done what he needs to do to become a man: he has served loyally to the king and killed many in his name. his reference to those doing more as being ‘none’ is him sticking to his masculinity and implying that a true man is loyal to the king. earlier in this scene, he says that he has bought “golden opinions from people.” the adjective ‘golden’ clearly shows that macbeth values those opinions and he is effectively treasured by those in the society. he is as high as he can be in the great chain of being and he has come to accept that, but his wife’s ambition forces him to do the terrible deed, something he clearly didn’t want to do. he repeatedly references that killing duncan is “against nature” which is quite telling, as while nature refers to the natural order in which he shouldn’t have tampered with, it also symbolises his own nature, which lady macbeth describes ‘as being too full of the milk o’ human kindness. the use of the word ‘milk’ has strong connotations to femininity and it essentially portrays macbeth as being too soft, completely disregarding his ruthlessness in the battlefield at the start. his decision to go against his nature (and his masculinity) is what leads him to killing the king. the witches also have a massive impact on macbeth throughout the play, and they were arguably controlling him. after seeing the witches, macbeth says that the thought of murder “shakes so my single state of man that function is smothered.” this means that his masculinity is so shocked by the idea of betraying his king that he doesn’t think he can act on it. so here we know that macbeth is trying to stick to his manly nature, yet the influence of these powerful women effectively forces him to do something against his will. in fact, it could be argued macbeth was under the influence of the witches from the very beginning, as his first line in the play is ‘so fair and foul a day i have not seen’ which is paraphrasing what the witches said at the beginning of the play. also, after he kills duncan, macbeth anxiously tells his wife, ‘me thought i heard a voice cry “sleep no more macbeth hath murdered sleep.”’ the use of the third person, with macbeth referencing himself as ‘macbeth’ not ’i’ – and the inclusion of the inverted commas that indicate speech – imply that it was someone else who said that to him. surely this is the witches, casting their spells on the wind, and doing to macbeth exactly what they did to the sailor they referenced in act 1 scene 3. the fact that macbeth spends the rest of the play suffering the fact that “sleep shall neither night nor day hang upon his penthouse lid” is another incidence of women (in this case the witches) dominating and controlling macbeth’s actions., shakespeare definitely raised serious questions in this play about the devastating effects of giving women too much power. king james was definitely afraid of this, as at the time society was very much misogynistic under his reign. while the modern audience would probably view lady macbeth as a woman whose power should be admired, the jacobean audience would certainly be worried by the thought of giving women too much power, therefore shakespeare went at lengths to show that this power resulted in the downfall of even the strongest men. the whole play represents the catastrophic consequences of doing the unnatural, whether that is going against the natural order, listening to the supernatural or going against the normal gender roles. all of these lead to this tale of a tragic hero, and shakespeare’s audience would definitely have been reassured by this..

Role of Gender in Macbeth

by Guiding Literature
April 1, 2023 April 1, 2023

Gender plays a significant role in Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth.” The play presents a world where men and women are expected to behave in certain ways based on their gender, and characters who defy these gender roles often face consequences.

At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is presented as a powerful and manipulative figure who is able to control her husband and influence his actions. She encourages Macbeth to pursue his ambitions and become king, and she is willing to use any means necessary to achieve this goal. However, as the play progresses, Lady Macbeth becomes increasingly consumed by guilt and eventually descends into madness. This suggests that while Lady Macbeth is able to wield power and influence, ultimately she is unable to escape the gender expectations of her time and is punished for her defiance.

Lady Macbeth: Warrior or Worrier? - Oxford Education Blog

Macbeth, on the other hand, is presented as a traditionally masculine figure. He is ambitious, brave, and willing to use violence to achieve his goals. However, as he becomes more ruthless and paranoid, he also becomes increasingly isolated and ultimately meets a tragic end. This suggests that while Macbeth is able to embody traditional masculine traits, he too is ultimately limited by his gender and is unable to achieve true success or happiness.

The play also presents a contrast between the masculine and feminine ideals of the time. The witches, who are traditionally seen as a feminine and subversive force, represent chaos and disorder. They are able to manipulate Macbeth and spur him towards violence, suggesting that they have a power that is beyond traditional masculine authority. However, the witches are ultimately punished for their defiance, suggesting that they too are limited by their gender and are unable to escape the consequences of their actions.

The portrayal of gender in “Macbeth” is also evident in the way that the female characters are treated by the male characters. Lady Macbeth is often belittled and dismissed by the male characters in the play, who see her as an overly ambitious and unnatural figure. Lady Macduff, another female character, is also presented as powerless and vulnerable, ultimately meeting a tragic end at the hands of Macbeth’s henchmen. This suggests that in the world of the play, women are viewed as inferior to men and are often victimized by their actions.

In conclusion, gender plays a significant role in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” The play presents a world where men and women are expected to behave in certain ways based on their gender, and characters who defy these gender roles often face consequences. Lady Macbeth is a powerful and manipulative figure who ultimately meets a tragic end, while Macbeth embodies traditional masculine traits but is ultimately limited by his gender. The play also presents a contrast between the masculine and feminine ideals of the time, and portrays female characters as often victimized by the actions of the male characters.

Gender Roles in Macbeth

This essay will explore the representation of gender roles in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” It will examine how characters like Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the witches challenge and conform to the gender norms of the Elizabethan era. The piece will discuss the play’s exploration of themes such as power, ambition, and masculinity. It will also consider how gender dynamics contribute to the tragic downfall of the characters and the moral implications of their actions. More free essay examples are accessible at PapersOwl about Gender.

How it works

In Macbeth, William Shakespeare comments on gender roles in the 17th century, conveying the distinct separation between male and female duties in life. Women were seen as domestic caretakers whose main role in society consisted of tending to their husbands, children, and household; while men dominated the worlds of decision making, politics, and finance (Sucese Lecture Notes 1/29).

As male and female roles were so distinct in society characteristics began to become associated with them. Women were expected to be dependent, submissive, and have no opinion or ambitions, while men were expected to be ambitious, independent, and strong (Sucese Lecture Notes 1/29).These gender roles and attributes largely stemmed from the idea that women were inherently evil and manipulative, leading to the view that men must take control in relationships and daily living in order to suppress women’s tendencies (Sucese Lecture Notes 1/29). This view of women can be traced back to the idea that women were like Eve, manipulative and deceiving, and that if they were not controlled, they could use their femininity to manipulate males into committing atrocities (Sucese Lecture Notes 1/29). In Macbeth, Shakespeare challenges gender roles by intertwining both masculine and feminine characteristics into characters, ultimately conveying that is not gender, but the nature of the person that determines how they act.

Perhaps the most prominent portrayal of intertwined gender roles in Macbeth is the character of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is an ambitious, strong, and violent woman; characteristics that were largely thought of as masculine in the 17th century. Although she has characteristics that equal that of males, Lady Macbeth is unable to pursue her ambitions because of the social constraints on women during that time. As she is unable to pursue things herself, she instead channels her energy into manipulating her husband to do what she would do had she been born male. In fact, Lady Macbeth states “…come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty” (Macbeth.1.5.17), this conveys her desires to be male so she could follow her ambitions. In order to do this, Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband into thinking that her ambitions are also his, leading him to murder King Duncan so that he can gain power (Macbeth.1.7.23). Even after the murder of King Duncan it is Lady Macbeth that is the source of reassurance and strength for her husband. While her husband becomes weak and emotionally frail, Lady Macbeth continues to convey her strength and mental stability conveying that she believes her husband is “too full o’ the milk of human kindness” (Macbeth.1.5.16), essentially saying that he is too weak to behave as a male should. However, Lady Macbeth’s stability and strength lasts only for a short time, and eventually she becomes consumed with guilt as she becomes increasingly sensitive (Macbeth.5.1.82.). This feminine characteristic of sensitivity eventually leads to the demise of Lady Macbeth, as she can no longer maintain the strength that she had before, ultimately leading to her suicide.

Through Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare conveys the idea that just because a woman is a woman, does not mean that they do not have the ambitions and strength of a man. He completely throws away the societal view of how women should act, and brings to light how women have the same capacity as men, and that they are able to be the source of opinions and ambitions in a relationship. This is shown in act one when Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeth to go through with the murder of King Duncan, saying to him, “but screw your courage to the sticking-place, / And we’ll not fail” (Macbeth.1.7.23).Through this quote it is clear that Lady Macbeth is the source of power, ambition, and strength in her relationship with Macbeth, propelling him to do what he thinks he cannot. Shakespeare also uses this quote to show how ambitious women use their femininity to persuade their male counterparts to take various actions. Lady Macbeth also essentially ridicules Macbeth, saying that her courage is steadfast even though she is a woman, and that he needs to have the same courage because he is man. The view of a women as both feminine and masculine was abnormal in a century so tightly bound to specific gender roles and female inferiority. In Macbeth, Shakespeare essentially puts all women on the same playing field as men.

Another prominent portrayal of male attributes in females is the three witches. Throughout the play, they tap into Macbeth’s inner desire for power and give him false security in his actions. Without the witches it is unlikely that Macbeth would have gone through with the murder of King Duncan, as it was their words that placed the thought in his mind and made him think that was his destiny (Macbeth.1.3.12). The Witches are the only characters in Macbeth that not only portray masculine and feminine characteristics inwardly but have physical characteristics that make it hard to outwardly define their gender. Although the witches are sisters, they have beards that cause characters in Macbeth to become confused with the ambiguity of their gender. This shown through Banquo’s first interaction with the Witches when he says, “You should be women, / And yet your beads forbid me to interpret / That you are so” (Macbeth.1.3.8). For the most part, the Witches words and actions can be seen as traditionally female, as they use manipulation in order to meddle with the minds of various characters, but they can also be seen as male because of the strength in their words and the respect that they command. The way in which they use words brings dark, unconscious thoughts to the surface for characters, which is specifically shown through Macbeth, as they bring to light his unconscious desire for power by hailing him as king (Macbeth.1.3.9.). Once these dark thoughts take a place in the characters minds, they are not easily displaced, starting a chain reaction of events that lead to the climax of the play.

Although Lady Macbeth and the Three Witches portray women with male attributes, there are characters in Macbeth that show the opposite – men with female attributes. The best example of this in Macbeth is Macbeth. In the play, Shakespeare uses Macbeth to convey what happens to men when they take on female characteristics while also emphasizing his point that gender is not inherent to character. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth shows a lack male attributes and instead expresses himself as weak and frail; characteristics that a female is supposed to have. He shows this through his anxieties and worries about killing King Duncan, and becomes very close to not committing the murder because of it (Macbeth.1.7.22.) However, in the end his wife persuades him to, which shows a further lack of strength in masculine attributes for Macbeth as it indicates lacks of courage. This is because males are not supposed to listen to the inferior opinion of women, and conveys that Macbeth is taking on a feminine role in his relationship with his wife. While Macbeth has his own ambitions of gaining power, it is his conscious that stops him from doing everything he can to attain it. Unlike Lady Macbeth who becomes increasingly frail as the play goes on, Macbeth becomes less emotional and more in tune to the violent, ambitious part of him that represents his masculinity. Shakespeare uses Macbeth in the same way he uses Lady Macbeth, which is to convey that gender does not determine character. Macbeth may be male, but he acts like a weak and emotionally frail women who needs support and validation from a more powerful figure in her life. The fact that Macbeth needed that validation and support from a female would have been embarrassing in the 16th century, and any normal male in that time period would have been ridiculed and labeled as a shell of a man.

In contrast to Macbeth, Malcom represent the epitome of manhood in the 17th century. While Macbeth tries to gain power by deception and murder, Malcom gains power by using his intelligence and fortitude. Not only that, but Malcom’s drive to attain power comes from within him, whereas Macbeth’s ambitions are driven by his wife. Malcom’s intelligence is shown specifically in his interactions with Macduff. He uses his wit to test the loyalty of Macduff by conveying that he is a greedy and overly ambitious man that would be a worse ruler than Macbeth. When Macduff shows his grief at these statements, Malcom decides to trust him and reveal his true nature (Macbeth.4.3.75.). Through this interaction, Malcom shows how he hopes to strengthen good within the Kingdom by ruling with virtue and restraint, instead of evil and desire. Shakespeare uses Malcom to show how a proper man and ruler should act by emphasizing the clear divide between the character of Malcom and Macbeth. He also conveys that if one acts with good intentions then the end result will always be better than if they had not.

Through his use of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, The Witches, and Malcom, Shakespeare breaks down gender roles in in the 16th century while questioning the validity of them. He uses Lady Macbeth to portray how women do actually have the capability of men both professionally and mentally, but have to hide their ambitions due to social constraints. The Three Witches represent an ambiguity in gender and dark thoughts driven by the want for power. They use their words in a confusing yet reassuring manner that manipulates the characters but provides a sense of reassurance at the same time. Macbeth is used to portray that men have the capacity to be like women, while Malcolm is used as an example of how a proper man without female influence should act. Shakespeare’s use of Macbeth calls into question the unwarranted power that society gives the male gender just because they are male. Overall, Shakespeare uses various characters in Macbeth to raise questions about gender roles while conveying that the personality traits each character has is not linked to their gender, but instead to their inherent nature.

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Macbeth and Issues of Gender

William Shakespeare's Macbeth is both the author's shortest and bloodiest play. It is therefore a natural choice for high school students. Plays are meant to be performed and not merely read, as is usually the case in the high school classroom. Therefore, it is a happy occurrence that instructors may now use video recordings, audio recordings, and DVDs to bring the performance element into the classroom. But performance on film was not Shakespeare's medium. On stage, the audience gets to look where it wants. The actors get to say their lines without fear of winding up on the cutting floor. When we switch from a play to a film, the director is king, and we now have possibly quite a different experience.

The artistry of cinema and the difficult task of taking a stage play and reinterpreting it for a different medium offer students and teachers a plethora of interesting, and sometimes controversial choices to examine. The intention of this curriculum unit is to examine many of these cinematic alterations and interpretations and to use them to enrich the classroom discussion of Macbeth . How do the costumes add to or conflict with our understanding of the characters? Does the casting seem appropriate? For instance, is a particular Lady Macbeth too old, too young, too sexy, or too ugly to have caused the reactions in Macbeth that we see? Why was a particular location chosen? Was the director looking for authenticity, trying to convey a message, or did he simply run out of money? What changes in mood occur when lighting or the background music are added? Many such questions and more may be posed when considering a scene of Macbeth on film, or of any adaptation of literature to film.

Macbeth is an appealing play for both male and female twelfth grade high school students. The subject matter of the play is known to involve murder and violence, and at first glance, not much more than a man whose ambition got the better of him. We have in Macbeth what appears to be the ultimate man, one who knows exactly what he wants, a man of action. However, Shakespeare is capable of writing far more nuanced characters than that. I propose that we look at many non-linguistic issues of film to help illuminate the subtleties in the language of Shakespeare.

Macbeth is introduced to us before he ever appears on stage. This is a technique that Shakespeare often employs. We learn of Macbeth's "valiant," "brave," and "noble" virtues, his exploits on the battlefield, and of the admiration of his king before he steps foot onto the stage. The exploits of Macbeth in battle are vividly described. We learn that Macbeth unhesitatingly "unseam'd" the "merciless Macdonwald" "from the nave to the chaps," and with a bit of foreshadowing of future events, "fix'd his head upon [their] battlements." We learn that "brave Macbeth" killed so many that his sword "smok'd with bloody execution." We discover that, even when "shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break," and the opposition begins "a fresh assault," neither Macbeth nor Banquo were anymore dismayed than eagles are by sparrows, or lions by gentle rabbits. Thus they turn the tide of battle so completely, and vanquish their enemies so thoroughly, that "poor Sweno, the Norweyan lord" must beg to have their dead soldiers buried on Scottish soil.

"The narrative casts forth an image of Macbeth as an almost superhuman engine of destruction," says Derek Cohen. "The phrase 'carv'd out his passage' is no neutral description of warrior's progress, but a terrible image of bloody slaughter as Macbeth makes a corridor of bodies between himself and Macdonwald. The smoking sword speaks not only of the hidden demonism of the hero, but also the wrath with which he wreaks his righteous havoc" (Cohen 130).

As a result, we are thoroughly prepared to meet a man who is decisive, brave, undaunted by overpowering enemies — a man who knows what he needs to do and does it, and certainly a man who does not flinch from bloody acts. So it is with great surprise, perhaps astonishment, that we see this great man of the battlefield, this man among men, brought to his knees by the powers of "equivocation," manipulation, and persuasion by the women of the play. Or is that what has happened? Was it instead a form of permission for Macbeth to act out his ambitions already lurking in his heart? We have already heard about Macbeth's ambitions and thoughts so horrible that he wonders, "why do I yield to that suggestion/Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair/And make my seated heart knock at my ribs" (I, iii).

Scholar Dennis Biggins says that "Shakespeare carefully avoids portraying a Macbeth helplessly caught in the grip of irresistible demonic forces; the Weird Sisters' malice is evident in all their traffickings with him, yet nowhere are we shown invincible proof of their power over him" (256). Was this man, who fights so bravely on the battlefield, so weak and uncertain of his own actions once at home that he can be swayed with a well-constructed argument, or a trick of fortune telling? What comments is Shakespeare making about gender stereotypes of his time? What happens when a man or woman attempts to "o'erleap" the role that has been spelled out for them in society and go another way?

This curriculum unit will address these questions. Students will examine selected scenes from four screen adaptations of Macbeth: Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971) , Orson Welles' Macbeth (1948) , Men of Respect (1990) , and Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (1957), or its more direct translation, The Castle of the Spider's Web . Each director has his own approach, visible in camera angles, lighting, sound, casting, omission and inclusion of Shakespeare's lines, and the addition of scenes never written by Shakespeare. We will examine Macbeth through the questions it raises about the nature of men and women. How are the witches and Lady Macbeth depicted? Who do they cast? How are they dressed? How do they sound and move? Students will view selected scenes of the women in Macbeth to enrich their discussions of Shakespeare's apparent attitudes. What is Shakespeare's original intent, and do the directors aim to be faithful to this, or do they alter the meaning of the play as written to suit a contemporary audience or personal point of view?

The world that Shakespeare has created in Macbeth is a world of men and women living with gender stereotypes: crossing them, fighting against them, and the blurring of roles. Interestingly, according to Holinshed's Chronicles of Scotland , the inspiration for many of Shakespeare's plays, we learn that in the days of the historic Macbeth, once the actual King of Scotland, women were not kept in a quiet, weak, uninvolved role. We learn from Carolyn Asp that "Holinshed actually writes of this period that 'in the daies also the women of our countries were of no lesse courage than the men; for all stout maidens and wives. . .marched as well in the field as did the men, and so soone as the armie did set forward, they slue the first living creature that they found, in whose bloud they not onlie bathed their swords, but also tasted thereof with their mouthes"(158). Shakespeare, on the other hand, creates a world where it is unnatural for women to fight. In Act IV, scene iii, Ross is explaining to Macduff how bad things go under the rule of Macbeth, so bad in fact, that "your eye in Scotland would. . .make our women fight." Asp believes that "this comment suggests that Shakespeare took liberties with his source in order to create an artistic world in which he could examine male and female stereotypes"(158).

Men and women do have differences, to be sure, and Kimbrough refers to these differences as "infinitesimal." The differences really exist not in the body, he says, but in the mind, and by Shakespeare's era, the separation between men and women had become "an absolute division of humanity, not into subtypes of one species, but into separated types, each treated as if it were itself a separate species" (175). The separate species of the male was on top, women below. Shakespeare examines these strict distinctions in his plays. Women dress as men, as just one example, who were really boys playing women. He enjoys the opportunity to examine human nature, and clearly, he can see the reality beyond the roles played by men and women - the each is capable of the characteristics and strengths of the other. "Shakespeare sensed that humanhood embraces manhood and womanhood. Shakespeare sensed that so long as one remains exclusively female or exclusively make, that person will be restricted and confined, denied human growth. . .his works move toward liberating humanity from the prisons created by inclusive and exclusive gender labeling" (Kimbrough 175).

Although both the men and women of Shakespeare's Macbeth are important, the focus of this curriculum unit is the women of the play: Lady Macbeth and the witches. Macbeth may appear at first to be a stereotypical, uncomplicated man, and will become more complex later on; Lady Macbeth, however, reveals her complicated personality from the start.

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth is one of the strongest women in all of Shakespeare's plays. However, consider how she must contend with the role of women in her world. In order for Lady Macbeth to carry out her plans, she feels she must pray that the gods "unsex [her] here." Even then, it is not her intent to carry out the murder of Duncan herself, but to spur on her husband to "catch the nearest way." "And the irony of this attempt to masculate herself is highlighted by the fact that she was trying to be the 'good and dutiful' wife of the newly emerging middle-class culture, trying to 'better' her husband" (Kimbrough 187).

Shakespeare's Scotland is a warrior society with little place for women. "Women are subordinate to men and divorced from political influence because they lack those qualities that would fit them for a warrior society"(Asp 158). We have already seen how Macbeth's first entrance into the play follows his brave actions on the battlefield.

In Macbeth , and elsewhere in Shakespeare, as in Elizabethan literature in general, to be 'manly' is to be aggressive, daring, bold, resolute, and strong, especially in the face of death, whether giving or receiving. To be 'womanly' is to be gentle, fearful, pitying, wavering, and soft, a condition often signified by tears. That machismo was a positive cultural virtue in Shakespeare's day is what gives point to Lady Macbeth's strikes against her husband. Indeed, the play opens and closes with ceremonial and romantic emphasis on brave manhood. In the beginning, such is the theme of the description given of 'brave Macbeth' by that 'good and hardy soldier' whose 'words become thee as thy wounds. /They smack of honor both.' (Kimbrough 177).

Lady Macbeth is not aligned with the stereotypes in Shakespeare's Macbeth , but nonetheless she must contend with them from both inside and outside herself. Asp outlines many examples of ways that the characters of Macbeth cannot overcome their male/female stereotypical roles. Despite Lady Macbeth's desire to be more like a man for the task at hand, she proves to be still the weak female when it comes to the actual deed. She needs wine to maintain her courage. As she says, "That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold" (II, ii). She jumps and starts at every sound saying, "Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shriek'd" while waiting for her husband to return from his murderous act. She thinks of killing Duncan herself when she has the daggers in her hands, but holds back, saying, "Had he not resembled/My father as he slept, I had done 't"(II, ii). The speech of both Macbeths is "staccato," demonstrating the fear they are both feeling at that moment.

Macduff arrives, discovers the murdered Duncan, and awakens the household. Lady Macbeth enters feigning outrage by the disturbance, and Macduff replies with concern for her gentle nature as a woman, "O gentle lady, /'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:/The repetition, in a woman's ear, /Would murder as it fell" (II, iii). In fact, he is correct to be concerned, because shortly thereafter, she is overcome by the news of murder. It is not Duncan's death that overwhelms her womanly sensibilities, but the news that Macbeth has gone beyond their plan and murdered the chamberlains who had been "mark'd with blood" of Duncan. Macbeth admits, "That I did kill them" (II, iii), and Lady Macbeth exclaims, "Help me hence, ho!" (II, iii) as she faints, Macduff requesting, "Look to the lady" (II, iii). Despite her attempts to go beyond her own gender, in the end, she proves that she remains a "lady."

Derek Cohen states, "The equation of manliness with violence, a truism in the criticism of Macbeth, has a curious double edge. It is from Lady Macbeth that Macbeth himself takes his images of manliness. His fears and scruples, his anxious dependence on his wife's opinions bespeak a sensitive 'femaleness' in his own nature which is visibly belied by her brutality. We are left in gender limbo"(133).

So Shakespeare seems to have deliberately chosen to examine what happens when a man or a woman departs from sexual stereotypes. In the case of Lady Macbeth, we see the tragic result of one who pushes for the ultimate act of violence, in a manly fashion, not able to predict the "manliness" she will unleash in her husband, or the distance it will create between herself and her "partner in greatness."

Women as Forces of Evil and Lady Macbeth

Women are a dangerous presence in Macbeth . According to Stephanie Chamberlain, fear of the power of women was a strong force in early modern England. Women could wield control over patrilineage in ways men could not. Women could be unfaithful in marriage, thus changing the lineage, and a husband could be duped into raising another man's child. Women could pass on traits, both wanted and unwanted, through nursing, rearing of children, and neglect of children. It was feared that women would commit infanticide. Chamberlain tells us, "Perhaps no other early modern crime better exemplifies cultural fears about maternal agency than does infanticide, a crime against both person and lineage"(3).

Coursen suggests, in fact, that the story of Adam and Eve underlies the entire play. He says, "The myth vibrating beneath the surface of Macbeth is of the original myths - that of the fall from a state of grace" (375). When she says, ". . .look like the innocent flower, /But be the serpent under't (I, v), he believes that "The serpent suggests the deception which slithered into Eden to tempt Eve," and that "Lady Macbeth here is the tempting serpent and, of course, is also the deceived" (376).

In Act I, scene seven, we see Lady Macbeth acting as the ultimate temptress. She skillfully pulls out all the stops to manipulate her husband. When Macbeth informs his wife that "We will proceed no further in this business" (I, vii), she impugns the ultimate definition of manhood, his sexual prowess, when she replies, "Art thou afeard/ To be the same in thine own act and valor/As thou art in desire?"(I, vii), and then almost immediately questions whether or not he would choose to "live a coward." He replies, "I dare do all that may become a man" (I, vii), feeling he must defend himself against her accusations. She does not stop there. First she acts as if the idea originated with Macbeth and not herself saying, "What beast was't then/That made you break this enterprise to me?" (I, vii) and adds, "When you durst do it, then you were a man" (I, vii). She continues to wheedle seductively, saying, "And, to be more than what you were, you would/Be so much more the man." (I, vii). Next, in the very same speech, Lady Macbeth utters the cryptic lines stating that, rather than back out of this promise to kill Duncan, she would sooner take "the babe that milks me:/I would, while it was smiling in my face, /Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums/And dash'd the brains out" (I, vii).

When Macbeth responds with, "If we should fail?" (I, vii), we see that she had indeed succeeded in convincing him to go through with the murder of Duncan after all. And she is not through yet. She has the entire plan worked out, and all her husband must do is follow instructions. Macbeth is so in awe of his wife's power and force at that point that he states that she should "Bring forth men-children only;/For thy undaunted mettle should compose/Nothing but males" (I, vii). Apparently, Macbeth feels he must prove his manhood to his wife even though seemingly all of Scotland has acknowledged his bravery and courage. By the end of a scene like this, what man could stand up to such a woman?

The Witches

Fear of women in early modern England is also evidenced by the accusations of witchcraft toward primarily women. "In the period 1300-1500 about two-thirds of all accused were women. A closer examination. . .indicates, however, that many of the male one-third were persecuted in the early fourteenth century, and by the end of this period the trials. . .show an overwhelming concern with women" (Anderson 172). The question is why were women the targets to such an overwhelming degree of this barbaric persecution, and why was this so readily accepted? Where were the defenders of women?

Anderson and Gordon point to the lowly position of women in the Middle Ages, "even in the earlier period of 'courtly love'" (Anderson 173). They quote Eileen Power when they say, "a fundamental tenet of Christian dogma was the subjection of women, while: 'The view of woman as instrument of the Devil, a thing at once inferior and evil, took shape in the earliest period of Church history and was indeed originated by the Church.'" (173).

The belief in witchcraft, therefore, was not new when King James took the throne of England in 1603. However, as in many things, Elizabeth took a moderate approach to their prosecution. King James, on the other hand, fancied he was an expert, wrote his own book on the subject entitled Daemonologie , and even participated personally in some witch trials (Best 1). A renewed and more enthusiastic persecution of witches was exported from Scotland along with their monarch. Between 1560 and 1707, somewhere between three thousand and four thousand five hundred had "perished horribly" in Scotland, more thanin England, despite a much more meager population (Anderson 176). One of King James' acts once he took the English throne was to "extend the death penalty" to many more accused witches than had been the case under Elizabethan law.

The English, however, never matched the Scots in these large numbers. In fact, Anderson and Gordon report a study by Notestein suggesting that "self-confident and independent women who increasingly appear in late sixteenth and early seventeenth century drama probably mirrored real changes taking place in all levels of English society" (177).

Do the women of Shakespeare's Macbeth reflect a set of conflicting opinions about women of his day? "The relative mildness of English witchcraft and witch persecution can, therefore, be attributed to the difficulties involved in translating an image derived from a sexual mythology which saw women as generically inferior and inherently evil into one which could appear credible to a society which saw women in a different light" (Anderson 181).

So we have a very conflicted image of women as source material for Shakespeare's Macbeth . On one hand, we have the text from Holinshed telling us that women were courageous and powerful members of the army in the Scotland of the eleventh century. On the other had, we have the women of Shakespeare's own time circumscribed to a very definite and subordinate role, while ever more independent women begin to appear. Simultaneously, and perhaps in part because of this, women are feared and persecuted, and seen as "inherently evil." Are the witches in Macbeth the ultimate personification of that much-feared independent woman? Wouldn't women of 2007 be able to relate to operating in a society filled with conflicted feelings?

Lady Macbeth, of course, has her husband, and she very solicitously refers to him as "My thane." Lady Asaji , in the Japanese version, is careful to say "My Lord" when speaking to Washizu. The superior position of the men must not be ignored if they hope to be at all persuasive. In Early Modern England, the patriarchal family was a value enforced from many directions, especially the Christian Church. Bever explains, "European male leaders considered patriarchal families to be the foundation of society. . . 'Assertive and aggressive' women challenged this order, and could be beaten by their husbands, punished for moral offenses ranging from scolding to adultery, or, at the extreme, burned for witch craft" (956).

The witches in Macbeth fly in the face of the patriarchal society. Early in the play, the witches seem to have no such male superior. Macbeth and Banquo meet three strange women on the heath with no man in sight. Or are they women? Banquo wonders this when he says, "you should be women, / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret /That you are so" (I, iii). So even their appearance sets them apart from normal women.

Prior to this we hear about one escapade of the witches who take revenge against a sailor's wife who would not share her chestnuts! What does the witch do? She goes after the woman's husband. "Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger;/ But in a sieve I'll thither sail, / And, like a rat without a tail, / I'll do, I'll do, I'll do" (I, iii). The other witches offer to send additional wind to help her. She plans to keep the sailor awake so that "Sleep shall neither night nor day/ Hang upon his pent-house lid;" (I, iii), and then proudly displays "a pilot's thumb" (I, iii). Shakespeare is letting us know a thing or two about these "weird sisters." What is his take on them? I would ask my students to speculate. They do not seem to be as malevolent as Macbeth will later become. We do not hear of brutal murders at their hands. Yet they are not dutiful wives or carefully chaperoned daughters. They are disorderly and disheveled, outside of society's norm, and worst of all, seem to enjoy that position.

Lady Macbeth and the witches have been depicted a wide variety of ways in theater performance and screen adaptations. Directors differ widely in their opinion of the proper way to portray her. Just think of the difference between stern and masculine Dame Judith Anderson in the NBC production of Macbeth in 1954 versus feminine, young and sexual Francisca Annis in Roman Polanski's Macbeth . Students will be asked to examine several productions of Shakespeare to evaluate these differences.

Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, or Cobweb Castle

Early in his career, Akira Kurosawa was pulled to make a film of Macbeth . However, when he heard that Orson Welles was already doing the same, he postponed his project and completed his version in 1957. This black and white film is in Japanese with subtitles, but would still be exciting enough to hold the attention of many students. Kurosawa follows the general outline of Shakespeare's story, though in a somewhat simplified version. He saw a connection between medieval Scotland and medieval Japan, while also being relevant to contemporary society. One place where we see subtle differences is in his depiction of Asaji, his Lady Macbeth. Anthony Dawson says, "The scene mirrors and departs subtly from Macbeth . Washizu is even less ambitious than his counterpart, more troubled and uncertain, while Asaji is much darker and more implacable than Lady Macbeth. She is the driving force throughout and . . . is unalloyed evil. . ." (167). What are her exact words? "Is she more evil?' would be a question for my students to answer for themselves.

Kurosawa creates a connection between the witch (only one in this screen version) and Lady Asaji. He uses elements of Noh Theater to portray both women while not doing so with the male characters. "It is the two women who live in this stylized and ritual world" (Richie 119). Dawson also sees a strong connection between the two female characters in the film. He states, "In Throne of Blood there are really only two women, and they are mirrors of each other - Asaji and the strange, ambiguously gendered spirit in the forest, who spins her wheel and knows, perhaps even controls, the fates of vain and mortal men who 'end in fear.' It is a man's world, but it is the woman who makes things happen" (167). This witch is notable for her androgynous appearance. She is dressed like a woman, but appears to be a man in woman's clothing. This is taking women with beards one step further, and is in complete contrast to the very lady-like appearance of Lady Asaji. Why this appearance of the witch chosen will prompt much discussion, I hope.

Lady Asaji has the most steely, single-minded persona imaginable, practically unmoving behind her white mask as she proposes the murder. However, like Lady Macbeth, her "womanly" fear appears once Washizu leaves the room to commit the deed. "Asaji, now alone, first sinks to her knees, then leaps up and moves wildly to the bloodied wall while percussion and flute beat a frenzied accompaniment. Incipient madness? Fear? We aren't sure, but it feels like a way of conveying the doubt implicit in Lady Macbeth's 'Had he not resembled/My father as I slept, I had done't.'" (Dawson 167-8)

Orson Welles' Macbeth

Orson Welles made his version of Macbeth in 1948 , thesame year that Laurence Olivier's Hamlet was due to be released. The studio producing Hamlet was so enamored of Laurence Olivier and this project that no expense was spared, either in the making of the film, its subsequent advertising, or its distribution. Life magazine featured an eleven-page spread trumpeting its arrival. The international press waited for the film in gleeful anticipation. Mr. Welles, on the other hand, was derided from the start. He had to make do with the smallest budget, and reviews panned his movie from all directions, especially in comparison to Olivier's Hamlet . Life magazine's review said, "'Orson Welles doth foully slaughter Shakespeare in a dialect version of his 'Tragedy of Macbeth'" (Anderegg 74). Nonetheless, it is today appreciated by many film critics and is an interesting film to compare to the other adaptations of Macbeth .

Welles depicts a world that is primitive, and the sets are sparse, but in fact this lends to the atmosphere of an eleventh century Scotland. Michael Anderegg, considered by Dudley Andrew, Professor of Film at Yale University, to be among the very best critics of Shakespeare films in the USA, explains that

. . .the opening precredit sequence of Macbeth . . .exemplifies Welles's approach throughout: the viewer is immediately caught up in a series of seemingly unconnected images and sounds, a melding together. . .of the rational and the irrational, the concrete and the abstract, the specific and the general. Underlying the images - of clouds, the sea, the witches, rain, flames - is a mélange of sound and musical effects. . .These incongruently juxtaposed images and sounds not only set the tone and create the atmosphere for the events to follow, but provide as well, in microcosm, an exposition of Welles's mode and methods: the film, in its entirety, will be like the mud voodoo figure of Macbeth the witches pull up from the murky depths of their cauldron - a crude, primitive, roughly molded but at the same time powerful and evocative substitute for Macbeth himself, conjured up from the materials at hand, magically brought to life by the imaginative manipulation of eccentric conjurers" (Anderegg 80-81).

Anderegg's view of the film could serve as an excellent starting point for students to consider the rest of the film

The scene based on Act I, scene seven between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, when he first arrives home after the fateful predictions, contains numerous line deletions, a reordering of lines, and an execution of the traitor Cawdor in the background as Macbeth kisses his wife. We first glimpse Lady Macbeth lying on a bed of furs, such as the ancient Scottish might have used, and she is reading Macbeth's letter. She writhes on the bed as she reads it. When she speaks to deliver her "unsex me here" speech, she has a Scottish accent. This Lady Macbeth is not young, but when Macbeth returns to the castle, the sexual relationship is apparent.

Daniel Juan Gil makes much of the fact that Welles does not use the traditional method of filming conversations through use of the "shot/reverse shot," which is "an editing pattern that cuts between individuals according to the logic of conversation" (Corrigan 176). According to Gil, Welles' idiosyncratic film techniques are ripe with meaning. For instance, he believes that because of the lack of the shot/reverse shot filming, something that so signifies normal social contact, we are witnessing "a sign of profoundly sexualized, socially deviant intimacy that binds Macbeth and Lady Macbeth" (3). He also says the "the extreme high/low shots. . .mark King Macbeth's social deviance" (5).

Drawing my students' attention to the various possibilities of how one scene can be filmed would be fertile territory for interpreting a filmmaker's intent. We can look at camera angles, such as high and low shots, as well as how often a director has placed cuts in his scenes. For instance, if the director uses quick cuts, as opposed to Welles' famous long shots, what mood does it create? What meaning, if any, can we infer?

The witches in this screen adaptation are kept at a distance from the viewer. We are not able to see their faces clearly, nor can we see whether or not they possess the beards mentioned by Banquo. They have long, wild hair and are holding what appear to be large pitchforks. Sarah Hatchuel says, "The forked staffs they hold connote evil and demonism, and are directly opposed to the Christian crosses carried by the Scotsman (who are recent converts from Paganism) throughout the film" (3). She also believes that by making it impossible to see the faces of the witches " through numerous out-of-focus shots, fading in/out and dissolves, creates a world in which certainty is lost and the instability of form and meaning reigns" (4). In fact, Welles has inserted a scene with soldiers in prayer on their knees that was not written by Shakespeare. I would ask students to consider reasons for Welles to have inserted this religious motif. Welles takes a definite stand on who is at fault for the tragedy. The witches "pour ingredients and shape, out of clay, a voodoo doll representing Macbeth. As J. Lawrence Guntner notices, Macbeth is therefore presented as 'their creation and their toy'" (Hatchuel 3).

Roman Polanski's Macbeth

Polanski directed the most bloody version of Macbeth shortly after the Manson murders of Sharon Tate, his wife, and the other unfortunate visitors in his home. Anyone watching in 1971 would have been thinking about these much publicized brutal murders. Several very violent scenes, in fact, have been added to the film that do not appear in Shakespeare's original play. For instance, we not only hear about the murder of Lady Macduff and family. We see the murderers enter her private accommodations, finger and break her belongings (much as the Manson murderers may have done at Polanski's own home), and we are also "treated" to the brutal rape of a servant in the background. It is also interesting to note that the executive producer of the film is Hugh Hefner. Students may want to speculate what influence someone like Hugh Hefner may have had on the production. Of all the film adaptations of Macbeth using Shakespeare's original language, this Lady Macbeth is the most young, beautiful, and sexual. Was it really necessary for the witches to appear naked in the cave when Macbeth returns to question them? Francesca Annis as Lady Macbeth is shown naked as well once she has lost her mind, (her long hair covers all frontal nudity). Do these choices have a valid reason that adds to our understanding of the play?

Polanski's three witches are strange in appearance, though none have beards. He begins the film with a strong hint that the witches are responsible for what happens when he shows them on a beach digging a hole, and in that hole they place a dismembered hand holding a dagger. In this adaptation, women appear to be more powerful, and they are more brutally treated. Is there a connection?

Men of Respect

This film stars John Turturro, Stanley Tucci, Rod Steiger, Peter Boyle and other stars that students are bound to recognize. It was released in 1990, but does not seem at all dated to students in 2007. I love showing this film after we read Macbeth because it takes not only the spirit of Shakespeare's play, but imitates nearly every nuance and event while updating the language and setting. Macbeth is now Mikey Battaligia, Banquo becomes Bankie Cuomo, Donalbain becomes Donny, etc. Instead of witches, Mikey and Bankie suddenly find themselves in the strange parlor of an old woman (with two male companions) who goes into a trance and tells them their fortune. Instead of thanes of Scotland, the characters are members of the mob, pledging total loyalty to the "Padrino." An excellent way to review the reading of Macbeth is to ask students to point out all of the counterparts and related sequences from Men of Respect that are in the original Shakespeare.

The close connection between Mikey and his wife is made quite apparent in the scene where he lies naked in bed next to his clothed wife while she massages his neck. (It is still possible to show older high school students because his leg is strategically crossed. You do see John Turturro's backside, however. The movie is "R" rated, I believe, mainly for its violence.) "Why is he naked in this scene?" I would ask my students. Is it merely to demonstrate the sexual relationship, or is it there to add to the sense of Mikey's vulnerability?

How is this modern-day woman, this mob wife, portrayed? Is she as strong or as weak as we imagine Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth to be? One would imagine that a powerful woman today would be more acceptable, but yet she is still the woman behind the man urging him on to take his rightful place at the top. Is the powerful woman of today real, or does her position in the world of organized crime change her circumstances? I look forward to hearing the opinions of my students.

I love teaching Shakespeare's plays to high school students. The plots are exciting, and I get to see my students progress from needing every single line explained in detail to being able to get the gist of the play on their own by the time we are half way through. This is exciting to me. In the past, when we finished reading the play, as a reward and as a method of reviewing, we would watch at least one screen adaptation in full. This curriculum unit is intended to try another approach. It would never be possible to show more than two films in class in their entirety. With all there is to accomplish, even that much is most likely too much. With the use of film clips that focus the attention of students on particular elements of study, we have a case of "less is more."

I have several specific objectives for this unit. All of them involve increasing students' critical thinking and skills of analysis in one way or another. It has been my experience that by asking students to compare two things - two characters, two stories, two poems, two styles of writing, or in this case, two versions of the same work of literature (one a play, the other a film), more becomes apparent in each. Someone once said that to know happiness, one must also know sadness. It is through comparison only that each is knowable. When Lady Asaji is as still as marble, Washizu looks that much more anxious. When we look at a picture of Dame Judith Anderson as Lady Macbeth, Francesca Annis's beauty, youth and sexuality become that much more apparent.

The primary objective of this curriculum unit is to provide a means of further analyzing the characters of Shakespeare's Macbeth through the use of comparison. We will have already read a good portion of Macbeth . Watching, analyzing, and comparing clips of four film adaptations will enhance my students' ability to listen, and to think critically about what they are watching. Students will be asked to attend to details beyond their usual practice, so an additional objective is to make more informed and active moviegoers of a previously passive audience. As part of the follow-up to the unit, students will have an opportunity to enhance their analytical writing skills.

This unit is designed to develop students' skills in "reading, analyzing, and interpreting literature" as stated in Pennsylvania State Standard 1.3. In particular, State Standard 1.3.E. is to "analyze drama to determine the reasons for a character's action taking into account the situation and basic motivation of the character."

The particular objective of Lesson Plan One is to prepare students to begin thinking about gender issues. Just what does it mean to be a man or a woman? In Lesson Plan Two, it is my objective to consider gender issues, but also to give my students perhaps their first experience of a close reading of a film. Students will be introduced to a new vocabulary of film techniques. Then they will be asked to apply these definitions and point out how the director has placed the camera, used the lighting, decorated the stage, etc. to portray his vision of the play. In Lesson Plan Three, prior to viewing Throne of Blood , I believe it is important to acquaint students a bit with Noh Theater and the Samurai Warrior tradition. We will then slowly watch a clip of the film and do a close reading of a scene between Lady Asaji and Washizu. How has Kurosawa skillfully used the techniques of film to express his point of view? In what ways do we see Lady Macbeth anew after watching Kurosawa's version? In Lesson Plans not fully elaborated in this unit, I would continue the process with Men of Respect and Polanski's Macbeth . We would also consider how the time period of each film has impacted the director's vision.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming, often used as a prewriting activity, is a technique to get out as many ideas as possible without any editing. This way, ideas are more likely to flow. This is the opposite of sitting in front of a blank page saying, "Oh, that's not a good idea. I can't use that one either, " and before you know it, you have writer's block. Brainstorming sessions can free one's mind from these self-critical and restricting thought processes.

Storyboarding

A storyboard is a term taken from filmmaking. Directors such as Hitchcock sometimes created storyboards prior to filming. These are drawings of scenes, frame by frame, as the camera will later film them. In the storyboards, camera angles, long shots, close-ups, etc. would all be evident. In the classroom, this technique allows students to, in a sense, make their own film. Students would draw a scene frame by frame as they imagine it.

Role Playing

Role Playing allows students the opportunity to take on the persona of a character, or to improvise the reactions of one character in a given scenario. These are done like mini-plays or skits. I ask students to volunteer to do these in front of the class. Often, once things get rolling, and some students think they can do better than what they've seen, even more reluctant students will volunteer to participate.

Character Mapping and Graphic Organizers

Character Maps are one form of many types of graphic organizers. A chart or other form of visual representation can help students who have difficulty conceptualizing ideas, or who are reluctant writers. The web has numerous examples of character maps and other graphic organizers that teachers can download for free, but I find it best to create my own so that it is more specifically addressing the concepts on which I want my students to focus. One example is on the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) web site at http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/ lit-elements/. At this site, you can create your own character map with blanks to be filled in by students at a later time, or have students complete one online themselves. At http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/ plot-diagram/, there is a cool graphic organizer that students can complete on the structure of a story.

Classroom Activities

Lesson plan one.

Introduction

To prepare students to consider the theme of gender stereotyping, I would begin by place the word "Men" on one blackboard and "Women" on another. I would ask students to name all of the adjectives, feelings, or any other words that come to mind as they think of each of those words. I will write the words on the blackboard as they brainstorm their ideas.

Another possible technique would be to divide the class into several groups and the give each of them chart paper and markers to brainstorm these ideas within their own groups. This would be followed by taping the responses to the walls of the room to discuss the results and to compare the ideas of the various groups. We would then discuss what the class saw as similarities and differences.

To have students begin to think about Lady Macbeth's tactics, I would ask volunteers to role-play a scenario where they get to try their hand at persuasion. One example might be the following:

To the girls: Pretend your boyfriend has sent you a text message asking you to see Fifty Cent, Ludicrous, or another popular Hip Hop artist in concert. You are thrilled! Then you see him the next day and he has changed his mind. Say everything you can think of to persuade him to change his mind.

To further explore issues of gender, I would now ask the boys and girls to switch places, substituting Beyonce for Fifty Cent, where the boy is attempting to persuade the girl. I would follow this with a discussion of what it felt like to do this. Was it different to watch a girl trying to persuade a boy than the other way around? What does this tell us about how we see the roles of men and women, and what it is okay for them to do in our eyes?

As this one-period introductory lesson is ending, I would then explain to my students that we will be watching film clips from four different screen adaptations of Macbeth of corresponding scenes. I would direct my students to watch the film clips keeping in mind what ideas they currently have about what is a man or a woman. We would consider questions such as: In what ways do you believe Shakespeare followed or differed from those concepts? How, in particular, is Macbeth and Lady Macbeth presented in each of the films we are about to see? How does each of the characters either fulfill or contrast with what you expect from a man or a woman?

Lesson Plan Two

Prior to viewing Orson Welles' Macbeth , it is important to provide my students with background information about possible film techniques. A list of terms that I would use is located in the Appendix.

Next, I would ask my students to discuss their personal views and images of witches. I would ask them to draw a storyboard of the scene on the heath where Macbeth and Banquo first encounter the witches.

Once students are familiar with these terms, we will do a close reading of two scenes. The first scene would be the opening scene with the witches. I would give students a copy of the statement made by Michael Anderegg located in the earlier section on Welles' Macbeth . I would ask students to watch for the elements noted by Anderegg, and to see if they agree with his opinion. Also, we would compare this very brief section with the many pages in Shakespeare's text. Some questions for discussion would include:

hy did Welles omit so much from the original text? (I would mention that Welles was pressured to cut much from his original film due to poor reviews and pressure from his studio.)
hat meaning could be gleaned from "voodoo" doll of Macbeth on which the witches place a crown?
here in the original text do we find the line, "Something wicked this way comes," and why might Welles have placed it here?
hy is there so much fog? Does it appear to be realistic? How would it help the director who has a small budget? Could there be any other meaning?
hat effect does the insertion of a man with a cross aimed at the witches have on the viewer at this point?
escribe Welles as Macbeth. What adjectives would you use to describe him just based on his appearance in this first scene?

The next scene we would consider is the scene between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, beginning with her reading the letter informing her of the predictions of the witches. I would play the scene slowly, stopping after each few frames of film so that we may examine just what Orson Welles has done to create his intended mood. I would prepare a script of the scene (also located in the Appendix) so that students can concentrate on those techniques, as well as to provide them with a place to take notes. I would ask students to fill in the camera angles, to describe the mise-en-scene as the scenes change, to comment on the lighting with each frame, etc. These would be presented in the form of a chart or graphic organizer.

Questions to consider after completion of the chart:

What feeling do you get when the camera looks up at a character versus when the camera is aimed downward? What interpretation do you associate with these camera angels? Do they always mean the same thing? Does the high or low camera angle meaning something different in one scene versus another? Give some examples.

Lesson Plan Three

Background material for viewing Kurosawa's Throne of Blood

Kurosawa's Macbeth is an undisputed masterpiece. It is also a wonderful stepping off point for a discussion of Shakespeare's characters. However, it is essentially Japanese and will not be easily understood by my students in two main areas. Those are characteristics of Noh Theater and the principles of a Japanese Samari. I plan to avoid dwelling on either concept, but to give just enough background information so that students are able to understand what they are watching.

Characteristics of Noh Theater

It would be important to explain just a few basic elements of NOH Theater to my students - just enough so that they understand what Lady Asaji's strange make-up is all about. I would present the following information to my students, and ask them to look for any of these characteristics in Kurosawa's Throne of Blood as we watch portions of that film. We would also discuss the effect on our emotions as we see Lady Asaji in her white mask-like face. Does it increase emotion, or does it just distract from the intended emotion? The information below is borrowed (though excerpted and reorganized) from Ishii Mikko's article "The Noh theater: Mirror, Mask, and Madness." I would give this list to my students on a handout for us to read together and discuss:

Characters wear masks.
Stories are often of historical events known by the audience, and involve life's primary emotions: love, hatred, sorrow, vengeance, and jealousy.
Stories are told in a highly stylized form expressing feelings and ideas using poses and gestures that everyone in the audience would recognize. For example:
For Deep Sorrow: lowering the head and raising both hand to eye level.
For Even Deeper Sorrow: repeating this gesture. No tears are shed. The character represents the sorrow quietly but profoundly.
A journey of a hundred miles to a distant mountain or shore: a few steps on stage.
The consummation of love between a man and woman: a light brushing together of their sleeves.
The sequence of events follows a traditional formula. For instance the play begins with. . .a traveling monk or a courtier, announcing his intention of making a journey to a faraway place. He takes a few steps upon the stage and then announces that he has reached his destination. . .
A chorus, which is seated throughout the play at one side of the stage, comments on. . .the events; accompanied by instrument music. It also sings some part of his emotional speech to enhance the tension.

To further assist my students to understand enough about Noh Theater to be prepared for the film, I would show them images of masks. I would project images from the following web sites to the class for them to see prior to viewing the film. First we would look at a series of masks at a site called the "Noh Theater Page," which shows many of the masks worn in performances. The address is: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~rlneblet/noh/. I would ask students to comment on the various emotions these masks might represent. Next we would visit http://www.artelino.com/articles/noh_theater.asp, an art auction site, to see several fully costumed characters.

I would share the following quote with my students. Michea Carter, in her 2006 Yale National Initiative curriculum unit entitled "The Delicate Marriage of Theater and Film," quotes the actress who played Lady Asaji in Throne of Blood :

In Kurosawa: A Documentary on the Acclaimed Director (2000), Isuzu Yamada is interviewed on her experience being directed by Kurosawa during the filming of Throne of Blood . Speaking extremely highly of the respect and warm regard she holds for Kurosawa, Yamada remembers the struggle she endured mastering the techniques of Noh theatre for her performance. She says that Kurosawa was adamant that her face remain stiff and unmoving as a mask. Her eyes were not to blink and her head was not allowed to make sudden movements of any kind. She was literally directed to control her physical and emotional self as if she were wearing a heavy mask on her face; thereby she forced all emotion to be displaced through her subtle body language and intense vocal variations. Yamada remembers a moment when after tapping a scene; Kurosawa made her tape the scene again because she blinked her eyes. (Carter 10).

Clearly, Kurosawa wanted that extreme mask-like appearance for Lady Asaji.

To demonstrate how Lady Asaji's stillness makes Washizu appear even more tense and nervous, I would ask my students to conduct a role-play where one person kneels while speaking, remaining as still as humanly possible (including not blinking) while the other responds to what is being said with facial expressions, grunts, and body movement, such as sitting down, standing up, and walking. We would try this with several different pairs of students and several different scenarios.

The Samurai Tradition

Instead of handing students my own distillation of the meaning and traditions of the Samurai, I would assign them in-class group work to examine the following web sites: http://www.britannica.com/eb/ article-9065252>, http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2127.html, and http://cjj2004.tripod.com/budoryu/id60.html. I would give students these suggested web sites rather than just allow them to do their own search because most of what they would find concerns games rather than actual history. I would ask each group of students to write their findings on chart paper in list form so these can be easily read and posted in front of the classroom. I would suggest to students that they focus on what appear to be the primary principles of a Samurai Warrior. These sites also offer illustrations of Samurai that I will download and copy for display during our discussion. Once these have been posted, I will ask students to keep these in mind as we watch Macbeth's counterpart in the Japanese film Throne of Blood so that we can make comparisons.

Viewing Throne of Blood

I would begin the scene in which Lady Asaji is trying to convince her husband, Washizu, to murder His Lordship. Before any words are spoken, I would ask students to describe the mis-en-scene. Describe the room. Who is there? What are they wearing? Describe Lady Asaji's make-up. What is the lighting? What is the camera angle (in other words, does it come from straight ahead, from above, or from below)? As the scene begins, how are the characters positioned in relation to one another? How would you describe the mood the director is trying to create?

Prior to viewing the rest of the scene from Throne of Blood , I would distribute a worksheet containing all of the lines spoken by Lady Asaji and Macbeth's counterpart, Washizu. This script (see below) will enable my students to have a place to comment on specific elements of action and filmmaking while they watch. While viewing the clip, students will be instructed to fill in comments and observations about each of the following:

What is the expression on the character's face?
What is the character doing physically (merely sitting still, pacing, standing, etc.)? What sounds do you hear in the background? Is there any music, sounds of nature like wind or birds, or silence?
With what intensity are the words on the script spoken? Are they said softly, loudly, yelled, grunted, or what?
What is the tone of voice?
What movements did either character make? (Note: remember that in Noh Theater, just a slight movement can mean a great deal.)
Who is higher in connection to the other character when this spoken?
What do you believe the character is thinking or feeling at that moment?
Is this line in keeping with Shakespeare's original idea or does it differ? How much does it differ?
Copy any lines of Shakespeare next to the lines in the script that seem to be paraphrased from the original Macbeth .

The script would be typed with columns and plenty of space to allow students to comment liberally. We would stop along the way to allow for students to answer the questions and for discussion. Also, I would show the clip a second time, allowing students to comment as each several lines has been spoken. This would give me the opportunity to point out camera angles and other things that they may have missed on the first viewing.

I have written down all of the subtitles and will present this to my students in the form of a graphic organizer so that they can conveniently address the issues in the listed above as they watch. This script can be found in the Appendix of this unit.

After watching the scene, on a graphic organizer, I would ask students to compare the reasons Lady Asaji gives for the killing with those of Lady Macbeth. Who is more convincing to you? Compare the reasons Washizu gives for not killing the Lord. Compare these to those given by Macbeth. Who is more convincing? I would also ask students to complete Character Maps for each of the primary characters (see strategies).

This curriculum unit is aimed for an advanced twelfth-grade class where writing is an essential component. I would ask my students to write an essay in which they discuss three groups: Organized Crime, Samurai Warriors, and Thanes of Scotland in Macbeth's era. What is similar about the underlying principles in each of these groups? How would each in its own way make them a perfect environment for a character like Macbeth?

Annotated Resources

Recommended for teachers.

Anderegg, Michael. "Shakespeare Rides Again: The Republic Macbeth ." Orson Welles, Shakespeare and Popular Culture. Columbia University Press: New York. 1999.

This chapter, from a book by the same author, reports on the struggles faced by Welles in the production and the response to his Macbeth . Anderegg provides an excellent and very detailed description of the particulars of Welles' images that produce his desired atmosphere, tone, and characterization.

Anderson, Alan and Raymond Gordon. "Witchcraft and the Status of Women — the Case of England." British Journal of Sociology . June, 1978. This article notes that the vast majority of accused witches were women, a fact deserving of study. The use of women as scapegoats, they state, would not have been possible except for a prior belief in the inferiority of women - that they were weak and therefore more easily swayed by the devil.

Asp, Carolyn. "'Be bloody, bold and resolute:' Tragic Action and Sexual Stereotyping in Macbeth." Studies in Philology . Spring 1981. This does an excellent job of tracing the stereotypes throughout Macbeth , while also showing us that these were Shakespeare's creation for personal exploration and not historically correct. Ms. Asp also makes the interesting point that a society that reverses the "manly" quality of violence also suffers for it.

Bever, Edward. "Witchcraft, Female Aggression, and Power in the Early Modern Community." Journal of Social History . 2002. pp. 955-988. This chapter, while quite long, is worthwhile. It details many reasons for the scapegoating of women, but it also outlines ways women did indeed act aggressively in a society that allowed them few outlets.

Biggins, Dennis. "Sexuality, Witchcraft, and Violence in Macbeth ." Shakespeare Studies . Volume 8. 1975. pp. 255 - 273. Biggins argues that the violence in Macbeth has a sexual component, as do the actions of the witches. I find his argument, detailed as it is, that the actions of the witches are sexual, unconvincing.

Carter, Michea. "The Delicate Marriage of Theater and Film." Yale National Initiative. 2007. http://teachers.yale.edu/ curriculum/search/viewer.php?skin=h &id=initiative_06.01.05_u#b This excellent curriculum gives extensive information about various types of Japanese theater that might be of use in preparing students for viewing Throne of Blood .

Chamberlain, Stephanie. "Fantasizing Infanticide: Lady Macbeth and the Murdering Mother in Early Modern England." College Literature . West Chester University, PA. Summer 2005. The thesis of this article is that women were feared in early modern England for their power over patrilineage by means of infidelity, by infanticide, or by what is passed on by nursing and rearing of children. The idea of women as dangerous is then carried into the play Macbeth .

Cohen, Derek. Shakespeare's Culture of Violence . St. Martin's Press: NewYork. 1993.

This text examines the use of violence in a number of Shakespeare's history plays as well as Othello , King Lear , and Macbeth . I found his explanation of different categories of violence to be quite interesting and useful.

Coursen, Herbert R., Jr. "In Deepest Consequence: Macbeth." Shakespeare Quarterly. Autumn, 1967. pp. 375 -388. The author suggests that the true power of Shakespeare's Macbeth is its connections to the story of the Garden of Eden and Adam's fall from Grace after being lured by Eve to eat the apple.

Dawson, Anthony. "Reading Kurosawa Reading Shakespeare ." A Concise Companion to Shakespeare on Screen. Diana E. Henderson, editor. Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA. 2006. This is an excellent, well-written, clear chapter explaining ways in which Kurosawa "reads" Shakespeare - sometimes exactly capturing the intent of the Bards scenes, sometimes going a different direction. Exact movements of the characters, the sounds effects, the images, the music are all outlined I detail to make his point. This was all very useful as a preview of what I would like my students to do when they watch the films.

Gil, Daniel Juan. "Avant-garde Technique and the Visual Grammar of Sexuality in Orson Welles' Shakespeare Film." Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation. 2005-2006. http://klotho.english.uga.edu/cocoon/ borrowers/request?id=251798. Photographs are included.

Kimbrough, Robert. "Macbeth: The Prisoner of Gender." Shakespeare Studies . Volume 16. 1983. pp 175 - 190. Kimbrough makes a very convincing case that Shakespeare is playing with gender roles that were firmly ensconced in England of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Hatchuel, Sarah, "Prithee, see there! Behold! Look! (3.4.69): The Gift of the Denial of Sight in Screen Adaptations of Shakespeare's Macbeth." Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation. 2005-2006. http://klotho.english.uga.edu/cocoon/borrowers/ request?id=250387 This excellent article discusses visual strategies in several adaptations of Macbeth: the theater production in1979 by Trevor Nunn starring Ian McKellen, the version by Orson Welles, Jeremy Freeston's 1997 Macbeth , and Roman Polanksi's screen adaptation. Photographs are included.

Mikiko, Ishii . "The Noh theater: Mirror, mask, and madness ." http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl? ctx_ver=Z39.882003&res_dat=xri:pqil:res_ver=0.1& rft_val_fmt=ori:format:pl:ebnf:fulltext&res_id=xri:iimp& rft_id=xri:iipaft:aarticle:fulltext:00323688 This is an extremely long article on Noh Theater (34 pages), and includes far more information than is needed to give students a quick introduction on the subject.

Reynolds, Bryan. "Untimely Ripped: Mediating Witchcraft in Polanski and Shakespeare." The Reel Shakespeare: Alternative Cinema and Theory . Lisa S. Starks and Courtney Lehmann, editors. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press: Madison. 2002. This chapter establishes the links between the violence in Polanski's Macbeth and the tragic and brutal murders of his wife, Sharon Tate.

Recommended for teachers and students

"Basic Information." Japan-guide.com. January 14, 2004. http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2127.html

Best, Michael. Shakespeare's Life and Times . Internet Shakespeare Editions, University of Victoria: Victoria, BC, 2001-2005. http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/>. Not only does this web site give extensive information about Shakespeare, his work, his life, and other related topics, but also it does so in an attractive, easily searchable manner, and even tells students how to cite it as a resource. I wish all web sites did that.

Binnie, Paul. "Japanese Noh Theater." artelino - Art Auctions. 2001 - 2007.

http://www.artelino.com/articles/ noh_theater.asp While the purpose of this web site is to auction art, it nonetheless provides a clear explanation of Noh Theater and gives a few dramatic illustrations.

Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing About Film, Fifth Edition . Pearson Longman: New York. 2004. This would be primarily a resource for teachers, but it may also be of interest to advanced students who are especially interested in film analysis. I like the tips on writing for my Advanced Placement students. More than anything else, it is a useful source of definitions about filmmaking for the novice.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth with Reader's Guide with guide edited by Solomon Schlakman. Amsco Literature Publications, Inc.: New York. 1972. The print is large and clear, and the definitions are all on the left-hand page directly across from the corresponding line. However, there are no illustrations, no color, and no photographs - just the text followed by questions for further study in the back of the book. I use this text because we have sufficient copies for my students to take home, but we use the large, more attractive version in class.

"Samurai." EncyclopÃ¦dia Britannica. 2007. EncyclopÃ¦dia Britannica Online. 6July2007. http://www.britannica.com/ eb/article-9065252

This site provides some basic information on the Samurai. I love that they give the citation format.

"History of the Samurai." Budo Ryu Ninjutsu.Com . 2004.

http://cjj2004.tripod.com/budoryu/id60.html This site gives the history of the Samurai in a brief few paragraphs, and lists the basic principles of a Samurai Warrior.

Swerzenski, Jared. "National Immigration: Excerpts from "The Japanese Experience" Visual Culture Project." Clark University. http://www.clarku.edu/activelearning/ courseroadmap/nationalimagination/jared.cfm This web site contains some beautiful images plus a few pertinent facts concerning Samurai. Students may enjoy seeing the images. It is not sufficient information to provide background for what are the samurai.

Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood . VHS. The Japanese Classic Collection: Home Vision Cinema. Toho Company, Limited and Brandon Films. 1957.

Men of Respect . RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. VHS. Central City Film Company, Inc.: Grandview Avenue Pictures, Inc. 1990.

Roman Polanski's Film of Macbeth . DVD. Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment. 2002.

Orson Welles' Macbeth . Republic Pictures. 1948.

Appendix A: Film Terms and Techniques

The following definitions are taken from Tim Corrigan's book entitled A Short Guide to Writing About Film that I think will assist my students in thinking, writing, and talking about film. I would give these out on a handout, and we could refer to it as we discuss the films we will be watching.

Angle - The position of the camera or point of view in relation to the subject being shown. Seen from above, the subject would be shot from a "high angle"; from below, it would be depicted from a "low angle."

Close-up - An image in which the distance between the subject and the point of view is very short, as in a 'close-up of a person's face.

Composition - The arrangement and relationship of the visual elements within a frame.

Cutting - Changing from one image to another.

Frame - The borders of the image within which the subject is composed.

Long shot - An image in which the distance between the camera and the subject is great.

Medium shot - A shot that shows an individual from the waist up.

Mise-en-sce?ne - "a French term roughly translated as 'what is put into the scene' (put before the camera), refers to all those properties of a cinematic image that exist independently of camera position, camera movement, and editing. . . Mise-en-sce?ne includes lighting, costumes, sets, the quality of acting, and other shapes and characters in the scene" (46).

Point of view - The position from which an action or subject is seen, often determining its significance.

Shot/reverse shot - An editing pattern that cuts between individuals according to the logic of their conversation.

Voice-over - The voice of someone not seen in the narrative image who describes or comments on that image.

Appendix B: Script from a scene in Orson Welles' Macbeth

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be

What thou art promised.

Come you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,

And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full

Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood,

Stop up th' access and passage to remorse,

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

Th' effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,

And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,

That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,

To cry, "Hold, hold!"

Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor!

Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!

Thy letters have transported me beyond this ignorant present, and I feel now

The future in the instant.

My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonight.

And when goes hence?

Tomorrow, as he purposes.

He that's coming must be provided for!

We will speak further.

Put this night's business into my dispatch.

Your face, my thane, is as a book where men

May read strange matters. To beguile the time,

Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,

Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under 't.

Chants in Latin.

When Duncan is asleep -

Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey

Soundly invite him - I'll drug his servants' wine.

King Duncan is my kinsman

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been

So clear in his great office, that his virtues

Will plead like angel trumpet tongues against

The deep damnation of his taking-off;

And pity, like a naked new-born babe,

Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin hors'd

Upon the sightless couriers of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears shall drown the wind.

Appendix C: Script from a Scene in Throne of Blood

Have you made up your mind, my Lord?

It has all been a bad dream. I have been haunted by an evil spirit.

No more of this!

Take over the Cobweb Castle?

I cannot dream of such a. . .

Why not, my lord?

It is not beyond your reach.

As a samari. . .

Who does not want to be the lord of a castle?

I am satisfied with the way things are.

I will keep this castle and remain loyal to his Lordship.

I want to live in peace.

But there cannot be peace.

If Captain Miki tells His Lordship of what happened in the forest. . .

Then, there would be no peace here.

His Lordship would regard you as a usurper.

He would most certainly have his men besiege the castle immediately.

You have only two ways to choose.

Stay here and wait for your own destruction

Or kill His Lordship. . .

And take over the Cobweb Castle.

But, that is high treason!

Did you forget. . .

His Lordship killed his own master. . .

To become what he is now.

He was compelled to preserve his own life.

His Lordship trusts me.

I would give my heart for him.

Does he know what lies deep in your heart?

In my heart? There is nothing.

I know otherwise.

I have no such ambition.

That may be so. . .

But will His Lordship still believe it?

Even after he learns from Miki about the prediction?

Miki. Miki will never mention such a thing.

He is my best friend.

He is ambitious.

Children kill for less.

In this world you must strike first. . .

If you do not want to be killed.

It is possible that Miki has already betrayed you.

I am worried.

Asaji! You must stop doubting my friends.

About 300 men from the castle are hiding on the hill at the rear.

Appendix D: Pennsylvania State Standards

1.2.B. Use and understand a variety of media and evaluate the quality of material produced:

Compare, analyze and classify how different media offer a unique perspective on the information presented.
Categorize and analyze the techniques of particular media messages and their effect on a targeted audience.

1.3.A. Read and understand works of literature.

1.3. B. Analyze the use of literary elements by an author including characterization, setting, plot, theme, point of view, tone and style.

1.3.E. Analyze drama to determine the reasons for a character's actions taking into account the situation and basic motivation of the character.

1.3.F. Read and respond to nonfiction and fiction including poetry and drama.

1.5.C. Write with controlled and/or subtle organization.

1.5.E. Revise writing after rethinking logic of organization and rechecking central idea, content, paragraph development, level of detail, style, tone, and word choice.

1.5.F. Edit writing using the conventions of language.

1.6.B. Listen to selections of literature (fiction and/or nonfiction).

1.6.D. Contribute to discussions.

1.6.F. Use media for learning processes.

1.8.A. Select and refine a topic for research.

1.8.B. Locate information using appropriate sources and strategies.

1.8.C. Organize, summarize and present the main ideas from research.

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POWER AND MONARCHY: SHAKESPEARE'S PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN MACBETH AND HAMLET

William Shakespeare began writing and performing plays in the latter quarter of the fifteen hundreds. Elizabeth Tudor began her reign as Queen in 1558, and died on March 23, 1603. Thus, two of the most prominent individuals from sixteenth and seventeenth century English history lived as contemporaries. They interacted with each other at Court. Both walked the streets of London. Shakespeare?s company performed for the Queen. Did such level of interaction between the monarch and the playwright lead to Elizabethan influence on Shakespeare?s writing? Shakespeare does give female protagonists power within many of his plays. In his comedies, the female protagonists act in authoritative ways with success. Yet, these plays do not address the role of women royalty. As concern about the monarch?s gender formed one of the primary social considerations of Shakespeare?s day, one might expect to see these gender considerations revealed in Shakespeare?s writing. Indeed, the popular and politic writer can hardly dissociate himself from societal concerns. In two of Shakespeare?s tragedies, Hamlet and Macbeth, Shakespeare implicitly suggests the danger of women?s involvement in politics at the sovereign level. Through Gertrude?s marriage to Hamlet?s uncle and also through Lady Macbeth?s unbridled political ambition, Shakespeare dramatizes real political concerns that evolved from and during the reign of Elizabeth Tudor. In the characters, Shakespeare reflects political gender anxieties; in the themes, he develops a schema of conflict and chaos erupting from such anxiety, and in the plays? contextual resolutions, he fulfills the desire for a return to state stability through a solidification of the patriarchal system. Hamlet and Macbeth do not make an explicit political argument regarding Elizabeth?s monarchy, but in these plays Shakespeare does invoke the tensions of the day as related to female leadership.

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This research paper examines the portrayal of ambitious women in two renowned Shakespearean tragedies, Hamlet and Macbeth. In a society deeply rooted in patriarchal norms, Lady Macbeth and Queen Gertrude defy traditional gender roles by displaying ambition, assertiveness, and agency. First, this paper delves into their motivations, actions, and ultimate fates through a comparative analysis to explore how Shakespeare challenged societal expectations of women's roles in these iconic plays. Secondly, it also examines feminism and deconstructive theory in these plays, showing how they challenge societal norms and subvert the male. This paper sheds light on Shakespeare's timeless relevance in questioning traditional views of gender and authority.

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This paper is a feminist based reading and comparison of women portrayed in Shakespearean plays. The reading although compared from the feminist perspective, is not a completely blown feminist reading of Shakespeare’s works. The focus of the study consists of the social circumstances and the wonderful actions of the male characters and how these impact on the lives of the female characters. The relationships between the man and the women characters are often identified by the physical and the psychological deception and their feelings. Men allow their egos and attitudes to persuade their decisions, attack spiritually and destroy virtuous women who are forced to become victims of political intrigues and machinations. This paper also tries to analyse the way Shakespeare tried to portray women as energetic, independent and not inferior to the patriarchal behaviour and nature of men during those times. He enjoyed the element of cross dressing men and women in order to hide the gender di...

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Shakespeare's courageous women include an extensive variety of portrayals and types. Inside the exhibition of female characters, Shakespeare's female characters show incredible knowledge, essentialness, and a solid feeling of individual autonomy. These characteristics have driven a few faultfinders to look at Shakespeare as a victor of womankind and a pioneer who left pointedly from level, stereotyped portrayals of females basic to his counterparts and prior producers. Contrastingly, different reporters take note of that even Shakespeare's most positively depicted females have characters that are tempered by negative characteristics. William Shakespeare lived amid the Elizabethan period and composed every one of his works dependent on the general public of that time. The Elizabethan period was a period when females were depicted to be weaker than males. Amid that time it was said that "women are to be seen, and not heard." In this paper an endeavour has been taken to investigate

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The main argument of this article is focused on three plays by William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Hamlet and Merry Wives of Windsor. There are several points in these plays which deal with woman and their rights. This article deals with Shakespeare’s plays in relation to feminism, which pays more attention to the rights of women and their true identity. In all societies women are defined in terms of their relations to men as the center of power to which women have limited or no access. Judith Butler's performativity is significance on understandings of gender identity. Butler believes that gender is produced in society; also it can be changed in society. Feminism should aim to create a society in which, one's sexual anatomy is irrelevant to who one is, and what one does. Shakespeare’s view of a woman is shown through his representation of female characters in his plays specifically in Macbeth, Hamlet and Merry Wives of Windsor.

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Much as they usually move in a restricted circle and deal only with their consort and a few royal advisors, Shakespeare’s queens are sometimes called to play on a wider political stage. Occasionally, they join the English aristocracy in the battle for the throne; at times they face another collective force, which can either take the form of a crowd or be evoked as the political nation. The way queens interact with collective forces is especially relevant in the historical context of Shakespeare’s time. Queen Elizabeth dealt with similar powers; she ruled thanks to the careful management of parliament and never forgot public opinion, whereas James I soon encountered the reality behind the myth of the special relationship between his predecessor and the common people.

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Born as an adjunct to the political movement, feminism in literature explores those elements that convey the idea of female alienation under the ties of a patriarchal society. As they explore the depths of human passions, William Shakespeare’s tragedies Othello (1603) and Macbeth (1606) can be considered manifestations of socially constructed genre. They reflect two different ways of addressing the feminist issue, but, as they both describe the women’s downfall, they portray the everlasting unsuccessful attempts of women to triumph over a predominantly male-controlled environment. This paper is aimed at unveiling the feminist evidence underlying in the depiction of female characters. In Othello, Desdemona, the female protagonist, undergoes a peculiar fall from grace based on male Machiavellian plotting. Whereas in the beginning she is praised by her obedient nature and devotion to her husband, in the end she is fiercely condemned by a sin which she has not committed. But, is she really portrayed as a victim? In Macbeth, the protagonists live on the terms of equals, but, when they are lured to commit a crime by demonic equivocation, Lady Macbeth assumes a male attitude and encourages her husband to take action. They become partners in crime, but it is Lady Macbeth who plays a determining role in their macabre quest for power. Becoming the queen, the decay comes from remorse which arouses during sleep time and leads her to madness. But, is she depicted as the authentic villain of the story? These two plays debate on the nature of virtue as an ethical concept. The female characters and elements in these plays reveal the tragic fate of two women who respectively represent the good and evil sides of human behaviour. By accepting her unfair death stoically, Desdemona keeps her honesty until the end, but, above all, she maintains her female honour and dignity. Lady Macbeth’s ambitions surpass the limits of human ethics. However, on the spur of her insanity, she confesses her crimes before committing suicide and reaching self-redemption. Both female characters conform to two stereotyped images of women. On the one hand, Desdemona portrays the loving wife who passively assumes the male superiority. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth represents the female associated to witchcraft and supernatural elements, who casts off her womanhood and plays a determining role in a patriarchal environment to achieve her purposes. However, they share the same tragic destiny. Although they represent two different poles of behaviour, still they portray the female alienation and the feminist struggle to reach equality in Ancient times, which is still valid nowadays. KEY WORDS: FEMINISM, PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY, FEMALE STEREOTYPES, ETHICS, EQUALITY.

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The history of women’s struggle for equality during the last two centuries is relatively well documented; studies of women’s history often construct a meliorist narrative in which the progress women have made in recent times represents the final stage in a long upward trajectory. Women’s power and authority extended beyond the limits of their families. The example of the Tudor queens Mary and Elizabeth is well known, and the ‘anomaly’ of Elizabeth’s position has been endlessly noted; but they were not the only women who exercised political authority. As owners of boroughs, two of the Queen’s female subjects were able to choose Members of Parliament. Women also possessed considerable economic power, not only through inheritance from fathers and husbands, but also by virtue of their own gainful employment. Women lower on the social scale earned their livings, not only as servants, but also in a variety of trades that took them outside the household. In Shakespeare’s world, inequalitie...

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Gender Transition in Macbeth Anonymous

Come you spirit,

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here.

--Lady Macbeth

More so than any other Shakespearean play, Macbeth functions the most vividly as a psychoanalysis of the state of humanity's development of a sense of sexual self. Now, in a time where terms such a transgendered, pansexual, or heteroflexible are integrated into daily conversation as much as articles of political dispute or details of the latest Yankees outing, the play is all the more fascinating because it validates both Shakespeare's breadth of genius and our developing notion of what it means to be a sexual human. The play functions in essence as a looking glass for any age into which one might peer to observe the manner in which we have grown or perhaps not grown; it is an honest reflection of society and socio-sexual prescriptions in all of their positive and negative ramifications. The play compels us explicitly to challenge those and implicitly all social prescriptions that limit our humanity because of ideas engendered by imperfect cultural evolution.

Specifically, the play is about social pressures and the consequent fissures within sexual identity. Readings of the line quoted above may eventually lead some or even many readers to...

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Painting of three elderly women wearing white shawls with their index fingers stroking their lips.

In praise of the weird

Professor of English, Central Michigan University

Disclosure statement

Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Republicans, as you’ve probably heard, are being called “weird.”

In a quip that launched a million memes, Minnesota governor-turned-VP candidate Tim Walz referred to his right-wing political opposition as “weird people” in a July 23, 2024, interview on MSNBC .

Since then, the barb has stuck, with leading Democratic party figures, from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to presidential nominee Kamala Harris , branding their Republican opposition with the moniker.

Of course, in a classic deployment of the “I know you are, but what am I?” retort, the Republicans have tried to flip the script.

“You know what’s really weird?” Donald Trump Jr. opined on X . “Soft on crime politicians like Kamala allowing illegal aliens out of prison so they can violently assault Americans.” And in an interview with conservative radio host Clay Travis, former President Donald Trump said of Democrats , “They’re the weird ones. Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not.”

While I get why both sides are hurling weird bombs at each other, I’m nevertheless not on board with all the “weird shaming.” It isn’t just hypocritical for each party to claim to speak on behalf of the forgotten and marginalized while mockingly calling the other side weird. It’s also deeply regressive.

The weird, I would argue, deserve respect. As someone who has spent the past three decades researching, writing about and teaching topics including vampires, ghosts, monsters, cult films and what gets categorized as “weird fiction,” I should know .

‘Wyrd’ history

When politicians use the term weird, they’re trying to depict their opponents as odd or strange. However, the origins of the term are much more expansive and profound.

The Old English “wyrd,” from which the contemporary usage is derived, in fact was a noun corresponding to fate or destiny. “ Wyrd ” signified the forces directing the course of human affairs – an understanding reflected, for example, by Shakespeare’s three prophetic “weird sisters” in “ Macbeth .” An individual’s “weird” was their fate, while use of the term weird as an adjective connoted the supernatural power to manipulate human destiny.

Despite the progressive generalization of the term to refer to all things strange, fantastic and unusual, resonances of the weird’s “wyrd” origins are retained by what has come to be called “ weird fiction ,” a subgenre of speculative fiction.

The weird tale, explained early 20th-century writer H.P. Lovecraft in his 1927 treatise “ Supernatural Horror in Literature ,” is one that challenges our taken-for-granted understandings of how the world works. It does this through – to use Lovecraft’s characteristic purple prose – a “malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguards against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.”

Statue of young man wearing a suit and holding an open book with a tentacle emerging from the pages of the book.

The weird tale pushes back against human pretensions of grandeur, hinting at just how much we don’t know about the universe and just how precarious our situation truly is.

Meanwhile, the freaks, geeks, outsiders, misfits and mavericks are weirdos who push back in a different way. They are the nonconformists whom, as Ralph Waldo Emerson pointed out in his 1841 essay “ Self-Reliance ,” “the world whips … with its displeasure.”

Where would we be, I wonder, without the artists and scientists and thinkers developing “weird” ideas and unorthodox ways to see and appreciate the world?

In this sense, nearly all progress is part of weird history, propelled by visionaries frequently misunderstood in their own time.

From denigration to celebration

Of course, not all weirdos change the world through grand gestures and history-altering interventions; sometimes weirdos just do their own thing.

That, too, has been a large part of the story of the past century, as Western culture has increasingly – if reluctantly – made room for once-unorthodox or even taboo forms of self-expression, from tattoos to drag shows .

Proliferating subcultures, gender identities and forms of self-expression – although no doubt propelled by capitalist market forces – nevertheless demonstrate the premium placed today on individualism.

In fact, pop culture has been keen to invite historical weirdos back into the fold – so much so that vampires, ogres and fairy-tale villains such as Maleficent from “Sleeping Beauty” now enlist audiences’ sympathies by telling their side of the story.

The true villains are now often seen as those who demonize difference and insist on straight-jacketing individual freedom of expression. Many contemporary monsters aren’t bad, they’re just misunderstood – and their monstrous behavior results from being bullied, excluded, insulted and rejected for being “weird.”

Reclaiming weird

However sincerely felt, the Democrats’ deployment of the weird characterization is, of course, strategic.

Walz’s barb clearly managed to get under the skin of a crowd for whom the idea of not being “normal” is apparently distressing – and it is for this reason, I believe, that the Democrats have repeatedly tried to make the idea stick.

Historian of political rhetoric Jennifer Mercieca told The Associated Press , “The opposite of normalizing authoritarianism is to make it weird, to call it out and to sort of mock it.” Said another way, to refer to your opposition and their policies as “weird” is to denigrate it as abnormal.

Political expediency, however, comes with consequences – and here, much to my dismay, I find myself agreeing with Vivek Ramaswamy – the conservative entrepreneur who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination.

Ramaswamy wrote on X that the weird insults are “a tad ironic coming from the party that preaches ‘diversity & inclusion.’” Ironic puts it mildly.

While there may well be utility in deploying the term “weird” to frustrate political opponents, I’d prefer to reclaim the weird as something to appreciate, respect and celebrate.

The weird is that which introduces cracks into the edifice of the status quo, liberating possibilities for different futures and forms of expression. There are many different, more specific adjectives politicians and others can use to characterize their rivals.

Let’s keep America weird.

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Donald Trump
Political rhetoric
Conservatives
Speculative fiction
Kamala Harris
Donald Trump Jr.
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In Praise of the Weird

Republicans, as you’ve probably heard, are being called “weird.”

In a quip that launched a million memes, Minnesota governor-turned-VP candidate Tim Walz referred to his right-wing political opposition as “weird people” in a July 23, 2024, interview on MSNBC .

Of course, in a classic deployment of the “I know you are, but what am I?” retort, the Republicans have tried to flip the script.

‘Wyrd’ history

When politicians use the term weird, they’re trying to depict their opponents as odd or strange. However, the origins of the term are much more expansive and profound.

The weird tale pushes back against human pretensions of grandeur, hinting at just how much we don’t know about the universe and just how precarious our situation truly is.

Where would we be, I wonder, without the artists and scientists and thinkers developing “weird” ideas and unorthodox ways to see and appreciate the world?

In this sense, nearly all progress is part of weird history, propelled by visionaries frequently misunderstood in their own time.

From denigration to celebration

Of course, not all weirdos change the world through grand gestures and history-altering interventions; sometimes weirdos just do their own thing.

Reclaiming weird

However sincerely felt, the Democrats’ deployment of the weird characterization is, of course, strategic.

Ramaswamy wrote on X that the weird insults are “a tad ironic coming from the party that preaches ‘diversity & inclusion.’” Ironic puts it mildly.

While there may well be utility in deploying the term “weird” to frustrate political opponents, I’d prefer to reclaim the weird as something to appreciate, respect and celebrate.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock is a Professor of English at Central Michigan University.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Macbeth — Gender Roles and Lady Macbeth

Gender Roles and Lady Macbeth

Categories: Gender Roles Macbeth

About this sample

Words: 1185 |

Pages: 2.5 |

Published: Jun 29, 2018

Words: 1185 | Pages: 2.5 | 6 min read

Works Cited:

American Psychological Association. (2019). Xenophobia. In APA Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://dictionary.apa.org/xenophobia
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Barrett, R. (2016). Why is it important to learn about different cultures? Retrieved from https://www.yfu.org/blog/why-is-it-important-to-learn-about-different-cultures
BBC. (2019). Why is culture important? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zdq4jxs/revision/1
Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. Basic Books.
Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond culture. Anchor Books.
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Sage Publications.
Kagitcibasi, C. (2019). Family, self, and human development across cultures: Theory and applications. Psychology Press.
LeVine, R. A., & Campbell, D. T. (1972). Ethnocentrism: Theories of conflict, ethnic attitudes, and group behavior. Wiley.
Smith, P. B., Bond, M. H., & Kagitcibasi, C. (2006). Understanding social psychology across cultures: Engaging with others in a changing world. Sage Publications.

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Women’s Lit and Gender Studies at CEA 2025

Call for Papers, Women’s Lit and Gender Studies at CEA 2025

March 27-29, 2025 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square 1800 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

215.561.7500

The College English Association, a gathering of scholar-teachers in English studies, welcomes proposals for presentations on Women’s Lit and Gender Studies for our 54th annual conference. Submit your proposal electronically by November 1, 2024, at www.cea-web.org

The conference theme for CEA 2025 is FREEDOM And, in the spirit of Philadelphia, for this area, we are especially interested in presentations that incorporate topics related to FREEDOM in Women’s Lit and Gender Studies in texts, disciplines, people, cultural studies, media, and pedagogy.

For your proposal you might consider Women’s Lit and Gender Studies in terms of

Freedom between disciplines, languages, or generations
Freedom regarding races, classes, cultures, regions, genders, or sexualities.
Cultural or ideological freedom in literary, scholarly, or theoretical works
Freedom as construct, form, metaphor, motif, or icon
Connections between text and images or sound
Freedom regarding theory and practice, reading and writing, writer and audience
Academic freedom in teaching and scholarship; faculty and administrators; professors and students
Freedom and materiality
Digital humanities and freedom

As the location of CEA 2025 , Philadelphia is perfect for the present moment. Here, the spirit of the American Revolution and the ideals that would drive it were born. The Declaration of Independence, penned and ratified in Philadelphia, argued that “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” were “inalienable rights.” As a nation, we continue to wrestle with the words of the Declaration and the men who signed it. However, our commitment to liberty is unwavering, even in the face of multiple challenges to our freedoms, our autonomy, and our choices. At the CEA, we hold close especially the belief in academic freedom.

General Call for Papers

CEA 2025 welcomes papers and panels that address our discipline from multiple perspectives and across a wide range of areas, including literary studies, creative writing, rhetoric, composition, technical communication, linguistics, and film. We also welcome papers on areas that influence our work as academics, including student demographics, student/instructor accountability and assessment, student advising, academic leadership in departments and programs, and the place of the English department in the university.

CEA also extends a special invitation to graduate students not only to attend the conference but to submit their presentations to the CEA Outstanding Graduate Student Paper competition. Submissions will be solicited via email in January 2025 from those whose papers have been accepted.

Submission: August 15-November 1, 2024

Proposals should be between 250 and 500 words in length and should include a title. Please note that only one proposal may be submitted per participant. Notifications of proposal status will be sent in early December. For more information on how to submit, please see the full CFP at www.cea-web.org

Membership All presenters at the CEA 2025 conference must become members of CEA by January 1, 2025. To join CEA, please go to www.cea-web.org

Other questions? Please email Elizabeth Battles at [email protected] .

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Frank Bruni, Maureen Dowd, Michelle Goldberg and Patrick Healy

Four Writers on Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and How to Win the White House

By Frank Bruni Maureen Dowd Michelle Goldberg and Patrick Healy

Mr. Bruni is a contributing Opinion writer. Ms. Dowd and Ms. Goldberg are Opinion columnists. Mr. Healy is the deputy Opinion editor.

Patrick Healy: The Democratic convention will be bookended by two historic figures: Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated for president of a major party, will speak on Monday night, and Kamala Harris on Thursday night will become the second woman nominated to lead America. Maureen, Michelle, Frank: The four of us covered Clinton over the years, and now write about Harris. Clinton and Harris are approaching history pretty differently. For one thing, Clinton leaned into gender in 2016, talking about breaking the glass ceiling. And she won a big vote from women, but her percentage of the women’s vote was a little less than Barack Obama’s — and she had a slightly wider gender gap . Maureen, how do Clinton and Harris differ in how they deal with gender?

Maureen Dowd: Hillary Clinton did not lose because she was a woman. She lost because she was a Clinton. The family just had too much baggage, and scarring from the Obama dismantling of the Clinton machine in 2008. The biggest difference between Harris and Clinton is that Harris is not tangled up in the issue of gender. In 2008, Clinton’s strategist Mark Penn told her to run like a man. That didn’t work, so then in 2016 she ran a campaign focused on her gender, with Katy Perry music and Lena Dunham appearances.

Healy: Her allies were talking about gender, too, like Madeleine Albright saying at a Clinton campaign event that “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.”

Dowd: The moment when it became clear that Clinton was too wrapped around the axle on gender was in the second debate with Donald Trump in 2016, when he was lurking behind her onstage and she did not turn around and let him have it. I think she could have won the election in that moment if she had delivered a line like Ludacris’s “Move, bitch, get out the way.” But she froze, not wanting to come across as the aggressive harridan that she was caricatured as by her critics. As she later wrote in her book about the campaign, “Maybe I have overlearned the lesson of staying calm, biting my tongue.” It was a fatal overcorrection, I think.

Healy: Have you seen anything along these lines with Harris?

Dowd: So far, Harris has not emphasized her gender, which is smart. The best template was set by Nancy Pelosi, who is comfortable in her feminine style but never leaves any doubt that she could crush you if you go against her. When she ran for speaker, she told her caucus: “Don’t vote for me because I’m a woman. And don’t vote against me because I’m a woman.”

Michelle Goldberg: One advantage Harris has in terms of gender is the unconventional way she was nominated. Women have historically done better in parliamentary systems than presidential ones, perhaps because they rely less on open competition within parties, and so women aren’t punished for displaying their ambition. Harris didn’t become the nominee by taking on a man but by supporting one, and then by stepping in when the party needed her. As a result, she ascended without creating many resentments among other Democrats.

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COMMENTS

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Lady Macbeth is the focus of much of the exploration of gender roles in Macbeth. As Lady Macbeth propels her husband toward murdering Duncan, she indicates that she must take on masculine characteristics. Her most famous speech addresses this issue. In Act I, Scene 5, after reading Macbeth's letter in which he details the witches' prophecy and ...
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Published: Mar 5, 2024. Gender roles are a significant theme in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, and they are explored through the characters of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself. The play presents a complex and nuanced view of gender roles and their impact on individuals. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is portrayed as a strong and ...
AQA English Revision
In your answer you should: · Look at gender in the extract above and. · Look at gender in the play as a whole. Plan: P1: Introduction about gender and outline brief argument. P2: Focus on Lady Macbeth and her deceptive ways. P3: Focus on Macbeth and his role as victim. P4: Conclusion of argument, and modern vs Jacobean context.
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Macbeth admits, "That I did kill them" (II, iii), and Lady Macbeth exclaims, "Help me hence, ho!" (II, iii) as she faints, Macduff requesting, "Look to the lady" (II, iii). Despite her attempts to go beyond her own gender, in the end, she proves that she remains a "lady." Derek Cohen states, "The equation of manliness with violence, a truism in ...
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Gender is one of the major themes in Shakespeare's ~'Macbeth.~' This lesson offers some essay topics that will help your students zero in on gender once they have finished the play.
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Images of the unnatural reflect the state of gender roles and power in Macbeth. The theme of "Fair is foul and foul is fair" reflects (or is reflected by) gender roles and power in Macbeth. As ...
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The three witches in 'Macbeth' - also known as the 'weird,' or 'wyrd,' sisters - are prophetesses who often do the opposite of what's expected of them. Royal Sha
Gender Roles and Lady Macbeth: [Essay Example], 1185 words
Lady Macbeth's first mental gender transformation occurs after she reads the letter sent to her from Macbeth and hears of King Duncan's intended visit. She pleads to spirits in Act 1, Scene 5, "Come, you spirits // that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, // And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full // Of direst cruelty!
cfp
Call for Papers, Women's Lit and Gender Studies at CEA 2025. March 27-29, 2025 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square 1800 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103. 215.561.7500
Opinion
Mr. Bruni is a contributing Opinion writer. Ms. Dowd and Ms. Goldberg are Opinion columnists. Mr. Healy is the deputy Opinion editor. Patrick Healy: The Democratic convention will be bookended by ...

Macbeth and Gender

Role of Gender in Macbeth

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Macbeth and Issues of Gender

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Appendix A: Film Terms and Techniques

Appendix B: Script from a scene in Orson Welles' Macbeth

Appendix C: Script from a Scene in Throne of Blood

Appendix D: Pennsylvania State Standards

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POWER AND MONARCHY: SHAKESPEARE'S PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN MACBETH AND HAMLET

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