Interpreting Shakespeare
Rationale:
This project is for independent lyric analysis. We will practice making literal as well
as deeper connections, and thinking “outside the box.” There will be two parts: one
in-class project, and one out-of-class project, totaling 50 points.
Your Task:
Part 1- Choose any quote from Macbeth that “speaks to you” (you may use any of
the listed quotes). Make a visual representation of what that quote means. On the
back of the paper you are going to write: one paragraph of interpretation
(explaining the quote in detail), and one paragraph of personal connection (how this
applies to your life).
The supplies will be given to you in class (2-3 full class days to do this). If you
cannot complete in-class, finish outside of class for the due date. 20 points.
Part 2- Pick a song that connects to the lines chosen in any way (doesn’t have to be
literal). 30 points.
(A) Analyze the song line-by-line, interpreting and explaining meaning.
Print out this analysis with the lyrics to hand to the class (we’ll make
copies for the class on the day you present). You may either do this by
hand, or use the “comments” tool on Word.
(B) Play the song for the class.
(C) Construct a visual to interpret and supplement the song (it can be any
medium: painting, drawing, paper Mache, collage, iMovie---HOWEVER,
POWERPOINT WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED). Use this to explain the
connection between your chosen song and your chosen Macbeth quote.
(D) Write two paragraphs in essay format referencing at least two specific
lines from your song. Discuss how your song connects to your chosen
quote from Macbeth (1 paragraph) AND how this song connects to you,
personally (1 paragraph—what does it mean to you? How has your life
experience related in any way?).
Interpreting Shakespeare
Possible Quotes (to get you inspired):
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (1.1.12) - Witches
“But all’s too weak; / For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name), / Disdaining Fortune,
with his brandished steel, / …carved out his passage… / Till he unseamed him
[Macdonwald] from the nave to th’ chops” (1.1.17-24) - Captain
“What he hath lost, noble Macbeth has won.” (1.1.78) – Duncan
“I’ll drain him dry as hay. / Sleep shall neither night nor day / Hang upon his penthouse lid.
/ He shall live a man forbid” (1.3.19-22) - Witches
“Lesser than Macbeth and greater. / Not so happy, yet much happier.” (1.3.68-69) --Witches
“And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, / The instruments of darkness tell us truths, / Win
us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s / In deepest consequence--” (1.3.135-138) --Banquo
“Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires.” (1.4.57-58) -Macbeth
“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” (1.5.47-51) –Lady Macbeth
“Look like th’ innocent flower, / But be the serpent under ‘t” (1.5.76-77) –Lady Macbeth
“But in these cases / We still have judgment here, that we but teach / Bloody instructions,
which, being taught, return / To plague th’ inventor.” (1.7.7-10) --Macbeth
“Art thou afeard / To be the same in thine own act and valor / 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,’” (1.7.42-48) –Lady Macbeth
“I go, and it is done. The bell invites me. / Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell / That
summons thee to heaven or to hell” (2.1.75-77). --Macbeth
“Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep’” (2.2.47-48). -Macbeth
“My hands are of your color, but I shame / To wear a heart so white.” (2.2.82-83). –Lady
Macbeth
“To know my deed ‘twere best not know myself” (2.2.93) --Macbeth