Get out your Act 4 script for Macbeth.
Skim and scan Act 4 and be ready to answer the
following questions:
1.What is the setting?
2.What characters are in the scene?
3.How many apparitions appear in the scene? Name
each one.
1.What is the setting?
2.What characters are in
the scene?
3.How many apparitions
appear in the scene?
Name each one.
A Cave
3 witches, Macbeth,
apparitions, Lennox
3—
1st—Armed Head
2nd—Bloody Child
3rd—holding tree branch
Act 4: Three Scenes
Things to Notice…
• Shortest Act
• Clarifies Macduff as Macbeth’s Foil
• Shows the witches’ “false security” plan
for Macbeth
• Shows Macbeth’s deterioration and total
descent into evil and cruelty.
Act Four, Scene 1
Plot summary: Macbeth seeks out the witches,
and the witches prophesy further but leave out
details t
Then, Lennox tells Macbeth that Macduff is raising
an army against him.
"An
armed
Head"
• Act 4:__________will return to ruin
Macbeth
• Macbeth thinks: it doesn't
matter; he's born of woman so I'm
safe.
• Act 5: Macbeth's Realization:
"A bloody
child"
• Act 4: "no man of woman born
shall harm Macbeth--means
• Macbeth thinks: Everyone is born
from a woman--I'm safe!
• Act 5: Macbeth's realization:
"a child
wearing a
crown and
holding a tree"
Act 5
Realization
Moment:
• Macbeth need not fear until
great Birnam wood shall come
to Dunsinane.
• (Macbeth thinks: how can trees
move up a hill: Impossible! I'm
safe.)
• Act 5: Macbeth's realization:
• __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
____________________
Imagery:
The show of eight kings; ends with Banquo
holding glass (glass = mirror)
Discuss the meaning of this:
1.Foil: a character who is presented as a
contrast to a second character so as to point
to or show to advantage some aspect of the
second character.
Who is emerging as Macbeth’s Foil in this scene?
Scene 2—Macduff’s castle
Plot summary:
Assassins surprise and kill Macduff’s family at their
castle.
Pathos:
Great feeling. How has Shakespeare set
this scene up with great pathos, so the
audience feels strong emotion?
Juxtaposition of Contrast:
the powerful effect of two very different images
Placed side-by-side
A touching “motherchild” scene; the
innocence and
playfulness of the
dialogue between them;
the mother’s worry that
they are unprotected.
The brutal murder by
the assassins that
Macbeth has sent to
kill Macduff’s family.
Demonstrating your knowledge of Act 4:
Choice #1:Create a Macbeth Prop Box—
transform a shoebox into a display for an
“artifact”—an object related to the play
Macbeth. Include three related quotations,
and an explanation of how the object is
significant to the play and its themes and/or
characters.
Choice #2: Graphic Design/Comic book…trace a
character’s transformation throughout Macbeth
with one “comic book” page from each act of the
play~4-5 total. Each page should show a
significant plot event related to the character that
shows how s/he was at the beginning of the play,
and how s/he changes throughout the play. Each
page must include a significant quote from the
novel that reveals characterization.
Choice #3: Macbeth: Quality Cartoon Quote
Posters
Draw 3-5 cartoon illustrations that feature a
significant quote from Macbeth.
Make sure that the quote is written in
large, attention-getting letters that
communicate the idea of the quote.