Fair is foul and foul is fair: Act I, scene i, ii, and iii

In our first class for Macbeth, we covered scenes 1, 2 and almost all of scene 3.

The word of the day was: Aside--a short speech meant only for the audience to hear but made while other characters are on stage.

Here is a summary of the major points in the first 3 scenes:

Act One, scene one:
What is the distinction between the 3 witches: One speaks of the present, the second of the past, and the third of the future.

The witches set a foreboding, mysterious tone in the opening of the play. We ge the sense that they are up to no good. They are planning something for Macbeth, but we don't know what yet. During this initial meeting, the witches conclude that they will go to see Macbeth.

The scene ends with a rhyming couplet: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air." This concludes the scene on a climactic note. The witches final lines also signal that the things are not what they seem. Things that seem good are really evil, and things that seem bad may actually be good. This is an important theme in the play: appearance vs. reality. We will see that the characters are often pretending to be good, while really hiding evil intentions.

Scene two:
The purpose of this scene is to:
1) provide a historical background (Scotland is at war with Norway, there were 3 battles, but King Duncan's men were victorious)
2)show Macbeth at his best; he is praised by the Sargeant for his valiant combat
3) to show Duncan's generosity and gratitude for Macbeth--he awards Macbeth with the title the Thane of Cawdor
4) provides a suspenseful pause before the witches go to see Macbeth

At this point, we see Macbeth as a brave, good, warrior, loyal to the king and rewarded for his efforts.

Scene three:
Here, the witches appear to Macbeth and Banquo and announce a prophecy to Macbeth.
They say he was the Thane of Glamis, he is already the Thane of Cawdor (which we know but Macbeth has not yet found out that the Thane of Cawdor is a traitor) and then say that he will be King.

Macbeth is mesmerized; Banquo says this is a good thing, and asks for predictions about his own future. The witches tell him that he will get Kings but be none himself. In other words, he will father a line of Kings. (Banquo was the ancestor of James I, the king at the time Shakespeare wrote this play).

Then, Ross arrives and once again Macbeth is praised for his combat. He is also told that he is the new thane of Cawdor, so the instant of disbelief at the witches predictions would be shattered. He is now thinking more seriously about the predictions. Banquo warns him that what seems to be too good to be true, usually is. But, the idea of murder has already crossed Macbeth's mind. He knows that the third prediction is the best one but also the hardest to come true. He recognizes that in order to become king, Duncan would have to be killed. The fact that this evil plan has flitted in and out of his mind horrifies Macbeth, and he is very distressed. At the end of the scene, he thus comes to the conclusion that he will leave everything up to chance. He is unsure of whether he needs to make a move to help the third prediction along, but hopes that maybe he won't need to do anything, it will just happen on its own.

The homework for today was to complete the questions for scene 1,2 and question 1 for scene 3. Also, don't forget your post-its. The first blog posting is due Sunday, february 11th. If you were away today, don't forget to pick up an outline, as well as the scene questions for act I.