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GCSE MACBETH Profile picture
@GCSE_Macbeth
Jul 25, 2019 • 9 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
#SummerOfJuliet

Act 1 Sc 5

Now let's get onto that famous joint sonnet between Romeo and Juliet.

A few ideas to upgrade your students' analysis:

1/
The imagery foreshadows the tragic end of Romeo and Juliet. The description of Juliet as a "shrine" foreshadows the golden statue that Lord M promises to erect as a tribute to her in 5.3.

2/
Similarly, the passing of their "sin" from one set of lips to the other foreshadows Juliet's attempt to consume the poison from Romeo's lips before her death.

3/
It's interesting to compare the sonnet to the different poetic register of Lady C's advice to Juliet in 1.3. There she dispenses aphorisms in trite rhyming couplets:

"The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride
For fair without the fair within to hide"

4/
The careful pattern of R&J's love sonnet demonstrates how much more intimate, interesting and intense this experience is compared to the safe world of parental designs.

5/
Reading this scene today I was struck by just how erotic it is. The phrase that stood out was R: "give me my sin again." The passing of desire backwards and forwards via the mouth...it's pretty powerful stuff.

And remember Juliet is only 13...

6/
Leading to my next point. The imagery of saints, pilgrims, purity and defilement is *DELIBERATELY* chosen by Shakespeare to push at the audience's boundaries and anxieties about these young, vulnerable characters.

7/
I've said before that if parents knew anything about Shakespeare we wouldn't be allowed to teach it in school.

Teenagers don't just feel attraction, Shakespeare tells us. They fall FULLY into love, and lust, with desires already formed, and completely beyond your control.

8/
Coming up: some very close analysis you can steal if this passage ever appears in an exam.

9/9

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More from @GCSE_Macbeth

GCSE MACBETH Profile picture
Apr 30
Some ideas about the WITCHES in Macbeth.

The extent to which the Witches cause rather than predict M's tragedy is deliberately ambiguous. And that's entirely Shakespearean: his tragedies always deal in blurred lines between fate, individual agency and outside influence.

1/
Shakespeare uses foreshadowing and verbal echoes to create the effect that the Witches are influencing events. We might say they create a pattern of events.

In Act 1 Sc 1 their line "fair is foul and foul is fair" is rich with meaning for the play as a whole.

2/
And of course, their influence over Macbeth is demonstrated when his first line in the play is "So foul and fair a day I have not seen" (Act 1 Sc 3).

The First Witch's speech in Act 1 Sc 3 is also worth exploring for its foreshadowing:

3/
Read 20 tweets
GCSE MACBETH Profile picture
Apr 10
Thinking about SLEEP and SLEEPLESSNESS in Macbeth.

Sleep is mentioned 34 times in the play. Sleep represents what we today might call "mental health": rationality, clear thought, natural order.

"Balm of hurt minds...Chief nourisher in life's feast", indeed (Act 2 Sc 2)

1/
Sleeplessness, conversely, is the sign of a damaged mind, of corruption, of the influence of evil.

In fact, the motif of sleeplessness is introduced in 1:3 by the First Witch as she plans to torture a sailor:

"Sleep shall neither night nor day / hang upon his penthouse lid"

2/
The first character to experience sleeplessness in the play is Banquo:

"A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,
Restrain in me the cursèd thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose." (2:1)

3/
Read 12 tweets
GCSE MACBETH Profile picture
Dec 1, 2023
The influence of the mystery / whodunnit genre on An Inspector Calls is under-recognised. The formula, of a detective arriving at a well-to-do house with a family of unlikeable characters, was well established by 1945.

This was the era of Agatha Christie!

1/
Christie was already writing for the stage by 1945 and in her fiction had already begun to experiment with the genre: including, for example, Murder on the Orient Express whose punchline is *SPOILER* that every suspect with a motive helped to kill the victim.

2/
AIC uses the conventions of the genre to create its structure and tension. We know that all the Birlings (and Gerald) will be somehow related to the girl's death...but how? The first audiences probably expected that one of them was directly responsible or involved...

3/
Read 7 tweets
GCSE MACBETH Profile picture
May 8, 2023
Kingship in Macbeth.

(with love to @NooPuddles for the inspiration!)

There are 3 kings in the present of the play Macbeth, and others implied who will reign in the future.

1/
What sort of king is Duncan?

I think a solid 7/10. He treats his people well, he rewards service, he's a gracious guest at the Macbeths' castle.

But what we CAN say about Duncan is that he's a bit naive.

2/
Duncan has two notable lines relating to the treacherous Thane of Cawdor.

First he says in Act 1 Sc 2:
"No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive
Our bosom interest."

A bit of irony here, as of course the NEXT Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth, will also turn traitor.

3/
Read 20 tweets
GCSE MACBETH Profile picture
Mar 19, 2023
A high-grade analysis of the song "Sk8er Boi" by Avril Lavigne (2002).

1/
"He was a boy
She was a girl
Can I make it any more obvious?"

The opening lines introduce ANTITHESIS as the key language technique in this song, in this case the antithetical pairing of "boy" and "girl".

2/
The rhetorical question invites us to assume a certain "obvious" type of narrative: this is going to be a love story.

It's also worth noting the third-person viewpoint here and the detached, omniscient narrator: this will be important later.

3/
Read 35 tweets
GCSE MACBETH Profile picture
Feb 11, 2023
Revisiting key quotes from Macbeth:

Act 1 Sc 2
SOLDIER: "His brandish'd steel / Which smoked with bloody execution."

The soldier's account of Macbeth's exploits in battle establish him as a fierce warrior capable of bloody violence.

1/
The play sets up a contrast between Macbeth's skill and savagery in battle, shedding the blood of countless enemies, and his doubt and self-torment over killing one man when it's the King himself.

2/
"Blood" changes its meaning throughout the play: in battle, blood is a symbol of patriotism and heroism. Duncan tells the soldier his wounds "smack of honour". But later blood becomes a symbol of guilt and inescapable consequences.

3/
Read 7 tweets

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