Macbeth Act 5
1.
Reminder to read the modern essay at the back of
the book
a.
Shows how to analyze a quote
i.
Useful for the five quote paper due soon
ii.
And the essay test
b.
Questions to consider:
i.
How do you analyze quotes?
ii.
How do you write analyses well?
2.
On Madness
a.
What is sanity--and its corollary, insanity?
i.
Nonexistent(?)
1.
Because a normal concept doesn't exist
2.
And common isn't normal
a.
But an average is normal
i.
Reminds me of Dickenson:
Much Madness is divinest Sense -
To a discerning Eye -
Much Sense - the starkest Madness -
’Tis the Majority
In this, as all, prevail -
Assent - and you are sane -
Demur - you’re straightway dangerous -
And handled with a Chain -
ii.
Disorders of behavior and the mind
1.
Disruptive to themselves and others
iii.
Not "normal" reality
1.
Lady Macbeth's reality is that there's a spot,
but it isn't really there
iv.
Legal
1.
Is that what makes it normal?
2.
But there's always the issue of how we dictate
what is legal, which means there's an earlier judgment on the topic that has
dictated legislation
v.
Dictionary
1.
Can this define what we're after?
a.
Is the dictionary definition satisfactory?
b.
Appraise the consequences of actions
b.
Is Lady Macbeth insane?
i.
Sleepwalking isn't proof of insanity
1.
Plenty of non-guilty people sleepwalk
2.
But the confessions may reveal what she's
thinking in her conscious mind
a.
And is she sane to the players but insane to the
audience?
i.
Since we know things about her?
ii.
But she tells her husband to be ambitious
1.
And to kill people to get the ambition
a.
That's her proof of insanity?
iii.
What shows she's gone over the edge?
1.
Suicide
a.
It shows that something is wrong
2.
Guilt
a.
Showing the humanity--that she feels guilty
about the murders
b.
If she were insane, she wouldn't feel guilty
iv.
Specifics:
1.
Act 5 scene 1
a.
The sleepwalking scene
b.
Only the last part by the doctor are in verse
c.
Also, Lady Macbeth says, "What's done
cannot be undone":
i.
Hamlet will ask 'To be or not to be'
ii.
Macbeth will ask 'To do or not to do'
d.
Her reaction is similar to PTSD
i.
Everything reminds her of the darkness
1.
She has the light on all night long
2.
Which is a public safety problem
a.
Curfew and all
3.
The light's also a metaphor
a.
The darkness in the soul
b.
The spirits she invoked in the first act
v.
Mad can also be read as anger
1.
And don't we lose our rational sense when we're
angry...when we're mad?
c.
"Though this be madness, yet there's method
in't"
i.
Could it be that she's mad, but only because she
had a purpose to it
1.
Which would mean she ISN'T really crazy
d.
Sociopath = Macbeth = insane (not mad)
i.
Though which is more severe remains to be seen
e.
Lady Macbeth needs divine help, rather than
physical
i.
Although this can change based upon whether
'divine' means exactly that, or, as my book points out, could be a word for
'priest'
