ENG111.003 -- Introduction to Literature: Beholding Violence in Drama and Film

Prof. Eileen Joy

Spring 2012

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS #4: Shakespeare's Macbeth and Billy Morrissette's Scotland, PA

Figure 1. Tom Peters as Macbeth in an Oxford, UK production

Respond to TWO of the following prompts:

1. How would you describe the power relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth? Most important, what is the power dynamic between the couple at the outset of the play, and how does it change as the play progresses, and for what reasons, do you think?

2. What if you found yourself in a condition where you were able or compelled to undertake certain forbidden acts (and you thought were beyond judgment)? What might that feel like? empowering? insane? frightening? something else? How does this question pertain to Macbeth and/or Scotland, PA?

3. How might you compare and contrast the characters of Macbeth and Mac in Scotland, PA? How, further, are both Macbeth and Mac changed by the murders they commit, and why might this matter in relation to what we think this story is about?

4. What makes Lady Macbeth interesting?

5. Ian Johnston describes Macbeth as a divided person as regards killing Duncan. Describe in detail, using Macbeth's own words, what this division is about.

6. Freud once wrote of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, "Together they exhaust the possibilities of reaction to the crime, like two disunited parts of a single psychical individuality, and it may be that they are both copied from the same prototype." With reference to specific scenes and dialogue in the play, how might you explain and expand on Freud's statement here?

7. Does watching Scotland, PA, a "low" comic adapation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, enhance our understanding of Shakespeare's play, and why or why not?

8. Identify one of the troubling moral questions that both Macbeth and Scotland, PA have in common, and then explore how they represent and "play out" this question in different ways.

Please respond to the questions with full, complete sentences. You should write AT LEAST two typed, double-spaced pages (total) in response to the prompts you choose, and what matters most to me is that you respond to these prompts with thoughtfulness and care and show me that you have something of substance to say in relation to the plays, films, readings, and discussions we have had, and what that ultimately means is: MORE is always better than less (but one page per prompt is the minimum). The questions are always interpretive in nature, and therefore there are NO right or wrong answers, only your opinions and observations and ideas (all of which are hopefully grounded in paying very close attention to the small details of the plays, films, and other readings under discussion). You will want to refer to and/or quote directly specific passages, scene details, dialogue, gestures, etc. in order to support your observations and ideas.

Responses should be handed in to the professor in class on the date indicated on the website syllabus.