Starter 1.22: Interpret Macbeth's soliloquy
What does Macbeth mean? INTERPRET the passage. Do you agree with Macbeth? Why or why not?
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
— Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 19-28)
DISCUSS the texts from yesterday: Sagan and Angelou
What are our interpretations?
How are these two pieces intertextual?
Mary Oliver, The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Please watch this video as I look over your claims: Jason Silva's Existential Bummer
Thoughts? Reactions?
HOMEWORK:
- Read Into the Wild Chapters 1-6
- Watch Stranger than Fiction?
- Netflix: If you answered the survey that you need to use the class account, I will send you the info by email.
- Book needs? Please be in touch today about whether you want to meet me in town later or use the pdf or audiobook for these first chapters.