WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE & MACBETH

THE OG OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE & AN EGO TO RIVAL KANYE WEST’S

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARETHE ORIGINAL MC?

Check out my bling!

HE STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM…

…and now he’s here Born April 23, 1564 in

Stratford-upon-Avon, England

Parents fell on hard times during Shakespeare’s childhood

Schooling likely stopped around age 13

THIS IS THE REMIX

He is known for writing

Tragedies

Comedies

Histories

…but his plays were often “remixes” or they used “samples” from previous works

He “sourced” his plots and characters from historical accounts and classic texts

He was very well-read

HE WORKED IN A MALE-DOMINATED FIELD

Women were not allowed to appear onstage or act; therefore all roles (yes, even female roles) were played by males

Can you name more than one of these female MCs?

HE WAS A PLAYER? Shakespeare

supposedly had affairs with multiple women, even while he was married

He supposedly liked women who were promiscuous but neither beautiful nor wealthy

HIS SHOWS BROUGHT TOGETHER THE MASSES

The King/Queen

Aristocrats

The Groundlings

Cost of a show: 1 shilling to stand

2 shillings to sit in the balcony

1 shilling was 10% of their weekly income

Cost to attend the YEEZUS Tour at Madison Square Garden: $230 floor seating

$108 upper bowl seating (about 10% of a teacher’s weekly income)

$63 nosebleed seating

Yes, your teacher took this at a Redman & Method Man concert

REMEMBER THESE POINTS FROM AKALA?

Rhythm Shakespeare often wrote in

iambic pentameter, a meter that can fit any beat

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables mimics a heartbeat

He is – and was – misunderstood We don’t know many definitive

things about Shakespeare; some question if he even existed

Many people who do not know much about hip-hop do not appreciate it or consider it an art “Custodians of knowledge” –

whom do we trust to teach us about life and culture?

HE COINED THE TERM “SWAGGER”

“Swagger” makes its first appearance as a verb meaning “to strut about, carry oneself with an arrogant air” in Act 3, Scene I of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c.1590). Quoth PUCK,

What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,

So near the cradle of the fairy queen?

It is assumed to be a form of the verb “swag” (to sway, swing heavily), which originated in the 1520s, and has since evolved to incorporate “ballin'” into its definition.

ONE MORE ANALOGY FOR YOU:

Jay-Z : Barclay Shakespeare : Globe::

…but hopefully the Barclay doesn’t burn down (multiple times)

RENAISSANCE RAP

Shakespeare’s works and today’s hip-hop songs use a variety of literary devices to explore universal themes

Both art forms use the language of their times and are meant to be enjoyed in performance

Let’s put them together…

Cut out all of the lines on the handout and place the strips of paper into the paper bag

Shake the contents of the bag well

 Randomly draw ten lines of poetry out of the bag

Glue them onto a piece of paper in any order

What did you learn?

RENAISSANCE RAP

Read the following quotation (from Alexander, Robert and Harry Justin Elam. The Fire This Time: African-American Plays for the 21st Century [introduction]. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2004):

With its celebration of language, meter, poetic strictures, verbal play and display, [hip hop] hearkens back to earlier traditions of

oral expression in African-American culture…and even to classical theatrical conventions and the productive wordplay of

William Shakespeare.

Journal: How do you define poetry? Drawing on what you know about hip hop and about Shakespeare, do you agree that both are forms of poetry? Why or why not?

UNIVERSAL THEMES

What is a theme?

The main idea or message of the work

A thought or idea the author presents to the reader.

Questions to think about: 

What is the author trying to convey to me in this work?

What is the significance of what the author wrote?

HINT: A theme must be “a complete sentence.”

What is a motif?

A reoccurring object or idea in a work.

A motif can also be something abstract, such as an emotion or quality like love, bravery or honesty.

Questions to think about: 

Are there objects, ideas, or concepts I have seen repeated in this book?

What could that object, idea, or concept mean?

LET’S PRACTICE WITH THIS MOTIF: THOUGHTS ON WAR

“Jesus Walks” by Kanye West

We [are] at war with terrorism, racism, and most of all, we [are] at war with ourselves

God show me the way because the Devil [is] trying to bring me down

York in Henry VI, Part 2 5.2.29-30

Thus war hath given thee peace, for thou art still.

Peace with his soul, heaven, if it be thy will.

1. Summarize each quotation.2. What is the message of each quotation?3. What do they have in common?4. What is the theme here?

AND ONE MORE: DREAMS DEFERRED

“It’s Your World” by Common

I remember in high school she had a passion to sing

Now she sees herself in a casket in dreams

Queen Gertrude in Hamlet 5.1.255-257

I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife;

I thought thy bride-bed to have deck’d, sweet maid,

And not have strew’d thy grave.

1. Summarize each quotation.2. What is the message of each quotation?3. What do they have in common?4. What is the theme here?

NOW TRY YOUR OWN

You will be given a motif.

Read the hip-hop lyrics and the Shakespeare quote.

Determine what each means – what is the author saying and what does s/he mean?

What do they have in common?

What is the theme?

Be prepared to present.

THEMES IN MACBETH

Ambition can threaten reason.

When supernatural powers represent evil, they should be ignored.

The natural order is disrupted by any upset in the proper order of human society.

Appearances do not always reflect reality.

Despite prophecies of the future, people are responsible for their own actions.

Attempts to control the future by overturning the natural order of society are futile.

Questions to ask yourself:

Is man naturally good or naturally evil?

Do we control our own fate or does fate control us?

KEY TERMS

Tragedy

A play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character.

Tragic hero

“A man of high standard who falls from that high because of a flaw that has affected many” - Aristotle

Macbeth is one of the most famous examples

Paradox

A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true: the paradox that standing is more tiring than walking.

One exhibiting inexplicable or contradictory aspects: "The silence of midnight, to speak truly, though apparently a paradox, rung in my ears" (Mary Shelley).

MORE KEY TERMS

Contrast

Ideas and characters shown in opposition to emphasize or clarify

Heightens distinctions of character and increases interest

Character foil

Characters who are opposites

Fate

Some force over which humans have no control

Complicates plot but does not necessarily cause the hero’s downfall (choice/action)

Audience may feel sympathy

The supernatural

Audience enjoyed ghosts, witches, premonitions, prophecies, etc.

…AND THE LAST OF THE KEY TERMS

Dramatic irony

The audience is aware of conditions that are unknown to the character

Or, when some characters are ignorant to what is really on the speaker’s mind

Soliloquy

Speech made by a character alone on stage (only audience hears)

May reveal character, mood, opinion, motives

Aside

Short comments intended only for audience or one other character on stage (like a stage whisper)

THE REAL MACBETH AND THE “SCOTTISH PLAY”

Based on a real king (Macbeth and King Duncan interacted in 1040) but the story is highly inaccurate

Set in Scotland

Written for King James I (formerly of Scotland, now England)

James I was interested in witchcraft

Shakespeare researched The Chronicles - Banquo is an ancestor of King James I

The play is supposedly cursed – actors have been injured performing it

It is believed to be bad luck to even squeak the word ‘Macbeth’ in a theatre

Legend has it you will lose all your friends involved in the production--horribly

THE PLOT

Good guy goes bad

Guy wants power

Married to a pushy control freak

She wants power

Kills people- LOTS of people

Gets power

Gets paranoid (a.k.a. goes crazy)

Ticks off a lot of people

Want more power! Kill! Kill!

Gets what’s coming to him in the end