English Literature

Unit III: The Renaissance

Week 11
Please read:

William Shakespeare: Macbeth, p. 191-264.

Read this through carefully. For our discussion this week, I would like to concentrate on a few different things:

• Plot: how is the plot of this play constructed? Where does action rise and fall? What particular things drive the plot?
• Shakespeare's language: how does Shakespeare control sound to help create the dramatic moment? How does he use ambiguity in meaning? What are his sources of imagery and metaphor?

In each of our subsequent discussions on Shakespeare, I hope that we can tie our points in with that week's reading, but also with what has gone before. Keep your eyes open for ways to compare these things.

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