Real-Life Communication
English professors must love books, reading and literature.
"English
professors have to have vastly superior reading and writing skills," says
Carol Gerson. She is an English professor. "This is what we specialize in."
You
are an English professor specializing in Shakespearean studies. You are preparing
to write a scholarly paper on the play Macbeth. In addition to teaching, professors
must produce and publish original research in scholarly journals.
In
the play, Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth plot to murder the king, Duncan,
so that Macbeth will inherit the crown. You are interested in the guilt, fear
and paranoia exhibited by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
The scene: It is
late at night, long after the king has gone to bed. Lady Macbeth waits for
Macbeth to return from Duncan's bedchamber, where Duncan and his guards sleep.
Macbeth re-enters but is obviously upset by what he has done. Lady Macbeth
tries to pull him to his senses:
Macb: Macbeth shall sleep
no more!
Lady M: Who was it that thus cried? Why worthy thane,
You
do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brainsickly of things. -- Go,
get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.--
(she
notices the daggers in Macbeth's hand)
Why did you bring these daggers
from the place?
They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
The
sleepy grooms with blood.
Macb: I'll go no more:
I am afraid to
think what I have done;
Look on't it again I dare not.
Lady M:
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers; the sleeping and the dead
Are
but as pictures: 't is the eye of childhood
That fears the painted devil.
If he do bleed,
I'll gild the aces of the grooms withal;
For it must
seem their guilt.
Questions
- Why does Lady Macbeth want the daggers left in Duncan's bedchamber?
- Why can't Macbeth take the daggers back?
- What does Lady Macbeth do to fix the situation?