'Macbeth' revision: 10 key quotations

The sixth of seven discussions of key issues in Macbeth, via SoundCloud. You can listen via the computer, but can also download the free app for iOS or Android and listen on your phone/tablet. Listen to the full series here. 

This podcast is a little difference: a series of quotations which you can test yourself on. Pause the recording after the quotation and write notes on the significance of these key lines.

Things to consider this time:

• what is the significance of fear in the play?
• in what way does blood permeate the whole story?
• how is the phrase 'unnatural troubles' central to the play?
• how is Macbeth conscious of the diseased nature of his own mind?
• how does Macbeth become steadily less free?
• why is Banquo a key figure in the way we look at Macbeth?
• what is the significance of the image of Duncan's horses? 

'Macbeth' revision: the supernatural

The fifth of seven discussions of key issues in Macbeth, via SoundCloud. You can listen via the computer, but can also download the free app for iOS or Android and listen on your phone/tablet. Listen to the full series here. This podcast deals with the supernatural in the play, particularly as it influences Macbeth's own thoughts and actions. It concentrates on the witches' influence in the early part of the play.

Things to consider this time:

• in what way is the play distinctly 'theological'?
• just what is the relationship between the supernatural and the human?
• how are the witches 'catalysts'?
• what does Macbeth's 'start' at the witches' prophecy signify?
• what are Banquo's words that might be 'the most perceptive in the play'?
• how do we see the unnatural 'taking hold'?
• how does Macbeth become reckless and plunge further into a moral abyss?
• how much is Macbeth responsible, compared to the witches, for what happens?

'Macbeth' revision: Malcolm as hero?

The fourth of seven discussions of key issues in Macbeth, via SoundCloud. You can listen via the computer, but can also download the free app for iOS or Android and listen on your phone/tablet. Listen to the full series here.

Things to think about this time:-

• Why does Shakespeare allow the scene in England with Malcolm and Macduff go on so long?
• What is the importance of speed in the play? How is it manifested?
• What do we learn of Malcolm in IV iii?
• In what way might we have mixed feelings about Malcolm?
• What is the importance of this for the central tragedy of Macbeth himself?

'Macbeth' revision: law and order in Scotland

The third of of seven discussions of key issues in Macbeth, via SoundCloud. You can listen via the computer, but can also download the free app for iOS or Android and listen on your phone/tablet. Listen to the full series here.

Some things to look out for and think about:-

• how does Macbeth embody the views and values of Shakespeare's society?
• what was man's place in the 'great chain of being'?
• in what way was 'order' crucial?
• what was the nature and origin of the King's power?
• how is Scotland disordered at the start of the play?
• what sort of a King is Duncan?
• what is the importance of a new King?
• what kind of monarchy does Scotland have?

The real Lady Macbeth

As we start on Macbeth revision prior to the Leaving Certificate, here is the second of seven discussions of key issues in the play, via SoundCloud. You can listen via the computer, but can also download the free app for iOS or Android and listen on your phone/tablet. More in the coming days. Listen to the full series here.

Here, Lady Macbeth is the subject. Things to listen out for and think about this time:-

• in what ways is Lady Macbeth complex and fragile?
• where do we see that she is very conscious of herself as a woman?
• how is she a 'moral being'?
• where do we see examples of her loneliness and isolation?
• what does Harriet Walter mean when she says Lady Macbeth tries to suppress her imagination?
• how does she become less and less important?
• what does the sleepwalking scene say about her state of mind?

'Macbeth' revision: the crucial moment

As we start on Macbeth revision prior to the Leaving Certificate, here is the first of seven discussions of key issues in the play, via SoundCloud. You can listen via the computer, but can also download the free app for iOS or Android and listen on your phone/tablet. More in the coming days. Listen to the full series here.

This talk deals with the crucial 'If it were done' soliloquy in Act I scene vii, and here are things to listen out for and think about.

• why is this the crucial turning point of the play?
• how is Macbeth's confusion expressed in the speech?
• what are the key words?
• how is the idea of 'jumping' or 'leaping' an important one here and elsewhere?
• what is the significance of the word 'But' on line 7?
• by the end of the speech, what is he very clear about?
• how can Lady Macbeth change his mind so apparently easily, given what he has said here?

'The Peregrine Falcon'

Alexander Brennan from First Form wrote this poem as an entry for the recent Junior Poetry Prize:

The Peregrine Falcon

A dot in the sky

A bird gracefully soaring.

How I'd love to fly,

Ducking and gliding,

A beautiful sight for the eye.

Diving and searching,

The most elegant of things

As it beautifully sings.

A flash -

A frenzy of feathers,

A poor creature trying to dash

And a mouse in tatters.

A clash of beaks.

And then, soaring up, again.

'The River of Life' & 'Taxis at Night'

Two more entries for the recent Junior Poetry Prize (both on the key theme of 'Voyages').

Taxis at Night

By James O’Connor (I form)

They pass, like lightning flashing.

Almost not there, I suppose.

One hundred thousand stories

Just outside my window,

All so different, yet all the same.

I can still hear it now,

Like some crazy kind of music.

A baby was crying.

Some people, yelling in the street

As the midnight fiddle player played on.

Time may pass, generations will come and go,

But those one hundred thousand stories never fade.

They pass, like lightning flashing,

All so different, yet all the same.

The River of Life

By Grace Goulding (I form)

Light

Soft

Gliding

Into a trickle.

Swaying side to side, flowing.

A stream tip-toeing

Into another stream.

All of a sudden

Bang!

Like a bullet it slices through

Everything in its way.

He is strong and powerful,

Like a cheetah hunting its prey,

Chasing its desire.

That small trickle

Has turned into a

Deep, horrific storm:

He is raging and angry.

Yet, he slowly calms

Down

And takes

A rest.

He knows

He's home.

'King Lear'

This evening, all our Fifth Form go to the Ormonde Cinema in Stillorgan to watch the National Theatre Live production of King Lear, directed by Sam Mendes. An opportunity to see the great actor Simon Russell Beale, among others.

Junior Poetry Prize 2014

Congratulations to Nyla Jamieson, winner of this year's Junior Poetry Prize. Here is one of her poems, 'The Tear'.

The tears welled up in her sorrowful eyes,

They brimmed on the edge of her lower eyelid.

There, the water built up until there was a small pool.

The pools glistened in the dull light.

Suddenly a tiny drop of warm water

Tumbled over the edge of the eyelid,

Like a fledgling taking its first leap.

The tear fell over the dark area below her eye

That looked like a bruise.

It showed off the many sleepless nights before.

The tear caught on the tiny hairs on her cheek.

It slowly made its way down her face,

Leaving a glittering trail behind.

Slowly, slowly, slowly,

It trickled down.

Then it fell.

She turned away from the mirror.

'Macbeth' resources

Here is a summary of some resources for study and revision of Macbeth, which will be updated frequently during the year. It's on the lines of our much-visited Hamlet page.

1. Seven revision podcasts, including:-

• The crucial moment : the soliloquy in Act I scene vii before the murder.
• The real Lady Macbeth.
• King Macbeth - law and order in Scotland.
• Malcolm the hero?
• The Witches and the Supernatural.
• A quotation auto-test.
• Macbeth's tragic end - 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow ...'
• And all seven are also on Soundcloud here.

2. The whole text of the play in a variety of formats - put it on your computer/tablet/e-reader for easy access.
3. Notes from a thought-provoking talk on the play given by the playwright Frank McGuinness at the Abbey Theatre.
4. BBC Bitesize microsite for revision (level - GCSE).
5. Times Educational Supplement resources, including our own podcasts [requires registration].
6. Shakespeare Searched: a 'Google for Shakespeare' - terrific resource for looking up quotations, self-testing and so on.
7. 'Macbeth in Monaghan' series on RTÉ radio [podcasts].
8. A series of ShowMe analyses of key moments in the play, using video and audio annotation. 
9. Newbridge College 'resource pack' on the play. 
10. Evelyn O'Connor at LeavingCertEnglish.net has a series of posts on the 'Blame Game' in the play here. 
11. A quotation auto-test [written] to prompt some thoughts...

More coming...