Who (or what) is really to blame for Duncan’s murder?

Lady Macbeth

                                                                                                 

  During Macbeth there are many factors that lead up to the murder of Duncan, and one of the min ones was Lady Macbeth. She contributes many things such as persuading Macbeth, assuring him that it is the correct thing to do, she fills herself with pure evil and becomes intoxicated by the thought of being queen.

 

She persuades Macbeth to kill king Duncan, because at first he tried to put it completely out of his mind. She tells him that ‘When you durst do it, then you are a man”. This is taunting Macbeth, but this also persuades Macbeth because he does not want to seem weak in front of his wife. He wants to impress her, and therefore when she mocks him he has to commit this act.  Furthermore the fact that she would “Have pluck’d my nipple out, from his boneless gums // And dash’d the brains out” further emasculates Macbeth. She is saying that she would coldly slaughter her own baby rather than go back on what she had said before.

 

She gives Macbeth confidence when she says “We fail!” because it attempts to erase the terror from Macbeth’s mind. By doing this she assures that not only will he not be worried but she is also reassuring herself.

 

She fills herself and Macbeth with cruel poison, which allows the pair to commit the act. “Fill me from the crown to the toe-top-full Of direst cruelty” By filling herself with poison it makes it possible and even easy to commit this murder. She wants to be almost made out poison and horrible substance.

 

She becomes obsessed with becoming queen, which put even more pressure on Macbeth to please his wife. She says that Macbeth is ”too full o’ the milk of human kindness” showing that she will do anything to become queen. Also by thinking to herself and expressing this lust to Macbeth she further put the idea of being king into Macbeth’s mind. 

Explore the differences between the two versions of Macbeth and how they tell the story of the play’s opening

Explore the differences between the two versions of Macbeth and how they tell the story of the play’s opening

 

 

Although both these clips were showing the same scene they had very distinct differences and interpretations, which were shown by how they were acted out.

 

Overall the first one portrays the play in a way you might think Shakespeare may have intended it. In the first scene the witches come across as very old, dishevelled creatures, like the typical storybook witch. They seems almost to weak to move, yet have the power to see into the future.

 

This contrasts greatly to the second idea, where the witches are much more sophisticated, but seem brutal in their words and actions. They speak with immense force that comes with their words because they almost shout them to each other. Also instead of carefully burying the dead man, they kill the patient on the bed and then forcefully rip out his heart. I think this makes them seem more vicious, showing that the fortune they give Macbeth could be nothing but terrible.

 

Furthermore in the first, Macbeth seems not to be perturbed by what the witches say, but merely intrigued. I think that this makes him seem very valiant and noble because it shows that he is happy with is position and does not have the greedy thirst, which is portrayed in the second.

 

Where as in Jon Finch’s version Macbeth calmly walks towards the witches, in the second play he runs, desperately chasing after them.  This forms an idea of weakness of Macbeth, and I think this first hunger continues to come up during the play. Later this extreme curiosity drives him to kill the king just to find out what would happen after, to fulfil this prophecy.

 

Overall I think that the first one is very mysterious and dark, where as the second one makes the witches seem terrifying, which forms a chilling atmosphere around them.

Some Links about “A view from the bridge”

http://www.theenglishzone.org.uk/page_2415597.html – This one is very interesting because it shows a couple of different clips from different productions and gives a view from Miller as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAH8LmYjDhA – This one Is an interview of Miller as he explains to us how he perceived Eddie as a character.

Alfieri

Miller writes “A View from the bridge” from the perspective of a helpless Alfieri. He ” watched it run it’s bloody course”, making it seem as if there was nothing he could do to prevent a destructive ending. Miller says that Alfieri “watched” implying that he almost as if he was not involved, but looking on, through a screen into Eddie’s life. This is also effective because it adds to the metaphor of Alfieri look down from the bridge.

Also Miller depicts Alfieri in a very calm, collected and fair person. He says to Eddie that ” I understand you. But the law is very specific” which shows that Alfieri understands Eddie’s problem but he is trying to explain to Eddie that legally there is nothing he can do. Furthermore He explain “I have children of my own”, which is an attempt by Alfieri to calm Eddie down. He is trying to tell Eddie that he recognises the situation, but there is nothing wrong with it. He has worked with similar people and can even personally relate and Eddie needs to accept that this is a normal relationship and that Catherine is happy.

How does Miller create tension at the end of act 1?

How does Miller create tension at the beginning of act two?

Miller creates tension by exploring the opposing views of Eddie and Marco. In the last page just after the mood seems calm, Marco asks “Can you lift this chair?” which challenges Eddie physically. After Eddie fails Marco lifts it and “raises the chair over his head”. This changes the situation because all of a sudden Eddie is no longer in control. Marco makes a big statement here, because it shows that Eddie can not push his brother around. Before Eddie seemed to be in control but now Marco has showed he is not the only “strong” man in the house.

What do we learn about Eddie’s relationship with Beatrice in this Scene?

What do we learn about Eddie’s relationship with Beatrice in this  Scene?

 

The first thing Miller explores here is that Eddie and Beatrice not only don’t seem to be intimate but also not very close as a couple. When Beatrice asks “When am I going to be your wife again, Eddie?” it asks lots of questions about their life together. This is an extremely strong comment because it questions the effort and commitment of Eddie to Beatrice. But Miller also queries the devotion of Eddie’s love and affection and perhaps begins to imply that he is paying too much attention to Catherine.

 Secondly we learn that Eddie is often not completely supportive of the right motive, where as Beatrice always tried to do the honest, kind act. Beatrice almost becomes angered when she enquires “What’s the matter with you? He’s a nice kid, what do you want from him?” and begins to show that she may not be satisfied with his behaviour. Although Eddie wants Catherine to be happy he doesn’t want it to be with anyone but him, which could be starting to frustrate Beatrice because all she want is for Catherine to grow up and be happy.

 Also Miller portrays a lack of intimacy between the couple in such a way that Eddie cannot express his feelings and emotions to Beatrice. She tells him to “Talk” to her but he replies hesitantly that he “can’t talk about it.” which is strange especially for a married couple. If Eddie has a problem the one person he should always be able to tell is his wife but they don’t seem to be close enough to do that.

 

 

Ruler of Paragraphs

 Always address the writer.

 Use the fewest possibly words for the topic sentence.

 By including the writer in your sentence you are always going to analyse

 Embed the quotations to keep sentence flow.

 When analysing evidence look closer see more – look beyond the surface.

What tensions does Miller Portray during the arrival of the Italian Cousins?

What tensions does Miller portray during the arrival of the Italian Cousins?

 

There are lots of tensions during the time the Italian cousins first arrive but they all base around the differences in the family. Whether it be culture, appearance or accent everything is a possible source of tension.

 

The tension is evident from the beginning, even before the Italian cousins arrive. Miller does this by including the episode of Vinny Bolzano betraying his family. When Eddie says,” Just remember kid, you can quicker get back a million dollars hat was stole than a word you gave away.” we can see that Eddie is very nervous about this subject which is very interesting because it shows how much he must have changed by the end.

 

Miller also emphasises the huge affect that the cousins are going to make upon the family by mentioning their imminent arrival. “And toward 10 o’clock” gives an exact time frame to the impending disaster so that we can see just how quickly things go wrong.

 

The all-round tension in the group is due to the competition between Eddie and Rodolpho for Catherine’s affection.

 

Rodolpho is enticing to Catherine mainly because he is different to all the other men she has ever seen. Firstly he has blond hair which contrasts to the almost compulsory dark brown hair of Hispanic Americans. Furthermore his hobbies of singing and making dresses further confuses Eddie. His idea of men are physical, hard labour men who provide for the family, but suddenly Rodolpho appears and is opposes all these guidelines.

 

Also we see Eddie try to stop Rodolpho from singing which looks simple on the outside but he has a deeper reason behind it. We can tell from, “He’s terrific! It’s terrific, Rodolpho.” that she is really enjoying it but for some reason Eddie stops him trying to assert his power in the household. He gives the excuse of the immigration officers becoming suspicious because suddenly a singer appears, but it seems that this is not his real reason. He stops Rodolpho because he can see that he is detracting Catherine’s affection from him. He doesn’t want Catherine to love anyone but him and therefore doesn’t approve of anything that other people do to impress her.

 

At this point in the scene it seems that Eddie has control but this disappears at the end where Catherine asks Eddie if he wants sugar in his coffee. This is a bold action from Catherine because it shows that nothing Eddie does will stop her from growing up and liking Rodolpho.

My Essay on Alfieri’s Opening Speech

What do we learn about the world in which this play is set from Alfieri’s opening speech?

 

A lot can be learnt from the wording and phrases included in Alfieri’s opening speech which really opens up the whole play. It starts to unravel the mood and atmosphere to be set during the play and what the people in it are going to be like.

 

The first thing Alfieri does is to introduce himself, but this is not just an introduction but more and explanation of why his character is such a good person to play the narrator instead of the typical Greek chorus. He notices that the longshoremen who nod to him do it with a certain unease. He then goes on to state that he is a lawyer. In this environment this is the perfect job to link the world of the sleazy and unfortunate with the well of respected world, which Miller refers to as “On the Bridge”. Alfieri deals with the dirty cases in the poor neighbourhood but in doing so is a very important man in the rich world settling “compensation cases and evictions”.

 

But this idea of the pitchers being uneasy around the lawyer opens up the whole air of mistrust in the neighbourhood. These people are dishonest and therefore when they see a lawyer it is almost always bad. He also says “Justice is very important here”, but when he says this he doesn’t mean the kind of justice which he deals with, but much to the contrary. These people are related to the great smugglers of the world such as Al Capone and live their life somewhat how he did. As Alfieri very well explains this, in this type of place “the law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were beaten”.

 

But this is also a very clever statement by Miller because it is referring back to the Greek tragedies, which he is trying to in one way replicate but at the same time prove the whole ethos wrong. He says that tragedy can happened to anyone. In a way this play is a statement to show that because tragedy is occurring in one of the lowest and poorest places in the world, where as in Greek times it would always happen to someone of great stature like a king, or in Shakespearian times a powerful leader such as Macbeth.

 

Furthermore Alfieri then goes on to introduced what he thinks of the area that Eddie lives in and how it used to be. The first thing he relates to the area are the death of “the greatest Carthaginian of all” showing that back in the days when he was just street scum on the street life was even worse, and even more of a “slum” than now. But it seems he prefers this as he think he “no longer” needs “to keep a pistol”. Yet even with all this improvement it is still a dishonest, unjust place.

 

In conclusion its not just the things he says which opens us up to this world of Eddie and Alfieri’s but how he says it.

A* in ENGLISH

1.  You don’t use the first word that comes into your head; you realise hat language is rich and that we make choices about whether to say “the big event” or the “major / significant / momentous / important / groundbreaking / event” based on context and audience. This is very important because if vocabulary is very basic then writing becomes very repetitive.

 

2.  Depersonalise writing by avoiding over use of “I”. This really helps because it shows that you are writing a formal essay instead of a casual piece. Although it is good to use formal language too much can ruin it.

 

3. You will be confident in analysing language, knowing that this means answering the questions ‘why?’ and ‘how?’ This is also extremely important because when you read a passage you have to be able to tell the examiner that you understand why certain phrases create such a big effect. Therefore you have to be able to analyse everything in this sort of question.

 

4.  Make it sensuous, especially visual this is improtant in writing because you have to be able to write interesting passages not just analyse others. Therefore using imagery and other techniques can help towards this.

 

5.  Use a range of punctuation to add nuances to your work – commas, semicolons, colons, dashes. Without correct punctuation writing can look messy and also very long. Punctuation helps to break up text but also make it more effective.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s Retirement Speech

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22504383

This is Sir Alex Ferguson’s Final Speech at the last home game of him managing the great team which is Manchester United.