Dr Faustus

Prologue

Not marching now in fields of Thrasymene,
Where Mars did mate the Carthaginians,
Nor sporting in the dalliance of love,
In courts of kings where state is overturn'd
Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds,
5    Intends our Muse to vaunt her heavenly verse:
Only this, gentlemen,—we must perform
The form of Faustus' fortunes, good or bad:
To patient judgments we appeal our plaud,
And speak for Faustus in his infancy.
10     Now is he born, his parents base of stock,
In Germany, within a town call'd Rhodes:
Of riper years, to Wertenberg he went,
Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him up.
So soon he profits in divinity,
15     The fruitful plot of scholarism grac'd,
That shortly he was grac'd with doctor's name,
Excelling all whose sweet delight disputes
In heavenly matters of theology;
Till swoln with cunning, of a self-conceit,
20    His waxen wings did mount above his reach,
And, melting, heavens conspir'd his overthrow;
For, falling to a devilish exercise,
And glutted now with learning's golden gifts,
He surfeits upon cursed necromancy;
25   Nothing so sweet as magic is to him,
Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss:
And this the man that in his study sits.

I have highlighted the parts that i found interesting within the Chorus of Dr Faustus.  This is important as it is telling the audience what the play is not about. As the audience we get told that it is not a play about love or good deeds and more a play about morality and religion. We are also teased with the idea that black magic is involved. This is in line 25. We also discover that Dr Faustus is in fact high on the academic ladder and has achieved a lot throughout his life. However, it seems as if he has become very arrogant.

Act 1 Scenes 1 - 4

 Act 1 Scene 1 Line 1 'Settle thy studies,' which means to make your mind up about what you want to do in life. This shows how Dr Faustus is unsettled about what he is going to do and he is talking to himself and the audience about making up his decision. He does this by searching through many books in his study. Then eventually stumbles across a book of magic.
Act 1 Scene 1 Line 24 'Wouldst thou make man to live eternally? Or being dead, raise them to life again?' This line relates to Victor Frankenstein because of the symbol of creating life.

There are two angels in the play and these are the good angle and the bad angle. They appeared just as Faustus begins to get interested in the book of magic and they show a sign of moral conflict. This links with the 'morality play'. When Faustus begins to fantasize about what he could have if he was on top of the world because of the magic. We see clear evidence of how he does not plan to be completely selfish, and he does have ideas for the world itself to make it a better place. This is shown in lines 90 to 94. 'I'll have them wall in Germany with brass... I'll have them fill the public schools with silk... students shall be bravely clad... I'll levy soldiers with the coin they bring'.

In act 1 scene 2 there are many significant words that are used such as 'conjure' and also there are many references to religious artifacts within the play already so far.
Again in Act 1 Scene 2 we are introduced to the characters of 'First scholar' and 'Second scholar', these characters enter the play causing some unease. This is because they both immediately make the audience aware of the danger Dr Faustus is entering.

Act 1 Scene 3, this is when we meet Mephistopheles for the first time, he brings a dark aroma to the play as he talks about 'hell' and he also talks about how he is bound to hell and therefore cannot help anyone. We discover that Faustus did not actually summon him and in fact Mephistopheles heard him mumbling the spell and he was curious as to whether he could take his soul.

Act 1 Scene 4 is when we are first introduced to the deal that Faustus has offered '24 years of luxury life and he will send off his soul. From lines 104 to 116 Faustus speculates about what he could do if the deal is accepted.

Throughout Act 1 Scene 4 we can also see that there is a parody of the bargains Faustus is about to make and this highlights his foolishness. This parody is reflected in the scene with Wagner and Robin. Also in Act 1 Scene 4 Robin who is a clown expresses his vulgar side and becomes very crude talking about tickling 'the pretty wenches' plackets!' 

Overall i think that so far the play has been very interesting and i think there is much to come from Faustus' actions in relation to the magic. I think that the play has very important characters and the humor within the play is also very significant typically within the time the play was on stage.

Macbeth Act 5 Notes

Act 5

Scene 1

• The scene are specifically short in act 5.
• Lady Macbeth is obsessed with washing her hands and thinks that Banquo might come out of his grave.
• This act is important because it shows that Lady Macbeth is decending to madness, and shows how she has transformed as well as Macbeth from the beginning of the play.
• Lady Macbeth never goes out without a light now which is said in lines 21-22.
• Lady Macbeth is known to repeat 'to bed, to bed, to bed' and repeats 'whats done cannot be undone' which she has said in the novel before.
• Lady Macbeth is afraid of the dark, and the novel is set it the dark.

Scene 2

•  Macbeth doesn't have any friends and that is clear by this scene as he has no one to back him up, who genuinely cares. The only people who fight alongside him are the ones who are scared of him or feel its a duty not a necessity.  

• No one argues with Macbeth but no one agrees with what he does.

Scene 3

•  This scene confirms Macbeth complete dominance.
• There is a significant amount of reference to colour in this scene.
• From line 20 onwards Macbeth seems to remark on how old he is and that he has lived his life and maybe it is time for the end.
• Macbeth is prepared to fight and wears his amour as soon as he finds out. He states that he is willing to fight until 'bones my flesh be hacked'
• When he is asking after his wife he says 'How does your patient?' this doesn't seem to show any love, care or affection for the women he has spent a proportion of life with.  He doesn't really care about his wife.
• Lines 46-47 are said by the doctor and these lines are important because it shows the doctor having a little moan at Macbeth. This is extremely significant because is shows how people aren't afraid of Macbeth any more now that they no an army is coming to fight him. 

Scene 4

• Line 9 suggests that Macbeth has lost all feeling, he has no emotions and doesn't have the behaviour of a human.
• When Macbeth finds out that his wife has died he doesn't seem to care and has an 'about time' attitude on the whole situation. Shows how detached the couple have become when dealing with their own problems that have developed.
• 'life is just a walking shadow' Macbeth describes life as meaningless and a waste.
• Macbeth is clearly showing through speech and attitude how nihilistic his life has become.
• Ring the alarum bell is told by Macbeth and this is important because it was what was said when  the Kind died. And not Macbeth is about to die.. is it foreshadowing?

Macbeth Act 3 Notes

ACT 3

Scene 1


In Act 3 Scene 1 the three witches are making a spell and talk about using body part within the spell. This is all part of the supernatural. During the spell they stop and say 'something wicked this way comes' (referring to Macbeth. The reference to Macbeth as 'something', this makes Macbeth seem less human which also fits with the theme of the play. But, also alongside the word 'wicked' also referring to Macbeth which shows how the witches see Macbeth even though they are supposedly wicked too.
Whilst Macbeth is with the witches in this scene he demands to know more on his future and to find out everything the witches know. Is Macbeth trying to obtain the knowledge and the power of the witches? Why? The witches then agree to show Macbeth a few more things about his future, however they do this through apparitions.

1. The first apparition is an armed head. - foreshadowing the end of the play, with Macbeth's head?
2. The second is a blooded child. - Who is the child, Fleance, Macbeth's unknown baby?
3. A child crowned with a tree in his head. -resembling the forest?

Macbeth thinks he is invincible and the no one will try to kill him. The 3rd apparition may have also been a reference to Banquo's children. Even though Macbeth is so assure of himself that no one will try and hurt him he still wished to no what is going to happen with Banquo's children.
Shakespeare has chosen for Macbeth to ask lots of questions when in the room with the witches, he has done this to show how worried Macbeth really is of the unknown.

Macbeth has also planned to kill Macduff's family. This relates back to how power hungry Macbeth really is and how mentally damaged he is becoming, that Macbeth is losing the reality point of life and has created a word of his own in which he assumes he will avoid all punishment and that he can do no evil.

Scene 2

[Notes on the reading: parts in bold are important.]

LADY MACBETH
Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content:
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.

Lady Macbeth talks with a typical rhyme much like the witches, and seems to talk very powerful until Macbeth walk in the room. Lady Macbeth also uses an exception amount of words beginning with the letter D, why?

Enter MACBETH

How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done.

MACBETH
We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it:
She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let the frame of things disjoint, both the
worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.

Macbeth is known for referencing towards animals. Why has Shakespeare chosen to include such specific animals in Macbeths speech.The animals are chosen specifically in the book to help keep the gothic genre fluent throughout the book, its also another way to symbolize and show the situation and power shift that has taken place.

LADY MACBETH
Come on;
Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night.

Does this speech show how Lady Macbeth doesn't want him to carry on with what he is doing anymore, and that he should appreciate what he's got. 

MACBETH
So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you:
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;
Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
Unsafe the while, that we
Must lave our honours in these flattering streams,
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.

LADY MACBETH
You must leave this.

MACBETH
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.

A second reference to animals, which helps to back up the view earlier.

LADY MACBETH
But in them nature's copy's not eterne.

MACBETH
There's comfort yet; they are assailable;
Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

LADY MACBETH
What's to be done?

This shows Lady Macbeth asking what Macbeth is going to do. This also shows the power shift, where as before Lady Macbeth was the one who had the plans for what they were to do. She is unsure of the situation.

MACBETH
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood:
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
So, prithee, go with me.

The lines highlight show the weather change that has taken place, since the murder of the King, and also in this speech of Macbeth we see how Macbeth also begins to talk like the witches with the rhyming. Also, this is when we see that Macbeth has really changed, because he is making plans with out Lady Macbeth's involvement. 

Macduff's wife is highlighted as 'wife' in the play, she has no name, just her title. Shakespeare has chosen to do this because it shows how she isn't that important and that her status is nothing special.  The scene includes Macduff's wife, her son and Ross. Ross is the cousin of Macduff's family and he keeps check with the family whilst Macduff has gone to England to try and convince the King of England to come and fight Macbeth. A messenger comes along and tells the family they should flee because Macbeth has ordered for them all to be killed. However, its a little too late and the whole family are killed.

Exeunt

Scene 3

Line 13 'was once thought honest' was used to describe Macbeth, this shows that everyone is realizing Macbeth's true character and shows the change of Macbeth's character through the play. Macbeth is decribed horribly by Macduff and Malcom this is another reflection of how sinister Macbeth has become and also shows how Macbeth now has no friends.
This scene is important because it shows how things have changed and that everyone is now against Macbeth.
At the end of the scene Ross comes to England to personally deliver the news of his family, this has been included also to show his reaction when he told. Because this then explains why Macduff acts the way he does at the end of the play.

MACBETH ACT 2 NOTES

At this part of the play Macbeth has not been suspected as the murderer and the plan has come true and Macbeth has become the king. However, the kings two son's Malcolm and Donalbain the kings son's have been suspected of the murder, simply because they fled soon after finding out about their fathers death.
The next interesting part of the play is that after the king is killed, strange things begin to happen to the animals. Including the horses running away, and they eat each other. Also, there is a line in the book which symbolizes many other things, like a falcon towering in her pride of place was killed by a mousing owl. This could suggest that the world has been tipped upside down and that class has switched and people who should be higher in life are now not in charge simply because Macbeth who is a lower rank than the king has now taken over.
Another feature which shows a subtle hint of Gothic genre is the weather, it is said by Lady Macbeth that the weather has changed an now appears to be a lot darker during the day time, and stays dark even throughout the night. This may be because of the witches, however, it could also be because of the turn in events.
Nearer the end of the act Macbeth plans for Banquo and Fleance to be killed. This is interesting because this time Macbeth doesn't use his wife or even hear from her when he makes the decision. This is strange because of how different things are after a short period in the novel, and also this shows how things have changed and how Macbeth's attitude and remorse has shifted since the first murder and becoming King.
My final note is that Lady Macbeth begins to talk like the witches in a certain tone, even Macbeth is sometimes seen as talking in rhythm the same as the witches.

Macbeth Act One Reading Journal

Reading notes from act one of Macbeth:

• Macbeth is a consideration of male power.
• A work of destructive despair
• How power corrupts
• Marxism links with power and so Macbeth links with power, therefore Marxism
• Is Macbeth a morality play or a psychological drama?
• Is Macbeth the eponymous hero - linking with Marxism?
• Iambic tetrameter 
• Macbeth has a tragic flaw - believing one thing he has been told by the witches.
• Brave Macbeth - disdaining fortune
• The play opens with the captain talking about how Macbeth slaughtered someone.
• Macbeth character is power hungry
• Is Macbeth just effected by stress from the war - post traumatic stress.

200 word Mini-Essay

How far do you agree that the two novels are mainly about prejudice?

To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of how Scout Finch, her brother Jem and friend Dill learn about prejudice, honor, human nature and racism in the small southern town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s.To kill a mockingbird is terrifyingly true, in the way that prejudice lingers a chilling theme through the episodic novel told by a six year old motherless girl; Scout Finch. The episodic events are all pulled together when a climatic event arouses Scout’s father, lawyer Atticus Finch, and agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, from the charge that he raped a white woman, a decision that divides Maycomb. This is when the bulk of prejudice hits the novel. We see just how bad times where in the south of the 1930’s and how in reflection to racial theme and it shows the novel is told through black and white and how one man can shock the town by standing up for someone with such allegations against him. However, I do not agree that prejudice is the main theme because although Harper Lee allows racism, gender issues, poverty, violence, and death in the novel; To Kill a Mockingbird has an emotional even romantic feel that doesn’t allow for true darkness and sorrow to enter it.

1st September 1939

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade: 
Waves of anger and fear 
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth, 
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death 
Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use 
Their full height to proclaim 
The strength of Collective Man, 
Each language pours its vain 
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare, 
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are, 
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

The windiest militant trash 
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish: 
What mad Nijinsky wrote 
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart; 
For the error bred in the bone 
Of each woman and each man 
Craves what it cannot have, 
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
'I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,'
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game: 
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the dead,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street 
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky: 
There is no such thing as the State 
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

• Very cultural including many time references and significance.
• Setting - Manhattan, New York.
• Relates to death and mortality.
• Irregular rhyme.
• Free verse
• Symbolism and metaphoric speech.
• Unlike other W H Auden poems he isn't telling a story - more of a train of thought.
• The poem was republished just after 9/11.
• 'Where blind skyscrapers...'- All the power and height means nothing as you can't actually see what's going on in the society down below.
• Huge enjambment is used.
• Chronology time.
• Nijinksy and Diaghley  -Two people who had a stormy relationship- Represents the countries?
• Collective voice, not just individual voice.
• The masses falling for work.
• Is the poem him using his voice?
• Imagery -linking too the valley of ashes?
• Gives a feeling of lost hope.
• Relates too how life is not secret or good -They are all robots to society.