Company Report

1. What happens in your scene? Outline the basic events.

a. Before this scene, Macbeth keeps getting reports about Macduff and Malcomb plotting against him in England.

b. There are four characters in the scene: bad Macbeth, good Macbeth, a servant/Seyton, and a doctor.

c. In the beginning of the Scene the good Macbeth questions his motives. The bad Macbeth declares that he does not want any more of these negative reports because they just breaking his confidence.

c. A servant comes in and tells the Macbeths that ten thousand soldiers of the English army are coming. Good Macbeth then talks about how his life is fading, like ‘the yellow leaf’ (L25).

d. Bad Macbeth asks for his armor so that he may fight the English forces and tells Seyton to ‘Hang those who talk of fear’ (L38).

e. Next, the good Macbeth asks the doctor how his wife is doing. The doctor tells him that she is having trouble sleeping and bad Macbeth essentially ignores him and harshly orders him to cure her of whatever she has.

f. Finally bad Macbeth declares that he will never be afraid until the good Macbeth reminds him about the prophesy of Birnam Forest coming to Dunsinane.

g. Bad Macbeth becomes so enraged that he kills good Macbeth, symbolizing his complete transformation into evil.

2. What do you think are the key purposes of your scene?

a. To show evil Macbeth’s defeat over good Macbeth

b. To portray the chaos in the palace before the English and Macduff attack.

c. To illustrate that all hope is lost; Macbeth has gone mad with power and ambition and is blinded to the fact that he is about to be destroyed.

3. How does this scene fit into Shakespeare’s overall purpose in the play?

The scene illustrates how Macbeth has become an evil tyrant. He still has a little bit of good left in him when he asks the doctor about his wife, but he quickly returns to the subject of the oncoming army, and defending his power.

4. Defend your company’s choice of production style.

We decided to split Macbeth’s lines into two parts, good and bad Macbeth. It is clear that Macbeth has essentially gone mad in this scene, but he still shows a soft side of his when he asks about his wife’s health. In addition, Macbeth realizes what a horrible situation he has gotten himself into, which we interpreted as the good in Macbeth expressing his final thoughts. After the soliloquy about his life fading like a yellow leaf, Macbeth fades even farther into evil, when the bad Macbeth asks for his armor to fight the oncoming English army. We chose for bad Macbeth to kill good Macbeth at the end of our scene to show how all hope is lost.