AC+JenniferN


 * Act X Scene I - DOCTOR

What happens in your scene? Outline the basic events.** - At the King’s palace, doctor and gentlewomen observe Lady Macbeth’s strange acts - Lady Macbeth sleepwalks with eyes open, holding a candle - Lady Macbeth laments the murders of Lady Macduff and Banquo - Lady Macbeth washes her hand in the air trying to wash off her guilt - Doctor and gentlewomen marvel at her insanity and metal suffering - Doctor informs gentlewomen that he cannot remedy her condition

I think the key purpose of this scene is to portray Lady Macbeth’s consequences for seeking too much desire and ambition. Despite the fact that she used to be the one who is aspiring and confident to commit anything to achieve what she wants, we could evidently see her transformation by observing her anxiety and depression in this scene.This scene is very important along with the scene of Macbeth’s transformation because it shows how there always comes responsibilities for every actions you take and what you have done always comes back to you. It is interesting to note how the personalities of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth became reversed compared to earlier acts. Moreover, the introduction of the doctor and gentlewomen indicated how the people in the country feel about their King and Queen.
 * What do you think are the key purpose of your scene? In other words, why is this scene important?**

I am rather surprised by how extreme Lady Macbeth had changed. Lady Macbeth was first introduced in the book as a character who encouraged the King to do anything to obtain and retain the position of the king without being concerned. However, she is apparently a completely different person, who cannot disregard her evil deeds in the past. Although, I feel as Lady Macbeth somehow deserve her decline because she had done numerous actions such as murders which can never be forgivable.
 * What are your reactions to this scene?**

What does the character want in this scene (this is the objective)?** Doctor wants to find out what is causing Lady Macbeth bizarre symptoms which he never encountered before. As he seems to have a clue of what Lady Macbeth is saying in her sleep, he wants to keep gentlewoman from knowing.
 * Character Report

As a doctor, he wants to determine what her strange deeds such as sleepwalking and rubbing hands in the air are influenced by. Moreover, genuine curiosity and concern for Lady Macbeth is also motivating the doctor to try to find the cause of her symptoms.
 * What is your character's motivation for doing what he or she does?**

The doctor has a hard time solving such as having the problem of finding out what is unique about Lady Macbeth’s symptoms, spending two nights just observing Lady Macbeth. The doctor says “This disease is beyond my practice: yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds”, meaning that her deeds might be incurable.
 * What obstacles stand in his or her way?**

The doctor challenges his obstacles by doing things like writing down to remember better, asking gentlewoman many questions, persuading gentlewoman to tell him the secrets she is having from the doctor and more. As he listens to Lady Macbeth’s sleep talk and observes more, he becomes curious to sympathetic to anxious.
 * What happens when your character confronts these obstacles?**

The doctor had various elements in his way of speaking. For example, as the doctor was trying to find out what Lady Macbeth had been going through, his tone became convincing as if it is compulsory. Moreover, the doctor turns mysterious when he tries to discourage gentlewoman from knowing the clues of Lady Macbeth’s actions. Lastly, Macbeth has a tone of sympathy as he talks to himself about unnatural deeds and unnatural troubles, hoping Lady Macbeth to become better by asking forgiveness to God.
 * Are there any distinctive elements in your character's way of speaking?**

In this scene, the doctor is not only trying to discern the symptoms of Lady Macbeth, but as well as trying to avoid gentlewoman from finding out why Lady Macbeth is confessing appalling felonies. When Lady Macbeth unconsciously blurted out some hints about what is the cause of all her queer acts, the doctor was startled and tried to hide gentlewoman into the dark. The doctor was overall very awed and interested in Lady Macbeth in this scene.
 * What is your character thinking during the scene (this is the subtext)? (How does he or she react to the other characters and events?)**

Student Reflection**
 * Macbeth Scene Performance

- Although we were in the group that had to postponed the performance date due to absence of one of our members, I thought our group’s performance was decent on Monday’s class. Since we were the last group to go, we learned many things from the previous groups which really helped our performance. We were unable to find the real props such as the candle however the red stick that I brought turned out to be helpful portraying the blood on Lady Macbeth’s hands. All three characters’ physical and emotional features were nicely depicted, including our voices, facial expressions and more. One of the things we can improve is to be more dramatic in our acts. - I believe I contributed quite fairly to my group. I brought most of the props and costumes, and I practiced my lines several times to make as least mistakes as possible. Moreover, I tried to refer the scene performance on Youtube and made connections to our situations with other members. - As an individual, I think I performed well. Except few minor mistakes in my lines, I was able to deliver the motivation and objectives of the doctor. Although I saw few comments about the doctor and the gentlewoman should try to be more dramatic, I still think too much emotions for those two characters are unnecessary in our scene. - One of the things that could have improved our scene performance was to be more dramatic in few of the characters. For example, I thought the lamentation part of Lady Macbeth needed to be much more exaggerated to show the great amount of sorrow she feels. - By doing the scene performance as well as the annotations, it was helpful for me to better understand by knowing the specific mood, voice, emotions, characters’ intensions and more. After reading the script out loud for many times, I could understand deeper into Shakespeare’s words and how he used to present his ideas.
 * 1. Evaluate the performance of your group. What went well? What didn’t go well?**
 * 2. How well did you contribute to your group?**
 * 3. How well did you perform as an individual?**
 * 4. What could have improved your scene performance?**
 * 5. How did the scene performance help you better understand the play.**