AC+Dean

Act I, Scenes 6,7 Banquo


 * What happens in your scene? Outline the basic events.
 * What do you think are the key purposes of your scene? In other words, why is this scene important?
 * What are your reactions to this scene?


 * 1) In Scene 6, King Duncan arrives to Macbeth's castle with other thanes. He is happy how the castle has a good seat and good air. Lady Macbeth came, greeting Duncan. However, Duncan simply thinks Lady Macbeth is being a great hostess. Duncan went into the castle to see Macbeth. In Scene 7, Macbeth has problems killing Duncan because he is his kinsman, and he is the host, who should be against the murderer not bear the knife himself. However, Lady Macbeth attacks Macbeth on two fronts: one is his love for her, and the other is manliness. Macbeth finally decides to kill Duncan.
 * 2) The key purposes of the scene is to tell 'fair is foul, and foul is fair.' Even though Lady Macbeth seems to be a great hostess, she is planning the worst crime ever. The appearance may not be true for all time. This scene is important that Macbeth makes a crucial decision to kill Duncan. He did know how would he fill if he kill Duncan, but he still decides to kill.
 * 3) This scene is rather pitiful for Duncan. Duncan fails to notice the dagger behind Macbeth. He trusts Macbeth, and enters to the castle to end his life. Moreover, I think Macbeth married a wrong woman; Lady Macbeth was the one to drive Macbeth to evil, and eventually death. Macbeth was a moral character, and it is shown how Macbeth has trouble to decide for the murder. I feel sorry for both Macbeth and Duncan.

=Character Report=

What does your character want in this scnee?
Banquo wants to assist Duncan and visit Macbeth. Even though he heard the weird sisters' prophecies, he has no thought of foul act. He remains as a dutiful soldier.

What is your character's motivation for doing what he or she does?
Banquo is Duncan's thane, so he should be concerned about the king's safety. Moreover, he wanted to see how Macbeth thought of the werid sisters. Banquo currently have trouble sleeping because of them.

What obstacles stand in his or her way?
Banquo is worried about the prophecies; he is troubled by the weird sisters, and he is quite afraid of what will happen. Banquo seems to suspect Macbeth, but he fails to prevent the murder.

What happens when your character confronts these obstacles?
It was not shown in this act, but later, Banquo confessed that he could not sleep because of the weird sisters. He did have problems and thoughts when he visited Macbeth.

Are there any distinctive elements in your character's way of speaking?
Banquo have unrhymed lines, and his voice at Scene 6 seems to be bright because he was impressed by the sights in Macbeth's castle. He praises as he see the martlet and the nest.

What is your character thinking during the scene?
Even though Banquo does not show his thoughts directly, he suspects Macbeth. He fears that Macbeth might do something 'unnatural' in order to achieve the prophecy. He is further disturbed by the thoughts of the weird sisters.

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.

1.Our performance was quite successful. When we discussed how to do the play, we came down to an agreement fairly well. Communication between the members were also fluent; groupmates had the phone numbers, and we could adjust things together even if we could not meet during the break and sudden pouring snow. Moreover, we were able to prepare appropriate costume that fitted to our theme of modernized version. Our group understood the text well, and included some additional stage directions. However, our group stuttured some lines even though we practiced. The ideo of showing the stage direction to the audiences (e.g. Enter Macbeth, Exeuent, etc) did not go well as we expected. 2. Even though I had little lines, I tried to provide maximum help for the groupmates. I suggested how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth should speak, and provided better understanding of the scene and the characters. I also had a role of showing the stage directions to the audiences in order to minimize misunderstanding. 3. It is uneasy to evaluate my performance because I had the character with the shortest lines. I think I showed the emotions well, with the hand gestures and manner of my voice. However, the fault was that I stuttured a little. Even though I did not speak after all, I acted fairly as the thane of Duncan. 4. If I had not been nervous during performance, I would have performed better without making sttutering noise. Moreover, I think it was difficult to perform without rehearsal; it would have been better if we had had opportunity to rehearse at the classroom, and adjust our stage plan. 5. Scene performance helped me to better understand the play because of the annotations and reading the script out loud. Readin the text outloud and silently have a great difference. By reading it out loud, we can have better understanding of the characters' emotions and thoughts. Moreover, it enables to create better imagery. Annotation we took also helped to provide better understanding. When we annotate, we were to find out the unknown words and difficult phrases. By defining them and paraphrasing, we could see the motif of Shakespeare.