Homework - 22/08/2012

In role as Macbeth, reflect upon what you have learnt about the concept of ambition by the end of the play.

It once seemed such a positive thing to be ambitious. To strive and work towards something I wanted. The work was always tough, no matter what I was aiming for. Sometimes it would all seem much too hard, retiring seemingly the best option. But my ambition always pushed me forward, motivated to achieve my goals. And how sweet success was. Once the tough times were over and all the hard work was done reaching a goal was much more fulfilling than simply being handed what you wanted. But now I am left wandering whether ambition is such a good thing. Everything I have done, every sin I have committed was all due to my ambition which was twisted and corrupted.  The weird sisters prophecies drove me to insanity, corrupting my ambition to a point beyond repair. My ambitions, already firm in place, did not change, but the way I went about it achieving them did. My desire for power was to strong to ignore. I needed to be king and would go to unimaginable measures to assure my position in the throne was secure.  Ambition so corrupt led me to King Duncan’s chambers late one night. He was the only person standing between the throne and me so I killed him. I murdered the king. Once I had killed one, each time it became easier. I became king, I had the throne but my position was not secure. Banquo was suspicious. Also aware of the prophecies, my best friend Banquo did not believe they could have come true without me aiding them. He also knew that his descendants were to take the throne, starting a new line of kings in his name. What if he chose to overthrow my rule? I couldn’t risk it, so I ordered the murder of my best friend. The prophecies had allowed my ambition to take the better of me. I was limitless, killing anyone who threatened to strip me of my power. I even had Macduff’s entire family murdered, even the women and children, because I feared his disloyalty to me. My ambition, once one of my best features, is now my worst. I was weak, allowing my ambition to be corrupted by the promise of power. And where has it got me? Nowhere. I have murdered my king, my best friend and so many others. And now I am alone. My dear wife, Lady Macbeth is gone forever and my own army has turned against me. What’s done is done. I cannot take back my actions and my corrupt ambition has now led me to my end. What was once my greatest feature is now my greatest undoing. 

Macbeth Homework

Write a page in which you reflect on the use of the “Fair is foul, foul is fair” motif so far in the play. Trace its overt use but also use it to reflect on the characters. For example, how does it affect your view of Macbeth who is introduced as brave and noble? Publish to your blog by 4 pm Tuesday next week.

In the play so far, “fair is foul, foul is fair” is a motif seen throughout. This motif is first made clear when the three witches chant, “fair is foul and foul is fair” after a meeting with Macbeth in scene 1 act 1. This motif is reflected through the three witches who feel that anything that would usually be considered as “fair” is in fact “foul” and that anything that would usually be considered as “foul” is in fact “fair”. The witches speak in paradoxes and this motif is a good example of this.

         The motif is also reflected through the character Macbeth who is introduced as brave and noble. Being brave and noble is considered to be a positive thing and in this case could be considered as “fair.” As the play progresses, it becomes evident that Macbeth is not in anyway “fair.” Through his ploy to kill the king in order to obtain the crown, it becomes clear that on the inside, Macbeth is truly “foul.” Things that appear to be fair may really be foul and things that appear to be foul may really be fair. The roles are reversed and things are not as they may appear at first glance.

         Another example of this motif in the story is in the balance of nature. What may appear to be a good and fair day for Macbeth, such as after he has been crowned king, starts a chain of events that are foul due to the imbalance of the natural order.

The Tables Turned - A Poem by William Wordsworth

Subject Matter:

The poem is saying that there is much more to learn and experience outside, in nature than there is in a book. The character is being encouraged to put his book down and go out into nature to learn things that his books could never teach him.

Purpose

The purpose of this poem is to promote nature and the environment and what it has to offer people and what it can teach people.

Emotion

The emotion in the poem is excitement about all nature can offer you. There is a positive attitude shown which encourages the reader and the character to want to experience what nature can teach them.

Craftsmanship

• Structure Each stanza of the poem is made up of four lines. Every second line of the rhymes eg.

The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow

• Language The language used in the poem is formal and uses many uncommon words and phrases such as lore, come forth, hark and blithe. Some of the phrases are difficult to understand due to the words being very formal and not often used in everyday language.

• Imagery The poem creates an image of beautiful woods, mountains, the sun, green fields and other aspects of nature. This is done by using adjectives to describe things. The use of these adjective paints a clear picture in the readers mind. eg.

The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow

Through all the long green fields has spread,

His first sweet evening yellow.

• Movement

• Sound When reading the poem, you can imagine hearing birds singing beautifully. This is described in the poem. eg.

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!

Summary

The poem is saying to stop spending so much time indoors, in this case reading books, and to go out and experience the world. The message is that nature can teach you many things about yourself and the world and that it does this better than any book can. This poem is still very relevant today as many people spend lots of their time indoors and do not get to spend much time in outdoors. It is still relevant because nature can still teach people the same things.

THE CRITICAL READING PROCESS:

The title "The Tables Turned" indicates that there is a change or a swap in the poem. The saying "the tables have turned" means that everything has changed or that things are the opposite of what they were before. This can be a positive or negative change.

The apparent meaning of the poem is that nature can teach you a lot more that a book can. This could be tied in with the title because the character reading the book is about to change his life in a big way and start learning from nature. Another possibility would be that everyone has always thought you could learn everything from books, but now it is said that is not true and that nature can teach you more.

Go back to the Prologue of Alice Pung's Unpolished Gem and write a paragraph that discusses how the author utilises language choices to construct the colourful atmosphere of the market and the interaction between Alice's father, the stall holders and other customers. In your paragraph, you should aim to explore how Pung positions the audience to view the market place and its customers though her use of language.

In the prologue of Alice Pung's Unpolished Gem the author is very descriptive with her words. This helps create a strong image in the reader's mind of what the market place was actually like. The author describes what is seen such as fat pigs hanging from hooks and thin people waiting to buy segments of the pigs. The author also describes what the characters can feel such as the wet blood on his shoes as well as what the characters can hear. The market place is compared to Phnom Penh, and in comparison the market place seems very nice. The author uses lots of adjectives to describe the appearances of people in the market place as well as how the different shops looked and the whole crowded market place in general. The author spells words the way that a person who could not speak english well would pronounce them so the reader gets an idea of how the father, the stall owners and the other customers communicate. The author positions the audience to see the market as busy, loud and hectic and make the audience see that conversations were very difficult.

Family Member

Choose a member of your family (this can include a pet if you think it would be easier to write about) and write a piece of prose that invites the audience to develop a clear picture in their mind of the individual. You don't have to mention his/her name but you do need to work on appealing to the senses of the reader. Try to be creative in your description by utilising emotive language, similies, metaphors, personification, etc.

One member of my family spends all of her time outside. She is playful and energetic and loves to run. She is beautiful and majestic. She has long white hair that forms a curtain over her eyes. Our neighbour is her best friend who she spends nearly everyday with. Her favourite foods are carrots and apples and she is a vegetarian. She will take you anywhere and can always be relied on. Her nose is pink like a rabbits and she has whiskers on her chin, just like an old man. She always has a wooly coat and a long pony tail that sweeps the ground as she grazes. She is very quiet, barely ever making a sound and she gives the best hugs. She is my horse Silky.

TASK: Take your readers on a journey into a childhood memory.

It was an extremely hot day, probably in the mid thirties, in central Australia. I was really excited for what we were about to do. We got on a bus early in the morning and travelled through the vast dessert of the Kata Tjuta National Park. For miles all I could see was red dirt with the odd tree standing alone. The dirt road was bumpy and left a cloud of red dust in it's wake. Within a few minutes, I could see an enormous rock standing out in the distance. As we approached it grew larger and clearer. In front of us was the magnificent Uluru. As we got off the bus, I realised how big Uluru actually was and how high I would be once I climbed it. As we began to climb my sister got really scared and stopped. My mum and brother stopped with her, but I ran off up the rock even though I could hear them yelling at me to stop. I sped up the extremely steep incline and climbed up and down the deep ridges. It was hard for me considering that I wasn't tall enough to reach the bottom of the dips or the top of them once I slid down to the bottom. Some people stopped to help me get up and down. At one stage I was slowly sliding down a ridge that had a sharp turn at the end and I realised how dangerous it actually was up there, but that didn't stop me from making it to the top as quickly as I could. The view from the top was absolutely break taking. I could see for what felt like forever. I stayed up there for a while, just admiring the view. I then made my way down, much more slowly and carefully than I made my way up. Down the bottom I met up with my mum, brother and sister who were not happy with me for running off. We looked around the base of Uluru at some of the Aboriginal artwork. Once we had seen everything we made our way back to the bus for the drive back to our hotel.

Everyone is on a journey

TASK: Experiment with language choices to create a story that paints the picture of your journey to or from school each day. Rely on showing rather than telling the audience what you see, hear, smell, etc. on your daily journey.


My brother rushes, over the fence, away from our crazy dogs, jumps in the ute and slams the door with a bang. "Sorry" he whines, knowing exactly what my mum was about to say. The little car wizzes down the quiet road, passing the rolling golf course and the crazy lady with her manic dog. Everything is peaceful, only seeing one or two cars on the winding road surrounded by enormous trees and little houses, that is until we hit the motorway. Here our journey reaches a halt. All I can see ahead of me is lanes banked up with cars and trucks so big you can barely see their roof as you slowly creep by. Mum is getting angry, "I told you we should have gone the other way! Why are people stopping? This is ridiculous!" she exclaims. I sit there, bored and listening to my brother trying to tell my sister about different types of cars he sees, even though she isn't the slightest bit interested. Mum is still raging about the traffic to anyone who will listen. I turn the radio on, relieved when the traffic speeds up and spreads out and mum stops stressing so much about being late to work. I listen to the upbeat song playing on the radio and look out the window. "What is that smell!" my sister suddenly yells. At first I don't know what she's talking about, but then I to notice the most horrible smell I've ever smelled. We all turn and glare at my brother who is laughing hysterically. "It's not funny! It's disgusting! I yell. And at that, all the windows are wound down to let the refreshing breeze into the cars and drown out the smell. The traffic has lessened now and everyone is traveling quickly, in a rush to get to their destination. Eventually we exit the freeway onto a road that is only slightly more interesting. A few gloomy factory-like buildings and a bus station are all that line this busy road. The radio is still playing as we turn onto a quiet street. We pass little wooden houses, all painted in pale colours, and continue down this road, past people walking their dogs and riding their bikes to work. Past strips of shops and cafes just opening their doors, until finally reaching our destination. School.