Macbeth Writing Assignment: Motif and Theme
One of the most important elements of any text is motif, or in other words, a repeated idea, concern, type of conflict, image, type of character, or repeated element that occurs throughout a literary text. What follows is a partial list of possible motifs from Macbeth:
- Blood
- Water
- Fathers and sons
- Mothers and children
- Power
- Milk
- Fate
Directions
Choose ONE motif from the list below.
For your motif, you will need to assemble at least three to four quotes taken from the beginning, middle, and end of your reading so far. All of your quotes need to be directly ABOUT that motif.
Write Two Paragraphs
Please use the class period to write a two-paragraph essay in which you answer the following question about the relationship between motif and theme:
First, Write Your Thesis
Cite Your Data
Cite all quotations, using this example:
_______________________________________________
Sample Body Paragraph
To begin, one of the most important moments of futility in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus occurs late in the play and powerfully communicates Shakespeare’s message that life is an absurd and pointless game played with humans as helpless pawns of fate.At this point in the play, the protagonist Titus Andronicus, a Roman general of merit and integrity, has possibly been driven insane by the horrifying assault on his daughter Lavinia by the two sons of the Roman emperor’s new wife.Lavinia has been deeply damaged by this attack, and Titus finds himself unable to help her, for to do so would be to move against the Emperor and violate Titus’ own sense of loyalty and honor.Paralyzed between the desire to be loyal and the desire to take revenge, Titus loses his grip on reality, and at this point in the play, he wanders into the middle of the palace courtyard and begins to shoot arrows with letters wrapped around them up at Heaven so that the Gods will read Titus’ petitions for help and render justice. Pitifully, Titus orders his servants and kinsmen to “dig with mattock and with spade” until they come to “Pluto’s region,” or in other words, dig a hole all the way to the kingdom of the God of the Dead, and then “deliver him this petition,” adding that they are to “tell him it is for justice and for aid / And that it comes from old Andronicus” (IV.iii.10-16), a moment that crystallizes the futility of Titus’ hopes – and indeed, his whole life.Can there be an image more pitiful than shooting arrows at the sky or digging a hole in the ground in the faint hopes that one’s pleas will be possibly be heard by Jupiter or Pluto?Indeed, the hole does not reach to the land of the dead; the arrows Titus shoots come falling down to the ground, and his pleas are left unanswered.The reader of this play is left deeply unsettled to know that in this world Shakespeare has created on the stage, there seems no purpose, no hope, and no answer to the question of why injustice occurs in human life.As in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, humans often seem the pawns of destiny, unable to do much more than protest against the fates they cannot change.
Other Macbeth Writing Assignment Link
Choose ONE motif from the list below.
- Motif List:
- Parents and children
- Insanity
- Guilt
For your motif, you will need to assemble at least three to four quotes taken from the beginning, middle, and end of your reading so far. All of your quotes need to be directly ABOUT that motif.
- Please do NOT have all of the quotes come from one act or one part of the play only
Write Two Paragraphs
Please use the class period to write a two-paragraph essay in which you answer the following question about the relationship between motif and theme:
- Question: How does William Shakespeare use this motif to communicate the theme of this play?
- Please write a thesis statement, TWO body paragraphs with quotations, and a short conclusion statement.
First, Write Your Thesis
- Please write a thesis statement, TWO body paragraphs with quotations, and a short conclusion statement.
- Your thesis statement must follow this template:
- Thesis template: In [TAG], Shakespeare uses the motif of [motif you chose] to communicate the central message that [put your central message or theme].
- Example: In the tragic play Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare uses the motif of futility to communicate the central message that life is an absurd game with no point.
Cite Your Data
Cite all quotations, using this example:
- Example: For a quotation from act four, scene two, line thirty-six, you would cite it as (IV.ii.36).
- Use the sample body paragraph below to help you. BOTH paragraphs should follow the claim, context, [data, warrant, data, warrant, data, warrant…] conclusion format.
_______________________________________________
Sample Body Paragraph
To begin, one of the most important moments of futility in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus occurs late in the play and powerfully communicates Shakespeare’s message that life is an absurd and pointless game played with humans as helpless pawns of fate.At this point in the play, the protagonist Titus Andronicus, a Roman general of merit and integrity, has possibly been driven insane by the horrifying assault on his daughter Lavinia by the two sons of the Roman emperor’s new wife.Lavinia has been deeply damaged by this attack, and Titus finds himself unable to help her, for to do so would be to move against the Emperor and violate Titus’ own sense of loyalty and honor.Paralyzed between the desire to be loyal and the desire to take revenge, Titus loses his grip on reality, and at this point in the play, he wanders into the middle of the palace courtyard and begins to shoot arrows with letters wrapped around them up at Heaven so that the Gods will read Titus’ petitions for help and render justice. Pitifully, Titus orders his servants and kinsmen to “dig with mattock and with spade” until they come to “Pluto’s region,” or in other words, dig a hole all the way to the kingdom of the God of the Dead, and then “deliver him this petition,” adding that they are to “tell him it is for justice and for aid / And that it comes from old Andronicus” (IV.iii.10-16), a moment that crystallizes the futility of Titus’ hopes – and indeed, his whole life.Can there be an image more pitiful than shooting arrows at the sky or digging a hole in the ground in the faint hopes that one’s pleas will be possibly be heard by Jupiter or Pluto?Indeed, the hole does not reach to the land of the dead; the arrows Titus shoots come falling down to the ground, and his pleas are left unanswered.The reader of this play is left deeply unsettled to know that in this world Shakespeare has created on the stage, there seems no purpose, no hope, and no answer to the question of why injustice occurs in human life.As in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, humans often seem the pawns of destiny, unable to do much more than protest against the fates they cannot change.
Other Macbeth Writing Assignment Link