[Drama] Listen to Your Wife Macbeth!

    Now it’s time for the second Action Project of the term! This one is for this term’s Humanities course, Drama. In this course, we plan on reading three different plays, each with its own unit and theme. The class is focused on gender norms and how we can relate each play to them. For this unit, we read The Tragedy of Macbeth and focused a lot on Lady Macbeth. We talked about how she fills the role of queen and how she compares to some modern-day queens. Macbeth of course was written a long time ago and gender norms were different then. Despite that, I feel that Macbeth is quite progressive for its time as it displays a strong, smart woman prominently. For this AP, we were tasked with creating a sonnet, which is a 14-line poem that uses Iambic Pentameter and uses a specific rhyme scheme. The sonnet is addressed to a character in Macbeth of our choosing. I chose Macbeth himself because I think if he had just listened to his wife the outcome of the prophecy would have been more favorable to him. Here is the sonnet:

Listen to Your Wife Macbeth

Foolish king, ye sit high upon that throne  

Filled with empty meaning that thee hast won  

Thy stupid paranoia has been shown    

You’ve made Lady Macbeth’s mind come undone   

Duncan’s dead, Banquo’s dead, both at your hands   

In past, your wife’s advice kept you in check    

Thou ignore it, and see where your head lands 

Hear all advice ‘fore blood runs from your neck 

Every gender is equal in this life 

“She should have died hereafter”, you monster 

Only your ambition fuels your strife 

 If only you’d listen, you’d stay ruler 

Remember, your fate is prophesied now 

Respect it and give us your final bow 

    That was my sonnet! Overall, I really enjoyed this unit and I always enjoy experiencing Macbeth. I’ve seen Macbeth as a play, as a movie, and now read it in book form. I have never written a sonnet before and I think this was a really good experience. I often write other forms of poetry and I think that learning about new formats helps my writing skills as a whole. The biggest obstacle I faced in this unit was probably applying gender to my project. My idea was to advise Macbeth on how he could have fulfilled the prophesy and lived a long life in kingship. I somewhat did that while also incorporating gender talk. All in all, this was a very fun project and unit!