The JCI Prison Scholars Program

Tag: macbeth

  • Advanced Literature (8/15/14)

    Mikita Brottman writes:

     Today we read the murder scene in “Macbeth,” and I was surprised how focused the men were. Each of them was following the text closely; some of them were even running their fingers along the lines and mouthing the words to themselves silently as the readers spoke their parts. The room was unusually quiet and tense as the scene unfolded, the silence outside the room disturbed only by the occasional raised voices and laughter coming from the classroom next door. During the murder itself, the men were alarmed by Macbeth’s jittery behavior, and annoyed with him for forgetting to leave the bloody daggers in Duncan’s chamber with the grooms. As we read, I realized that, although I’d read Macbeth many times in many places with lots of different kinds of students, I’d never read it with people who might very well have experienced such a crime first hand. From this point of view, Macbeth really was making a hash of things.

  • Advanced Literature (4/8/14)

    Mikita Brottman writes:

    In Advanced Literature (Tuesday 2-4pm) we watched Acts IV and V of Polanski’s adaptation of “Macbeth”. When watching the first three acts a week earlier, I’d been surprised the men had found the movie rather dull and slow. This may have been due to the fact that we were watching on a very small screen with the lights on, the door open and noises in the hallway outside, but it may also have been, as one of the men explained, they’re accustomed to watching action movies with fast editing and not much dialogue. Plus, since we’ve been reading the play for the last five weeks, everyone was familiar with the plot and knew what was going to happen. However, this week the men seemed far more engaged and involved, and after the movie was over we had a long discussion about the ethics of fighting a losing battle, as Macbeth does at the end, and about whether Macduff does the right thing in leaving his wife and children to go and defend his country.