Macbeth Project

Adam Magnone and Lena LeGere

Friend monologue (to audience): My dearest friend Lady Macbeth has been villainous lately. Her
presence as she walks into a room is cold and unseen. I’m astonished at the murders that she has
been connected to in the recent times. Her confessions have me sworn to secrecy not to tell anyone
of the crimes she has committed. Convincing her husband, Macbeth, to commit such acts makes her as equally guilty as him. Although she has not physically murdered anyone her verbal commands to kill are heard throughout the mind of her husband. I can no longer bear the weight of the murderous confession that Lady Macbeth has told me. As her dearest and closest friend I have always been by her side, but with this situation I fear I must go against her.
The first murder of King Duncan came with such a shock. Macbeth was not confident and showed signs of weakness when it came to standing up for himself. Lady Macbeth told me that Macbeth had ambition and wanted greatness but lacked the ruthlessness that was needed. Lady Macbeth showed power and strength with her pursuance to murder. She strived for her and her husband to be the rulers of Scotland. Lady Macbeth began to think evil thoughts even expressing to me her desire to rid her of the natural tenderness of her sex and fill her from head to toe with direst cruelty. I didn’t think Macbeth would commit such a crime after faltering with the plan to kill Duncan. At one point Lady Macbeth needed to finish the task by framing the guards with smeared blood and placing the daggers in their hands. After the murder was complete Macbeth immediately felt guilty. Hallucinations crept into Macbeth’s fragile mind when he imagined the guards saw him kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth reassured Macbeth that everything was going to be okay, to just go to bed and don’t get lost in thought. I overheard Lady Macbeth telling Macbeth to, “Look like the innocent flower, but be the snake that’s lying under it.”
I feel that Lady Macbeth is just as responsible for the murder of Duncan. I believe that Lady Macbeth knows that she is just as responsible. Her actions have still shown strength but internally she was weakening. At the state banquet Macbeth started to make a scene. He was talking to an unseen person as if he were talking to himself. Lady Macbeth came to Macbeth’s side to relieve the situation. She told the guests that he had a problem since childhood where he would throw raging fits and to please ignore him so his fit would not be extended. As the guests continued to question Macbeth’s unusual behaviors Lady Macbeth miraculously fainted to put the attention on her. Later that evening after the festivities were complete, Lady Macbeth and I talked. She revealed to me the true reason why Macbeth acted the way he did at the night’s banquet. She told me about how she and Macbeth decided to kill Duncan for the crown and Macbeth set up the murder of his best friend Banquo. Macbeth had seen Banquo’s ghost sitting in his seat that night. I could not believe what I heard and I was quick to put the responsibility of Macbeth’s actions in the hands of Lady Macbeth.
I have visited the castle in the past weeks and have discovered the gloomy tone of the castle with Macbeth becoming less remorseful and Lady Macbeth suffering from the ailments of guilt. I am saddened to say that I feel no sympathy for what Lady Macbeth is suffering from. She initiated Macbeth’s deadly murderous path. Macbeth had decided the night of Duncan’s murder that Duncan did not deserve to die, but Lady Macbeth called him a coward saying he was, “like the poor cat in the proverb that wanted to fish but wouldn’t get its feet wet.” By testing his manhood Macbeth succumbed Lady Macbeth’s pressure. Lady Macbeth has been the catalyst to these murders and she is to blame.
I have watched my friend deteriorate and have heard from the chambermaid of the drastic changes to her behavior in the previous weeks. She has begun sleepwalking and talking in her sleep revealing the plans of the murders. I am not shocked to hear the fall of her strength and the rise of her devastation. She has been in danger of harming herself and others, so I will have no regret saying how I am glad our friendship will no longer continue due to her death via suicide. My reputation was at stake while I was connected to such evil, bloody tyrants. I have now cleansed by mind of secret sins committed by others and entrusted in me. I am now able to move on with my life away from this damaged castle.

3 hour block #2

Today was another 3 hour block to work on our rough draft. Once again 3 hours is a very long time to just sit and type but in the end i got a lot of work done. My paper is close to complete with maybe one or two more simple quick body paragraphs and the the final conclusion. So far my paper is 8 pages and growing but I feel its mixed opinion and factual which keeps it interesting. I will wrap up the rest of my paper this week at home and be ready to turn it in on Friday.

More Writing

Today we had a sub which was unexpected because Mrs. Lib is always here. But despite the sub I still managed to get a whole other page typed which is really good. With the 3 hour block of work coming up I should be able to wrap up the rest of the rough draft complete and have the rest of the week to revise and put the finishing touches on.

Body Paragraphs

Today I made huge progress on my paper and was focused the whole class with ideas fitting together. I managed to write a whole page today which I was surprised to see in such short time. I already have 3 full pages complete and have started my fourth. I'm still working on the problem paragraphs and looking to start my solution paragraphs soon. The 3 hour block will be great to finish and revise everything.

Continuing to Write

Today I wrote several problem paragraphs with a lot of detail. I used one of my sources about fixing a failing high school that was published in the Daily Gazette about Schenectady High School. I thought this was a great source to use in the beginning of my paper because it involves the whole purpose of my paper which is alternative education here at the High School. I already have 2 whole pages of writing done which went by so fast after the thoughts just started flowing. In the next few classes hopefully my essay gets wrapped up.

New Source and 1st Body

Over the weekend I came across an article on the district homepage about the Smart Scholars Early College High School program. At first I didn't think the article was going to be useful but once I read into the article more I visioned in my mind where I could incorporate the article in my solution paragraphs for alternative education. I also started my first body problems paragraph. I feel my intro is pretty good and am happy they way it turned out.




Here is my intro...

Imagine a school where the students are respectful, focused, and disciplined to achieve the best education they can receive. This type of school is not the type of academic environment offered at Schenectady High School. Schenectady High School has a majority of the students doing the right thing in and outside the classroom. However, there are specific students that are distracting, unfocused, disrespectful and much more not only to themselves but to teachers and surrounding students trying to do the right thing. These specific students need to start spending more time in the classroom academically and less time causing issues that are distracting to others. The ones that are doing the right thing are the ones that suffer the most by having to stop a lesson for the teacher to discipline a student. The academic environment is disrupted by specific students and those students are in need of an alternative education where they are taught in a nontraditional classroom setting away from the rest of the student body.

Start of Writing

Today was the day that I have been preparing for with research and finding sources. I established a solid thesis at the beginning of class and used that to write my hook and rest of the intro paragraph. I think im going to make a quick simple survey just to get other opinions on what students think are distracting in shcools. I think Im going to work on that tomorrow and then start writing my body paragraphs.

Taking Surveys

Today I decided to help out my classmates and take the surveys that have been posted. I hope my answers and responses help out those who are conducting the surveys. I have completed my note cards, outline and citations so I am right on track. I am starting to see my essay form in my head and will begin typing my rough draft in the coming days. After doing the surveys it helped to see what others are talking about in their topics and what they are trying to change.

Day in the Library

What a day! Three hours in the library sitting in the same seat is a long, long time. Luckily I was able to keep the focus going for the whole time which really benefited me. I was able to complete many note cards and am quickly approaching the end of them. With only a few more sources to go I will use the weekend to fully complete them. I really like how the note cards are able to be put into piles because it's a great way of organization. Overall the 3 hours went well and was defiantly great to have this large block of time to just work. Being able to work straight without interruptions really helped vision in my head how my essay was coming together and what note cards went together and ones that didn't.

Notecards

Today was dedicated to note cards. I was able to complete note cards for one of my sources and still have many sources to complete. As I continue to knock out each note card I'm quickly noticing how fast 20 note cards is going to take to reach. I'm pretty sure that i will exceed 20 which will only benefit my essay in the long run I hope. Tomorrow in the library I will continue knock them out and have them done for Tuesday. Looking forward to the 3 hours tomorrow to get a lot of work done.

Outline and Notecards

Today was a productive day with the start of what is hoped to be a strong outline. I will continue to change and tweak my outline throughout the writing process but for now I have established the base of my essay. I also was able to complete my first notecard. Unfortunately my survey will not be published because of browzer issues but it's all good because I feel I have enough information already.

Making a Survey

Today was the chance I had to start the creation of my survey. I came up with several questions relating to my topic. I still have some work to do on it but hope to launch it to the public in a couple days after I complete it. I hope this survey conducts enough research for my topic. Over break I will continue research on the computer as well as conduct more questions for my survey. As I gather more research my outline will begin to form

Day of Organization

Today was a day of organization in creating my noodle tools account and citing my sources. So far I have 5 articles related to my topic that I feel will help me write my paper. Today instead of researching I decided to give credit to the authors of my articles. They deserve the proper recognition for providing these articles. Tomorrow I hope to continue researching further articles and prepare myself to write a great proposal for change paper.

Day #3

Today involed some good research with reading articles from our local Daily Gazette. The one article that stood out was an article on Steinmetz and how the students are progressing at a higher rate due to the vocational program. The research will continue to happen and maybe I will start generating surveys on what the students find to be distractions. Im becoming more interested to see how other states and schools deal with distracting and distruptive students.

Researching Time

Today was an interesting day of research for my topic of distracting students. It has been hard to find detailed articles about alternative schools or plans for distracting students. However, I have been finding out a lot on what distracts students in schools which is very helpful. Cell phones and computer use have been the main articles that I have read. I only found one article on how schools deal with expelled students. Hopefully the research will pick up with more articles on my topic.

Day #1

My topic is distracting students in the high school.

My main focus is researching ways to remove the distracting students from the students that actually care. Now the controversy is what is the definition of a distracting student because my opinion may be different than someone else's. I need to find out what students feel are distracting things.