Old Message on Thesis Worth Sharing

This is a message and reply from a previous semester worth sharing:

Dear Professor Randolph,
I am still stuck on my thesis. I have been playing around with several ideas, and was wondering if I could have some advice. I was planning on doing the Orson Wells and Roman Polanski movies Act 2 Scene 2. I noticed that through the different clips I found on the two movies a big difference in the way Lady Macbeth speaks to Macbeth(not necessarily in this scene) . In Orson Wells version she seems to be supportive and yet strong and in Roman Polanski she seems seductive and in charge. Is this something worth writing a paper about or would it be to easy to get off track with this theme?

That is EXACTLY what you should be looking for--significant differences that merit focus.  In this case it is basically the characterization of Lady Macbeth (and likely Macbeth as well)--at a key point AFTER the killing of Duncan. Does she keep him in control or lose him (assuming she ever was in control)?  Because you are focusing on how she handles him, you will want a key passage of dialogue that demonstrates what you see (for example, the passage beginning with line 46 "Who was it that cried?" might be good, for she is lecturing Macbeth.  How does that come across in the different adaptations and why?).  An obvious passage for this would be the 1.7.47-59 passage where she "unmans" Macbeth, but I like that you are picking a different scene.  It means you can focus on other aspects that make up characterization in film, such as color, angle, sound, lighting, movement, shot, costuming, etc., At the same time you can look at how this is a great place to analyze Lady Macbeth's relationship with Macbeth because it is between the two other obvious pivotal scenes that depict their interactions (1.7 where she convinces him and 3.4 where obviously she has lost him--or not depending on the version).  You can see YOUR scene as both a follow up to 1.7 and a predictor of 3.4, but also how she handles a crisis situation.  She is, after all, the one who cleans up his mess (which, of course, she can never wash off her hands).

More Ideas

Note that you could also focus solely upon Lady Macbeth's acceptance or challenge to gender identity and expectations.  Is she a feminist (remember our discussion at the beginning of the semester)?  Does the performance of Lady Macbeth accurately depict gender roles that match the setting of a particular adaptation?  For example, is  Maura Tierney's performance of Scotland, PA's Pat Macbeth a result of the feminist movement and sexual revolution of the sixties (remember that the film supposedly takes place in 1975).

William Carlos Williams meets Macbeth

 I have posted a "light" discussion due next Thursday entitled The Macbeth "This is just to say" Poem. For this post you just need to try your hand again with William Carlos Williams' poem "This is just to say," only this time write it from the perspective of one of the characters in Macbeth (Macbeth to McDuff or Lady Macbeth to Duncan are pretty obvious, but you could also use the comical porter from Act II Scene 3 toward any number of characters, including his own libido after drinking too much, for it "provokes the desires, but it takes away the performance").

This is a good precursor to the final Adaptation projects.  If you have yet to consider the assignment, realize we are nearing the halfway point of the semester.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Macbeth in Act V Scene v

Finish the Scottish Play
Maybe you are starting to feel like Macbeth as the play draws to a close, with the monotony of school and assignments piling up like bodies in Act V, seemingly serving no purpose or goal.  But we ARE moving into the the writing stage of the first portfolio essay, so hopefully you will not feel yourself to be but a mere shadow in the classroom.

We will finish reading the play that shall not be named because it is cursed by next week, and finish our discussion of it as well, leading the way for you to begin writing your papers (see assignment below).  If you have not done so already, you should also read the first three chapters from your textbook, In Production: Macbeth Through the Years, As Performed: By the Royal Shakespeare Company, and "Hours Dreadful and Things Strange": Macbeth in Popular Culture. These will need to be appropriately incorporated into your portfolio essay, which we will discuss the following week (2/) when we cover MLA documentation.

Post a "Working Thesis for Portfolio I-Drama Analysis (Response)"

• Post a working thesis for your Portfolio I-Drama Analysis for discussion in class on Wednesday/Thursday.  These are due BEFORE class!!!  Take into consideration the discussion of the thesis that I provide here in the blog OR if you need some supplemental information, read Rutgers University's Jack Lynch's explanation of the thesis, along with some good and bad examples.

The key to this assignment, and subsequently to your essay, is to make sure that you craft a cohesive sentence that covers all the bases of the assignment while leaving you wiggle room to explore your topic (i.e. NOT write a fill-in-the-blank 5-paragraph theme thesis). As has or will be discussed in your conference or in class, your essay needs to:

• Focus on one scene from within the play
• Address the original text/dialogue of the play
• Analyze two different adaptations of the play
• Focus on one primary element of drama (character, plot, setting and staging, dialogue, performance, theme) or a sub-category of one of the elements.
• You could also address an element of film in your thesis if relevant to your argument (though it is expected that you will address film elements in your body).

Many of you have struggled with the open-ended nature of the "What is Literature?" assignment, especially in formulating a thesis, so at least this assignment will appear to be more concrete.  However, you need to make sure that your thesis has the potential to give your essay direction from introduction all the way through to the conclusion WITHOUT falling into the trap of listing differences or simply providing a synopsis of a particular scene.  One of the best ways to write a thesis is to create a cause and effect argument.  Note the "difference" between:

When focusing on Act I Scene iii of the play, there are many differences between the settings of Orson Welles' 1948 adaptation Macbeth and Billy Morissette's 2001 Scotland, PA.

The differences in setting between Orson Welles' 1948 adaptation Macbeth and Billy Morissette's 2001 Scotland, PA demonstrate how each director targets a specific audience and its cultural background, which is especially noticeable when looking at Act I Scene iii from the play.

The first example can easily slip into a boring list of differences without much purpose, whereas the second example gives the writer much more focus and something to prove in his or her essay for each required component (the text and each adaptation).  The second example also sets up a great scenario for using both William Proctor Williams' "In Production: Macbeth Through the Years" and Douglas Lanier's "'Hours Dreadful and Things Strange': Macbeth in Popular Culture" to support the argument of the thesis--either in an introduction or somewhere in the body or the conclusion.