Working with test questions

1. Working with test questions Remember (from your “Partner Test” handout) : What to think about: interpret historical connections, motifs, themes, character development, etc. What to do: Collect evidence that supports your analysis of the play -- (characters, relationships among characters, interactions of characters [including dialogue], situations, imagery [weather, clothing, for example], quotes that are relevant to character development throughout the play [not just relevant to one scene], conflict [internal and external], symbolism [how it helps author convey the theme], and the theme itself, which offers human insight) Huh? Basically that means Connect The Dots. Show how these parts fit together. Take your assigned “question,” and compose a well developed answer of analysis, showing how this fits into the play as a whole.

2. Sample test question/answer“Sit, worthy friends; my lord is often thus,/And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat./The fit is momentary; upon a thought/He will again be well. If much you note him,/You shall offend him and extend his passion./Feed, and regard him not. — Are you a man?” (3.4.52-57) • To answer this “test question” thoroughly (an A+ answer), you must refer to all of the following (in paragraph form – NOT bullet form): After Banquo’s murder, Macbeth sees his ghostly vision at the banquet. Questioning his manhood, Lady Macbeth tries to snap Macbeth out of his guilt ridden panic so that he will not give them both away to the lords. She tells him that he acts like he is frightened by a superstitious ghost story. This image of manhood is carried throughout the play, opening with Lady Macbeth’s negative perception. She wants to lose her femininity so she can be cold-blooded and commit the murder of King Duncan like a man does. Macbeth, having second thoughts, tells his wife that it's unmanly to murder Duncan while he is asleep; Duncan has been generous to him and is a guest in his home. Lady Macbeth gets abusive and tells him this will make him more of a man. Macbeth flatters his wife, saying that because of her daring plan, he hopes she will only have baby boys: “Bring forth men-children only; (1.7.73). Macbeth, perhaps having learned from his wife, gets two men to commit his murder by insulting their masculinity: “Do you find/Your patience so predominant in your nature/That you can let this go?” (3.1/86-87). Malcolm tells Macduff to “Dispute (his sorrow) like a man” (4.3.220). Macduff replies, “But I must also feel it as a man” (4.3.221). This positive image of manhood differs from Lady Macbeth’s harsh concept of manhood.