Macbeth
By: Grant Hutchings
The Weird Sisters and Their Wicked Plot
Literacy Devices in Macbeth
Ex: Macbeth knows there is an army marching against him and he goes to the witches for assurance that he will be able to win the coming battle. The witches conjure up apparitions that tell Macbeth, "Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him" (Shakespeare 123). I know this is foreshadowing because later in the book Birnam Woods do come against him, and right after so does his defeat.
Comic Relief: inclusion of a humorous character, scene,or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.
Ex: Right after the serous scene of Macbeth killing Duncan and the two guards, Macduff and Lennox meet a drunken porter and they joke about him having too much to drink. "...I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometimes, yet I made a shift to cast him" explains the basic humor of the scene that is intended to relieve some of the tension of the earlier scenes in the play.
Aside: when the character says something but it was not supposed to be heard by the other characters even though the audience can hear what is said.
Ex: "[Aside] Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day" (Shakespeare 25). This gives private information to the audience that the author does not want the other characters to know but wants us to.
The Weird Sister's Foreshadowing
Drunken Porter with Comic Relief
Two Girls Talking Aside
The Witches' Cousin in OZ
For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film)