This term’s humanities course is called ‘Drama’, and its guiding questions are ‘How can theatre be used for social change?’ and ‘How do we respond to gender norms and stereotypes?’. This unit, we read Macbeth by Shakespeare, played some physical games, and delved into gender roles with questions like ‘what is a queen?’. We also spoke with actors and playwrights and watched a film adaptation of Macbeth. The action project for this unit was to write a Shakespearean sonnet about gender roles while addressing a character from Macbeth and giving them advice. My sonnet addresses macduff, who I chose because after being sad that all of his family was murdered because they were just in the way, he is told to ‘dispute it like a man’. throughout my sonnet i basically say “yea that’s really rough that you were told not to express your feelings but you totally did the right thing in the end”
Here’s an audio recording of me reciting the sonnet in my churchill voice:
here’s a transcript so that you may follow along:
it’s really sad thou were treated this way
when all was lost, ‘dispute it like a man’.
if i were you, these norms i would betray.
and find someplace to open up my can.
when i am sad i rarely would attack
instead of that i’d take myself to bed
and cut some time to rest and slack
rest helps me prepare for futures ahead
but I have not endured your tragedies
and i cannot know how i would react
i see how this could fill capacities
and i agree, macbeth should’ve been sacked
but still, macduff, you should have time to mourn
because from all your family you were torn.
What I enjoyed the most during this unit was reading the play. I feel like the main takeaway is that because of how ingrained gender roles are into society, you can look at many pieces of media through their context. Something easy about this action project was picking a character to write about, the hard part was actually doing it. The best way to get around how hard it is to write poetry is to just do it, though.
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