The Glen High School

English Home Language

Grade 11
Workbook & Study Guide

The more that you READ

The more things you will KNOW
The more you LEARN,
The more places you’ll GO!
Dr Seuss

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Glossary of literary terms 4
Punctuation 10
The types of abbreviations 12

Poetry
Sedition 14
Random notes to my son 15
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning 17
A far cry from Africa 19
Da Same Da Same 21
Eating poetry 23
London 1802 24
Mid-Term Break 25
Anthem for doomed youth 26
Small Passing 27
Those winter Sundays 29
To the doctor who treated the raped baby and who felt such despair 30

Novel: Things Fall Apart

Introduction 32
Character List 34
Chapter Summary 37
Themes, Motifs and Symbols 55
Glossary 59
Contextual Questions 64

Drama: Macbeth
William Shakespeare 83
The Elizabethan era 83
Historical Context 87
Character List 88
Summary of the play 94
Themes, Motifs, Symbols 103
Contextual Questions 108

Language
Friendly letter 128
Formal letter 129
Parts of speech 130
Sentence structure 132
Malapropisms 137
Tautology 137
Summary writing 138
Punctuation 140
Direct and indirect speech 142
Active and passive voice 143
Vocabulary 144
Comprehension 146

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Visual literacy 153
Past Papers 159
Bibliography 212
Index 213

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 Glossary of Literary Terms

 Account for - Give reasons for or an explanation for something being asked.
 Acronym – a pronounceable word formed from the first or letters in phrase or
name(e.g. ABSA)
 Aesthetic – 1. Sensitive to the beauty of a language and thus sensitive to and
appreciative of the lasting value of texts 2. An aesthete is a person sensitive
to artistic beauty. ’Aesthetic’ refers to the beauty to be found in the work of art.
One can discuss the aesthetics of a work, or make aesthetic judgements.
 Alliteration – a repetition – at close intervals – of the same CONSONANT
letter or sound.
 Ambiguity – double meaning created by the way in which words are used;
when used unintentionally, ambiguity obscures the meaning (e.g. ‘General
flies back to front’ or ‘Short children’s stories are in demand’)
 Analogy – 1. Finding similarities in things that are usually seen as different. 2.
Finding similarities in things that are usually seen as different, a way of
explaining or illustrating something, but not a proof. One must be alert to false
analogy. There should be accurate correspondence between the thing that is
explained and the details of the analogy.
 Analyse - Take apart an idea, concept or statement and examine and criticise
its sub-parts in detail. You have to be methodical and logical.
 Anecdote – narratives of small incidents or events told for the purpose of
information, entertainment, humour, malice, or to reveal character.
 Anti-climax – when an expectation of some high point of importance or
excitement is not fulfilled or the seriousness of a literary plot is suddenly lost
as a result of a comical, digressive or meaningless event.
 Antithesis – the expression of two opposed or different ideas in balanced
contrast (e.g. ‘more hate, less speed’).
 Antonym – a word that is opposite in meaning to another word in the same
language (e.g. ‘happy’ and ‘sad’).
 Assess - Describe a topic’s positive and negative aspects and say how useful
or successful it is, or consider its contribution to knowledge, events or
processes (this is usually about how important something is).
 Assonance – Repetition (mostly) of vowel sounds in two or more words (e.g.
‘It is June and the world is all in tune’). The vowel sounds do not have to be
precisely the same: assonance could consist of a series of vowel sounds that
create a certain effect.
 Audience – the intended reader(s), listener(s) or viewer(s) of a particular text;
in planning a piece of writing the speakers/writers must take into consideration
the purpose and audience when choosing an appropriate form of writing, in
particular an audience in those attending a live performance of music or
drama.
 Authentic texts – texts which have a practical function and are not literary
(e.g. magazine and newspaper articles, recordings from radio and television,
advertisements, product labels, travel brochures, government forms,
examples of real letters).
 Bias – a tendency to favour one thing, idea, attitude or person over another
which makes it difficult to make a fair assessment.
 Caption – a title or comment attached above or below an article, a picture, a
photo, and so on.

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 Caricature – 1. an exaggerated portrayal (written or visual) of a character
which is achieved by mocking personality traits or appearance. 2. The
drawings of cartoonists in newspapers are usually intended to be caricatures
and work by exaggerating or distorting features of appearance with a view to
being comic or satirical.
 Cause – that which gives rise to an action or condition.
 Cinematographic techniques – devices used in construction of a film (e.g.
composition, lighting, type of shot).
 Clarify – making the meaning of the text clearer to the reader.
 Cohesion – the linking of sentences or paragraphs by means of logical
connectors such as conjunctions, pronouns or repetition.
 Colloquialism – language belonging to ordinary or familiar conversation but
not used in formal language.
 Compare – to assess the way in which things are similar.
 Compare and contrast - Describe similarities and differences among objects,
concepts, people or ideas and come to a conclusion.
 Conflict – the struggle that arises between characters or between individuals
and their fate or circumstances; conflict in literature can also arise from
opposing desires or values in a characters own mind.
 Connotative meaning – both the positive and negative associations that a
word collects through usage that go beyond the literal meaning.
 Context – a text is always used and produced in context; the context includes
the broad and immediate situation including aspects such as social, cultural
and political background; the term can also refer to that which precedes or
follows a word or text and is essential to its meaning.
 Context clues – using words surrounding an unknown word to determine its
meaning. This reading strategy can be taught in conjunction with vocabulary
contrast – to consider the way in which things differ.
 Contrast - Emphasise the differences between two things.
 Critical language awareness – the analysis of how meaning is constructed
with understanding of power relations in and between languages; it empowers
the learner to resist manipulation and to use language sensitively.
 Criticise - Point out a topic’s mistakes or weaknesses as well as its
favourable aspects. Give a balanced answer (this will involve some
analysis first).
 Define - Give the meaning of an idea, either a dictionary definition or from an
academic authority in your subject of study (technical definition).
 Demonstrate - Provide examples to demonstrate or prove the subject of the
question, sometimes with a visual element e.g. a picture, drawing, figure,
graph or diagram.
 Describe - Give details of processes, properties, events and so on.
 Diagram - For a question which specifies a diagram you should present a
drawing, chart, plan, or graphic representation in your answer. Generally you
are expected to label the diagram and in some cases add a brief explanation
or description.
 Discuss - Describe, explain, give examples, points for and against, then
analyse and evaluate the results.
 Dramatic irony – occurs when the audience/reader/viewer knows more about
the situation and implications than the characters involved; it heightens the
tension, enjoyment and audience participation.

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 Dramatic structure – 1. The special literary style in which plays are written 2.
The arrangement of plot, acts, scenes, characters and possibly features of
language in a play.
 Drawing conclusions – using written or visual clues to figure out something
that is not directly stated in the reading.
 Denotative – the literal meaning of a word, the dictionary meaning.
 Effect – the result or consequence of an action or condition.
 Emotive language – language which arouses strong feelings.
 Enumerate - The word enumerate specifies a list or outline form of reply. In
such questions you should recount, one by one, in concise form, the points
required.
 Euphemism – a mild or vague expression substituted for a thought or word
which is felt to be too harsh or direct.
 Evaluate - Similar to discuss, but with more emphasis on a judgement in the
conclusion.
 Examine - Take apart and describe a concept in great detail.
 Explain - Give detailed reasons for an idea, principle or result, situation,
attitude and so on. You may need to give some analysis as well.
 Figurative – words or phrases used in a non-literal way to create a desired
effect; literal texts often make concentrated use of figurative language
 Genre – the types of categories into which texts are grouped, e.g. novel,
drama, poetry, business letter, personal letter.
 Gesture – a movement of the face or body which communicates meaning
(e.g. nodding of head to indicate agreement).
 Homonym – a word which has both the same sound and the same spelling
as another but has a different meaning (e.g. ‘the bear’ - noun and ‘to bear’ –
verb).
 Homophone – a word which sounds the same as another but is spelled
differently and has a different meaning (e.g. ‘won’ and ‘one’).
 Hyperbole – a deliberate exaggeration (e.g. To describe something in such a
way that it seems much bigger than it really is: ‘He gave me a mountainous
plate of food).
 Image – a picture or visual representation of something.
 Imagery – words, phrases, and sentences which create images in our minds,
such as similes, metaphors, personification.
 Illustrate - Give concrete examples – including figures or diagrams.
Illustrate is usually added on to another instruction.
 Implicit – something implied or suggested but not directly stated
 Infer – to pick up meaning behind what is stated and to deduce all
implications.
 Interpret - An interpretation question is similar to one requiring explanation.
You are expected to translate, exemplify, solve, or comment upon the subject
and usually to give your judgment or reaction to the problem.
 Initiate – to start (e.g. to initiate a conversation)
 Innuendo – something unpleasant which is hinted at rather than clearly
stated.
 Interpret - Explain and comment on the subject and make a judgement
(evaluation).
 Irony – a statement or situation that has an underlying meaning different from
its literal or surface meaning. Irony is related to tone.

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 Jargon – special terms or expressions used in a trade or profession or by any
special group (e.g. computer users would refer to a ‘CPU’, ‘RAM’); when
jargon is used to exclude listeners/readers from an interaction, it is potentially
hurtful or even harmful.
 Justify - Give reasons to support a statement – it may be a
negative statement, so be careful!
 List - Provide an itemised series of parts, reasons or qualities
possibly in a table.
 Literacy – the ability to process and uses information for a variety of
purposes and context and to write for different purposes; allowing one to
make sense of one’s world. The capacity to read and write.
 Literal – the plainest, most direct meaning that can be attributed to words.
 Malapropism – the mistaken and muddled use of long words to impress;
although these words sound almost right, they are incorrect enough to bring
about humour, e.g. conversation and conservation.
 Manipulative language – language which is aimed at obtaining an unfair
advantage or gaining in influence over others, e.g. advertisements, sales talk,
political speeches.
 Meta-language – the language used to talk about literature and language and
grammatical terms; it includes terminology such as ‘context’, ‘style’, ‘plot’ and
‘dialogue’.
 Metaphor – using one thing to describe another thing that has similar
qualities (e.g. Education is the key to success).
 Mode – a method, way or manner in which something is presented; a way of
communicating (e.g. the written mode, the spoken or oral mode, the visual
mode (which includes graphic forms such as charts); information can be
changed from one mode to another (e.g. by converting a graph into a
passage)).
 Mood – atmosphere or emotion in written texts; it shows the feeling or the
frame of mind of the characters; it also refers to the atmosphere produced by
visual, audio or multi-media texts
 Person narrative – First – ‘I’ (who is often a character in the story) – and third
person narrative, in which the narrator refers to characters as ‘he’, ‘she’ or
‘they’.
 Prove/disprove - Provide evidence for or against and demonstrate logical
argument and reasoning – you often have to do this for abstract or scientific
subjects.
 Relate – In a question which asks you to show the relationship or to relate,
your answer should emphasise connections and associations in descriptive
form.
 Review - A review specifies a critical examination. You should analyse and
comment briefly in organised sequence upon the major points of the problem.
 Onomatopoeia – the use of words to recreate the sounds they describe (e.g.
The whoosh of the wind as it rushed through the trees).
 Outline - An outline answer is organized description. You should give main
points and essential supplementary materials, omitting minor details, and
present the information in a systematic arrangement or classification.
 Oxymoron – a combination of words with contradictory meanings, used
deliberately for effect; it is usually formed by using an adjective to qualify a
noun with an opposite meaning (e.g. an open secret).

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 Paradox – an apparently self-contradictory statement or one that seems in
conflict with logic; lying behind the superficial contradiction there is logic or
reason.
 Paraphrase – a restatement of an idea or text in one’s words.
 Paronym – word formed from foreign word (e.g. enjambment)
 Personification – attributing human characteristics to non-human things.
 Plot – the interrelatedness of the main events in a text; plot involves more
than a simple sequence of events as it suggests a pattern of relationships
between events and a web of causation.
 Point of view – the perspective of a character in relation to issues in a novel
or play.
 Prejudice – intolerance of or a pre-judgement against an individual, a group,
an idea or cause.
 Redundancy – the use of words, phrases and sentences which can be
omitted without any loss of meaning (e.g. ‘He wakes every morning at 6am’).
 Register – the use of different words, style, grammar, pitch and tone for
different contexts or situations (e.g. official documents are written in a formal
register and friendly letters are reported in an informal register).
 Relate - Emphasise the links, connections and associations, probably
with some analysis.
 Report – (formal and informal) giving exact feedback of a situation, e.g. an
accident.
 Review - Analyse and comment briefly, in organised sequences –
sentences, paragraphs or lists – on the main aspects of a
subject.
 Rhetorical device – a device such as pause and repetition, used by a
speaker to effectively persuade or convince. Some devices may be
manipulative.
 Rhetorical question – a question asked not to get a reply but for emphasis or
dramatic effect (e.g. ‘Do you know how lucky you are?’)
 Rhyme – words or lines of poetry that end with the same sound including a
vowel.
 Rhythm – a regular and repeated pattern of sounds.
 Sarcasm – an ironic expression or tone of voice which is used in order to be
unkind or offensive or to make fun of someone.
 Satire – the use of ridicule, sarcasm and irony to comment critically on society
or an individual or situation.
 Show - Provide examples to demonstrate or prove the subject of the
question, e.g. Show the mathematical steps needed ...
 Simile – comparing one thing directly with another, a word such as ‘like’ or
‘as’ is used to draw attention to the comparison.
 Slang – informal language often used by a group of people, such as
teenagers, who use terms such as ‘cool’ and ;awesome’; the difference
between colloquial language and slang is that slang has not yet been
accepted in polite or formal conversation whereas colloquialisms (e.g. ‘Good
show!’) have been.
 State - Give the relevant points briefly – you don’t need
to make a lengthy discussion or give minor details.
 Stereotype – a fixed conventional (and often biased) view about the role a
particular person is expected to play.

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 Strategy – a certain broad procedure or plan used to tackle a problem.
 Stress (in a word or sentence) – to give force to a particular syllable in a
word or a word in a sentence.
 Style – the distinctive and unique manner in which a writer arranges words to
achieve particular effects. Style essentially combines the idea to be expressed
with the individuality of the author. These arrangements include individual
word choices as well as such matters as length and structure of sentences,
tone and use of irony.
 Subplot – subsidiary action which runs parallel with the main plot of a play or
novel.
 Suggest - Give possible reasons – analyse, interpret and evaluate. (This is
also the verb most commonly used to quote another author.)
 Summarise/outline - Just give the main points, not the details.
 Symbol – something which stands for or represents something else.
 Synonym – a word which has the same meaning or almost the same
meaning as another word in the same language. Synonyms in English tend to
have important differences in connotation.
 Synthesise – the drawing together of ideas from a variety of sources; a clear
summary of these combined ideas.
 Text – a statement or creation in any written, spoken, or visual form of
communication.
 Theme – the central idea or ideas in a text; a text may contain several themes
and these may not be explicit or obvious.
 Tone – quality and timbre of the voice that conveys the emotional message of
a spoken text, it is achieved through words that convey the attitude of the
writer.
 Trace - Give a brief description of the logical or chronological stages of the
development of a theory, process, a person’s life and so on. Often used in
historical questions.
 Understatement – express something in restrained terms rather than giving
the true or full facts, usually for emphasis, possibly as a form of evasion,
possibly as a form of humour.
 Verbosity – language using more words than are needed.
 Visual texts – visual representations which can be seen and which convey
messages (e.g. In images, photos, computer graphics, cartoons, models,
drawings, paintings).
 Voice – (see narrative voice) – the author’s persona: who the author is; when
reading or viewing one gains an impression of the author and his/her
intentions.
 Wit – the unexpected, quick, and humorous combining of contrasting ideas or
expression.

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 Punctuation

PUNCTUATION FUNCTION EXAMPLES

MARK
1. Used at the beginning of 1. He swam the Golden
sentences. Mile.
2. Used for proper nouns. 2. Thabile, Jessica, Ryan,
Capital Letters 3. Used for the word “I”. The Star, Saturday.
ABCDE 4. Used for important words 3. Derek and I spoke for
in a book, film or play. the first time in years.
5. Used in abbreviations 4. The Lord of the Rings.
and acronyms. 5. F.B.I. , AIDS
1. Used to end sentences 1. January is one of the
that are statements. most beautiful months
2. Used after each letter in of the year.
Full stop
an abbreviated word. 2. A.N.C.
.
3. Used at the end of a 3. e.g. (exempli grati)
word/s that has/have
been “cut”.
1. Used at the end of 1. He was wearing a bright
sentences that are orange suit!
exclamations, commands 2. Get out of here!
or when something is 3. Wow! Alas!
shouted. 4. Oh! I wish he was here
Exclamation mark 2. Used after interjections. to share this moment
! 3. Used to indicate a wishful with me!
tone or a tone of regret or
excitement.
4. NEVER over use
exclamation marks. ONE
is enough!
Question mark 1. Used at the end of a 1. Why have you not done
? question. your homework?
1. Shows ownership 1. The boy’s pen.
(singular). (singular)
Apostrophe
2. Shows ownership (plural) 2. The boys’ pen. (plural)
‘
3. Used in contractions 3. Don’t go there.
when a letter is missing.
1. To separate 1. We bought pens,
words/phrases in a list. pencils, and erasers.
2. Indicates where one 2. Bafana Bafana won the
phrase/clause ends and match, to the delight of
another begins. the country.
Comma
3. Additional information. 3. She obtained an
,
4. AVOID using a comma excellent result, a full
between two main house of distinctions.
clauses (comma splice 4. A census was taken.
error). The government
needed statistics.

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 1. Used to join balanced 1. God creates: man
sentences or clauses. destroys.
Colons
2. Used to indicate that an 2. Answer the following:
:
explanation or additional why did your plans fail?
information is to follow.
1. Used to join closely 1. Thato was an actress;
Semi Colons
related sentences or she performed on stage
;
clauses. overnight.
1. Used to join compound 1. Blue-eyed (compound
words. adjective)
2. Used to split a word at 2. His commit-
the end of a sentence ment
that does not fit in the line 3. Resign vs Re-sign
Hyphens
(words can ONLY be split 4. Ex-girlfriend
-
at their syllables).
3. Used to avoid confusion
between words that are
spelt the same.
4. Adding SOME prefixes.
1. To indicate additional 1. Next week we are going
information. to Durban – the holiday
2. Separates city.
comment/afterthought 2. I checked; there was no
Dash
from sentence. one there – or so I
-
3. Creates a dramatic thought.
pause. 3. I crept to the window;
looked out the window
and saw – the cat!
1. Additional information 1. Mary* was a criminal
Asterisk that is found in the and James* helped her.
* footnote. *Names have been
changed.
1. Titles are written in italics, 1. Romeo and Juliet or
if you are unable to put a Romeo and Juliet.
title in italics, you can 2. A beautiful tyrant.
Italics underline them. 3. Bon jour.
2. Distinguish certain words
from others.
3. Foreign words.

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 The types of abbreviations

Type of abbreviation Explanation Example

Any shortened form of a etc. for etcetera
Abbreviations word is an abbreviation Oct. for October
Mon. for Monday
You can abbreviate more AIDS – Acquired
than one word into an Immuno-Deficiency
acronym using the first Syndrome
Acronyms
letter of each word and Scuba is another
pronouncing the letters as example (despite it not
a word. being in capital letters)
If the resulting acronym USA
either sounds like another UN
Initialisms word is unpronounceable, EU
you can simply say the
letters.
When you have dropped Bus – omnibus
Apheresis
the first portion of a word. Phone – telephone
The syllable is dropped. ‘cause – because
The apostrophe indicates
Aphesis that you have the
unstressed vowel at the
beginning of the word.
The end of the word is Fridge – refrigerator
Clipped
dropped
Combine two words to Liger – lion and tiger
Portmanteau or Blend make a new one Brunch – breakfast
and lunch

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13
 Sedition

According to
the shorter
Oxford Dictionary –
Sedition
is: agitation
against authority;
conduct, speech
(or literature)
tending to rebellion;
a breach of public order.

According to
Received history –
poetry
is a fist
in the face
of authority;
pugnacious
inflammatory;
a tumult
of words/emotions;
an insurrection
in language;
a rage
against night
neatness & order;
a fracture
in the establishment;
forever leaning
towards rebellion
revolution et cetera –

Ergo, every poem

is a wanton
act of sedition!

Cecil Rajendra

Questions

1. State the similarities between an act of ‘sedition’ and the reception of poetry.
2. How does the metaphor ‘poetry / is a fist / in the face / of authority’ affect your
understanding of the nature of poetry?
3. Why does the poet use the words ‘et cetera’ in line 30? (Think POETICALLY)
4. How does the poet reveal the contradictory nature of poetry?

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 Random Notes to My Son

Beware, my son, words

that carry the loudnesses
of blind desire also carry
the slime of illusion
dripping like pus from the slave's battered back
e.g. they speak of black power whose eyes
will not threaten the quick whitening of their own intent
what days will you inherit?
what shadows inhabit your silences?

I have aspired to expression, all these years,

elegant past the most eloquent word. But here now
our tongue dries into maggots as we continue our slimy
death and grin. Except today it is fashionable to scream
of pride and beauty as though it were not known that
'slaves and dead people have no beauty'

Confusion
in me and around me
confusion. This pain was
not from the past. This pain was
not because we had failed
to understand:
this land is mine
confusion and borrowed fears
it was. We stood like shrubs
shrivelled on this piece of earth
the ground parched and cracked
through the cracks my cry:

And what shapes

in assent and ascent
must people the eye of newborn
determined desire know
no frightened tear ever rolls on
to the elegance of fire. I have
fallen with all the names I am
but the newborn eye, old as
childbirth, must touch the day
that, speaking my language, will
say, today we move, we move ?

Questions

1. Name two things against which the speaker warns his son.
2. Quote two separate images of despair in the poem.
3. Explain what ‘blind desire’ is.

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4. Refer to the simile of the shrubs on ‘parched’ ground. Could this be seen as a
symbol for defeat or a symbol of resilience? Explain you answer.
5. How does the poet’s use of figures of speech reinforce the power of the
language used in the poem?

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 A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

As virtuous men pass mildly away,

And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say
The breath goes now, and some say, No:

So let us melt, and make no noise,

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,

Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love

(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,

That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do.

And though it in the center sit,

Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.

JOHN DONNE

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Questions

1. Identify two phrases from the poem that show that the speaker wants the
farewell to be a quiet, calm affair.
2. State two differences between the speaker’s love and the love ‘sublunary
lovers’ love.
3. How does the conceit ‘As stiff as twin compasses’ shape your understanding
of the relationship between the lovers?
4. Discuss the effectiveness of the poet’s use of paradox and contrast in the final
two lines of the poem.
5. How does the poet use images and format to portray his idea of love as fixed
and firm?

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 A Far Cry from Africa

A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt

Of Africa. Kikuyu, quick as flies,
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.
Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries:
“Waste no compassion on these separate dead!”
Statistics justify and scholars seize
The salients of colonial policy.
What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
To savages, expendable as Jews?

Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break

In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilization’s dawn
From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
The violence of beast on beast is read
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
While he calls courage still that native dread
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.

Again brutish necessity wipes its hands

Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again
A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
The gorilla wrestles with the superman.
I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?

Derek Walcott

Questions

1. State the similarities and differences between the British and Africans as
reflected in the poem.
2. Explore the various meaning of the word ‘upright’ in the context of the poem.
What, in your opinion, is the speaker’s motivation for describing the man as
being ‘upright’ in line 16?
3. Discuss the effectiveness of the poet’s decision to end the poem with a series
of rhetorical questions.

19
4. How does the use of imagery reinforce the speakers message regarding the
place of violence in the human and animal kingdoms?

20
 DA SAME DA SAME

I doesn't care of you black

I doesn't care of you white
I doesn't care of you India
I doesn't care of you clearlink
if sometimes you Saus Afrika
you gotta big terrible, terrible
somewheres in yourselves

I mean for sure now

all da peoples is make like God
an' da God I knows for sure
He make avarybudy wit' one heart

for sure now dis heart go-go da same

dats for meaning to say
one man no diflent to anader

so now
you see a big terrible terrible stand here
how one man make anader man feel
da pain he doesn't feel hisself
for sure no dats da whole point

sometime you wanna know how I meaning for

is simple
when da nail of say da t'orn tree
scratch little bit little bit of da skin

I doesn't care of you black

I doesn't care of you white
I doesn't care of you India
I doesn't care of you clearlink
I mean for sure da skin
only one t'ing come for sure
an' da one t'ing for sure is red blood
dats for sure da same, da same for avarybudy

so for sure now

you doesn't look anader man in de eye

Sipho Sepamla

Questions

1. What effect is the poet trying to achieve by writing the poem the way he
has?
2. What message is he trying to convey through the poem?
3. Do you think his use of language is effective or offensive? Why?

21
4. On what basis does he say that all people are equal?
5. The last two lines seem to contradict the message of the poem. How do
you interpret them?
6. Rewrite the poem in 'proper' English

22
 Eating Poetry

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.

There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.

Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.

The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll,

their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.

When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.

I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.

MARK STRAND

Questions

1. Relate, in your own words, the incident that is described in the poem.
2. Identify and explain two images in the poem that are considered ‘surreal’.
3. Do you think the actions presented in the poem are credible or believable?
Justify your answer.
4. How does the structure and the imagery used in the poem help to convey the
poet’s message?

23
 London, 1802

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:

England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Questions

1. What is England’s inheritance?

2. Name three cultural or societal institutions that the speaker believes have
fallen into stagnation.
3. How does the metaphor ‘she is a fen / Of stagnant waters’ affect your
understanding of the speaker’s view of current society?
4. What does the simile ‘Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart” reveal about
the speaker’s view of Milton?
5. Do you agree with the view that if Milton were able to return he would bring
about the positive change the speaker desires? Explain.
6. How does the sonnet structure support the speaker’s difference in attitude
towards England and Milton?

24
 Mid-Term Break

I sat all morning in the college sick bay

Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o'clock our neighbours drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying—

He had always taken funerals in his stride—
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram

When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand

And tell me they were 'sorry for my trouble'.

Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.

At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops

And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,

He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four-foot box, a foot for every year.

SEAMUS HEANEY

Questions

1. List the siblings in this poem from oldest to youngest.

2. In your own words, outline how the child died.
3. Explain the effect of using parenthesis in line 5.
4. How does the simile in line 20 affect your understanding of the deceased?
5. Is the title effective? Discuss.

25
 Anthem for Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

WILFRED OWEN

Questions

1. Identify two elements of a sonnet that apply to this poem.

2. Quote two words or phrases from the poem that show poem is about war.
3. How does the simile ‘die as cattle’ impact your understanding of the
battlefield?
4. Explain how the consonance in ‘stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle’ links with the
subject matter of the poem.
5. Discuss the effectiveness of the title of the poem.

26
 Small Passing- Ingrid de Kok

For a woman whose baby died stillborn, and who was told by a man to stop
mourning, ‘because the trials and horrors suffered daily by black women in this
country are more significant than the loss of one white child’

1
In this country you may not
Suffer the death of your stillborn,
remember the last push into shadow and silence,
The useless wires and cords on your stomach,
the nurse’s face, the walls, the afterbirth in a basin.
Do not touch your breasts
still full of purpose.
Do not circle the house,
pack, unpack the small clothes.
Do not lie awake at night hearing
the doctor say ‘It was just as well’
and ‘You can have another’
In this country you may not
mourn small passings.

See: the newspaper boy in the rain

will sleep tonight in the doorway.
The woman in the busline
may next month be on a train
to a place not her own.
The baby in the backyard now
will be sent to a tired aunt,
grow chubby, then lean,
return a stranger.
Mandela’s daughter tried to find her father
through the glass. She thought they’d let her touch him.
And this woman’s hands are so heavy when she dusts
the photographs of other children
they fall to the floor and break.
Clumsy woman, she moves so slowly
as if in a funeral rite.

On the pavements the nannies meet.

These are legal gatherings.
They talk about everything,about home,
while the children play among them,
their skins like litmus, their bonnets clean.

2
Small wrist in the grave.
Baby no one carried live
between houses, among trees.
Child shot running,

27
stones in his pocket,
boy’s swollen stomach
full of hungry air.
Girls carrying babies
not much smaller than themselves.
Erosion. Soil washed down to sea.

3
I think these mothers dream
headstones of the unborn.
Their mourning rises like a wall
no vine will cling to.
They will not tell you your suffering is white.
They will not say it is just as well.
They will not compete for the ashes of infants.
I think they will say to you:
Come with us to the place of mothers.
We will stroke your flat empty belly,
let you weep with us in the dark,
and arm you with one of our babies
to carry home on your back.

Ingrid de Kok

Questions

1. The poet often refers to "this country”. What is her tone in doing so? Be able
to explain your answer carefully.
2. Why are the woman's hands "so heavy [that] when she dusts the photographs
of other children they fall to the floor"?
3. Why does she "move so slowly as if in a funeral rite"?
4. Explain the significance of the words: "These are legal gatherings."
5. Explain the significance of the simile, "their skins like litmus".
6. The poet refers to the "child shot running, stones in his pocket". What is her
intention behind the inclusion of these words?
7. At the end of this section, the poet deviates from references to people and
speaks about soil erosion. What is the connection?
8. The word "they" is repeated in section 3 of the poem. To whom does "they"
refer?
9. What effect has the poet created by repeating the word?
10. How does this section contrast with the rest of the poem?
11. What is the poet's intention with the writing of this poem?

28
 Those Winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

ROBERT HAYDEN

Questions

1. Quote and adjective from the first stanza that shows that it is very cold.
2. Identify three descriptions of the father that show his care.
3. Explain the insight into the father that the opening words of the poem,
‘Sundays, too’, gives the reader.
4. How does the image ‘chronic angers’ impact your understanding of the
speaker’s home environment?
5. Comment on the poet’s motive for writing this poem. Justify your answer.
6. By referring to the structure of the poem, discuss how the speaker’s regret is
revealed.

29
 To the doctor who treated the raped baby and who felt such despair

I just wanted to say on behalf of us all

that on the night in question
there was a light on in the hall
for a nervous little sleeper
and when the bleeding baby was admitted to your care
faraway a Karoo shepherd crooned a ramkietjie lullaby in the
veld
and while you staunched
there was space on a mother-warmed sheet
for a night walker
and when you administered an infant-sized opiate
there were luxuriant dark nipples
for fist clenching babes
and when you called for more blood
a bleary-eyed uncle got up to make a feed
and while you stitched
there was another chapter of a favourite story
and while you cleaned
a grandpa’s thin legs walked up and down for a colicky crier
and when finally you stood exhausted at the end of her cot
and asked, “Where is God?”,
a father sat watch.
And for the rest of us, we all slept in trust
that you would do what you did,
that you could do what you did.
We slept in trust that you lived.

Funala Dowling

Questions

1. Name three positive things that are happening elsewhere while the doctor
cares for the baby.
2. State what all these positive things have in common.
3. What is purpose of mentioning these positive things in the context of the
poem?
4. What does the doctor’s question, ‘Where is God?’ reveal about him?
5. What is the speaker trying to communicate to the reader?
6. Discuss how the poem juxtaposes horror and despair with goodness and
caring.

30
31
 Introduction

Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born

on November 16, 1930, in Ogidi, a large
village in Nigeria. Although he was the
child of a Protestant missionary and
received his early education in English,
his upbringing was multicultural, as the
inhabitants of Ogidi still lived according
to many aspects of traditional Igbo
(formerly written as Ibo) culture. Achebe
attended the Government College in
Umuahia from 1944 to 1947. He
graduated from University College,
Ibadan, in 1953. While he was in college,
Achebe studied history and theology. He
also developed his interest in indigenous
Nigerian cultures, and he rejected his
Christian name, Albert, for his
indigenous one, Chinua.

In the 1950s, Achebe was one of the founders of a Nigerian literary movement that
drew upon the traditional oral culture of its indigenous peoples. In 1959, he published
Things Fall Apart as a response to novels, such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness, that treat Africa as a primordial and cultureless foil for Europe. Tired of
reading white men’s accounts of how primitive, socially backward, and, most
important, language-less native Africans were, Achebe sought to convey a fuller
understanding of one African culture and, in so doing, give voice to an
underrepresented and exploited colonial subject.

Things Fall Apart is set in the 1890s and portrays the clash between Nigeria’s white
colonial government and the traditional culture of the indigenous Igbo people.
Achebe’s novel shatters the stereotypical European portraits of native Africans. He is
careful to portray the complex, advanced social institutions and artistic traditions of
Igbo culture prior to its contact with Europeans. Yet he is just as careful not to
stereotype the Europeans; he offers varying depictions of the white man, such as the
mostly benevolent Mr. Brown, the zealous Reverend Smith, and the ruthlessly
calculating District Commissioner.

Achebe’s education in English and exposure to European customs have allowed him
to capture both the European and the African perspectives on colonial expansion,
religion, race, and culture. His decision to write Things Fall Apart in English is an
important one. Achebe wanted this novel to respond to earlier colonial accounts of
Africa; his choice of language was thus political. Unlike some later African authors
who chose to revitalize native languages as a form of resistance to colonial culture,
Achebe wanted to achieve cultural revitalization within and through English.
Nevertheless, he manages to capture the rhythm of the Igbo language and he
integrates Igbo vocabulary into the narrative.

32
Achebe has become renowned throughout the world as a father of modern African
literature, essayist, and professor of English literature at Bard College in New York.
But Achebe’s achievements are most concretely reflected by his prominence in
Nigeria’s academic culture and in its literary and political institutions. He worked for
the Nigerian Broadcasting Company for over a decade and later became an English
professor at the University of Nigeria. He has also been quite influential in the
publication of new Nigerian writers. In 1967, he co-founded a publishing company
with a Nigerian poet named Christopher Okigbo and in 1971, he began editing
Okike, a respected journal of Nigerian writing. In 1984, he founded Uwa ndi Igbo, a
bilingual magazine containing a great deal of information about Igbo culture. He has
been active in Nigerian politics since the 1960s, and many of his novels address the
post-colonial social and political problems that Nigeria still faces.

33
Character List

Okonkwo - An influential clan leader in Umuofia. Since early childhood, Okonkwo’s

embarrassment about his lazy, squandering, and effeminate father, Unoka, has
driven him to succeed. Okonkwo’s hard work and prowess in war have earned him a
position of high status in his clan, and he attains wealth sufficient to support three
wives and their children. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is that he is terrified of looking weak
like his father. As a result, he behaves rashly, bringing a great deal of trouble and
sorrow upon himself and his family.

Nwoye - Okonkwo’s oldest son, whom Okonkwo believes is weak and lazy.
Okonkwo continually beats Nwoye, hoping to correct the faults that he perceives in
him. Influenced by Ikemefuna, Nwoye begins to exhibit more masculine behavior,
which pleases Okonkwo. However, he maintains doubts about some of the laws and
rules of his tribe and eventually converts to Christianity, an act that Okonkwo
criticizes as “effeminate.” Okonkwo believes that Nwoye is afflicted with the same
weaknesses that his father, Unoka, possessed in abundance.

Ezinma - The only child of Okonkwo’s second wife, Ekwefi. As the only one of
Ekwefi’s ten children to survive past infancy, Ezinma is the center of her mother’s
world. Their relationship is atypical—Ezinma calls Ekwefi by her name and is treated
by her as an equal. Ezinma is also Okonkwo’s favorite child, for she understands him
better than any of his other children and reminds him of Ekwefi when Ekwefi was the
village beauty. Okonkwo rarely demonstrates his affection, however, because he
fears that doing so would make him look weak. Furthermore, he wishes that Ezinma
were a boy because she would have been the perfect son.

Ikemefuna - A boy given to Okonkwo by a neighboring village. Ikemefuna lives in

the hut of Okonkwo’s first wife and quickly becomes popular with Okonkwo’s
children. He develops an especially close relationship with Nwoye, Okonkwo’s oldest
son, who looks up to him. Okonkwo too becomes very fond of Ikemefuna, who calls
him “father” and is a perfect clansman, but Okonkwo does not demonstrate his
affection because he fears that doing so would make him look weak.

Mr. Brown - The first white missionary to travel to Umuofia. Mr. Brown institutes a
policy of compromise, understanding, and non-aggression between his flock and the
clan. He even becomes friends with prominent clansmen and builds a school and a
hospital in Umuofia. Unlike Reverend Smith, he attempts to appeal respectfully to the
tribe’s value system rather than harshly impose his religion on it.

Reverend James Smith - The missionary who replaces Mr. Brown. Unlike Mr.
Brown, Reverend Smith is uncompromising and strict. He demands that his converts
reject all of their indigenous beliefs, and he shows no respect for indigenous customs
or culture. He is the stereotypical white colonialist, and his behavior epitomizes the
problems of colonialism. He intentionally provokes his congregation, inciting it to
anger and even indirectly, through Enoch, encouraging some fairly serious
transgressions.

Uchendu - The younger brother of Okonkwo’s mother. Uchendu receives Okonkwo

and his family warmly when they travel to Mbanta, and he advises Okonkwo to be

34
grateful for the comfort that his motherland offers him lest he anger the dead—
especially his mother, who is buried there. Uchendu himself has suffered—all but
one of his six wives are dead and he has buried twenty-two children. He is a
peaceful, compromising man and functions as a foil (a character whose emotions or
actions highlight, by means of contrast, the emotions or actions of another character)
to Okonkwo, who acts impetuously and without thinking.

The District Commissioner - An authority figure in the white colonial government

in Nigeria. The prototypical racist colonialist, the District Commissioner thinks that he
understands everything about native African customs and cultures and he has no
respect for them. He plans to work his experiences into an ethnographic study on
local African tribes, the idea of which embodies his dehumanizing and reductive
attitude toward race relations.

Unoka - Okonkwo’s father, of whom Okonkwo has been ashamed since childhood.
By the standards of the clan, Unoka was a coward and a spendthrift. He never took a
title in his life, he borrowed money from his clansmen, and he rarely repaid his debts.
He never became a warrior because he feared the sight of blood. Moreover, he died
of an abominable illness. On the positive side, Unoka appears to have been a
talented musician and gentle, if idle. He may well have been a dreamer, ill-suited to
the chauvinistic culture into which he was born. The novel opens ten years after his
death.

Obierika - Okonkwo’s close friend, whose daughter’s wedding provides cause for
festivity early in the novel. Obierika looks out for his friend, selling Okonkwo’s yams
to ensure that Okonkwo won’t suffer financial ruin while in exile and comforting
Okonkwo when he is depressed. Like Nwoye, Obierika questions some of the tribe’s
traditional strictures.

Ekwefi - Okonkwo’s second wife, once the village beauty. Ekwefi ran away from her
first husband to live with Okonkwo. Ezinma is her only surviving child, her other nine
having died in infancy, and Ekwefi constantly fears that she will lose Ezinma as well.
Ekwefi is good friends with Chielo, the priestess of the goddess Agbala.

Enoch - A fanatical convert to the Christian church in Umuofia. Enoch’s

disrespectful act of ripping the mask off an egwugwu during an annual ceremony to
honor the earth deity leads to the climactic clash between the indigenous and
colonial justice systems. While Mr. Brown, early on, keeps Enoch in check in the
interest of community harmony, Reverend Smith approves of his zealotry.

Ogbuefi Ezeudu - The oldest man in the village and one of the most important clan
elders and leaders. Ogbuefi Ezeudu was a great warrior in his youth and now
delivers messages from the Oracle.

Chielo - A priestess in Umuofia who is dedicated to the Oracle of the goddess

Agbala. Chielo is a widow with two children. She is good friends with Ekwefi and is
fond of Ezinma, whom she calls “my daughter.” At one point, she carries Ezinma on
her back for miles in order to help purify her and appease the gods.

35
Akunna - A clan leader of Umuofia. Akunna and Mr. Brown discuss their religious
beliefs peacefully, and Akunna’s influence on the missionary advances Mr. Brown’s
strategy for converting the largest number of clansmen by working with, rather than
against, their belief system. In so doing, however, Akunna formulates an articulate
and rational defense of his religious system and draws some striking parallels
between his style of worship and that of the Christian missionaries.

Nwakibie - A wealthy clansmen who takes a chance on Okonkwo by lending him

800 seed yams—twice the number for which Okonkwo asks. Nwakibie thereby helps
Okonkwo build up the beginnings of his personal wealth, status, and independence.

Mr. Kiaga - The native-turned-Christian missionary who arrives in Mbanta and

converts Nwoye and many others.

Okagbue Uyanwa - A famous medicine man whom Okonkwo summons for help in
dealing with Ezinma’s health problems.

Maduka - Obierika’s son. Maduka wins a wrestling contest in his mid-teens.

Okonkwo
wishes he had promising, manly sons like Maduka.

Obiageli - The daughter of Okonkwo’s first wife. Although Obiageli is close to

Ezinma in age, Ezinma has a great deal of influence over her.

Ojiugo - Okonkwo’s third and youngest wife, and the mother of Nkechi. Okonkwo
beats Ojiugo during the Week of Peace.

36
Chapter Summary

Chapter One

Chapter 1 describes Okonkwo's principal accomplishments that establish his

important position in Igbo society. These details alone provide insight into Okonkwo's
character and motivation. Driving himself toward tribal success and recognition, he is
trying to bury the unending shame that he feels regarding the faults and failures of
his late father, Unoka. Essentially, Okonkwo exhibits qualities of manhood in Igbo
society.

Familiar with Western literature and its traditional forms, Achebe structures Things
Fall Apart in the tradition of a Greek tragedy, with the story centered around
Okonkwo, the tragic hero. Aristotle defined the tragic hero as a character who is
superior and noble, one who demonstrates great courage and perseverance but is
undone because of a tragic personal flaw in his character.

In this first chapter, Achebe sets up Okonkwo as a man much respected for his
considerable achievements and noble virtues — key qualities of a tragic hero.
Okonkwo's tragic flaw is his obsession with manliness; his fear of looking weak like
his father drives him to commit irrational acts of violence that undermine his
nobleness. In the chapters ahead, the reader should note the qualities and actions
that begin to reveal the tragic flaw in Okonkwo's otherwise admirable actions, words,
ideas, and relationships with others.

At the end of Chapter 1, Achebe foreshadows the presence of Ikemefuna in

Okonkwo's household and also the teenage boy's ultimate fate by referring to him as
a "doomed" and "ill-fated lad."

One of the most significant social markers of Igbo society is introduced in this
chapter — its unique system of honorific titles. Throughout the book, titles are
reference points by which members of Igbo society frequently compare themselves
with one another (especially Okonkwo). These titles are not conferred by higher
authorities, but they are acquired by the individual who can afford to pay for them. As
a man accumulates wealth, he may gain additional recognition and prestige by
"taking a title." He may also purchase titles for male members of his family (this
aspect is revealed later). In the process of taking a title, the man pays significant
initiation fees to the men who already hold the title.

A Umuofian man can take as many as four titles, each apparently more expensive
than its predecessor. A man with sufficient money to pay the fee begins with the first
level — the most common title — but many men cannot go beyond the first title.
Each title taken may be shown by physical signs, such as an anklet or marks on the
feet or face, so others can determine who qualifies for certain titles.

The initiation fees are so large that some writers have referred to the system as a
means for "redistributing wealth." Some Native American tribes of the Pacific
Northwest observe their own version of redistributing wealth through a potlatch
ceremony at which the guests receive gifts from the person gaining the honor as a
show of wealth for others to exceed.

37
Chapter Two

One night, as Okonkwo is settling on his bed, he hears the beat of a drum and the
voice of the town crier. The messenger summons every man in Umuofia to gather at
the marketplace the next morning. Okonkwo wonders whether the emergency
concerns war with a neighboring clan. War does not frighten Okonkwo, because he
knows that it frightened his cowardly father. In Umuofia's most recent war, for
example, Okonkwo brought home his fifth human head.

The next morning, Okonkwo joins the men in the marketplace to hear the important
message. A powerful orator shouts a welcome to them by greeting them in all four
directions while punching his clenched fist into the air; the assembled men shout in
response. After silence returns, he angrily tells the crowd that a Umuofian woman
has been killed in Mbaino while she was attending the market. The outraged crowd
finally agrees that Umuofia should follow its usual course of action: Give Mbaino a
choice of either going to war with Umuofia or offering Umuofia a young man and a
young virgin as compensation for the death of the Umuofian woman.

Umuofian's power in war and magic is feared by its neighbors, who know that
Umuofia will not go to war without first trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement and
seeking the acceptance of war by its Oracle. Everyone knows that a war with Mbaino
would be a just war, so the clan sends Okonkwo as their emissary to negotiate with
Mbaino; he returns two days later with a young man and a virgin offered by Mbaino.

The elders of Umuofia decide that the girl should live with the man whose wife was
killed and that the young man, named Ikemefuna, belongs to the clan as a whole.
They ask Okonkwo to take fourteen-year-old Ikemefuna into his home while the clan
decides what to do with him. Okonkwo then gives the care of Ikemefuna to his senior
wife, the mother of Nwoye, his oldest son, who is twelve. Ikemefuna is quite
frightened, especially because he does not understand what has happened or why
he is in Umuofia, separated from his family. The elders decide that the teenage boy
will live in Okonkwo's household for three years.

Because Okonkwo is continually afraid that someone may consider him weak, he
rules his household with a stern hand and a fierce voice, causing everyone to fear
his explosive temper. When he was a child, a playmate called his father agbala,
which means woman and also a man who has taken no title. Okonkwo learned to
hate everything his father loved, including gentleness as well as idleness. He also
sees signs of laziness in his son Nwoye. To purge himself of the reminder of his
father, Okonkwo nags and beats Nwoye daily.

In his family compound, Okonkwo lives in a hut of his own, and each of his three
wives lives in a hut of her own with her children. The prosperous compound also
includes an enclosure with stacks of yams, sheds for goats and hens, and a
medicine house, where Okonkwo keeps the symbols of his personal god and
ancestral spirits and where he offers prayers for himself and his family. He works
long hours on his farms and expects others to do the same. Although the members
of his family do not possess his strength, they work without complaint.

38
Chapter Three

Chapter 3 describes incidents from Okonkwo's childhood and young adulthood —

incidents that have contributed to Okonkwo's flawed character.

According to the first story from Okonkwo's past, his father, Unoka, consulted the
Oracle of the Hills and Caves, asking why he had produced bad harvests each year
in spite of his sacrifices and planting procedures. During his story, Chika (the
priestess of the Oracle) interrupted him angrily and told him that he hadn't offended
the gods, but in his laziness, he took the easy way out by planting on exhausted
land. She told him to go home and "work like a man."

Bad fortune followed Unoka, even to his death. He died of swelling in his stomach
and limbs — an affliction not acceptable to Ani, the earth goddess. He therefore
could not be buried properly, so he was taken to the Evil Forest to rot, making
Okonkwo even more ashamed of his father.

In the second story from Okonkwo's past, the young Okonkwo was preparing to plant
his first farm in yams — a man's crop — while his mother and sisters grew women's
crops — such things as coco-yams and cassava. Because Okonkwo had received
nothing from his father, he began his farming through share-cropping. To get help for
his planting, he visited Nwakibie, a great man of the village, symbolized by his three
barns, nine wives, and thirty children. After the proper greetings and rituals,
Okonkwo asked Nwakibie for seed-yams and pledges his hard work in growing and
harvesting them. According to the share-cropping contract, Okonkwo would return
two-thirds of what he grew to Nwakibie and receive only a third of the total crop for
himself, his parents, and his sisters. Nwakibie had already turned down similar
requests from other young men. But he acknowledged Okonkwo's earnestness and
ambition and gave Okonkwo twice the number of seed-yams he'd hoped for.

The growing season that followed was disastrous for Okonkwo as well as for most
other farmers of the village. The land suffered first a great drought and then
unending rain and floods — a combination ruinous to the season's harvest. Okonkwo
was deeply discouraged, but he knew that he would survive because of his
determination to succeed.

Chapter Four

In spite of Okonkwo's beginnings in poverty and misfortune, he has risen as one of

the most respected elders of the clan. Yet others remark on how harshly he deals
with men less successful than himself. For example, at a meeting to discuss the next
ancestral feast, Osugo — a man without titles — contradicts Okonkwo, who in turn
insults Osugo by declaring the meeting is "for men." When others at the meeting side
with Osugo, Okonkwo apologizes.

Okonkwo's hard-earned success is evident because the clan chooses Okonkwo to

carry the war ultimatum to their enemy, the enemy treats him with great respect in

39
the negotiations, and the elders select Okonkwo to care for Ikemefuna until they
decide what to do with him. Once the young man is entrusted to Okonkwo's care, the
rest of the clan forgets him for three years.

At first, Ikemefuna is very unhappy — he misses his mother and sister, he tries to
run away, and he won't eat. After Okonkwo threatens to beat him, Ikemefuna finally
eats, but then vomits and becomes ill for twelve days. As he recovers, he seems to
lose his fear and sadness.

Ikemefuna has become very popular in Okonkwo's house, especially with Nwoye
and the other children. To them, he seems to know everything and can make useful
things like flutes, rodent traps, and bows. Even Okonkwo has inwardly become fond
of Ikemefuna, but he does not show affection — a womanly sign of weakness. He
treats Ikemefuna with a heavy hand, as he does other members of his family,
although he allows Ikemefuna to accompany him like a son to meetings and feasts,
carrying his stool and his bag. Ikemefuna calls Okonkwo "father."

During the annual Week of Peace just before planting time, tradition permits no one
in the village to speak a harsh word to another person. One day during this week,
Okonkwo's youngest wife, Ojiugo, goes to a friend's house to braid her hair, and she
forgets to prepare Okonkwo's afternoon meal and feed her children. When Ojiugo
returns, Okonkwo beats her severely. Even when he is reminded of the ban on
violence, he doesn't stop the beating. Because Okonkwo's violation of peace can
jeopardize the whole village's crops, the priest of the earth goddess orders Okonkwo
to make offerings at his shrine. Although Okonkwo inwardly regrets his "great evil,"
he never admits to an error. His offensive breaking of the peace and the priest's mild
punishment are talked about in the village.

After the sacred week, the farmers of the village begin to plant their harvest.
Okonkwo allows Ikemefuna and Nwoye to help him collect, count, and prepare the
seed-yams for planting, though he continually finds fault with their efforts. He
believes that he is simply helping them learn the difficult and manly art of seed-yam
preparation.

Soon, the rainy season begins and the planting takes place, followed by the intense
period of care for the young plants. During the resting time between planting and
harvest, the friendship between Ikemefuna and Nwoye grows even stronger.

Chapter Five

The village of Umuofia prepares for the Feast of the New Yam, which takes place
just before the harvest. All yams left over from the old year must be thrown away,
and everything used in preparing, cooking, and serving yams must be thoroughly
washed before being used for the new crop. Relatives and other guests are invited
from afar for the feast; Okonkwo invites his wives' relatives. While everyone else
seems enthusiastic about the coming festival, Okonkwo knows that he will grow tired
of celebrating the festival for days; he would rather tend to his farm.

40
Near the end of the preparations, Okonkwo's suppressed anger and resentment
about the feast explodes when he thinks someone has killed one of his banana
trees. However, leaves have merely been cut off from the tree to wrap food. When
his second wife, Ekwefi, admits to taking the leaves, Okonkwo beats her severely to
release his pent-up anger. Then he sends for his rusty gun to go hunting —
Okonkwo is not a hunter nor is he skilled with a gun. When Ekwefi mumbles about
"guns that never shot," he grabs his gun, aims it at her, and pulls the trigger.
Although it goes off, she is not injured. Okonkwo sighs and walks away with the gun.

Despite Okonkwo's outbursts, the festival is celebrated with great joy, even in his
household and by Ekwefi after her beating and near shooting. Like most people of
the village, she looks forward to the second day of the feast and its great wrestling
matches between men of the village and men of neighboring villages. This contest is
the same kind in which Okonkwo, years earlier, not only won the wrestling match but
also won Ekwefi's heart.

Okonkwo's wives and daughters excitedly prepare the yams for the feast in
anticipation of the contest. As his evening meal is served by daughters of each of his
wives, Okonkwo acknowledges to himself how especially fond he is of his daughter
Ezinma. As if to offset his soft feelings, however, he scolds her twice while she sits
waiting for him to eat.

Chapter Six

On the second day of the festival, everyone gathers at the village playing field to
watch the wrestling contest between men of the village and men of a neighboring
village. The first matches, between two teams of boys fifteen or sixteen years old,
provide entertainment and excitement before the main events. One of the victorious
boys is Maduka, the son of Okonkwo's good friend Obierika. Neighbors greet each
other and tension builds until matches between the real wrestlers begin.

The current priestess of the Oracle, Chielo, talks casually with Ekwefi about
Okonkwo's attack on her and about Ekwefi's daughter Ezinma, of whom Chielo
seems particularly fond.

As the drums thunder, two teams of twelve men challenge each other. Many expect
the final match between the two greatest fighters in the villages to be uneventful
because of the similar styles of the two wrestlers. However, the spectators are
thrilled when the local fighter, Okafo, takes advantage of one of his opponent's
moves and suddenly defeats him. The crowd carries the victorious Okafo on their
shoulders with pride.

Chapter Seven

Nwoye and Ikemefuna spend all their time together like brothers. In the evenings,
they sit with Okonkwo in his hut and listen to his manly stories of violence and
bloodshed. Nwoye still enjoys his mother's folk tales and legends, but he tries to
impress Okonkwo by acting masculine by pretending to dislike the women's stories

41
and by grumbling about women. Okonkwo is inwardly pleased as Nwoye grows more
tough and manly, and he credits the change to Ikemefuna's good influence.

One day while Okonkwo and his sons are working on the walls of the compound, a
great black cloud descends upon the town. The villagers are joyful because they
recognize the coming of the locusts, a great delicacy in Umuofia. Everyone sets out
to catch them for roasting, drying, and eating.

As Okonkwo, Nwoye, and Ikemefuna are happily eating the rare food, Ogbuefi
Ezeudu, the oldest man of the village, calls on Okonkwo to speak to him privately.
He tells Okonkwo that the Oracle has decreed that Ikemefuna must be killed as part
of the retribution for the woman killed three years before in Mbaino. He tells
Okonkwo to take no part in the killing since the boy calls him "father."

Later, Okonkwo tells Ikemefuna that he is going home to Mbaino, but the boy does
not believe him. When Nwoye hears that his friend is leaving, he bursts into tears
and is beaten by his father.

Many men of Umuofia accompany Ikemefuna to the outskirts of the village and into
the forest. With Okonkwo walking near him, Ikemefuna loses his fear and thinks
about his family in Mbaino. Suddenly, Okonkwo drops to the rear of the group and
Ikemefuna is afraid again. As the boy's back is turned, one of the men strikes the first
blow with his machete. Ikemefuna cries out to Okonkwo, "My father, they have killed
me!" and runs toward Okonkwo. Afraid to appear weak, Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna
with his machete.

When Nwoye learns that Ikemefuna is dead, something changes within him. He
recalls the feeling that he experienced one day when he heard a baby crying in the
forest — a tragic reminder to him of the custom of leaving twins in the forest to die.

Chapter Eight

For two days after Ikemefuna's death, Okonkwo cannot eat or sleep; his thoughts
return again and again to the boy who was like a son to him. On the third day, when
his favorite daughter Ezinma brings him the food he finally requested, he wishes to
himself that she was a boy. He wonders with disgust how a man with his battle
record can react like a woman over the death of a boy.

Okonkwo visits his friend Obierika, hoping to escape thoughts of Ikemefuna. He

praises Obierika's son Maduka for his victory in the wrestling match and complains
about his own son's wrestling skills and mentally likens him to his own weak father,
Unoka. To counter these thoughts with a manly deed of his own, Okonkwo asks his
friend why he didn't join the other men in the sacrifice of Ikemefuna. Obierika replies
that he "had something better to do." He expresses his disapproval of Okonkwo's
role in killing Ikemefuna. The act, he says, will upset the Earth, and the earth
goddess will get her revenge.

A man interrupts them to relay the news of the death of an elder of a neighboring
village, a former Umuofia leader. His wife, also later on the same day, complicates

42
the announcement of the elder's death and funeral. The mourners recalled that they
"had one mind" and that he could do nothing without telling her. Okonkwo and
Obierika disapprove of this lack of manly quality. They also discuss with regret the
loss of prestige of the ozo title. Feeling renewed by the conversation, Okonkwo goes
home and returns later to take part in a discussion of the bride-price with the suitor of
Obierika's daughter. After the preliminaries, the bride-price is decided using a ritual.
Her price is negotiated between the bride's family and the groom's relatives by
passing back and forth quantities of sticks that represent numbers.

The men eat and drink for the rest of the evening while ridiculing the customs of the
neighboring villages compared to their own. They also refer contemptuously to "white
men," comparing their white skin to lepers' white skin.

Chapter Nine

Okonkwo finally enjoys a good night's sleep since the death of Ikemefuna, when
suddenly, he is awakened by a banging at his door. His wife Ekwefi tells him that
Ezinma is dying. Ekwefi's only living child, Ezinma is the light of her life; her nine
other children have died in infancy. Ezinma is also a favorite of Okonkwo, and
because of her spirit and cleverness, he sometimes wishes that she had been born a
boy. Now she lies suffering with fever while Okonkwo gathers leaves, grasses, and
barks for medicine.

Ezinma has survived many periods of illness in her life, and people have considered
her an evil ogbanje, a child who dies young because she is possessed by an evil
spirit that reenters the mother's womb to be born again. But she has lived much
longer than Ekwefi's other children, and Ekwefi believes faith will bring the girl a long
and happy life. A year ago, she was reassured when a medicine man dug up
Ezinma's iyi-uwa, an object buried by ogbanje children. After Ezinma led the
medicine man to the exact spot, he dug a deep pit in which he finally found a shiny
pebble wrapped in a rag. Ezinma agreed that it was hers. The unearthing of the iyi-
uwa was thought to break Ezinma's connection with the ogbanje world, and
everyone believed that she would never become sick again.

At last, Okonkwo returns from the forest and prepares the medicine for his daughter,
who inhales the fumes from a steaming pot and soon sleeps again.

Chapter Ten

Chapter 10 is devoted to a detailed description of a village public trial. At a gathering

on the large village commons, the elders sit waiting on their stools while the other
men crowd behind them. The women stand around the edges, looking on. A row of
nine stools awaits the appearance of the nine egwugwu, who represent the spirits of
their ancestors. Two small clusters of people stand at a respectful distance facing
the elders and the empty stools. The opposing sides of a family dispute, the two

43
groups wait for a hearing by the masked and costumed egwugwu, who finally appear
from their nearby house with great fanfare and ceremony. As the egwugwu approach
the stools, Okonkwo's wives notice that the second egwugwu walks with the springy
step of Okonkwo and also that Okonkwo is not seated among the elders, but of
course, they say nothing about this odd coincidence.

The egwugwu hear the case of Uzowulu, who claims that his in-laws took his wife
Mgbafo from his house, and therefore, they should return her bride-price to him.
Odukwe, Mgbafo's brother, does not deny Uzowulu's charges. He claims that his
family took Mgbafo to rescue her from daily brutal beatings by Uzowulu, and he says
that she will return to her husband only if he swears never to beat her again.

After the egwugwu retire to consult with each other, their leader, Evil Forest, returns
a verdict: He orders Uzowulu to take wine to his in-laws and beg his wife to come
back home with him. Evil Forest also reminds the husband that fighting with a
woman is not brave. Evil Forest then instructs Odukwe to accept his brother-in-law's
offer and let Mgbafo return to her husband. After the matter is settled, one village
elder expresses wonder at why such an insignificant dispute would come before the
egwugwu. Another elder reminds him that Uzowulu does not accept any decision
unless it comes from the egwugwu.

Another case waits to be heard — one involving property.

Chapter Eleven

As Okonkwo relaxes in his hut after the evening meal, he listens to the voices of his
wives and children telling folk stories. Ekwefi relates to Ezinma the tale of Tortoise,
which explains why the Tortoise shell is not smooth. Just as it becomes Ezinma's
turn to tell Ekwefi a story, they all hear the high-pitched wail of Chielo, the priestess
of Agbala. She then comes to Okonkwo's hut and tells him that Agbala needs to see
his daughter Ezinma. He begs her to let the child sleep and return in the morning,
but Chielo does not listen and proceeds to Ekwefi's hut to find Ezinma.

Terrified of the priestess, Ezinma cries in fear, but she is forced to go with Chielo to
Agbala's house in the sacred cave and hangs onto Chielo's back. As Ekwefi watches
her only daughter leave, she decides to follow her.

Following Chielo's chanting voice, Ekwefi runs through the forest in the dark. She
finally catches up with them but keeps out of sight. The priestess, however, senses
that someone is following her and curses her pursuer. Ekwefi lets Chielo get farther
ahead and soon realizes that they have passed Agbala's cave. They are heading
toward Umuachi, the farthest village. But when they reach the village commons,
Chielo turns around and begins to return the way she came, eventually moving
toward the cave of Agbala.

Chielo and Ezinma disappear into the cave, and Ekwefi waits outside doubting that
she can help her daughter if any harm comes to her. Suddenly, Ekwefi hears a noise
behind her and turns to see a man standing with a machete in his hand. Okonkwo
has come to take her place outside the cave, but she refuses to leave. She stays

44
with him, grateful for his presence and concern. His strong, silent presence reminds
Ekwefi of how she ran away from her first husband to be the wife of Okonkwo.

Chapter Twelve

After Chielo took Ezinma away, Okonkwo was not able to sleep. He made several
trips to the cave before he finally found and joined Ekwefi waiting outside the cave.
When Chielo came out of Agbala's cave with Ezinma in the early morning hours, she
ignored Okonkwo and Ekwefi and carried the sleeping Ezinma home to her bed, with
the girl's parents following behind.

On the following day, the village celebrates the next event in the marriage of the
daughter of Obierika, Okonkwo's friend. The uri is a ritual in which the suitor presents
palm-oil to everyone in the bride's immediate family, her relatives, and her extended
group of kinsmen. For this ceremony, primarily a woman's ritual, the bride's mother is
expected to prepare food for the whole village with the help of other women.

Ekwefi is exhausted after the preceding night's events. She delays going to the
celebration until Ezinma wakes and eats her breakfast. Okonkwo's other wives and
children proceed to Obierika's compound; the youngest wife promises to return to
prepare Okonkwo's afternoon meal.

Obierika is slaughtering two goats for the soup and is admiring another goat that was
bought in a neighboring village as a gift to the in-laws. He and the other men discuss
the magic of medicine used in the other village that draws people to the market and
helps rob some of them. While the women are preparing for the feast, they hear a
cry in the distance, revealing that a cow is loose. Leaving a few women to tend the
cooking, the rest go find the cow and drive it back to its owner, who must pay a
heavy fine. The women check among themselves to be sure that every available
woman has participated in rounding up the cow.

The palm-wine ceremony begins in the afternoon as soon as everyone gathers and
begins to drink the first-delivered wine. When the new in-laws arrive, they present
Obierika's family with fifty pots of wine, a very respectable number. The uri festivities
continue into the night and end with much singing and dancing.

Chapter Thirteen

In the dead of night, the sound of a drum and a cannon announce the death of
Ezeudu, an important man in the village. Okonkwo shivers when he remembers that
Ezeudu had warned him against playing a part in the killing of Ikemefuna.

Everyone in the village gathers for the funeral ceremony of a warrior who had
achieved three titles in his lifetime, a rare accomplishment. During the ceremony,
men dance, fire off guns, and dash about in a frenzy of wailing for the loss of
Ezeudu. Periodically, the egwugwu spirits appear from the underworld, including a
one-handed spirit who dances and brings a message for the dead Ezeudu. Before
the burial, the dancing, drumming, and gunshots become increasingly intense.

45
Suddenly an agonized cry and shouts of horror are followed by silence. Ezeudu's
sixteen-year-old son is found dead in a pool of blood in the midst of the crowd. When
Okonkwo fired his gun, it exploded and a piece of iron pierced the boy's heart. In the
history of Umuofia, such an accident has never occurred.

Okonkwo's accidental killing of a clansman is a crime against the earth goddess, and
he knows that he and his family must leave Umuofia for seven years. As his wives
and children cry bitterly, they hurriedly pack their most valuable belongings into head
loads to be carried as they prepare to flee before morning to Mbanta, the village of
his mother. Friends move Okonkwo's yams to Obierika's compound for storage.

After the family's departure the next morning, a group of village men, carrying out the
traditional justice prescribed by the earth goddess, invade Okonkwo's compound and
destroy his barn, houses, and animals. Okonkwo's friend Obierika mourns his
departure and wonders why Okonkwo should be punished so severely for an
accident. Again, Obierika ponders the old traditions, remembering his own twin
children who were abandoned in the forest because of tribal tradition.

Chapter Fourteen

Okonkwo arrives in Mbanta to begin his seven-year exile. His maternal uncle,
Uchendu, now a village elder, welcomes him. Uchendu guesses what has happened,
listens to Okonkwo's story, and arranges for the necessary rituals and offerings. He
gives Okonkwo a plot of land on which to build a compound for his household, and
Okonkwo receives additional pieces of land for farming. Uchendu's five sons each
give him three hundred seed-yams to start his farm.

Okonkwo and his family must work hard to develop a new farm, and the work gives
him no pleasure because he has lost the vigor and motivation of his younger days.
He knows he is merely "marking time" while he is in Mbanta. He grieves over his
interrupted plan to become one of the lords of his clan in Umuofia and blames his chi
for his failure to achieve lasting greatness. Uchendu senses Okonkwo's depression
and plans to speak to him later.

Uchendu's twenty-seven children gather from far and near for an isa-ifi ceremony.
This final marriage ritual will determine if the intended bride of Uchendu's youngest
son has been faithful to him during their courtship. The isa-ifi ceremony is described
in detail.

The next day, in front of all of his children, Uchendu speaks to Okonkwo about his
discouragement and despair. Through a series of questions no one is able to
answer, Uchendu helps them all understand why a man should return to his
motherland when he is bitter and depressed. He advises Okonkwo to comfort his
family and prepare them for his eventual return to Umuofia, and, meanwhile, to
accept the support of his kinsmen while he is here. If Okonkwo denies the support of

46
his motherland, he may displease the dead. Uchendu points out that many people
suffer more serious setbacks than a seven-year exile.

Chapter Fifteen

During Okonkwo's second year in exile, his good friend Obierika and two other
young men pay him a visit in Mbanta. After his introduction to Uchendu, Obierika
relays tragic news about the village of Abame.

One day a white man rode into the village on a bicycle, which the villagers called an
"iron horse." At first, the people ran away from the man, but the ones who were less
fearful walked up to him and touched his white skin. The elders of Abame consulted
their Oracle, which told them that the white man would destroy their clan, and others
were on their way, coming like locusts. Confronting the villagers, the white man
seemed only to repeat a word like "Mbaino," perhaps the name of the village he was
looking for. They killed the white man and tied his bicycle to their sacred tree.

Weeks later, three other white men and a group of natives — "ordinary men like us"
— came to the village while most villagers were tending their farms. After the visitors
saw the bicycle on the tree, they left. Many weeks later, the whole clan was gathered
at the Abame market and then surrounded by a large group of men; they shot and
killed almost everyone. The village is now deserted.

Okonkwo and Uchendu agree that the Abame villagers were foolish to kill a man
about whom they knew nothing. They have heard stories about white men coming
with guns and strong drink and taking slaves away across the sea, but they never
believed the stories.

After their meal together, Obierika gives Okonkwo the money that he received for
selling some of Okonkwo's yams and seed-yams. He promises to continue giving
Okonkwo the profits until he returns to Umuofia — or until "green men [come] to our
clan and shoot us."

Chapter Sixteen

Two more years pass before Obierika visits Mbanta a second time, again with
unhappy news. White Christian missionaries have arrived in Umuofia, have built a
Christian church, and have recruited some converts. The leaders of the clan are
disappointed in the villagers, but the leaders believe that the converts are only
efulefu, the worthless and weak men of the village. None of the converts holds a title
in the clan.

Obierika's real reason for the visit is to inform Okonkwo that he saw Nwoye with
some missionaries in Umuofia. When Obierika asked Nwoye why he was in the
village, Nwoye responded that he was "one of them." When asked about his father,
Okonkwo, Nwoye replied that "he is not my father."

Okonkwo will not talk to his friend about Nwoye. Only after talking with Nwoye's
mother is Obierika able to learn what happened: Six men arrived in Mbanta,
including one white man. Everyone was curious to see him after hearing the story of

47
the Abame destruction. The white man had an Igbo interpreter — with a strange
dialect — and, through him, spoke to them about Christianity. He told them about a
new god who created the world and humankind; this new god would replace the
false gods of wood and stone that they had worshiped. Worship of the true god
would ensure that they would live forever in the new god's kingdom. The white man
told them that he and his people would be coming to live with them and would be
bringing many iron horses for the villagers to ride.

The villagers asked many questions. When the missionary insisted that their gods
were deceitful and arbitrary, the crowd began to move away. Suddenly, the
missionaries began singing a joyful hymn and captured their attention once again.

Okonkwo decided that the man spoke nonsense and walked away. But Nwoye was
impressed with the compassion of the new religion. It seemed to answer his
questions about customs that included the killing of twins and Ikemefuna.

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter 17 continues the story of how Nwoye becomes a Christian. The

missionaries sleep in the Mbanta marketplace for several nights and preach the
Christian gospel each morning. After several days, they ask the leaders of the clan
for land on which to build a church. The elders agree to give them a part of the Evil
Forest, where people who died of evil diseases are buried, as well as the magical
objects of great medicine men. The elders think that the missionaries are fools for
taking the cursed land; according to tradition, the missionaries will be dead in a few
days.

To the villagers' surprise and disappointment, the missionaries build their church
without difficulty. The people of Mbanta begin to realize that the white man
possesses incredible magic and power, especially because the missionaries and the
church survived twenty-eight days — the longest period the gods allow a person to
defy them. The missionaries soon acquire more converts, including their first woman
— pregnant and previously the mother to four sets of twins, all of whom were
abandoned in the forest. The white missionary moves on to Umuofia, while his
interpreter, Mr. Kiaga, assumes responsibility for the Mbanta congregation.

As the number of converts grows, Nwoye secretly becomes more attracted to the
religion and wants to attend Sunday church service, but he fears the wrath of his
father if he enters the church.

One day, Okonkwo's cousin sees Nwoye inside the Christian church. He rushes to
tell Okonkwo, who says nothing until his son returns home. In a rage, he asks Nwoye
where he has been, but he gives no answer. When he starts to beat Nwoye with a
heavy stick, his uncle Uchendu demands that Okonkwo leave his son alone. Nwoye
leaves the hut and never returns. Instead, Nwoye moves to Umuofia, where the
white missionary started a school for young people. He plans to return someday to
convert his mother, brothers, and sisters.

At first, Okonkwo is furious with his son's action, but he concludes that Nwoye is not
worth his anger. Okonkwo fears that, after his death, his younger sons will abandon

48
the family ancestors because they have become attracted to the new religion.
Okonkwo wonders how he gave life to such a foolish and womanly son, one who
resembles his grandfather, Unoka, in so many ways.

Chapter Eighteen

Initially, the church and the clan remain segregated from one another in Mbanta. The
people of the village believe that eventually the Christians will weaken and die,
especially since they live in the dreaded forest, where they even rescue twins
abandoned in the woods.

One day, three converts come into the village saying that the traditional gods are
dead, and the converts are ready to burn their shrines. The clan men severely beat
the converts, after which nothing happens between the Christians and the clan for a
long time. Eventually, rumors circulate that the church has set up its own
government. But the villagers remain unconcerned about the church — until a new
issue emerges.

The outcasts of Mbanta, the osu, live in a special section of the village and are
forbidden to marry a free person or cut their hair. They are to be buried in the Evil
Forest when they die. When the osu see that the church welcomes twins into their
congregation, they think that they may be welcome also. After two outcasts attend
service, other converts protest, saying that Mr. Kiaga does not understand the
disgrace of associating with osu. But Mr. Kiaga says that the osu need the church
more than anyone, and so he welcomes them, instructing them to shave off their
mark of shame — their dirty, tangled hair. One prior convert chooses to return to the
clan, but the others find strength and understanding in the missionaries' point of
view. Most other osu become Christians, and the outcasts become the most
dedicated members of the congregation.

A year later, one of the osu converts named Okoli is rumored to have killed the
sacred python, the clan's most respected animal. The clan rulers and elders gather
in Mbanta to decide on a punishment for the crime that they believed would never
happen. Okonkwo, who has gained a leadership role in his motherland, believes the
clan should react with violence, but the elders opt more peacefully to exclude church
members from all aspects of clan life, much to Okonkwo's disgust.

The proclamation of exclusion keeps the Christians from the market, the stream, the
chalk quarry, and the red earth pit. From the beginning, Okoli denies killing the
python, but then he cannot speak for himself because he is ill; by the end of the day,
he dies. The villagers see his death as an act of revenge by the gods, so they agree
not to bother the Christians.

Chapter Nineteen

Although Okonkwo has achieved status in his motherland, he feels that his seven
years in exile have been wasted. He could have risen to the peak of Umuofian
society if he had not been forced into exile. At the beginning of his last year in
Mbanta, Okonkwo sends money to Obierika in Umuofia to rebuild two huts on the

49
site of his burned-out compound. He will build the remainder when he returns in a
year.

As the time approaches for his family's return to Umuofia, Okonkwo instructs his
wives and children to prepare a huge feast for his mother's kinsmen in Mbanta in a
gesture to show his gratitude for kindness over the years of exile. Invited to the feast
are all the living descendants of an ancestor who lived two hundred years earlier.
Family members pick and prepare vegetables, slaughter goats and fowl, and prepare
traditional dishes.

At the feast, Uchendu is honored as the oldest man at the feast; he breaks the kola
nut and prays for health and children. As they drink wine, one of the oldest members
of the clan thanks Okonkwo for his generosity in providing the magnificent feast. He
then addresses the young people of the clan, disheartened at seeing the bonds of
family and village breaking down as the Christians pull so many of the clan away,
even from within families. He fears for the future of the young people and for the
survival of the clan itself.

Chapter Twenty

During Okonkwo's first year in exile, he already began to plan his grand return to
Umuofia. Now he is determined to compensate for the seven years he considers
wasted. Not only will he build a bigger compound than before, but he will also build
huts for two new wives.

His plans for a triumphant return, however, are momentarily disrupted when Nwoye
joins the Christians. At first, his oldest son's action depresses him. But he is
confident that his other five sons will not disappoint him. Okonkwo also takes pride in
his daughters, especially Ezinma, who has grown into a beautiful young woman. Her
periods of illness are almost nonexistent. Many suitors in Mbanta have asked for her
hand in marriage, but she has refused them all, knowing that her father wishes her to
marry in Umuofia. Moreover, she has encouraged her half-sister Obiageli to do the
same.

When Okonkwo returns to his village in Umuofia, he finds it greatly changed in his
absence. The Christian church has won many converts, including respected men
who have renounced their traditional titles. The white men have established a
government court of law in Umuofia, where they try people who break the white
men's laws; they have also built a prison, where lawbreakers are sent for
punishment. The white men even employ natives as their "court messengers" to do
the dirty work of arresting, guarding, and administering punishment to offending
citizens.

Okonkwo wonders why his fellow Umuofians do not use violence to rid themselves of
the white man's church and oppressive government. His friend Obierika says that
they fear a fate like Abame's, the village destroyed by the white intruders. He also
tells Okonkwo about a villager who was hanged by the government because of an
argument over a piece of land. He points out that any violence will pit clansmen
against one another, because many clan members have already joined t

50
he church. Obierika reflects on how the white men settled in quietly with their religion
and then stayed to govern harshly, without ever learning the language or customs
and without listening to reason.

Chapter Twenty-One

Not all members of the Igbo clan in Umuofia dislike the changes taking place. The
Europeans are bringing wealth to the village as they begin to export palm-oil and
palm nut kernels.

The white missionary, Mr. Brown, takes time to learn about the Igbo form of worship,
often discussing religion with one of the elders of the clan. The two men debate the
forms, actions, and attitudes of their respective gods. Mr. Brown restrains overeager
members of his church from provoking villagers who cling to the old ways. Through
his gentle patience, Mr. Brown becomes friends with some of the clan leaders, who
begin to listen to and understand his message.

Mr. Brown urges the people of the clan to send their children to his school. He tells
them that education is the key to maintaining control of their land. Eventually, people
of all ages begin to listen to his message and attend his school. Mr. Brown's crusade
gains power for the whites and for the church, but his diligence takes its toll on his
health. He is forced to leave his congregation and return home.

Before Mr. Brown goes home, he visits Okonkwo to tell him that Nwoye — now
called Isaac — has been sent to a teaching college in a distant town. Okonkwo
drives the missionary out and orders him never to return.

Everything about the changed community of Umuofia displeases Okonkwo. His

homecoming was not what he had hoped; no one really took much notice of his
arrival. He can't even proceed with the ceremonies for his sons, because the rites
are held only once every three years, and this year is not one of them. The
dissolution of the old way of life saddens him as he sees the once fierce Umuofians
becoming more and more "soft like women." He mourns for the clan, "which he saw
breaking up and falling apart" — a phrase that again recalls the book's title.

Chapter Twenty-Two

The new head of the Christian church, the Reverend James Smith, possesses
nothing of Mr. Brown's compassion, kindness, or accommodation. He despises the
way that Mr. Brown tried to lead the church. Mr. Smith finds many converts
unfamiliar with important religious ideas and rituals, proving to himself that Mr. Brown
cared only about recruiting converts rather than making them Christians. He vows to
get the church back on the narrow path and soon demonstrates his intolerance of
clan customs by suspending a young woman whose husband mutilated her dead
ogbanje child in the traditional way. The missionary does not believe that such
children go back into the mother's womb to be born again, and he condemns people
who practice these beliefs as carrying out the work of the devil.

51
Each year, the Igbo clan holds a sacred ceremony to honor the earth deity. The
egwugwu, ancestral spirits of the clan, dance in the tradition of the celebration.
Enoch, an energetic and zealous convert, often provokes violent quarrels with
people he sees as enemies. Approaching the egwugwu, who are keeping their
distance from the Christians, Enoch dares the egwugwu to touch a Christian, so one
of the egwugwu strikes him with a cane. Enoch responds by pulling the spirit's mask
off, a serious offense to the clan because, according to Umuofian tradition,
unmasking an egwugwu kills the ancestral spirit.

The next day, the egwugwu from all the villages gather in the marketplace. They
storm Enoch's compound and destroy it with fire and machetes. Enoch takes refuge
in the church compound, but the egwugwu follow him. Mr. Smith meets the men at
the church door. Then the masked egwugwu begin to move toward the church, but
they are quieted by their leader, who belittles Mr. Smith and his interpreter because
they cannot understand what he is saying. He tells them that the egwugwu will not
harm Mr. Smith for the sake of Mr. Brown, who was their friend. Mr. Smith will be
able to stay safely in his house in Umuofia and worship his own god, but they intend
to destroy the church that has caused the Igbo so many problems. Through his
interpreter, Mr. Smith tries to calm them and asks that they leave the matter to him,
but the egwugwu demolish his church to satisfy the clan spirit momentarily.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Okonkwo is pleased about the destruction of the church and feels that daily life is
beginning to seem normal again. For once, the clan listened to his advice and acted
like warriors, though they didn't kill the missionary or drive the Christians out of
Umuofia as he had urged.

When the District Commissioner returns from a trip and learns about the destruction
of the church, he asks six leaders of the village, including Okonkwo, to meet with him
in his government office. The six men agree but go to the meeting armed with their
machetes.

The District Commissioner asks the village leaders, who have set their weapons
aside, to explain their actions at the church to him and twelve other government
men. As one of the leaders begins to tell about Enoch's unmasking of an egwugwu,
the twelve government men surprise the clan leaders by handcuffing them and
taking them into a guardroom.

The Commissioner reminds them that he and his government promote peace and
want to help them be happy. When they treat others wrongly, they must be judged in
the government court of law — the law of the Commissioner's "great queen." The
leaders were wrong to hurt others and burn Enoch's house and the church. As a
consequence, he says that they will be kept in prison, where they will be treated well
and set free only after paying a fine of two hundred bags of cowries.

In prison, the guards repeatedly mistreat the six leaders, including shaving the men's
heads. The prisoners sit in silence for two days without food, water, or toilet facilities.

52
On the third day, in desperation, they finally talk among themselves about paying the
fine. Okonkwo reminds them that they should have followed his advice and killed the
white man when they had the chance. A guard hears him and hits them all with his
stick.

As soon as the leaders were locked up, court messengers went around the village
telling everyone that the prisoners would be released only after the village paid a fine
of two hundred and fifty bags of cowries — fifty of which the messengers would keep
for themselves. Rumors circulated about possible hangings and shootings that
occurred in Abame, including the families of the prisoners. At a town meeting, the
Umuofians decide to collect the money immediately.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The District Commissioner sets the six men free after the village pays the required
fine, and the leaders quietly return to their homes, deep in misery and not speaking
to anyone they meet. Okonkwo's relatives and friends are waiting for him in his hut,
and his friend Obierika urges him to eat the food his daughter Ezinma has prepared
for him. No one else speaks, seeing the scars on his back where the prison guards
beat him.

The same night, the village crier calls the clansmen to a meeting the next morning.

Okonkwo lies awake, thinking of his revenge. He hopes Umuofia will wage war on
the intruders; if they don't, he will take action on his own. His anger turns on villagers
who want to keep things peaceful instead of facing the need for war, even a "war of
blame."

For the meeting in the marketplace, people come from even the farthest villages,
except people who are friendly with the white foreigners. The first man to address
the crowd is one of the leaders whom the Commissioner arrested. He calls for the
village to take action against the unwanted strangers to rid themselves of the evil the
strangers have brought. He admits that the Umuofians may have to fight and kill
members of their own clan.

Suddenly, five court messengers approach the group. Okonkwo jumps forward to
stop them. The messenger in charge says that the white man has ordered the
meeting stopped. Okonkwo takes out his machete and beheads the man, but no one
tries to stop the other messengers from escaping. The other clansmen are afraid,
and someone asks, "Why did he do it?" Seeing such inaction and fear, Okonkwo
cleans his machete on the sand and walks away, realizing that his fellow Umuofians
will never go to war.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Following the killing of the messenger, the District Commissioner goes to Okonkwo's
compound and, finding a small crowd, demands to see Okonkwo. Obierika
repeatedly says that he is not home. When the Commissioner threatens the men,

53
Obierika agrees to show him where Okonkwo is, expressing the hope that the
Commissioner's men will help them.

Obierika leads the Commissioner and his men to an area behind the compound,
where Okonkwo's body hangs lifeless from a tree — a victim of suicide. Obierika
asks the Commissioner if his men will cut Okonkwo down from the tree and bury
him. According to tradition, the people of the clan cannot touch the body of a man
who killed himself — a sin against the earth. Obierika angrily accuses the
Commissioner causing the death of his good friend. The Commissioner orders his
men to take down the body and bring it and the crowd to the court.

As the Commissioner leaves, he thinks about the book in which he writes about his
experiences in civilizing the people of Nigeria. He will possibly write a chapter, or
perhaps an interesting paragraph, about the man who killed a messenger and then
killed himself. The Commissioner will title his book The Pacification of the Primitive
Tribes of the Lower Niger.

54
Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Struggle Between Change and Tradition

As a story about a culture on the verge of change, Things Fall Apart deals with how
the prospect and reality of change affect various characters. The tension about
whether change should be privileged over tradition often involves questions of
personal status. Okonkwo, for example, resists the new political and religious orders
because he feels that they are not manly and that he himself will not be manly if he
consents to join or even tolerate them. To some extent, Okonkwo’s resistance of
cultural change is also due to his fear of losing societal status. His sense of self-
worth is dependent upon the traditional standards by which society judges him. This
system of evaluating the self inspires many of the clan’s outcasts to embrace
Christianity. Long scorned, these outcasts find in the Christian value system a refuge
from the Igbo cultural values that place them below everyone else. In their new
community, these converts enjoy a more elevated status.

The villagers in general are caught between resisting and embracing change and
they face the dilemma of trying to determine how best to adapt to the reality of
change. Many of the villagers are excited about the new opportunities and
techniques that the missionaries bring. This European influence, however, threatens
to extinguish the need for the mastery of traditional methods of farming, harvesting,
building, and cooking. These traditional methods, once crucial for survival, are now,
to varying degrees, dispensable. Throughout the novel, Achebe shows how
dependent such traditions are upon storytelling and language and thus how quickly
the abandonment of the Igbo language for English could lead to the eradication of
these traditions.

Varying Interpretations of Masculinity

Okonkwo’s relationship with his late father shapes much of his violent and ambitious
demeanor. He wants to rise above his father’s legacy of spendthrift, indolent
behavior, which he views as weak and therefore effeminate. This association is
inherent in the clan’s language—the narrator mentions that the word for a man who
has not taken any of the expensive, prestige-indicating titles is agbala, which also
means “woman.” But, for the most part, Okonkwo’s idea of manliness is not the
clan’s. He associates masculinity with aggression and feels that anger is the only
emotion that he should display. For this reason, he frequently beats his wives, even
threatening to kill them from time to time. We are told that he does not think about
things, and we see him act rashly and impetuously. Yet others who are in no way
effeminate do not behave in this way. Obierika, unlike Okonkwo, “was a man who
thought about things.” Whereas Obierika refuses to accompany the men on the trip
to kill Ikemefuna, Okonkwo not only volunteers to join the party that will execute his
surrogate son but also violently stabs him with his machete simply because he is
afraid of appearing weak.

55
Okonkwo’s seven-year exile from his village only reinforces his notion that men are
stronger than women. While in exile, he lives among the kinsmen of his motherland
but resents the period in its entirety. The exile is his opportunity to get in touch with
his feminine side and to acknowledge his maternal ancestors, but he keeps
reminding himself that his maternal kinsmen are not as warlike and fierce as he
remembers the villagers of Umuofia to be. He faults them for their preference of
negotiation, compliance, and avoidance over anger and bloodshed. In Okonkwo’s
understanding, his uncle Uchendu exemplifies this pacifist (and therefore somewhat
effeminate) mode.

Language as a Sign of Cultural Difference

Language is an important theme in Things Fall Apart on several levels. In

demonstrating the imaginative, often formal language of the Igbo, Achebe
emphasizes that Africa is not the silent or incomprehensible continent that books
such as Heart of Darkness made it out to be. Rather, by peppering the novel with
Igbo words, Achebe shows that the Igbo language is too complex for direct
translation into English. Similarly, Igbo culture cannot be understood within the
framework of European colonialist values. Achebe also points out that Africa has
many different languages: the villagers of Umuofia, for example, make fun of Mr.
Brown’s translator because his language is slightly different from their own.

On a macroscopic level, it is extremely significant that Achebe chose to write Things

Fall Apart in English—he clearly intended it to be read by the West at least as much,
if not more, than by his fellow Nigerians. His goal was to critique and emend the
portrait of Africa that was painted by so many writers of the colonial period. Doing so
required the use of English, the language of those colonial writers. Through his
inclusion of proverbs, folktales, and songs translated from the Igbo language,
Achebe managed to capture and convey the rhythms, structures, cadences, and
beauty of the Igbo language.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to
develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Chi

The concept of chi is discussed at various points throughout the novel and is
important to our understanding of Okonkwo as a tragic hero. The chi is an
individual’s personal god, whose merit is determined by the individual’s good fortune
or lack thereof. Along the lines of this interpretation, one can explain Okonkwo’s
tragic fate as the result of a problematic chi—a thought that occurs to Okonkwo at
several points in the novel. For the clan believes, as the narrator tells us in Chapter
14, a “man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi.” But there is another
understanding of chi that conflicts with this definition. In Chapter 4, the narrator
relates, according to an Igbo proverb, that “when a man says yes his chi says yes
also.” According to this understanding, individuals will their own destinies. Thus,

56
depending upon our interpretation of chi, Okonkwo seems either more or less
responsible for his own tragic death. Okonkwo himself shifts between these poles:
when things are going well for him, he perceives himself as master and maker of his
own destiny; when things go badly, however, he automatically disavows
responsibility and asks why he should be so ill-fated.

Animal Imagery

In their descriptions, categorizations, and explanations of human behavior and

wisdom, the Igbo often use animal anecdotes to naturalize their rituals and beliefs.
The presence of animals in their folklore reflects the environment in which they live—
not yet “modernized” by European influence. Though the colonizers, for the most
part, view the Igbo’s understanding of the world as rudimentary, the Igbo perceive
these animal stories, such as the account of how the tortoise’s shell came to be
bumpy, as logical explanations of natural phenomena. Another important animal
image is the figure of the sacred python. Enoch’s alleged killing and eating of the
python symbolizes the transition to a new form of spirituality and a new religious
order. Enoch’s disrespect of the python clashes with the Igbo’s reverence for it,
epitomizing the incompatibility of colonialist and indigenous values.

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas
or concepts.

Locusts

Achebe depicts the locusts that descend upon the village in highly allegorical terms
that prefigure the arrival of the white settlers, who will feast on and exploit the
resources of the Igbo. The fact that the Igbo eat these locusts highlights how
innocuous they take them to be. Similarly, those who convert to Christianity fail to
realize the damage that the culture of the colonizer does to the culture of the
colonized.

The language that Achebe uses to describe the locusts indicates their symbolic
status. The repetition of words like “settled” and “every” emphasizes the suddenly
ubiquitous presence of these insects and hints at the way in which the arrival of the
white settlers takes the Igbo off guard. Furthermore, the locusts are so heavy they
break the tree branches, which symbolizes the fracturing of Igbo traditions and
culture under the onslaught of colonialism and white settlement. Perhaps the most
explicit clue that the locusts symbolize the colonists is Obierika’s comment in
Chapter 15: “the Oracle . . . said that other white men were on their way. They were
locusts. . . .”

Fire

Okonkwo is associated with burning, fire, and flame throughout the novel, alluding to
his intense and dangerous anger—the only emotion that he allows himself to display.
Yet the problem with fire, as Okonkwo acknowledges in Chapters 17 and 24, is that it

57
destroys everything it consumes. Okonkwo is both physically destructive—he kills
Ikemefuna and Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s son—and emotionally destructive—he suppresses
his fondness for Ikemefuna and Ezinma in favor of a colder, more masculine aura.
Just as fire feeds on itself until all that is left is a pile of ash, Okonkwo eventually
succumbs to his intense rage, allowing it to rule his actions until it destroys him.

58
Glossary

abomination anything hateful and disgusting.

agadi-nwayi an old woman.

albino a person whose skin, hair, and eyes lack normal coloration because of
genetic factors: albinos have a white skin, whitish hair, and pink eyes.

alligator pepper a small brown fruit of an African shrub, whose hot seeds are like
black pepper; also called offe. The seeds may be ground and blended with kola nut
in the ritual welcome of visitors.

Amadiora the god of thunder and lightning.

Ani the earth goddess who owns all land.

anklet of his titles When a man achieves a title, he wears a special anklet to
indicate his title. He may wear more than one anklet to indicate more titles.

bull-roarer a noisemaker made from a length of string or rawhide threaded through

an object of wood, stone, pottery, or bone; a ritual device that makes a loud
humming noise when swung rapidly overhead.

calabash the dried, hollow shell of a gourd, used as a bowl, cup, and so on.

callow young and inexperienced; immature.

cam wood a dye from a West African redwood tree that is used by women to redden
their skins before decorating themselves with other patterns for special occasions.

cassava any of several plants (genus Manihot and especially M. esculenta) of the
spurge family grown in the tropics for their fleshy, edible rootsticks that produce a
nutritious starch. Here, the plant also provides valuable leaves for livestock feed as
well as tubers, which are prepared like coco-yams.

caste rigid class distinction based on birth, wealth, and so on, operating as a social
system or principle.

chalk a material that represents peace. The Umuofians use chalk to signify personal
honors and status by marking the floor and the toe or face, according to the level of
honorific title they have taken. For example, Okoye marks his toe to indicate his first
title.

chi a significant cultural concept and belief meaning one's personal deity; also one's
destiny or fate.

Chukwu the leading god in the Igbo hierarchy of gods.

59
coco-yam the edible, spherical-shaped tuber of the taro plant grown in the tropics
and eaten like potatoes or ground into flour, cooked to a paste, or fermented for
beer. Here, the round coco-yam (a woman's crop) is a different tuber than the
elongated-shaped yam (a man's crop).

compound an enclosed space with a building or group of buildings within it.

cowries shells of the cowrie, a kind of mollusk related to snails and found in warm
seas; especially the shells of the money cowrie, formerly used as currency in parts of
Africa and southern Asia.

creepers plants whose stems put out tendrils or rootlets by which they can creep
along a surface as they grow.

desecrated to have taken away the sacredness of; treat as not sacred; profane.

efulefu worthless men in the eyes of the community.

egusi melon seeds prepared for a soup.

egwugwu leaders of the clan who wear masks during certain rituals and speak on
behalf of the spirits; the term can be either singular or plural.

Eke day/ Afo day The Igbo week has four days: Eke, Oye, Afo, and Nkwo.

ekwe a drum.

eneke-nti-oba a bird that flies endlessly.

esoteric intended for or understood by only a chosen few, as an inner group of

disciples or initiates (said of ideas, literature, and so).

evangelism a preaching of, or zealous effort to spread, the gospel.

Ezeugo the name for a person of high religious significance, such as an Igbo priest.

fetish any object believed by some person or group to have magical power.

guttural loosely, produced in the throat; harsh, rasping, and so on.

gyre a circular or spiral motion; a revolution. The word appears in the book's opening
quotation from a W.B. Yeats poem, "The Second Coming."

harbingers persons or things that come before to announce or give an indication of

what follows; heralds.

harmattan a dry, dusty wind that blows from the Sahara in northern Africa toward
the Atlantic, especially from November to March.

60
heathen anyone not a Jew, Christian, or Muslim; especially, a member of a tribe,
nation, etc. worshiping many gods.

iba fever, probably related to malaria.

Ibo a member of a people of southeastern Nigeria; known for their art and their skills
as traders. Today, the word is spelled Igbo (the g is not pronounced).

Idemili title This title, named after the river god Idemili, is the third-level title of honor
in Umuofia.

Ikenga a carved wooden figure kept by every man in his shrine to symbolize the
strength of a man's right hand.

ilo the village gathering place and playing field; an area for large celebrations and
special events.

impudent shamelessly bold or disrespectful; saucy; insolent.

isa-ifi the ceremony in which the bride is judged to have been faithful to her groom.

iyi-uwa a special stone linking an ogbanje child and the spirit world; The ogbanje is
protected as long as the stone is not discovered and destroyed.

jigida strings of hundreds of tiny beads worn snugly around the waist.

kites birds of prey with long, pointed wings and, usually, a forked tail; they prey
especially on insects, reptiles, and small mammals.

kola nut the seed of the cola, an African tree. The seed contains caffeine and yields
an extract; it represents vitality and is used as a courteous, welcoming snack, often
with alligator pepper.

leprosy a progressive infectious disease caused by a bacterium that attacks the

skin, flesh, nerves, and so on; it is characterized by nodules, ulcers, white scaly
scabs, deformities, and the eventual loss of sensation, and is apparently
communicated only after long and close contact.

making inyanga flaunting or showing off.

Mbaino This community name means four settlements.

Mbanta The name means small town and is where Okonkwo's mother comes from,
his motherland, beyond the borders of Mbaino (Ikemefuna's original home).

ndichie elders.

Nna-ayi translated as our father; a greeting of respect.

nso-ani a sin against the earth goddess, Ani.

61
nza a small but aggressive bird.

obi a hut within a compound.

ogbanje a child possessed by an evil spirit that leaves the child's body upon death
only to enter into the mother's womb to be reborn again within the next child's body.

Ogbuefi a person with a high title, as in Ogbuefi Ezeugo (the orator) and Ogbuefi
Udo (the man whose wife was killed in Mbaino).

ogene a gong.

ogwu medicine, magic.

ostracize to banish, bar, exclude, etc. from a group through rejection by general
consent of the members.

osu a class of people in Igbo culture considered outcasts, not fit to associate with
free-born members of the clan.

ozo a class of men holding an ozo title; it also refers to the ritual which accompanies
the granting of a title to a person.

palaver a conference or discussion, as originally between African natives and

European explorers or traders.

plantain a hybrid banana plant that is widely cultivated in the Western Hemisphere.

raffia 1) a palm tree of Madagascar, with large, pinnate leaves. 2) fiber from its
leaves, used as string or woven into baskets, hats, and so on.

resolute having or showing a fixed, firm purpose; determined; resolved; unwavering.

sacrament of Holy Communion the most sacred ritual of participating Christians.

superfluous being more than is needed, useful, or wanted; surplus; excessive.

taboo any social prohibition or restriction that results from convention or tradition.

tie-tie a vine used like a rope; from Pidgin English to tie.

Udo peace.

udu a clay pot.

uli a liquid made from seeds that make the skin pucker; used for temporary tattoo-
like decorations.

umuada daughters who have married outside the clan.

62
umunna the extended family and kinsmen.

Umuofia The community name, which means children of the forest and a land
undisturbed by European influences.

yam foo-foo pounded and mashed yam pulp.

yam pottage a watery gruel made of yams.

63
 Things Fall Apart – Part One Questions

Part one

Part One introduces the reader to the tragic hero of the novel, Okonkwo, and his
clan, the Umuofians of eastern Nigeria. Twenty years ago, Okonkwo fought and
beat Amalinze the cat in one of the most exciting wrestling matches Umuofia had
ever seen. Since that time, Okonkwo has prospered and overcome many
obstacles in his path and is now rapidly becoming one of the greatest leaders of
Umuofia.

Plagued by his father’s unsuccessful life, Okonkwo has become an

ambitious and ruthless man in his efforts to achieve prosperity and social prestige
in the clan. He despises all signs of weakness and tries to mould his gentle son,
Nwoye, into a war-like man by continuously beating and chastising him.

Okonkwo is asked to care for a young lad from the tribe of Mbaino who is
sent to Umuofia as a sacrificial offering to prevent war between two clans. When
the oracle of the Hills declares Ikemefuna’s death three years later, Okonkwo
unwisely joins in the murder of the innocent youth.

Okonkwo’s magnificent rise to fame is abruptly cut off in Chapter 13 when

he accidentally murders Ezedu’s son at his funeral, and is forced to flee from the
clan and go to his own motherland in Mbanta. Throughout Part One, the daily
activities, seasonal cycles, customs and religion of the Ibo people are woven into
the fabric of the story, showing the Ibo’s undisturbed lives before the arrival of the
white man.

Chapter 1

1. How does Achebe create a dramatic atmosphere in the opening paragraph of

Things Fall Apart?
2. Why had Okonkwo’s fame “grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan”?
3. Describe the relationship between Okonkwo and his father, Unoka with close
reference to the text.
4. What does Unoka’s appreciation of the beauty of nature suggest about his
character?
5. How is the kinship of the clan expressed in the tradition of the kola hut?
6. What is the view of the Umuofian society on success and failure?
7. Why does Okoye visit Unoka?
8. “Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs
are palm-oil with which words are eaten.” Explain this metaphor, and indicate

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 how the use of proverbs in the Ibo language assists communication amongst
the tribe. Do you think it could limit communication in any way?
9. Compare and contrast Unoka’s failure with Okonkwo’s success as depicted in
the last paragraph of Chapter One in Things Fall Apart.
10. What does Achebe hep his reader anticipate when he describes Ikemefuna as
a “doomed lad”?

Chapter 2

1. Describe how an atmosphere of tension and anticipation is created between

the sound “of the town-crier piercing the still night air” and the “very quiet”
night.
2. Identify some of the Ibo superstitions as a means of coping with the unknown
by examining paragraph two of Chapter Two.
3. Why had all nine villages of Umuofia been called to the market-place?
4. What choice does Mbaino make when faced with an ultimatum to prevent
war?
5. “And in fairness to Umuofia it should be recorded that it never went to war
unless its case was clear and just and was accepted as such by its Oracle –
the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves.” In what way does this quote align with
Achebe’s comment that the Ibo culture “was not one long night of savagery”?
6. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But hiss whole life
was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.” What has caused
Okonkwo’s fear of weakness, and explain how this motivates his cruelty and
weakness, and explain how this motivates his cruelty and ambition?
7. Do you think that Mbaino’s sacrifice of Iikemefuna is fair? What is Ikemefuna’s
reaction to his new situation?

Chapter 3

1. Why did Okonkwo “not have the start in life which many young men had”?
2. Describe the importance of the Oracle of the Hills and his priestess to the
people of Umuofia.
3. Was Unoka an “ill-fated man” or was he responsible for his own misfortunes?
4. Why is it ironic that Okonkwo “was possessed by the fear of his father’s
contemptible life and shameful death”?
5. What prompted Okonkwo to visit Nwakibie?
6. Describe some of the clan’s ceremonies associated with this visit.
7. Okonkwo attempted to become rich through share-cropping. What did this
entail and what was the outcome of Okonkwo’s attempts?

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 8. Okonkwo says, “Since I survived that year, I shall survive anything”. What is
ironic about this statement?
9. Unoka attempts to comfort his son’s failure. Do you think he is successful?
Explain your answer.

Chapter 4

1. How did Okonkwo know “how to kill a man’s spirit”?

2. Why was Okonkwo chosen to speak to the people of Mbaino about a
message of war?
3. How was Okonkwo judged by his clan?
4. Describe how Ikemefuna adjusts to his stay with Okonkwo by examining his
initial attitude to leaving his clan; and then his relationship with Nwoye and
Okonkwo.
5. What great evil did Okonkwo commit by breaking the Weak of Peace? What
was his punishment?
6. What do Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s words reveal about his clan’s ability to change
customs?
7. How did Ikemefuna and Nwoye help Okonkwo with the new harvest?
8. “I will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of his clan.
I would sooner strangle him with my own hands.” How does Okonkwo’s
criticism of Nwoye inadvertedly “strangle” his son’s future in the clan?
9. Describe the deep and close friendship that developed between Nwoye and
Ikemefuna.

Chapter Five

1. Describe the mood in Umuofia at the time of the “Feast of the New Yam”.
2. Why does Okonkwo find the feast a burden? How does he alleviate his
tension during this period? Explain what happens with the gun.
3. How does Okonkwo uphold the Ibo traditions in his household over the Feast
of the New Yam?
4. What brought Okonkwo, and Ekwefi, his second wife, together?
5. What do you notice about the relationship between Okonkwo’s wives as they
go about their preparations for the festival?
6. The second day of the Yam festival is the great wrestling match. Describe
Ekwefi and Okonkwo’s reaction to the wrestling match between Umuofia and
its neighbours. On what other occasion in the book do we notice their similar
reaction to situations?
7. What is the function of the pulsating beat of the drum throughout this chapter?

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Chapter Six

1. What does Okonkwo’s seat at the ilo (village playground) suggest about his
position in the clan?
2. Describe how the scene is set for the main contestants of the wrestling match
between Okafo and Ikezue.
3. Explain the relationship between Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, the Oracle of
the Hills and Caves, and Ekwefi, Ezinma’s mother.
4. List all the Ibo customs and traditions that are associated with the wrestling
match.

Chapter Seven

1. “Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son’s development, and he knew it

was due to Ikemefuna.” Comment on Ikemefuna’s positive effect on Nwoye. Is
there anything to suggest that Nwoye remains quite different from his father?
2. Explain how the story of “eneke-nti-oba who challenged the whole world to a
wrestling contest” represents the story of the relationship between Nwoye and
his father.
3. Why does Nwoye’s love of his mother’s stories prepare him for his conversion
to Christianity?
4. Contrast the coming of the locusts with the arrival of the news by Ezeudu that
Agbala had decreed that Ikemefuna should be put to death.
5. What severe warning does Ezedu give Okonkwo? Why do his words carry
weight?
6. What is the significance of our being aware of Ikemefuna’s thoughts before
his death?
7. Describe the poignancy and horror of Ikemefuna’s death.
8. How does Nwoye react to Ikemefuna’s death?
9. What is happening to Nwoye, as evidenced also in his reaction to the sound
of the baby crying in the forest.

Chapter Eight

1. Why did Okonkwo feel “like a drunken giant walking with the legs of a
mosquito”?
2. Do you feel compassion for Okonkwo’s suffering over the killing of
Ikemefuna?
3. Why does Okonkwo choose to visit Obierika during his time of anguish?
4. What prevented Obierika from taking part in the killing of Ikemefuna? What do
you think of his decision?

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 5. When Ogbuefi Ndulue of Ire village died, what strange occurrence coincided
with his death?
6. Why does Okonkwo consider Ndulue to be unmanly, and how does this reflect
Okonkwo’s inability to combine masculine and feminine elements in his own
personality?
7. Describe the elaborate bargaining over the bride-price for Akueke, Obierika’s
daughter.
8. Comment on the men’s disapproval of altering set customs in other tribes. Do
you think they are rigid in their point of view? Explain your answer.
9. In what way is the first mention of the white man tragically simplistic?

Chapter Nine

1. Why is Okonkwo disdainful of his mother’s story about “mosquito”?

2. What is wrong with Ezinma, the daughter of Ekwefi and Okonkwo?
3. Explain how “Ekwefi had suffered a good deal in her life”.
4. What does this chapter reveal about the traditions and beliefs of the tribes in
terms of:
a) their knowledge of natural medicine;
b) their understanding of child deaths and abnormalities?
5. What was the purpose of an iyi-uwa?
6. How is our view of the love between Ekwefi and Okonkwo reinforced in this
chapter?

Chapter Ten

1. Describe the marital dispute between Uzowulu and his wife, Mgbafo.
2. Why was it necessary to submit this case “to the fathers of the clan”?
3. Explain the way in which the egwugwu function as the keepers of justice in
Umuofia.
4. What is Achebe’s purpose in describing the way justice is administered in the
Ibo society?
5. Is there anything to suggest that anyone questions the Ibo’s system of
justice?

Chapter Eleven

1. What atmosphere do words like “impenetrably dark”,”silent” and “black as

charcoal” create at the beginning of this chapter?

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 2. Why does Chielo, the priestess of Agbala call for Ezinma?
3. Why are Okonkwo and Ekwefi unsuccessful in preventing Chielo from taking
Ezinma?
4. What courageous act does Ekwefi do in an attempt to protect Ezinma?
5. What is your opinion of Okonkwo at the end of this chapter?

Chapter Twelve

1. How did Ezinma return home?

2. Explain the Ibo tradition of the uri, and how it is potrayed in Obierika’s
household.
3. How does the festive mood of this chapter contrast with the previous chapter
and what is its effect?
4. About Ezinma’s disappearance, Okonkwo “had felt gravely anxious but did not
show it”. In what other instances in the novel does Okonkwo find it difficult to
express his emotions?
5. What is the effect of Okonkwo’s inability to express feelings of tenderness?
6. What uproar occurs over a stray cow?
7. Describe Obierika’s response to his new in-laws.
8. In this chapter, Okonkwo is praised as “the greatest wrestler and warrior
alive”. What is ironic about this comment?

Chapter Thirteen

1. What causes “a cold shiver to run down Okonkwo’s back” when he hears that
Ezeudu is dead?
2. Explain the irony of Ezeudu’s warning and Okonkwo’s premonition.
3. Achebe explains the central Ibo belief that the spiritual purpose of a “man’s
life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him
nearer to his ancestors”. How is this belief given dignity and importance in this
chapter?
4. Describe three traditions associated with the death of the great warrior,
Ezeudu.
5. What tragic accident forces Okonkwo to flee from the clan?
6. Why is ironic that Okonkwo commits a female crime?
7. “Obierika was a man who thought about things.” What does he ponder after
this tragic event, and how does he “resolve” his confusion?

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 Things Fall Apart – Part Two Questions

Part Two of the novel focuses on Okonkwo’s seven years of exile spent in
Mbanta. Okonkwo leaves Umuofia with a heavy heart and bitterly regrets his
wasted years in exile. His uncle, Uchendu, elcomes Okonkwo and his family to his
motherland, and tries to relieve Okonkwo’s grief by telling him that he is not alone
in his suffering.
Okonkwo works hard and prospers in his motherland, and his yams yield
profit at home in Umuofia. Obierika, his dearest friend, brings him news of the
white man’s arrival and annihilation of Abame. Soon the white missionaries arrive
in Mbanta and Umuofia and start winning converts to their church. One of the most
notable converts is Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son. Overcome with grief at his son’s
conversion, Okonkwo decides to put all his efforts into his remaining children and
his return to Umuofia. The white man has already had a divisive influence on the
clan and Okonkwo’s family.

Chapter Fourteen

1. How do Okonkwo’s mother’s kinsmen support him on his arrival in Mbanta?

2. How does Uchendu receive Okonkwo?
3. In Mbanta, ‘Uchendu saw clearly that Okonkwo yielded to despair’. Is
Okonkwo’s attitude typical of his character?
4. Explain the ‘final ceremony of confession’ before Amikwu, one of Uchendu’s
five sons, gets married.
5. How does Umuofia attempt to help Okonkwo by explaining the importance of
his motherland?
6. Why should these words comfort Okonkwo: ‘For whom is it well, for whom is it
well? There is no one for whom it is well.’

Chapter Fifteen

1. What evidence of change is there in Uchendu’s words to Obierika on his

arrival in Mbanta?
2. When Obierika visits Okonkwo in his second year of exile, what ‘strange and
terrible story’ does he tell him about Abame?
3. Identify three different response to the story of Abame by:
a) Uchendu
b) Okonkwo
c) Obierika
4. How does Obierika reveal his great loyalty to Okonkwo in this chapter?
5. Explain the bitter irony of Obierika’s jesting words, ‘Kill one of your sons for
me’ and ‘Then kill yourself’.
6. What point is Obierika making in his words, and what does it show us about
the clan?

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Chapter Sixteen

1. What cause Obierika to visit Okonkwo in the second year of his exile?
2. Why is Okonkwo repelled by the new religion of the white man?
3. Why does Nwoye respond to the ‘ppoetry of the new religion’?

Chapter Seventeen

1. Why did the rulers of Mbanta give the ‘evil forest’ to the missionaries?
2. How did the missionaries win converts to their new church?
3. Explain why ‘Nwoye walked away and never returned’ to his father.
4. Do you sympathise with Okonkwo’s reaction to his son’s conversion?
5. How does he console himself over this?

Chapter Eighteen

1. Describe the first clash between the church and the tribe of Mbanta.
2. ‘Mr Kiaga, despite his madness, was quite harmless.’ Is this statement true or
false? Justify your answer.
3. How did the acceptance of the osu (outcasts) cause other people to join the
church?
4. Describe the third crisis, the killing of ‘the sacred python’, that takes place in
this chapter.
5. Examine the response to the killing of the python by:
a) Okonkwo
b) the clan
6. Why is Okonkwo so disgusted at the clan’s response?
7. How did the death of Okoli pacify the people of Mbanta?
8. Do you think the Christians and the tribe handle their disputes effectively in
this chapter? Why/ why not?

Chapter Nineteen

1. How does Okonkwo view his time in exile as it draws to a close? Did he heed
Uchendu’s words?
2. Explain Okonkwo’s need to return to his fatherland ‘where men are bold and
war-like.’ What is ironic about this statement?
3. How does Okonkwo thank his mother’s kinsmen before he leaves Mbanta?
4. Explain the traditions of the kola, palm-wine and yam at Okonkwo’s farewell
ceremony.
5. How does Achebe create a sense of the clan’s unity and order at Okonkwo’s
farewell feast?
6. ‘There was so much food and drink that many kinsmen whistled in surprise.’
What does this suggest about Okonkwo’s character?
7. Examine the speech of one of the ‘oldest members of the umunna’ where he
says, ‘You do not know how to speak with one voice. And what is the result?

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 An abominable religion has settled among you.’ Explain what it is that he fears
for the clan and to what extent he echoes Achebe’s own views.

Things Fall Apart – Part Three Questions

Okonkwo’s seven years of exile end in Mbanta and Okonkwo returns to

Umuofia, expecting to make a great impression on the clan. Yet his arrival goes
almost unnoticed, as the white men have settled in Umuofia, distracting the
Umuofians with a new church, government and trade. The new church leader, Mr
Smith, is a cruel man, who fosters hostility between the converts and Umuofians. A
crisis occurs when a convert unmasks an egwugwu at a traditional ceremony.
Overcome with anger, the Umuofians burn the church to the ground.
The District Commissioner arrests six of the leaders of Umuofia, ill-treats
them and asks for a heavy fine for their release. One of these men is Okonkwo. A
meeting is held to discuss retribution against the church, and when the
messengers arrive to call off the meeting – Okonkwo kills the head messenger.
The District Commissioner comes later to arrest Okonkwo, and discovers that he
has committed suicide. Okonkwo’s shameful death does not entitle him to a proper
burial by his clan.

Chapter Twenty

1. What impression did Okonkwo want to make on his return to Umuofia?

2. Describe the changes that had taken place in Umuofia since Okonkwo’s exile.
3. ‘We must fight these men and drive them from our land’, says Okonkwo. ‘It is
already too late’, laments Obierika. What do these two comments reflect
about Okonkwo and Obierika’s characters, and the way they deal with the
arrival of the white man? Whose view would you support?
4. ‘Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He
has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.’
Explain the significance of these words, as spoken by Obierika.
5. Do you think Aneto’s hanging by the white man’s government is fair? Justify
your answer by close examination of the text.
6. Aneto’s family ‘have not found the mouth with which to tell of their suffering.’
Explain how this and the silence that follows is indicative of the great changes
that have taken place in the Ibo society.

Chapter Twenty-One

1. How did the other Umuofians react to the ‘new dispensation’?

2. In what way did Mr Brown’s methods of conversion ‘have an effect’ on the
clan?
3. What did Mr Brown learn about the Ibo religion from Akunna?
4. Are there any similarities between this religion and the Christian one that Mr
Brown preaches?
5. What ‘prophecy’ of Mr Brown’s has far-reaching consequences, and truth?
6. Was Okonkwo’s return noticed by his clan as he had hoped?
7. ‘Okonkwo was deeply grieved. And it was not just a personal grief. He was
mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he

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 mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become
soft like women.’ What do these statements reflect about Okonkwo’s
perception of the new religion, and his relationship between himself, the
individual, and the clan as a whole?

Chapter Twenty-Two

1. When Mr Smith arrived in Umuofia, he ’danced a furious step and so the drum
went mad.’ What was Mr Smith’s attitude to the converts and non-converts of
Umuofia?
2. Explain the crime Enoch committed at the annual worship of the earth
goddess, and its effect on the clan.
3. Do you think Ajofia, the member of the egwugwu, was wise when he said to
Mr Smith, ‘Tell the white man that we will not do him any harm’, after Enoch
unmasked an egwugwu in public?
4. How was the ‘spirit of the clan’ pacified?
5. What strikes you most about the behaviour of the Umuofian leaders in this
chapter?

Chapter Twenty-Three

1. Why is Okonkwo’s happiness at the beginning of this chapter short-lived?

2. How did the District Commissioner manage to imprison Okonkwo along with
five other great leaders of Umuofia, without their resistance?
3. What is your attitude to the District Commissioner and his court messengers
concerning the treatment of the six leaders?
4. Why was Umuofia ‘like a startled animal with ears erect, sniffing at the silent,
ominous air and not knowing which way to run’?
5. Explain the corruption of the court messengers regarding the ‘two hundred
and fifty bags of cowries to appease the white man.’
6. Ezinma shows her loyalty to Okonkwo in this chapter. In what way does her
personality reflect Okonkwo’s character?

Chapter Twenty-Four

1. Describe Okonkwo’s thoughts and feelings shortly after his release from the
District Commissioner.
2. The village crier ‘beat his iron gong and announced that another meeting
would be held in the morning. Everyone knew that Umuofia was at last going
to speak its mind about the things that were happening.’ What are Okonkwo’s
aspirations for this meeting?
3. Comment on the effect of the repetition of ‘he ground his teeth’ as Okonkwo
awaits the meeting.
4. Summarise Okika’s speech at the meeting.
5. Why is the meeting interrupted?
6. In what way does Okonkwo fulfil his promise of ‘fighting alone’?
7. What proof does Okonkwo have that the clan will not fight against the white
man?

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 8. ‘He wiped his matchet in the sand and went away.’ What does this simple
description suggest about Okonkwo’s feelings and attitude to what he has
done?

Chapter Twenty-Five

1. Why did the District Commissioner come to Okonkwo’s compound?

2. What do you imagine Okonkwo’s thoughts were before he committed suicide?
3. According to Ibo custom, why is Obierika not allowed to touch Okonkwo’s
body?
4. Comment on Obierika’s outburst to the District Commissioner at this point.
5. How does the District Commissioner minimise Okonkwo’s life and death?
6. The District Commissioner felt that he had ‘toiled to bring civilisation to
different parts of Africa’. Do you think Achebe supports his attitude and
efforts?
7. Explain the enormous tragedy of Okonkwo’s death in terms of his life’s
ambition and achievements. Why is it ironic that he committed suicide?
8. What implications does Okonkwo’s death have for the continuation of the Ibo
people?

THINGS FALL APART

CHARACTER FILES

Okonkwo

Okonkwo is the tragic hero if the novel, and his personal tragedy echoes the story
of the destruction of the Ibo people. Okonkwo is a powerful, fascinating
personality, filled with tremendous ambition, war-like tendencies and a deep
inability to express his fears and feelings. His character mirrors the strength and
weaknesses of the Ibo tribe.

What makes a ‘real man’ in your eyes/culture? Discuss

the media’s portrayal too.

What motivates you to succeed in life? Is it fear of failure,

or a passion for the task at hand? Do you work to please
yourself or to please others?

1. a) Describe the first impressions you have of Okonkwo’s physical appearance

and what this reflects about his personality.
b) What details does Achebe give us about Okonkwo’s life so far in the
opening pages of the novel?
2. Explain Okonkwo’s social and political position in the clan.
3. Explain how the source of all Okonkwo’s prosperity and seeming cruelty to
those less successful than himself, stems from his ‘fear of himself, lest he
should be found to resemble his father.’ (p10) Substantiate your answer with
examples from the text.

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 4. In Part One of ‘Things Fall Apart’, Okonkwo commits two grievances against
Ani, the earth goddess. What are these two offences, and Okonkwo’s
subsequent punishment?
5. a) Why does Ikemefuna come to live with Okonkwo?
b) Compare Okonkwo’s relationship with his own son, Nwoye, and his ward,
Ikemefuna.
6. a) Shortly before Okonkwo is made one of the leaders of his clan, he is
banished from his fatherland. Give evidence from the text to explain his
banishment, and Achebe’s attitude to the Ibo law.
b) Why is it ironic that Okonkwo is banished to his motherland?
c) Does Okonkwo grow as an individual in his motherland? Substantiate your
answer by exploring his thoughts and actions in Part Two of the novel.
7. In Part Three of the novel, we witness the arrival of the white man in Umuofia.
How does Okonkwo deal with the changes brought by the church’s influence?
8. Explore in detail the events that lead to Okonkwo’s suicide.
9. Obierika, Okonkwo’s dearest friend, accuses the District Commissioner of
being responsible for Okonkwo’s death. To what extent is Okonkwo
responsible for his own fate?
10. Explain how Okonkwo’s tragedy mirrors the destruction of the Ibo culture.

Discuss: A tragic hero is defined as one who suffers a change in fortune

because of a mistaken act which is caused by a flaw in his character. His
tragedy moves one to pity him because his misfortune is usually greater than
he deserves. Does Okonkwo fit this definition of a tragic hero? Is his tragic
end the result of his own character flaw, or is he an unlucky man whose chi
determines his destiny? (‘A man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi.
The saying of the elders was not true – that if a man said yea his chi also
affirmed. Here was a man whose chi said nay despite his own affirmation.’)

Obierika

Obierika is one of the greatest men of the tribe of Umuofia; he has achieved the
title of ozo, one of the highest ranks in the clan. Obierika is Okonkwo’s dearest
friend and confidant. He is an important character in the novel, as he is a foil to
Okonkwo’s fiery temper – Obierika has a good sense of humour, and is a man of
thought rather than action. Although he deeply respects the traditions of his
culture, he often finds them punitive, and they leave him feeling puzzled. He
represents a man from the tribe who shows the balance between following the
decrees of the gods and his own wise interpretation of their commands.

1. We first encounter Obierika in chapter 8 of Things Fall Apart. His first

discussion with Okonkwo is about the murder of Ikemefuna. Find evidence
from the text to suggest that Obierika has a more balanced view of the rules
of their religion than Okonkwo does.
2. Obierika says, ‘I don’t know how we got that law’ (p48) when referring to the
fact that a titled man is forbidden to climb palm trees. Where else does
Obierika question the rigid rules of Umuofia? What effect does his questioning
have on the reader?

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 3. ‘He hardly ever walks. He is always in a hurry. If you are sending him on an
errand he flies away before he has heard half of the message,’ said Obierika.
His eldest brother replies, ‘You were very much like that yourself.’ (p49) In
what ways has Obierika changed and matured with age?
4. How does Obierika expresses his loyalty and friendship to Okonkwo after
Okonkwo is banished?
5. During his banishment, Uchendu, Okonkwo’s uncle from Mbanta, meets
Obierika on one of his visits to Okonkwo. Uchendu tells Obierika, ‘I knew your
father Iweka. He was a great man.’ (p96) Compare Obierika’s relationship
with his father, Iweka, and his son, Maduka, to Okonkwo’s relationship with
his father, Unoka, and his son, Nwoye. What does this reveal about the
differences between Obierika and Okonkwo’s characters?
6. In what way does Obierika almost take the role of the narrator in Part Two of
the novel? What does he relate about the arrival of the white man to the
people of Mbanta?
7. Why is Obierika given the most words to speak in the novel, ‘(The white man)
has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart’?
Does Obierika understand the severe implications of his words?
8. Closely observe Obierika’s reaction to Okonkwo’s suicide and his attitude to
the District Commissioner as revealed in Chapter 25 of the novel.

Do you think you will improve with age, or do you think you will remain the
same? What values from your childhood will you always carry in your heart?

Nwoye

Nwoye is Okonkwo’s eldest son, and is therefore expected to follow in his father’s
footsteps and become a prosperous, war-like man. However, Nwoye has a
naturally gentle spirit and clashes with his father’s ‘inflexible will’. Nwoye functions
as a character in Things Fall Apart who questions the Ibo way of life, and after
finding no answers, seeks refuge in the mercy of the Christian religion. Nwoye
finds no comfort from his father or his tribe.

1. Okonkwo’s eldest son, Nwoye, was at age twelve ‘developing into a sad-faced
youth.’ (p10) What was the cause of his unhappiness?
2. ‘Okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man. He would
stamp out the disquieting signs of laziness which he thought he already saw
in him’ (p24). What does this quote suggest about Okonkwo’s attitude to his
son Nwoye, and the way he disciplines him?
3. a) What two ironic effects does Ikemefuna’s stay in Umuofia have on Nwoye?
b) How does Ikemefuna’s death cause the ‘snapping of Nwoye’ and the end of
his relationship with his father?
4. List the many qualities of Nwoye that are different from Okonkwo. Do you
think Okonkwo should accept his son for who he is?
5. Okonkwo is bitterly disappointed in his son Nwoye. He says, ‘If Ezinma had
been a boy, I would have been happier. She has the right spirit.’ Do you agree
with this statement? Justify your answer by examining the text.

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 6. a) What are the events over the course of the novel that cause Nwoye to
convert to Christianity?
b) Do you sympathise with Okonkwo or Nwoye over the conversion?
7. Okonkwo explains Nwoye’s conversion and betrayal by thinking to himself
that ‘living fire begets impotent ash’ (p109). Discuss in detail the meaning of
this metaphor. Do you agree with Okonkwo’s explanation of his son’s ‘failure’?
8. What is the symbolic meaning behind Nwoye’s Christian name, Isaac?
9. Do you think Achebe supports Nwoye’s decision to leave the tribe and convert
to Christianity?

How are we formed by the people around us? How do you respond to criticism
or praise? Is criticism an important part of discipline?

Other characters

A. The Missionaries

Acebe describes the arrival of the Christians in Mbanta and Umuofia with great
balance and insight. Some of the missionaries are presented as kind people such
as Mr Kiaga and Mr Brown; others are depicted as arrogant and cruel such as Mr
Smith and the District Commissioner – but they ate all presented as foolish and
invasive in their lack of understanding and sensitivity to Ibo rules and customs.
Part Two and Three of Things Fall Apart allows Achebe to explore the impact of
the white man’s arrival in Africa. He reveals the mixed motives of these people,
whilst begging the question, ‘Who were the real savages in Africa?’

Mr Kiaga

1. Who is Mr Kiaga? Describe his initial attempt to convert the people of Mbanta.
2. Compare Okonkwo and Nwoye’s reaction to Mr Kiaga’s speech.
3. Why is it ironic that by allowing Mr Kiaga to build a church in the evil forest,
the tribe’s fear of the evil powers in the forest is realised?
4. When Nwoye joins the church, Mr Kiaga proclaims, ‘Blessed is he who
forsakes his father and mother.’ Do you think his words are appropriate or
helpful to Nwoye? Why or why not?
5. What are Mr Kiaga’s motives for coming to convert the Ibo people? Do you
think they are justified?

Mr Brown

1. Mr Brown arrived in Umuofia and ‘trod softly on its faith.’ Examine the text to
see whether Mr Brwon bought his new religion with sensitivity and insight.
2. Mr Brown’s missionaries brought a new government and commerce to
Umuofia. Was this beneficial or harmful to the tribe of Umuofia?
3. What did Mr Brown learn from his discussions with Akunna, one of the
greatest men in Umuofia?

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 4. How does Mr Brwon win many converts to his church? Do you think his
approach is manipulative or sincere?
5. How does the white man increase his power and social prestige in Umuofia?
6. Why does Mr Brown leave Umuofia?

Reverend James Smith

1. In what way does Achebe present Mr Smith as a ‘different kind of man’?

2. Why does Mr Smith incite such fanatics as Enoch in the church?
3. Find evidence from the text that explores Mr Smith’s scornful attitude towards
the beliefs and traditions of the Ibo people?
4. Do you notice any similarities between Okonkwo and Mr Smith’s
personalities?
5. a) How does Umuofia react to the murdering of an egwugwu by Enoch at an
important tribal function?
b) Describe the egwugwu’s revenge on Mr Smith and his church. Do you think
it’s appropriate?
6. Can you identify Achebe’s attitude to colonialism in Africa through Mr Smith’s
character?

The District Commissioner

1. Show how the District Commissioner uses treachery to trap the men who
burned down Mr Smith’s church.
2. How does the District Commissioner punish members of the egwugwu for
burning down the church?
3. How is the arrogance of the District Commissioner revealed after Okonkwo’s
suicide?

THINGS FALL APART

EXPLORING THEMES

Ibo culture and society

Brainstorm what you understand by: culture/society.

How are the two linked?

Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart with the intention of re-creating a past for the Ibo
people, before and during the arrival of the white man in Africa. The Ibo customs
ae carefully worked into the structure of the novel, giving us a detailed picture of
the prevalent culture – an ordered society based on a hierarchy of gods,
ancestors, elders and families.

1. How do the customs, superstitions and means justice help keep the tribe
together?
2. Why is the rigid structure of their society so fragile?
3. The Ibo society is held together by numerous laws and customs, both
religious and political. Describe the following rituals, aspects and traditions of
the Ibo culture and society:

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 a) the breaking of the kola nut
b) the drinking of palm wine
c) marriages
d) funerals
e) meetings to dispense justice
f) the egwugwu
g) the Week of Peace
h) Chi
4. What Ibo superstitions help them cope with their fear of darkness and the Evil
Forest?
5. Some of the customs of the Ibo society seem cruel to the innocent victims of
the beliefs, and it is interesting to note that these people are the first to
convert to Christianity: Describe the plight of the:
a) twins
b) obanjes
c) osu
d) boy, Ikemefuna
6. How does the inflexibility of the traditions contribute to both the weaknesses
and strengths of the Ibo society?

Make a list of what you see as the good and bad aspects of the Ibo culture as
seen in the novel. To what extent does your own culture influence the opinion
you have and impact on it?

Is your culture and society important to you? Do you think a person is formed
by the society in which he lives? Is it beneficial to question the values of a
society?

Language and Culture

The changes that take place in the Ibo culture in the course of Things Fall Apart
are closely linked to the language and narration at the end. Not only does the
language reflect the culture,, it is also shown to be a limiting factor in the face of
change.

1. ‘Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs
are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.’ (p5) In what way does the use of
proverbs in the Ibo society illustrate the creative power of language?
2. Can you reveal the limitations of using proverbs as a stock response to
various situations?
3. How is the Ibo language used as a means of retaining social cohesion?
4. Identify the function of the following proverbs as used by various characters in
the novel:
a) When Okoye asks Unoka to return the two hundred cowries he had
borrowed from him, Unoka says, ‘I shall pay you, but not today. Our elders
say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those whoo
kneel under them. I shall pay my big debts first.’ (p6)
b) When Okonkwo calls Osugo a woman, he is sternly reprimanded by one of

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 the oldest men present who tell him that ‘those whose palm-kernels were
cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.’ (p10)
c) In an argument with Obierika over the killing of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo says
that ‘a child’s fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother
puts into its palm.’ (p47)
d) When Obierika questions the inflexibility of the tribal structure and customs
and cannot find an answer, he turns to a proverb for solution: ‘The Earth had
decreed that they were an offence of the land and must be destroyed. And if
the clan did not exact punishment for an offence against the great goddess,
her wrath was loosed on all the land and not just on the offender. As the
elders said, if one finger brought oil it soiled the others.’ (p87)
5. Do you think the new ‘language’ of Christianity is shown to have limitations
like the Ibo language?
6. Once the Europeans start taking hold in the Ibo society, their love of
conversation is affected. Trace this deterioration by looking at the following
references:
a) page 125: ‘even now they have not found a mouth with which to tell of their
suffering.’
b) page 138: ‘Even when the men were left alone they found no words to
speak to one another.’
c) page 140: ‘They neither spoke to anyone nor among themselves.’
d) page 144: ‘There was utter silence.’
e) page 147: ‘He could not say anymore. His voice trembled and choked his
words.’
7. The action of the novel shows the replacement of the Ibo culture and
language by the English culture and language. How does Achebe still convey
the sense of an African language through the medium of the English one?
Comment specifically on:
a) the narrator echoing many of the Ibo proverbial expressions;
b) the blend of similes and idiomatic expressions;
c) direct, simple narrative.
8. Finally, look at the closing paragraph of the novel. How does it symbolise the
replacement of the Ibo culture and language with an English one?

Adjusting to Change

One of the greatest weaknesses of the Ibo society is that it does not provide
adequate equipment for people in the face of change. Change comes in the form
of the white man and his Christian religion. The Obo’s inability to face this change
causes the society to collapse.

1. How did Abame react to the arrival of the white man? Do you think their
reaction was appropriate?
2. People reacted differently to the arrival of the missionaries in Mbanta. Explain
the reaction of:
a) the leaders of Mbanta
b) Okonkwo
c) Nwoye
Do you sympathise with any of their reactions?

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3. What does Obierika reaclise about Umuofia’s tolerance to the white man’s
religion and government?
4. Different missionaries acted with varying degrees of compassion and respect
for the Ibo people.
a) Why did the Ibo people initially accept and tolerate the new religion?
b) When Mr Smith arrived, ‘He condemned openly Mr Brown’s policy of
compromise and accommodation. He saw things as black and white. And
black was evil.’ (p130) Why was this approach unhelpful to the Ibo people?
5. ‘Christianity is the catalyst but not the primary cause of things falling apart.’ To
what extent do you agree with this statement?
6. What were the benefits of bringing Western trade and government to Africa?
7. Compare Okonkwo and the clan’s rigid commitment to a particular code of
behaviour. How does this bring about their downfall?

Can you think of any major changes that have taken place recently in your
society? How do different people react to these changes, and why?

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82
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English poet,
playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language
and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet,
and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of
approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other
verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays
have been translated into every major living
language and are performed more often than
those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and brought up in

Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age
of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he
had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet
and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592,
he began a successful career in London as an
actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing
company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men,
later known as the King's Men. He appears to
have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49,
where he died three years later. Few records of
Shakespeare's private life survive.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early
plays were primarily comedies and histories, and these are regarded as some of the
best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about
1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the
finest works in the English language.[2] In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies,
also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights

The Elizabethan Age

Shakespeare lived during a remarkable period of English history, a time of relative

political stability that followed and preceded eras of extensive upheaval. Elizabeth I
became the Queen of England in 1558, six years before Shakespeare's birth. During
her 45-year reign, London became a cultural and commercial center where learning
and literature thrived.

When Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne, there were violent clashes
throughout Europe between Protestant and Catholic leaders and their followers.
Though Elizabeth honored many of the Protestant edicts of her late father, King
Henry VIII, she made significant concessions to Catholic sympathizers, which kept
them from attempting rebellion. But when compromise was not possible, she was an
exacting and determined leader who did not shy away from conflict. With the naval
defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England was firmly established as a leading
military and commercial power in the Western world. Elizabeth supported and later
knighted Sir Francis Drake, the first sailor to circumnavigate the globe. She also

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funded Sir Walter Raleigh's exploration of the New World, which brought new wealth
to her country in the form of tobacco and gold from Latin America.

Queen Elizabeth also recognized the importance of the arts to the life and legacy of
her nation. She was fond of the theater, and many of England's greatest playwrights
were active during her reign, including Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and
William Shakespeare. With her permission, professional theaters were built in
England for the first time, attracting 15,000 theatergoers per week in London, a city
of 150,000 to 250,000. In addition to Shakespeare's masterpieces of the stage,
Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queen, and Sir Philip Sidney's
Defence of Poesie were all written during this golden age in the literary arts. The
Shakespearean sonnet, Spenserian stanza, and dramatic blank verse also came into
practice during the period.

Upon the death of Elizabeth, King James I rose to power in England. A writer
himself, he displayed a great love of learning, particularly theater. At the king's
invitation, Shakespeare's theater company, Lord Chamberlain's Men, became known
as the King's Men, and they produced new works under his patronage. King James
also commissioned the translation of the Bible from Latin into English so that it might
be more readily available to those who had not studied the language of the educated
class. Completed in 1611 by a team of scholars and monks, the King James Version
of the Bible has become the bestselling and arguably the most-influential book in the
world.

Unfortunately, King James surrounded himself with untrustworthy advisors, and his
extravagant lifestyle strained the royal finances and the patience of the Puritan-
controlled Parliament. When James died in 1628, his son Charles I ascended to the
throne, and tensions between Parliament and the Crown increased. King Charles I
eventually lost a bloody civil war to the Puritans, who executed the King (his son
Charles II fled to France). For a dozen years, the Puritans enacted many reforms
which included closing the theaters. The Commonwealth lasted until Charles II
returned from France, claimed the throne, and installed the Restoration. King
Charles II also reopened the theaters, but England's theatrical highpoint had passed.

British Peerage and Nobility

The system of British Peerage in Shakespeare's time (which still exists—although

altered—in modern day Great Britain) determined one's position in society. many of
Shakespeare's characters carried titles that—in the Bard's time—would have
immediately told audience members a lot about that person's rank, importance, and
authority over his peers. Today's audiences will be less familiar with the British
Peerage and Nobility, so here's a quick primer:

Duke: The highest rank in British Peerage; from the Latin dux, meaning leader. The
female counterpart to a Duke is a Duchess.

Marquess: Second-highest rank, from the French marquis, meaning march. The
female counterpart is the Marchioness.

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Earl: This title comes from an old English term that referred to a military leader, and
the rank corresponds to a Count in continental Europe. the female counterpart of an
Earl is the Countess.

Viscount: A Latin-derived word that translates to vice-count.

Baron: The lowest rank of British Peer; someone who holds land directly from the
King or Queen.

Religion in the Elizabethan Age

Religion was central to the society for which Shakespeare wrote. Queen Elizabeth
made attendance at Church of England services mandatory, even though many
church-goers had to travel long distances. People who did not attend—for any
reason except illness—were punished with fines. (Shakespeare's father and sister
were reported as absent, though his father's debts probably were the cause of his
inability to attend church.)

While it was not a crime to be Catholic in Elizabethan England, there was no legal
way for Catholics to practice their faith. It was illegal to hold or to attend a Mass.
Powerful people, however, were less likely to be punished than others. Many of the
upper classes were exempt from the new oaths of allegiance to the Church of
England, and often wealthy Catholic families secretly maintained private chaplains.
Elizabethan policy allowed freedom of belief as long as English subjects did not
openly flout the law or encourage sedition.

Education in the Elizabethan Age

Boys were educated to be literate members of society. Teaching techniques relied

heavily on memorization and recitation. The language of literacy throughout Europe
was Latin, and students were expected to be proficient in it. Boys started grammar
school at the age of six or seven. Their typical school day ran from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m. Classroom discipline was strict, and often involved corporeal punishment. In the
lower grades, boys studied Latin grammar and vocabulary. In the upper grades, they
read the poetry and prose of writers such as Ovid, Martial, and Catullus. Most boys
began an apprenticeship in a trade following grammar school. Sons of the nobility
attended the university or the Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers).

Formal schooling was not encouraged for girls unless they were the children of
nobility. For those who were educated, schooling focused primarily on chastity and
the skills of housewifery. Young girls from wealthy families were often placed in the
households of acquaintances where they would learn to read, write, keep accounts,
and manage a household and estate. They were also trained in leisure skills such as
music and dancing.

While no one would argue that Elizabethan England presented the greatest of
opportunities for universal education, literacy significantly increased throughout the
sixteenth century. By 1600, at least one-third of the male population could read, and
Puritans pushed for significant increases in funding for grammar schools.

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Elizabethan Theatre

Even in an era when popular entertainment included public executions and cock-
fighting, theatre became central to Elizabethan social life. As drama shifted from a
religious to a secular function in society, playwrights and poets were among the
leading artists of the day. Toward the end of the sixteenth century, the popularity of
plays written by scholars such as Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, John Lyly,
and Thomas Lodge led to the building of theatres and to the development of
companies of actors, both professional and amateur. These companies of players
travelled throughout England, generally performing in London in the winter and
spring, and navigating notoriously neglected roads throughout the English
countryside during the summers when plague ravaged the city. Professional
companies were also retained for the private entertainment of English aristocracy.

In spite of its popularity, the Elizabethan theatre attracted criticism, censorship, and
scorn from some sectors of English society. The plays were often coarse and
boisterous, and playwrights and actors belonged to a bohemian class. Puritan
leaders and officers of the Church of England considered actors to be of
questionable character, and they criticized playwrights for using the stage to
disseminate their irreverent opinions. They also feared the overcrowded theatre
spaces might lead to the spread of disease. At times throughout the sixteenth
century, Parliament censored plays for profanity, heresy, or politics. But Queen
Elizabeth and later King James offered protections that ultimately allowed the theatre
to survive. To appease Puritan concerns, the Queen established rules prohibiting the
construction of theatres and theatrical performances within the London city limits.
The rules were loosely enforced, however, and playhouses such as the Curtain, the
Globe, the Rose, and the Swan were constructed just outside of London, within easy
reach of the theatre-going public. These public playhouses paved the way for the
eventual emergence of professional companies as stable business organizations.

Among the actors who performed in the Elizabethan theatre, Richard Burbage is
perhaps the best known. Burbage was the leading actor in Shakespeare's company,
the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and he is credited with portraying a range of dramatic
leads including Richard III, Hamlet, Lear, and Othello. An actor himself, Shakespeare
played roles in his own plays, usually as older male characters. Acting was not
considered an appropriate profession for women in the Elizabethan era, and even
into the seventeenth century acting companies consisted of men with young boys
playing the female roles. Instead of clothing reflecting the station of their characters,
Elizabethan actors wore lavish costumes consistent with upper-class dress. In
contrast, stage scenery was minimal, perhaps consisting solely of painted panels
placed upstage.

Elizabethan theatres were makeshift, dirty, and loud, but nevertheless they attracted
audiences as large as 3,000 from all social classes. Performances were usually
given in the afternoons, lasting two to three hours. As in both ancient and
contemporary theatres, each section of the theatre bore a different price of
admission, with the lowest prices in the pit below stage level where patrons stood to
watch the play. Most performance spaces were arranged “in-the-round,” giving
spectators the opportunity to watch both the play and the behaviour of other

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spectators. Etiquette did not prohibit the audiences from freely expressing their
distaste or satisfaction for the action on stage.

The rich theatrical flowering begun by Shakespeare and his contemporaries

continued into the seventeenth century, well beyond the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In
1642, however, with the country on the verge of a civil war, the Puritan Parliament
closed the theatres and forbade stage plays in an edict that argued that theatre
distracted the fragmented nation from its efforts to “appease and avert the wrath of
God.” When King Charles II took the English throne in 1660, the theatres were
reopened, and the arts were again celebrated. His reign became known as the
Restoration, but the greatest period of England theatre had already run its course.

Historical Context

Macbeth is a play written around 1606 by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare was

writing for the theatre during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. The
plays he wrote around the time Queen Elizabeth was in control such as Midsummer
night’s dreams contain themes of confidence, happiness and love. However, the
plays he wrote during the reign of King James such as Macbeth were much more
cynical and dark reflecting the insecurities of King James.

Macbeth is known as one of

Shakespeare’s most strong and
forceful plays. The play was written in
1606, a time in history that was called
the Elizabethan era.
The Elizabethan Age was an age of
discovery and of expansion.
Shakespeare's plays were written for
the average man or women in the
street. The concerns of the time were
reflected in Shakespeare's plays,
many of which feature kings and
queens struggling to hold onto their
power or having it taken from them
by someone considered evil.
The question whether one person's
ambition should or could be more
important than the common good is
clearly evident in Shakespeare's play,
'Macbeth". In Act II, Scene I,
Macbeth's ambitious thoughts are
slowly forcing him to commit.

In the Shakespearean era, Witches were associated with the dark and death. They
were said by many Christian countries to be agents of Satan and performing evil acts
at night.
When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, witchcraft and supernatural happenings were of
high interest. King James I was highly engaged with the idea of witchcraft and even
wrote a book about the topic. He used them for his play, and many of his audience

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would have believed in them as evil servants, trapping the power of men and
women.

In Act II, Scene I, Shakespeare mentions witchcraft throughout the soliloquy. “Nature
seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse. The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates.
Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,” Here Macbeth is using a direct link to
“Hecate” who is the goddess of witches for the ancient Greeks.

Characters

Macbeth – Macbeth is a Scottish

general and the thane of Glamis
who is led to wicked thoughts by
the prophecies of the three
witches, especially after their
prophecy that he will be made
thane of Cawdor comes true.
Macbeth is a brave soldier and a
powerful man, but he is not a
virtuous one. He is easily tempted
into murder to fulfill his ambitions
to the throne, and once he
commits his first crime and is
crowned King of Scotland, he
embarks on further atrocities with
increasing ease. Ultimately,
Macbeth proves himself better
suited to the battlefield than to
political intrigue, because he lacks
the skills necessary to rule without
being a tyrant. His response to every problem is violence and murder. Unlike
Shakespeare’s great villains, such as Iago in Othello and Richard III in Richard III,
Macbeth is never comfortable in his role as a criminal. He is unable to bear the
psychological consequences of his atrocities.

Because we first hear of Macbeth in the wounded captain’s account of his battlefield
valour, our initial impression is of a brave and capable warrior. This perspective is
complicated, however, once we see Macbeth interact with the three witches. We
realize that his physical courage is joined by a consuming ambition and a tendency
to self-doubt—the prediction that he will be king brings him joy, but it also creates
inner turmoil. These three attributes—bravery, ambition, and self-doubt—struggle for
mastery of Macbeth throughout the play. Shakespeare uses Macbeth to show the
terrible effects that ambition and guilt can have on a man who lacks strength of
character. We may classify Macbeth as irrevocably evil, but his weak character
separates him from Shakespeare’s great villains—Iago in Othello, Richard III in
Richard III, Edmund in King Lear—who are all strong enough to conquer guilt and

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self-doubt. Macbeth, great warrior though he is, is ill equipped for the psychic
consequences of crime.

Before he kills Duncan, Macbeth is plagued by worry and almost aborts the crime. It
takes Lady Macbeth’s steely sense of purpose to push him into the deed. After the
murder, however, her powerful personality begins to disintegrate, leaving Macbeth
increasingly alone. He fluctuates between fits of fevered action, in which he plots a
series of murders to secure his throne, and moments of terrible guilt (as when
Banquo’s ghost appears) and absolute pessimism (after his wife’s death, when he
seems to succumb to despair). These fluctuations reflect the tragic tension within
Macbeth: he is at once too ambitious to allow his conscience to stop him from
murdering his way to the top and too conscientious to be happy with himself as a
murderer. As things fall apart for him at the end of the play, he seems almost
relieved—with the English army at his gates, he can finally return to life as a warrior,
and he displays a kind of reckless bravado as his enemies surround him and drag
him down. In part, this stems from his fatal confidence in the witches’ prophecies, but
it also seems to derive from the fact that he has returned to the arena where he has
been most successful and where his internal turmoil need not affect him—namely,
the battlefield. Unlike many of Shakespeare’s other tragic heroes, Macbeth never
seems to contemplate suicide: “Why should I play the Roman fool,” he asks, “and die
/ On mine own sword?” (5.10.1–2). Instead, he goes down fighting, bringing the play
full circle: it begins with Macbeth winning on the battlefield and ends with him dying
in combat.

Lady Macbeth - Macbeth’s wife, a

deeply ambitious woman who
lusts for power and position. Early
in the play she seems to be the
stronger and more ruthless of the
two, as she urges her husband to
kill Duncan and seize the crown.
After the bloodshed begins,
however, Lady Macbeth falls
victim to guilt and madness to an
even greater degree than her
husband. Her conscience affects
her to such an extent that she
eventually commits suicide.
Interestingly, she and Macbeth are
presented as being deeply in love,
and many of Lady Macbeth’s
speeches imply that her influence
over her husband is primarily
sexual. Their joint alienation from
the world, occasioned by their partnership in crime, seems to strengthen the
attachment that they feel to each another.

Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female

characters. When we first see her, she is already plotting Duncan’s murder, and she

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is stronger, more ruthless, and more ambitious than her husband. She seems fully
aware of this and knows that she will have to push Macbeth into committing murder.
At one point, she wishes that she were not a woman so that she could do it herself.
This theme of the relationship between gender and power is key to Lady Macbeth’s
character: her husband implies that she is a masculine soul inhabiting a female
body, which seems to link masculinity to ambition and violence. Shakespeare,
however, seems to use her, and the witches, to undercut Macbeth’s idea that
“undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males” (1.7.73–74). These crafty
women use female methods of achieving power—that is, manipulation—to further
their supposedly male ambitions. Women, the play implies, can be as ambitious and
cruel as men, yet social constraints deny them the means to pursue these ambitions
on their own.

Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband with remarkable effectiveness, overriding all
his objections; when he hesitates to murder, she repeatedly questions his manhood
until he feels that he must commit murder to prove himself. Lady Macbeth’s
remarkable strength of will persists through the murder of the king—it is she who
steadies her husband’s nerves immediately after the crime has been perpetrated.
Afterward, however, she begins a slow slide into madness—just as ambition affects
her more strongly than Macbeth before the crime, so does guilt plague her more
strongly afterward. By the close of the play, she has been reduced to sleepwalking
through the castle, desperately trying to wash away an invisible bloodstain. Once the
sense of guilt comes home to roost, Lady Macbeth’s sensitivity becomes a
weakness, and she is unable to cope. Significantly, she (apparently) kills herself,
signaling her total inability to deal with the legacy of their crimes.

The Three Witches – The three

“black and midnight hags” who
plot mischief against Macbeth
using charms, spells, and
prophecies. Their predictions
prompt him to murder Duncan, to
order the deaths of Banquo and
his son, and to blindly believe in
his own immortality. The play
leaves the witches’ true identity
unclear—aside from the fact that
they are servants of Hecate, we
know little about their place in the
cosmos. In some ways they
resemble the mythological Fates,
who impersonally weave the
threads of human destiny. They
clearly take a perverse delight in
using their knowledge of the future
to toy with and destroy human beings.

Throughout the play, the witches—referred to as the “weird sisters” by many of the
characters—lurk like dark thoughts and unconscious temptations to evil. In part, the

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mischief they cause stems from their supernatural powers, but mainly it is the result
of their understanding of the weaknesses of their specific interlocutors—they play
upon Macbeth’s ambition like puppeteers.

The witches’ beards, bizarre potions, and rhymed speech make them seem slightly
ridiculous, like caricatures of the supernatural. Shakespeare has them speak in
rhyming couplets throughout (their most famous line is probably “Double, double, toil
and trouble, / Fire burn and cauldron bubble” in 4.1.10–11), which separates them
from the other characters, who mostly speak in blank verse. The witches’ words
seem almost comical, like malevolent nursery rhymes. Despite the absurdity of their
“eye of newt and toe of frog” recipes, however, they are clearly the most dangerous
characters in the play, being both tremendously powerful and utterly wicked (4.1.14).

The audience is left to ask whether the

witches are independent agents toying
with human lives, or agents of fate,
whose prophecies are only reports of the
inevitable. The witches bear a striking
and obviously intentional resemblance to
the Fates, female characters in both
Norse and Greek mythology who weave
the fabric of human lives and then cut
the threads to end them. Some of their
prophecies seem self-fulfilling. For
example, it is doubtful that Macbeth
would have murdered his king without
the push given by the witches’
predictions. In other cases, though, their
prophecies are just remarkably accurate
readings of the future—it is hard to see
Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane as
being self-fulfilling in any way. The play
offers no easy answers. Instead,
Shakespeare keeps the witches well
outside the limits of human
comprehension. They embody an
unreasoning, instinctive evil.

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Banquo – The brave, noble general whose children, according to the witches’
prophecy, will inherit the Scottish throne. Like Macbeth, Banquo thinks ambitious
thoughts, but he does not translate those thoughts into action. In a sense, Banquo’s
character stands as a rebuke to Macbeth, since he represents the path Macbeth
chose not to take: a path in which ambition need not lead to betrayal and murder.
Appropriately, then, it is Banquo’s ghost—and not Duncan’s—that haunts Macbeth.
In addition to embodying Macbeth’s guilt for killing Banquo, the ghost also reminds
Macbeth that he did not emulate Banquo’s reaction to the witches’ prophecy.

King Duncan – The good King of

Scotland whom Macbeth, in his ambition
for the crown, murders. Duncan is the
model of a virtuous, benevolent, and
farsighted ruler. His death symbolizes
the destruction of an order in Scotland
that can be restored only when
Duncan’s line, in the person of Malcolm,
once more occupies the throne.

Malcolm – The son of Duncan, whose

restoration to the throne signals
Scotland’s return to order following
Macbeth’s reign of terror. Malcolm
becomes a serious challenge to
Macbeth with Macduff’s aid (and the support of England). Prior to this, he appears
weak and uncertain of his own power, as when he and Donalbain flee Scotland after
their father’s murder.

Macduff – A Scottish nobleman hostile

to Macbeth’s kingship from the start. He
eventually becomes a leader of the
crusade to unseat Macbeth. The
crusade’s mission is to place the rightful
king, Malcolm, on the throne, but
Macduff also desires vengeance for
Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s wife and
young son.

Hecate – The goddess of witchcraft,

who helps the three witches work their
mischief on Macbeth.

Fleance – Banquo’s son, who survives

Macbeth’s attempt to murder him. At the
end of the play, Fleance’s whereabouts
are unknown. Presumably, he may come to rule Scotland, fulfilling the witches’
prophecy that Banquo’s sons will sit on the Scottish throne.

Lennox – A Scottish nobleman.

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Ross – A Scottish nobleman.

The Murderers – A group of ruffians conscripted by Macbeth to murder Banquo,

Fleance (whom they fail to kill), and Macduff’s wife and children.

Porter – The drunken doorman of Macbeth’s castle.

Lady Macduff – Macduff’s wife. The scene in her castle provides our only glimpse of
a domestic realm other than that of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. She and her home
serve as contrasts to Lady Macbeth and the hellish world of Inverness.

Donalbain – Duncan’s son and Malcolm’s younger brother.

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Summary of the Play

ACT I

Act 1, scene 1
Thunder and lightning crash above a Scottish moor. Three haggard old women, the
witches, appear out of the storm. In eerie, chanting tones, they make plans to meet
again upon the heath, after the battle, to confront Macbeth. As quickly as they arrive,
they disappear.

Act 1, scene 2
At a military camp near his palace at Forres, King Duncan of Scotland asks a
wounded captain for news about the Scots’ battle with the Irish invaders, who are led
by the rebel Macdonwald. The captain, who was wounded helping Duncan’s son
Malcolm escape capture by the Irish, replies that the Scottish generals Macbeth and
Banquo fought with great courage and violence. The captain then describes for
Duncan how Macbeth slew the traitorous Macdonwald. As the captain is carried off
to have his wounds attended to, the thane of Ross, a Scottish nobleman, enters and
tells the king that the traitorous thane of Cawdor has been defeated and the army of
Norway repelled. Duncan decrees that the thane of Cawdor be put to death and that
Macbeth, the hero of the victorious army, be given Cawdor’s title. Ross leaves to
deliver the news to Macbeth.

Act 1, scene 3
On the heath near the battlefield, thunder rolls and the three witches appear. One
says that she has just come from “[k]illing swine” and another describes the revenge
she has planned upon a sailor whose wife refused to share her chestnuts. Suddenly
a drum beats, and the third witch cries that Macbeth is coming. Macbeth and
Banquo, on their way to the king’s court at Forres, come upon the witches and shrink
in horror at the sight of the old women. Banquo asks whether they are mortal, noting
that they don’t seem to be “inhabitants o’ th’ earth” (1.3.39). He also wonders
whether they are really women, since they seem to have beards like men. The
witches hail Macbeth as thane of Glamis (his original title) and as thane of Cawdor.
Macbeth is baffled by this second title, as he has not yet heard of King Duncan’s
decision. The witches also declare that Macbeth will be king one day. Stunned and
intrigued, Macbeth presses the witches for more information, but they have turned
their attention to Banquo, speaking in yet more riddles. They call Banquo “lesser
than Macbeth, and greater,” and “not so happy, yet much happier”; then they tell him
that he will never be king but that his children will sit upon the throne (1.3.63–65).
Macbeth implores the witches to explain what they meant by calling him thane of
Cawdor, but they vanish into thin air.

In disbelief, Macbeth and Banquo discuss the strange encounter. Macbeth fixates on
the details of the prophecy. “Your children shall be kings,” he says to his friend, to
which Banquo responds: “You shall be king” (1.3.84). Their conversation is
interrupted by the arrival of Ross and Angus, who have come to convey them to the
king. Ross tells Macbeth that the king has made him thane of Cawdor, as the former
thane is to be executed for treason. Macbeth, amazed that the witches’ prophecy
has come true, asks Banquo if he hopes his children will be kings. Banquo replies
that devils often tell half-truths in order to “win us to our harm” (1.3.121). Macbeth

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ignores his companions and speaks to himself, ruminating upon the possibility that
he might one day be king. He wonders whether the reign will simply fall to him or
whether he will have to perform a dark deed in order to gain the crown. At last he
shakes himself from his reverie and the group departs for Forres. As they leave,
Macbeth whispers to Banquo that, at a later time, he would like to speak to him
privately about what has transpired.

Act 1, scene 4
At the king’s palace, Duncan hears reports of Cawdor’s execution from his son
Malcolm, who says that Cawdor died nobly, confessing freely and repenting of his
crimes. Macbeth and Banquo enter with Ross and Angus. Duncan thanks the two
generals profusely for their heroism in the battle, and they profess their loyalty and
gratitude toward Duncan. Duncan announces his intention to name Malcolm the heir
to his throne. Macbeth declares his joy but notes to himself that Malcolm now stands
between him and the crown. Plans are made for Duncan to dine at Macbeth’s castle
that evening, and Macbeth goes on ahead of the royal party to inform his wife of the
king’s impending arrival.

Act 1, scene 5
In Inverness, Macbeth’s castle, Lady Macbeth reads to herself a letter she has
received from Macbeth. The letter announces Macbeth’s promotion to the thaneship
of Cawdor and details his meeting with the witches. Lady Macbeth murmurs that she
knows Macbeth is ambitious, but fears he is too full of “th’ milk of human kindness” to
take the steps necessary to make himself king (1.5.15). She resolves to convince her
husband to do whatever is required to seize the crown. A messenger enters and
informs Lady Macbeth that the king rides toward the castle, and that Macbeth is on
his way as well. As she awaits her husband’s arrival, she delivers a famous speech
in which she begs, “you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And
fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty” (1.5.38–41). She resolves
to put her natural femininity aside so that she can do the bloody deeds necessary to
seize the crown. Macbeth enters, and he and his wife discuss the king’s forthcoming
visit. Macbeth tells his wife that Duncan plans to depart the next day, but Lady
Macbeth declares that the king will never see tomorrow. She tells her husband to
have patience and to leave the plan to her.

Act 1, scene 6
Duncan, the Scottish lords, and their attendants arrive outside Macbeth’s castle.
Duncan praises the castle’s pleasant environment, and he thanks Lady Macbeth,
who has emerged to greet him, for her hospitality. She replies that it is her duty to be
hospitable since she and her husband owe so much to their king. Duncan then asks
to be taken inside to Macbeth, whom he professes to love dearly.

Act 1, scene 7
Inside the castle, as oboes play and servants set a table for the evening’s feast,
Macbeth paces by himself, pondering his idea of assassinating Duncan. He says that
the deed would be easy if he could be certain that it would not set in motion a series
of terrible consequences. He declares his willingness to risk eternal damnation but
realizes that even on earth, bloody actions “return / To plague th’inventor” (1.7.9–10).
He then considers the reasons why he ought not to kill Duncan: Macbeth is Duncan’s
kinsman, subject, and host; moreover, the king is universally admired as a virtuous

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ruler. Macbeth notes that these circumstances offer him nothing that he can use to
motivate himself. He faces the fact that there is no reason to kill the king other than
his own ambition, which he realizes is an unreliable guide.

Lady Macbeth enters and tells her husband that the king has dined and that he has
been asking for Macbeth. Macbeth declares that he no longer intends to kill Duncan.
Lady Macbeth, outraged, calls him a coward and questions his manhood: “When you
durst do it,” she says, “then you were a man” (1.7.49). He asks her what will happen
if they fail; she promises that as long as they are bold, they will be successful. Then
she tells him her plan: while Duncan sleeps, she will give his chamberlains wine to
make them drunk, and then she and Macbeth can slip in and murder Duncan. They
will smear the blood of Duncan on the sleeping chamberlains to cast the guilt upon
them. Astonished at the brilliance and daring of her plan, Macbeth tells his wife that
her “undaunted mettle” makes him hope that she will only give birth to male children
(1.7.73). He then agrees to proceed with the murder.

ACT II

Act 2, scene 1
Banquo and his son Fleance walk in the torch-lit hall of Macbeth’s castle. Fleance
says that it is after midnight, and his father responds that although he is tired, he
wishes to stay awake because his sleep has lately inspired “cursed thoughts” (2.1.8).
Macbeth enters, and Banquo is surprised to see him still up. Banquo says that the
king is asleep and mentions that he had a dream about the “three weird sisters.”
When Banquo suggests that the witches have revealed “some truth” to Macbeth,
Macbeth claims that he has not thought of them at all since their encounter in the
woods (2.1.19–20). He and Banquo agree to discuss the witches’ prophecies at a
later time.

Banquo and Fleance leave, and suddenly, in the darkened hall, Macbeth has a
vision of a dagger floating in the air before him, its handle pointing toward his hand
and its tip aiming him toward Duncan. Macbeth tries to grasp the weapon and fails.
He wonders whether what he sees is real or a “dagger of the mind, a false creation /
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain” (2.1.38–39). Continuing to gaze upon the
dagger, he thinks he sees blood on the blade, then abruptly decides that the vision is
just a manifestation of his unease over killing Duncan. The night around him seems
thick with horror and witchcraft, but Macbeth stiffens and resolves to do his bloody
work. A bell tolls—Lady Macbeth’s signal that the chamberlains are asleep—and
Macbeth strides toward Duncan’s chamber.

Act 2, scene 2
As Macbeth leaves the hall, Lady Macbeth enters, remarking on her boldness. She
imagines that Macbeth is killing the king even as she speaks. Hearing Macbeth cry
out, she worries that the chamberlains have awakened. She says that she cannot
understand how Macbeth could fail—she had prepared the daggers for the
chamberlains herself. She asserts that she would have killed the king herself then
and there, “[h]ad he not resembled / [her] father as he slept” (2.2.12–13). Macbeth
emerges, his hands covered in blood, and says that the deed is done. Badly shaken,
he remarks that he heard the chamberlains awake and say their prayers before

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going back to sleep. When they said “amen,” he tried to say it with them but found
that the word stuck in his throat. He adds that as he killed the king, he thought he
heard a voice cry out: “Sleep no more, / Macbeth does murder sleep” (2.2.33–34).

Lady Macbeth at first tries to steady her husband, but she becomes angry when she
notices that he has forgotten to leave the daggers with the sleeping chamberlains so
as to frame them for Duncan’s murder. He refuses to go back into the room, so she
takes the daggers into the room herself, saying that she would be ashamed to be as
cowardly as Macbeth. As she leaves, Macbeth hears a mysterious knocking. The
portentous sound frightens him, and he asks desperately, “Will all great Neptune’s
ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” (2.2.58–59). As Lady Macbeth
reenters the hall, the knocking comes again, and then a third time. She leads her
husband back to the bedchamber, where he can wash off the blood. “A little water
clears us of this deed,” she tells him. “How easy it is then!” (2.2.65–66).

Act 2, scene 3
A porter stumbles through the hallway to answer the knocking, grumbling comically
about the noise and mocking whoever is on the other side of the door. He compares
himself to a porter at the gates of hell and asks, “Who’s there, i’ th’ name of
Beelzebub?” (2.3.3). Macduff and Lennox enter, and Macduff complains about the
porter’s slow response to his knock. The porter says that he was up late carousing
and rambles on humorously about the effects of alcohol, which he says provokes red
noses, sleepiness, and urination. He adds that drink also “provokes and unprovokes”
lechery—it inclines one to be lustful but takes away the ability to have sex (2.3.27).
Macbeth enters, and Macduff asks him if the king is awake, saying that Duncan
asked to see him early that morning. In short, clipped sentences, Macbeth says that
Duncan is still asleep. He offers to take Macduff to the king. As Macduff enters the
king’s chamber, Lennox describes the storms that raged the previous night,
asserting that he cannot remember anything like it in all his years. With a cry of “O
horror, horror, horror!” Macduff comes running from the room, shouting that the king
has been murdered (2.3.59). Macbeth and Lennox rush in to look, while Lady
Macbeth appears and expresses her horror that such a deed could be done under
her roof. General chaos ensues as the other nobles and their servants come
streaming in. As Macbeth and Lennox emerge from the bedroom, Malcolm and
Donalbain arrive on the scene. They are told that their father has been killed, most
likely by his chamberlains, who were found with bloody daggers. Macbeth declares
that in his rage he has killed the chamberlains.

Macduff seems suspicious of these new deaths, which Macbeth explains by saying
that his fury at Duncan’s death was so powerful that he could not restrain himself.
Lady Macbeth suddenly faints, and both Macduff and Banquo call for someone to
attend to her. Malcolm and Donalbain whisper to each other that they are not safe,
since whoever killed their father will probably try to kill them next. Lady Macbeth is
taken away, while Banquo and Macbeth rally the lords to meet and discuss the
murder. Duncan’s sons resolve to flee the court. Malcolm declares that he will go
south to England, and Donalbain will hasten to Ireland.

Act 2, scene 4
Ross, a thane, walks outside the castle with an old man. They discuss the strange
and ominous happenings of the past few days: it is daytime, but dark outside; last

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Tuesday, an owl killed a falcon; and Duncan’s beautiful, well-trained horses behaved
wildly and ate one another. Macduff emerges from the castle and tells Ross that
Macbeth has been made king by the other lords, and that he now rides to Scone to
be crowned. Macduff adds that the chamberlains seem the most likely murderers,
and that they may have been paid off by someone to kill Duncan. Suspicion has now
fallen on the two princes, Malcolm and Donalbain, because they have fled the scene.
Macduff returns to his home at Fife, and Ross departs for Scone to see the new
king’s coronation.

ACT III

Act 3, scene 1
In the royal palace at Forres, Banquo paces and thinks about the coronation of
Macbeth and the prophecies of the weird sisters. The witches foretold that Macbeth
would be king and that Banquo’s line would eventually sit on the throne. If the first
prophecy came true, Banquo thinks, feeling the stirring of ambition, why not the
second? Macbeth enters, attired as king. He is followed by Lady Macbeth, now his
queen, and the court. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth ask Banquo to attend the feast
they will host that night. Banquo accepts their invitation and says that he plans to go
for a ride on his horse for the afternoon. Macbeth mentions that they should discuss
the problem of Malcolm and Donalbain. The brothers have fled from Scotland and
may be plotting against his crown.

Banquo departs, and Macbeth dismisses his court. He is left alone in the hall with a
single servant, to whom he speaks about some men who have come to see him.
Macbeth asks if the men are still waiting and orders that they be fetched. Once the
servant has gone, Macbeth begins a soliloquy. He muses on the subject of Banquo,
reflecting that his old friend is the only man in Scotland whom he fears. He notes that
if the witches’ prophecy is true, his will be a “fruitless crown,” by which he means that
he will not have an heir (3.1.62). The murder of Duncan, which weighs so heavily on
his conscience, may have simply cleared the way for Banquo’s sons to overthrow
Macbeth’s own family.

The servant reenters with Macbeth’s two visitors. Macbeth reminds the two men,
who are murderers he has hired, of a conversation he had with them the day before,
in which he chronicled the wrongs Banquo had done them in the past. He asks if
they are angry and manly enough to take revenge on Banquo. They reply that they
are, and Macbeth accepts their promise that they will murder his former friend.
Macbeth reminds the murderers that Fleance must be killed along with his father and
tells them to wait within the castle for his command.

Act 3, scene 2
Elsewhere in the castle, Lady Macbeth expresses despair and sends a servant to
fetch her husband. Macbeth enters and tells his wife that he too is discontented,
saying that his mind is “full of scorpions” (3.2.37). He feels that the business that
they began by killing Duncan is not yet complete because there are still threats to the
throne that must be eliminated. Macbeth tells his wife that he has planned “a deed of
dreadful note” for Banquo and Fleance and urges her to be jovial and kind to Banquo

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during the evening’s feast, in order to lure their next victim into a false sense of
security (3.2.45).

Act 3, scene 3
It is dusk, and the two murderers, now joined by a third, linger in a wooded park
outside the palace. Banquo and Fleance approach on their horses and dismount.
They light a torch, and the murderers set upon them. The murderers kill Banquo,
who dies urging his son to flee and to avenge his death. One of the murderers
extinguishes the torch, and in the darkness Fleance escapes. The murderers leave
with Banquo’s body to find Macbeth and tell him what has happened.

Act 3, scene 4
Onstage stands a table heaped with a feast. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth enter as
king and queen, followed by their court, whom they bid welcome. As Macbeth walks
among the company, the first murderer appears at the doorway. Macbeth speaks to
him for a moment, learning that Banquo is dead and that Fleance has escaped. The
news of Fleance’s escape angers Macbeth—if only Fleance had died, he muses, his
throne would have been secure. Instead, “the worm that’s fled / Hath nature that in
time will venom breed” (3.4.28–29).

Returning to his guests, Macbeth goes to sit at the head of the royal table but finds
Banquo’s ghost sitting in his chair. Horror-struck, Macbeth speaks to the ghost,
which is invisible to the rest of the company. Lady Macbeth makes excuses for her
husband, saying that he occasionally has such “visions” and that the guests should
simply ignore his behavior. Then she speaks to Macbeth, questioning his manhood
and urging him to snap out of his trance. The ghost disappears, and Macbeth
recovers, telling his company: “I have a strange infirmity which is nothing / To those
that know me” (3.4.85–86). As he offers a toast to company, however, Banquo’s
specter reappears and shocks Macbeth into further reckless outbursts. Continuing to
make excuses for her husband, Lady Macbeth sends the alarmed guests out of the
room as the ghost vanishes again.

Macbeth mutters that “blood will have blood” and tells Lady Macbeth that he has
heard from a servant-spy that Macduff intends to keep away from court, behavior
that verges on treason (3.4.121). He says that he will visit the witches again
tomorrow in the hopes of learning more about the future and about who may be
plotting against him. He resolves to do whatever is necessary to keep his throne,
declaring: “I am in blood / Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning
were as tedious as go o’er” (3.4.135–137). Lady Macbeth says that he needs sleep,
and they retire to their bed.

Act 3, scene 5
Upon the stormy heath, the witches meet with Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft.
Hecate scolds them for meddling in the business of Macbeth without consulting her
but declares that she will take over as supervisor of the mischief. She says that when
Macbeth comes the next day, as they know he will, they must summon visions and
spirits whose messages will fill him with a false sense of security and “draw him on to
his confusion” (3.5.29). Hecate vanishes, and the witches go to prepare their
charms.

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Act 3, scene 6
That night, somewhere in Scotland, Lennox walks with another lord, discussing what
has happened to the kingdom. Banquo’s murder has been officially blamed on
Fleance, who has fled. Nevertheless, both men suspect Macbeth, whom they call a
“tyrant,” in the murders of Duncan and Banquo. The lord tells Lennox that Macduff
has gone to England, where he will join Malcolm in pleading with England’s King
Edward for aid. News of these plots has prompted Macbeth to prepare for war.
Lennox and the lord express their hope that Malcolm and Macduff will be successful
and that their actions can save Scotland from Macbeth.

ACT IV

Act 4, scene 1
In a dark cavern, a bubbling cauldron hisses and spits, and the three witches
suddenly appear onstage. They circle the cauldron, chanting spells and adding
bizarre ingredients to their stew—“eye of newt and toe of frog, / Wool of bat and
tongue of dog” (4.1.14–15). Hecate materializes and compliments the witches on
their work. One of the witches then chants: “By the pricking of my thumbs, /
Something wicked this way comes” (4.1.61–62). In fulfillment of the witch’s
prediction, Macbeth enters. He asks the witches to reveal the truth of their
prophecies to him. To answer his questions, they summon horrible apparitions, each
of which offers a prediction to allay Macbeth’s fears. First, a floating head warns him
to beware Macduff; Macbeth says that he has already guessed as much. Then a
bloody child appears and tells him that “none of woman born / shall harm Macbeth”
(4.1.96–97). Next, a crowned child holding a tree tells him that he is safe until Birnam
Wood moves to Dunsinane Hill. Finally, a procession of eight crowned kings walks
by, the last carrying a mirror. Banquo’s ghost walks at the end of the line. Macbeth
demands to know the meaning of this final vision, but the witches perform a mad
dance and then vanish. Lennox enters and tells Macbeth that Macduff has fled to
England. Macbeth resolves to send murderers to capture Macduff’s castle and to kill
Macduff’s wife and children.

Act 4, scene 2
At Macduff’s castle, Lady Macduff accosts Ross, demanding to know why her
husband has fled. She feels betrayed. Ross insists that she trust her husband’s
judgment and then regretfully departs. Once he is gone, Lady Macduff tells her son
that his father is dead, but the little boy perceptively argues that he is not. Suddenly,
a messenger hurries in, warning Lady Macduff that she is in danger and urging her
to flee. Lady Macduff protests, arguing that she has done no wrong. A group of
murderers then enters. When one of them denounces Macduff, Macduff’s son calls
the murderer a liar, and the murderer stabs him. Lady Macduff turns and runs, and
the pack of killers chases after her.

Act 4, scene 3
Outside King Edward’s palace, Malcolm speaks with Macduff, telling him that he
does not trust him since he has left his family in Scotland and may be secretly
working for Macbeth. To determine whether Macduff is trustworthy, Malcolm rambles
on about his own vices. He admits that he wonders whether he is fit to be king, since
he claims to be lustful, greedy, and violent. At first, Macduff politely disagrees with

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his future king, but eventually Macduff cannot keep himself from crying out, “O
Scotland, Scotland!” (4.3.101). Macduff’s loyalty to Scotland leads him to agree that
Malcolm is not fit to govern Scotland and perhaps not even to live. In giving voice to
his disparagement, Macduff has passed Malcolm’s test of loyalty. Malcolm then
retracts the lies he has put forth about his supposed shortcomings and embraces
Macduff as an ally. A doctor appears briefly and mentions that a “crew of wretched
souls” waits for King Edward so they may be cured (4.3.142). When the doctor
leaves, Malcolm explains to Macduff that King Edward has a miraculous power to
cure disease.

Ross enters. He has just arrived from Scotland, and tells Macduff that his wife and
children are well. He urges Malcolm to return to his country, listing the woes that
have befallen Scotland since Macbeth took the crown. Malcolm says that he will
return with ten thousand soldiers lent him by the English king. Then, breaking down,
Ross confesses to Macduff that Macbeth has murdered his wife and children.
Macduff is crushed with grief. Malcolm urges him to turn his grief to anger, and
Macduff assures him that he will inflict revenge upon Macbeth.

ACT V

Act 5, scene 1
At night, in the king’s palace at Dunsinane, a doctor and a gentlewoman discuss
Lady Macbeth’s strange habit of sleepwalking. Suddenly, Lady Macbeth enters in a
trance with a candle in her hand. Bemoaning the murders of Lady Macduff and
Banquo, she seems to see blood on her hands and claims that nothing will ever
wash it off. She leaves, and the doctor and gentlewoman marvel at her descent into
madness.

Act 5, scene 2

Outside the castle, a group of Scottish lords discusses the military situation: the
English army approaches, led by Malcolm, and the Scottish army will meet them
near Birnam Wood, apparently to join forces with them. The “tyrant,” as Lennox and
the other lords call Macbeth, has fortified Dunsinane Castle and is making his
military preparations in a mad rage.

Act 5, scene 3
Macbeth strides into the hall of Dunsinane with the doctor and his attendants,
boasting proudly that he has nothing to fear from the English army or from Malcolm,
since “none of woman born” can harm him (4.1.96) and since he will rule securely
“[t]ill Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane” (5.3.2). He calls his servant Seyton, who
confirms that an army of ten thousand Englishmen approaches the castle. Macbeth
insists upon wearing his armor, though the battle is still some time off. The doctor
tells the king that Lady Macbeth is kept from rest by “thick-coming fancies,” and
Macbeth orders him to cure her of her delusions (5.3.40).

Act 5, scene 4
In the country near Birnam Wood, Malcolm talks with the English lord Siward and his
officers about Macbeth’s plan to defend the fortified castle. They decide that each

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soldier should cut down a bough of the forest and carry it in front of him as they
march to the castle, thereby disguising their numbers.

Act 5, scene 5
Within the castle, Macbeth blusteringly orders that banners be hung and boasts that
his castle will repel the enemy. A woman’s cry is heard, and Seyton appears to tell
Macbeth that the queen is dead. Shocked, Macbeth speaks numbly about the
passage of time and declares famously that life is “a tale / Told by an idiot, full of
sound and fury, / Signifying nothing” (5.5.25–27). A messenger enters with
astonishing news: the trees of Birnam Wood are advancing toward Dunsinane.
Enraged and terrified, Macbeth recalls the prophecy that said he could not die till
Birnam Wood moved to Dunsinane. Resignedly, he declares that he is tired of the
sun and that at least he will die fighting.

Act 5, scene 6
Outside the castle, the battle commences. Malcolm orders the English soldiers to
throw down their boughs and draw their swords.

Act 5, scene 7
On the battlefield, Macbeth strikes those around him vigorously, insolent because no
man born of woman can harm him. He slays Lord Siward’s son and disappears in
the fray.

Act 5, scene 8
Macduff emerges and searches the chaos frantically for Macbeth, whom he longs to
cut down personally. He dives again into the battle.

Act 5, scene 9
Malcolm and Siward emerge and enter the castle.

Act 5, scene 10
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Macbeth at last encounters Macduff. They fight, and
when Macbeth insists that he is invincible because of the witches’ prophecy, Macduff
tells Macbeth that he was not of woman born, but rather “from his mother’s womb /
Untimely ripped” (5.10.15–16). Macbeth suddenly fears for his life, but he declares
that he will not surrender “[t]o kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet, / And to
be baited with the rabble’s curse” (5.10.28–29). They exit fighting.

Act 5, scene 11
Malcolm and Siward walk together in the castle, which they have now effectively
captured. Ross tells Siward that his son is dead. Macduff emerges with Macbeth’s
head in his hand and proclaims Malcolm King of Scotland. Malcolm declares that all
his thanes will be made earls, according to the English system of peerage. They will
be the first such lords in Scottish history. Cursing Macbeth and his “fiend-like” queen,
Malcolm calls all those around him his friends and invites them all to see him
crowned at Scone (5.11.35).

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Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Natural Order and the Divine Right of Kingship

An important concept for the people

of the Elizabethan era was the idea
that the king was chosen by God.
This was referred to as the Divine
Right of Kingship. This belief stated
that only God could choose the king
and if His chosen was not on the
throne then the kingdom would suffer
God’s wrath. This belief stems from
the Elizabethan concept of the Great
Chain of Being. This stated that all
things in creation were part of a great
chain with God at the top. Anyone
that disturbed this chain – like
Macbeth when he kills Duncan – will
be punished by God.

The form of this wrath would be in the upheaval of the natural order. In other words,
the natural world would rise up against man and events that are not natural or
possible will start to happen. In the play, we see the upheaval of the natural order
after Duncan’s death at the hands of Macbeth. In the scenes that follow his death,
Shakespeare reveals a number of events that occurred on the night of his death and
in the days following. As the play progresses, we hear from the other characters how
the natural order the world and the kingdom of Scotland has been perturbed by the
events.

It was believed that only the return of God’s chosen king, in this case the rightful heir
to the throne, can restore the natural order and bring peace back to the realm. The
natural word’s rebellion against Macbeth and the upheaval of the natural world are a
very real manifestation of God’s wrath at Duncan’s death and serves to remind the
audience that Macbeth does not have the Heaven on his side.

Ambition

The main theme of Macbeth—the destruction wrought when ambition goes

unchecked by moral constraints—finds its most powerful expression in the play’s two
main characters.

Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil
deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his
better judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the
play he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness. Lady Macbeth, on the
other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of

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withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts. One of Shakespeare’s most
forcefully drawn female characters, she spurs her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan
and urges him to be strong in the murder’s aftermath, but she is eventually driven to
distraction by the effect of Macbeth’s repeated bloodshed on her conscience.

In each case, ambition—helped, of course, by the malign prophecies of the

witches—is what drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities. The problem, the
play suggests, is that once one decides to use violence to further one’s quest for
power, it is difficult to stop. There are always potential threats to the throne—
Banquo, Fleance, Macduff—and it is always tempting to use violent means to
dispose of them.

Supernatural

Macbeth is filled with images, events and characters that are not part of the natural
world. The witches, the flying dagger, ghosts and visions are all part of the
supernatural elements that are prevalent in the play.

The play starts with three witches, the ‘weird sisters’ that give a prophecy to Macbeth
that starts him down the path of darkness. The whole plot of the play revolves
around the idea that the witches accurately predicted the future. It is the witches’
supernatural power of prophecy that drives Macbeth to be king. He becomes so
entrenched in this prophecy presented by the witches that he becomes a victim to it
eventually trusting the witches’ prophecies and visions above common sense or
logic. This leads to his downfall.

Macbeth is not the only one who gives himself over the supernatural. Lady Macbeth
calls on spirits to give her strength to do what must be done. Banquo comes back as
a ghost after his murder to hammer in Macbeth’s guilt. The natural world even goes
insane in response to Duncan’s death. Since many of these events are witnessed by
more than one character, it is clear that they are more than just hallucinations and
stark evidence of the influence of the supernatural in the play.

Fate and Free Will

This is a very common theme in many of Shakespeare’s plays. The question that the
audience is asked is whether our tragic hero, Macbeth, had any choice in the events
that take part of the play or whether he was an unwilling puppet of the forces of fate.
In other words, could he have stopped himself or was he doomed from the start?

On the one hand, we could say that since the witches gave Macbeth the prophecy, it
was pre-ordained that the events of the play would play out the way they did. On the
other hand, the witches never told Macbeth how he would become king. His decision
to kill King Duncan was all his own, it had nothing to do with the witches. His
decisions lead him down the path of darkness, the witches only gave him a push – or
did they?

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Throughout the play it seems as if the witches’ prophecies come true, suggesting
that Macbeth’s final fate is not in his hands. He was fated to die from the beginning
and nothing he could have done would have made a difference in the final outcome
the play.

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Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to
develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Hallucinations

Visions and hallucinations recur throughout the play and serve as reminders of
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s joint culpability for the growing body count. When he is
about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air. Covered with blood
and pointed toward the king’s chamber, the dagger represents the bloody course on
which Macbeth is about to embark. Later, he sees Banquo’s ghost sitting in a chair at
a feast, pricking his conscience by mutely reminding him that he murdered his former
friend. The seemingly hardheaded Lady Macbeth also eventually gives way to
visions, as she sleepwalks and believes that her hands are stained with blood that
cannot be washed away by any amount of water. In each case, it is ambiguous
whether the vision is real or purely hallucinatory; but, in both cases, the Macbeths
read them uniformly as supernatural signs of their guilt.

Violence

Macbeth is a famously violent play. Interestingly, most of the killings take place
offstage, but throughout the play the characters provide the audience with gory
descriptions of the carnage, from the opening scene where the captain describes
Macbeth and Banquo wading in blood on the battlefield, to the endless references to
the bloodstained hands of Macbeth and his wife. The action is bookended by a pair
of bloody battles: in the first, Macbeth defeats the invaders; in the second, he is slain
and beheaded by Macduff. In between is a series of murders: Duncan, Duncan’s
chamberlains, Banquo, Lady Macduff, and Macduff’s son all come to bloody ends.
By the end of the action, blood seems to be everywhere.

Prophecy

Prophecy sets Macbeth’s plot in motion—namely, the witches’ prophecy that

Macbeth will become first thane of Cawdor and then king. The weird sisters make a
number of other prophecies: they tell us that Banquo’s heirs will be kings, that
Macbeth should beware Macduff, that Macbeth is safe till Birnam Wood comes to
Dunsinane, and that no man born of woman can harm Macbeth. Save for the
prophecy about Banquo’s heirs, all of these predictions are fulfilled within the course
of the play. Still, it is left deliberately ambiguous whether some of them are self-
fulfilling—for example, whether Macbeth wills himself to be king or is fated to be king.
Additionally, as the Birnam Wood and “born of woman” prophecies make clear, the
prophecies must be interpreted as riddles, since they do not always mean what they
seem to mean.

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas
or concepts.

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Blood

Blood is everywhere in Macbeth, beginning with the opening battle between the
Scots and the Norwegian invaders, which is described in harrowing terms by the
wounded captain in Act 1, scene 2. Once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth embark upon
their murderous journey, blood comes to symbolize their guilt, and they begin to feel
that their crimes have stained them in a way that cannot be washed clean. “Will all
great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” Macbeth cries after
he has killed Duncan, even as his wife scolds him and says that a little water will do
the job (2.2.58–59). Later, though, she comes to share his horrified sense of being
stained: “Out, damned spot; out, I say . . . who would have thought the old man to
have had so much blood in him?” she asks as she wanders through the halls of their
castle near the close of the play (5.1.30–34). Blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like
a permanent stain on the consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, one that
hounds them to their graves.

The Weather

As in other Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeth’s grotesque murder spree is

accompanied by a number of unnatural occurrences in the natural realm. From the
thunder and lightning that accompany the witches’ appearances to the terrible
storms that rage on the night of Duncan’s murder, these violations of the natural
order reflect corruption in the moral and political orders.

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 MACBETH – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

QUESTIONS

ACT 1

The play begins with the meeting of the three witches who are planning to bring about
Macbeth’s downfall. Scotland is engaged in a bloody battle with forces from Norway assisted
by rebel Scotsmen, and when we meet the central character, we learn that he killed the rebel
Macdonald and defeated the traitor Cawdor. For this feat, King Duncan of Scotland gives to
Macbeth the title of Thane of Cawdor. When the witches meet Macbeth and promise him he
shall be king as well, his ambition is stirred and murderous thoughts come to his mind. The
subsequent news that the king will stay with Macbeth and his wife at the castle at Inverness
prompts Lady Macbeth to set in motion a plot to kill the king. Macbeth himself has doubts
about going ahead with it, but she persuades him and takes control.

Scene 1:

1. What exactly are the witches planning to do?

2. What does the atmosphere of this scene suggest about the rest of the play to follow?
3. What do you understand about the words “Fair is foul and foul is fair”?

Scene 2

1. Our first impression of Macbeth comes from the Captain’s speech (lines 8-23). What
do we learn about him?
2. How is the image of Macbeth reinforced by Ross’s description of him as “that
Bellona’s bridegroom” (line 55)?
3. What two decisions does Duncan make after hearing of the defeat of the enemy?
Quote one line to support your answer.

Scene 3

1. Notice the witches’ sheer enjoyment of their evil in the opening lines. What does this
suggest about their plans for Macbeth who they will shortly be meeting?
2. Quote Macbeth’s opening words (line 38). What is ironic about them?
3. What do Banquo’s questions (lines 40-46) reveal about the appearance of the
witches?
4. With what three titles do the witches greet Macbeth? Explain how each one applies
or will apply to him.
5. What do the witches tell Banquo when he asks them to speak to him?
6. Explain why Banquo says “what, can the devil speak true?”(line 107).
7. Note carefully the different responses of Macbeth and Banquo to the situation that
has risen (lines 118-126). What is Macbeth thinking, and what important advice does
Banquo give him?
8. Look closely at Macbeth’s asides at this point, i.e. the thoughts he speaks aloud to
himself. With what exactly is he struggling?

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Scene 4

1. What does Duncan mean by his words “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction
in the face” and to whom is he referring?
2. What promise does Duncan make to Macbeth (lines 28-29)?
3. When he then announces this his son Malcom will be heir to the throne, how does
Macbeth respond to the news? (Refer to lined 48-50.)
4. What are Macbeth’s “black and deep desires” and what do these words reveal of his
intentions at this point?

Scene 5

1. What does Macbeth’s letter to his wife suggest about the nature of the relationship
with her?
2. What is Lady Macbeth’s immediate reaction to the news of the witches’ prophecy?
3. What is it in her husband’s nature that she fears will prevent him from becoming
king? (line 12)
4. What does she plan to do to combat this problem? (line 21)
5. Look closely at Lady Macbeth’s Come, you spirits…” speech. Sum up what it is she
is asking the spirits to do to her, and then say briefly what your impression of her is at
this point.
6. What exactly does Lady Macbeth have in mind for Duncan?
7. What advice does she give Macbeth for the night ahead? (lines 58-62)
8. What evidence is there at this point that Macbeth has some doubts and that Lady
Macbeth is the one who will take control?

Scene 6

1. How is the effect of this scene influenced by what you know of Macbeth’s plans at
this stage?

Scene 7

1. In his soliloquy, Macbeth considers the consequences of the deed they have planned
and questions whether or not it is worth it. Read it carefully and write down each of
the reasons he gives as to why he should not kill Duncan.
2. What is he ONLY reason he has for killing the king?
3. What decision does he come to after considering all these points? Quote for your
answer.
4. What then makes him change his mind?
5. Look at how Lady Macbeth persuades her husband. On which of his emotions does
she play?
6. What evidence is there that Lady Macbeth has been successfully “unsexed”?
7. What are the details of her plan to kill Duncan?
8. Why does she describe Duncan’s officers as “spongy”?

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 MACBETH – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

QUESTIONS

ACT 2

The whole of this Act is concerned with the murder and the discovery thereof. After
exchanging a few brief words with Banquo, Macbeth goes to Duncan’s room to commit the
murder. Lady Macbeth waits for him and, when he emerges with the blood-stained
daggers, she reprimands him and takes them back to Duncan’s room herself. Macbeth is
clearly already affected by what he has done. Macbeth arrives at this point and the murder
is soon discovered. Duncan’s two sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, fear for their lives and
flee from Scotland. The act concludes with an old man talking of the strange events which
accompanied Duncan’s death, the fact that the late king’s sons are suspected of murder,
and that Macbeth is about to be crowned king of Scotland.

Scene 1

1. Banquo says that he cannot sleep. Why do you think he is feeling so uneasy?
2. Do Macbeth and Banquo speak to each other as if they are close friends?
3. Under what conditions does Banquo say he will listen to Macbeth’s advice?
See lines 26-29.
4. Macbeth imagines that he sees a dagger before his eyes. What does this
suggest about his state of mind? Quote to support your answer.
5. Explain Macbeth’s metaphor about Murder (lines 52-56).
6. How would you describe Macbeth’s attitude to Duncan, as seen in his parting
words (‘Hear it not… or to hell’)

Scene 2

1. Which words of Lady Macbeth’s suggest that she has not lost her humanity or
compassion completely?
2. When Macbeth enters, what suggests that he is afraid?
3. a) What does Macbeth tell his wife that he has just experienced? Refer to
lines 22 to 36.
b) What does this reveal of Macbeth’s state of mind?
4. What is Lady Macbeth’s advice to him and what is ironic about it?
5. Why does Macbeth refuse to return the daggers to Duncan’s room?
6. What does Lady Macbeth call him then (line 52) and what is the significance
of this in terms of her earlier manipulation of her husband?
7. a) How would you describe Lady Macbeth’s tone when she says that it is ‘the
eye of childhood that fears a painted devil’?
b) Quote another line from the scene where she shows this same attitude to
Macbeth.

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 8. Notice the different responses to the blood on their hands (lines 60/1 and 67).
What does each response reveal about their characters?
9. What does Macbeth mean about his hand and the seas (lines 61 to 63) and
what is the significance of his words?
10. What is Macbeth’s attitude to Duncan at the end of this scene?

Scene 3

1. The porter scene is extremely amusing. Why do you think Shakespeare

includes a funny scene at this point?
2. Explain in your own words the porter’s ‘philosophy’ on alcohol (lines 21 to 26).
Make particular reference to the idea of equivocation, which is an important
theme in the play.
3. What does Lennox tell Macbeth about the night that has just passed (lines 45
to 52) and why do you think these things happened?
4. Explain the irony in Macbeth’s words ‘Twas a rough night’.
5. What does Macbeth mean by ‘Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The
Lord’s anointed temple…’?
6. What do you think of Lady Macbeth’s response to the ‘news’ of Duncan’s
murder: ‘What, in our house?’?
7. What is the difference in the way Macbeth and Macduff break the news of
their father’s death to Malcolm and Donalbain? Refer to their use of language
(lines 97 to 99).
8. What additional killing has now taken place and why?
9. Why does Lady Macbeth ‘appear to faint’ after Macbeth’s explanation?
10. What does Banquo suggest they should all do and what does he promise to
do with God’s help?
11. What do Malcolm and Donalbain decide to do and why?
12. What might be the consequence of their decision to do this?

Scene 4

1. What are the various ‘unnatural’ events that have taken place in the wake of
Duncan’s murder?
2. Who is now believed to have killed Duncan, according to Macduff?
3. What suggests that Macduff has his suspicions about the king-to-be,
Macbeth?

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 MACBETH – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

QUESTIONS

ACT 3

Macbeth is now king of Scotland – he has what he wanted and yet he discovers
that he feels threatened. All his subsequent actions are attempts to secure his
position, and the first of these is the murder of Banquo, an attempt to stop
Banquo’s heirs from becoming kings as the witches promised. We also see
Macbeth and his wife drifting apart: she is quite unable to calm him when Banquo’s
ghost appears (to Macbeth only) at a banquet which they are holding. Macbeth’s
behaviour at this banquet arouses and confirms suspicions about him and
Macbeth decides that he will have to seek advice from the witches. Meanwhile, in
England, Malcolm has been joined by Macduff and they are hoping to secure help
from the English king to deal with Macbeth.

Scene 1

1. Look closely at Banquo’s opening speech. What are the suspicions about
Macbeth and his hopes for himself?
2. What is the significance of the question that Macbeth asks Banquo is lines 19,
23 and 35?
3. Explain the double irony in ‘Fail not our feast’ and ‘My lord, I will not’ (Lines 27
and 28).
4. Why does Macbeth refer to Malcolm and Donaldbain as ‘our bloody cousins’
(line 29)?
5. Macbeth’s soliloquy (lines 47-71) deals mainly with feelings of insecurity.
a) Who exactly is it that he is afraid of, and why?
b) Quote the words Macbeth uses to emphasise his concern about his heirs.
c) What does he realise he has done by killing Duncan? (Line 65)
6. a) Who does Macbeth blame for the suffering of the two murderers and why
does he do this?
b) In what way is his persuasion of the murderers like that which Lady
Macbeth used on him earlier in the play?
7. What exactly does Macbeth want the murderers to do for him?

Scene 2

1. Is Lady Macbeth satisfied with what they have achieved? Give a reason for
your answer, with reference to line 5-7.
2. Explain the image of the ‘snake’ (lines 13-15) that Macbeth uses. To whom
does it apply?

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 3. Quote the phrases from Macbeth’s speech (lines 16-26) which reveal that he
has lost all peace of mind.
4. Why does Macbeth envy the late king Duncan?
5. ‘Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.’ (Line 55) This becomes
the motto by which Macbeth lives from now on. What does he mean and do
you think he is right or wrong?

Scene 3

1. Originally Macbeth organised for two murderers to lie in wait for Banquo. Why
do you think he has sent a third along?
2. What is the significance of the fact that Fleance escapes? (In your answer,
bear in mind the witches’ prophecies to Banquo).

Scene 4

1. Explain the irony in the first murderer calling Macbeth ‘royal sir’ when he tells
him that Fleance escaped (line 20)?
2. What details reveal the bloodthirsty nature of the murderers?
3. How does Macbeth console himself about Fleance for the moment *lines 30-
32)?
4. At what point does Macbeth see Banquo’s ghost? Quote the words spoken by
one of the guests that reveal this.
5. Notice that Macbeth’s first words to Banquo’s ghost are ‘Thou canst not say I
did it’. What does this reveal about him?
6. Explain why Banquo’s locks are ‘gory’.
7. How does Lady Macbeth try to explain her husband’s strange behaviour at
first?
8. Lady Macbeth asks her husband if he is a man (line 59), accusing him once
more of cowardice. What, according to her, in the link between his behaviour
here and his earlier actions before the killing of Duncan?
9. What do the guests actually see Macbeth doing in this scene? If you were
them, what conclusions would you draw from his behaviour?
10. a) How does Lady Macbeth try and prevent her guests from finding out too
much?
b) What does this reveal about her?
11. Look closely at the exchange between Macbeth and his wife after their guests
leave.
a) What reveals that neither of them are sleeping well?
b) What has upset Macbeth about Macduff and what does he hint at doing
about it?

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 c) What reveals that he intends to go on killing? Quote his words for your
answer.

Scene 5

1. This scene, showing the meeting of the three witches with Hecate, their
queen, is often omitted from the play because it is believed that it was not
written by Shakespeare. If your edition includes it, then explain what insights
Hecate has about Macbeth.
2. What reveals that the witches’ intention is to destroy Macbeth?

Scene 6

1. a) Describe Lennox’s tone in his words to the nobleman.

b) What point is he making about Macbeth?
2. a) What information does the lord give concerning the whereabouts and
intentions of Malcolm and Macduff?
b) What does all this mean for Macbeth and Scotland?

MACBETH – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

QUESTIONS

ACT 4

Macbeth visits the witches who lead him to believe that he cannot be conquered.
Despite this seeming consolation, Macbeth’s fear of Macduff leads him to arrange
the killing of Macduff’s family, an act which makes Macduff even more determined
to destroy Macbeth. It is clear that the forces against Macbeth are becoming
stronger.

Scene 1

1. What do the witches refer to Macbeth as (line 44) and what is significant
about this?
2. a) In your own words, describe the three apparitions and their advice to
Macbeth.
b) What is the real symbolism and significance of each of them?
3. What does Macbeth’s decision to kill Macduff (line 83) reveal about his nature
at this point?
4. Macbeth is pleased with what the witches show him until the ‘show of eight
kings’. What angers him about this apparition?

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 5. Explain the irony I Macbeth’s words about the witches when he says ‘(be)
damned all those that trust them’.
6. a) What is Macbeth’s reaction to the news of Macduff’s flight to England.
b) Explain how the once ‘infirm of purpose’ Macbeth has changed, and quote
to support your answer.

Scene 2

1. How does Ross’ view of Macduff’s flight to England differ from that of Lady
Macbeth?
2. What reveals that Macduff’s young son believes his father was not a traitor?

Scene 3

1. Malcolm is not sure whether he can trust Macduff. To be certain, he first tells
Macduff that if he (Malcolm) were king, he would be a far worse ruler that
Macbeth.
a) What dreadful qualities does he say he has?
b) How does Macduff respond to these claims?
c) What finally reassures Malcolm that he can trust Macduff?
2. Is Malcolm really such an awful man? Refer to lines 123-132 for your answer.
3. What help has England offered Scotland (lines 189-191)?
4. Ross is once more the bringer of bad news. What shows his reluctance to tell
Macduff about his family?
5. How does Shakespeare convey the depth of Macduff’s grief at the news of his
family’s slaughter?
6. What does Malcolm encourage Macduff to do with his grief?
7. Quote Macduff’s words which show that he is more resolved than ever to
destroy Macbeth.

MACBETH – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

QUESTIONS
ACT 5

The sleepwalking of Lady Macbeth reveals the extent to which the murder of
Duncan and its consequences have tormented her, and she is finally driven to
suicide. Meanwhile, Macbeth prepares for battle against the approaching English
forces, and the reassurances of the witches begin to pale as he sees what
appears to be Birnam Wood approaching his castle. The final confrontation
between Macbeth and Macduff is inevitable, and when they face each other,
Macbeth learns the awful truth about Macduff not being ‘of woman born’. He
realises he has been deceived by the witches and, with only his own strength to
rely on, he and Macduff fight until Macbeth is killed. Finally, Malcolm is reinstated
as the rightful king of Scotland.

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Scene 1

1. Why do you think the gentlewoman is reluctant to report on what she has
heard Lady Macbeth saying while sleepwalking?
2. Notice that Lady Macbeth ‘has light by her continually’ (line 18). How has she
changed from the earlier part of the play where we saw her calling ‘thick night’
down upon her?
3. a) what is it that makes her rub her hands so much?
b) When she said, after Duncan’s murder, that ‘a little water clears us of this
deed’, what did she fail to take into account?
4. Why are her words ‘Hell is murky’ (line 27) so particularly ghastly?
5. Which of Macbeth’s crimes do you recognise from the words she speaks in
this scene?
6. Notice how her earlier ‘What’s done is done’ has now changed to ‘What’s
done cannot be undone’ (line 50). Explain how this signifies the change and
suffering she has undergone as a result of her and Macbeth’s evil deeds.
7. a) What diagnosis does the doctor have for Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking, and
what does he think she needs?
b) why can’t she have what she really needs?

Scene 2

1. Who are the men in this scene, waiting for the arrival of the English forces?
2. What is the ‘tyrant’, Macbeth, doing in response to the latest rebellion against
him?
3. ‘Now does he feel His secret murders sticking on his hands’ (lines 18-19).
What makes this image so effective?
4. Why does Angus refer to Macbeth as a ‘dwarfish thief’ (line 22)?
5. What is the ultimate intention of these men?

Scene 3

1. How would you describe Macbeth’s mood at the start of this scene? Refer to
lines 1-12.
2. What other aspect is there to his mood, however? (See lines 19-28).
3. a) What is Macbeth asking the doctor to do? (Lines 40-45)
b) Explain the doctor’s response (line 46).
4. In what is Macbeth trusting at this point?

Scene 4

1. a) Explain Malcolm’s instruction to his men (line 4-7).

b) What does this make you realise about the first of the witches’ prophecies?
2. From what you see in this scene, and from what you saw of Macbeth in the
previous one, which side is most likely to be victorious? Give reasons for your
answer.

Scene 5

1. In the opening scene, what reveals Macbeth’s confidence in the face of the
approaching armies?

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 2. Why is Macbeth not startled by the cry of women that he hears? Comment on
how his sensitivity has changed since the start of the play.
3. ‘She should have dies hereafter’ (line 17). Explain what Macbeth means here
and what sort of reaction he seems to have to the news of his wife’s death.
4. ’Tomorrow and tomorrow…’ (lines 19-28): this famous speech from the play
sums up what life is now like for Macbeth.
a) Explain what his words reveal of his feelings.
b) Suggest what tone Macbeth would be using here. (Read the passage aloud
yourself to reveal how the rhythm almost dictates the tone).
5. How does Macbeth react to the news of the apparently moving wood and
what does he begin to suspect?
6. Despite his feelings of despair and hopelessness, Macbeth still manages to
remain determined and courageous in the face of attack. What reveals this?

Scene 6

1. What is the effect of the very short scenes like this one at this stage in the
play?

Scene 7

1. a) In what is Macbeth trusting as he prepares to face the enemy alone?

b) How does the death of Young Siward reinforce this?
2. Why is it so important to Macduff that HE be the one to kill Macbeth (lines 14-
20)?
3. What, according to Siward and Malcolm, has made their task of defeating
Dunsinane so easy?

Scene 8

1. Macbeth may have had some regrets, but what reveals that his
bloodthirstiness is still very evident at the start of this scene?
2. Why does Macbeth say he has avoided Macduff so far? (Do you think he says
this out of remorse, or fear?)
3. After some fighting between them, Macbeth tells Macduff of his ‘charmed life’
(line 12). How does Macduff’s reply reveal the final trick that the witches have
played on Macbeth?
4. a) What does Macbeth finally realise about the witches and what they have
done to him (lines 19-22)?
b) Compare his words here with those said by Banquo in Act 1, Scene 3, lines
123-126. What do you notice?
5. Macbeth, defeated by those in whom he trusted, has only himself t rely upon
now. What is his final attitude as he foes into the fight with Macduff?

Scene 9

1. a) Ross is the bearer of bad news again. What does he have to tell Siward?
b) With what des Siward console himself after hearing this news?
2. Malcolm is hailed as the rightful king of Scotland at last. What does he plan to
do as king (lines 26-35)?

117
 3. Malcolm refers to the Macbeth’s as ‘this dead butcher and his fiend-like
queen’ (line 35). Do you agree with this description of each of them? Give
reasons for your answers.

MACBETH – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

CHARACTER FILES
Macbeth

At the end of the play, when Malcolm refers to Macbeth as ‘this dead butcher’, one
cannot help feeling that Macbeth is somehow greater than that. How is it possible
that a man who committed so many bloody crimes can still be admired in some
way for greatness?

Or can he still be admired? Perhaps you disagree?

Work through the following questions and decide
what you think about Macbeth…

1. What is the first impression one gets of Macbeth, from the Captain’s and
Ross’s words in Act One, Scene Two?
2. When Macbeth hears the witches’ prophecies and Malcolm is made heir to
Duncan’s throne (1.4), what reveals that Macbeth has ambitious intentions?
3. a) Despite his ambition, Macbeth appears to be a sensitive man as well. What
does Lady Macbeth say about him (1.5) that suggest he has a sensitive side
to him?
b) How do Macbeth’s actions and words BEFORE Duncan’s murder show that
there is this sensitive side to him? Refer to his soliloquy in 1.7 and to the
dagger scene in 2.1.
c) Where is it evident immediately AFTER Duncan’s murder? (2.2)
4. a) Having gained the throne he so wanted, Macbeth finds that it has not
brought him peace of mind. What is it that makes him feel most insecure (3.1)
b) How does this indicate that he has changed?
5. Macbeth decides that ‘Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill’
(3.2.55) Explain how the murder of Banquo is supposed to ‘make things
strong’ and how it actually makes things worse for Macbeth instead.
6. Because of his insecurity, Macbeth decides to consult the witches about his
future and to trust in what they promise him. Although they show that his
descendants will not be kings, they seem to assure him that he is invincible –
that ‘no man of woman born’ shall harm him. Despite this assurance, he is
determined to kill Macduff and, when he learns that he has fled from Scotland,
he decides to kill his family instead. What has happened to the sensitive and
cautious man he once was?
7. During the time that Macbeth awaits the attack on Dunsinane by the English
forces and Scottish rebels, he fluctuates between extreme disillusionment and
despair, and courage and determination.

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 a) What is it that gives him courage? (5.3)
b) Why does he say he is no longer afraid of anything? (5.5.9-15)
c) Explain how his disillusionment with life is evident in his ‘Tomorrow and
tomorrow…’ speech (5.5.20-28). What has he realised about his ambitions at
this point?
8. a) Explain how each of the prophecies of the witches in which Macbeth has
trusted turn out differently to what he expected (5.5 and 5.8).
b) In each case, how does he react?
9. Are you able to admire Macbeth in any way or do you think he deserved the
name of ‘butcher’? Give reasons for your answer.

Discuss: Macbeth’s ‘fatal flaw’ as a tragic hero is generally held to be his

ambition. Do you think that overarching ambition is a sufficient explanation for
Macbeth’s actions in the play? What other aspects of his character can be held
accountable for his downfall?

Lady Macbeth

Few people find Lady Macbeth an attractive character in the early stages of the
play, but when Malcolm calls her a ‘fiend’ at the end of the tragic story, do you
think he is right? In this study of Lady Macbeth’s character we shall conside the
extent to which she is or is not an evil woman.

1. Our first impression of Lady Macbeth is gained from seeing her response to
the letter alerting her to her husband’s future ambitions. Because she fears
her husband’s kind nature will prevent him from getting what he really wants
at any price, she determines to take control. How does she go about
preparing herself for this role? (1.5.36-50)
2. When Macbeth joins her, what makes it clear that she IS the one who will take
control? (1.5.58-62)
3. How does she exert this control over her husband in order to get him to agree
with her plan? (1.7)
4. a) Describe how Lady Macbeth’s sense of control (of herself, her husband
and the situation) is demonstrated in 2.2 – immediately after the murder of
Duncan:
and
b) how the strain of this control of herself is evident in 2.3 – after the discovery
of the murder. (Do you think her fainting is genuine or faked?)
5. At what point is it clear that she is losing control over what her husband is
doing? (3.2)
6. The last time we see this controlling aspect of her character is at the banquet
where Banquo’s ghost appears to Macbeth (3.2). How does she attempt to
control the situation there?
7. Despite her apparent cruelty and strength of purpose and will, there are
indications that Lady Macbeth is not as heartless and unfeeling as she thinks.
In 2.2 while she waits for Macbeth to commit the murder, what reveals that
she has not lost her humanity or compassion completely?

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 8. It would seem that Lady Macbeth underestimates her own capacity for feeling
and remorse. Although she thinks that ‘A little water clears us of this deed’
(2.2), what reveals later on that it was not so simple for her? (5.1)
9. Earlier on, after they have ascended to the throne, what reveals that she is
leading a restless and unhappy life? (3.2.4-7)
10. At this point, she tries to reassure herself and Macbeth that ‘What’s done is
done’, but later she states that ‘What’s done cannot be undone’. How does
this sum up the change in attitude that she undergoes?
11. At the start of the sleepwalking scene, we learn that Lady Macbeth ‘has light
by her continually’ (5.1.18). How has she changed from the earlier part of the
play where we saw her calling ‘thick night’ down upon her?
12. The dreadful realisation of what she has done – after the fact – literally drives
Lady Macbeth out of her mind, ending in her suicide. Do you think a truly evil
woman would have ended up as she did? Give reasons for your answer.

Who do you believe was the

more evil of the two:
Macbeth or Lady Macbeth?

Banquo

Like Macbeth, Banquo is a soldier and nobleman. But the choices he makes after
hearing the witches’ prophecies, set him apart from this one-time friend in many
ways.

1. What does the Captain tell us of Banquo in his description of the battle
against the rebel Macdonwald (1.2.35-40)?
2. After hearing the prophecies of the witches and seeing the first of them come
true for Macbeth, how does Banquo respond? Refer in particular to his advice
to Macbeth in 1.3.122-6.
3. In 2.1 Banquo says that he cannot sleep. Like Macbeth, he has too been
plagued by ‘cursed thoughts’. How does he take control of these thoughts
(line 7-9)?
4. How does he make his intentions clear to Macbeth when they discuss briefly
the meeting with the witches? (See 2.1 line 26-29)
5. What does Banquo vow to do after the murder of Duncan (2.3.116-122) and
what does this tell us about him?
6. When Macbeth becomes king, Banquo expresses his suspicions about his
methods (3.1.1-10). What does he reveal of his own hopes at this point?
7. Explain how the witches’ prophecy about Banquo’s heirs came true, despite
Macbeth’s efforts to stop it.
8. Sum up how Banquo’s nature and choices differed from Macbeth’s.

A ‘royalty of nature’
Do you agree with
Macbeth’s assessment of
Banquo?

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Macduff

Macduff has a very important role in the play because it is he who is ultimately
responsible for the defeat of Macbeth. From early on, even though he knew
nothing of the witches’ prophecies to Macbeth, he has his suspicions…

1. Macduff is the first to discover the murdered king. How does he describe what
he has seen (2.3.55-59) and what does it show of his attitude to what has
happened?
2. Macduff’s distrust and disapproval of Macbeth was clear in his refusal to
attend two important occasions. What were they? (Refer to 2.4 and 3.4)
3. Why does Macduff go to England? (3.6.29-36)
4. Lady Macduff disapproves of her husband’s hurried flight to England, saying
that he lacked wisdom. Do you agree, or can you defend Macduff as being
wise for doing so?
5. In the exchange between him and Malcolm in 4.3, how is Macduff’s hatred for
Macbeth made obvious?
6. What reveals that Macduff is not only a man of action but a man of great
feeling as well? (4.3.220-234)
7. Why is it so important to Macduff that HE be the one to kill Macbeth (5.7.14-
20)?
8. Macduff is the only one who can kill Macbeth because he was not ‘of woman
born.’
a) Explain how this is possible.
b) Do you think his own resolve and determination plays any part in his victory
as well?

Minor Characters

Duncan

1. Part of what makes Macbeth’s murder of the king so treacherous is the fact
that Duncan was such a good king. Look at how he is described by:
a) Macbeth in 1.7.16-25 and 3.1.65
b) Macduff in 4.3.109
2. Describe your own impression of Duncan’s nature from the scene of his
arrival at Macbeth’s castle (1.6).
3. Tied up with his good nature, however, is a tendency to be too trusting. He
mistakenly trusted both the original Thane of Cawdor and Macbeth as well.
What does he say about this in 1.4.11-13?
4. Do you think Duncan’s sense of timing was diplomatic when he announced
that Malcolm would be his heir? (1.4.35-41) Explain your answer.

Why is faulty
judgement a particularly
dangerous fault for a
king to have?

121
Malcolm

1. Unlike his father, Malcolm does not trust people so easily.

a) Why does he flee from Scotland after his father’s death? (2.3.125)
b) Where is this lack of trust evident when Macduff comes to find him in
England? (4.3)
2. Look at Malcolm’s words to Macduff after the news of the latter’s family being
murdered (4.3.228-9). What do they reveal of Malcolm’s character?
3. What reveals Malcolm’s able military leadership in the attack on Dunsinane?
Refer in particular to 5.4.4-7 and 5.6.1-6.
4. Judging by his final speech (5.9) what sort of king do you think Malcolm will
be?

Ross and Lennox

Although we learn little of the inner natures of these two minor characters, they
play an important role in the story.

1. ROSS is mostly used as the bearer of news. What news des he bring to each
of the following:
a) Macbeth (1.3.105)
b) Lady Macduff (4.2)
c) Macduff (4.3.204-7)
d) Siward (5.9.5-9)?
2. Lennox brings news to Macbeth of Macduff’s flight to England (4.1) and also
makes the audience aware of happenings and opinions of people in Scotland.
a) What do we learn from him about the disruption in nature on the night of
Duncan’s murder? (2.3.45-52)
b) How does he reveal his suspicions and disapproval of Macbeth in his
opening speech in 3.6?
3. What can you therefore conclude about the role of these two characters in the
play?

122
 MACBETH – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

EXPLORING THEMES

Appearance and reality

This common literary theme is found in abundance in this play – there are
numerous people and things that are not what they seem to be. False
appearances belie the true reality beneath the surface.

1. When Macbeth and Banquo first meet the Weird Sisters, they are not sure
whether they are real or not. They ‘look not like the inhabitants o’the earth
And yet are on’t’ (1.3.41). Quote two other lines spoken in this scene which
show that the witches appear to be real in some way and yet mere illusions in
another. (See 1.3.53-4 and 81-2)
2. King Duncan finds himself confused by the discrepancies between
appearance and reality on a number of occasions.
a) Whom had he trusted first who deceived him? (1.3.11-12)
b) How does Macbeth deceive him in the same way?
c) What does Duncan think of the Macbeths’ castle on his arrival and what is
ironic about this? (1.6.1)
3. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth choose to be deceitful in their appearances
once they begin plotting the murder of Duncan. Quote their words in each of
the following places:
a) Lady Macbeth: 1.5.61-2
b) Macbeth: 1.7.82
c) Macbeth: 3.2.34-5
4. After the murder of Duncan, how does each one appear to behave at the
discovery of the body? What are each one’s real feelings at that time?
5. The last time that Macbeth shows a deceitful appearance in public is at the
banquet in 3.4 where he intends to ‘play the humble host’ (line 4) but is
instead terrified by the ghost of Banquo. How does Lady Macbeth try to keep
up the correct ‘appearances’ at this event?
6. Much of the theme of appearance and reality in this play relies on the
equivocation of the witches. Just as Macbeth deceives others, so they
deceive him with their double meanings.
a) Quote the words used by Macbeth later in the play to describe their
‘technique’ of equivocation. (See 5.5.44 and 5.8.20)
b) In your own words, describe what you understand by the term
‘equivocation’.
7. Look at the prophecies of the second and third apparitions in 4.1. Explain
what each one appears to mean and what each one means in actual fact.
8. ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ (1.1.11) Explain very briefly how this illustrates the
central theme of appearance versus reality.
9. In the comic porter scene, the theme is continued in the words of the porter
who makes reference to the equivocator ‘who committed treason enough for
God’s sake, yet cold not equivocate to heaven’ (2.3.7). Explain how this
echoes the experience of Macbeth himself.

123
Discuss: To what extent do you put on a ‘false face’ in your daily life? Besides
the hardened criminals who have obvious reasons for hiding their real
intentions, what makes people put on false appearances in society? Is it
always wrong to do so?

Chance versus choice

One of the central questions often hotly debated about this play is whether or not
Macbeth was responsible for his downfall or whether he was a victim of
manipulation by the supernatural powers.

1. When the witches’ prophesy that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor and King,
Macbeth appear to have no choice in the matter. His future has been
determined for him. Do you think he could have avoided his fate in any way?
Or could their prophecies have come true without Macbeth killing Duncan?
2. Let us look closely at Macbeth’s reactions to the prophecies and the events
soon after.
a) When he hears that he has been given the title of Thane of Cawdor,
Macbeth says in an aside that ‘The greatest is behind’ (1.3.117). What is his
attitude to the possibility of becoming king.
b) What ‘horrible imaginings’ (1.3.138) follow soon after?
c) What choice does Macbeth make then? See 1.3.143.
d) When Duncan proclaims Malcolm as his heir, what is Macbeth’s response
and what is revealed of his deepest desires?
3. As a contrast to Macbeth, Banquo – who also hears prophecies of greatness
for himself – reacts quite differently. When Banquo hears that Macbeth is
indeed the Thane of Cawdor, he asks if the devil speaks true. He is wary of
the intentions of the weird sisters and recognises that they are evil.
a) What warning does he give to Macbeth in 1.3.122-6?
b) What does Banquo do about the ‘cursed thoughts’ that he experiences
(2.1.7-9)?
c) What choice does Banquo make when Macbeth suggests that there could
be some advantage for him in knowing of Macbeth’s plans? See his words in
2.1.26-9.
4. After the murder of Duncan has been discovered, Macbeth suggests that
everyone puts on ‘manly readiness’ (2.3.123) while Banquo declares that he
stands ‘In the great hand of God’ (2.3.120). How does Banquo’s calling on
divine help here illustrate the significance of the choices each man has made?
5. Of course, Macbeth does not make his decision to kill Duncan easily. He is
afraid of the consequences and of being discovered, and decides to ‘proceed
no further in this business.’ But Lady Macbeth persuades him otherwise.
When he approaches Duncan’s chamber in 2.1 what indicates that Macbeth
fully appreciates the horror of what he is about to do?
6. What does Macbeth realise he has lost the instant after he has committed the
murder? (2.2.35)
7. Does his sense of guilt suggest that he is an innocent victim of manipulation
or someone who has knowingly chosen the path of evil? What do you think?

124
 8. Every murder committed by Macbeth (or his agents) after the death of Duncan
is done by choice. Macbeth’s fears and insecurities cause him to go on
murdering. What evidence is there that he becomes more and more evil?
9. It is important to note that Macbeth himself never blames the witches for his
fate. He curses them for deceiving him (5.8.19-22) but he never tries to shift
the blame. Quote his words here.
10. Sum up your own views on the Chance versus Choice theme. DO you think
Macbeth was an innocent victim of the supernatural powers or did they simply
externalise what he desired and chose to do anyway?

The struggle between good and evil

This common theme in literature is particularly prevalent in Shakespeare’s

tragedies. Characters in the play stand on the side of either good or evil and in the
case of Macbeth, the struggle within his soul between good and evil is one of the
central concerns of the drama.

1. In Shakespeare’s time, unnatural disorder and lack of harmony was often

associated with evil. In what sort f disordered state does the play begin?
(Consider the word ‘hurlyburly’ – 1.1.3 – as part of your answer.)
2. What do Macbeth’s opening words in the play (1.3.38) suggest about the
influence of evil on him?
3. Macbeth is easily tempted by the witches’ prophecies because of his
overriding ambition. What evidence is there of his own evil desires? (1.4.50)
4. Does Lady Macbeth think that her husband is evil? Quote her words in 1.5
which reveal the essence of his nature as she sees it.
5. Lady Macbeth deliberately invokes the evil powers to possess her soul. There
is no struggle for her between good and evil at first – she openly chooses evil.
a) Why does she do this?
b) What are the consequences for her?
6. When Macbeth finally decides to go ahead with the murder, he is fully aware
of the consequences for his soul – ‘deep damnation’ (1.6.20) – and yet he
proceeds with the ‘bloody business’. What is the first thing he realises after
the murder when he hears the king’s sons praying in the adjoining room?
(2.2.26-33)
7. ‘To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself.’ (2.2.73)
In choosing the course of evil, Macbeth somehow loses a sense of his own
being and his identity. After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth has no further
struggle between good and evil and he becomes the embodiment of evil itself.
a) How do his words ‘Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill’
(3.2.55) indicate his intentions from then onwards?
b) Quote his words in 3.4 (lines 139-41) which further reveal his attitude of his.
8. What examples are there in Acts 4 and 4 of evil triumphing over good?
9. At what point does it become clear that the forces of good ae going to
mobilise and try to conquer the evil tyranny of Macbeth?
10. To whom does Macduff appeal when he pleads ‘front to front Bring thou this
fiend of Scotland and myself’ (4.3.233)?
11. Consider Macbeth’s ‘Tomorrow and tomorrow’ speech (5.5.17) and explain
what it reveals about the consequences for Macbeth of his choosing evil.

125
 12. Do you feel that good really triumphs over evil in the end? Give reasons for
your answer.

Discuss: Does Shakespeare moralise in this play about choices between good
and evil? Does he show it to be a simple choice with obvious consequences?

Darkness

This theme recurs throughout the play both in terms of images used and the actual
time of day. The overall atmosphere is one of darkness and foreboding, a fitting
feeling for such a dark play.

1. Make a list of all the major events in the play which take place at night or in
dark places.
2. In many cases, characters like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth call upon actual
darkness or the powers of darkness to hide their own evil. Quote their words
in each of the following places, and explain briefly what they are asking for:
a) 1.4.50-1 (Macbeth)
b) 1.5.46-50 (Lady Macbeth)
c) 3.2.46-7 (Macbeth)
3. How are the witches associated with darkness? Look at what Macbeth calls
them in 4.1.48.
4. Darkness is also associated with fear and an atmosphere of foreboding.
a) At the beginning of 2.1, how is this revealed in the words of Fleance and
Banquo?
b) How is it revealed in the images used by Macbeth as he approaches
Duncan’s chamber? (2.1.50-56)
5. Darkness is also associated with disorder and unnatural events. After the
murder of Duncan, Ross speaks of the fact that ‘By th’clock ‘tis day, And yet
dark night strangles the travelling lamp’ (2.4.6-7)
a) What does he mean? Explain Shakespeare’s use of metaphor here.
b) What other image of darkness does Ross use here?
c) Explain how this darkness he describes is indicative of the disorder and
turmoil in the kingdom.
6. Despite the fact that Lady Macbeth called darkness down upon herself, we
find at the end of the play that she ‘has light by her continually’ (5.1.17)
a) What is significant about this?
b) Which words of hers (see lines 26-29) indicate the terrible darkness of her
torment and damnation?

126
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 Parts of Speech 1
Identify the parts of speech for the underlined words in the passage.

I am forced into speech because men of science (1) have refused to follow my advice without
knowing why. It is altogether against my will that I tell my reasons for opposing this
contemplated invasion of the (2) Antarctic - with its vast fossil hunt and its wholesale (3)
boring and melting (4) of the ancient ice caps. And I am the more reluctant because my
warning may be in vain (5).

Doubt of the real facts, as I must reveal them (6), is inevitable; yet (7), if I suppressed what
will seem extravagant and incredible, there would be nothing left. The hitherto withheld
photographs, both ordinary and aerial, will count in my favour, for they are damnably (8)
vivid and graphic. Still, they will be doubted because of the great lengths to which clever
fakery can be carried. The ink drawings, of course, will be jeered at as obvious impostures,
notwithstanding (9) a strangeness of technique which art experts ought to remark and puzzle
over.

In the end I must rely on the judgment and standing of the few scientific leaders who have, on
the one hand, sufficient independence of thought to weigh my data on its own hideously (10)
convincing merits or in (11) the light of certain primordial and highly baffling myth cycles;
and on the other hand, sufficient influence to deter (12) the exploring world in general from
any rash and over-ambitious program in the region of those mountains of madness. It is an
(13) unfortunate fact that relatively obscure men like myself and my associates, connected
only with a small university, have little chance of making an impression where matters of a
wildly bizarre or highly controversial (14) nature are concerned.

It is further against us that we (15) are not, in the strictest sense, specialists in the fields which
came primarily to be concerned. As a geologist, my object in leading the Miskatonic (16)
University Expedition was wholly that of securing deep-level specimens of rock and soil
from various parts of the Antarctic continent, aided by the remarkable drill devised by
Professor Frank H. Pabodie of our engineering department. I had no wish to be a pioneer (17)
in any other field than this, but (18) I did hope that the use of this new (19) mechanical
appliance at different points along previously explored paths would bring (20) to light
materials of a sort hitherto unreached by the ordinary methods of collection.

130
 Parts of Speech 2
Identify the parts of speech for the underlined words in the passage.

During the winter of 1927-28 officials of the Federal government made a strange and (1)
secret investigation of certain conditions in the ancient Massachusetts seaport of Innsmouth.
The public first learned of it in February, when a (2) vast series of raids and arrests occurred,
followed by (3) the deliberate burning and dynamiting - under suitable precautions - of an
enormous number of crumbling, worm-eaten, and supposedly empty houses along the
abandoned waterfront. Uninquiring souls let this occurrence pass as one of the major clashes
in a spasmodic war (4) on liquor.

Keener news-followers, however, wondered at the (5) prodiigious number of arrests, the
abnormally large force of men used in making (6) them, and the secrecy surrounding the
disposal of the prisoners. No trials, (7) or even definite charges were reported; nor were any
of the captives seen thereafter in the regular (8) gaols of the nation. There were vague
statements about disease and concentration camps, and later about dispersal in various naval
and military prisons, but nothing positive ever (9) developed. Innsmouth itself was left almost
depopulated, and it is even now only beginning to show signs of a sluggishly (10) revived
existence.

Complaints from many liberal organizations (11) were met with (12) long confidential
discussions, and representatives were taken on trips to certain camps and prisons. As a result,
these societies became surprisingly (13) passive and reticent. Newspaper men were harder to
manage, but seemed largely to cooperate with the government in the end. Only one paper - a
tabloid always discounted because of its wild policy - mentioned the deep diving submarine
that (14) discharged torpedoes downward in the marine abyss just beyond (15) Devil Reef.
That item, gathered by chance in a haunt of sailors, seemed indeed rather far-fetched; since
the low, black reef lay a full mile and a half out from Innsmouth Harbour.

People around the country and in the nearby towns muttered a great deal among themselves,
but said very little (16) to the outer world. They (17) had talked about dying and half-
deserted Innsmouth for nearly a century, and nothing new could be wilder or more hideous
than what they had whispered and hinted at years before. Many things had taught (18) them
secretiveness, and there was no need to exert pressure on them. (19) Besides, they really
knew little; for wide salt marshes, desolate and unpeopled, kept neighbours off from
Innsmouth on the (20) landward side.

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 Sentence Structure - Concord
In each case choose which word is correct for the given context.

1. Let you and (I/me) go there.

2. John is taller than (me/I).
3. (Who/Whom) were to talking to, just now?
4. The boy (who/whom) you watched playing cricket yesterday, has been selected.
5. They elected the man (who/whom) they thought would be suitable.
6. Between you and (I/me), he will win the race tomorrow.
7. (Due to/Owing to) the weather, we could not play.
8. Either the boy or the girl (are/is) to blame.
9. I object to (you/your) coming.
10. If I (was/were) going, I should go by sea.
11. The boy (lay/laid) on the bed.
12. He acted (like/as) an amateur in the play.
13. Neither John nor Jill (were/was) there.
14. Not only the boys but the girls (is/are) to blame.
15. The rugby team (was/were) playing.
16. A tall man, as well as two girls, (was/were) standing outside.
17. Bread and butter (is/are) a staple diet for some.
18. He was not lacking in courage and resolution when there as for (this/these).
19. Neither Paris nor the Pyramids (impresses/impress) me.
20. Jane or her friends (was/were) responsible.
21. It is one of the best plays that (has/have) been written.
22. The period of the greatest upheaval in the house (was/were) the five days after the
family had left.
23. It was (I/me) who was responsible.
24. This the boy (who/which) won the race.
25. I (would/should) like you to come.

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 Sentence Structure – Clauses and Phrases
1. Identify the Adjectival Phrases in the following sentences.
a. The car with all the dents is parked in the driveway.
b. Mitch, the oldest man in the home, walks with a walker.
c. Carpo’s brother has a scratched, dented and rusty old trailer.
d. The woman with the long blonde hair is his wife.
e. She wanted to buy a CD of FIFA World Cup songs.

2. Identify the Adverbial Phrases in the following sentences and tell which type it is.
a. He is arriving in Cape Town after lunch tomorrow.
b. Marco searched for the address in the telephone directory.
c. Mohammed will go bungee jumping just for the fun.
d. While driving home in wet weather, he collided with a lorry.
e. The principal left our school at the beginning of the new term.
f. The pilot stayed in the cockpit at the newly-furbished airport.

3. Provide a phrase that answers the question in brackets

a. The man watched the sports game. (when?)
b. The chef cooked the trout. (where?)
c. The learners answered the questions. (how?)
d. The girl went into the room. (why?)

4. Identify the Noun Phrases in the following sentences.

a. Everyone in the class clapped after the brilliant speech.
b. She was praised for achieving high marks.
c. Both Cliff and Carina stuck to the rules of the road to avoid accidents.
d. What they learned at their driving lessons helped them later in life.
e. Human error is the primary cause of accidents in South Africa.

5. Identify and mark the main clause and the subordinate clause(s).
a. The girl who loves singing went to Italy to study opera.
b. My aunt, who is a physiotherapist, emigrated to Australia.
c. She stunned us so much that we actually became speechless.
d. Next week we shall spend a day at the zoo studying elephant behaviour.
e. We missed the flight to Cape Town because we were held up by the horrendous
traffic.
f. My neighbour, who is unemployed at present, will have to leave his flat at the end
of the month.
g. Klara bought a green dress for the matric dance at a 44 Stanley Street boutique.
h. The municipal demonstrators sang as they toyi-toyed down the road.
i. Tomorrow I will take you to a movie if you let me borrow your fancy belt.
j. The athlete who had the strongest legs won the 100-metre race at the school sports.

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6. Add a relevant clause to each sentence based on the description in brackets.
a. (adverbial place) is where he last stored his treasures.
b. The (adjectival) lion limped (adverbial of place).
c. (noun) are the friendliest people I’ve ever known.
d. Nabeel (adjectival) cannot remember his name.
e. The university students demonstrated against the university because (adverbial
reason).

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 Sentence Structure – Combining Sentences
Join the sentences in each of the following groups into one sentence or two sentences. The
result should read smoothly and logically.

1. Doctor Spock smiled brightly at them. Sammy hung back shyly. Diana stepped
forward and bowed. Maggie giggled.
2. Mr Smatch stared at his son. Alex noticed this. Alex bit his fingernails. Alex studied
his shoes intently.
3. Lucille dipped the comb in the water. She combed Bartholomew’s curls. She even
gave his face a wash.
4. Kate had talent. Kate could walk a tight-rope. Kate could recite two-hundred lines of
Shakespeare and fifty lines of Patience Strong.
5. He sat on the edge of his unmade bed. He rose. He walked to the window. He rattled a
bunch of keys in his pocket.
6. One could buy candy-floss at the booths. One could buy hamburgers at the booths.
One booth advertised a genuine mermaid. Some booths enticed one to play games of
chance.
7. The cork bobbed up and down on the water. A slick of oil menaced the oar-blade.
Overhead two seagulls swooped. The two seagulls were squawking excitedly.
8. World politics were on Petunia’s mind all the time. She spoke slowly. Sweat stood out
on her forehead. The palms of her hands grew clammy. She wanted to reform the
world.
9. The music grew like a big flower in her mind. Sometimes a new part of the music
would come to her. It would come to her during the long, still, hot afternoons. During
the long, still, hot afternoons everything seemed different.
10. The box contained nothing but rubbish. In the box was a headless doll. A rabbit skin
was also in the box. Mrs Stoop decided to get rid of the box.

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 Sentence Structure – Shortening Sentences
In each case the author has used long and involved sentences. Rewrite the passage using
approximately five shorter sentences that still convey the same message.

1. Quite early one morning in the winter in Wales, by the sea that was lying down still
and green as grass after a night of tar-black howling and rolling, I went out of the
house, where I had come to stay for a cold unseasonable holiday, to see if it was
raining still, if the outhouse had been blown away, potatoes, shears, rat-killer, shrimp-
nets and tins of rusty nails aloft on the wind and if all the cliffs were left. It had been
such a ferocious night that someone in the smoky snipped-picture bar had said he
could feel his tombstone shaking even though he was not dead, or at least was
moving; but the morning shone as clear and calm as on imagines tomorrow will shine.

2. Volodya has such strange ideas about the girls that although he could interest himself
in whether they had had enough to eat, had slept well were properly dressed and
would not make mistakes in French that would shame him before strangers, he would
never admit that they could think or deal like human beings, still less that it was
possible to converse with them sensibly about anything. If they happened to appear to
him on some serious matter (a thing, by the way they had learned to avoid) – if they
asked his opinion about some novel or inquire about his work at the University – he
would pull a face at them and walk away without speaking, or else answer in mangled
French such as Com ce tri jauli or, putting on a grave purposely stupid expression, say
something absolutely meaningless and bearing no relation whatever to the question
they had asked him, or else, suddenly making his eyes look vacant, utter words like
bun, gone driving, cabbage¸ or the like.

136
 Malapropisms
Correct the malapropisms in the following.

1. Lady Winterbottom completely lost her temperature the other night. Having failed to
illicit any information from her husband about his clandestine affair with Rosey
Funnylegs, she ordered him out of the room. ‘Out you scurvy navel!’ she cried
hydrostatically. ‘And do so forthcoming!’

2. There is no doubt that Lady Winterbottom is as headstrong as an allegory on the

banks of the Nile.

3. For his contribution to the rapid progress made in the electrocution of the railway
system in this country, I have great pleasure in presenting Mr Watkins with this
walking-stick with his entrails painted on it. Furthermore, Mr Watkins, tonight you
will not go home as you usually do – by public convenience – but in a brand new car.
Lead the way, sir, and we will precede.

Tautology
Identify and correct the tautology in each case. Rewrite the sentence correctly.

1. The twin boys are exactly identical.

2. You get a free bottle of wine on the house.
3. The new car was donated to us as a gift.
4. The hot summer sun was scorching.
5. I personally made this card for you with my own hands.
6. The soggy ground was wet and covered in mud.
7. I apologize because I am very sorry that I broke your bowl.
8. The teacher assisted me by helping me to complete the math problem.

137
 Summary Writing 1
Read the passage below on Bullies and write a summary of 90-100 words in paragraph form.

Bullies

Experts agree that bullying not only exists in virtually every school and community in the
world but that it is increasing at a frightening pace. Bullying is most easily understood and
defined as the ‘strong preying on the weak’ – and in America it is said to have reached
‘epidemic proportions.’ Surveys show that nearly one out of three American children has
been involved in bullying – either by being the bully or having been bullied by someone else.
A big problem is that few children who are victims admit to this or report it to teachers or
their parents. This is either because they are proud, or do not want to appear as ‘sissies’, or
they are scared that if they do so the person or persons bullying him or her will take revenge.

The serious nature of the problem is illustrated by the fact that a Google search on ‘bullying’
returns more than three-million sites. Many millions of research dollars are being spend on
the problem and trying to find solutions that actually work.

Social scientists have found that the main reason for bullying is ‘diversity’. In other words the
differences that exist between people. There are race differences, gender differences,
religious differences, physical differences, differences in wealth and intelligence differences,
among others.

There are several methods of bully-busting that seem to work if done properly. The overall
lesson that children must learn is to be tolerant and respect others no matter what race,
culture, sex, religion etc. they belong to. Find the differences interesting and not irritating.
Enjoy the fact that the world is not boring with all people created exactly the same. Learn
from others and be willing to teach others about yourself. Be kind to all people and that
kindness will be returned.

A practical way of doing this is if children from an early age attend schools where they
interact with other children of different racial, cultural and financial backgrounds. Experience
has shown that if children are taught the worth of tolerance then in such schools there is less
bullying. Indeed children exposed to such a background find it much easier to adapt to the
realities of life when they become adult and this helps them to be successful in their
relationships and careers.

The bottom line is: do unto others as you would have do unto you.

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 Summary Writing 2
Read the passage below on The Yorkshire Terrier and write a summary of 90-100 words in
paragraph form.

The Yorkshire Terrier

The Yorkshire Terrier is descended from various breeds of terriers and its origin is believed
to be in Glasgow, Scotland. These terriers were later crossed with other breeds, including the
Maltese.

In 1886 the breed was officially named by the Kennel Club (UK) and its first standard was
published in 1898. The Yorkie was originally used to keep mines clear of rats and as a
hunting dog to unearth prey. They were taken down the mines in baskets and some owners
claim that their Yorkies still enjoy being carried around in baskets. In later years the breed
became a fashionable pet when it was promoted in the USA and Europe where it was bred for
decreased size beginning in 1930. The Yorkie now is reputed to be the most popular
miniature breed in the world.

The lively, brave Yorkie is impulsive and strong-willed. With his dominant personality the
Yorkie will not hesitate to attack other dogs, even larger ones. Gentle and consistent training
is required. The Yorkie is well-suited to indoor living but requires exercise, daily brushing
and combing. It should also be professionally groomed once a month. The Yorkshire Terrier
is typically about 20cm at adult age and can weigh up to 5.2 kg. The have rather small and
flat heads with a muzzle that is not too long and medium-sized eyes with dark rings. Their
bodies are compact and stocky with an elegant neck. The most unique feature of the
Yorkshire Terrier is its long, rich golden coat that falls perfectly straight on each side of the
body and has a fine, silky texture. The Yorkie is rare in that it does not moult; its hair grow
continuously.

As the Yorkshire Terrier is a very unique breed, it is crucial that it be fed a diet that is
specifically formulated to help build and maintain its glossy coat and protect its very sensitive
skin. It has a very long life expectancy of 14 to 16 years and needs the right balance in its diet
to counter the effects of cell ageing. Special attention should be given to dental care. Yorkies
are delightful dogs to have as pets. Although they have a mind of their own they are
intelligent and lively and are excellent watchdogs who will alert their owners to the slightest
sign of intruders. They are therefore good dogs have inside at night.

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 Punctuation 1
Read the following article and punctuate the article correctly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My big fat Greek Lunch

by shelley seid

this is how the story goes aristotle onassis was in a fancy restaurant having a
good time in his exuberance he knocked over and broke a plate the restaurant
went silent patrons turned to stare onassis being onassis refused to be
intimidate im having a good time he said throwing another plate to the floor
and I can afford it that’s why greeks throw plates said my friend Stavros or so
the legend goes

my attention was firmly fixed on the four buffet tables table one held cold
mezze skordalia taramosalata and hummus there was also haloumi cheese
wrapped in fried aubergine greek salad and pickled octopus the hot mezze sat
on table two and included spanakopitas dolmades and fried calamari no the
purpose of mezze these many little plates of dips and snacks to be shared by all
at the table is to create a convivial atmosphere and to complement the wine
aside from the lam the mains didnt live up to the starters lets not dwell on it i
thought and moved to the desserts buffet desserts are usually a letdown the
always look so pretty but inevitably taste like gelatine and cheap margarine
these desserts were a taste sensation of honey phyllo pastry and nuts the table
groaned with kataifi baklava warm custardy rice pudding mini cheesecakes and
for those with no moral fibre fruit salad and ice cream

as i slouched in my chair a cold and untouched cup of coffee before me i heard

the smash of crockery behind me i turned ready to join in the entertainment
but alas it was only a waiter who had dropped a tray

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 Punctuation 2
Punctuate the following. Insert necessary capitals and set the sentences out in the correct
paragraph form.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a) now pip be careful i will sir i returned don’t commit yourself and dont commit anyone
you understand anyone don’t tell me anything i dont want to know anything i am not
curious i merely want mr jaggers to assure myself what i have been told is true i have
no hope of its being untrue but at least i may verify it but did you say told or informed
told would seem to imply verbal communication you can have verbal communications
with a man in new south wales you know i will say informed mr jaggers

b) stop said mr weller a double glass o the inwariable my dear very well sit they seem to
know your ways here observed sam yes ive been here before in my time go on
Sammy read it lovely creetur taint in poetry is it no no wery glad to it poetrys
unnat’ral no man ever talked poetry cept a beadle on boxing day or some of them
fellows never you let yourself down to talk poetry my boy

141
 Direct and Indirect (Reported) Speech
Turn the following sentences into Indirect/Reported Speech.

1. Tammy said, “We are going shopping for new dresses tomorrow.”
2. “How can you forget to bring your books to school three days in a row, Michael?”
demanded Mrs Le Roux.
3. “Did you hear? Lulu used her last five rand to buy a lotto ticket and won R20 000!”
exclaimed Darren.
4. “We decided yesterday that we are not going to Cape Town next week. The weather
report said that it would be raining the whole time we are there.”
5. The guide carefully explained, “Remember that when you go down the side of the
river to keep an eye out for crocodiles.”

Turn the following passages into Indirect/Reported Speech.

1. Mr Collins said, “My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for
every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony
in his parish. Secondly, that I am convinced it will add very greatly to my happiness;
and thirdly – which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that is it is the
particular advice and recommendation of the vey noble lady whom I have the honour
of calling patroness. Twice has she condescended to give me her opinion (unasked
too!) on this subject; and it was but the very Saturday night before I left Hunsford –
between our pools at quadrille, while Mrs Jenkinson was arranging Miss de Bourgh’s
foot-stool, that she said, ‘Mr Collins, you must marry. A clergyman like you must
marry. Choose properly, choose a gentlewoman for my sake; and for your own, This
is my advice’.”

2. “There is no such thing as a treacle well!” Alice was beginning very angrily, but the
Hatter and the March Hare went “Sh! Sh!” and the Dormouse sulkily remarked, “If
you can’t be civil, you’d better finish the story yourself.”
“No, please go on!” Alice said very humbly; “I won’t interrupt you again. I daresay
there may be one.”
“One, indeed!” said the Dormouse indignantly. However he consented to go on. “And
so these three little sisters – they were learning to draw, you know…”
“What did they draw?” said Alice, quite forgetting her promise.
“Treacle,” said the Dormouse, without considering at all this time.
“I want a clean cup,” interrupted the Hatter; “Let’s all move one place up.”

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 Active and Passive Voice
Change the following sentences into the PASSIVE VOICE.

1. Children of all ages are playing video games.

2. Video games explore and create whole new worlds.
3. Tom Chatfield wrote a book on games.
4. Teenagers especially have participated in various video games.
5. He advises parents to buy educational games like Sim City.
6. 350-million people worldwide are playing computer games.
7. Youngsters will require more and more electronic toys.
8. He says the games instinct is part of our genetic structure.
9. The game Myst has enthralled her for hours on end.
10. Facebook attracts even mature people who play Farmville.

Change the following sentences into the ACTIVE VOICE.

1. The answer was known by half the audience.

2. The bags were searched by the retired policeman.
3. String is sold by most hardware shops.
4. Many mistakes are made by people in a panic.
5. The task force has been reactivated by the police commissioner.
6. The production will be directed by Mr Krebble.
7. The letter was written by my aunt.
8. That huge and delicious meal was cooked by my little sister!
9. Avatar was directed by James Cameron.
10. The answer will be given by the detective on the case.

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 Vocabulary 1
Insert the correct word of the pair in each of the sentences below. You may have to change
the form of the word.
Then write a new sentence with the word you didn’t use to clearly indicate the meaning.

1. He was not (adverse/averse) to heling me with my work.

2. Thank you for your (advice/advise).
3. The (effect/affect) of the credit crunch is already being felt.
4. Stand (after/behind) your desks.
5. The (amount/number) of eggs we buy has increased.
6. He (avenged/revenged) his daughter’s death.
7. He is a (border/boarder) at the main school hostel.
8. They were (canvass/canvas) during the recent elections.
9. At Christmas time you can see a (continuous/continual) stream of cars along the
street.
10. He (device/devise) a plan to join his friends.
11. There is a far more (economic/economical) method of baking that cake.
12. His (elusion/illusion) of the police was widely reported in the papers.
13. We put the letter in the (envelop/envelope).
14. Please (accept/except) my gift.
15. I have (implicit/explicit) faith in your abilities.
16. We were amazed at his (ingenious/ingenuous) method of getting into the house.
17. The (lightening/lighting) flashed in the sky during the storm.
18. Your method is not (quite/quiet) correct.
19. The fire (raised/razed) the building to the ground.
20. They attended the (practice/practise).

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 Vocabulary 2
The following foreign expressions are often used in English. Show their meaning by using
them in a sentence.

1. a la carte
2. bona fide
3. faux pas
4. naiveté
5. per capita
6. sub judice
7. debut
8. apropos
9. esprit de corps
10. hors d’oeuvre
11. née
12. persona non grata
13. subpoena
14. nouveaux riches
15. au fait
16. ex-officio
17. in camera
18. par excellence
19. pro rata
20. verbatim
21. protégé

145
 Comprehension 1
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

From then on it was stepped up. There was a brisk, if on-sided, engagement in High Street
next morning. Miss Dotherby, who comes of one of Westwich’s most respected families, was
outraged in every lifelong principle by the appearance of four mop-headed girls who stood
giggling on the corner of Northgate. Once she had retracted her umbrella as if it had been her
grandfather’s sword, and advanced. She sailed through them, smiting right and left – and
when she turned round they were laughing at her. She swiped wildly through them again, and
they kept on laughing. Then she started babbling, so someone called an ambulance to take her
away.

By the end of the day the town was full of mothers crying shame and men looking staggered,
and the Town Clerk and the police were snowed under with demands for somebody to do
something about it.

The trouble seemed to come thickest in the district that Jimmy had originally marked out.
You could meet them elsewhere, but in that area you couldn’t help encountering gangs of
them, the men in coloured shirts, the girls with their amazing hair-do’s, and even more
amazing decorations on their shirts, sauntering arm-in-arm out of the walls, and wandering
idifferently through cars and people alike. They’d pause anywhere to point things out to one
another and go off into helpless roars of silent laughter. What tickled them most was when
people got angry with them. They’d make signs and faces at the stuffier sort until they got
them tearing mad – and the madder, the funnier. They ambled as the spirit took them, through
shops and banks, and offices, and homes, without a care for the raging occupants. Everybody
started putting up ‘Keep Out’ signs that mused them a lot, too.

It didn’t seem as if you could be free of them anywhere in the central area though they
appeared to be operating on levels that weren’t always the same as ours. In some places they
did have the look of walking on the ground or floor, but elsewhere they’d be inches above it,
and then in some places you would encounter moving along as though they could no more
hear us than we could hear them, so that there was no use appealing to them or threatening
them in that way, and none of the notices that people put up seemed to anything but whet
their curiosity.

The Seeds of Time – John Wyndham

1. Indicate three ways in which the men in coloured shirts and the girls in their amazing
hair-do’s were unusual.
2. What do you think these people were?
3. What was their attitude towards the people around them?
4. Explain why the engagement mentioned in the first paragraph was one-sided.
5. Comment on the significance of the following words:
a. Engagement
b. Retracted
c. Swiped
6. Give the meaning of each of the following phrases as used in the passage above.
a. outraged in every lifelong principle

146
 b. as the spirit took them
c. whet their curiosity
7. Comment on the implied comparisons in each of the following,
a. mop-headed
b. snowed under
8. What is meant by Miss Dotherby gripping her umbrella as if it had been her
grandfather’s sword?
9. Give the denotation and connotation of to take her away.
10. Why has the author chosen the surname Dotherby in preference to Smith, for
example?
11. Explain carefully why the people reacted as they did in paragraph 2.
12. Why do you think Jimmy marked out the district?
13. Name two major difficulties that the authorities and the individual people were
experiencing in reasoning with these people in attempting to keep them under control.
14. Name one author, besides John Wyndham, who writes science fiction.
15. What are three major characteristics of science fiction?

147
 Comprehension 2
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow

Livia’s friend and physician Eudemus, who often visited her on the pretext of giving her
medical treatment, was initiated into the secret. To reassure his female accomplice, Seianus
drove his wife Apicata, who had borne him three children out of his house. All was now
agreed between the conspirators and everything had been carefully planned. But the enormity
of their intended crime perturbed them, and they postponed it.

Drusus often complained about Seianus, both to the Senate and his father. He pointed out hat
while he, the Emperor’s own son, was there, the Emperor’s chief adviser and right-hand man
was at stranger. Before they knew it, Seianus would be co-regent. Admittedly, the first steps
to the throne were steep but, once they were past, friends and helpers would always be to
hand. They could only ask the gods to take this fellow Seianus down a peg. Such was the gist
of Drusus’ remarks.

Seianus was afraid now. There was no time to be lost. He had received accounts of what
Drusus was saying about him in private from the unfaithful Livia, and he could hardly wait to
get the murder over. He ordered a poison to be prepared, something very slow-acting which
would bring on the symptoms of a normal illness.

The poison was administered to Drusus by the eunuch Lygdus. Little by little it took effect,
and Drusus became seriously ill.

Emperor Tiberius continues to attend the Senate daily. Perhaps he was indifferent to his son’s
illness, or p[perhaps he merely want to exhibit his transcendence over family worries. Drusus
died, and Tiberius still continues to attend the Senate. When the senators tried to offer their
condolences he reminded them of their dignity. “I may be reproached for appearing before
the Senate so recently bereaved,” he declared, “but my devotion to the State has lent me
strength and consolation.” Was his grief genuine? We do not know.

As long as Drusus was alive, things were not too bad. Seianus did not dare to do all he had in
mind. He took care to justify his measures to the Emperor because he was afraid of Dusus
and knew how sharply he criticised him in his gather’s presence.

But when he saw that Drusus’ murder had passed off unnoticed and relatively unmourned,
Seianus began to think out ways of eliminating the remaining heirs to the throne. There were
the sons and Germanics, Tiberius’ nephew, and their right of succession was indisputable.
Since it was impracticable to kill off three people ‘just like that’, Seianus began to spread
slanderous stories about them and simultaneously organised an insidious whispering-
campaign against their mither Agrippina. His intrigues were highly successful.

Meanwhile, Livia had become impatient and was demanding that Seianus should marry her
as he had promised. Seianus obediently went to the Emperor and asked for Livia’s hand in
marriage. The Emperor refused his request in a letter as polite as it was devious.

Seianus then hit up on the idea of persuading the Emperor to leave Rome. He believed that
Tiberius would find the privacy of new surrounding so congenial that would leave him,

148
Seianus, free to conduct affairs of State in his own sweet way. He therefore outlined to the
Emperor the advantages of peace and privacy.

Tiberius fell for the suggestion. He went to Capri and lived on that beautiful, peaceful island
for eleven years, until his death. Only twice during this period did he travel to the mainland,
and even then dared not enter Rome, but skulked in its vicinity. People scared him enough
individually, let alone in the mass.

Power and Folly – Ivar Lissner

1. Name the conspirators.

2. How could Seianus reassure his female accomplice by driving his wife out of the
house?
3. the first steps to the throne were steep
a. For whom?
b. What is the meaning of this phrase?
c. Comment on the effectiveness of steep.
4. once they were past, friends and helpers would always be to hand
a. To do what?
b. For whom?
5. What advice did Drusus give for coping Seianus?
6. What does this advice tell us about Drusus’ attitude towards Seianus?
7. In your own words, describe the possible attitude of Tiberius towards the death of his
son.
8. In your own words, describe Seianus’ attitudes and approach towards his future while
Drusus was alive.
9. What was Seianus’ major aim and how was it realised?
10. Say in your own words how Seianus eliminated the remaining heirs to the throne after
the death of Drusus.
11. Explain the meaning of the following phrases as used in the passage.
a. relatively unmourned
b. as polite as it was devious
12. Tiberius skulked in its vicinity
a. Why did he skulk in its vicinity and not go into Rome?
b. Why has the author used the word skulk?
13. Why was Drusus given a slow-acting poison and not one that would have killed him
immediately?
14. conduct affairs in his own sweet way
a. What is the tone of sweet in this context? Give a reason for your answer.
15. Name Tiberius’s predecessor.

149
 Comprehension 3
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

Concussions are brain injuries that occur when a person receives a blow to the head, face, or
neck. Although most people who suffer a concussion experience initial bouts of dizziness,
nausea, and drowsiness, these symptoms often disappear after a few days. The long-term
effects of concussions, however, are less understood and far more severe. Recent studies
suggest that people who suffer multiple concussions are at a significant risk for developing
chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disorder that causes a variety
of dangerous mental and emotional problems to arise weeks, months, or even years after the
initial injury. These psychological problems can include depression, anxiety, memory loss,
inability to concentrate, and aggression. In extreme cases, people suffering from CTE have
even committed suicide or homicide. The majority of people who develop these issues are
athletes who participate in popular high-impact sports, especially football. Although both
new sports regulations and improvements in helmet technology can help protect players, the
sports media and fans alike bear some of the responsibility for reducing the incidence of these
devastating injuries.

Improvements in diagnostic technology have provided substantial evidence to link severe—

and often fatal—psychological disorders to the head injuries players receive while on the
field. Recent autopsies performed on the brains of football players who have committed
suicide have shown advanced cases of CTE in every single victim.

In response to the growing understanding of this danger, the National Football League (NFL)
has revised its safety regulations. Players who have suffered a head injury on the field must
undergo a "concussion sideline assessment"—a series of mental and physical fitness tests—
before being allowed back in the game. In an effort to diminish the amount of head and neck
injuries on the field, NFL officials have begun enforcing stricter penalty calls for helmet-to-
helmet contact, leading with the head, and hitting a defenceless player. Furthermore, as of
2010, if a player’s helmet is accidentally wrenched from his head during play, the ball is
immediately whistled dead. There is hope that these new regulations, coupled with advances
in helmet design, will reduce the number of concussions player endure, and thus curb the
number of CTE cases.

Efforts by the NFL and other professional sports leagues are certainly laudable; indeed, we
should commend every attempt to protect the mental and physical health of players.
However, new regulations at the professional level cannot protect amateur players, especially
young people. Fatal cases of CTE have been reported in victims as young as 21. With
appropriate equipment and form, tackling need not be dangerous. Proper tackling form—
using the arms and shoulders to aim for a player’s midsection rather than leading with the top
of the head—should be taught at an early age. Youth, high school, and college leagues should
also adopt safety rules even more stringent that the NFL’s. Furthermore, at an early age,
athletes should be educated about the serious dangers of head injuries.

Perhaps the most important factor in reducing the number of traumatic brain injuries,
however, lies not with the players, the coaches, or the administrators, but with the media and
fans. Sports media producers have become accustomed to showcasing the most aggressive

150
tackles and the most intense plays. NFL broadcasts often replay especially violent collisions,
while the commentators marvel at the physical prowess of the players involved. Some sports
programs even feature weekly countdowns of the hardest hits. When the media exalts such
hazardous behaviour, professionals are rewarded for injuring each other on the field, and
amateurs become more likely to try to imitate their favourite NFL athletes. Announcers,
commentators, television producers, and sportswriters should engage in a collective effort to
cease glorifying brutal plays. In turn, fans should stop expecting their favourite players to put
their lives on the line for the purposes of entertainment. Players must stop being encouraged
to trade their careers, health, happiness, and their lives for the sake of a game.

1) The author apparently believes that

A. NFL officials have not thoroughly implemented stricter safety
regulations
B. doctors need to do more research about the potential long-term effects
of CTE
C. amateur athletes suffer more serious long-term effects of CTE than
professional athletes
D. fans share some of the blame for athletes’ injuries
E. young people should not be encouraged to play football due to CTE
risks

2) According to the author, each of the following statements are true EXCEPT which
one?
A. Tackling itself is not dangerous; however, players who use improper
tackling form may suffer injury.
B. Scientists have established a link between players who shoot
themselves and others and the onset of CTE. C. NFL officials have
done nothing to address the problem of CTE.
D. Athletes who are praised for exceptionally brutal hits are likely to
continue engaging in such dangerous behaviour.
E. Sports programs showcase exceptionally hard hits.

3) According to the author, which of the following contribute(s) to an increase in

incidences of CTE in amateur players?
I. fewer safety regulations than professional players
II. a lack of education geared to youth players about the dangers of head injuries
III. a desire to emulate professionals
A. I only
B. II only
C. I and II only
D. II and III only
E. I, II, and III

4) As used in paragraph 4, which is the best synonym for laudable?

A. praiseworthy
B. ineffective
C. determined
D. blameworthy
E. satisfactory

151
5) The author’s tone in the final paragraph can best be described as
A. apologetic
B. depressed
C. confused
D. solemn
E. hopeless

6) As used in the final paragraph, which is the best antonym for exalts?
A. ignores
B. misrepresents
C. praises
D. reports
E. criticizes

7) In the final paragraph, the author writes, “Players must stop being encouraged to trade
their careers, health, happiness, and their lives for the sake of a game.” Which of the
following literary devices is used in this quotation?
A. Irony, characterized by the expression of something which is contrary
to the intended meaning.
B. Climax, characterized by the arrangement of words, phrases, or causes
in an order of ascending power.
C. Litotes, characterized by the expression of understatement used for
intensification of a rhetorical purpose.
D. Hyperbole, characterized by the use of exaggeration for emphasis or
rhetorical effect.
E. Apostrophe, characterized by a sudden turn from addressing the
general audience to addressing a specific person, group, or personified
abstraction.

8) Based on the information in the passage, explain CTE in your own words. What does
it stand for? How does it occur? Whom does it normally affect? What are its effects?

9) What is your opinion of the NFL’s new safety regulations? Do you think they are too
strict, not strict enough, or just right? Why? What would change about the new rules,
if anything? Explain.

10) Because of the health risks associated with concussions, injuries, and CTE, many
parents are starting to forbid their children from participating in high-risk sports such
as football. What do you think of these parents’ decisions, given what you have just
read? Have your parents encouraged you not to participate in such sports? What
decisions do you think you would make if your own children wanted to play football
one day? Why?

11) What do you think is the most important factor in reducing brain injuries and CTE in
sports? Do you think, as the author does, that sports culture needs to change? Are new
safety rules sufficient? Why?

152
 Visual Literacy – Cartoon Analysis

Visual symbols and metaphors

A visual symbol in a cartoon is any image that stands for some other thing, event, person,
abstract idea or trend in the news. For example, a dollar sign may stand for the entire
economy. An octopus may stand for a powerful corporation with “tentacles” controlling
many other institutions.

Metaphors are like symbols in that they describe one thing as something else entirely.
Shakespeare used a metaphor when he wrote “All the world’s a stage.” (A cartoon would
simply show the world as a stage.)

Begin any cartoon analysis by describing all the details in it that are symbols and metaphors.

Visual distortion
Changes or exaggerations in size, shape, emotions or gestures often add extra meaning to the
symbols the cartoon includes. For example, a dragon is often used as a symbol for China. But
a huge, snorting dragon will make a different point about China from a tired, limping, meek
dragon. Every detail in a cartoon, especially one that is distorted in some way, is likely to be
a part of the cartoon’s meaning.

Identify the cartoon’s symbols and notice how they are drawn.

Irony in words and images

Irony is a form of humour in which something is said in a way that undercuts or mocks its
own apparent meaning. In other words, what is said seems to mean one thing, but it will be
taken to mean the opposite. Irony is well suited to political cartoons, which often seek to
mock something and show how false, unfair or dangerous it is. Irony always entails a
contradiction. Often, an amusing image undercuts and reverses the meaning of the words in a
caption. Sometimes, however, the image alone conveys the double meaning.

Consider whether irony is used and if so, how?

Stereotypes and caricature

A stereotype is a vastly oversimplified view of some group. Stereotypes are often insulting.
Yet they may give cartoons a shorthand way to make a complex point quickly. They also
reveal broad cultural attitudes. Caricature is the opposite of a stereotype. It is an exaggerated
or distorted drawing of an individual highlighting what the artist sees as most unique about
that individual. You should be critical of cartoon stereotyping, yet also notice how it
contributes to making a point dramatically and forcefully. If there are stereotypes in the
cartoon you are analysing, how would you evaluate them?

Identify any stereotypes and caricatures and consider what they communicate.

An argument not a slogan

Slogans merely assert something. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” A good editorial
cartoon is more than a slogan. Though blunt and opinionated, it actually invites you to
consider its argument or its reasoning. At its best, a cartoon offers visual and written features
that together “make its case.” In other words, it presents reasons to support its view, or at

153
least it hints at or suggests those reasons. So even though it is biased, the cartoon gives you
grounds for responding and even arguing back.

Consider what features of the cartoon help present its argument or make its case.

The uses and misuses of political cartoons

Editorial cartoons may be funny, outrageous, even insulting. Yet above all, their aim is to
provoke thought about some issue in the news. They cannot be taken as simple reflections of
“the way things were.” Yet that is a common misuse of them. They reveal cultural
assumptions, prevailing moods, even real insights about events and trends. They can be used
as evidence of all these things.

Political cartoons always represent points of view that can be challenged.

154
 Cartoons 1
Analyse each of the following cartoons. In your analysis be certain to mention the following
aspects:
 Context of the cartoon
 Use of visual elements
 Wording and language
Once you have analysed all three aspects, explain how the elements work together to convey
the intended message of the cartoon.

1.

2.

155
3.

4.

156
 Cartoons 2
Examine the following cartoon then answer the questions that follow.

1. List the objects or people you see in the cartoon.

2. Identify the cartoon caption and/or title.
3. Locate three words or phrases used by the cartoonist to identify objects or people
within the cartoon.
4. Record any important dates or numbers that appear in the cartoon.
5. Which of the objects on your list are symbols?
6. What do you think each symbol means?
7. Which words or phrases in the cartoon appear to be the most significant? Why do you
think so?
8. List adjectives that describe the emotions portrayed in the cartoon.
9. Describe the action taking place in the cartoon.
10. Explain how the words in the cartoon clarify the symbols.
11. Explain the message of the cartoon.
12. What special interest groups would agree/disagree with the cartoon's message? Why?

157
158
JUNE PAPER 1

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. This paper consists of THREE SECTIONS

Section A: Comprehension (30 marks)
Section B: Summary (10marks)
Section C: Language in context (30 marks)
2. Answer ALL the questions

3. Start EACH section on a NEW page.

4. Rule off after each section.

5. Number the answers correctly according to the numbering system used in this

question paper.

6. Leave a line after each answer.

7. Pay special attention to spelling and sentence construction.

8. Use the following time frames as a guideline:

Section A: 50 minutes
Section B : 25 minutes
Section C: 45 minutes

10. Write neatly and legibly.

11. Please follow basic language conventions relating to punctuation, spelling and
expression.

12. Good Luck!

159
SECTION A: COMPREHENSION

QUESTION 1

Read Texts A and B below and answer the questions which follow.

TEXT A:
Argonne invents reusable sponge that soaks up oil, could revolutionize
spill cleanup

Foam called Oleo Sponge pulls dispersed oil from water, including below the
surface.

Argonne News Brief: Oleo Sponge soaks up oil spills from water
By Louise Lerner
March 7, 2017

When the Deepwater Horizon drilling pipe blew out seven years ago,
beginning the worst oil spill in U.S. history, those in charge of the recovery
discovered a new wrinkle: The millions of gallons of oil bubbling from the sea
floor weren’t all collecting on the surface, where it could be skimmed or
burned. Some of it was forming a *plume and drifting through the water under 5
the surface.

Now scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have invented a new foam,

called Oleo Sponge, that addresses this problem. The material not only easily
absorbs oil from water, but is also reusable and can pull dispersed oil from the
entire water column—not just the surface.
10
“The Oleo Sponge offers a set of possibilities that, as far as we know, are
*unprecedented,” said co-inventor Seth Darling, a scientist with
Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials and a fellow of the University of
Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering. “We already have a library of
molecules that can grab oil, but the problem is how to get them into a useful 15
structure and bind them there permanently.”

The scientists started out with common *polyurethane foam, used in

everything from furniture cushions to home insulation. This foam has lots of
nooks and crannies, like an English muffin, which could provide ample surface
area to grab oil; but they needed to give the foam a new surface chemistry in 20
order to firmly attach the oil-loving molecules.

Previously, Darling and fellow Argonne chemist Jeff Elam had developed a
technique called sequential infiltration synthesis, or SIS, which can be used to
infuse hard metal oxide atoms within complicated nanostructures.

After some trial and error, they found a way to adapt the technique to grow an 25
extremely thin layer of metal oxide “primer” near the foam’s interior surfaces.
This serves as the perfect glue for attaching the oil-loving molecules, which

160
are deposited in a second step; they hold onto the metal oxide layer with one
end and reach out to grab oil molecules with the other.

The result is Oleo Sponge, a block of foam that easily adsorbs oil from the 30
water. The material, which looks a bit like an outdoor seat cushion, can be
wrung out to be reused—and the oil itself recovered.

Flexible technique easily adaptable

At tests at a giant seawater tank in New Jersey called Ohmsett, the National
Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility, the Oleo 35
Sponge successfully collected diesel and crude oil from both below and on the
water surface.

“The material is extremely sturdy. We’ve run dozens to hundreds of tests,

wringing it out each time, and we have yet to see it break down at all,” Darling
said.
40
Oleo Sponge could potentially also be used routinely to clean harbors and
ports, where diesel and oil tend to accumulate from ship traffic, said John
Harvey, a business development executive with Argonne’s Technology
Development and Commercialization division.

Elam, Darling and the rest of the team are continuing to develop the 45
technology.
“The technique offers enormous flexibility, and can be adapted to other types
of cleanup besides oil in seawater. You could attach a different molecule to
grab any specific substance you need,” Elam said.

The team is actively looking to commercialize the material, Harvey said. 50

Those interested in licensing the technology or collaborating with the
laboratory on further development may contact partners@anl.gov.

Argonne scientists Anil Mane, Joseph Libera and postdoctoral researcher

Edward Barry also contributed to the development of the Oleo Sponge.
Preliminary results were published in a study in the Journal of Materials
Chemistry A.

(Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2123391-sponge-can-soak-up-
and-release-spilled-oil-hundreds-of-times/)

Glossary

Plume: A mass of material, typically a pollutant, spreading from a

source.
Unprecedented: Never known or done before.
Polyurethane: A polymer composed of organic units joined by carbamate links.

161
TEXT B

1 2 3

QUESTIONS: TEXT A

1.1. What was the biggest problem discovered with the Deepwater Horizon
oil spill. (2)

1.2. Identify TWO ways in which oil is removed from the surface of the
ocean. (2)

1.3. Summarise the main idea of Text A above. (2)

1.4. Refer to line 16, ‘The scientists started out with common polyurethane
foam’.
1.4.1. State what the word ‘foam’ means. (2)
1.4.2. Explain why the concept of foam is so important in this study. (2)

1.5. Refer to lines 30 and 31, “The material, which... oil itself recovered.’
Explain what effect recovering oil will have on the environment. (2)

1.6. Refer to line 26, ‘This serves as the perfect glue for attaching the oil-
loving molecules’.
1.6.1. Account for the use of the hyphen in this sentence. (2)
1.6.2. Comment on the effectiveness of the hyphen in the context that it is (2)
used.

1.7. What effect will the Oleo Sponge have on the environment? (2)
1.8. Do you believe that the Oleo Sponge will be beneficial to human beings?
Discuss your answer. (2)

162
QUESTIONS: TEXT B

1.9. How do Mr Burns and his assistant get rid of the nuclear waste?
(2)

1.10. By focusing on the old man’s response in frames 2 and 3 discuss his (2)
logic.

1.11. Refer to the other man’s facial expressions in frames 2 and 3.

1.11.1. Identify the emotion conveyed by him in the cartoon. (1)
1.11.2. Show how this emotion is conveyed by referring to non-verbal clues. (2)

QUESTIONS: TEXT A and B

1.12. Do the actions of the individuals in Text B support the writer’s view as
expressed in Text A? Justify your response. (3)

TOTAL SECTION A: 30

SECTION B: SUMMARY

Question 2: Summarising in your own words.

Carefully read Text C below. It is an article on the effect of music on the brain.

NOTE:

1. Summarise in your own words, what the smart jacket is and how it will
work.
2. Your summary should include SEVEN points and not exceed 90 words.
3. Your summary must be in paragraph form.
4. You are NOT required to include a title for the summary.
5. Indicate your word count at the end of your summary.

163
TEXT C:

All in the Wrist: Smart Jacket Houses Touch-Screen Tech

By Kacey Deamer, Staff Writer | March 13, 2017 02:30pm ET

The jean jacket is getting a 21st-century upgrade: Levi's and Google are
planning to launch a new "smart" jacket later this year, according to news
reports.

The companies' so-called Project Jacquard was first announced in June 2015
as a line of "connected" clothing that would interact with wearers' 5
smartphones, reported Tech Times. The so-called Commuter Jacket was
unveiled in May 2016, and Levi's and Google revealed more details about the
smart jacket project this weekend at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival,
Tech Times said. The companies said the jacket will cost $350 and will be
available this fall. 10

The garment can interact with a person's smartphone via Bluetooth

technology. Conductive fabric on the connected jacket's wrist acts as a control
panel for the wearer's smartphone.

In a video about Project Jacquard, Ivan Poupyrev, technical program lead at

Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, explained how 15
the jacket works. Conductive threads have replaced some of a textile's
original threads, so the woven-in technology can recognize simple touch
gestures — similar to what a touch screen does, Poupyrev said.

"The tech is becoming a design element like a zipper, so it can be used in

many normal ways," Poupyrev said during the SXSW presentation, reported 20
Ars Technica. "I believe this is going to be the first commercial product which
takes the touch interaction of the screen and puts it on an actual product."

Wearers can use the smart jacket to answer incoming calls, change music or
get directions, said a promotional video made by Levi's. The Bluetooth device
is attached to the garment as a cuff and connects the 15 conductive threads 25
to the wearer's smartphone; batteries for the device are designed to last about
two days, reported Engadget.

Other than the conductive fabric and Bluetooth cuff, the jacket looks like a
standard denim Levi's piece. It's even washable, Engadget said, as long as
the Bluetooth cuff isn't attached. 30

(Source: http://www.livescience.com/58239-google-levis-to-release-smart-
jean-jacket.html)

TOTAL SECTION B: 10

164
SECTION C: LANGUAGE IN CONTEXT:

Question 3: Advertising:

Study the advertisement (Text D) below and answer the questions that follow.

TEXT D:

WELCOME TO CHICAGO.
FIND YOUR WAY TO BOOTH
220.728.08.329 AND I’LL DO
A FEW OF MY FAVORITE
NUMBERS FOR YOU.

When’s the last time you came across a brand in the category with 33% better unaided
business machine that gets people more excited brand awareness than our nearest competitor.
than a trip to Acapulco or a color TV? So it’s a great incentive for top achievers.
Personal computers are the hottest products But it’s also a powerful tool to help them
of the year, and Apples are the hottest personal achieve even more. An Apple speeds routine
computers. business tasks and helps make better decisions,
Because there are more ready-to-use faster. Which turns a great prize into a grand
programs for Apples than any other personal prize – increased productivity.
computer you can buy. Apples can do just about There are more people in more places doing
anything for just about anybody. From playing more things with Apples than any other personal
games to playing the stock market, from plotting computers in the world.
sales to plotting the orbits of electrons. Including motivating people.
Apple is the best-know, most desired The most personal computer.

165
Refer to Text D:

3.1. What service or product is being advertised here? Provide visual clues
to substantiate your answer. (2)

3.2. Show how the advertiser attracts the reader’s attention. Refer to visual
clues given. (2)

3.3. Compare the visual image of the computer to the product advertised in
the text. Comment on the significance of this incompatibility. (3)

3.4. Refer to the statement, ‘Apples make great carrots’.

Explain the pun as used in the context of this advertisement.
(3)

[10]

Question 4: Other Aspects of Media:

Look at the following cartoon (Text E) and answer the questions that follow.

TEXT E:

1 2 3

Refer to Text E:

4.1. Identify the setting of the cartoon. Give a reason for your answer. (2)

4.2. Refer to frame 1, examine the young girl’s facial expression.

What emotion is she expressing? Provide a visual clue. (2)

4.3. Refer to frame 2.

Comment on how the posture of the professor and the young girl coveys
their roles. (3)

4.4. Discuss the stereotypical image conveyed by the cartoonist about

scientists today. (3)

[10]

166
Question 5: Textual Editing:

Read the extract below (Text F), which contains deliberate errors, and answer the
questions that follow.

TEXT F:

No Hands! Gadget Taps Brain

Waves for Netflix Picks
By Kacey Deamer, Staff Writer | February 2, 2017 06:39am ET

1 During a company hackathon, Netflix engineers developed a brain wave
remote for browsing Netflix.

2 Netflix engineers recently developed a mind-control gadget that could use

your brain to help you browse the streaming service.

As part of Netflix’s hackathon in January, which challenged employees to 5

come up with an innovative project in 24 hours that was aimed at
improving the Netflix experience in some way, a group of the company’s
3 engineers made a device that allows viewers to choose what they want to
watch by using their brain waves. The so-called "Mindflix" uses a Muse
headband — a wearable device that measures brain signals — that was 10
designed to help users with mediation. However, engineers hacked the
device so that it could be used for the more forgetful (or lazy) viewer.

In a "commercial" that was produced for the hackathon, the developers

said that their invention could help Netflix users when they lose their
4 remote — or, if the remote is simply too far away. The people in the 15
YouTube video then demonstrait how the "brain wearable" acts as a
remote, with the wearers moving their heads to scroll through Netflix's
offerings.

Mindflix was just one of the projects that was developed during Netflix’s
internal hackathon. In a company blog post, other projects were 20
highlighted, including a "picture in picture" that allows users to see what
other people on their account are watching. Two of the projects were
5 inspired by the hit Netflix-produced series Stranger Things — a
reimagining of the show as a video game, and a Christmas sweater
capable of spelling out messages. One project had a charitable mission, 25
allowing users to donate to organizations that are related to the socially
conscious titles they had watched.

6 While these hacks may be inventive, Netflix said that users may never
see them on offer.

"While we’re excited about the creativity and thought put into these hacks, 30
they may never become part of the Netflix product, internal infrastructure,
7 or otherwise be used beyond Hack Day," company officials wrote in the

167
 blog post. "We are posting them here publicly to share the spirit of the
event and our culture of innovation."
35
However, some previous projects have seen the light of day. Engineers
8 first developed a virtual-reality app concept during a Hack Day in 2014,
using an Oculus Rift to put users in a 3D-room-version of the streaming
service's interface. Netflix now offers users a similar virtual-reality
watching experience.

(Source: http://www.livescience.com/57730-netflix-hackathon-mind-
control.html)

Refer to Text F

5.1. Refer to lines 5 to 6, ‘As part of... in 24 hours’.

What does the word ‘innovative’ mean within the context of this
sentence? (1)

5.2. Refer to paragraph 3.

5.2.1. Account for the use of dashes in this paragraph. (1)
5.2.2. Give the noun form of the word ‘designed’. (1)
5.2.3. Identify the malapropism in these lines. (1)

5.3. Refer to paragraph 4.

Identify and correct the spelling error in this paragraph. (1)

5.4. Refer to lines 22 to 23, ‘Two of the... series Stranger Things’.

Why are the words, ‘Stranger Things’ written in italics? (1)

5.5. Refer to line 25 to 27, ‘One project had... they had watched’.
Provide a synonym for the word ‘conscious’.

5.6. Refer to lines 28 to 29, ‘While these hacks... them on offer’.

Identify the type of sentence and give a reason for your answer. (2)

5.7. Refer to lines 3 to 4, ‘Netflix engineers recently developed a mind-

control gadget’.
Rewrite the sentence in the passive voice. (1)

[10]

TOTAL SECTION C: 30

GRAND TOTAL: 70

168
JUNE PAPER 2

INSTRUCTIONS AND INFORMATION

1. Read these instructions carefully before you begin to answer the questions.
2. This question paper consists of THREE sections
 SECTION A: Poetry (30 marks)
 SECTION B: Novel (25 marks)
 SECTION C: Drama (25 marks)
3. Answer FIVE QUESTIONS in all: THREE in Section A, ONE in Section B and
ONE in Section C as follows:
 SECTION A: POETRY
Unseen poem – COMPULSORY question.
Seen poem – Answer TWO questions.
 SECTION B: NOVEL
Answer ONE question (either the essay question or the contextual
questions)
 SECTION C: DRAMA
Answer ONE question (either the essay question or the contextual
questions BUT if you answered the essay question for the novel you
must answer the contextual questions for the drama and vice versa)

4. CHOICE OF ANSWERS FOR SECTIONS B (NOVEL) AND C (DRAMA)

 Answer ONE ESSAY QUESTION AND ONE CONTEXTUAL
QUESTION. If you answer the essay question in Section B, you must
answer the contextual question in Section C. If you answer the
contextual question in Section B, you must answer the essay question
in Section C.

5. LENGTH OF ANSWERS
 Essay questions on Poetry should be answered in about 150-200
words.
 Essay questions on the Novel and Drama should be answered in 300 –
350 words.
 The length of answers of contextual questions should be determined by
the mark allocation.
 Candidates should aim for conciseness and relevance.
6. Follow the instructions at the beginning of each section carefully.
7. Number your answers correctly according to the numbering system used in
this question paper.
8. Start EACH section on a NEW page.
9. Suggested time management
 SECTION A: approximately 40 minutes
 SECTION B: approximately 40 minutes
 SECTION C: approximately 40 minutes
10. Write neatly and legibly.

169
SECTION A: POETRY

NOTE: Answer questions to any TWO poems

You may answer either an essay and contextual questions, or two contextual
questions.

POEM 1: ESSAY QUESTION

Da Same Da Same
By Sipho Sepamla

I doesn’t care of you black

I doesn’t care of you white
I doesn’t care of you India
I doesn’t care of you kleeling
if sometimes you Saus Afrika 5
you gotta big terrible terrible
somewheres in yourselves
because why
for sure you doesn’t look anader man in da eye

I mean for sure now 10

all da peoples is make like God
sometimes you wanna knows how I meaning for
is simples
da God I knows for sure
He make avarybudy wit’ one heart 15

For sure now dis heart go-go da same

dats for meaning to say
one man no diflent to anader
so now
you see a big terrible terrible stand here 20
how one make make anader man feel
da pain he doesn’t feel hisself
for sure now dats da whole point

sometime you wanna know how I meaning for

is simples 25
when da nail of da t’orn tree
scratch little bit little bit of da skin
I doesn’t care of say black
I doesn’t care of say white
I doesn’t care of say India 30
I doesn’t care of say kleeling

I mean for sure da skin

only one t’ing come for sure
and da one t’ing for sure is red blood
dats for sure da same da same 35

170
for avarybudy
(Adapted from: Poems from all over by Rustum Kozain)

QUESTION 1
Da Same Da Same by Sipho Sepamla expresses that at the core, all
humans are the same – we all feel pain, have the same basic desires and
bleed red blood.

With close reference to the structure, diction and imagery used in this
poem, discuss how the speaker conveys the idea that as humans, we are
all the same.

Your essay should be between 200-250 words (1-1½ pages) in length.

[10]

171
QUESTION 2: SEEN POETRY

POEM 2: CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS

Eating poetry
by Mark Strand

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.

There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.
The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad 5
and she walks with her hands in her dress.
The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.
Their eyeballs roll, 10
Their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.
She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams. 15
I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.
(Adapted from: Poems from all over by Rustum Kozain)

QUESTION 2

2.1. Refer to the poem as a whole.

2.1.1. Identify the setting of the poem. Give a reason for your answer. (2)

2.2. Refer to line 4, ‘The librarian does not believe what she sees.’
Describe what the librarian must be feeling in this line. (2)

2.3. Refer to line 9, ‘The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.’
Explain what the figurative meaning of this sentence is. (2)

2.4. Refer to line 13, ‘She does not understand.’

What is the intention of the speaker in saying these words? (2)

2.5. Is it justifiable to say that one person’s happiness may be another’s

waking nightmare? Substantiate your answer based on the content of (2)
the poem.

[10]

172
POEM 3: CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

by Robert Frost

As virtuous men pass mildly away,

And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
The breath goes now, and some say, No:

So let us melt, and make no noise, 5

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,

Men reckon what it did and meant; 10
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love

(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove 15
Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined

That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss. 20

Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so 25

As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.

And though it in the centre sit,

Yet, when the other far doth roam, 30
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just, 35
And makes me end where I begun.
(Adapted from: Poems from all over by Rustum Kozain)

173
QUESTION 3

3.1. State clearly how the title of the poem is appropriately linked to the
central idea of the poem. (3)

3.2. Refer to lines 23 to 24, ‘A breach, but an... to airy thinness beat’.
Explain the effectiveness of the simile in these lines. (2)

3.3. Refer to lines 25 to 26, ‘If they be two... twin compasses are two.’
Comment on the speaker’s metaphorical meaning of the poem. (2)

3.4. In your view, is the spiritual nature of the love, the speaker
describes, realistic? Substantiate your answer. (3)

[10]

174
POEM 4: CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS

Sedition
by Cecil Rajendra

According to
the shorter
Oxford Dictionary –
Sedition
is: agitation 5
against authority;
conduct, speech
(or literature)
tending to rebellion;
a breach of public order. 10

According to
Received history
poetry
is a fist
in the face 15
of authority;
pugnacious
inflammatory;
a tumult
of words/emotions; 20
an insurrection
In language;
a rage
against night
neatness and order; 25
a fracture
in the establishment;
forever leaning
towards rebellion
revolution et cetera – 30

Ergo, every poem

is a wanton
act of sedition!
(Adapted from: Poems from all over by Rustum Kozain)

QUESTION 4

4.1. State how the title of the poem is related to poetry in general. (3)

4.2. Refer to lines 14 and 15, ‘is a fist/ in the face’.

Comment on the effectiveness of this figure of speech. (2)

175
4.4. Refer to line 30, ‘revolution et cetera -’
What is the intention in the poet’s use of the full word ‘etcetera’ as
opposed to commonly used abbreviation ‘etc.’? (2)

4.5. Critically discuss whether or not you believe poetry can truly provide
anti-establishment comment and express the need for change.
Substantiate your answer. (3)

[10]

176
QUESTION 5: UNSEEN POEM – COMPULSORY

POEM 5: UNSEEN CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS

Read the poem below and answer the questions which follow.

Poem for my Mother

by Jennifer Davids

That isn’t everything, you said

on that afternoon i brought the poem
to you hunched over the washtub
with your hands
the shrivelled 5
burnt granadilla
skin of your hands
covered by foam.

and my words
slid like a ball 10
of hard blue soap
into the tub
to be grabbed and used by you
to rub the clothes

a poem isn’t all 15

there is to life, you said
with your blue-ringed gaze
screaming the page
once looking over my shoulder
and back at the immediate 20
dirty water

and my words
being clenched
smaller and
smaller. 25
(Adapted from: POEMscapes by Robin Malan)

QUESTION 5

5.1. Account for the use of the pronoun ‘i’ in the lower case. (2)

5.2. Refer to lines 15-16: ‘A poem isn’t… life, you said’.

State how these lines reveal the mother’s attitude to the daughter’s
poem. (2)

177
5.3. Refer to lines 22 to 25, ‘and my words… smaller’.
Explain the effectiveness of the image conveyed in these lines. (3)

5.4. Critically discuss your response to the mother’s reaction to the

daughter’s poem. (3)

[10]

TOTAL SECTION A: 30

178
SECTION B: NOVEL “THINGS FALL APART”
Answer EITHER Question 6 (Essay Question) or Question 7 (Contextual Question).

QUESTION 6: Things Fall Apart – Essay Question.

Even though Okonkwo appears to be a harsh and unforgiving father and

husband, there are moments in the first part of the novel where cracks can
be seen in his otherwise unfriendly façade.

In light of the above statement, critically discuss the character of Okonkwo

as he is presented to us in Part One of the novel. Your response should
take the form of a well-constructed essay of 350-400 words.

[25]

OR
QUESTION 7: Things Fall Apart – Contextual Questions.

Read the following extracts and then answer the questions that follow.

EXTRACT A

After the Week of Peace every man and his family began to clear the bush to
make new farms. The cut bush was left to dry and fire was set to it. As the
smoke rose in the sky kites appeared from different directions and hovered
over the burning field in silent valediction. The rainy season was approaching
when they would go away until the dry season returned. 5

Okonkwo spent the next few days preparing his seed yams. He looked at
each yam carefully to see whether it was good for sowing. Sometimes he
decided that a yam was too big to be sown as one seed and split it deftly
along its length with his sharp knife. His eldest son, Nwoye, and Ikemefuna
helped him by fetching the yams in long baskets from the barn and in 10
counting the prepared seeds in groups of four hundred. Sometimes Okonkwo
gave them a few yams each to prepare. But he always found fault with their
effort, and he said so with much threatening.

“Do you think you are cutting up yams for cooking?” he asked Nwoye. “If you
split another yam of this size, I shall break your jaw. You think you are still a 15
child. I began to own a farm at your age.

“And you,” he said to Ikemefuna, “do you not grow yams where you come
from?”

Inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully
the difficult art of preparing seed yams. But he though that one could not 20
begin too early. Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family
on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed.

[CHAPTER 4]

179
QUESTION 7

7.1. Briefly explain how Ikemefuna came to live with Okonkwo. (3)

7.2. Critically discuss the effects that Ikemefuna had on Okonkwo’s

family (3)
while he lived with them.

7.3. Refer to Okonkwo’s words: “I began to own a farm at your age.”

7.3.1. Why did Okonkwo have to start farming at such a young age? (2)
7.3.2. How did this experience affect the way Okonkwo treats his eldest
son, Nwoye? (2)

7.4. Explain the importance and significance of the yam in Igbo culture. (2)

7.5. Do you think the way Okonkwo treats Nwoye and Ikemfuna is
justified? Motivate your answer with reference to events in the (3)
novel.

EXTRACT B

As the men ate and drank palm wine they talked about the customs of their
neighbours.

“It was only this morning,” said Obierika, “that Okonkwo and I were talking
about Abame and Aninta, where titled men climb trees and pound foo-foo for
their wives.” 5

“All their customs are upside-down. They do not decide bride price as we do,
with sticks. They haggle and bargain as if they were buying a goat or a cow
in the market.”

“That is very bad,” said Obierika’s eldest brother. “But what is good in one
place is bad in another place. In Umunso they do not bargain at all, not even 10
with broomsticks. The suitor just goes on bringing bags of cowries until his
in-laws tell him to stop. It is a bad custom because it always leads to a
quarrel.”

“The world is large,” said Okonkwo. “I have even heard that in some tribes a
man’s children belong to his wife and her family.”
15
“That cannot be,” said Machi. “You might as well say that the woman lies on
top of the man when they are making the children.”

“It is like the story of white men who, they say, are white like this piece of
chalk,” said Obierika. He held up a piece of chalk, which every man kept in
his obi and with which his guests drew lines on the floor before they ate kola
nuts. 20

180
“And these white men, they say, have no toes.”

“And have you ever seen them?” asked Machi.

“Have you?” asked Obierika.

“One of them passes here frequently,” said Machi. “His name is Amadi.”

[CHAPTER 8]

7.6. Okonkwo and Obierika are not impressed with the ‘titled men’ of (2)
Abame and Anita. State how this is conveyed in the extract.

7.7. Infer what the men mean when they say that the white men ‘have
no toes’. (line 20) (2)

7.8. Refer to the method each village uses to determine the bride price.
7.8.1. Compare and contrast the way Umoufia determines the bride price
to the other two villages mentioned. (2)
7.8.2. How does this conversation between the men help to support the
author’s theme of different cultures? (2)

7.9. In your opinion, are the men of Umoufia justified in judging the
worth of the other villages based on how they determine the bride (2)
price?

[25]

TOTAL SECTION B: 25

181
SECTION C: DRAMA “MACBETH”

Answer EITHER Question 8 (Essay Question) or Question 9 (Contextual Question).

NB: If you answered the essay question in Section B, you must answer the
contextual question in Section C. If you answered the contextual question in Section
B, you must answer the essay question in Section C.

QUESTION 8: Macbeth – Essay Question.

If the main theme of Macbeth is ambition, whose ambition is the driving

force of the play – Macbeth’s, Lady Macbeth’s or both?

In light of the above question, critically discuss and describe the

relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Your response should take the form of a well-constructed essay of 350-400

words.

[25]

OR

QUESTION 9: Romeo and Juliet – Contextual Questions.

Read the following extracts and then answer the questions that follow.

EXTRACT C

Banquo The trusted home

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But ‘tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm.
The instruments of darkness tell us truths. 5
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence.
Cousins, a word, I pray you.

Macbeth [Aside]. Two truths are told.

As happy prologues to the swelling act 10
Of the imperial theme. – I thank you, gentlemen.
[Aside]. This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor: 15
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid images doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings: 20
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,

182
 Shakes so much single state of man that function
Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not.

Banquo Look, how our partner’s rapt. 25

[Aside] If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me,
Without my stir.

Banquo New horrors come upon him,

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
But with the aid of use. 30

[ACT 1, SCENE 3]

QUESTION 9

9.1. Refer to line 5, “The instruments of darkness tell us truths.”

9.1.1. What is implied in this line and to whom is Banquo making reference? (2)
9.1.2. Explain the aspects of Banquo’s character that enable him to read this
situation so carefully. (2)

9.2. Refer to line 10, “Aside”.

Discuss the effectiveness of the ‘Aside’ as a stage direction. (2)

9.3. Refer to line 13, “This supernatural soliciting”.

9.3.1. In your own words, state what “supernatural soliciting” means. (2)

9.4. Refer to lines 10-25, “As happy prologues... what is not”.

9.4.1. List the three prophecies the witches directed at Macbeth. (3)
9.4.2. Explain why Macbeth’s hair becomes ‘unfixed’ (line 18 ) and his heart
‘knock at ribs’ (line 19). (2)

9.5. Refer to lines 23-25, “Shakes so my... what is not’.

9.5.1. Comment on Macbeth’s state of mind as revealed in these lines. (3)

EXTRACT D

Lady Mac. Give him tending;

He brings great news
[Exit messenger]
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks his fatal entrance
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits 5
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctions visitings of nature 10
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

183
 The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night, 15
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry ‘Hold, hold’!
[Enter MACBETH]
Great Gllamiis! Worthy Cawdor! 20
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.

[ACT 1, SCENE 5]

9.6. Refer to line 2, “He brings great news”.

What news does the servant bring? (2)

9.7. Refer to lines 4-15, “Come you spirits... on nature’s mischief!”

9.7.1. Clearly explain what Lady Macbeth is doing in these lines. (2)
9.7.2. What is her intention? Provide evidence from the text to support
your answer. (2)
9.7.3. In light of this extract and her actions earlier in the play, evaluate
the character of Lady Macbeth. (3)

[25]

TOTAL SECTION C: 25
GRAND TOTAL: 80

184
NOVEMBER PAPER 1

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. This paper consists of THREE SECTIONS

Section A: Comprehension (30 marks)
Section B: Summary (10marks)
Section C: Language in context (30 marks)
2. Answer ALL the questions

3. Start EACH section on a NEW page.

4. Rule off after each section.

5. Number the answers correctly according to the numbering system used in this

question paper.

6. Leave a line after each answer.

7. Pay special attention to spelling and sentence construction.

8. Use the following time frames as a guideline:

Section A: 50 minutes
Section B : 25 minutes
Section C: 45 minutes

9. Write neatly and legibly.

10. Good Luck!

185
SECTION A: COMPREHENSION

QUESTION 1

Read Texts A and B below and answer the questions which follow.

TEXT A:

1 The Neapolitans didn’t cook up the idea of pizza out of thin air, even if their 1
crusts are sometimes so light they give that impression. Flat breads date
back to Neolithic times. For millennia civilizations throughout the
Mediterranean have developed their own versions. The ancient Greeks
may have brought plakous, their flat and round cheese pie, to southern 5
Italy when they colonised the region’s coastal areas between the eighth
and fifth centuries BCE. Pita (or pitta), which means “pie” in modern Greek
and refers to a leavened flatbread, might be a precursor to “pizza” the word
and “pizza” the food. In Calabria, pitta refers to various breads, cakes, and
pies, including pitta pizzulata, a deep-dish tomato pie. 10

2 In the Mediterranean Basin the notion of a flat yeast bread covered with
baked-in toppings is hardly unique to Italy. Across the French-Italian
border Nice has pissaladière, garnished with caramelized onions,
anchovies, olives, and garlic. Catalonia adorns its coca with the likes of red
bell pepper, olives, tuna, sardines, and onions. The Turkish version of 15
lahmacun, from the Arabic for “meat and bread,” is slathered with a lamb
and tomato mixture and is often characterized as Turkish pizza.

3 But the story of pizza, as understood in this guide—and by much of the

modern world—begins either in the sixteenth century, when the term was
introduced in Naples, the eighteenth century, when Neapolitans tried it with 20
tomato, or the nineteenth century, when a Neapolitan discovered the
perfect pizza pairing of tomato and mozzarella.

4 Neapolitan peasants were among the first in this part of the world to take
their chances with tomatoes. Many Europeans feared this exotic fruit,
brought to the continent from the New World by the Spanish, was 25
poisonous. According to University of Naples’s Professor Carlo Mangoni,
tomatoes were introduced to pizza in 1760. It is said that Ferdinand IV,
King of Naples from 1759 to 1825, was an early admirer of the red pizza
all’olio e pomodoro—topped with olive oil, tomato, garlic, and oregano.
This, the classic pizza better known as Marinara (in the mariner’s style, 30
though there’s no fish), was sold during the period of Ferdinand’s reign by
street vendors and peddlers who sourced their pizza from the city’s
laboratori (workshops), as wholesale bakeries were known. It wasn’t until
1830 that one such laboratorio di pizza opened Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba,
the first pizzeria in Naples, and probably the world, with tables, chairs, and, 35
naturally, tomatoes. Port’Alba is still serving its pizza in the historic centre
of the city, both inside the pizzeria and outside to passersby on the busy
Via Port’Alba.

186
 On a royal tour of Naples in 1889 Queen Margherita of Savoy, consort of
5 Umberto I, observed many peasants enjoying the local specialty, which 40
they folded like a libretto (booklet) and ate with great relish. The street
scene was, in this respect, much as it is today, and so it is this part of this
version of the story that casts the least doubt: you go to Naples. You see
people eating pizza on the street. You want some. An official from the
Royal Palace summoned Raffaele Esposito, certainly now, if not also then, 45
the most famous pizzaiolo of the day, to make pizza for the Queen.
Esposito seized the moment. He created a new pizza in the colours of the
Italian flag: tomato red, mozzarella white, and basil green. She liked it. He
christened this tricolour sensation the Margherita.

Apocryphal or not the tale holds important truths. If this was not the first 50
6 tomato and mozzarella pizza ever made, by this pizzaiolo or another, so
what? It is through the retelling of this story and the remaking of this
humble culinary masterpiece that Esposito and his successors at Pizzeria
Brandi, the “Antica Pizzeria Della Regina d’Italia,” changed history. The
invention that made Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna an enduring first- 55
name-only celebrity marks the inception of what the world recognizes and
loves as pizza.
(adapted from www.italymagazine.com)

QUESTIONS: TEXT A

1.1. Refer to lines 1-2: “The Neapolitans didn’t…out of thin air.”

State what the expression ‘out of thin air’ means. (2)

1.2. How does the author show us that the actual origin of pizza is hard to
pinpoint? (2)

1.3. Explain why it is so difficult to pinpoint the exact era in which modern
pizza originated. (2)

1.4. Highlight the main differences between the different kinds of ‘pizza’ the (2)
author mentions.

1.5. Account for the Europeans’ slow adoption of the tomato. (2)

1.6. Refer to paragraph 4. Compare the word “laboratory,” as used in the

context of the passage, to the modern day English reference laboratory. (3)

1.7. Comment on what is implied with the use of the ‘pizzeria’ as opposed to
just another bakery selling pizza, (2)

1.8. Suggest why Esposito decided to craft his pizza for the queen the way
he did. (2)

1.9. Considering Text A as a whole and the popularity of pizza in our current
age; do you think that the truth of the origin of pizza is important? Justify (3)
your response.

187
TEXT B

188
QUESTIONS: TEXT B

1.10. According to the infographic, when and where was the first licence to
sell pizza awarded to an American? (2)

1.11. What did the history of pizza in the twentieth century mean for the
existence of pizza today? (2)

1.12. Discuss the correlation between the introduction of the ‘Neapolitan

Rules’ and the events preceding this event. (3)

QUESTIONS: TEXT A and B

1.13. Both texts seek to offer the same information but in different formats.
Which text (TEXT A or TEXT B) is more effective at delivering the
information the authors wanted to communicate? Motivate your answer
with reference to TEXT A and TEXT B. (3)

TOTAL SECTION A: 30

189
SECTION B: SUMMARY

Question 2: Summarising in your own words.

Carefully read Text C below. It is an article on the health risk associated with eating
pizza.

NOTE:
1. Summarise in your own words, the effect eating pizza has on young
people.
2. Your summary should include SEVEN points and not exceed 90 words.
3. Your summary must be in paragraph form.
4. You are NOT required to include a title for the summary.
5. Indicate your word count at the end of your summary.

TEXT C:

We all love pizza. No one likes to hear anything bad about pizza. But it might
be wise to keep an eye on your kids' intake of this delicious circular meal if the
results of a new study published in the journal Paediatrics are to be believed.
The study shows that on the days that they eat pizza; children consume
significantly more calories, fat and sodium than on pizza-free days.

If anyone needed proof of American youths' love for pizza, the fact that pizza
is the second highest source of energy in his or her diet might be it. The new
study adds that about 20% of youths eat pizza on any given day in the US.

Given that this foodstuff is consumed so hungrily and frequently, close

attention needs to be paid to its nutritional content.

The researchers behind the new study, from the Health Policy Center at the
Institute of Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago
(UIC), examined dietary recall data from children and adolescents aged 2-19
who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
between 2003 and 2010.

The data show that caloric intake from pizza among children between the
ages of 2 and 11 dropped by 25% during the study period. In addition, among
adolescents, despite a slight increase in prevalence of pizza consumption in
this age group, there was a fall in calorie intake from pizza.

However, during 2009-10, pizza made up 22% of the total calorie intake
among children and 26% of adolescents' calorie intake on the days when it
was eaten.

Children took in an additional 84 calories, 3 g of saturated fat and 134 mg of

sodium on days that they ate pizza, compared with pizza-free days. For
adolescents, pizza days meant an extra 230 calories, 5 g of saturated fat and
484 mg of sodium - 24% and 21% of their recommended daily intake for fat
and sodium, respectively.

190
The biggest impact pizza had on diet, the study found, was when it was eaten
as a snack between meals. When eating pizza as a snack, children took in an
additional 202 calories and adolescents an extra 365 calories.

(Source: Medical News Today)

TOTAL SECTION B: 10

191
SECTION C: LANGUAGE IN CONTEXT:

Question 3: Advertising:

Study the advertisement (Text D) below and answer the questions that follow.

TEXT D:

Refer to Text D:

3.1. Identify the service being advertised. Substantiate your answer. (2)

3.2. Discuss how the unique design of the pizza slices conveys the message
of the advertisement. (3)

3.3 Explain what the expression ‘on the go’ means within the context of the (2)
advertisement.

3.4. In your opinion, is the advertisement effective? Motivate your answer

with reference to both the text and the visual image. (3)

[10]

192
Question 4: Other Aspects of Media:
Look at the following cartoon (Text E) and answer the questions that follow.

TEXT E:
Refer to Text E:

4.1. Account for the figure of speech used in frame 1 and explain its
effectiveness. (2)

4.2. What visual clues are there to show the reader that the man and the cat
are both excited? (2)

4.3. Critically comment on how the delivery order placed in the last frame
contradicts frames 2-5. (3)

4.4. Do you think that the character’s logic is reasonable? Motivate your
answer. (3)

[10]

193
Question 5: Textual Editing:

Read the extract below (Text F), which contains deliberate errors, and answer the
questions that follow.

TEXT F:
1 Although pizza is not exclusively Italian in origin, there is no question that
from a cultural standpoint, it is an iconic food of Italy. Italians "own" this
delicacy. Nevertheless, pizza in the United States may also be considered
an icon food, perhaps even more so than in the land of its birth. The dish
has become an American institution—embracing food-on-the-run, 5
corporate enterprise, and American ingenuity, and it may fairly be said to
be as representative of American food ways, food customs, and food
choices as it is of Italian ones.

2 The first real American pizzeria, opened in New York City in 1905 by
Gennaro Lombardi, was located in Manhattan, at 53⅓ Spring Street. As 10
with other early pizzerias, the clientele was composed predominantly of
southern Italian immigrants, who wanted to eat their own dishes in a
familiar and homey atmosphere. However, after World War II, when GI's
returned from Italy well acquainted with pizza and other Italian foods, they
forged a new and growing market for those foods. 15

3 As is the case with so many other traditional Italian foods, pizza

underwent significant changes in the United States. Thanks to the
American post-war emphasis on access and increased portion size, as
well, possibly, as the desire of poor Italian immigrants to eat more
copiosly than they had been able to do at home, the delicate Neapolitan 20
pizza was transformed.
(Source: www.encyclopaedia.com)

Refer to Text F

5.1. Provide a synonym for the word ‘iconic’ (line 2) (1)

5.2. Find and correct the malapropism in paragraph 3. (1)

5.3. Refer to line 5: food-on-the-run’

Account for the use of the hyphen. (1)

5.4. What does the abbreviation ‘GI’ (line 13) refer to? (1)

5.5. In line 13; why is ‘Italian’ written with a capital letter, but ‘southern’ is
not? (2)

5.6. Rewrite the following sentence in the passive voice:

They forged a new and growing market for those foods (1)
.

194
5.7. Identify the spelling error in paragraph 3. (1)

5.8. Provide the noun form of the word ‘transformed’ (line 21). (1)

5.9. The word ‘institution’ (line 5) has a secondary definition than in the (1)
context of the passage. Write a sentence that clearly shows the
secondary definition.

[10]

TOTAL SECTION C: 30

TOTAL NOVEMBER EXAMINATION: 70

195
NOVEMBER PAPER 2

INSTRUCTIONS AND INFORMATION

1. Read these instructions carefully before you begin to answer the questions.
2. This question paper consists of THREE sections
 SECTION A: Poetry (30 marks)
 SECTION B: Novel (25 marks)
 SECTION C: Drama (25 marks)
3. Answer FIVE QUESTIONS in all: THREE in Section A, ONE in Section B and
ONE in Section C as follows:
 SECTION A: POETRY
Unseen poem – COMPULSORY question.
Seen poem – Answer TWO questions.
 SECTION B: NOVEL
Answer ONE question (either the essay question or the contextual
questions)
 SECTION C: DRAMA
Answer ONE question (either the essay question or the contextual
questions BUT if you answered the essay question for the novel you
must answer the contextual questions for the drama and vice versa)

4. CHOICE OF ANSWERS FOR SECTIONS B (NOVEL) AND C (DRAMA)

 Answer ONE ESSAY QUESTION AND ONE CONTEXTUAL
QUESTION. If you answer the essay question in Section B, you must
answer the contextual question in Section C. If you answer the
contextual question in Section B, you must answer the essay question
in Section C.

5. LENGTH OF ANSWERS
 Essay questions on Poetry should be answered in about 200-250
words.
 Essay questions on the Novel and Drama should be answered in 350-
400 words.
 The length of answers of contextual questions should be determined by
the mark allocation.
 Candidates should aim for conciseness and relevance.
6. Follow the instructions at the beginning of each section carefully.
7. Number your answers correctly according to the numbering system used in
this question paper.
8. Start EACH section on a NEW page.
9. Suggested time management
 SECTION A: approximately 40 minutes
 SECTION B: approximately 40 minutes
 SECTION C: approximately 40 minutes
10. Write neatly and legibly.

196
SECTION A: POETRY

PRESCRIBED POETRY
Answer any TWO of the following questions.

QUESTION 1: POETRY - ESSAY QUESTION

Read the poem below and then answer the question that follows.

Small passing
by Ingrid de Kok

For a woman whose baby died stillborn, and who was told by a man to stop 1
mourning, “because the trials and horrors suffered daily by black women in
this country are more significant than the loss of one white child”.

1
In this country you may not
suffer the death of your stillborn, 5
remember the last push into shadow and silence,
the useless wires and cords on your stomach,
the nurse’s face, the walls, the afterbirth in a basin.
Do not touch your breasts
still full of purpose. 10
Do not circle the house,
pack, unpack the small clothes.
Do not lie awake at night hearing
the doctor say, “It was just as well”
and “You can have another”. 15
In this country you may not
mourn small passings.

See: the newspaper boy in the rain

will sleep tonight in a doorway.
The woman in the busline 20
may next month be on a train
to a place not her own.

The baby in the backyard now

will be sent to a tired aunt,
grow chubby, the lean, 25
return to a stranger.
Mandela’s daughter tried to find her father
through the glass. She thought they’d let her touch him.

And this woman’s hands are so heavy when she dusts

the photographs of other children 30
they fall to the floor and break.
Clumsy woman, she moves so slowly
as if in a funeral rite.

197
On the pavements the nannies meet.
These are legal gatherings. 35
They talk about everything, about home,
while the children play among them.
Their skins like litmus, their bonnets clean.

2
Small wrist in the grave.
Baby no one carried live 40
between houses, among trees.
Child shot running,
stones in his pocket,
boy’s swollen stomach,
full of hungry air. 45
Girls carrying babies
not so much smaller than themselves.
Erosion. Soil washed down to the sea.

3
I think these mothers dream
headstones of the unborn. 50
Their mourning rises like a wall
no vine will cling to.
They will not tell you your suffering is white.
They will not say it is just as well.
They will not compete for the ashes of infants. 55
I think they may say to you:
Come with us to the place of mothers.
We will stroke your flat empty belly,
let you weep with us in the dark,
and arm you with one of our babies 60
to carry home on your back.

(Source: Poems from all over by Rustum Kozain)

QUESTION 1

In the poem Small Passing, the speaker explores the idea of loss in the
worlds of black and white people in South Africa during the apartheid era.

With close reference to the diction, imagery and tone used in the poem,
discuss this statement.

Your response should take the form of a well-constructed essay of 200 –

250 words (about 1 page).

[10]

198
QUESTION 2: POETRY - CONTEXTUAL QUESTION
Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow.

Those winter Sundays

by Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early 1

and put his clothes on the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. 5

I‘d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him, 10

who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

(Source: Poems from all over by Rustum Kozain)

QUESTION 2

2.1. Refer to line 1, ‘Sundays too my father got up early.’

What does the word ‘too’ suggest about the speaker’s father? (2)

2.2. Refer to line 5, ‘Banked fires blaze.’

Identify and comment on the effectiveness of the figure of speech in
this line. (3)

2.3. Refer to line 9, ‘Fearing the chronic angers of that house.’

Comment on the appropriateness of the word ‘chronic’ in the context
of this line. (2)

2.4. In his reflection on his youth, the speaker deliberately uses the past
tense to convey his feelings towards his father.
Do you agree with this statement? Justify your response by referring
to imagery and/or diction. (3)

[10]

199
QUESTION 3: POETRY - CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS
Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow.

Anthem for doomed youth (1917)

By Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle 1

Only the monstrous anger of the guns
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells, 5
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs –
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in the eyes 10
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

(Source: Poems from all over by Rustum Kozain)

QUESTION 3

3.1. Identify two phrases or words from the poem which show the
speaker knows the youth are ‘doomed’. (2)

3.2. Refer to line 2, ‘- Only the monstrous anger of the guns.’

Identify and explain the effectiveness of the figure of speech used in
this line. (3)

3.3. Refer to the title of the poem.

Comment on the appropriateness of the word ‘anthem’ as used in
the title of the poem. (2)

3.4. In the poem, Wilfred Owen expresses a solemn regret at the futility
of war.
Do you agree with this statement? Justify your response by
referring to imagery and/or diction. (3)

[10]

200
QUESTION 4: POETRY - CONTEXTUAL QUESTION
Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow.

To the doctor who treated the raped baby and who felt such despair
By Finuala Dowling

I just wanted to say on behave of us all 1

that on the night in question
there was a light on in the hall
for a nervous little sleeper
And when the bleeding baby was admitted to your care 5
faraway a Karoo shepherd crooned a ramkietjie lullaby
In the veld
and while you staunched
there was space on a mother-warmed sheet
for a night walker 10
and when you administered an infant-sized opiate
there were luxuriant dark nipples
for fist clenching babes
and when you called for more blood
a bleary-eyed uncle got up to make a feed 15
and while you stitched
there was another chapter of our favourite story
and while you cleaned
a grandpa’s thin legs walked up and down for a colicky
cries 20
and when you finally stood exhausted at the end of her
cot
and asked, “Where is God?”,
a father sat watch
And for the rest of us, we all slept in trust 25
that you would do what you did,
that you could do what you did.
We slept in trust that you lived.

(Source: Poems from all over by Rustum Kozain)

QUESTION 4

4.1. Refer to line 1, ‘I just wanted to say on behalf of us all.’

To whom does ‘on behalf of us all’ refer? (2)

4.2. Refer to line 20, ‘Where is God?’

Describe the tone of the question in this line. (2)

4.3. Compare the two scenarios that are contrasted throughout the
poem.
Show how the juxtapositioning of these two scenarios emphasise
the brutality of the act committed against the baby (3)

201
4.4. The poet wrote this poem in reaction to a news report on a baby
who had been raped.
Critically discuss whether your reaction would be similar or different
to that of the speakers. Substantiate your answer. (3)

[10]

202
UNSEEN POETRY (COMPULSORY)

QUESTION 5: CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS

Read the poem below and answer the questions which follow.

Childhood in Heidelberg (1988)

by Andries Walter Oliphant

I was born in a house where ancestors 1

were suspended from the walls.
On hot afternoons
they would descend and walk silently
through the cool passages 5
of the dark house, slowly
as if strolling through a womb.

The roof is a vantage point for birds and pigeons.

On the stoep
in an ancient folding chair my namesake sits. 10
There is a giant gumtree
at the gate in which the sun sets.
The stars are candles
which my grandmother has lit.

Every morning father wakes to find a man 15

with a hole in his head
sleeping in the driftsand
of the furrow which runs
along the cresoted split-pole fence.
I go in search of the orchestra of crickets. 20

In the kitchen mother cries as she turns

the toast on the black plates
of the welcome Dover.
When father packed my pigeons into boxes,
I ended up with Rover and the cats 25
on the back of a truck
with all the household goods.
I thought, if this is a part of life, it’s fun.

At the end of the truck’s journey

through the sky, we arrived 30
in a toy town of matchbox houses,
linked up like tombstones in a graveyard.
At once, I understood why my mother cried.

(Source: Poems from all over by Rustum Kozain))

203
Glossary
Vantage: Position offering a good view
Furrow: Groove or narrow trench in the ground
Creosoted: Painted with dark-brown oil obtained from tar and used as a
wood preservative
Split-pole: Pole that is split in half length-wise
Welcome Dover: Brand of wood-burning stove

QUESTION 5

5.1. Refer to Line 1, ‘I was born in a house where ancestors’.

How does the word ‘ancestors’ contribute to your understanding of
the speaker and his family? (2)

5.2. Refer to lines 4 to 5, ‘The word descend… the cool passages’.

Explain what the words ‘descend’, ‘silently’ and ‘passages’ convey
about the speaker’s childhood. (2)

5.3. Refer to line 32, ‘Linked up like tombstones in a graveyard’.

Identify and explain the appropriateness of the figure of speech in
this line. (3)

5.4. Refer to the poem as a whole.

Critically discuss your response to the poem on both an individual
and political level. (3)

[10]

TOTAL SECTION A: 30

204
SECTION B: NOVEL “THINGS FALL APART”
Answer EITHER Question 6 (Essay Question) or Question 7 (Contextual Question).

QUESTION 6: Things Fall Apart – Essay Question.

Okonkwo has a clear idea of what he believes manhood to be and he is highly

critical of those who do not meet his standard. However, Achebe shows that
manhood and masculinity are not necessarily limited to Okonkwo’s
interpretation.

In light of the above statement, discuss how Achebe reveals alternate

interpretations of manhood through the characters of Nwoye, Unoka,
Obierika and Uchendu. Your response should take the form of a well-
constructed essay of 350 – 400 words (1½ - 2 pages).

[25]

OR
QUESTION 7: Things Fall Apart – Contextual Questions.

Read the following extracts and then answer the questions that follow.

EXTRACT A

The drums and the dancing began again and reached fever heat. Darkness 1
was around the corner, and the burial was near. Guns fired the last salute
and the cannon rent the sky. And then from the centre of the delirious fury
came a cry of agony and shouts of horror. It was as if a spell had been cast.
All was silent. In the centre of the crowd a boy lay in a pool of blood. It was 5
the dead man’s sixteen-year-old son, who with his brothers and half brothers
had been dancing the traditional farewell to their father. Okonkwo’s gun had
exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy’s heart.
The confusion that followed was without parallel in the tradition of
Umuofia. Violent deaths were frequent, but nothing like this had ever 10
happened.
. . . . . . . . . . .

The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan. It is a crime
against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it
must flee from the land. The crime was of two kind, male and female.
Okonkwo had committed the female, because it had been inadvertent. He
could return to the clan after seven years. 15
That night he collected his most valuable belongings into head loads. His
wives wept bitterly and their children wept with them without knowing why.
Obierika and half a dozen other friends came to help and console him. They
each made nine or ten trips carrying Okonkwo’s yams to store in Obierika’s
barn… And before the cock crowed Okonkwo and his family were fleeing to 20
his motherland.

[CHAPTER 13]

205
QUESTION 7

7.1. Give an outline of the incident that takes place in this extract. (3)

7.2. In light of the advice Ogbuefi Ezeudu had given Okonkwo earlier in
the novel, explain how Okonkwo’s action in this extract is ironic? (3)

7.3. The bonds of friendship play an important role in the novel.

Refer to Obierika and Okonkwo’s friendship and critically discuss
this statement, with reference to the novel as a whole. (3)

EXTRACT B

Obierika who had been gazing steadily at his friend’s dangling body, turned 1
suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: ‘That man was
one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself, and now he
will be buried like a dog…’

He could not say anymore. His voice trembled and choked his words. 5

‘Shut up!’ shouted one of the messengers, quite unnecessarily.

‘Take down the body,’ the District Commissioner ordered his chief messenger,
‘and bring it and all these people to the court.’

‘Yes, sah,’ the messenger said, saluting.

The Commissioner went away, taking three or four of the soldiers with him. In 10
the many years in which he had toiled to bring civilisation to different parts of
Africa he had learnt a number of things. One of them was that a District
Commissioner must never attend to such undignified details as cutting down
a hanged man from a tree. Such attention would give the natives a poor
opinion of him. In the book which he planned to write he would stress that 15
point. As he walked back to the court he thought about that book. Every day
brought him some new material. The story of this man who had killed a
messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could
almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a
reasonable paragraph, at any rate. There was so much else to include, and 20
one must be firm in cutting out details. He had already chosen the title of the
book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower
Niger.

[CHAPTER 25]

7.4. Place this extract in the context of the novel. (3)

206
7.5. Describe three ways in which Okonkwo was ‘one of the greatest
men in Umuofia.’ (3)

7.6. Refer to lines 2 to 4, ‘That man was one… buried like a dog.’
Identify Obierika’s attitude to the District Commissioner and explain
what it reveals. (3)

7.7. Compare and contrast the attitudes of the District Commissioner

and the Umuofians with regard to the death of Okonkwo. (3)

7.8. A tragic hero is defined as one who suffers a change in fortune

because of a mistaken act which is caused by a flaw in his
character. His tragedy moves one to pity him because his
misfortune is usually greater than he deserves. Okonkwo is said to
be a tragic hero.
Do you agree with this view? Substantiate your answer. (4)

[25]

TOTAL SECTION B: 25

207
SECTION C: DRAMA “MACBETH”

Answer EITHER Question 8 (Essay Question) or Question 9 (Contextual Question).

NB: If you answered the essay question in Section B, you must answer the
contextual question in Section C. If you answered the contextual question in Section
B, you must answer the essay question in Section C.

QUESTION 8: Macbeth – Essay Question.

The hallmark of Shakespeare’s tragic hero is that he was fundamentally a

good person, but a tragic flaw leads the character to an inevitable downfall.

Discuss the validity of this statement with reference to the play Macbeth.

Your response should take the form of a well-constructed essay of 350 -

400 words (1½ - 2 pages).

[25]

OR
QUESTION 9: Macbeth – Contextual Questions.

Read the following extracts and then answer the questions that follow.

EXTRACT C

ALL
Double, double toil and trouble; 1
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

Enter HECATE to the other three Witches 5

HECATE
O well done! I commend your pains,
And every one shall share i'th’ gains;
And now about the cauldron sing,
Live elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in. 10

Music and a song, ‘Black spirits, etc.’

[Exeunt Hecate and the other three Witches]

Second Witch
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks, 15

208
Whoever knocks!

Enter MACBETH

MACBETH
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
What is't you do?

ALL
A deed without a name. 20

MACBETH
I conjure you, by that which you profess,
Howe'er you come to know it, answer me:
Though you untie the winds and let them fight
Against the churches; though the yeasty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up; 25
Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down,
Though castles topple on their warders' heads;
Though palaces and pyramids do slope
Their heads to their foundations, though the treasure
Of nature's germens tumble all together, 30
Even till destruction sicken: answer me
To what I ask you.

[ACT 4, SCENE 1]

QUESTION 9

9.1. Place this extract in the context of the play as a whole. (3)

9.2. Refer to line 14, ‘Something wicked this way comes’.

Account for the witches’ reference to Macbeth as ‘evil’. (3)

9.3. Throughout the play the witches who are associated with evil are
claimed to have supernatural powers.
With close reference to the extract and your knowledge of the play as a
whole, comment on the validity of this statement. (3)

9.4. Refer to lines 21 – 33, ‘I conjure you… I ask you’.

If you were the director of a production of Macbeth, how would you
instruct the actor to deliver these lines? Motivate your instructions with
reference to both body language and tone. (3)

EXTRACT D

A cry within of women 1

MACBETH
What is that noise?

209
SEYTON
It is the cry of women, my good lord.

MACBETH
I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd 5
To hear a night-shriek and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't. I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me. Wherefore was that cry? 10

SEYTON
The queen, my lord, is dead.

MACBETH
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day 15
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 20
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Enter a Messenger

Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.

[ACT 5, SCENE 5]

9.5. Refer to lines 4 – 10, ‘I have almost… once start me.’

At this point in the play, we get the feeling that Macbeth has
become familiar with playing the villain.
Compare the man depicted in these lines to the Macbeth at the
start of the play. (3)

9.6 Refer to lines 12-23, ‘She should have… fury, Signifying nothing.’
9.6.1. Macbeth becomes philosophical about life in this speech. Critically
discuss one of the metaphors that he uses to describe the
meaning of life. (3)
9.6.2. In your opinion, is Macbeth’s view about life justified? Substantiate
your opinion with clear reference to the play. (4)

210
9.7. Using the extract as a starting point, comment on the extent to
which it would be justifiable for the audience to feel some
sympathy for Macbeth. (3)

[25]

TOTAL SECTION C: 25
GRAND TOTAL: 80

211
Bibliography
Poems from All Over
Comprehensive English Practice 3rd Edition
Comprehensive English Practice 4th Edition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_chain_of_being
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/english/macbeth/background/revision/2/
http://www.sparknotes.com/
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/faq/macbethfaq/macbethfaq.html
http://www.enotes.com/
http://www.cliffnotes.com/
http://www.schmoop.com
http://www.shakespeareinamericancommunities.org/education/elizabethan-age
Macrat: Things Fall Apart
Macrat: Macbeth

Images
https://www.google.co.za/search?biw=1366&bih=605&q=macbeth+plot+overview&o
q=macbeth+plot+overview&gs_l=serp.3...6775.13990.0.15101.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....
0...1c.1.64.serp..0.0.0.MTwOfEvUGHc

https://www.google.co.za/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=i2qfVomkN-Ko8weF-
4joCg&gws_rd=ssl#q=william+shakepeare

https://www.google.co.za/search?q=medieval+chain+of+being&biw=1366&bih=605&
source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjG_I3HoLjKAhUHWRQKHcCzDzUQ_
AUIBigB#imgrc=4zYvXhHgVOeIbM%3A

http://media1.shmoop.com/images/chart/macbeth-map.png

212
Index
Term One

Week 1-3
Figures of Speech and Literary Terms 4
Poetry – Sedition 14
Writing – Friendly and Formal Letter 128

Week 4-5
Macbeth – Elizabethan Era 83
Macbeth – Introduction 83
Poetry – Random Notes to my Son 15
Parts of Speech 130

Week 6-7
Macbeth – Characters 88
Things Fall Apart – Introduction 32
Poetry – A valediction forbidding mourning 17
Sentences – Phrases and Clauses 132

Week 8-9
Things Fall Apart – Characters 34
Things Fall Apart – Chapter 1-3 64
Poetry – A far cry from Africa 19
Tautology and Malapropisms 137

Week 10
Macbeth – Act One 108
Things Fall Apart – Chapter 4-6 66
Poetry – Figure of Speech Revision 4
Writing – Summary Writing 138

Term Two

Week 1-2
Macbeth – Revision of Term One
Things Fall Apart – Revision of Term One
Things Fall Apart – Chapter 7-9 67
Poetry – Da Same Da Same 21

Week 3-4
Macbeth – Act Two 110
Things Fall Apart – Chapter 9-13 68
Punctuation 10/140

213
Week 5-6
Macbeth – Act Three 112
Poetry – Eating Poetry 23
Poetry – London 1802 24
Visual Literacy 153

Week 7-8
Macbeth – Revision
Things Fall Apart – Revision
Poetry - Revision

Term Three

Week 1-2
Macbeth – Revision of Term 2
Macbeth – Act Four 114
Things Fall Apart – Revision Term 2
Things Fall Apart – 14-15 70
Poetry – Mid-Term Break 25

Week 3-4
Macbeth – Act Four 114
Things Fall Apart – Chapter 16-19 71
Poetry – Anthem for Doomed Youth 26
Punctuation 10/140
Direct and Indirect Speech 142

Week 5-6
Macbeth – Act Five 115
Things Fall Apart – Chapter 20-25 72
Poetry – Small Passing 27
Active and Passive Voice 143
Vocabulary 144

Week 7-8
Macbeth – Character Analysis 118
Poetry – Those Winter Sundays 29
Visual Literacy 153

Week 9-11
Macbeth – Themes, Motifs and Symbols 123
Things Fall Apart – Character Analysis 74
Poetry – To the doctor who treated the raped baby 30

214
Term Four

Week 1-2
Macbeth – Revision
Things Fall Apart – Themes, Motifs and Symbols 78

Week 3-4
Poetry – Revision of Figures of Speech

Week 5-6
Revision – Past Papers 159

Week 7
Revision – Past Papers 159

215