The image of blood and washing of hands is recurrent in the book.
- Act 5, Scene 1 shows this with Lady Macbeth "Look how she rubs her hands" (163)
V, 5
The soliloquy – we see Macbeth vacillating: he wants to fight his knowledge.
The "Tomorrow" Speech: follows the news that Lady Macbeth is dead. Shows Macbeth's sense of fatality, his insistence on the pointlessness of life. He responds to the news with philosophical commentary. Despite all that he has done, all he has achieved, he feels no satisfaction and his view of life is bleak. Playing with the sense of time: life is, paradoxically, "creeping," monotonous, yet it is also a "brief candle," over in a flash. The metaphor of the player on the stage, who "struts and frets." Yet none of the posturing and drama means anything.
She needs a Priest – could either signify a demonic presence within her (exorcism) or that she needs a priest to confess to, to relieve her of her sins.
- The sense of torment is portrayed with the letter that Lady Macbeth writes and seals in her sleep. She does this to rid herself of the sin, to feel relief. This is unsuccessful
Lady Macbeth could feel responsible for Banquo and Lady Macduff’s murders. She set Macbeth on the killing path even though she didn’t ask him to murder these people.
- "The thane of fife had a wife" (163): could show her descent to madness; also sounds like a nursery rhyme
- Lady Macbeth is in a trance
- Her hand is tanted by what happened; she is now seen as fragile
- There are two sides of her portrayed: the fragile and the strong
- She creates a conversation with herself, a reasoning of what she has done, leading to her breaking down
- Internal dialogue: she tries to convince herself of certain things "Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on’s grave." (165) She is reasoning with herself, which ultimately leads to her falling apart.
- Sleep shows Lady Macbeth’s vulnerability. When she is awake, she appears strong and unfazed by what has happened, but her true emotions come through in her sleep.
Lady Macbeth is now a vulnerable character, which is an obvious shift from the beginning of the story where she appeared to be strong and cruel.
Imagery in V,1
- needing the light beside her: "She has light by her continually. ‘Tis her command." (163) – the light gives her a feeling of safety
- "her eyes are open"/ "Ay, but their sense are shut." (163) – Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking which could show her sense of guilt, or a demonic presence. Could also mean that she is not able to face the reality of what happened.
1. The first question we looked at had to do with genre: the purely fictional novel versus the “nonfiction novel” (or “true crime” novel).
Capote is credited with writing one of the first “true crime” books and naming the category of “nonfiction novel”. This might seem like a contradiction, since novels by definition are works of fiction. We talked about what “nonfiction novel” might imply: perhaps the author uses a framework of factually true events but embellishes, invents details that he couldn’t have known for certain.
When we read In Cold Blood, we know that the basic events are predetermined, that the crimes actually happened.
When we read Chaon’s novel, we read with the sense that anything might happen. We don’t know where he is going to take us, though we may start to speculate based on clues embedded in the story.
In Capote’s book, there is no particular suspense about what is going to happen; from the beginning, we know who the killers are and who is murdered. Rather, we are in suspense, as we read, about how the crimes are going to be committed, and how that information will be revealed to us.
Capote makes us care about the murderers. He prompts and sustains our interest in Dick and Perry’s hisories and psychological conditions.
A student observed that fiction can sometimes seem more real than nonfiction. Maybe because the author can control events with more freedom, and can use his creative skills to create a feeling of reality?
2: We thought about the structure of the books, and the effect of information being revealed/withheld as we read:
In the case of both books, we have to work to piece the story together gradually.
A student pointed out that Capote never actually describes the crime from the perspective of the criminals as they are committing the murders. We read their accounts retrospectively. He is strategic about when he gives us the details, and how.
When we read Chaon’s novel, we immediately speculate about whether, and how, the different stories are going to be connected.
We talked about when, exactly, we realize that Hayden is actually George Orson and Jay. In Await Your Reply, we understand the various stories and relationships (Lucy/George Orson, Ryan/Jay, Miles/Hayden) very differently when we get to the end and see that Hayden was impersonating multiple characters.
Chaon can make connections among the stories at the end of his novel by playing with chronology. This is how he makes the different elements fit together.
