English 10 - Module 4
“It is a Tale … Full of Sound and Fury”:
How do authors use craft and structure to develop characters and ideas?
In this module, students read, discuss, and analyze nonfiction and dramatic texts, focusing on how the authors convey and develop central ideas concerning imbalance, disorder, tragedy, mortality, and fate. Students also explore how texts are interpreted visually, both on screen and on canvas. Module 10.4 builds upon the key protocols and routines for reading, writing, and discussion that were established in Module 10.1 and developed throughout Modules 10.2 and 10.3. Module 10.4 is comprised of three units, referred to as 10.4.1, 10.4.2, and 10.4.3. Each of the module texts is a complex work with multiple central ideas and claims that complement or echo the central ideas and claims of other texts in the module.
In 10.4.1, students read E. B. White’s personal essay “Death of a Pig.” Students analyze the development of White’s central ideas and his presentation of key events, as well as the connections between these ideas and events. Through “Death of a Pig,” White explicitly comments on the structure of a classic tragedy, and then experiments with this narrative arc over the course of the essay’s development. The essay thus serves as a foundation for two important discussions: one around the elements tragedy, in preparation for work with Macbeth in 10.4.2; and one around the structure of a narrative essay. While studying White’s essay as a masterful example of narrative, students identify examples of parallel structure and various grammatical phrases (e.g., noun, verb, adjectival, adverbial, etc.), and practice using these elements in their own writing throughout the module.
In 10.4.2, students read William Shakespeare’s Macbeth in its entirety, analyzing how Shakespeare’s structural choices and use of language contribute to the development of characters and central ideas (e.g., imbalance and disorder, contemplating mortality, fate versus agency, and appearance versus reality). Students then consider representations of Macbeth in other media, first in paintings by Joseph Anton Koch and Henry Fuseli and then in film, via Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood and the Royal Shakespeare Company 2010 production of Macbeth directed by Rupert Goold. The End-of-Unit Assessment asks students to continue their work with argument writing from Module 10.3, as they consider which character bears the most responsibility for the tragedy.
In the final unit, 10.4.3, students read excerpts from The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. Students continue to explore central ideas similar to those present in 10.4.1 and 10.4.2, such as the relationship between appearance and reality and the intersection of morality and ambition with imbalance and disorder. Students also analyze Machiavelli’s use of rhetoric to advance his point of view. Finally, students conclude with a discussion about how Machiavelli’s ideas about leadership might apply to the character of Macbeth.