On the Spot

Just a few minutes ago, one of my students approached me and asked me to explain a line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Darn. I felt a sudden shiver inside me. Shakespeare has never been easy. His lines are too romantic and too poetic that an ordinary reader will not understand the intended meaning quickly.

I am an ordinary reader.

I have never considered myself as an exemplary reader. (My classmate Jason could be one. He reads fast and he understands literary texts accurately.) Aside from the fact that I read like a sloth, my comprehension is not that accurate. Sometimes, I have a tendency to over read; most of the time I have a different interpretation.

Back in college, I remember one of my professors who told us not to do “damage to mankind” by teaching wrong concepts and giving out wrong information. Indeed, the role of a teacher is quite stressful. You have to examine everything closely and study all the possible ideas that your student may think of.

I also remember my mentor, Dr. Mendiola. I’m such a disgrace had he heard my answer.

Oh wait, I suddenly realized that I’m writing this blog in order to gather comments and reactions about how I answered my student. I think it’s not too late to call my student and tell him “Hey, I’m such an ass; I made a wrong interpretation of the line…”

Anyway, here goes. (in short, what I’ve written above are pure beatin’-around-the-bush introduction)

My student asked me about the line in Act V, Scene V of Macbeth. It says, “Life is but a walking shadow…” Quite easy? I don’t know. Maybe. But I found myself petrified upon being asked. It’s really difficult to be put on the spot.

I told my student to create a sort of a table, where he will compare and contrast the characteristics of the two keywords presented in the line—LIFE and SHADOW. In literature, there is what we call as “binary opposites” but these two entities do not belong to that, because—if I remember it well—binary opposites should belong to a certain continuum, i.e. day and night, darkness and light, etc.

Anyhow, I asked him to think of the similarities of the two. I told him that like a shadow, life is temporary. It is short-lived. On the other hand, I consulted Kay and she gave me a quite convincing answer. She told me that “life is like a shadow kase…there won’t be a shadow without light..then , probably, life won’t be a life if there’s no light that shines upon us…”

Oh well, I suddenly realized that I’m doing this the reader-response way. The table is now open for comments/ suggestions/ interpretations/ clarifications/ interjections/ conjunctions/ injections/ and projections.