Unit 4: Witches, Kings, and Deconstruction Things
Unit 4: Witches, Kings, and Deconstruction Things
Shakespeare and the Instability of Meaning
Shakespeare and the Instability of Meaning
This unit invites students to engage with the complexities of Shakespearean drama through the lens of deconstruction. Centering on Macbeth, students will analyze how Shakespeare uses language, symbolism, and dramatic structure to create multiple, often conflicting, interpretations of ambition, power, fate, and identity. Through close reading and performance-based analysis, students will grapple with how meaning in Shakespeare’s work is never fixed—how language itself can be unstable, contradictory, and open to endless questioning.
The unit emphasizes both linguistic precision and interpretive ambiguity. Students will develop skills in paraphrasing Shakespeare’s intricate language while learning to appreciate the layers of irony, contradiction, and uncertainty within the text. By applying deconstructive analysis, students will question traditional binaries (good/evil, fate/free will, appearance/reality) and uncover how Macbeth reflects the instability of human ambition, morality, and meaning itself.
Analyze Shakespeare’s use of language, structure, and symbolism to explore themes of power, ambition, and moral ambiguity.
Apply deconstructive theory to uncover contradictions, complexities, and unstable meanings within dramatic texts.
Develop advanced close-reading and paraphrasing skills to engage with Early Modern English and complex literary structures.
Passage ‘Translations’: Students will practice paraphrasing and annotating key excerpts from Macbeth, focusing on both linguistic clarity and layered meaning. Found on Macbeth Page.
Timed-Writing Exams (2+): In-class essays requiring students to apply deconstructive analysis, support claims with textual evidence, and articulate nuanced interpretations of the play.
👉 Macbeth by William Shakespeare
👉 "The Dead" from Dubliners by James Joyce
"The Allegory of the Cave" by Plato
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
Tamburlaine the Great by Christopher Marlowe
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
👉 = Required Reading
Christian Connections
Selection from "Book " from Paradise Lost by John Milton
Buddhist Connections
Selections from The Diamonds that Cuts Through Illusion or Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (in Sanskrit) (Link)
Chapter 1 "The Art of Transforming Suffering" from No Mud, No Lotus by Thich Nhat Hanh (Link; PDF Pages 8-15)
Links to be Found:
👉 Richard Ellmann's essay on "The Dead" by James Joyce
Deconstructing Shakespeare: The Instability of Meaning | CrashCourse (Intro to Deconstruction applied to literature; accessible overview)
Why Shakespeare’s Language is So Difficult — and Brilliant | TED-Ed (Explores Shakespeare’s linguistic complexity)
The Tragedy of Macbeth Explained | Royal Shakespeare Company (Deep dive into the play with resources for character, theme, and performance)
"What is Deconstruction?" — Literary Theory Resource (Accessible overview of Derrida and deconstructive criticism)
"Macbeth and the Breakdown of Language" — JSTOR Daily (Explores language instability in Macbeth)
"The Role of the Supernatural in Macbeth" — British Library (Analyzes ambiguity and contradiction in supernatural elements)