Title: Macbeth
Author: Adapted by Trina Robbins, artwork by Mike Lilly and Nimbus Studios
Format: Graphic Novel
Reviewed by: Elena
Witches and conspiracies and cold-blooded murder! Scholastic’s graphic novel edition of Macbeth is intended for struggling readers, presenting the meat of the story with minimal use of Shakespeare’s original language.
Brief Summary:
Well, the story is Macbeth, of course, so if any of you reading this are responsible for teaching the text, then you’re probably familiar with the story already. But, in short: Scottish general Macbeth encounters three witches who prophesize that he will be the next king of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife to take matters into his own hands, Macbeth murders the current king, Duncan, thus becoming the next king himself. In order to protect the secret of his ghastly deed, however, Macbeth finds himself going to further and further murderous lengths to protect his throne. Eventually, in true Shakespearean form, Macbeth descends into madness and despair, finally facing his just desserts at the end of the play.
Impressions and Opinions:
In this comic book adaptation, both the narrative boxes and the actual dialogue bubbles are written, for the most part, in simple modern English. A few bolded passages actually use Shakespeare’s original prose. However, an appendix at the back of the book translates each bolded passage into modern English. I think this system is a really great idea, although it will have limited usefulness depending on the level of reader that you’re working with.
The artwork is overall quite dark and a little bit gritty, but that fits the atmosphere of the story nicely. Nothing struck me as visually confusing, and it was easy to tell all of the different characters apart.
Although this comic definitely doesn’t achieve any sort of written or artistic awesomeness, that’s really not the point. I think the most important criterion that a book like this can be judged on is ” accessibility,” and in that sense, it does about as good a job as it possibly could. I’ve often been in the position where I’ve had to teach Shakespearean plays like King Lear and Macbeth to ESL students, and let’s be honest here, trying to force a beginning ESL student to plow through actual Shakespearean prose in order to understand the meat of a story is an enormously frustrating, tearful, and generally all-around idiotic waste of time. This comic book is intended for students like the ones what I’ve worked with: Students who can (with help) read a certain simple level of English, but who are years away from being able to read original Shakespearean prose. Students for whom, in order to work on their reading comprehension skills, being able to discuss the mechanics of the story without constantly being stonewalled by the obstacle of obscure language will be hugely beneficial.
Have you used this comic in your classroom, or in any sort of educational capacity?
Yes, I have. I worked as an assistant in a Read180 classroom, and also in a mainstream English classroom, and had the opportunity to use this book both times. In the case of the Read180 classroom, the Macbeth comic book was a fairly popular choice among the (mostly Somali, ESL, and first- or second-year reader) students, largely owing to its gory content. Granted, in that case I didn’t do much actual work with the book, because it’s a Read180 classroom, so most of the related curriculum is already created by Scholastic. Most of my students were able to parse the text on a simple “who’s who” and “cause and effect”-type level, but at no point did we ever delve into the more interesting themes in the story. The Read180 program didn’t really leave time or room for that sort of exploration. Still, Macbeth worked on the level of being an interesting basic text that students seemed to like, and it always helps to have a likeable text to teach basic reading skills with.
In the case of the “mainstream” English student that I tutored using this book, it was a very different story. He was also an ESL student. Although he spoke English fluently, he was a terrible reader. Using the Macbeth comic book in order to present the story, rather than Shakespeare’s original text, I was able to help him really explore and truly grasp some of the deeper themes of the play. He enjoyed the story, and really latched on to the idea of lust for power and how that goes hand-in-hand with paranoia. Several times he compared Macbeth to modern politicians. That was really fantastic, honestly. And I don’t think that he would have ever understood or really appreciated the story as much as he did, if he’d been forced to slog through the original Shakespearean text. I really, really appreciated being able to have a comic book like this to teach students like him.
I should probably confess that personally, I feel that being able to understand and discuss great stories is a much, much more valuable skillset than “reading very old and extremely difficult English prose,” particularly for ESL learners or other struggling readers. For teachers who feel that the point of teaching Shakespeare is actually getting their students to be able to read Shakespeare, so to speak, they’ll probably have little to no use for this comic. For those of us who feel that the actual story of Macbeth is more important than the style that it’s written in, however, a comic book like this can be a fantastic tool for teaching.
Is there anything else you feel that teachers should know about this comic?
This book was created exclusively for the Scholastic’s Read180 program. However, used and surplus copies are available to the general public through online stores like Amazon.com. I think there may also be a system for librarians to order the book, but that is admittedly an area totally outside of my expertise.