What part of the plan has Macbeth failed to accomplish?

Each of the Macbeths has a role to play in Duncan's murder. Lady Macbeth is going to give the guards drugged wine, and when they're knocked out she's going to lift their daggers and place them where Macbeth can find them. Macbeth will then slip into the chamber, kill Duncan with the grooms’ daggers, and then plant the daggers on the unconscious grooms to make them look guilty.

All goes according to plan until Macbeth reunites with his wife. She realizes that rather than leaving the daggers planted on the grooms, he's brought them back with him and is holding them in his hand. The daggers in his bloody hands would incriminate him immediately in the murder, should anybody see him, but he’s too horror-struck to do anything about it, and is too frightened to return them. Lady Macbeth stays levelheaded, though, demanding, “Give me the daggers". She then takes off to plant them on the grooms, then returns to help Macbeth clean up the blood. She’s quite steely and calm in this scene. Over the course of the play we will see her steady exterior unravel as the blood she cleans in this scene begins to haunt her imagination.

In Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, who are the antagonists? What anxieties in the societies that fear them do these villains represent...

The antagonists in Beowulf are primarily monsters, figures of pure evil. Although Unferth is initially dubious about Beowulf, he is won over after the defeat of Grendel, and thus is not purely an antagonist. Thus we can see four opponents that Beowulf encounters over the course of the story that are emblems of evil and monsters of nature:

• A sea monster: overcome before the start of the epic; shows evidence of Beowulf's prowess


• Grendel: the evil monster that has been ravaging the mead hall and snacking on warriors


• Grendel's mother: also a monster, avenging the death of her son


• Dragon: the dragon burns down the houses of the Geats and eventually kills and is killed by Beowulf

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the antagonist is more ambiguous. The initial antagonist appears to be the Green Knight, a figure symbolically associated with nature. The Green Knight, though, is not himself evil, but rather a figure that serves to test Gawain's moral character. Thus the real antagonist is not so much the Green Knight but the moral weaknesses of Gawain himself, or even the "great antagonist" of Satan who lurks ready to corrupt the Christian knight if the knight does not fully trust in Christ. Thus the sexual temptation Gawain resists is as much an "antagonist" as the Green Knight, and the tale is a moral allegory. Morgan le Fay is also an antagonist (and may have disguised herself as Lady Bertilak or be an alter-ego for her), but again, she represents as much the temptations of lust and lying as she is an external threat.

What is the difference between a finite verb and a modal verb?

A finite verb is basically the most normal kind of verb that you are used to working with.  It functions with a subject and shows tense.  That means it can be used in the past, present, or future tenses.  

Let's use the word "type" as an example.  

Past: I typed this response.

Present: I type this response.  

Future: I will type this response.  

Modal verbs are very unique verbs.  They have their own set of "weirdness" to them.  For example, they never take an "s" in the third person.  To make a modal verb negative, you add the word "not" to them.  Lastly, most modal verbs cannot be used in the past or future tenses.  

Some common modal verbs are "should," "would," and "could."  

Some example sentences:

"He should be home shortly."  The third person doesn't take an "s." 

"He could not hit the target."  Adds "not" to make it negative. 

"He will would be with us."  Not correct.  

What is Miss Maudie like in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Miss Maudie is the Finches' kind neighbor who enjoys gardening and speaking to Jem and Scout. Out of all the adults in Maycomb, the Finch children enjoy Maudie's company the most and Scout considers her a close friend. Maudie is a morally upright individual who supports Atticus' decision to defend Tom Robinson. She is also a magnanimous person who allows the children to play in her yard as long as they don't ruin her flowers. Maudie also takes time out of her day to sit on her porch with Scout and bakes delicious cakes for the children throughout the novel. Miss Maudie is also quick to ridicule intolerant, disrespectful people like the "foot-washing Baptists" and Mrs. Merriweather. Overall, Miss Maudie is a positive character throughout the novel who supports the Finch family and is considered a loyal friend.

Why does Dimmesdale decide to wait until Judgement Day to reveal how he truly feels?

Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a complex, morally ambiguous character in The Scarlet Letter. Arthur Dimmesdale is a man who struggles through the course of the novel to come to terms with his sin.  He grapples with rectifying himself both to himself and his parishioners. In chapter 1, he is met with Hester and Pearl coming home from the deathbed of Governor Winthrop, in the middle of the night and ironically, at the scaffold, the scene of Hester's public ignominy. Hester is empathetic to Dimmesdale's pain but Pearl is a bit more demanding of his intentions. When asked if he will hold her hand "tomorrow, noontide," he responds with, "Nay, not so my child. I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee, one other day, but not to-morrow."

When pressed by Pearl, he responds that it will not be until Judgement Day that he shall stand with Pearl, and thus reveal his true feelings and his true sins.

Later, in chapter 17, Dimmesdale offers the reader insight to his hesitation to make public his offense. "Else, I should long ago have thrown of these garments of mock holiness, and have shown myself to mankind as they will see me at the judgement-seat." It becomes clear at this point that Dimmesdale has toiled too long under the burden of his offense and he feels he can no longer repent in this world. He has worn his sin too long to feel he could repent and be forgiven by man. It will not be until Judgement Day that he can finally be free as God already knows of his sins. But we now know he will now unburden himself before his fellow man.

In Julius Caesar, how does Antony change after his funeral oration?

Brutus sees Antony as non-threatening, as nothing more than Caesar’s right-hand man who can do no harm once Caesar is gone. Cassius thinks they should kill both Antony and Caesar, but Brutus argues against it. “And for Mark Antony, think not of him;/For he can do no more than Caesar’s arm/When Caesar’s head is off”(II.i.801-803). Because of this, the readers may trust that this characterization of Antony is true. After all, he acts humble before Brutus and the conspirators, shaking their hands above Caesar’s dead body. “I doubt not of your wisdom./Let each man render me his bloody hand”(III.i.1405-1406). Then he goes on to ask for permission to speak at Caesar’s funeral, and Brutus grants this to him.

At Caesar’s funeral, Antony proves a great orator, something Brutus and the conspirators are not expecting, which leads us to believe no one quite knew the depths of Antony’s character. Antony begins his speech by calling Brutus and the conspirators honorable men, yet he goes on to tell the people of Rome all the good that Caesar did for them while he was alive and the land and money Caesar left to them in his will. By the end of his speech, the people have been moved so much that they go from praising Brutus to calling the conspirators traitors. Thus begins Antony’s war against the traitors, ending in the conspirators’ deaths.

It’s not so much that Antony changes throughout the play as it is that the reader’s perception of him changes. In the beginning he is painted as lacking compared to Caesar, but we quickly see him prove himself not only a great orator, but also the most honorable of men. While he does wage war against the conspirators, he is not brutal or selfish. Upon Brutus’s death, Antony says, “This was the noblest Roman of them all:/All the conspirators save only he/Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;/He only, in a general honest thought/And common good to all, made one of them”(V.v.2754-2758). Antony recognizes that he and Brutus are not much different. They both did what they did for what they believed was the good of Rome.

Antony was loyal to Caesar and Rome in general from the beginning. The change we see is one brought on by Caesar’s death. We see him grow from a man content in his role as the right hand of the king to a powerful ruler in his own right. But his loyalty is steadfast throughout.

Why does Jim have a "peculiar expression" on his face when he first comes home in "The Gift of the Magi"?

Jim’s expression comes from the fact that he realizes that the combs he bought Della for Christmas will be useless now.  

When Jim and Della do not have enough money to buy each other presents, each sells the one thing valued most to get the other a present.  When Jim realizes what Della has done, he is not angry at her. He is shocked. 

It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

Della cut her hair.  He sold his watch to buy her a special gift that requires hair. He knew how much she valued her hair.  He was thinking about how much she would love the combs.  The fact that she can’t use his gift leaves him stumped and horrified.  He is not upset with her, he is just baffled by the fact that he has no gift for her now.

Della’s reaction is telling.  She is afraid he is angry at her for cutting her hair.  She tries to read his expression, which too her is “peculiar.”  She begins to wonder if she knew him as well as she thought.  Fortunately, Jem proves to be the person she thought he was.  Once it sinks in, he hugs her.

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year—what is the difference?

Jim and Della’s presents show that they both know each other well and care about each other.  They also show that they love each other enough to give up what matters most.  Possessions and beauty are shallow.  The desire to make someone a gesture is what matters.  This is why O’Henry says that they were wise.  They each gave the gift of sacrifice.