Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Review by Jennifer Freed
Edited by A.R. Braunmuller
Commentary By David S. Rodes
The Voyager Shakespeare

Teachers are always looking for new ways to present Shakespeare to their classes. Voyager's CD-ROM presentation of Macbeth provides an interactive program which offers the original text, film clips, essays, summaries, and commentaries of Shakespeare's darkest play, The Tragedy of Macbeth.

The Voyager Macbeth does not try to link the text to the students' world beyond the computer, but the program does offer a thoughtful examination of the text, its history, the theater, and art work inspired by the play. The editors acknowledge, during the introduction, that the information provided--the interpretations and comments--present only two views of Shakespeare and Macbeth; the program was not established to be an all inclusive, gospel representation of the tragedy. Recognizing the limited number of voices involved in the CD, the program does provide a broad examination of Macbeth. For those with personal interests in Shakespeare, the CD-ROM offers a new format for exploring the text. In an individual setting, this particular CD-ROM could allow students to explore Macbeth at their own rate, using a learning style which best suits the individual.

The text for The Tragedy of Macbeth is broken down into the five acts and then further into individual scenes. The student simply clicks on the scene he or she wishes to study. Students can also find specific lines in the play without having to scan the entire work. While looking at the text, the students can read the work or follow along while listening to an audio recording. For some of the key scenes, the students can watch a video clip from different movies. These opportunities allow students to look at the text and learn with whichever style best adapts to their individual abilities.

There are a few drawbacks concerning the audio and visual readings of the text. They do not follow the written text line for line. Reading along can become confusing since the audio omits lines and the movie clips combine certain scenes.

While Voyager's Macbeth could provide a new approach to studying Shakespeare, I would not allow the CD-ROM to replace my interaction with the class as a whole. The interactive CD-ROM keeps students engaged and active; however, I feel the interaction of the classroom community might initially stir individual ideas and imagination better, allowing the students to develop their abilities to deconstruct a text and recreate the work in their own minds. Instead of exploration and student interpretation, the CD-ROM program feeds the students with valid, yet narrow information. Voyager's CD-ROM presents itself as a better resource tool than unit plan. As someone who enjoys reading and studying Shakespeare, I found the use of the CD refreshing and stimulating.

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