Momence High School - Monesse Yearbook (Momence, IL)

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JUNIOR YEAR BOOK. 29 ALICE GRAY KALLANDER. Alice Gray Kallander was born Sept. 25, 1868. She attended the Mo- mence Public School, finishing the course and beginning to teach when seven¬ teen. She taught with the aim of saving enough to go at least one year to college, and in 1888 she entered Northwestern University. She found that any one who is really in earnest about an education will find many ways of helping one’s self, and for two years she acted as assistant to Professor Clark of the English department at the Northwestern. This gave an income besides being a fine drill in correcting and revising essays. Upon her graduation, she was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the only Greek letter society of America, which is recognized abroad; an honor given for scholarship. She taught about ten years mostly in Cook County, part of the time in grade work, part in High School work at Blue Island and here in Momence. She is an enthusiastic teacher, one who regards teaching as her profession, and teaching in general as a work which, in importance, is second only to that of the mother. LADY MACBETH. ESS A Y BY DEN A MILLER. In the first act of the great drama, Shakespeare introduces Lady Macbeth. She is reading a letter from herworior husband who tells of his great success in the field of battle and also of a temptation that has come to him; for on account of his great popularity, he can easily become the ruler by doing away with the present king, Duncan. Lady MacBeth’s reception of this epistle brings out two of her chief char¬ acteristics: her great love for her husband, which makes his slightest wish her deepest desire; and her ambition for fame and honor for herself and Macbeth, which is so great that it makes her ignore the means of obtaining it. Lady Macbeth never had any vague, half-formed plans. With her to think was to act. She knows Macbeth’s nature perfectly. She knows how badly he wants to be king and how he would so like to keep his honor, too. She knows that he will never do anything if he is not urged, so she resolves to encourage and sustain him in his evil designs. When she is suddenly informed by a messenger that her husband is coming home, and that the king is about to honor them by a visit, she is quick to real¬ ize her opportunity. She summons all her self-control, deadens all her natural pity, and boldly encourages Macbeth to kill his king. I rged on by her lc : and by his own desire, he, finally, reasons himself into believing that this is the time for action, but he keeps deciding not to do it. and has to l e eonstantlv

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MRS. ALICE KALLANDAR

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30 JUNIOR YEAR BOOK. urged on by his wife. She plans the murder, prepares the room for the king, drugs his servants, and would have committed the murder herself, but the gray¬ haired king, sleeping so peacefully and trustfully, reminded her of her father, and she could not harm him. Leaving the groom’s dagger handy so that every¬ thing would be easy, she sends Macbeth to do the deed, and waits for him till he returns. In his hurried exit from the room after killing Duncan, her husband brings the accusing daggers with him. Here the height of Lady Macbeth’s daring and dogged determination is shown. She seizes the daggers from the trembling Macbeth, and returns to the murdered man and deliber¬ ately sprinkles blood from him upon the sleeping servants in attendance and drops the daggeis upon their beds. As anticipated Macbeth is chosen successor to King Duncan, and so Lady Macbeth is crowned Queen of Scotland, but the poor woman is exceedingly un¬ happy; for she repents most bitterly having caused the death of the king. Nor is this all or even the worst of her troubles. Having begun his career in wick¬ edness Macbeth is obliged to continue in the same path. He no longer needs her physical encouragement to carry out his plans, but her mental acquiescence is craved and she freely gives it. At a great state banquet the newly crowned king is badly upset by the ghost of one of his recent victims. Here, the queen, her ever quick sympathy divining the cause of his disturbance, shields her lord from criticism of the guests and finally dismisses them, saying the king is sick. The cause of the king’s “sickness” is soon guessed and, his real char¬ acter being known, the people turn against him, and the rightful heir takes possession of the throne by force of arms. When Macbeth is trying to retain the throne, and win back the admiration of the people by the brilliancy of his military genius, but is failing, Lady Macbeth strives to keep him up. She evi¬ dently writes him long letters and encourages him, for while excitement is at the highest she begins walking in her sleep. She will first sit and write a letter then while still asleep, she lives over and over the horrors she has seen; first she thinks she is washing Duncan’s blood from her hands, then, she is assuring her husband that he has not seen a ghost at the banquet, then, she remembers a woman that has been killed in the general campaign, then, she goes back to some particular in the first murder, and from that to something else. It is in this scene that we first thoroly realize how keenly she suffers, and how she has forced herself to be cruel and wicked, just because she thot it was best for her husband. Her mind finally gives way under the strain, and, just as her husband is watching the approach of a great force toward his last weakly manned castle, Lady Macbeth was reported dead and rumor said that it was greatly feared that she had committed suicide. At heart Lady Macbeth was never really wicked, and it is indeed a shame that so forceful and yet so loving a character, should have been so misled by circumstances, that she was referred to as, “his fiend-like queen.”