ESSAY 1
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes
Check the AS
Check the explanatory notes
Check the exam specification
Analyse how…
• Analyse how Macbeth changed from
good to bad.
– Don’t describe the change. (Level 1)
– What caused the change?
– What were the consequences?
• For Macbeth?
• For other characters?
• For Scotland?
The nature of his change.
• “Brave Macbeth”
• “Valiant cousin, worthy
gentleman”
• “A peerless kinsman”
• “Worthy Thane”
• “O full of scorpions in
my mind.”
• Murderer – D, B, LM
• “Usurper”
• “Tyrant”
• “Hell-hound”
• “Acurs’d hand”
• “The devil himself could
not pronounce a title
more hateful to mine
ear.”
What causes Macbeth to change?
• Ambition.
• Lady Macbeth’s influence.
• Reliance on the weird sisters’ prophecies.
– A reliance on superstition in general.
• Visions – the dagger, Banquo’s ghost
• Unwillingness to face the truth.
– Linked with his reliance on the weird sisters’
prophecies.
• Fear and paranoia.
• Hubris.
An essay plan
Content
Paragraph
introduction
Ambition
influence of Lady Macbeth
reliance on the supernatural
hubris
fear and paranoia
conclusion
Writing the introduction
(1)
States title and author
Uses the language of the
question
In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the
main character, Macbeth, changed
to in the
Outlines the change
become less admirable. He wentcharacter
from
being a loyal, brave Thane to a
murderous, bloodthirsty tyrant. He
changed because of the witches, his
wife and his ambition. I think his wife
was the most important factor in
making him change to become less
admirable.
YUK!
Shows a personal response
Clearly attacks the question
What are THREE things you can do
to improve this banal introduction?
How can you make this more engaging?
In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the
main character, Macbeth, changed to
become less admirable. He went from
being a loyal, brave Thane to a
murderous, bloodthirsty tyrant. He
changed because of the witches, his
wife and his ambition. I think his wife
was the most important factor in
making him change to become less
admirable.
Writing the introduction (2)
• Don’t do the obvious.
– Use a quotation.
– “Unpack” it.
– Attack the question and foreshadow your
approach.
• No shopping lists.
– Create a bridge to your first paragraph.
• Don’t use the first person or second person.
– Refer to the audience
• Mention the historical context if it is relevant.
Now write ONE paragraph
• Either the introduction or one body
paragraph.
• Maybe focus on the influence of Lady
Macbeth.
• Write ONE paragraph now.
– 5 minutes and 9 seconds.
• Go beyond simple SEXY structure.
– SEXYXYY for example.
– Embed quotations into your own sentences.
Just scraping through…
Lady Macbeth is important in causing
Macbeth to change from being loyal to
disloyal. She is the one who encourages
Macbeth to take action to make the
weird sisters’ prophecy come true. She
says to him, “But screw your courage to
the sticking place and we’ll not fail.”
This shows that she is determined while
he has doubts about killing Duncan.
Did you notice the SEXY structure?
Remember the AS descriptors
“convincing” and “insight”
• Lady Macbeth is evil. She refers to hell and
sounds a bit like one of the witches.
• Because Lady Macbeth calls on “the
dunnest smokes of hell” to conceal her
deeds, she alienates herself from the
Globe’s audience, which would have been
very superstitious as well as religious in
Shakespeare’s time. Her dialogue may
remind the audience of a call for devilish
inspiration that seems like the incantations
of the weird sisters: “Come thick night…”
To conclude…
• Don’t write the same introduction that
1000s of other students will write.
– “In the drama script Macbeth written by
William Shakespeare…” YUK! YUK! YUK!
• Go beyond simple SEXY paragraphs.
– Integrate quotations
– Give two examples
– Draw more than one conclusion (Y)
LADY MACBETH AND THE WITCHES
•
By praying to the ‘murdering ministers’
and calling upon the ‘dunnest smokes of
hell’ to conceal her deeds, she alienates
herself from the Globe’s audience,
which would have been very
superstitious and religious during
Shakespeare’s time.
•
Her dialogue was very similar to the
witches. when calling ‘Come thick
night..’ Lady Macbeth would have
reminded the Elizabethan audience of a
call for devilish inspiration that seems like
the incantations of the weird sisters.
Personifies evil
•
•
•
‘unsex me here, And fill me from the
crown to the toe top full Of direst
cruelty’- immediately aligns herself with
the witches, the supernatural and witch
craft.
"Have pluck'd my nipple from his
boneless gums,/ And dash'd the brains
out." – most horrific act during
Elizabethan era.
During the Elizabethan era, women
were not thought capable of
committing murder and to kill ones own
child would have been the ultimate act
of tyranny. Lady Macbeth was a
depraved and heartless woman, that
would have shocked the Globe’s
superstitious and religious audience.
Manipulative
•
Immediately after receiving Macbeth’s letter regarding the witches, Lady
Macbeth fears her husband is “too full o' the milk of human kindness.”
•
What does this reveal about her personality?
•
Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth by suggesting masculinity is
synonymous with “direst cruelty”. She convinces her waffling husband that
"When you durst do it, then you were a man.”
Men during the Elizabethan era were battle hardened soldiers, whose
efficiency at killing is ultimately what earned them status. This is made clear at
the very beginning of the play when Macbeth is made Thane of Cawdor
when “with his brandish'd steel, Which smoked with bloody execution,…
unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, And fix'd his head upon our
battlements.” It is hardly surprising that Lady Macbeths attack on his
masculinity and inability to commit a murder proves to be the final nudge
Reinforces argument
Macbeth needs to kill King Duncan.
•
Historical context
Woven quote
LADY MACBETH WAS ALL
TALK- COULDN’T MAN UP!
• What happened to Lady Macbeth?
Soon after the murder of Duncan, Lady Macbeth disappears into the margins and becomes
a weak and feeble figure in the play. By Act V Lady Macbeth is reduced to a figure who
sleepwalks, continuously tries to wash the imaginary blood from her hands and talks of
murder in her sleep. She's grown so ill that the doctor says there's nothing he can do to help
her. "The disease," he says, "is beyond" his "practice," and what Lady Macbeth needs is "the
divine" (a priest or, God), not a "physician" (5.1.12-13).
•
Lady Macbeth is so consumed by guilt for her evil acts that she eventually loses her
mind. We can also say that her transformation (from a powerful and "unnaturally"
masculine figure into an enfeebled woman) is significant insofar as it re-establishes a
sense of "natural" gender order in the play. In other words, Lady Macbeth is put in her
place as a woman (remember the Ptolemaic system- natural harmony will always restore
itself). In other words, Lady Macbeth is put in her place as a woman – she's no longer the
dominant partner in her marriage and Macbeth makes all the decisions while she
sleepwalks through the palace. However we read Lady Macbeth's transformation, one
thing's certain.
Ambition
•
“My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not. (1.3.9)
-After the weird sisters predict that Macbeth will be king, his thoughts turn to
"murder," which the sisters have said nothingabout. Could it be that the witches'
prophesy awakens within Macbeth a murderous ambition that was there all
along?
•
MACBETH
[Aside] The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. (1.4.4)
-By the time Malcolm is proclaimed Prince of Cumberland and heir to the throne of Scotland,
Macbeth is willing to push all morality aside. He knows that killing Duncan in order to become
king is wrong, which is why he says it's necessary to hide his "black and deep" desires. Here,
ambition is portrayed as something dark and ugly.
Ambition
•
thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it: (1.5.1)
After reading the letter from her husband (which recounts the witches' prophesy), Lady
Macbeth's thoughts immediately turn to murder. In her mind, Macbeth must take action if he
is to become king. Macbeth, she says, is certainly not without "ambition." The problem, as
Lady Macbeth sees it, is that her husband is too "kind" to do what's necessary to achieve
"great[ness].“
•
MACBETH
[…] I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other. (1.7.1
As Macbeth deliberates, he realizes that "vaulting ambition" is all that compels him to the
heinous act of murdering Duncan and that his intent is nothing but personal gain. This is not
enough to justify the act of killing a king, which is why he resolves to not go through with it
after this speech. Of course, we know that Macbeth (with some encouragement from his
wife) does murder Duncan.
Ambition
•
ROSS
'Gainst nature still!
Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up
Thine own life's means! Then 'tis most like
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. (2.4.6)
Here, Ross implies that ambition leads to the most unnatural acts as he accuses Duncan's
sons of being "ambition" personified. Ambition, he suggests, is a cannibal that goes "'gainst
nature" to kill its father and "raven up" or, devour the very man who gave it life.
•
MACBETH
[…] For mine own good
All causes shall give way. I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er. (3.4.24)
By comparing his heinous actions to wading through a bloody river, Macbeth suggests that
once a man commits a murderous act for his own gain, it's impossible to stop. Turning back
would be "tedious." By this point, Macbeth is willing to anything in order to help himself and it's
becomes easier for him to commit evil deeds. According to Macbeth, he's got to look out for
his own best interests.
Belief in the supernatural
•
Aside] Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.--I thank you, gentlemen.
Aside
Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Upon hearing the news, Macbeth assumes the witches' prediction that he will become king
will also come true and, here, he eagerly looks forward to his future (the "imperial theme").
What's so striking about this passage is not that Macbeth thinks about murder (he's a warrior
and in the world of the play, murder and violence are going all around him) but, rather, that
Macbeth is horrified by his own thoughts. The witches never say anything to Macbeth about
murdering Duncan in order to make the prediction come true – Macbeth thinks of that all on
his own.
Belief in the supernatural
•
MACBETH
[Aside] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,
Without my stir. (1.3.10)
Here, Macbeth seems content to leave his future to "chance.“
•
MACBETH
[Aside] The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
Macbeth seemed content to sit back and let his fate unfold. But, once he learns that King
Duncan has named Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland and heir to the crown of Scotland,
Macbeth decides that he must take action or, "o'erleap" what now appears to obstruct his
path to the throne.
Who is responsible?
There have been many debates over who is ultimately responsible for the downfall of
Macbeth. Many critics argue that Macbeth is the victim of Lady Macbeth’s unyielding
ambition and the influence of the witches, while others believe it was Macbeth’s powerful
imagination coupled with his mental fragility that resulted in his demise. Ambition is also
regularly alluded to when discussing Macbeth’s fatal flaw.
Task:
Those of you that have finished your Macbeth common assessment tasks will be split into
groups. Each group will be assigned a possible cause for Macbeth’s tragic fall from grace. In
these groups you will present a brief discussion, arguing why your cause is ultimately
responsible for Macbeth’s demise.
Causes:
1. Lady Macbeth
2. The witches
3. Macbeth’s active imagination, resulting in fear and paranoia
4. Ambition (Macbeth and Lady Macbeth).