Essay Topics for Macbeth (100 points)
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In an essay of approximately 3 pages (longer or shorter as you are able to fully and clearly address the topic), choose
ONE of the following topics to discuss and support.
Make sure you SUPPORT each of your points.
Make sure to have at least 3 quotes (and, of course more is good…) to support your points (and cite the
Act.Scene.Lines for each).
Be careful to DISCUSS each point, quote, and piece of support you present.
Be consistent and conscientious about EXPLAINING HOW each of your quotes or examples supports your point; do
not assume that your reader will see the same connection that you do.
1. Manliness--what it is, who has it. Evaluate how gender and gender assumptions influence the characters actions and
comments. Your essay should discuss the ways in which Lady Macbeth and Macbeth swap gender roles over the
course of the play, including Lady Macbeth attacking Macbeth's manhood as part of her pressuring him, comments
from various characters on what is manly and what is the converse of manly. You should include what actions
characters take that are considered "manly" or not, how characters behave when they are being, to their own
perceptions "manly". Include analysis of how Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's relationship changes due to their gender
ideology.
2. Feminity--what it is, who has it, how it affects people's actions and perceptions. Evaluate the characters' attitudes
toward femininity and what this says about attitudes toward women. What does Lady Macbeth's "unsex me here"
speech say about the attitudes in Jacobian England and in the Scotland of the play toward women/feminity? Lady
Macbeth begins the play intend on being as unfeminine as possible in order to achieve her ends. Include discussion
the consequences of her choice and attitude and what this says about the time period's ideas about inherent gender.
Address the early hint of II.ii.12-13 "Had he not resembled/my father as he slept, I had done't." Include analysis of
how Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's relationship changes due to their gender ideology.
3. Evil/beastliness. Lady Macbeth starts as the harder, stronger, and becomes increasingly softer. Macbeth. starts
ambivalent, but becomes harder, more callous, until, at the end, he is a beast. The witches do not do this; the evil is
within us as people. Evaluate the ways in which the play develops this theme and analyze Shakespeare's presentation
of and contrast between humanity and beastliness by using two characters as your main examples.
4. Analyze the use of body part imagery by Lady Macbeth--she talks continually about breasts, milk, hands--evaluate
what this says about her character and what effect this specific set of imagery has on the play either through its impact
on character or thematically. Is it most related to gender? the baseness of the body? the contrast of the good and
comforting body parts she cites with the evil and corrupting context in which she cites them? (Some examples to
ponder: I.v.17-18, I.v.40-50, I.vii.54-59; II.ii.44,V.i.35-40,42-43,50-51)
5. Analyze Lady Macbeth's transformation from fearing Macbeth is too nice to fearing Macbeth. Find where you
believe this transformation begins, and where it solidifies. Evaluate what the causes are of this shift, and discuss how
the change comes about, pinpointing both where the transformation occurs and at what point Lady Macbeth becomes
aware of it.
6. Analyze how light and dark (darkness/night) work within the play. Discuss where these appear in the play, where
they influence the plot, the characters, the theme, the tone. Pay attention to how much of the play is spent in dark, in
light, and to characters' overt comments about them.
7. Analyze how the play presents its theme of meaninglessness and futility. How is this theme reflected in the plot, the
characters' actions and attitudes, and the language? Evaluate the most effective techniques and moments for
reinforcing this theme and discuss how these moments and the theme itself influence the way in which the play
functions on the audience.
Draft 1 of this essay is due IN CLASS on ____________________
Draft 2 is due TO THE TEACHER for grading on ____________________