Macbeth
How to answer question expecting
analysis of a particular scene.
Questions from last three years
• Describe a section of a text you have studied
that created a strong sense of mood, suspense
or atmosphere AND analyse how this mood,
suspense or atmosphere was created.
• Analyse how the author’s presentation of ONE
important section / part changed your
opinion about a character / individual OR
issue.
• Analyse how techniques were used to
strongly affect your emotions in ONE or TWO
key sections.
Example scene: Act 5 Scene 5
•
For ease of analysis we can split the scene into three
•
Confidence
• SCENE V. Dunsinane. Within the castle.
• Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and
colours
Reminds us that he’s still king
• MACBETH
• Hang out our banners on the outward walls;
The cry is still 'They come:' our castle's strength
Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie
• Till famine and the ague eat them up:
Were they not forced with those that should be ours,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
• And beat them backward home.
• A cry of women within
• What is that noise?
General Explanation
• Hang out our banners on the outward
walls, because the enemy have arrived.
The strength of our castle will easily
withstand a siege; they will be beaten by
famine and disease if they besiege the
castle. If the English were not supported
by our own fellow Scotsmen, we could
have ridden out there and fronted them
face to face and beaten them backwards.
•
•
•
•
•
SEYTON
It is the cry of women, my good lord.
Exit
MACBETH
I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have
cool'd
• To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
• As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.
• I have almost forgotten what if feels like to
be scared. Once I would have been
startled by a night owl (like the night when
he killed Duncan) or a scary story. Now,
however, I have seen and done such
terrible things that nothing alarms me now.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Re-enter SEYTON
Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON
The queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
• I wish she could have died later not now,
then I could mourn – or she would have
died sooner or later. My life has become
boring and repetitive and goes on until the
end. Life is short like a candle’s flame - or
- her life was too short like a candle’s
flame. Life is just a shadow, something
lesser and incomplete that doesn’t last and
doesn’t get heard of again. Life often
involves stress and excitement and worry
but in the end doesn’t mean anything.
Question on techniques?
Analyse how techniques were used to strongly affect your emotions in ONE or TWO key sections.
Techniques
• Stage directions
• Sound Rhythm-Iambic pentameter
Alliteration
• Imagery
Metaphor
» Extended Metaphor
» Personification
Provides us with facts
Pleases the ear,
Rolls off the tongue
Paints pictures in reader’s head, creates mood,
atmosphere and tone depending on image.
• Vocabulary
Creates an image linked with something the
reader knows well - humanity
Emotive words – words with connotations –
positive or negative
• Symbolism
Using an object to represent something else –
makes it easier to understand.
Annotated extract
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
SCENE V. Dunsinane. Within the castle.
Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and colours
MACBETH
Hang out our banners on the outward walls;
The cry is still 'They come:' our castle's strength
Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie
Till famine and the ague eat them up:
Were they not forced with those that should be ours,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
And beat them backward home.
A cry of women within
What is that noise?
SEYTON
It is the cry of women, my good lord.
Exit
MACBETH
I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.
Re-enter SEYTON
Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON
The queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Reminds us that he’s still king
Pride
Pride, confidence, false pride, false confidence
Personification
Metaphor
Alliteration, vivid vocab, ‘beard’
Haunting – gives us facts
Metaphor
Personification
Metaphor
Personification
Personification / repetition
Metaphor
Symbolism – Queen’s life – Life
Personifcation Extended
Character referring to acting
Questions addressed
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Describe a section of a text you have studied that created a strong sense of mood, suspense or
atmosphere AND analyse how this mood, suspense or atmosphere was created.
Mood – Somber, impending doom – death – heavy – philosophical – contrasting with start
Suspense – What’s happened with wife, how did she die? Dramatic irony – we know that
one of the prophesies, concerning Birnham Wood, has come true. How is it going to end?
How is his Castle going to be conquered?
Atmosphere – Tense, introspective, heavy.
Setting
Plot
Analyse how the author’s presentation of ONE important section / part changed your
opinion about a character / individual OR issue.
We have experienced Macbeth’s strength, his weakness regarding ambition and
‘manhood’.
We have seen his ruthlessness and his manipulative prowess.
We have witnessed his journey to the dark side and the hardening of his good side.
Now we see over confidence and false pride – delusional?
Now we witness a self absorbed, philosophical Macbeth, who impresses us with his
consideration of one of life’s central questions, is it all worth the struggle? His sincere
reflection adds new depth to his character.
We also see how his reaction to losing his wife contrasts with Macduff’s reaction.
Analyse how techniques were used to strongly affect your emotions in 1or 2 key sections.