• Act 4 Scene 1

Thunder – pathetic fallacy

“something wicked this way comes” – then Macbeth enters. Confirming his evil nature.

The ingredients of the cauldron (“finger of birth strangled babe” highlights  the grotesque, murderous nature of the witches and we are reminded of the evil that Macbeth has conspired with. The alliteration of the plosive b not only highlights the ingredients and so repulses the reader, but it also shows their murderous nature. Macbeth is conspiring with evil.

A03 – Shakespeare wrote this play for Queen Elizabeth – therefore he is not ever going to condone regicide. When Macbeth sees the 8 kings, this is referring to real royal history and the previous 8 kings. Act 4 Scene 1 delves back into royal history.

Macbeth: “Seize upon Fife, give to the edge o the sword his wife, his babes…”

Act 4 Scene 2:

Bird imagery ‘flies’ once again : Lady MacDuff compares herself to a “wren” and the incoming danger an “owl”. AO2

Ross compares life under MacBeth’s rule as a “wild and violent sea”.

Irony is that Lady MacDuff calls her husband a traitor for leaving – she is totally innocent and has no doubts regarding Macbeth. This highlights how barbaric Macbeth’s actions are.

The conversation between Lady MacDuff and her son (repetition of the word “traitor” four times in a few lines) not only highlights her innocence and allegiance to the King, but also provides a stark warning to the Jacobean audience of the consequences of being a traitor.

Peer notes:

Act 3 Scene 4

• Macbeths conscience is catching up with him
• “Our hostess keeps her state”
• Lady Macbeth has realise what she had done whereas Macbeth is on a murderous spree and is taking advantage of the power
• “thou are the best o’s the cut throats” that highlights Macbeths barbarity
• Macbeth thinks that Banquo is in the seat
• “Are you a man” Lady Macbeth sees masculinity as perfection
  . Reference to Act 1 Scene 5 where she says “unsex me”.

• “With 20 mortal murders on their hands” metaphor.
• Lady Macbeth is trying to say to Macbeth you’ve been a fool/ you’re making a idiot of yourself.
• Lady Macbeth is questioning why Macbeth is sane but she is breaking down .
• Root word: Blood
• Throughout the play the word blood is being repeated.
• Blood becomes a metaphor for guilt later on when Lady Macbeth is talking about getting the blood off her hands from murdering Duncan.
• Macbeth mentions night which is associated with Duncan’s murder.
• “I keep a servant fee’d” this tells us that Mabeth is sneaky, cunning etc.
• Macbeth is admirable because of his ambition
• “I am in blood…should I wade no more” the word choice of wade. How many murders Macbeth has committed.

 

 

Act 3 Scene 5

• Pathetic fallacy of thunder when the witches enter
• Hecate is against Macbeth saying that they have given him too much power.
•  “he shall spurn fate, corn death, and bear his hopes ‘both wisdom, grace and fear”
• Onomatoepia “hark”

Exemplar Paragraph that addresses all 3 AOs

Informed response/Quote/Analyse lang/ Historical context

 

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as someone who values loyalty above all else. This is shown when she informs Macbeth that if she had made a promise to him to commit infanticide, she would. Moreover she shows her passionate loyalty by describing graphically how violently she would commit an act tht she had promised him: “I would…have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums”. The word choice of “pluck’d” has connotations of aggression, anger and causing distress, it is an unnatural action this suggests that Lady Macbeth would happily perform an act aggressively, showing her anger and she would without question cause distress (to an innocent child nonetheless). Also this shows how unnatural Lady Macbeth is, as her actions are unnatural as suggested by the word choice of “pluck”. Lady Macbeth is also unnatural in the Jacobean world. Firstly it is unnatural for any woman to wish to kill her child, however even more so in the Jacobean era as a woman’s main role was childbirth and rearing children. She rejects this role, and also shows her disgust at it by describing such a grotesque act thus shocking the audience and highlighting her unease in performing and adhering to the expectations of a Jacobean woman.

Act 3 Scene 1 end

Again heaven is referenced. There are frequent references to heaven and hell/ religion in this play. (Conscience)

Act 3 Scene 2

Both LM and M are worried – guilty consciences are unfolding. They are drifting apart.

Macbeth references “Hecate” – Greek Goddess of magic, communicating with the dead and crossroads.

The word “bloody” is used again

Macbeth refers to the night and wishing the night to conceal his evil crimes: “Come seeling night, scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day”

LINKS TO PREVIOUS

Macbeth: “make our faces vizerds to our hearts, Disgusting what they are”. Here Macbeth is showing awareness of his wrong deeds, he does have a conscience.

Act 3 Scene 3 – the murder of Banquo

Fleance has escaped. (The prophecy can still come true)

 

 

Act 3 Scene 1

(MacDuff is Macbeth’s best friend, Banquo was with Macbeth when the witches delivered their prophecy)

A soliloquy too is a lengthy speech delivered or presented by an individual character of a play. It is not aimed at a particular audience, other characters of the drama or the real audience of viewers, but is shared by the real audience. A soliloquy is presented by a single character to himself/herself as an expression of his/her inner thoughts to himself/herself. Shakespeare considerably used soliloquies and they became outdated when the English drama started to move towards realism.

dramatic monologue (one character speaking to another)

• Banquo – “I fear, thou play’dst moust foully for’t” This shows Banquo suspicion that Macbeth was involved in foul deeds to ascend the throne.
• Banquo – “my duties are with a most indissoluble tie for ever knit” – this highlights Banquo’s loyalty to Macbeth, despite previous acknowledging his suspicion of Macbeth
  We are about to witness the complete dissolving of Macbeth/ “brave Macbeth”.
  (Shakespeare has written a play, with the maind audience of Queen Elizabeth, warning of the dangers of regicide. This is a pro monarchy text)
• Macbeth’s conversation with Banquo shows that Macbeth takes no responsibility for the murder.  He is dealing in lies and dishonesty even to Banquo who was present at the prophecy.
• Very quickly Macbeth in his soliloquy in Act 3 scene 1 justifies his arranged murder of Banquo: “a barren sceptre in my gripe thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand.” Macbeth on assuming the throne is once against consorting with evil and murder. Despite being King, he is not finished with his murderous rampage, showing that ambition and power is never truly attained by someone but it corrupts.
• Control has consumed Macbeth
• Macbeth manipulates the First murderer against Banquo: “it was he [Banquo], in the times past, which held you so under fortune”
• Only a few days Banquo and Macbeth were comrades. The sudden change shows Macbeth real, underlying character.
• Macbeth finally, towards the end of his discussion with the murderers also commands: “Fleance his son…must embrace the fate of that dark hour”. The fact that this is decreed y Macbeth at the end of Act 3 scene 1 shows that Fleance is simply an afterthought to Macbeth showing his careless disregard for life. Furthermore it shows his cunning character as he is trying to destroys the possibilities of the witches’ prophecy regarding Banquo and his children of coming true. In addition Fleance is a child, the fact that Macbeth can order the innocent child’s murder without much thought shows his evil and barbaric nature.

The play so far:

1. We meet the witches
2. In Scene 2 we meet Duncan the king and others who talked positively about Macbeth who has been fighting and won the war against Norway. The Thane of Cawdor was found to be a traitor helping the Norwegians and so he was executed. Macbeth becomes the Thane of Cawdor. The Thane of Cawdor is associated with being a traitor (foreshadows Macbeth’s deeds).
3. We finally meet Macbeth (and MacDuff) as he meets the Witches, thus associating Macbeth with the supernatural and evil.  We know the witches are evil as they have described what they did to other victims.
4. Macbeth kills the king because lady Macbeth told him to and because they both want to become king and queen. Macbeth kills him in his home but if someone is coming into your home you are meant to welcome them instead Macbeth kills his cousin King Duncan in his own home and puts the blame on his soldiers. This shows Macbeth to be heartless, savage and cruel. He assumed the ‘role’ of Thane of Cawdor really quickly. Macbeth has been manipulated by Lady Macbeth as initially he warned “that we but teach bloody instructions…returned to plague the inventor”
5.  Macbeth and Macduff have a battle because Macduff has found out that Macbeth has gone a murderous rampage.
6.  Lady Mabeth is presented as evil. We see this when she is associated with the “ravens”. In contrast to Duncan who was associated the “martlet”

 

Act 2 Scene 3

• The alarm is raised that the King has been murdered.
• The porter begins the scene and makes reference to the Devil – this sets the atmosphere and confirms that evil has been committed. Perhaps this highlights that we have entered ‘hell’.
• Macbeth etc. discuss the murder of the King, and Macbeth divulges that he has killed (however the audience is aware that Macbeth has committed murder) the King’s two guards for the supposed regicide.
• The King’s sons (Malcolm etc.) flee to England for fear that they will be killed next.  This paves the way for Macbeth to succeed and be crowned King.
• Macbeth: “his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature” – The vivid description provided by Macbeth shows, through his method of killing Duncan, his intent to kill Duncan and his savage nature. Firstly the word choice of “gash’d” highlights the serious nature of Duncan’s injuries, and their depth and grotesqueness. It also suggests the pain caused to Duncan in his murder. This shows the severe nature of Macbeth’s attack on Duncan – he did not simply murder him clinically, instead he use great, brute force and aggression when committing regicide. Furthermore the imagery created by the phrase: “breach in nature” further highlights the barbarity involved in Duncan’s murder. It shows the real intent by Macbeth to kill the King, and we are left to question Macbeth’s supposed initial unwillingness to kill the king, once we hear of the great effort and savagery he used when he did commit the act.
   
  Act 2 Scene 4
   
• Again the word “bloody” is mentioned, this time by Ross.  The word “bloody” seeps through the text, constantly reminding the reader of the “bloody” and murderous acts that pervade the texts and its characters.
• Old Man: “A falcon, towering in her place of pride, was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d” – Duncan is compared to a falcon, and Macbeth a “mousing owl”.
  Just as a falcon is…. So Duncan is described as…
  Just as a mousing owl…so Macbeth is portrayed as…
• The supernatural element continues when we the death is described as “unnatural” and we are told of Duncan’s horses bolting. These references help the audience understand the incredible severity of the actions undertaken by Macbeth and LM

1 year until you sit incredibly important exams. It is never too late, but the later you leave it, the harder it is.