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.