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Shelagh Hubbard
Series Editors: Sue Bennett and Dave Stockwin
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
study
revise
and
for GCSE
Contents
- Getting the most from this guide - 1 Introduction
- 2 Context
- 3 Plot and structure
- 4 Characterisation
- 5 Themes
- 6 Language, style and analysis
- 7 Tackling the exams
- 8 Assessment Objectives and skills
- 10 Top ten
- Wider reading
- Answers
Characterisation
An ambitious man
Macbeth’s fatal flaw is his ambition, which is galvanised by the witches’ prediction that he will become Thane of Cawdor and then king.
Does Shakespeare offer clues that Macbeth already had unspoken desires to be king? He reacts to the witches’ words by starting in surprise, then falling into spellbound silence. What might be going through his head?
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When Macbeth receives the news that one of their promises has already come true, his thoughts immediately turn to murder, though he decides to leave fulfilment of the prediction to chance.
Key quotation …Why do I yield to that suggestion, Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs… (1.3 133–135)
Compare Macbeth’s aside in Act 1 scene 3 lines 129–141 to his similarly dark words at the end of Act 1 scene 4. This speech combines the theme of fate (the witches, the timing of Duncan’s announcements) with the strength of his sinful ambition to be the king.
Easily manipulated
Macbeth’s response to the witches and Lady Macbeth’s role in overcoming his crises of conscience suggest that he is, in the beginning, easily manipulated. Lady Macbeth recognises his ambition but also sees the obstacles to achieving what he wants. Her words imply that Macbeth is too good a man to go out and get something which is, at root, wrong. Yet she is sure she can change his mind. (See Plot and structure p. 17.)
Shakespeare clearly shows Macbeth being propelled towards evil by his wife. When he backtracks, listing reasons he should not commit the murder, she uses verbal and emotional arguments to persuade him, such as calling him a coward, questioning his manliness and reassuring him that their guilt can be concealed (Act 1 scene 7 lines 28–78). Despite his better judgement, he goes ahead with a murder which he knows is wrong.
However, although Macbeth may be manipulated by his wife in Acts 1 and 2, he goes on to murder Banquo without her input or knowledge. This manipulation is also an exploration of the nature of free will (see Context p. 9).
Key quotation …I fear thy nature… is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness… (1.5 14–15)
Key quotation …thou wouldst be great …but without the illness should attend it… That wouldst thou holily… (1.5 16–20)
The key quotation on p. 36 is a good example of how Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a puzzle for the audience. Is it good to be able to kill so brutally on the battlefield? What links the witches, apparently in league with the devil, with Macbeth?
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Macbeth
A man with a conscience Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a true tragic hero because of the combination of good and evil in his character. He does some appalling things, yet his conscience and imagination trouble and punish him. We see this through Shakespeare’s use of soliloquies (see Language, style and analysis pp. 62–63). Any essay about Macbeth’s character will require close attention to how Shakespeare presents his changing character through these speeches. Macbeth’s guilty conscience is revealed by means of subconscious imaginings and visions. His imagination is obvious from his first encounter with the witches (Act 1 scene 3), when he visualises murdering Duncan. However, the witches are not imaginary as Banquo also sees them and hears their words. Macbeth’s guilty conscience before he kills Duncan is shown in his visions of accusing angels and cherubs (see Language, style and analysis p. 65), the dagger (see Plot and structure pp. 19–20), and the stones speaking out and giving him away. Macbeth imagines night falling and the creatures of evil, ‘night’s black agents’, gathering in the darkness as Banquo’s murder is imminent. Afterwards he imagines ways the murder (‘man of blood’) might be revealed: moving stones, speaking trees, birds of ill omen. At the end of this scene, Shakespeare uses a powerful image of Macbeth crossing a river of blood. …I am in blood
Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
(3.4 136–138) Banquo’s ghost is more a matter for debate – is it a product of Macbeth’s imagination? It could actually be there, though it is true that no one else sees anything sitting in Macbeth’s own chair. Macbeth’s second encounter with the witches and the apparitions they show him in Act 4 scene 1 could also be interpreted as imaginary.
One interpretation of the play, sometimes explored in performance, is that the witches are ever present, for example, lending their powers to Lady Macbeth, dangling the dagger and setting the scene for Banquo’s murder. Either they seem to drive him almost mad, which means they must shoulder the blame for his actions, or his own deeds do, which means what happens is his fault. Which of these interpretations seems more valid to you, and why?
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Key quotation Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout… (2.1 56–58)
Macbeth
his death is certain, rather than be called a coward or taken prisoner, so there are elements of the hero still present at his death. However, the final scene remembers him as a usurper, cursed, a tyrant and a butcher.
Lady Macbeth Shakespeare presents the heroine as a stronger character than her husband for much of the first half of the play, a reversal of the typical gender roles of the time. However, by the end, any initial judgement that she is a kind of tragic heroine in her own right has long been dismissed.
A fourth weird sister? Lady Macbeth is introduced as she reads the letter Macbeth has sent, describing his meeting with the witches. She is presented as both decisive and brutal in her reasoning that, in order for Macbeth to become king, he must murder Duncan.
Key quotation Hie thee hither That I may…chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round. (1.5 23–26)
Unlike Macbeth, she does not reflect on reservations of conscience. Whereas Macbeth was chosen by the weird sisters and tempted by their promise, she invites them into her body – and indeed her soul – as she summons the evil spirits to ‘unsex her’ and to take away her ability to nurture children: in other words, to make her into a man capable of doing such evil. Look closely at Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act 1 scene 5 (lines 36–52). The speech is central to your understanding of her character. It is discussed on p. 17. There is also an extract-based essay answer on pp. 84–92. Her closeness to her husband is unquestionable. Bear in mind that there are few female characters in the play and Lady Macbeth’s only relationship is shown to be that with her husband. Directors interpret the physical relationship between the couple differently. Her deviousness and powers of manipulation are obvious: when Duncan arrives, she conceals her thoughts and acts the perfect hostess as she welcomes him into her home for his final night on earth. She entertains him while her husband leaves the room to grapple with his conscience.
Remember that all female roles, including Lady Macbeth, would have been played by boy actors in Shakespeare’s time. What implications of this can you see for the scenes with Macbeth and his wife?
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On the surface, Lady Macbeth – with her strength of character and her murderous intentions – is far from a stereotypical woman, and yet what impressions of her do you form from her soliloquy in Act 1 scene 5? Is she basically a loyal and supportive wife? Is she really evil if she needs to call for the help of the devil to kill? Is she ambitious for herself?
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Characterisation
Practical and cold
Lady Macbeth’s contribution to Duncan’s murder goes beyond ensuring her husband’s will to do it. She makes all the practical arrangements, lays out the daggers and drugs the king’s guards. Perhaps here, when she is alone as Macbeth goes to do the deed, Shakespeare hints at a chink in her armour: her words reveal that she has been drinking to overcome her fear, and also show that she has some ‘feminine’ feelings of affection.
Key quotation Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done’t. (2.2 12–13)
Once Macbeth is back, quite clearly beside himself with guilt, her strength returns. There is a symbiotic element to their relationship: she is presented as stronger when he needs her – when he is most weak. As the play unfolds, we see them drift away from each other: his career of tyranny continues without her support and she falls apart.
Shakespeare contrasts Lady Macbeth’s earlier confident statement that
A little water clears us of this deed. (2.2 70)
with her demented handwashing in the sleepwalking scene to demonstrate the extent of her disintegration.
When Macbeth’s bizarre eulogy to Duncan looks as if it could cause suspicion, Lady Macbeth fakes a faint to draw attention away from him – or does she? Is this another sign of the weakness which will lead to her final breakdown? In performances you have seen, which interpretation does each director choose?
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A tormented soul
After Act 3 scene 4 we see little of Lady Macbeth as her husband continues on his trail of terror without her support. Presumably Shakespeare wished to maintain the focus on Macbeth but her absence also suggests the decline in their relationship. Without him needing her strength, there is nothing left for her to do but dwell on their deeds. Whatever strength she gained from the spirits ultimately cannot protect her from her conscience and she becomes mentally disturbed.
Some discussion of the symbiotic element of the Macbeths’ relationship
- swapping roles and characteristics
- would show your understanding of the dramatic structure of the play.
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p In some productions Lady Macbeth uses her charms to seduce her husband into committing the murder that, on his own, he would never have done.
Characterisation
Shakespeare’s decision to open the play with the short scene where the witches plan to meet Macbeth is dramatically very effective. It establishes a dark, evil atmosphere, while the reference to the names of their familiars, Graymalkin and Paddock, would have shown a contemporary audience beyond doubt that they are in league with the devil. They talk of a battle – so the immediate background of the play is of chaos, fighting and death.
The witches express themselves in a spell-like rhyme and rhythm with words that are riddles.
With the witches, nothing is what it appears. Directors have cast them as hideous old women, beautiful young ones and even children. Banquo describes them as ‘withered’, with ‘skinny lips’ and beards. They would have been played by men in Shakespeare’s time, so might actually have had beards. (See Context p. 10.) On film they have appeared out of nowhere. On stage they have moved around on roller skates. How would you present the witches in the first scene?
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Most important of all, they want Macbeth – and they get him.
Temptation
The witches’ love of mischief and the promises they make to Macbeth and Banquo are discussed in detail in Plot and structure (Act 1 scene 3) on pp. 14–16.
Do you think the effect this information will have on the two men is predictable? The witches promise Macbeth the crown, then immediately snatch it away by promising the succession to his best friend. It is bound to lead to trouble: the carnage that follows must delight these trouble-makers.
Pure evil
Ignoring Act 3 scene 5, as this is frequently cut from performances, the witches’ final encounter follows Macbeth’s traumatic experience with Banquo’s ghost when he returns to gain reassurance about the future.
The spell they recite as they concoct their poisonous sounding potion would have reinforced beliefs about the power of witches in the seventeenth century, and still has enormous dramatic impact today.
Key quotation When the battle’s lost, and won. (1.1 4) Fair is foul, and foul is fair. (1.1 12)
How much further influence do the witches exert? Do they ‘sow the seed’ and then leave Macbeth to do the rest? How is Lady Macbeth linked with them? Are they an ever present influence on events?
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Macbeth
Key quotation For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. (4.1 18–19)
The greatest indicator of their evil intentions comes in the form of the three predictions made by the apparitions (see Plot and structure p. 26). The witches refer to these apparitions as ‘our masters’, so are these words meant to come straight from the devil himself? Here the witches really do seem to be ‘the fiends that lie like truth’, as Macbeth later calls them when he realises they have tricked him.
King Duncan and his sons, Malcolm and
Donalbain
King Duncan If the witches symbolise the power of the devil, Shakespeare uses Duncan and his sons to represent God’s power on earth. They represent order to the witches’ chaos. Duncan’s first appearance shows him receiving news from the battlefield, where the Scottish army is holding off Norwegian invaders in league with Scottish traitors. He is full of praise and gratitude for the bravery of Macbeth and Banquo. He is benevolent and caring: he sends for a surgeon for the wounded captain who has brought the news. He is judgemental too, punishing the traitor Thane of Cawdor by death and rewarding Macbeth with the title.
p Duncan meeting Macbeth in person.
Some directors show the witches still present at the end of the play, an on-going threat to Malcolm’s apparent restoration of order to Scotland. What would you choose to do?
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If you have the opportunity to write about the witches for your exam task, referring to context, language and performed versions of the play should help you present a well- informed view.
GRADE BOOSTER
Macbeth
Malcolm gains importance when Macduff visits him in England. This long and complex scene invites us to compare Malcolm with Macbeth and Duncan, and eventually shows Malcolm to be a morally impeccable man, the right choice to free Scotland from the tyranny of an evil king.
Key quotation …I am yet Unknown to woman; never was forsworn; …At no time broke my faith…and delight No less in truth than life. My first false speaking Was this upon myself. (4.3 125–131)
He assembles a combined force of English soldiers and Scots who desert Macbeth to fight alongside the rightful heir. He is presented as resourceful as his is the ingenious idea of cutting down the trees of Birnam Wood to use as camouflage. He sends Siward’s troops into the castle first and he and Macduff follow on: he is clearly presented as more of a warrior king than his father. He concludes the play with a model speech, restoring right and order to Scotland. Like Duncan, he punishes the bad and rewards the good. …what needful else That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,
We will perform in measure, time and place.
(5.9 38–40)
Donalbain Duncan’s younger son disappears after the murder and never returns. His function is to show Duncan as the father of sons (as also are Banquo, Macduff and Siward) in contrast to Macbeth’s childlessness. The reason he is not on stage at the end is less to do with Shakespeare’s forgetfulness as the limited number of actors in the theatre company. The same actor who was Donalbain in Acts 1 and 2 might well have been playing the Doctor, Siward, or any other soldier by Act 5.
Banquo and his son, Fleance At the start of the play Banquo is coupled with Macbeth as a great general and fearless soldier. Their characters quickly become distinct when they meet the witches. Macbeth is immediately intrigued by their words whereas Banquo is sceptical and speaks a prophetic warning to Macbeth.
Just as Duncan and Malcolm’s purpose is to contrast with Macbeth as king, so Banquo contrasts with him as a man. Observe carefully how Shakespeare reveals their opposing qualities as the play develops. Making effective links between oppositional characters will help increase your marks.
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Characterisation
The major contrast between Banquo and Macbeth is his resistance to temptation. Like Macbeth, he dwells on the promise made to him, and like Macbeth, his thoughts turn to evil doing. He says that his dreams allow him ‘cursed thoughts’, but he calls upon ‘merciful powers’ to protect him rather than following through to sinful deeds.
Macbeth fears Banquo’s goodness: his ‘royalty of nature…dauntless temper…wisdom that does guide his valour’. More to the point, Macbeth wishes to ensure that Banquo’s sons do not become his successors as king, and thus determines to eradicate both him and his son, Fleance.
Loyal to the king
After Duncan’s murder, Banquo’s suspicions are implied: ‘…I fight/ Of treasonous malice’ but, ironically, he says nothing and attends Macbeth’s coronation. James I claimed that he was descended from Banquo and therefore Shakespeare presents him positively to appeal to his patron.
However, it could also be argued that Banquo is flawed. Shakespeare uses soliloquy to allow him to share with the audience his thoughts that Macbeth used foul-play to make the witches’ promise come true. However, he is shown to remain loyal to his new king and one- time friend, perhaps in the hope that he too might benefit. You might therefore say that Banquo is, in a way, seduced by the forces of evil. This interpretation is closer to the original Holinshed’s Chronicles source material.
Banquo goes along with Macbeth’s invitation to be chief guest at the banquet and pays with his life for his possible lack of integrity as Macbeth’s hired killers ambush him and stab him to death.
Exploring different viewpoints about a character can gain you extra marks. It is one way of showing that you have thought deeply about alternative interpretations.
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He does, however, assure the truth of the witches’ promise – his best revenge on Macbeth – as he begs his son to save himself.
What of Banquo’s ghost? Does it make sense to discuss it as part of Banquo’s revenge? Whether you would include Act 3 scene 4 in evaluating Banquo’s character might depend upon how you interpret the ghost. Look again at Context p. 11 and then reach your conclusion.
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Key quotation …by the verities on thee made good May not they be my oracles as well And set me up in hope? (3.1 8–10)
Key quotation Fly good Fleance!... Thou may’st revenge – O slave! (3.3 20–21)
Key quotation …oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s In deepest consequence. (1.3 122–125)
Characterisation
Grade 5 Students will be aware of characters as having clear purposes in a text. They will select evidence from the text and discuss relevant supporting detail from performances. Their comment on language and structure will be clear and relevant. Discussion of qualities of character will be clear and precise and may begin to consider alternative interpretations. Grade 8 Students will offer a more perceptive response to hidden meanings and show an ability to grasp irony and to explore alternative readings. Their comment on language and structure will include perceptive analysis. Characters will be seen to represent themes and ideas as well as being believable creations. Discussion of performances will be more detailed and demonstrate analytical qualities.
Grade FOCUS
1 What are the main ways Shakespeare presents characters to readers in the play? 2 How many female characters appear in the play? Who are they? 3 What are the names of the four fathers, and what main purpose do they have in the play? 4 Which ‘characters’ symbolise the opposition of good and evil, heaven and hell, order and chaos? 5 Who is described as ‘…too full o’the milk of human kindness?’ 6 Who says these words and to whom are they speaking? ‘New honours come upon him/Like our strange garments – cleave not to their mould.’ What theme is being suggested by these lines? 7 Who says ‘…Unnatural deeds/Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds/To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.’ What are the circumstances in which the lines are spoken? Answers on p. 110.
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