IGCSE English Literature [Edexcel] Maxim Gushchin
Assignment 2: Literary Heritage
Shakespeare: Macbeth
Word Count: 1723
Mark (30):
Comments:
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IGCSE English Literature [Edexcel] Maxim Gushchin Assignment 2: Literary Heritage Shakespeare: Macbeth Word Count: 1723 Mark (30): Comments:
Discuss how Shakespeare develops his title character in Macbeth. Consider language,
form, structure and the play's context in your response.
In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the protagonist- Macbeth has a dramatic change of character throughout his recorded life. At first, he is portrayed as a noble and loyal character, risking his life for his king and country; the war hero that would slay any enemy of Scotland. He is in close relations with the king of Scotland and has no intent of dethroning him. As the play moves forward and Macbeth becomes more successful, his loyalty is put under stress when he has to make a decision on whether to go along with the regicide of Duncan aided by his wife-Lady Macbeth. By going through with it, Macbeth experiences a major shift in his outlook on life, he becomes overly paranoid and provided with a slight suspicion he kills without thinking of the consequences. This hamartia is what eventually causes him to lose control over the throne. This is interesting because had it not been for such a dramatic change in Macbeth’s attitude towards control over the throne, his destiny would have been a much brighter one. To symbolise this, Shakespeare utilises a wide array of grammatical structures and figurative language which prove to be highly effective in developing Macbeth. In the early part of the play, it is evident that ‘brave Macbeth’ is a loyal servant to Scotland, this is ironic as by the end of the play he has a completely opposite mindset. Macbeth’s braveness and thirst for blood can be visualised in Act 1 Scene 2, where Shakespeare describes him as ‘Valour’s minion [carving] out his passage’. The word ‘minion’ suggests that Macbeth is under valour’s full control, suggesting how easy it is to manipulate him; this theme also comes up when Macbeth allows his wife to convince him to commit regicide. The verb ‘carved’ also suggests how little Macbeth cares about human lives when he is under valour’s control. Shakespeare uses this verb to compare humans to inanimate objects, giving Macbeth an aura of murderous rage. Another example of this ruthlessness is portrayed when he ‘unseamed’ MacDonald. Macbeth did not only kill his enemy but did it in the most brutal of ways which further builds his demonic character. In the following scene, Shakespeare displays Macbeth as a character who is too humble to believe he is worthy of any of the titles given to him, which he does do show a different side of Macbeth- one that isn’t thirsty for domination over everyone else but who thinks through every word carefully: ‘and thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so’, the fact that Macbeth corrected Banquo about his future proves he was listening to what the witches had to say and willingly remembered it. But this came after he ordered the witches to ‘stay’ which was a clear indication that his true mentality may be a violent one. Later on, in Act 1 Scene 5, we see how Lady Macbeth is successfully attempting to encourage Macbeth to kill Duncan by emasculating him. In her opinion, Macbeth is ‘too full of the milk of human kindness.’ By saying that, Lady Macbeth is implying that he is too innocent for her liking; ‘milk’ has connotations of baby-like innocence, which Shakespeare implemented to oppose Macbeth’s violent mentality which was shown to the audience at the start of the play. This is also partly foreshadowing his downfall later on in the play, where Macbeth cannot sustain any more guilt and eventually collapses under its weight. In Scene 7, we are shown Macbeth’s soliloquy in which he weighs up whether or not to commit regicide; Shakespeare employs heavy usage of euphemisms to portray how much guilt Macbeth is feeling about even thinking about killing one person, despite the fact that in battle, he goes on rampages where he does not feel any remorse. It is proven that Macbeth is loyal when he says ‘I am his Kingsman’, meaning that he is clearly loyal to his current king and therefore would not do anything to harm him. In this soliloquy, he also brings up the consequences which he may face if he
country as he now believes all life is pointless. He realises that his previous actions were all wrong and pointless and therefore allows himself to lose control of the position willingly. He says ‘At least we will die with harness on our back’ which signifies that he has accepted defeat and clearly has nothing left to fight for; completely giving up his position as King. The use of the phrase ‘At least’ shows the audience a glimpse of Macbeth’s past, where he was proud of each of his actions and was a respected warrior. In conclusion, Shakespeare has clearly developed Macbeth in great detail throughout the play; certainly more than any other character. The audience witnesses as Macbeth shifts from the most respected and loyal warrior on the battlefield and a key part of the Scottish nobility to a tyrant who is not capable of thinking about the lives of his loyal subjects. He does this with the help of Lady Macbeth, who consistently kept emasculating him and in turn making him do things for her. Once Macbeth was also hooked on the idea of having immense power, he stopped at nothing to get it, breaking religious and social laws to get him where he wanted to be. This was partly fueled by the witches’ prophecies, which it is clear that Macbeth wanted to believe right from the start. He was correct in thinking they were accurate, although they also correctly predicted his ‘end-all’ as Macduff, who killed Macbeth was not born from his mother but rather cut out, proving the witches were correct.