How MB Changes As A Character (IMPORTANT)

Question 1

Umbrella:

Answer 1

MB’s development as a character is consistent with A.C. Bradley’s definition of a tragic hero
(High status, has a hamartia, often struggles with conscience, actions affect others and cause them to struggled, audience have some sympathy for him as they recognise he was once a good or admirable man, tragic hero dies at the end of the play and moral order is restored)

Question 2

A.C. Bradley’s definition of a tragic hero

6points

Answer 2

(1High status, 2has a hamartia, 3often struggles with conscience, 4actions affect others and cause them to struggled, 5audience have some sympathy for him as they recognise he was once a good or admirable man, 6tragic hero dies at the end of the play and moral order is restored)

Question 3

Ts1: at the beginning of the play, MB is presented as having a high status and reputation.

Answer 3

‘Bellonas bridegroom’

‘Brave Macbeth…disdaining fortune’

Question 4

‘Bellonas bridegroom’

Answer 4

Ross Metaphorically compares MB to the Goddess of war’s husband.
Shows he is the best of the best. Looked down upon and helped by a god. Respected. Emphasises theme of supernatural powers. He is almost like a God of war. Deifies him as a god like warrior.

However, his brutal violence is seen as noble and brave because he is a loyal subject fighting for his king on the battlefield.

Question 5

‘Brave Macbeth…disdaining fortune’

Answer 5

Adj implies he’s looked up to and respected with a high status.
Respected by his peers not only by his bravery as a warrior but also for his loyalty to the king. D feels he cannot repay MB enough for his loyalty. ‘Worthy gentlemen’

L= adj and personification. MB is presented as brave; Fortune is personified as being on Macdonwald’s side but MB does not fear this and defeats him anyway.
C= MB embodies Jacobean ideals if masculinity in patriarchal society where women subordinate to men- he is brave and noble.

Question 6

Ts2: the encounter with the witches and LMB’s persuasion catalyses the change in MB- touches upon his hamartia: his ambition.(fits with AC Bradley’s defn of a tragic hero)

Answer 6

‘Too full o’th milk of human kindness’
‘Like the poor cat I’th’adage’
‘Doth unfix my hair’
‘Rapt’
‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’
‘When you durst do it, then you were a man’
‘My hands are of your colour but i shame to wear a heart so white’

Question 7

‘Too full o’th milk of human kindness’

Answer 7

Reference to milk aligns him with feminine, nurturing qualities. Life giving qualities. Contrast to MB on battlefield. Opposite to life-giving as he takes life on battlefield.
LMB mocks MB’s masculinity. True insult to a brave warrior. She believes he has the ambition but is too kind to achieve it. She feminises him.
C= unusual in Jacobean Era for women to have power over men, LMB seen as dominant in the relationship

Question 8

‘Like the poor cat i’th adage’

Answer 8

L= simile. LMB compares him to the cat in the proverb- he wants the crown, but doesn’t want to get his hands bloody. She takes control, planning the murder herself, and her dominance is shows in how she dominates the dialogue, but MB has to do it in the end as Duncan looks like LMB’s father.

Question 9

Why do I yield do that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair’

Answer 9

L= MB’s first thought is one of murder. The adjective ‘horrid’ suggests that MB knows murdering D to achieve his ambition is morally wrong. The verb ‘unfix’ suggests that the strength of his ambition terrifies him. D= The witches catalyse this thought and therefore lead him into his hamartia which fits with AC Bradleys definition of a tragic hero that they must have a hamartia, and in this case, MB’s hamartia is his ambition.

Question 10

‘Rapt’ (B says MB is rapt)(lost in thought)

He tells the men his ‘brain was wrought with things forgotten’

Answer 10

I= lying as he doesn’t want to admit he’s thinking of Kings murder.he is rapt because he does not like his inner ambitions.
His ambition has taken over him. Can’t get the thought out of his mind. Fits with AC BRADLEYS DEFN

Question 11

Ts3: MB struggles with his conscience- at this point he is not a callous murderer as he still has a moral sensibility.

Answer 11

‘His virtues will plead like angels against the deep damnations of his taking off’
‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent… only vaulting ambition’

Question 12

‘His virtues will plead like angles against the deep damnations of his taking off’

Answer 12

L= simile. D is such a morally good king, heaven will react with horror to his murder and make sure the murderer is discovered.
C= DRK. Jacobeand believed King was appointed by God. To kill a king= act against God. God will punish the murderer.

Question 13

‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent… only vaulting ambition’

Answer 13

Only justification for murdering D is ambition. L= metaphor and equestrian image.MB’s ambition battles with his conscience. He knows he has no motive for killing a morally good king. Still has a moral sensibility.
C= DRK. MB knows killing a king is an act against God. The play was performed after the Gunpowder Plot- Shakespeare sends a warning to those who might seek to murder a morally good king, like James 1.

Question 14

Ts4: MB suffers due to his actions.

Answer 14

‘Wake Duncan with thy knocking, I would thou could’st’
‘Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hand’
‘I could not say amen…every noise appeals me’

Question 15

‘Will all great Neptune’s Ocean wash this blood clean from my hand’

Answer 15

L= hyperbolic imagery emphasises the magnitude of his crime; even the God of the sea cant wash the blood away.
D/I= the blood can be washed from his hands, but it will stain his conscience for eternity.

Question 16

‘Wake Duncan with thy knocking, I would thou could’st’

Answer 16

L= structurally it is significant that the murder scene ends with MB’s words of regret- it shows that MB feels deep guilt and remorse for killing a morally innocent king. The tragedy is that he cannot resurrect him or undo his actions.
C= hes committed an act against God by killing a God appointed king (DRK)
D= fits with AC BRADLEYS DEFN OF A TRAGIC HERO as they have to struggle with their conscience.

Question 17

Ts5: MB becomes a callous tyrant as he realises he cannot reverse his actions.

Answer 17

‘I am in blood stepped in so far, returning were as tedious as go o’er’
‘Wife,his babes’

Question 18

‘I am in blood stepped in so far, returning we’re as tedious as go o’er’

Answer 18

L= the imagery of the river of blood emphasises that MB feels it is pointless to feel guilt; he has been responsible for so many murders- they cannot be undone so it is pointless to feel guilty; he may as well continue to murder anyone who threatens him.
R= audience feel pity for him as he cannot redeem himself.

Question 19

MB kills Macduff’s ‘wife,his babes’

Answer 19

L= emotive language. When MB learns MD has flee to England he takes revenge by murdering his family.
R= the audience despised MB for his cruelty in killing innocent children. Shakespeare shapes the audiences response to MB throughout the play.

Question 20

Ts6: At the end of the play, MB becomes nihilistic(life= no meaning). Links to AC BRADLEYS DEFN OF A TRAGIC HERO AS HE SAYS TRAGIC HERO MUST DIE IN ORDER FOR NATURAL ORDER TO BE RESTORED.

Answer 20

‘A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage’
‘I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked’

Question 21

‘I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked’

Answer 21

L=violent verbs. MB dies as he began the play- fighting.
R= creates pathos for the audience- pity as he was once a great man but catharsis- relief as we know he must die.
C= political message of warning- violent murderers will be punished (Gunpowder Plot).

Question 22

‘A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more’

Answer 22

L= extended metaphor of people as actors and life as a stage. MB realised that, in the wider scheme of things, he is just a ‘poor player’ with a limited amount of time on Earth and once he is dead, he will be forgotten. All his ambition has been for nothing and he has damned his soul to Hell.
D= links to AC BRADLEYS DEFN OF A TRAGIC HERO as he says a tragic hero must die for the natural order to be restored.

Question 23

Topic sentences

Answer 23

Ts1: start MB= high status,high reputation.
Ts2: witches and LMB catalyse MB’s hamartia, his ambition.
Ts3: MB struggles with his conscience but still has a moral sensibility.
Ts4: MB suffers due to his actions.
Ts5: MB becomes a callous tyrant and realised he cannot reverse his actions.
Ts6: MB becomes nihilistic.
ALL FITS WITH AC BRADLEYS’ DEFN OF A TRAGIC HERO- LINK TO THIS ALL THROUGH YOUR ANSWER

Question 24

‘I could not say amen…every noise appeals me’

Answer 24

C= after the murder, MB cannot pray, therefore he cannot ask God for forgiveness. He is also terrified the murder will be discovered. Jacobeans believed in the DRK: the King was appointed by God. MB realises his soul is damned as he has murdered God’s representative on Earth and this terrifies him.

Question 25

Ts7: MB desires to conceal his ambition but LMB encourages him to become a deceitful murdered

Answer 25

‘Stars hide your fires… let not light see my black and deep desires’
‘Look like the innocent flower but be the serpeant under it’

Question 26

Ts8: Scotland suffers under MB’s rule?