Macbeth

Question 1

Macbeth (14)

Answer 1

Guilt:

• “Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hand?” (2.2), double meaning, (literally / metaphorically), oceans stained (disrupted nature)
• “Amen stuck in my throat” (2.2), natural order disruption, sinning, objectification

Ambition:

• “Stars hide your fires, let light not see my black and deep desires”, audience believed astrology, talks to objects, colour imagery (‘black’), rhyming couplets (witch-like)
• “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical”, witches awakened deep desire, “fantastical” desire consumes him
• “I have no spur / to prick the sides of my intent, but only / vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself / and falls” (1.7), compares to horse-riding (natural?), overestimates leap, foreshadows tragedy (‘falls’)
• “Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow”, always chasing shadow (ambition), foreshadowing death, life is candle (always ends)

Reality:

• “Is this a dagger I see before me?” and “come let me clutch thee”, over-ambition affects subconscious, demands dagger “comes” to achieve ambitions
• “False face must hide what the false heart doth / know” (1.7)
• “Full of scorpions is my mind” (3.2), scorpions eating mind, foreshadows downfall
• “Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold” (3.4), reassures Banquo’s death to cope, tormented

Power:
- (about Macbeth) “Brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name” (1.2), honourable, heroic, even most “deserving” can be tempted, shows hamartia

Supernatural:

• “Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more” (1.3), recognises ‘imperfect’, influenced, wants supernatural abilities
• “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (1.3), echoes witches, supernatural connection

Gender:
- “I dare do all that may become a man” (1.7), sees challenge, fragile masculinity

Question 2

Banquo (3)

Answer 2

Supernatural:

• “What, can the devil speak true?”, somewhat believes / sceptical (‘devil’)
• “Instruments of darkness tell us truths to betray us”, foreshadows end, temptation (leads to devil in Bible)
• “Look how our partner’s rapt”, Macbeth seized by supernatural (‘rapt’)

Question 3

Lady Macbeth (10)

Answer 3

Gender:

• “Come you spirits […] unsex me here, fill me […] top-full of direst cruelty”, fully immersed in evil, taking away emotion, fulfilling husband’s role
• “Take my milk for gall” (1.5), doesn’t want feminine expression / qualities
• (to Macbeth) “Are you a man?” (3.4), emasculates, gaslights
• “Thy nature is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness” (1.5), milk pure / natural / innocent, contrasted evil

Reality:

• “Look like th’ innocent flower, / but be the serpent under’t” (1.5), Biblical reference
• (to Macbeth) “Very painting of your fear” (3.4), hallucinations causing figmentation

Power:

• “Give me the daggers” (2.2), imperative / controlling
• “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!“ (5.1), guilt causing hallucination, imperatives used for supernatural

Guilt:

• “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” (5.1), wealth can’t change mental state, restored femininity (perfumes)
• “Come, give me your hand. What’s done / cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed” (5.1), infantilised, mental state reduced, falls victim to toxic masculinity