1. English Literature Yr 10 End of Year revision resource
CONTEXT:
Shakespeare
Macbeth [34]

2. What themes can you identify in Macbeth
What themes can you identify in Macbeth? What essays have you already completed?

3. Witchcraft/supernatural Women Violence/aggression Tragic hero Ambition
Madness/struggle
Guilt
Work together
1 stay
3 visit

4. 5 minutes to check, add and upgrade your information from your chosen theme. Think about relevant images to help make the words memorable.
Decide who will stay behind (to explain/support the visitors) and who will visit. Decide who is going where.
You will have 30 mins to visit other groups.
Return to your own group and share your findings (20mins)
Individually you need to make a copy of each theme.

5. Guilt
Tragic hero

6. witchcraft
violence

7. ambition
madness

8. Explore how Shakespeare presents Macbeth’s ambition
“unseamed from the knave to the chaps” strong, agile brutal killer, not happy with stabbing/slicing, he “unseams” so the death is gory. Ambitious in the ways he kills. Dramatic verb
CONTEXT LINK
Tragic hero journey or structure:
Good man – becomes even more heroic – flaw (ambition)
– causes downfall.
“That is a step. On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap” This shows the ambitious verb “overleap” shows MB is not happy with staying Thane, but planning to overcome the obstacle of Malcolm (Duncan’s son).
“is this a dagger I see before me?” questioning whether or not he should kill Duncan and become king himself. He does this which shows how ambitious he is as he ignores this warning vision.
“I shall fight till my flesh be hacked from my bones.” “hacked” aggressive verb showing how confident and egotistical and ambitious he is when challenged.

9. Explore how Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as an unstable character
“Unsex me here” Imperative verb “unsex” commanding the spirits to make her strong showing her instability as she wants to no longer be feminine, but wants strength to support her husband. She thinks he’s too weak.
CONTEXT links:
Females being strong and commanding was unusual for the time.
Madness was misunderstood, there were few treatments.
“live a coward” imperative verb commanding her husband to remain a coward (sarcastic). This is unstable because she’s only a woman commanding her husband which is not typical for the time and respectful.
“dash’s the brains out” aggressive verb – unusual for a mother to behave in this way showing how unstable she may have been if a child had survived long enough.
“out damned spot” imperative verb highlighting the fact that she sees blood but no one else does. Unstable due to the guilt she feels, possibly triggered by the amount of blood she saw when returning the daggers.

10. Witchcraft more important than friendship.
Explore how Shakespeare presents the relationship between Macbeth and Banquo (extract Act 3 Scene 1).
“King, Cawdor, Glamis, all.” (list of titles suggesting Banquo may be jealous although these came from the “weird women” and therefore may not be totally trustworthy).
Mention honour between men and how Macbeth has ignored loyalty over ambition – killing his best friend to reach goal of being king.
Relationship is doomed when they meet the witches – Macbeth is threatened by the prophecies shared to Banquo.
Witchcraft more important than friendship.
“Command upon me … my duties … forever knit.”
Banquo professing loyalty to MB when he is king, using imperative verbs to show how strongly he feels towards loyalty to his friend and king.
“if you shall cleave to my consent” Shakespeare presenting MB to be concerned about Banquo’s loyalty with the use of “verb.” MB wanting to know if B is with him or not – but he can’t ask him outright. Could be a problem he has to sort. Also alliterative highlighting the focus on loyalty.
“good man”. MB being ironic about Banquo when ordering the murderers to kill Banquo. Showing power as King and no morals to the audience.

11. Explore how Shakespeare presents the supernatural
Extract – Act 1 Sc 1 (opening)
“Fair is foul and foul is fair” juxtaposition of good and bad suggesting things may not be as they seem, could be a warning to both the characters and the audience to look out for supernatural events.
Witchcraft/supernatural was a popular topic. Remember the king write books on this and Shakespeare is honouring this by having the play’s narrative driven by the prophecies from the witches.
It affects all characters and shows in Lady Macbeth’s death that Shakespeare was respecting the king by punishing his female character for being strong as females were much more passive in real life at this time.
“fog and filthy air” alliterative descriptive suggesting the weather and atmosphere is not typical or normal – a warning for strange events e.g. witches “instruments of darkness” and their prophecies, behaviours (Macbeth a hero becoming a murderer).
“unsex me here” LMB commanding the spirits to make her strong because being a woman is not enough if she is to help her husband become king. She needs extra help from the spirits suggesting evil and unnatural atmosphere ahead.
“Is this a dagger I see before me?” (questions) MB unable to clutch the daggers warning he shouldn’t murder Duncan.

12. Explain how far you think Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a powerful woman
Write about:
• how Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth in this speech
• how Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth in the play as a whole.
Lady Macbeth describes Duncan’s entrance as ‘fatal’ straight after hearing he will be coming to her castle, which shows power because she is capable of making instant decisions. Lady Macbeth’s language in this extract suggests that she is calling for power from evil spirits to help give her strength to carry out the murder of Duncan. She wants to get rid of her feminine side: ‘unsex me here’ – which suggests that she sees being a woman as weak,
also shown with ‘come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall’. It is as if she thinks that she will only be able to carry out the act if her female side is replaced with ‘gall’ (poison) . On the one hand Shakespeare might be showing her to be a powerful woman, capable of selling her soul to the ‘dunnest smoke of hell’ in order to get what she wants. However, it could also suggest that she isn’t powerful at all and knows that her female weakness has to be destroyed in order to give her the strength to do what needs to be Done.

13. The fact that Lady Macbeth is destroyed by guilt and remorse shows that this second interpretation of this speech is closer to the truth. Straight after the murder she is nervous and jumpy: ‘hark/peace’, and has to drink the wine meant for the guards to keep herself strong. She gets angry with Macbeth when he is too shocked and frightened to act, and takes the daggers back to Duncan’s room herself. However, she also says that she couldn’t murder Duncan herself because he reminded her of her father, which might suggest that she isn’t as cruel and heartless as she thinks she needs to be.
By Act 3 she has already been pushed aside by her husband, who tells her to be ‘innocent of the knowledge’ of Banquo’s murder rather than his ‘partner in greatness’. Her power in her relationship has started to disappear. She is finally tormented so much by the murder of Duncan that she goes mad and kills herself. Perhaps Shakespeare is suggesting that Lady Macbeth is powerful in some ways but not others; she is determined and strong when she needs to be, but also feels that she has to completely get rid of her femaleness in order to be able to be strong in a man’s world.