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Macbeth
– The Essay
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The essay title
The title of the essay we are going to be writing is:
Analyse the character of Lady Macbeth in detail,
looking closely at her relationship with her
husband.
To what extent does she influence Macbeth in
committing the murders?
What changes take place in her character during
the play?
part one
part three
part two
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The essay title
In order to answer the question fully, we shall need to look at
the scenes in which Lady Macbeth plays an important part.
Find out which these are.
Act One, Scene Five
Act One, Scene Seven
Act Two, Scene Two
Act Three, Scene Two
Act Three, Scene Four
Act Five, Scene One
Write a brief summary (one or two sentences) of
what happens in each of these scenes.
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Analysing the play
On the following slides you will find a detailed analysis of the
six scenes in which Lady Macbeth plays an important role.
Although we shall only be looking at the most significant
parts of these scenes, make sure that you read them fully
yourselves.
Before you start to plan your essay, you should read and
study these scenes in detail. It is only once you have done
this that you will be able to decide what position you are
going to take on the essay question.
As you read and study the scenes, try to keep the essay
question in mind.
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Act One, Scene Five, lines 1–12
Enter Macbeth’s Wife alone with a letter.
Lady Macbeth: They met me in the day of success, and I have
learned by the perfectest report they have more in them than
mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them
further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished.
Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the
King, who all-hailed me Thane of Cawdor; by which title before
these Weird Sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on
of time with, ‘Hail, king that shalt be.’ This have I thought good to
deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightest
not lose the dues of rejoicing by being ignorant of what greatness
is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.
The first time we see Lady
Macbeth, she is reading her
husband’s letter. We can
only guess at her reaction.
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Macbeth has written to
her so that she can
share his joy, and know
that she is promised
great things.
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Act One, Scene Five, line 1–12
The actress playing Lady Macbeth needs to make a
decision about how to read the letter. Do you think she is
excited? Amazed? Curious? Why?
From the contents of this letter, what kind of relationship
do you think Macbeth and his wife have?
Imagine you are Lady Macbeth and you have to wait
longer for your husband’s arrival. Write your reply to him,
describing your feelings about his news and thoughts on
his return.
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Act One, Scene Five, lines 13–28
Lady Macbeth:
Now we see her
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
reaction. He will
What thou art promis’d. Yet do I fear thy nature:
be king.
It is too full o’ the milk of human-kindness
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly
That wouldst thou holily, wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’dst have, great Glamis,
That which cries, ‘Thus thou must do’ if thou have it,
And that which rather thou dost fear to do
She is worried that
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, he is too kind to do
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
what is needed.
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
She uses the
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
metaphor of ‘illness’
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
to describe this.
To have thee crown’d withal.
She will convince him to do all that
is necessary to win the crown.
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Act One, Scene Five, lines 36–52
Lady Macbeth: … The raven himself is hoarse She has already
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
decided that
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
Duncan must die.
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
If her femininity
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood;
is taken away,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
she can be cruel.
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
She is keen to
The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, feel no remorse.
Ironic in view of
Wherever, in your sightless substances,
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night, what happens to
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
her later.
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
To cry, ‘Hold, hold!’
She wants the night to come, and hide
the crime from her and from heaven.
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Act One, Scene Five, lines 36–52
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Act One, Scene Five, lines 52–58
As soon as her husband
arrives, Lady Macbeth hails him
by his new titles, and suggests
the future possibilities.
Enter Macbeth
Lady Macbeth:
Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!
Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.
Macbeth:
My dearest love,
Duncan comes here tonight.
Lady Macbeth:
And when goes hence?
Macbeth:
Tomorrow, as he purposes.
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Macbeth’s very first
words are about the
King. He is coming to
visit them that night.
Lady Macbeth asks
when Duncan is
leaving, so that she can
make her deadly plans.
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Act One, Scene Five, lines 58–71
Lady Macbeth:
O never
Lady Macbeth
Shall sun that morrow see!
warns him
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
that his face
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
might give
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
away his evil
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower intentions.
But be the serpent under’t. He that’s coming
She uses the
Must be provided for; and you shall put
metaphor of a
This night’s great business into my dispatch;
book that can
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
be read.
Give solely
solelysovereign
sovereign
sway
and
masterdom.
Give
sway
and
masterdom.
Macbeth must
learn to disguise
Macbeth: We will speak further.
his true intentions.
Lady Macbeth:
Only look up clear;
To alter favour ever is to fear.
Which line shows an
Leave all the rest to me.
example of sibilance?
She tells him that he
Click again to see.
should leave things to her.
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Act One, Scene Seven, lines 31–47
Macbeth:
As soon as his wife
We will proceed no further in this business … enters, Macbeth tells her
he will not kill the King.
Lady Macbeth:
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
green
And wakes it now to look so green
and
pale
greenand
andpale
pale
He defends himself
At what it did so freely? From this time
after she questions
Art thou
Such I account thy love. Art
thouafeard
afeard
his masculinity,
To be the same in thine own act and valour
telling her that he is
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
manly.
Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,
And live
thineown
ownesteem,
esteem,
live aa coward
cowardininthine
There are three threeLetting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’,
word phrases in Lady
Like the poor cat i’the adage?
Macbeth’s attack that
Macbeth:
Prithee peace.
accuse Macbeth of
I dare do all that may become a man;
being a coward. What
Who dares do more is none.
are they? Click again
to find out.
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Act One, Scene Seven, lines 47–61
She accuses
Macbeth of
going back on
his word, even
though it was
she who
suggested the
murder. Again,
she questions
his manhood.
She uses a horrific
Macbeth:
If we should fail?
image of killing her
Lady Macbeth:
We fail!
baby to show how
But screw your courage to the sticking place, committed she is to
And we’ll not fail ...
the task.
Lady Macbeth:
What beast was’t then
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man …
… I have given suck, and know
How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me;
I would while it was smiling in my face
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
Macbeth still fears failure.
She tells him he must have courage.
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Act One, Scene Seven, lines 47–59
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Act Two, Scene Two, lines 1–13
Lady Macbeth:
That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold
What hath quenched them hath given me fire. - Hark! - Peace!
It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman
She is excited by
Which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it. the thought of
The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms
the crime.
Do mock their charge with snores; I have drugg’d their possets
That death and nature do content about them
She tells us about her
Whether they live or die.
part in the crime – she
Macbeth (within):
Who’s there? What, ho! has drugged the guards.
Lady Macbeth:
… I laid their daggers ready;
He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done’t.
Lady Macbeth is afraid that Macbeth will not have
committed the crime. She says she would have
done it herself, if he had not looked like her father.
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Act Two, Scene Two, lines 32–48
Macbeth:
… I had most need of blessing, and ‘Amen’
Stuck in my throat.
Macbeth continues to
rant – he says he heard
a voice warning him.
Lady Macbeth:
These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
Macbeth is
…
nervous so she
Macbeth:
tries to calm him.
Still it cried ‘Sleep no more!’ to all the house;
Ironically, she
‘Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor
tells him not to
Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more.’
think of it, or it will
Lady Macbeth:
send him mad.
Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
She tells him he is
You do unbend your noble strength, to think
a coward and is
So brain-sickly of things. Go, get some water,
angry he brought
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
Why did you bring these daggers from the place? the daggers.
Find five qualities that Lady Macbeth exhibits here.
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Act Two, Scene Two, lines 55–68
Lady Macbeth:
… If he do bleed,
I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt. [Exit. Knock within.]
Macbeth
refuses to
return the
daggers, so his
Macbeth:
Whence is that knocking?
wife takes over.
How is’t with me when every noise appals me?
She will smear
What hands are here! Ha – they pluck out mine eyes!
the grooms’
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
faces with blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
so they seem
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
guilty.
Making the green one red. [Enter Lady Macbeth.]
Macbeth says that he will
Lady Macbeth:
My hands are of your colour; but I shame never be able to wash
the blood off his hands.
To wear a heart so white …
A little water clears us of this deed; Again, she questions his
courage. Ironically, she
How easy it is then!
thinks ‘a little water’ will
clear away the crime.
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Act Three, Scene Two, lines 4–28
Lady Macbeth:
Nought’s had, all’s spent, Lady Macbeth is
Where our desire is got without content.
starting to feel guilt
‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy
and regret, rather
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
than joy.
[Enter Macbeth]
When he
How now, my lord? Why do you keep alone,
enters, she
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
reminds him
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died that he must
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
not think
Should be without regard; what’s done is done.
about their
crimes.
Macbeth:
We have scorch’d the snake, not killed it …
When he is doubtful,
… Better be with the dead ...
she reminds him that
he must look the
Lady Macbeth:
Come on,
part at their banquet
Gentle my lord, sleek o’er your rugged looks,
Be bright and jovial with your guests tonight. that night.
Why do you think she pretends to him that
she is not feeling guilty?
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Act Three, Scene Four, lines 49–58
Macbeth:
Thou canst not say I did it; never shake
Thy gory locks at me.
Ross:
Gentlemen, rise. His highness is not well.
Macbeth talks to the
ghost of Banquo,
whom he has just
had murdered.
Lady Macbeth
takes charge.
Lady Macbeth:
She tells the
Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus;
lords that
And hath been from his youth. Pray you keep seat. Macbeth has
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
been prone to
He will again be well. If much you note him,
fits from his
You shall offend him and extend his passion.
youth.
Feed, and regard him not. – Are you a man? In an aside to Macbeth,
she again questions his
Macbeth:
Aye, and a bold one, that dare look on that ... manhood.
Which qualities does she exhibit in this scene?
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Act Three, Scene Four, lines 59–73
Lady Macbeth:
O proper stuff!
Lady Macbeth tells
This is the very painting of your fear.
him that he is
This is the air-drawn dagger which you said
imagining things,
Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
just as he did the
Impostors to true fear, would well become
dagger when he
A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
was thinking about
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
killing Duncan.
Why do you make such faces? When all’s done
You look but on a stool.
She likens him to a woman
Macbeth:
Prithee, see there!
Behold! Look! Lo! – How say you? …
Lady Macbeth:
Macbeth:
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What, quite unmanned in folly?
If I stand here, I saw him.
Lady Macbeth:
telling a story. She cannot
see the ghost, only a stool.
Fie, for shame!
Again, she questions
his manhood.
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Act Three, Scene Four, lines 92–109
Macbeth (sees the Ghost):
Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold.
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with.
Macbeth
continues to talk
to the ghost,
telling it to go.
Lady Macbeth:
Think of this, good peers,
But as a thing of custom; ’tis no other;
Lady Macbeth
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
continues to cover for
Macbeth:
… Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal mockery, hence! [Exit Ghost]
Why, so; being gone,
I am a man again. – Pray you sit still.
him. She manages to
stay calm in this
difficult situation.
Lady Macbeth:
You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting
With most admired disorder.
When the ghost disappears, Macbeth calms down. He uses
his wife’s words, and tells them that he is ‘a man again’.
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Act Three, Scene Four, lines 113–121
Macbeth:
… When now I think you can behold such sights
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
When mine is blanched with fear.
Macbeth asks how
the others can
remain as normal,
when his face is
pale with fear.
Ross:
What sights, my lord?
Taking control
Lady Macbeth:
once again, Lady
I pray you speak not; he grows worse and worse. Macbeth quickly
ends the banquet,
Question enrages him. At once, good night.
before things get
Stand not upon the order of your going;
any worse.
But go at once.
Macbeth seems to be having a
… [Exit Lords]
breakdown. His words suggest
his highly troubled mental state.
Macbeth:
It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood ...
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Act Five, Scene One, lines 2–15
Doctor:
The final time we see Lady Macbeth,
… When was it she last walked? she has gone mad. The doctor and
her maid discuss the symptoms.
Gentlewoman:
Since his majesty went into the field I have seen her rise
from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her
closet … yet all this while in a most fast sleep.
The maid explains how she has been sleepwalking.
Doctor:
A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the
benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching. In this
slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other actual
performances, what, at any time, have you heard her
say?
The doctor asks what she has been saying in
her sleep, but the maid is too scared to tell him.
Gentlewoman:
That, sir, which I will not report after her.
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Act Five, Scene One, lines 26–39
Doctor:
Lady
What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands. Macbeth is
continually
Gentlewoman:
rubbing at
It is an accustomed action with her to seem thus
her hands,
washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a
as though
quarter of an hour.
to wash
Lady Macbeth tries to
them.
Lady Macbeth:
rub the spots of blood
Yet here’s a spot.
from her hands.
…
Out, damned spot! Out, I say! – One: two: why then, ’tis
time to do‘t. – Hell is murky! – Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier
and afeard? – What need we fear who knows it, when
none can call our power to accompt? – Yet who would
have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?
She talks of how they should not care who knows about
the murders, as no one can charge the king and queen.
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Act Five, Scene One, lines 41–49
Lady Macbeth:
The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? –
What, will these hands ne’er be clean? – No more
o’that, my lord, no more o’that: you mar all with this
starting.
Notice how this
entire scene is
written in prose,
rather than verse.
The doctor
Doctor:
and maid are
Go to, go to: you have known what you should not. fearful, both
about what
Gentlewoman:
She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that. she has done,
and about the
Heaven knows what she has known.
consequences
Lady Macbeth:
for them.
Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of
Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! Oh! Oh!
As well as seeing the blood, Lady
Macbeth also believes she can smell it.
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Discussion
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Part One
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Quotations
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The essay title
Now that you have studied the relevant scenes in detail, you
are ready to plan your essay. Here is a reminder of the essay
title:
Analyse the character of Lady
Macbeth in detail, looking closely at
her relationship with her husband.
To what extent does she influence
Macbeth in committing the murders?
What changes take place in her
character during the play?
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Writing an essay
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Part One
The first part of the question asks you to do two things:
analyse her character in detail and look closely at the
couple’s relationship.
Analyse the character of Lady Macbeth in detail,
looking closely at her relationship with her
husband.
The words ‘analyse’ and ‘in detail’ tell you that you must
look deeply into these aspects, weighing up both sides of
every issue and giving as much information as you can.
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Part One – power
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Part One
Use the brainstorm below to write out your ideas about what
to include when answering the first part of the essay
question.
Part One
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Part Two
The next part of the question asks you to explore how far
she influences her husband when it comes to killing Duncan,
Macduff’s family and Banquo.
To what extent does she influence Macbeth in
committing the murders?
This part asks you a question, and you will therefore need to
come to a decision. Some commentators believe that
Macbeth has already made up his mind, whilst others feel
that his wife is a powerful influence on him.
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Part Two
Use the brainstorm below to write out your ideas about what
to include when answering the second part of the essay
question.
Part Two
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Part Three
Finally, you are asked about the changes in her character.
You will need to look at the subtle changes as well as her
descent into madness.
What changes take place in her character during the
play?
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Part Three
Use the brainstorm below to write out your ideas about what
to include when answering the third part of the essay
question.
Part Three
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