Macbeth analysis Y10 Aut2

What is your thesis statement?

• Shakespeare presents Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship as an evolving, shifting power dynamic.

• Whilst Lady Macbeth has control at first, and initially subverts typical gender stereotypes, both are ultimately destroyed by the ruthless and narcissistic tyranny of the man he becomes.

• Their fates are tragically interdependent of each other.

• It becomes the epitome of a deeply manipulative, demeaning and unhealthy relationship.

• She is driven to madness and he is driven to nihilism.

AH1

MY DEAREST PARTNER IN GREATNESS

What is your point for P1?

But very early on, it’s clear that there’s an imbalance of power, where Lady Macbeth wields psychological authority to override her husband’s conscience.

What is your explain for P1?

• In the extract from Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth returns from murdering Duncan, swarmed with guilt and fear.

• Lady Macbeth has more significant dialogue. Whilst Macbeth repeatedly shows his hopelessness and ignorance, she is extremely cold and dismissive of his emotions, adding frequent new insults and taunts.

What is your evidence for P1?

When Macbeth fails to leave the daggers with the sleeping guards to frame them, Lady Macbeth says ‘Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures. ‘Tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil.’

What is your A1 for P1?

• The insult ‘infirm of purpose’ makes Macbeth out to be weak and feeble, directly attacking his masculinity and capability

• It implies that his lack of drive is an inherent character flaw, making him feel insecure and insufficient

What is your A2 for P1?

• The imperative verb ‘give’ and the harsh exclamative establish her as the dominant figure.

• She is the desision-maker, rendering Macbeth passive and submissive.

• PERCEPTION AH

What is your A3 for P1?

• Her immediate and cold action of taking the daggers highlights the difference between her determined control and his overwhelming emotional collapse.

• She has no patience for guilt or remorse, showing a lack of empathy and a psychopathic, detached viewpoint.

AH2

DAGGERS

What’s your A4 for P1?

• The simile ‘the sleeping and the dead are but as pictures’ minimises the horror of the murder.

• She strips Duncan’s body of it’s sacredness, treating it as an inanimate object, showing not just callousness, but a genuine lack of regard for religion and disposition of sin, which would have been extremely reprimanded in the Jacobean era.

What’s your A5 for P1?

• The metaphor ‘‘tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil’ patronises Macbeth, comparing his despair over committing regicide to a child’s irrational fear of an imaginary monster.

• This is a devastating form of gaslighting and emotional manipulation, stripping him of his masculinity once again and framing his kindness as weakness.

What’s your AV for P1?

• However, instead of manipulation, her intervention could be seen as an act of desperate and sacrificial love.

• By getting blood on her own hands, she displays a fierce loyalty to him and their joint ambition.

• She actively shares the burden to protect their destiny, and it should be considered that Macbeth has his own agency.

What’s your L1 for P1? (plot)

• The significance of this moment to the story is that she saves the plot, intervening and succeeding in framing the guards, allowing for Macbeth’s ascent to the throne to proceed.

• Her intelligence, confidence and fearlessness create the foundation for a man who will eventually grow to adopt her ruthless and tyrannical nature.

• It also establishes their relationship dynamic, as Macbeth is reliant on his wife and wants to break free of this control.

What’s your L2 for P1? (context)

• Jacobean society was strictly patriarchal, so a wife was meant to be submissive and domestic.

• Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as an example of a woman who rejects this order, toying with concepts of masculinity and femininity and whether the gender assigned at birth really defines the rules and characteristics of your life.

What’s your L3 for P1? (modern)

A modern audience would likely still view her actions as criminal and inherently wrong, but might interpret the motivation as different, from a feminist point of view, arising from a feeling of oppression due to her gender, and a need to express her strength, even if that arose in the form of abuse to her partner.

AND what’s your L4 for P1? (thesis)

This moment is the first critical point in their relationship. It is held together with bonds of abuse.

What is your point for P2?

• By the middle of the play, the power dynamic dramatically inverts.

• Macbeth, having internalised the ruthlessness she forced upon him, has now gained newfound confidence and cruelty, seizing control and initiating the emotional isolation that eventually fractures their partnership.

What is your explain for P2?

• In act 3, scene 2, Macbeth explains his distressed state and fears of Banquo.

• He feels his kingship is threatened, and his ambition rises, as he hints that he wants to take him down.

• He has considerably more dialogue, whilst Lady Macbeth speaks only to express her uncertainty about what his next move will be and instruction that he needs to stop now.

• She also begins to indicate hints of hopelessness and guilt.

• Macbeth begins to tell her what to do and keep secrets, establishing the new power dynamic

What is your evidence for P2?

When Lady Macbeth directly asks what he’s going to do, he says ‘Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, till thou applaud the deed.’

What is your A1 for P2?

• The imperative ‘be’ shoes he is now commanding his wife, in stark contrast to previous scenes.

• This is partly a consequence of her successful manipulation, which emasculated him, proving his independence by taking over the plotting.

What is your A2 for P2?

• The phrase ‘be innocent of the knowledge’ is a declaration of secrecy, a clear break from the co-dependent dynamic established in Act 2.

• Deliberate exclusion is his first act of ruthless and narcissistic tyranny aimed directly at his wife, slowly becoming the villain, as sin becomes a source of enjoyment.

• The adje