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.

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.

What is your A4 for P1?

The ‘daggers’ are a frequent motif throughout the play, symbolising betrayal, and by taking them, it foreshadows how he will become completely nihilistic and unfazed by the betrayal, whilst she will be driven completely insane with regret.

What’s your A5 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 A6 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 adjective ‘innocent’ actively marginalises her, removing her status as his boss or even his equal conspirator.

What is your A3 for P2?

• The term ‘dearest chuck” maintains superficial endearment and respect, but it is really a patronising and condescending diminutive, treating her like a cherished subordinate rather than an intelligent or powerful equal.

• It shows that he is absorbing the duplicity she told him to have and using it on her, acting kind, but with evil intent.

What is your A4 for P2?

• The verb ‘applaud’ has strong connotations of public performance and approval, with a narcissistic need for validation.

• While he once sought her practical advice, his ego has grown and he now views himself as needing of admiration.

• By presenting Lady Macbeth as a spectator who can only react with approval, he has stripped her of her agency, reducing her to an accessory of his.

What is your A5 for P2?

• Additionally, the noun ‘deed’ is a euphemism for the murder of his best friend.

• By reducing it to something so simple, it proves that cruelty has been normalised and is just a task to him.

• He also wants his wife to know his power without detailing the specifics, viewing her as too fragile.

What is your AV for P2?

• However, instead of purely being narcissistic and controlling, this could be seen as a misguided attempt at protection.

• Macbeth could be trying to shield his wife from the psychological torment of the next wave of violence, knowing how all-consuming the guilt can be firsthand.

What is your L1 for P2? (Plot)

The significance of this moment to the plot is that it makes the inversion of the Macbeths’ power dynamic, proving that he has fully embraced his role as a narcissistic tyrant, taking sole charge of future violence and rendering her irrelevant.

What is your L2 for P2? (Context)

• A Jacobean audience might see the fragmentation of their relationship as proof of the Great Chain of Being, the belief that God gave everything an ordered position in society, from himself to a King to a peasant to a rock.

• They believed that there would be great chaos and punishment for violation of this chain, so they might argue that this is a consequence of Macbeth killing the King.

• This divine justice is known as Nemesis.

What is your L3 for P2? (Modern)

A modern audience might view Macbeth’s demand for her to applaud him as pure narcissism, seeing her as a spectator for his ego, realigning with sexist gender stereotypes.

AND what is your L4 for P2? (Thesis)

This moment is the critical inversion of their bond, confirming the failure of the initial subversion of gender stereotypes and accelerating their deeply unhealthy relationship towards rupture.

What is your point for P3?

• By the end of the play, the emotional isolation driven by Macbeth’s narcissistic tyranny has caused the complete dissolution of their partnership, fulfilling their tragically interdependent fates, as Lady Macbeth is left to cope alone with her guilt and madness, while Macbeth retreats into arrogant nihilism, leading to their deaths.

• However, their relationship died slowly over the play, long before their actual demises.

What is your explain & evidence for P3?

• In act 5, scene 5, Macbeth hears the news of his wife’s death but shows no emotion.

• He describes life as ‘a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’

• This lack of grief provides the complete emotional isolation in their relationship.

What is your A1 for P3?

• The metaphor ‘a tale told by an idiot’ reduces life to a meaningless, incoherent narrative, lacking plot or reason.

• This shows the ultimate endpoint of his narcissistic tyranny.

• Having killed for power, the price of the crown is a world stripped of all meaning.

What is your AV for P3?

However, instead of being seen as unfazed and flippant, it could be argued that he only puts on a brave face, as he has been trained that way, believing that’s how a man should act.

What is your A2 for P3?

• The phrase ‘full of sound and fury’ describes the journey of his life and relationship, full of violence and hurt.

• He is finally free of his struggles, believing that nothing matters

• This could be ironic, as a contemporary audience would believe that he would go on to face eternal damnation in hell.

What is your A3 for P3?

• ‘Signifying nothing’ is the final philosophical pronouncement of existential meaninglessness.

• Everything they worked for was predetermined by fate the whole time and only lead to their misery and deaths.

• It could be argued that, as a murderer, he values life less.

What is your L1 for P3? (Context)

A Christian Jacobean audience would consider his nihilism an ultimate statement of damnation and heresy, believing that everything was purposeful and decided by God for a divine purpose.

What is your L2 for P3? (Modern)

A modern audience would likely interpret this as psychological karma for both them and their relationship, showing the inevitable consequences for suppressing guilt, emotional abuse, and narcissism.

What is your L3 for P3? (Thesis)

Those final scenes confirm the complete end of their relationship, serving as the ultimate consequence of emotional abuse and manipulation.

What is your conclusion?

• Shakespeare presents the Macbeths’ relationship as a tragic, destructive evolution, defined by a cycle of interdependent actions.

• Lady Macbeth’s initial control encouraged the narcissistic tyrant, who subsequently inflicted emotional isolation upon her.

• It serves as a cautionary tale about how control, arrogance and ambition can tear a relationship apart slowly.

• It might make a Jacobean audience question gender stereotypes – if a woman has the agency and intelligence to perform such great evil, could that power be utilised into something good?