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GCSE Macbeth scene by scene analysis A* Grade 9
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GCSE Macbeth scene by scene analysis A* Grade 9 This is a full scene by scene analysis of Shakespeare's Macbeth
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,Scene by scene analysisAct 1 Scene 1
One of the ways that Shakespeare presents the witches as disturbing, supernatural beings is
through the use of pathetic fallacy. The stage directions refer to ‘thunder and lightning’ which
connote evil and foreboding.
Shakespeare immediately introduces the theme of deception with the ambiguous line ‘when shall
we three meet again?’, here Shakespeare’s deviates from his traditional iambic metre to trochaic
tetrameter perhaps to foreshadow that the witches will deviate from morality and truth. Moreover
the metre implies that the witches have deviated from wider society through their rejection of the
conventional iambic or prose metre. The idea of deviation and alienation is emphasised through
the fact that the Witches meet in a ‘desert place’, the adjective ‘desert’ denotes that the heath is
removed from the abundance and warmth of the court, this may be seen as a reflection of the
Witches rejection of Christian morality. Alternatively the ‘desert place’ may represent the Witches
deviation from a reproductive role indicating a similar ‘barrenness’ to the landscape, sequentially
their inability to conceive or unwillingness to may be the driving factor in their actions as they are
unable to achieve power under patriarchal and feudal models.
The alien nature of the Witches is emphasised through the structure of the first scene, during
which each of the Three Witches speaks three times, the reduplication of three advances triune
imagery, this is paired with the use of rhyming couplets invokes both finality and power of rhyme.
Similarly, Shakespeare constructs the Witches to demonstrate that the suppression of women
leads to chaos, this is exemplified in the chiasmus ‘fair is foul, and foul is fair’, the reverse
parallelism and inversion of the language may represent the ways in which the Witches invert the
natural order and come symbolise the subversion of what is morally good, the Witches are the
agents of a chaotic world.
Alternatively Shakespeare’s use of the paradoxical language and oxymorons of ‘foul’, ‘fair’, ‘filthy
fog’ may illustrate that the Witches have abnormal logic which is ambiguous and deliberately
confusing. This use of equivocation is reinforced through the image of ‘filthy fog’ which suggests
that the dirty, disgusting, wicked and immoral are ubiquitous, always present within society but
obscured from vision. The malevolent atmosphere is furthered through the fricative alliteration of
‘f’ sounds, highlighting the violence of the Witches.
Act 1 Scene 2
Shakespeare structures Act 1 in order to manipulate the audiences impressions of Macbeth; act 1
scene 1 associates Macbeth with the Witches, presumably linking him with evil, however, this is
contrasted by Act 1 Scene 2, which completely subverts this assumption. The second scene has
a different narrative perspective, providing an alternative insight into his character.
Immediately the Captain establishes Macbeth as someone that is reliable, he is a ‘bloody’ man, a
testament to the fact that he has served his army well.
The Captain’s description of Macbeth in battle highlights two key characteristics: his bravery and
his violence which are emphasised through the introduction of the theme of fate. ‘Fortune’ and
‘valour’ are both personified as virtues that Macbeth either rejects or is the vassal of. Macbeth is
described as the recipient of ‘disdaining fortune [which] show’d like a rebel’s whore’. Explicitly fate
is described as being on the side of rebels but the negative connotations of the gendered noun
‘whore’, perhaps suggest that the corruption of women is responsible for the Scottish Civil War.
We may take this to be a suggestion of the power of the witches over mankind, perhaps they have
previously exploited the former Thane of Cawdor, alternatively, the noun ‘whore’ may hint at a
figure similar to what Lady Macbeth. Ironically Macbeth becomes ‘valour’s minion’, he has
, become the manifestation of bravery, however, when he meets the Witches, he shows no such
honour, instead he becomes the vehicle of his own ‘vaulting ambition’.
Shakespeare employs vivid imagery to capture Macbeth’s violence and power on the battle field,
his sword is described as having ‘smoked with bloody execution’ denoting that the blood on
Macbeth’s sword is so hot that it is evaporating in the cold Scottish air. Similarly the verb ‘carve’
illustrates Macbeth’s precision as a soldier, invoking the idea of butchery. However it subtly
connotes that Macbeth does not see his victims as fully human, like meat to be ‘carved’ the
enemy are depersonalised. In this interpretation we may question if this idea extends beyond the
battle field, like meat, the death of the enemy may only satiate Macbeth’s bloodlust for a short
period of time. What distinguishes Macbeth’s bloodlust in the field to wider society is that his
conscience vetos a desire for violence yet, on the battlefield the killing is viewed as justified and
therefore morally acceptable, perhaps the Witches only stimulate Macbeth to rationalise his
violence, thus believing it is justified.
The Captain describes Macbeth as having ‘doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe’, the lexical
repetition of ‘double’ complements the description of Macbeth’s relentless assault on the enemy
but also alludes to the theme of deception. ‘The foe’ is taken to be the Norwegian army, however
this is not confirmed, an alternative reading may imply that this line is constructed to foreshadow
that will be Duncan that is Macbeth’s enemy, further supported by the later lexical repetition of the
Witches’ line ‘double double toil and trouble’.
Shakespeare introduces the motif of drowning through the Captain’s description of the civil war:
’doubtful it stood as two spent swimmers, that do cling together and choke their art’. This simile
refers to ‘two spent swimmers’, initially these figures seem to represent the exhausted Scottish
and Norwegian armies, however, the idea of “drowning” in blood is a recurring motif throughout
Macbeth’s reign, perhaps simile is constructed to foreshadow the moral decline of the Macbeth’s.
The scene ends with Duncan giving the honour of the Thane of Cawdor to Macbeth. Here we see
another positive epithet for ‘noble Macbeth’, echoing the opening epithet ‘brave Macbeth’.
Shakespeare grounds this epithet in antithetical parallelism ‘what he hath gained noble Macbeth
hath won’, the reversal of the parallelism may convey the reversal in fortunes for the two thanes.
Act 1 Scene 3
Shakespeare shows the resentment that the Witches have towards society through their
characterisation of a sailor’s wife. The Witch says ‘ she munch’d, munch’d, munch’d’ […]“aroin’t
thee witch!” the rump-fed ronyon cries’, the texture of the language, the repetition harsh sounds
of ‘munch’d’ and the ‘r’s create the impression that the wife is one of the ‘swine’ that the previous
witch has just killed.
However, even the Witches’ plan to take revenge may be futile, reflecting her helpless station in
society. A sieve is a small boat and the Witch announces that she is going to sail it on her own,
which is presumably unlikely to happen. The simile ‘like a rat without a tail’ perhaps reinforces the
notion that she is powerless because, without the use of a tail, the rat is imbalanced and rendered
disabled. The idea of helplessness is reinforced through the epizuxis of ‘I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do’,
a delineation that the Witch is unable to name what action she will take once she meets the sailor
showing her ineffectiveness.
Like the Witches, Macbeth is introduced as a character that deviates from the natural order as his
first line is an echo of Witches incantation ‘such foul and fair a day I have not seen’. The
antithetical adjectives ‘foul and fair’ coexist together within the same sentence implying that
Macbeth has certain duality of nature. Such duality is evident in the intertextual link to the Witches
‘fair is foul and foul is fair’, here Shakespeare employs chiasmus, such inversion of the language
may represent the ways in which the Witches invert the natural order and come symbolise the
subversion of what is ethical. The verbal echo of ‘fair and foul’ creates a parallel between
Macbeth and the Witches, this may connote that Macbeth believes in a subverted ethical system.
This idea is reinforced through another form of parallelism in ‘cannot be ill, cannot be good’, the
juxtaposition of ‘ill’ and ‘good’ is reminiscent of the opening ‘foul and fair’, perhaps this illustrates
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