GCSE English Lit Macbeth Essay - Identity and Masculinity 30/30
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Course
English
Institution
GCSE
This is a student written essay which gained 30 marks out of 30. It is on identity and masculinity throughout the play of Macbeth, an AQA GCSE English Literature question.
Gained a 9 in English Lit GCSE.
Read the following extract from Act 4 Scene 3 of Macbeth and then answer the question that follows.
In this scene Macduff has fled to England to gain help from Malcolm, he has just heard that Macbeth has
had his wife and children killed.
MACDUFF
He has no children. All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?
MALCOLM
Dispute it like a man.
MACDUFF
I shall do so;
But I must also feel it as a man:
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!
MALCOLM
Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief
Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.
MACDUFF
O, I could play the woman with mine eyes
And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens,
Cut short all intermission; front to front
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;
Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,
Heaven forgive him too!
MALCOLM
This tune goes manly.
Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave; Macbeth
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may:
The night is long that never finds the day.
Exeunt
Starting with this dialogue, how does Shakespeare explore the theme of
identity and masculinity?
Write about:
How Shakespeare presents identity and masculinity in this extract
How Shakespeare presents identity and masculinity in the play as a whole.
[30 marks]
[4 marks for AO4]
In his play Macbeth, Shakespeare explores the crisis of the Macbeth’s
struggle to find their identity, whilst also developing gender ideas through his display
of masculinity in characters such as Macduff. Shakespeare may begin to
demonstrate that the strict masculine conformity of Elizabethan society was
damaging views on society and causing identity issues for those who were not fitting
of the ideal version of manhood that was set at that time.
When the character of Lady Macbeth is first introduced to the audience, we
immediately are exposed to her own identity problems, as she demonstrates her
feminine/masculine duality through her characteristics which are wrought with
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