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macbeth key quotes and meanings gcse grade 9
this is macbeth key quotes and meanings gcse grade 9 in which i got a grade 9 in my gcse and has lots of useful info
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ExposureThemes – conflict , war , reality of war , suffering , nature , patriotism , man vs nature
Context
-Wilfred Owen was a soldier and officers in World War 1. He died before the end of the war but during his time he
saw the full horror of conditions on the front line. He wrote a number of poems about this, published after the war
with the help from fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon.
- The war itself was often criticised because of a huge loss of life for very little gain. During the Somme over 60,000
British soldiers died in one day, and in all they only gained 6 miles by the end of the war. Owen’s poems were often
angry that the soldiers were in muddy dangerous trenches while the generals behind the lines were living in comfort.
Owen’s poems tried to show the truth of conditions to people back home. He was no against fighting, but was angry
about the conditions soldiers had to live with in order to do so.
Content
-is a poem about how the real killer in ww1 was not bullets or gunfire it was the merciless weather
murdering more soldiers than the opposition
-speaker describes war as a battle against the weather and conditions:
-imagery of cold and warm reflect the delusional mind of a man dying from hypothermia
-owen wanted to draw attention to the suffering monotony and futility of war
Quotes
-“our brains ache merciless iced east winds that knive us “
Nature is portrayed as their enemy seems to be attacking them more likely to die from the weather
elements than fighting with the germens uses personification to show how harsh the wind is towards those
in the trenches ellipsis shows never ending
-“but nothing happens”
Short simple line emphasises their boredom and tension , no progression represents the relentlessness of
the elements
-“back on forgotten dreams”
The men have given up on all their dreams
“for love of god seems dying”
-the fact that they feel abandoned has left them questioning their faith
-“like twitching agonies of men among its brambles”
Creates a vivid picture of the wounded soldiers word”brambles” of the barbed wire reminds us of the pain
caused by nature uses simile to show a gruesome image of dead soldiers in no-mans land
“dawn massing in the east her melancholy army attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey”
Dawn is personified using the language of battle normally dawn brings hope but not here uses semantic
field to show dull greyness of the overcast weather is like the army
“grey” colourless field lifeless cold also colour of german uniform aligns nature with the enemy
Structure
-The poem is made of eight stanzas with a consistent use of a half line to end. This reinforces the sense of stasis or
sameness throughout the poem that nothing is happening.
- There is use of para-rhyme showing words which appear to rhyme yet sound wrong when read to create the sense
of unsettledness in the poem the soldiers are feeling.
-Owen also uses a huge amount of onomatopoeia and alliteration in the poem to emphasise the atmosphere and the
sound of weather.
Man v Nature: Written about soldiers in a trench we expect to see a large amount of military language, however
most of this is used to describe and personify the weather as if it were and army attacking them. The poem ends
with the fear of tonight and the people who will lose lives and how none of this will change anything. Within the
poem it is the weather that is represented as merciless and triumphant.
, Bayonet charge
Themes – conflict , power , reality of war nature
Content
-The poem is about a nameless soldier going over the top in the trenches. Soldiers would have bayonets
attached to the end of their rifles and would use them to stab enemy soldiers. The nameless soldier in the
poem seems to become more a weapon than a man, rushing toward the enemy. It is not clear at the end
whether he dies but there is definitely a change in him. His actions are very raw and primal, much like an
animal, suddenly pausing, preparing to react. The poet, Ted Hughes, was a former RAF serviceman and
includes a great amount of natural and historical ideas in his poems and he often looks at man’s impact on
nature.
-describes the terrifying experience of “going over the top”
-steps inside the body and mind of the speaker to show how this act transforms a soldier from a living
thinking person into a dangerous weapon of war
-hughes dramatises the struggle between a mans thoughts and action
Key quotes
-Suddenly he awoke"
Fast paced start - as if he is in a confused or vulnerable state Event seems like a nightmare but this
confirms it is real.
-"Bullets smacking the belly out of the air"
-Violent imagery and onomatopoeia Describes the sound and impact of the shots.
-Personification shows how nature is being destroyed by conflict
-“A rifle as numb as a smashed arm"
-Simile Suggests his weapon is useless and fore-shadows the injuries he is likely to get.
-“smashed arm” violent imagery reinforces war brutality
-'The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye/ Sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest'
- shows how his feelings of and belief in patriotism have been changed into fear due to the horrendous
reality of war.
“patriotic tear” The patriotism/indoctrination is slowly becoming painful and sombre
His patriotism has turned into fear and pain – his heroic ideals have been replaced by painful reality
“in what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations”
Emphasises the soldiers insignificance and his lack of control of his situation “cold” implies that the people in
charge of war don’t care about individual soldiers
simile suggests that the soldier doesn't know why he's running. He feels he is metaphorically 'in the dark'
about the reality and horror of war.
Structure
-There are three stanzas and the work is largely blank verse with no set structure. n part the different lines help
show the pace of the charge, sometimes fast, sometimes stumbling. Towards the end it picks up speed, perhaps as
he approaches his destination or doom
-The poet uses a lot of enjambment and caesuras to give a bizarre and erratic speed to the poem. This helps again
give a structure to the speed of the charge but also the confusion and intensity of the battle with explosions and
gunfire as well as the jumbled thoughts of the soldier.
Man or Mouse (Hare?): There are parts of this poem which make us think more of a hunt or animals than humanity.
The charge to the ‘green hedge’ seems to be more the action of an animal bolting in a field rather than soldiers
charging a trench. The inclusion of the yellow hare is also powerful, we see the soldier in a moment of confusion, not
sure why he is there and what he is doing, the hare seems to spur him on, either because he does not want to be a
coward or because it reflects a brief moment of man and nature connecting before war once again breaks it.
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