Exam (elaborations)

Lady Macbeth Grade 9 Essay

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Module
English

Institution
GCSE

How is Lady Macbeth presented in Act 1 Scene 5? This essay was graded and awarded 24 marks out of 30 marks. This Grade 9 essay depicts Lady Macbeth intentions.

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Uploaded on May 20, 2024
Number of pages 1
Written in 2023/2024
Type Exam (elaborations)
Contains Questions & answers

Institution GCSE
Education GCSE
Module English
School year 2

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How is Lady Macbeth presented in Act 1 Scene 5?

At the beginning of Scene 5 Lady Macbeth is presented as wily and scheming. Lady tells Macbeth to
hurry home so she can “pour [her]spirits in thine ear”. This exemplifies her advantage and power
over Macbeth. We can see that Lady Macbeth is willing to manipulate Macbeth to murder King
Duncan. “Spirits” have connotations of evil and magic. Shakespeare cleverly does this to link Lady
Macbeth to the three Weird Witches presented at the beginning of the play. This highlights Lady
Macbeth’s wicked yet enchanting control over Macbeth. Furthermore, we can infer their close
relationship - Macbeth trusts her completely. This is clear evidence of Lady Macbeth’s captivating
strategies on Macbeth. This is incredibly shocking to the Jacobean audience as the mainstream idea
of a wife was that they should be inferior and obedient. Lady Macbeth contradicts this idea making
her stand out as a character in the play.

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as evil and iniquitous. Lady Macbeth fears Macbeth’s “nature”
as he is too full “o’th’milk of human kindness”. The use of the metaphor “full of the milk of human
kindness” connotes that Lady Macbeth knows that Macbeth does not have the heart to go forward
with killing the king. This is then revisited when Lady Macbeth states that his ambition is without
“the illness [that] should attend it”. This implies that Lady Macbeth is willing to be the mastermind
behind the regicide to attain her now goal to make Macbeth King. She is planning to do a morally
wrong action and disturb the chain of being. Shakespeare does this to make her the ‘missing’ evil
half or trigger for Macbeth. The Jacobean audience would be perplexed by Lady Macbeth’s actions,
this is because of their fear of witches.

Lady Macbeth is deliberately presented as wicked and diabolical. She calls on spirits “that tend on
mortal thoughts” to “unsex [her] here”. This connotes that Lady Macbeths wants her femininity to
be taken away so she can possess the ‘male’ strengths to carry out her plans. This highlights the idea
that she wants to eradicate the feminine emotions to successfully carrying out her plan for murder.
Lady Macbeth calls on spirits in which prey on people who have thoughts of murder. Furthermore,
this highlights Lady Macbeth’s diabolical side – she is willing to be possessed by evil spirits just so she
can feel and have the crown to herself. She is almost insulting her husband and implying he is too
weak and needs to take on the job herself. To a Jacobean audience this would have been appalling,
we know this from their dominant idea of demons and witches. Shakespeare does this to interest
King James who had written a book about demonology.

In conclusion Lady Macbeth is presented as an evil and cunning woman willing to help her husband
to reach the impossible.

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