This is a concise but detailed Level 9 essay plan outlining an introduction, 3 paragraphs & a conclusion in answer to questions about deception in Macbeth; there are key quotes & nuanced AO3 contextual links in each paragraph.
Q. How does Shakespeare present deception in ‘Macbeth’?
Thesis:
G: at the time, GP led to wide suspiciousness & distrust of catholics within society
S: S portrays deceitful/sinister actions/characters within play so as to align deception
with catholics, perpetuating fears
T: machiavellian deception is ultimately futile & is mark of a bad king = supports
contemporary views of good kingship/support of james’ reign
Para 1:
deception leads to disruption of natural order & social structure
- paradoxical language of witches (‘fair is foul and foul is fair’) linked to
equivocation of catholic plotters
- macbeth’s first lines mirror witches’ lang = immediate subversion of a humanist
universe due to deception
- androgynous appearance of witches (‘look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth’,
‘they should be women’) = linguistic deception of witches (catholics) is
externalised in liminal appearances
Para 2:
deception as tool to fulfil hubris leads to bad outcomes attacking society’s health (the
body politic)
- ‘look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t’ = encouragement of
literal deception, links to witches’ liminal appearance; biblical allusion to snake in
Genesis = deception then led to fall of man, deception here will lead to
destruction of society & fall of macbeth
- ‘all our service, in every point twice done and then done double’ = misleading
language = alignment with equivocation of catholics
- deception of duncan culminates in his murder
- ‘the night has been unruly’, ‘the Earth/was feverous and did shake’ = such
deceit has already been imbued in envi. as chaotic weather, further links
to witches
- ‘stole/thence/the life o’ th’ building’ = macbeth’s deception has usurped the
body politic
Para 3:
deception is tactic to hide insecurity & ultimately is punished = ultimate futility against
great chain of being
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