Power in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth', English GCSE Literature
GCSE English Literature 9-1 Model Essay Macbeth (How is the decline of Macbeth as a tragic hero presented in Macbeth?)
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Witches Macbeth Banquo Duncan Lady Macbeth
Macbeth Act 1
Scene 1: The Witches plan to meet Macbeth
➔ Witches are the first characters on stage - highlights their importance and the importance
of supernatural in the play
◆ Initially their intentions are unclear which engages the audience through a sense
of uncertainty + trepidation
Scene opens with: “thunder and lightning” - pathetic fallacy
➔ creates a sense of foreboding and danger which sets a dark tone
➔ Wild weather hints that unnatural events are taking place
➔ Thunder = loud and intrusive, could show how witches like to cause chaos
“That will be ere the set of sun”
➔ They’re foreseeing things - highlights their higher supernatural power
Speak in rhyming, paradoxical couplets: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair; hover through the fog and
filthy air”
➔ Poetic chanting + speaking in unison: sets them apart from other characters = qualities
associated with supernatural figures
➔ They exist outside natural order of world so speak unnaturally
◆ “Fog and filthy air” sets a gloomy atmosphere + makes them ambiguous as they
can’t be seen properly
Scene 2: King Duncan hears reports of the battle
➔ Contrasts eerie opening scene with images of bloodshed and brutality
Captain describes Macbeth as “with his brandished steel which smoked with bloody execution”
➔ Vivid descriptions of him using a sword build up images of him on the battlefield -
highlighting his courage and nobility
➔ At this point he is a hero who’s loyal to his king and country
➔ Initially, he’s celebrated for his bloodthirsty nature as he cut the traitor Macdonald “from
the nave to th’ chops”
◆ Ironic as this violence eventually leads to his downfall
Witches have just told audience that “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (nothing is as it seems)
suggesting that the “worthy” Macbeth may not be as good as the other characters believe
“No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive...with his former title greet Macbeth”
➔ Macbeth will be given honourable title but also the title of a traitor - Shakespeare is
foreshadowing
, Scene 3: Witches make three predictions
Witches accompanied by thunder again - recurring motif highlights their chaos and interruption of
natural order
➔ They call themselves the "weird sisters” and boast about their violent and magical deeds
such as cursing a sailor
◆ Establishes them as evil but magically powerful characters
“And the very ports they blow, all the quarters that they know I’ the shipman’s card. I’ll drain him
dry as hay; sleep shall neither night nor day”
➔ Witches discuss sending a storm on a sailor’s ship so he can’t sleep
➔ Sailor = metaphor for what will happen to Macbeth who’s made sleepless by guilt
◆ Ship = metaphor for Scotland which is almost destroyed during Macbeth’s
tumultuous reign
Macbeth’s first line in scene = “so foul and fair a day I have not seen”
➔ Links him to the witches and the “foul is fair” prophecy
➔ Possibly hinting at the control the witches will eventually have over Macbeth + maybe
that they think in the same way (reader recognises an underlying connection between the
two)
Banquo’s and Macbeth’s Reactions to the Predictions:
Witches predict that Macbeth will be made Thane of Cawdor, then king and Banquo’s
descendents will also become kings
Banquo Macbeth
“have we eaten on the insane root that takes “Speak if you can”
the reason prisoner?” “Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more”
Repeated questioning of witches - Enthralled by what witches are telling him.
level-headed, rational, and dismissive of Uses imperatives - ordering witches as he’s
them. He isn’t caught up in the prophecies eager to know more and can’t contain his
curiosity
Describes witches as “instruments of Witches “cannot be ill, cannot be good”
darkness” recognises they’re evil (also refers Less sceptical and dubious, preoccupied in
to them as “the devil”) doubtful of witches as a deciphering the prophecy - he’s immediately
result captivated at the thought of power
“He seems rapt withal” “If chance will have me king why chance may
Recognises and almost mocks Macbeth for crown me”
being so transfixed by witches. Less sceptical than Banquo - demonstrates
Acknowledging Macbeth’s obsession shows his belief in what witches were saying. Hoping
he doesn’t think the same way prophecy will come true but it will be a
situation where he can be passive and won’t
have to engage in any treacherous behaviour
*
Warns that the witches “win us with honest
trifles, to betray’s in deepest consequence”
Accepts that prophecies were true but
recognises that witches could be deceiving
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