50 page GCSE AQA Macbeth Revision PDF by Grade 9 student. Includes:
- key quotes with in-depth analysis
- scene summaries and unique interpretations
- model essays with plans and thesis statements
- exam question practice pack
- personal advice
- themes
- sophisticated language devices (e....
Microsoft PowerPoint - MACBETH exam practice pack (stoke newington school.co.uk)
Your teacher may give you this but if not, print it out and do it!!!
Tips
- Although the quotes below have been analysed in incredible detail, remember that to get
in the top band you need to have a range of embedded quotes with alternative
interpretations and varied language devices.
- Argue critically and whilst your analysis should be creative, ensure it directly answers the
question and use sophisticated vocabulary to establish your points at the start of each
paragraph.
- DICHOTOMY - good vs evil, unnatural vs natural,
- Context and opinions of the audience then vs now should be included throughout each
one - a common mistake is to leave it to the end and run out of time.
- When revising, try to link what you’re working on to as many different themes and
characters if possible.
- MACHIAVELLI - someone sneaky, cunning and lacking a moral code.
- If you encounter a question you’re unfamiliar with, don’t panic! Calm down, think of
what symbols and motifs there may be (mention these throughout your essay for top
marks)
- Tone, setting and atmosphere can be analysed in a pinch - for language too! You will
find that once you write about these 3, more ideas will flow naturally
- What real world issues exist today that were also present in the play? Were they as
problematic during the era in which Macbeth is set in and when Shakespeare lived?
Think big!
- THESIS STATEMENT
- Your first sentence should always include the phrase “in the eponymous play Macbeth”.
- PRACTICE ESSAYS IN TIMED CONDITIONS - make your teacher mark every single
one, annoy them about giving you feedback, improve your answer and discuss with
others. Different people = different styles = better essays
- Who scores the highest in your class? Befriend them, steal their revision techniques,
borrow their work and do better than them
- English is just a debate, and we all know how to argue
- DIFFERENT STAGE ADAPTATIONS - Research and read, question drama teachers
about this play too if they know of it
,Grade 9 Quote Analysis
"Unsex me here" - Lady Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5
1. Language
- Imperative "unsex" has a sense of urgency; Lady Macbeth knows that Duncan is coming
and this is the only time she could persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan. This opportunity will not
come again. Also, Lady Macbeth is urgent because she is desperate. The fact that she is asking
for the power of the spirits shows that she is weak and she understands that. because she cannot
do what she needs to do with who she currently is.
- The proposition "here" demonstrates her urgency as she wants the act of "unsexing" her to
be done right now and right in where she is. This driving force is her ambition and desire to
become a queen. The fact that she says this dialogue straight after reading Macbeth's letter,
shows that the idea of moving up the social ladder and having the most power has always been in
her mind.
- Macbeth writes Lady Macbeth a letter even when he is just going to arrive no long after
because he knows that desire and ambition has always been in his "dearest partner of greatness",
but he has no courage to do that. Therefore, he knew this letter was going to give her the urgency
to prepare and plan everything for the murderous killing. As a result, this letter puts Lady
Macbeth in the desperation of needing to ask for the evil spirits to "unsex" her there.
- The verb "unsex" means to reduce Lady Macbeth's feminine qualities such as the ability to
care, so she can be filled with the "from crown to toe, top-full / Of direst cruelty". At the same
time this reveals the caring and nurturing qualities women are perceived to be in the Jacobean
era, this also reveals the expectations of men having to be cruel and violent. This allows the
audience to understand Macbeth better because he has to be cruel and violent to be masculine.
2. Structure
- This is a juxtaposition because:
a) This is the first time she recognises what she needs to do after she receives the letter; after
reading the letter, all she has been talking about was just Macbeth, about his kindness and his
feminine qualities.
b) if this quote was looked at alone, it may seem that Lady Macbeth wants to be a powerful
woman as a result of her own desires. However, the address of her as the "dearest partner of
greatness" may have caused this perception, because Macbeth is presenting her as an equal to
himself and the use of the noun "partner" indicates that they are in this together. This acts as a
,catalyst to speed up Lady Macbeth's realisation of the weaknesses of the Macbeths and what are
needed to become a super powerful couple
- This foreshadows the downfall of Lady Macbeth. In Act 5 Scene 1, she refers to many
feminine images ("The Thane of Fife had a wife"; "perfumes of Arabia '') which reveals her guilt.
Although the guilt is partly due to the deaths she has caused, it is also due to the fact that she has
gone against her own gender. Shakespeare is presenting Lady Macbeth as regretting the act of
"unsex" and her suicide is the result of society's punishment for her deviant behaviour.
- This act of "unsex" also gives her a false sense of security because she was never unsex,
hence she commits suicide at the end. A performance of the unsexed version of herself could
only act for so long.
3. "Unsex me here" - Form
- Lady Macbeth is often portrayed as a highly desirable sexual woman, who uses her
sexuality as part of her persuasion asking Macbeth to kill Duncan. Although during her
persuading, she attacks Macbeth's masculinity and undermines him, she also approaches him
sexually, which is often staged that way to show Macbeth's desires to please his wife ("my
dearest partner of greatness") as he is so attracted to her. This is carried on even after Lady
Macbeth "unsex[es]" herself.
- This is a challenge to the audience watching the play, because gender roles are challenged.
They see witches with "beard" and Lady Macbeth's performance of "unsex". Shakespeare uses
the supernatural to criticise the norms and gender stereotypes of the society because those are the
things that force women to become hags, and noble ladies to ask for "unsex" herself, because
without those things, they will not become powerful as they are bound by the boundaries of the
Jacobean society at the time.
4. "Unsex me here" - Context
- Patriarchy: A patriarchal society produces insecure people, because they are constantly
looking for the epitome of what is socially desired. For men, this is bravery and for women, this
is beauty. As a result, this produces women who are dared to go to evil spirits and become
androgynous in order to pursue power.
- The plan starts with the Witches who are ugly. Shakespeare does this to show that gender is a
key theme in this play. The Witches are also the products of a patriarchal society, which
demonstrates the failure of such a system.
- In Lady Macbeth's soliloquy, we are revealed that her baby has died. This suggests another
reason why she desires to become a queen is because she can no longer fulfil her role of a
woman to bear a child. Becoming the monarchies of the society means that she still helps her
husband with his career, so she is not completely useless.
- Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are constrained by the social expectations and try to live up
to them
, - Freud & Id: Lady Macbeth has become a slave to her innate desire for power and she is willing
to do whatever it takes for her to have power (can be linked to superego and ego).
- The Dagger scene - Macbeth's id of the innate desire of power creates the dagger, which leads
to him killing Duncan. So he allies himself with his wife, both become a slave to power
Model essays
1. At this point in the play, Lady Macbeth is speaking. She has just read Macbeth’s letter
telling her about his meeting with the three witches.
LADY MACBETH
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promis’d; yet do I fear thy nature,
It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without 5
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’dst have, great Glamis,
That which cries, ‘Thus thou must do’ if thou have it;
And that which rather thou dost fear to do, 10
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem 15
To have thee crown’d withal.
Starting with this speech, explore how Shakespeare presents ambition in Macbeth. Write about:
- how Shakespeare presents ambition in this speech
- how Shakespeare presents ambition in the play as a whole
In Macbeth, Shakespeare presents ambition as the tragic flaw that causes Macbeth’s downfall. In
the extract, Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth’s lack of ambition and she resolves to persuade
him to seize the throne. Later, Shakespeare shows how Macbeth’s ambition is encouraged by the
Witches’ prophecies and by his own desire for power as we see him transformed from a loyal
subject, to a murderous tyrant, to a defeated usurper. Performed before King James VI and I in
1606, the play suggests, presumably to the satisfaction of the king, that ambitious rebels against
divinely appointed kings should expect gruesome punishment.
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