Bruke's English Journal

Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a confused and weak man who lost any morality he had left. Shakespeare does this by carefully choosing Macbeth’s language choices and his line structure.

Shakespeare shows Macbeth as weak and that Lady Macbeth is more powerful in the relationship, through the change in iambic pentameter. During Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s speech in Act 3 Scene 2, Shakespeare allows Lady Macbeth to speak, twice, while Macbeth finishes his last line on six beats. Lady Macbeth completes the iambic pentameter . Lady Macbeth completing the iambic pentameter suggests that she is more powerful and is in control. ‘You must leave this’ was the line from Lady Macbeth.This is imperative, which you can link to wanting to be more powerful. Macbeth interrupts Lady Macbeth once which could indicate a shift in power?

Shakespeare present Macbeth as confused and quite evil, by the use of a metaphor. ‘Make our faces vizards to our hearts.’. Macbeth is telling Lady Macbeth that there faces, which know, seen and heard the truth, must be invisible of covered with a mask so that they will not feel guilt in their hearts. To a mask implies that you have something to hide or you want to tell a different story, this tells the audience that Macbeth knows that what he has done is unacceptable, even for his own heart. He likes the outcome, however dislikes the method. by saying ‘faces’ and ‘hearts’ Macbeth is suggesting that his heart wants one thing, while his mind another. Your heart is usually where the goodness from people comes from, and by tricking it Macbeth could become evil, well even more evil.

There is a link to shift of power because this line ‘Make our faces vizards to our hearts.’ is imperative, towards Lady Macbeth as well as himself, he is ordering her not to feel guilt. The obvious themes presented by Shakespeare in this scene is power and dominance.

Women in Jacobean era

The ideal women in the Jacobean era would be tender, loving, inferior, supportive and not very intelligent. She would be there to support and observe her husband thrive in his chosen career. She is also expected to raise the children, nurture them for they are what the couple will live in the world. This sounds a very concentrated version of the stereotype that we might see in modern times. What i know so far is that Lady Macbeth is not the typical Jacobean women.

Witches in Jacobean era

 Witches were thought to make people ill, blight crops and make livestock sicken or become infertile. They had familiar demons in animal forms that did their bidding. They could cause storms, sink ships and fly on brooms. People thought that witches met up to dance with the devil and occasionally have intercourse with him. Many people confessed to meeting a “black” man and signing his book. In reality most of the accused were the elderly, the mentally ill or disabled, herbalists and midwives. It was believed that you could identify a witch by physical marks where they fed their familiars and inability to say prayers. Suspected witches were interrogated by torture.