Shakespeare constructs our understanding of Macbeth

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.

 


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One response to “Shakespeare constructs our understanding of Macbeth”

  1. Miss Drewett Avatar
    Miss Drewett

    Bruke I knew that you understood how to do this task from the first two lines  You think about the language and structure closely and always relate it back to our understanding of character. You also consider authorial intent in the choice of words and relate to themes where appropriate.
    Some points to consider in order to develop your writing further:
    Reread your work for rogue spellings and punctuation (e.g. do you really need a question mark at the end of your second paragraph?)
    Try to keep your language as sophisticated as your analysis (which is thought out and considered deeply) e.g. ‘well even more evil’. More cruel? Vindictive? Powerful? Try not to repeat words or use casual phrasing like ‘well’.

React!