'Macbeth', Extra Notes, Revision

‘Macbeth’, Extra Notes, Revision

Act III scene 4 –

• Macbeth goes over the brink, Lady Macbeth cannot follow.
• Where they separate emotionally and physically.
• P.53 (132) – Macbeth makes it clear he is willing to kill anyone/anything that gets in his way. > contribute to L. Macbeth’s loss of her mind? (Next time we see her she has gone mad).

Playing Lady Macbeth -

• Faint – fake.
• More interesting to play her as a strong character – she is the dynamo behind Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth in Context -

• Demon, or understand/
• Must look at attitudes of the day.
• Women = no right, merely their husband’s property.
• Quicker to support their husbands, through conditioning, in order to do well themselves.
• Cannot excuse her, but maybe she is more vulnerable.
• (Would rather dash her baby’s brains out than break a promise).
• Understand baby > understand L. Macbeth.
• ‘I have given suck’ – had a baby. If I’d promised to kill this baby (as Macbeth to Duncan), however awful it may be, I would do it.
• ‘Boneless gum’ – baby died young, raw memory.
• Memory of loss, pain = burning sense of injustice about the world.
• Trauma of loss = put her in a frame of mind where murder is not such a terrible thing.
• Trying to rectify / reassert a natural justice.

Macbeth: Bringing the witches to life –

• Power going in.
• Links with each other, connection with sisters.
• What stage do they ‘get to him’?
• Witches speak his darkest thought – then becomes tangible.
• Question of fate. Told fate – will strive to it.
• Always a weakness where someone will then agree.
• Witches’ power does not just lie in witchcraft – lies in knowing their man knowing how to tempt him with his own desires and how to plunge him into turmoil – ‘why do I yield to that suggestion?’

Macbeth: the role of the witches –

• Witches are meant to scare us, but in today’s society, witchcraft is diminished.
• Shakespeare’s day – burning witches at the stake – witch scenes would have had more impact if you come from a culture that believes in witches.
• Similarity between language of witches and street speak today. Both used creatively and exclude outsiders.
• Bend words to make different meanings – ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’, Macbeth’s first words echo the witches – ‘so foul and fair a day I have not seen’.

Section A, Practice Question Plans

1. What have you found striking about Shakespeare’s presentation of death in Macbeth?

• Lots of death – striking = pace.
• Banquo’s death – surprising because it goes as quickly (1 Act) then his ghost appears. Short one lines, death and revenge link in together. Also so surprising because it is his friend – thought it would take Macbeth a long time to build up the courage.
• Metaphorically = striking – not always physical and death of relationships. Noble character – expected to always be like this (faithful). However, first meet M in battle – death is all he knows.
• Death of relationships – Macbeth and Banquo – striking – see hunger for power that he will kill his friend. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth – both on different levels (LM has to insult M’s masculinity).
• Presentation – symbolically e.g. dagger soliloquy. Animals = foreshadowing < striking, Porter also foreshadow – reels the audience in.
• Gothic texts expect to have death, blood and gore.
• Death completes a circle – there at the beginning and kicks off a series of other deaths and ends with the inevitability.
• Presented through supernatural framework – witches = catalyst of death. Supernatural = fear of death.
• Darkness.
• Macduff’s family – their death is shocking – they’re innocent – unnecessary, unprovoked, ultimate downfall, happens on stage – Macbeth less secretive and out of control. Any sympathy toward Macbeth is lost.

2. Discuss the view that Shakespeare’s main interest is not the physical horror, but in psychological depravity.

• Physical horror is there – blood etc.
• Majority of gore is off stage – language describes it – leaves to the imagination, S manipulates the audience.
• L M off stage – main character – expected to die on stage, shows M is not thinking of her?
• Dagger soliloquy = longer than any physical gore – S makes more of psychological aspects.
• Murders lead to psychological depravity.
• Looking into the mind of a mad man – endlessly fascinating.
• ‘Unseamed from nave to chops’ – led to Macbeth’s depraved mind.

3. How far do you agree that Macbeth’s gothic elements are not relevant for a modern audience?

• Supernatural = not as shocking – we are not as suspicious as Shakespearian audiences would have been. BUT still relevant if we reinterpret them into a treatment of women, racism etc … fear of the unknown, media creating ‘folk devils’.
• Witches in enigmatic set up = chorus.
• Lady Macbeth – alienation = gothic element, seductress = gothic element – still relevant – femme fatale still features profusely today (critical anthology). She has power-perfect, represents how society has change, refreshing even though used in a negative sense.
• Harder to scare a modern audience – gothic has turned to grotesque horror.
• Psychological is still relevant.