Macbeth and Violence - Example Grade 7 GCSE Essay
This GCSE essay on ‘Macbeth and Violence’ was completed by a student in response to an AQA Literature question, but it can be used as an example of Grade 7 writing for any GCSE or iGCSE exam.
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THE ESSAY
Question:
How does Shakespeare present violence in this extract and elsewhere in the play? (Extract: 1.2 Captain's speech beginning “Doubtful it stood”)
Answer:
In the play ‘Macbeth’, Shakespeare presents the eponymous hero as a violent character from the beginning to end. However, his violence initially seems to be a positive trait as important figures label him as ‘brave Macbeth’, yet as the play progresses and Macbeth embarks upon his tragic fall, the audience are encouraged to question the true nature of violence itself and whether any form of violence is good. Ultimately, we see that Macbeth’s violence is not only driven by him yet also the supernatural, his manipulative wife and his vaulting ambition. His violence destroys his reputation, legacy and entire life’s work.
As the play begins, Macbeth is established as a valiant warrior who embraces violence in order to defend Duncan and his Kingdom. Macbeth’s reputation precedes him and it is interesting to note that we do not meet him before Act 1 Scene 3 and are introduced to his image and reputation through the extract. The Captain’s speech is full of confidence and praise as he describes Macbeth and Banquo’s defeat of ‘merciless Macdonwald’. Macbeth’s enjoyment for violence is first presented through graphic imagery as his ‘brandish’d steel… smoked with bloody execution’ and he ‘unseamed’ Macdonwald ‘from the knave to the chops’. The dynamic verb ‘smoked’ suggests the intense action of the scene and together with the fact that he ‘unseamed’ the traitor does not only show that he killed him, yet that he completely destroyed him, highlighting the pleasure he has for his profession. As both modern and Jacobean audiences do not witness Macbeth committing violence yet only hear of it, it may be that Shakespeare wanted to discourage the idea of violence yet also display it’s psychological and human nature. As Macbeth interferes with the biblical commandment ‘thou shall not kill’ as well as only being powerful in the Feudal world through his acts of violence, we see that Macbeth is established as a tragic hero from the start, and is set up for downfall.
As the play progresses, Macbeth’s violent nature becomes further influenced by the power of the Supernatural. As the witches echo ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ in the opening scene in trochaic tetrameter, their equivocal language immediately foreshadows the entire plot of the play that Macbeth uses his violence to deceive the King. ‘Foul’ represents Macbeth’s descent to tyranny and once the witches tell Macbeth that he will become ‘Thane of Cawdor’ and eventually King, Macbeth feels he must do anything in order to fulfil their prophecies. As well as the witches, his own supernatural visions and hallucinations then lead him to regicide. In his speech before killing Duncan, evil, insanity and the supernatural are underlined. He begins with ‘Is this a dagger I see before me?’. Through the use of rhetorical question, Shakespeare captures Macbeth’s mental and emotional condition at the time. As he attempts to distinguish reality from the vision that he sees, he is getting closer to the murder of Duncan as the prophecies of the witches and insistent urging of his wife aid his decision. The soliloquy comes together with stage directions, guiding Macbeth to draw out the dagger he has in possession whilst the ‘bell invites’ him to commit the murder. All in all, Shakespeare reflects upon the dark side of human nature by using supernatural hallucinations to drive a violence and crime.
Furthermore, Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth’s violence, by directly associating it with his deficiency of masculine traits that were considered noble in the Jacobean era. She questions him before the death of Duncan, exclaiming ‘I fear thy nature is too full o’th’milk of human kindness’. The word ‘milk’ is used as a symbol of femininity to present his womanly nature, whilst she herself presented very masculine features by asking the evil spirits ‘unsex me here’. Macbeth’s desire for the title ‘King’ together with Lady Macbeth’s wish to become more masculine resulted in the violent nature of the couple growing even stronger. Overall it could be argued that culture itself encourages Machiavellian disruption through both women and men stepping out of societal norms in order to strive for power.
At the end of the play, Macbeth turns into the epitome of a villain as his violence has led him astray. As Macbeth violently shouts ‘The devil damn thee black, thou cream faced loon!’ his anger shows his will and urge to be the hero he first was yet only emphasises how pathetic he has become and the power that he had lost. As Macduff then describes Macbeth as a ‘dead butcher’, a cyclical structure is formed as we are reminded of the beginning where he ‘smoked with bloody execution’. However, we now do not think of Macbeth as the brave hero we first knew, yet a failure to his own self and the play. In this sense, we can see that the concept of violence is integral to Shakespeare as he attempts to inform the audience that societies encouragement of violence must be stopped for the good of everyone.
Ultimately, we can interpret Macbeth’s violent nature as driven by his vaulting ambition, the Supernatural and Lady Macbeth however rather than blaming Macbeth’s violence on him, Shakespeare explores how society encourages instability through ideas such as power grabbing and greed.
Feedback:
In extract questions, acknowledge the extract in the intro and talk about where it fits within the play in the whole
Its psychological nature (belonging to it)
It's - it is
Make sure to adapt previous analysis into the question
Trochaic tetrameter
Instead of saying the technique, analyse the technique
Why do the witches use trochaic tetrameter? Spell / incantation - chants, especially when combined with rhyme
Shows their otherworldly nature - humans speak blank verse
Uncanniness - 'you should be women yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so'
Thanks for reading!
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