Macbeth

• Macbeth’s increased agency and power could be Shakespeare presenting the gender roles in a relationship conforming to societal expectations, as the magnitude of the crime they have committed is assumed to be too much for a woman to handle.
• Macbeth’s increased agency and power could be Shakespeare criticising unnatural power dynamics in marriage.
• Lady Macbeth is initially presented as subverting gender expectations of a woman, with power over both her husband and household.
• From the point of the murder of Duncan, Macbeth begins to keep secrets from Lady Macbeth, increasing his agency and power.
• In the final scene of Act I, Lady Macbeth still assumes the dominant and controlling position in her marriage, able to hurl insults at her cowed husband.
• Lady Macbeth loses hold on her power and is increasingly sidelined by her husband.
• Lady Macbeth uses the same insulting language and imperative verbs, but to little or no effect.
• Lady Macbeth’s influence is the reason Macbeth commits regicide.
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth use the language of Heaven and Hell throughout Act I and the beginning of Act II, suggesting that they are both mortally concerned for their future should they commit the sacrilegious act of murdering a sitting monarch.
• In Macbeth’s soliloquy, he refers to “Heaven”, “cherubin” and “angels”, as well as “damnation”, indicating his awareness of the religious consequences of committing regicide.
• Macbeth admits in his soliloquy that his ambition is the “only” reason that he identifies to commit the murder, and by extension, it is his ambition that sets the wheels in motion for his ultimate demise.
• Macbeth knows the religious consequences of regicide, but his ambition means he proceeds with the murder anyway.
• The regicide of King Duncan is the catalyst for Macbeth’s ultimate downfall, serving as the inciting incident after which a tragic hero’s fate is sealed.
• Macbeth is the play’s tragic hero.
• Macbeth’s ambition overrides all other sensibilities, even his awareness of the dire religious consequences of committing regicide.
• Immediately after meeting the witches, Banquo thinks Macbeth is strange, and after Macbeth becomes king, he believes Macbeth “play’dst most foully for it”, thinking Macbeth got the crown by evil means.
• Because Banquo represents the societal norms, Shakespeare makes him rightly suspicious of Macbeth’s behaviour.
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth assume the traditional, dominant role in their relationship as the play progresses.
• Lady Macbeth is a character who subverts the typical attributes of women of the Jacobean era, being not dutiful, compassionate, or nurturing.
• Macbeth could be suggesting that Lady Macbeth is less capable of handling the power that comes with being a king or queen.
• Lady Macbeth is compared to the evil influence of the witches, being ‘unnatural’ due to her untypical attributes and dominance over Macbeth.
• Lady Macbeth loses control of her resolve in Act V, realising the true extent of her crime and its eternal consequences.
• Banquo acts as a contrast to the character of Macbeth, being a foil, highlighting character traits that are very particular to the protagonist, that an author wants to explore.
• Banquo represents the typical behaviours and attitudes of the Jacobean era, the societal norms, being very suspicious of the witches, honest, loyal, and devoutly Christian.
• Lady Macbeth, by planning to usurp the throne and having the ability to control her husband, a man, disrupts this established order and is punished.
• Lady Macbeth is childless, marking her as an unnatural wife.
• Lady Macbeth influences, or even manipulates, Macbeth's actions in the first two acts of the play, presenting a role reversal in the traditional Jacobean relationship between a husband and a wife.
• Lady Macbeth appears to have authority over both Macbeth and the castle, Dunsinane, that they live in, referring to them as “my battlements”.
• As the play progresses, Lady Macbeth has less and less authority over Macbeth, and Macbeth begins to keep secrets from her.
• By Act V, Macbeth assumes the typical, dominant role of a husband, and Lady Macbeth is reduced to a feeble, powerless wife.
• The Jacobeans believed in the Great Chain of Being, which asserted a rightful hierarchy of all things in the universe, as set out by God.
• Lady Macbeth is not loving, nurturing, or compassionate, and feels no pangs of conscience when planning or remorse after the regicide of King Duncan, presenting a woman who is thoroughly untypical of Jacobean societal norms.
• Lady Macbeth may represent the corruption of the proper, Christian order of things, as she cannot maintain her authority over Macbeth, cannot handle the consequences of regicide, and commits suicide as a result.
• Lady Macbeth can also be compared to the evil influence of the witches, as she is ‘unnatural’ due to her untypical attributes and dominance over Macbeth.
• Supernatural events or characters in Jacobean England were seen as the work of the devil, and evil.
• Lady Macbeth, who was so resolved to kill Duncan, eventually sees visions of blood on her hands, symbolizing her responsibility for his murder and her guilt.
• Banquo, representing societal norms, rightly does not trust the witches.
• Shakespeare plays with the concept of perception throughout Macbeth, questioning if we are seeing what’s really there and if characters are who they seem to be.
• In Jacobean England, there was a widespread belief in witches and witchcraft, and many women were executed on suspicion of being witches.
• The witches in Macbeth are shown to be capable of affecting the weather, creating spells and committing evil acts against ordinary people.