Structure and Form

• Form:

  • Shakespeare's tragedies usually consist of:
  • A tragic hero
  • A fatal flaw
  • A foil: a character who stands in contrast of the tragic hero
  • Fate - all tragic heroes cannot escape their fate or destiny
  • The supernatural
  • Catharsis (a feeling of relief for an audience)
  • Conflict: external (assassinations, etc) and internal (mental decline of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth)
  • A final restoration of the status quo
• Structure of Macbeth:

  1. Exposition - intro to the play for the audience and an intro to the themes and atmosphere
  2. Rising action - Where the tragic hero's tragic flaw is exposed
  3. Climax - the turning point where Macbeth has gone too far to turn back
  4. Falling action - tragic hero and avenging hero clash. Macbeth realises he is to be defeated
  5. Denouement - normality and the natural order is restored, Malcom becomes King
• Macbeth

  A Shakespearean tragedy
• It is important that the examiner knows from your essays that you understand the conventions of tragedy, as this is a valuable – and sophisticated – understanding of the writer's craft and methods
• Conventions of Shakespearean tragedies

  • Tragic hero
  • Fatal flaw (hamartia)
  • Foil
  • Fate
  • The supernatural
  • Catharsis
  • Conflict
  • Final restoration of the status quo
• Tragic hero


  A once-heroic figure (in this case Macbeth) who is destined to die
• Fatal flaw (hamartia)


  A character trait that leads to the tragic hero's downfall
• Macbeth's fatal flaw

  His ambition
• Foil

  A character who stands in contrast to the tragic hero, who conforms to the typical societal expectations of the era
• Banquo

  The foil character in Macbeth, who is much more skeptical of the witches
• Fate

  All tragic heroes cannot escape their fate or destiny
• Fate in Macbeth

  An expression of man's powerlessness over God and his natural order
• The supernatural


  Represents a threat to the natural order of things, as set out by God
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

  Essentially side with the supernatural and, therefore, against God's plan
• Catharsis

  A moment of shared expression for the audience, more than relief that Macbeth (ultimately, our villain) has died, it is sympathy for the once heroic figure that he was, and could have been
• Tragic waste

  Another name for the catharsis technique in Macbeth
• Poetic language forms used by Shakespeare in his plays

  • Blank verse
  • Rhymed verse
  • Prose
• Each of the three forms are used throughout Macbeth
• Conflicts in Macbeth

  • External (assassinations; Macduff's ultimate revenge)
  • Internal (the mental decline of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth)
• Dramatic purposes of the different forms of language

  • To distinguish characters from one another
  • To reveal the psychology of characters
  • To show character development
• Blank verse


  Unrhymed lines of ten syllables, although it does not always exactly fit that pattern
• Final restoration of the status quo

  Things go back to normal after the death of the tragic hero, with Malcolm (the rightful heir to the throne) installed as king
• Blank verse in Shakespeare plays

  Represents human feelings in speeches and soliloquies, and the everyday ordinariness of life
• Blank verse in Macbeth


  • The famous soliloquies before the murder of Duncan from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
• Rhymed verse

  Sets of rhymed couplets: two successive lines that rhyme with each other at the end of the line
• Rhymed verse in Shakespeare's plays

  • Reflects ritualistic and supernatural events
  • Separates the witches from the human characters and makes them seem unnatural
• Rhymed verse in Macbeth

  • The witches speak in rhyming couplets
  • Macbeth also speaks in rhymed couplets
• Rhymed couplets used by Macbeth

  Link him to the witches in evil, and suggest he has been enchanted by their prophecies
• Rhymed couplets used by Macbeth

  • At the end of Act II, Scene I
  • After he sees Banquo's ghost in Act III, Scene IV
• Prose

  Unrhymed lines with no pattern or rhythm
• Sleep


  Represents peace or calm
• Prose used by Shakespeare

  • For serious episodes, letters or when characters appear to be losing their minds
• Prose in Macbeth

  • Presenting the letter to Lady Macbeth from Macbeth concerning the witches' prophecies
  • Expressing Lady Macbeth's madness in Act V, Scene I
• Macbeth murders Duncan

  Macbeth hears a voice saying "Macbeth does murder sleep"
• Prose used for Lady Macbeth's madness


  • She no longer has the ability to speak in the ordinary speech of blank verse
  • Reflects her disordered mind and loss of touch with reality
• Macbeth commits regicide


  Ends the possibility of a peaceful life, with extreme feelings of guilt keeping him awake
• Macbeth disrupts the Great Chain of Being by murdering a king


  There is now no peace and order in the kingdom
• Lady Macbeth's sleep is disrupted

  Guilt has finally overwhelmed her
• Blood


  Represents guilt after the murder of King Duncan
• Macbeth sees a hallucination of a bloodied dagger


  Foreshadows the feelings of guilt Macbeth feels towards the murder of Duncan