GCSE Macbeth: Macbeth Character Essay Plan
- Created by: maryam_04
- Created on: 19-03-19 07:12
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- Macbeth Essay Plan
- Initially shown to be brave in battle before we have even met the character
- honourable
- Duncan describes him as "brave Macbeth"
- "unseam'd from the nave to the chaps"
- illustrates his violent capacity
- foreshadows his actions in the rest of the play
- Macbeth later goes on to kill anyone who poses a threat to his power.
- e.g. Banquo and Macduff's family
- illustrates his violent capacity
- struggles with conscience and morality
- "who's horrid image doth unfix my hair"
- horrified with himself as he imagines himself killing Duncan as soon as he hears the prophecy
- "who's horrid image doth unfix my hair"
- loyalty
- "the service and loyalty I owe, in doing it, pays itself"
- says that doing a service for his king is enough of a reward for him
- kills a man who he is supposed to be loyal towards as his subject
- also supposed to be protecting Duncan as he is his host
- "the service and loyalty I owe, in doing it, pays itself"
- ambition is his fatal flaw - hubris
- "stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires"
- easily manipulated
- the witches prophecies showing that there was a possibility for him to be in a position of power immediately made him abandon his loyalty to Duncan
- loyalty
- "the service and loyalty I owe, in doing it, pays itself"
- says that doing a service for his king is enough of a reward for him
- kills a man who he is supposed to be loyal towards as his subject
- also supposed to be protecting Duncan as he is his host
- "the service and loyalty I owe, in doing it, pays itself"
- loyalty
- Trusts the witches and doesn't disregard their prophecies despite the fact that they are supernatural beings
- would have immediately turned a Jacobean audience against him
- supposedly wouldn't have killed Duncan if Lady Macbeth had not manipulated him
- "screw your courage to the sticking place"
- the witches prophecies showing that there was a possibility for him to be in a position of power immediately made him abandon his loyalty to Duncan
- changing relationship with Lady Macbeth
- at first he seems quite caring and he even sends her a letter about the witches' prophecies
- most men at the time would not tell their wives of such matters
- "my dearest love"
- easily manipulated by wife into killing Duncan
- LM questions his masculinity and implies that he is a coward
- "Are you a man?"
- "too full o'th'milk of human kindness"
- LM questions his masculinity and implies that he is a coward
- turning point / power shift in relationship after Duncan's murder
- Macbeth doesn't tell LM about his plans to kill Banquo
- "be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck"
- Disregards her death
- "she should have died hereafter"
- Macbeth doesn't tell LM about his plans to kill Banquo
- at first he seems quite caring and he even sends her a letter about the witches' prophecies
- mentally unstable
- has visions of supernatural
- "is this a dagger which I see before me?"
- "a dagger of the mind"
- Macbeth is aware that he is hallucinating
- "a dagger of the mind"
- Banquo's ghost
- witches' apparitions / spirits
- "is this a dagger which I see before me?"
- obsession with murder
- kills Banquo (attempts to kill Fleance) and Macduff's family
- has visions of supernatural
- Initially shown to be brave in battle before we have even met the character
- KEY
- Main point
- Quote
- Development of point
- Shakespeare creates Macbeth's character to illustrate the effect of too much ambition and what it can do to a person. He also attempts to show what happens when the Great Chain of Being is disturbed.
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