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Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 0 )

Macbeth . . . is done upon a stronger and more systematic principle of contrast than any other of Shakespeare’s plays. It moves upon the verge of an abyss, and is a constant struggle between life and death. The action is desperate and the reaction is dreadful. It is a huddling together of fierce extremes, a war of opposite natures which of them shall destroy the other. There is nothing but what has a violent end or violent beginnings. The lights and shades are laid on with a determined hand; the transitions from triumph to despair, from the height of terror to the repose of death, are sudden and startling; every passion brings in its fellow-contrary, and the thoughts pitch and jostle against each other as in the dark. The whole play is an unruly chaos of strange and forbidden things, where the ground rocks under our feet. Shakespear’s genius here took its full swing, and trod upon the farthest bounds of nature and passion.

—William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays

Macbeth completes William Shakespeare’s great tragic quartet while expanding, echoing, and altering key elements of Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear into one of the most terrifying stage experiences. Like Hamlet, Macbeth treats the consequences of regicide, but from the perspective of the usurpers, not the dispossessed. Like Othello, Macbeth centers its intrigue on the intimate relations of husband and wife. Like Lear, Macbeth explores female villainy, creating in Lady Macbeth one of Shakespeare’s most complex, powerful, and frightening woman characters. Different from Hamlet and Othello, in which the tragic action is reserved for their climaxes and an emphasis on cause over effect, Macbeth, like Lear, locates the tragic tipping point at the play’s outset to concentrate on inexorable consequences. Like Othello, Macbeth, Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, achieves an almost unbearable intensity by eliminating subplots, inessential characters, and tonal shifts to focus almost exclusively on the crime’s devastating impact on husband and wife.

What is singular about Macbeth, compared to the other three great Shakespearean tragedies, is its villain-hero. If Hamlet mainly executes rather than murders, if Othello is “more sinned against than sinning,” and if Lear is “a very foolish fond old man” buffeted by surrounding evil, Macbeth knowingly chooses evil and becomes the bloodiest and most dehumanized of Shakespeare’s tragic protagonists. Macbeth treats coldblooded, premeditated murder from the killer’s perspective, anticipating the psychological dissection and guilt-ridden expressionism that Feodor Dostoevsky will employ in Crime and Punishment . Critic Harold Bloom groups the protagonist as “the culminating figure in the sequence of what might be called Shakespeare’s Grand Negations: Richard III, Iago, Edmund, Macbeth.” With Macbeth, however, Shakespeare takes us further inside a villain’s mind and imagination, while daringly engaging our sympathy and identification with a murderer. “The problem Shakespeare gave himself in Macbeth was a tremendous one,” Critic Wayne C. Booth has stated.

Take a good man, a noble man, a man admired by all who know him—and destroy him, not only physically and emotionally, as the Greeks destroyed their heroes, but also morally and intellectually. As if this were not difficult enough as a dramatic hurdle, while transforming him into one of the most despicable mortals conceivable, maintain him as a tragic hero—that is, keep him so sympathetic that, when he comes to his death, the audience will pity rather than detest him and will be relieved to see him out of his misery rather than pleased to see him destroyed.

Unlike Richard III, Iago, or Edmund, Macbeth is less a virtuoso of villainy or an amoral nihilist than a man with a conscience who succumbs to evil and obliterates the humanity that he is compelled to suppress. Macbeth is Shakespeare’s greatest psychological portrait of self-destruction and the human capacity for evil seen from inside with an intimacy that horrifies because of our forced identification with Macbeth.

Although there is no certainty in dating the composition or the first performance of Macbeth, allusions in the play to contemporary events fix the likely date of both as 1606, shortly after the completion and debut of King Lear. Scholars have suggested that Macbeth was acted before James I at Hampton Court on August 7, 1606, during the royal visit of King Christian IV of Denmark and that it may have been especially written for a royal performance. Its subject, as well as its version of Scottish history, suggest an effort both to flatter and to avoid offending the Scottish king James. Macbeth is a chronicle play in which Shakespeare took his major plot elements from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1587), but with significant modifications. The usurping Macbeth’s decade-long (and largely successful) reign is abbreviated with an emphasis on the internal and external destruction caused by Macbeth’s seizing the throne and trying to hold onto it. For the details of King Duncan’s death, Shakespeare used Holinshed’s account of the murder of an earlier king Duff by Donwald, who cast suspicion on drunken servants and whose ambitious wife played a significant role in the crime. Shakespeare also eliminated Banquo as the historical Macbeth’s co-conspirator in the murder to promote Banquo’s innocence and nobility in originating a kingly line from which James traced his legitimacy. Additional prominence is also given to the Weird Sisters, whom Holinshed only mentions in their initial meeting of Macbeth on the heath. The prophetic warning “beware Macduff” is attributed to “certain wizards in whose words Macbeth put great confidence.” The importance of the witches and the occult in Macbeth must have been meant to appeal to a king who produced a treatise, Daemonologie (1597), on witch-craft.

The uncanny sets the tone of moral ambiguity from the play’s outset as the three witches gather to encounter Macbeth “When the battle’s lost and won” in an inverted world in which “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” Nothing in the play will be what it seems, and the tragedy results from the confusion and conflict between the fair—honor, nobility, duty—and the foul—rank ambition and bloody murder. Throughout the play nature reflects the disorder and violence of the action. Opening with thunder and lightning, the drama is set in a Scotland contending with the rebellion of the thane (feudal lord) of Cawdor, whom the fearless and courageous Macbeth has vanquished on the battlefield. The play, therefore, initially establishes Macbeth as a dutiful and trusted vassal of the king, Duncan of Scotland, deserving to be rewarded with the rebel’s title for restoring peace and order in the realm. “What he hath lost,” Duncan declares, “noble Macbeth hath won.” News of this honor reaches Macbeth through the witches, who greet him both as the thane of Cawdor and “king hereafter” and his comrade-in-arms Banquo as one who “shalt get kings, though thou be none.” Like the ghost in Hamlet , the Weird Sisters are left purposefully ambiguous and problematic. Are they agents of fate that determine Macbeth’s doom, predicting and even dictating the inevitable, or do they merely signal a latency in Macbeth’s ambitious character?

When he is greeted by the king’s emissaries as thane of Cawdor, Macbeth begins to wonder if the first predictions of the witches came true and what will come of the second of “king hereafter”:

This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings: My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is But what is not.

Macbeth will be defined by his “horrible imaginings,” by his considerable intellectual and imaginative capacity both to understand what he knows to be true and right and his opposed desires and their frightful consequences. Only Hamlet has as fully a developed interior life and dramatized mental processes as Macbeth in Shakespeare’s plays. Macbeth’s ambition is initially checked by his conscience and by his fear of the unforeseen consequence of violating moral laws. Shakespeare brilliantly dramatizes Macbeth’s mental conflict in near stream of consciousness, associational fashion:

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. If th’assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease, success: that but this blow Might be the be all and the end all, here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgement here, that we but teach Bloody instructions which, being taught, return To plague th’inventor. This even-handed justice Commends th’ingredients of our poison’d chalice To our own lips. He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against The deep damnation of his taking-off, And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself And falls on the other.

Macbeth’s “spur” comes in the form of Lady Macbeth, who plays on her husband’s selfimage of courage and virility to commit to the murder. She also reveals her own shocking cancellation of gender imperatives in shaming her husband into action, in one of the most shocking passages of the play:

. . . I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done to this.

Horrified at his wife’s resolve and cold-blooded calculation in devising the plot, Macbeth urges his wife to “Bring forth menchildren only, / For thy undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males,” but commits “Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.”

With the decision to kill the king taken, the play accelerates unrelentingly through a succession of powerful scenes: Duncan’s and Banquo’s murders, the banquet scene in which Banquo’s ghost appears, Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking, and Macbeth’s final battle with Macduff, Thane of Fife. Duncan’s offstage murder contrasts Macbeth’s “horrible imaginings” concerning the implications and Lady Macbeth’s chilling practicality. Macbeth’s question, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” is answered by his wife: “A little water clears us of this deed; / How easy is it then!” The knocking at the door of the castle, ominously signaling the revelation of the crime, prompts the play’s one comic respite in the Porter’s drunken foolery that he is at the door of “Hell’s Gate” controlling the entrance of the damned. With the fl ight of Duncan’s sons, who fear for their lives, causing them to be suspected as murderers, Macbeth is named king, and the play’s focus shifts to Macbeth’s keeping and consolidating the power he has seized. Having gained what the witches prophesied, Macbeth next tries to prevent their prediction that Banquo’s descendants will reign by setting assassins to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. The plan goes awry, and Fleance escapes, leaving Macbeth again at the mercy of the witches’ prophecy. His psychic breakdown is dramatized by his seeing Banquo’s ghost occupying Macbeth’s place at the banquet. Pushed to the edge of mental collapse, Macbeth steels himself to meet the witches again to learn what is in store for him: “Iam in blood,” he declares, “Stepp’d in so far that, should Iwade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

The witches reassure him that “none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” and that he will never be vanquished until “Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him.” Confident that he is invulnerable, Macbeth responds to the rebellion mounted by Duncan’s son Malcolm and Macduff, who has joined him in England, by ordering the slaughter of Lady Macduff and her children. Macbeth has progressed from a murderer in fulfillment of the witches predictions to a murderer (of Banquo) in order to subvert their predictions and then to pointless butchery that serves no other purpose than as an exercise in willful destruction. Ironically, Macbeth, whom his wife feared was “too full o’ the milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way” to serve his ambition, displays the same cold calculation that frightened him about his wife, while Lady Macbeth succumbs psychically to her own “horrible imaginings.” Lady Macbeth relives the murder as she sleepwalks, Shakespeare’s version of the workings of the unconscious. The blood in her tormented conscience that formerly could be removed with a little water is now a permanent noxious stain in which “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten.” Women’s cries announcing her offstage death are greeted by Macbeth with detached indifference:

I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have cool’d To hear a nightshriek, and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in’t. Ihave supp’d full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me.

Macbeth reveals himself here as an emotional and moral void. Confirmation that “The Queen, my lord, is dead” prompts only the bitter comment, “She should have died hereafter.” For Macbeth, life has lost all meaning, refl ected in the bleakest lines Shakespeare ever composed:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Time and the world that Macbeth had sought to rule are revealed to him as empty and futile, embodied in a metaphor from the theater with life as a histrionic, talentless actor in a tedious, pointless play.

Macbeth’s final testing comes when Malcolm orders his troops to camoufl age their movement by carrying boughs from Birnam Woods in their march toward Dunsinane and from Macduff, whom he faces in combat and reveals that he was “from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripp’d,” that is, born by cesarean section and therefore not “of woman born.” This revelation, the final fulfillment of the witches’ prophecies, causes Macbeth to fl ee, but he is prompted by Macduff’s taunt of cowardice and order to surrender to meet Macduff’s challenge, despite knowing the deadly outcome:

Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, And damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”

Macbeth returns to the world of combat where his initial distinctions were honorably earned and tragically lost.

The play concludes with order restored to Scotland, as Macduff presents Macbeth’s severed head to Malcolm, who is hailed as king. Malcolm may assert his control and diminish Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as “this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen,” but the audience knows more than that. We know what Malcolm does not, that it will not be his royal line but Banquo’s that will eventually rule Scotland, and inevitably another round of rebellion and murder is to come. We also know in horrifying human terms the making of a butcher and a fiend who refuse to be so easily dismissed as aberrations.

Macbeth Oxford Lecture by Emma Smith

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

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A Modern Perspective: Macbeth

By Susan Snyder

Coleridge pronounced Macbeth to be “wholly tragic.” Rejecting the drunken Porter of Act 2, scene 3 as “an interpolation of the actors,” and perceiving no wordplay in the rest of the text (he was wrong on both counts), he declared that the play had no comic admixture at all. More acutely, though still in support of this sense of the play as unadulterated tragedy, he noted the absence in Macbeth of a process characteristic of other Shakespearean tragedies, the “reasonings of equivocal morality.” 1

Indeed, as Macbeth ponders his decisive tragic act of killing the king, he is not deceived about its moral nature. To kill anyone to whom he is tied by obligations of social and political loyalty as well as kinship is, he knows, deeply wrong:

He’s here in double trust:

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,

Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,

Who should against his murderer shut the door,

Not bear the knife myself. ( 1.7.12 –16)

And to kill Duncan, who has been “so clear in his great office” (that is, so free from corruption as a ruler), is to compound the iniquity. In adapting the story of Macbeth from Holinshed’s Chronicles of Scotland, Shakespeare created a stark black-white moral opposition by omitting from his story Duncan’s weakness as a monarch while retaining his gentle, virtuous nature. Unlike his prototype in Holinshed’s history, Macbeth kills not an ineffective leader but a saint whose benevolent presence blesses Scotland. In the same vein of polarized morality, Shakespeare departs from the Holinshed account in which Macbeth is joined in regicide by Banquo and others; instead, he has Macbeth act alone against Duncan. While it might be good politics to distance Banquo from guilt (he was an ancestor of James I, the current king of England and patron of Shakespeare’s acting company), excluding the other thanes as well suggests that the playwright had decided to focus on private, purely moral issues uncomplicated by the gray shades of political expediency.

Duncan has done nothing, then, to deserve violent death. Unlike such tragic heroes as Brutus and Othello, who are enmeshed in “equivocal morality,” Macbeth cannot justify his actions by the perceived misdeeds of his victim. “I have no spur,” he admits, “To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition” ( 1.7.25 –27). This ambition is portrayed indirectly rather than directly. But it is surely no accident that the Weïrd Sisters accost him and crystallize his secret thoughts of the crown into objective possibility just when he has hit new heights of success captaining Duncan’s armies and defeating Duncan’s enemies. The element of displacement and substitution here—Macbeth leading the fight for Scotland while the titular leader waits behind the lines for the outcome—reinforces our sense that, whatever mysterious timetable the Sisters work by, this is the psychologically right moment to confront Macbeth with their predictions of greatness. Hailed as thane of Glamis, thane of Cawdor, and king, he is initially curious and disbelieving. Though his first fearful reaction ( 1.3.54 ) is left unexplained, for us to fill in as we will, surely one way to read his fear is that the word “king” touches a buried nerve of desire. When Ross and Angus immediately arrive to announce that Macbeth is now Cawdor as well as Glamis, the balance of skepticism tilts precipitously toward belief. The nerve vibrates intensely. Two-thirds of the prophecy is already accomplished. The remaining prediction, “king hereafter,” is suddenly isolated and highlighted; and because of the Sisters’ now proven powers of foreknowledge, it seems to call out for its parallel, inevitable fulfillment.

The Weïrd Sisters present nouns rather than verbs. They put titles on Macbeth without telling what actions he must carry out to attain those titles. It is Lady Macbeth who supplies the verbs. Understanding that her husband is torn between the now-articulated object of desire and the fearful deed that must achieve it (“wouldst not play false / And yet wouldst wrongly win,” 1.5.22 –23), she persuades him by harping relentlessly on manly action. That very gap between noun and verb, the desired prize and the doing necessary to win it, becomes a way of taunting him as a coward: “Art thou afeard / To be the same in thine own act and valor / As thou art in desire?” ( 1.7.43 –45). A man is one who closes this gap by strong action, by taking what he wants; whatever inhibits that action is unmanly fear. And a man is one who does what he has sworn to do, no matter what. We never see Macbeth vow to kill Duncan, but in Lady Macbeth’s mind just his broaching the subject has become a commitment. With graphic horror she fantasizes how she would tear her nursing baby from her breast and dash its brains out if she had sworn as she says her husband did. She would, that is, violate her deepest nature as a woman and sever violently the closest tie of kinship and dependence. Till now, Macbeth has resisted such violation, clinging to a more humane definition of “man” that accepts fidelity and obligation as necessary limits on his prowess. Now, in danger of being bested by his wife in this contest of fierce determinations, he accepts her simpler, more primitive equation of manhood with killing: he commits himself to destroying Duncan. It is significant for the lack of “equivocal morality” that even Lady Macbeth in this crucial scene of persuasion doesn’t try to manipulate or blur the polarized moral scheme. Adopting instead a warrior ethic apart from social morality, she presents the murder not as good but as heroic.

Moral clarity informs not only the decisions and actions of Macbeth but the stage of nature on which they are played out. The natural universe revealed in the play is essentially attuned to the good, so that it reacts to the unambiguously evil act of killing Duncan with disruptions that are equally easy to read. There are wild winds, an earthquake, “strange screams of death” ( 2.3.61 –69). And beyond such general upheaval there is a series of unnatural acts that distortedly mirror Macbeth’s. Duncan’s horses overthrow natural order and devour each other, like Macbeth turning on his king and cousin. “A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place”—the monarch of birds at its highest pitch—is killed by a mousing owl, a lesser bird who ordinarily preys on insignificant creatures ( 2.4.15 –16). Most ominous of all, on the morning following the king’s death, is the absence of the sun: like the falcon a symbol of monarchy, but expanding that to suggest the source of all life. In a general sense, the sunless day shows the heavens “troubled with man’s act” ( 2.4.7 ), but the following grim metaphor points to a closer and more sinister connection: “dark night strangles the traveling lamp” ( 2.4.9 ). The daylight has been murdered like Duncan. Scotland’s moral darkness lasts till the end of Macbeth’s reign. The major scenes take place at night or in the atmosphere of the “black, and midnight hags” ( 4.1.48 ), and there is no mention of light or sunshine except in England ( 4.3.1 ).

Later in the play, nature finds equally fitting forms for its revenge against Macbeth. Despite his violations of the natural order, he nevertheless expects the laws of nature to work for him in the usual way. But the next victim, Banquo, though his murderer has left him “safe in a ditch” ( 3.4.28 ), refuses to stay safely still and out of sight. In Macbeth’s horrified response to this restless corpse, we may hear not only panic but outrage at the breakdown of the laws of motion:

The time has been

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,

And there an end. But now they rise again

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns

And push us from our stools. This is more strange

Than such a murder is. ( 3.4.94 –99)

His word choice is odd: “ they rise,” a plural where we would expect “he rises,” and the loaded word “crowns” for heads. Macbeth seems to be haunted by his last victim, King Duncan, as well as the present one. And by his outraged comparison at the end—the violent death and the ghostly appearance compete in strangeness—Macbeth suggests, without consciously intending to, that Banquo’s walking in death answers to, or even is caused by, the murder that cut him off so prematurely. The unnatural murder generates unnatural movement in the dead. Lady Macbeth, too, walks when she should be immobile in sleep, “a great perturbation in nature” ( 5.1.10 ).

It is through this same ironic trust in natural law that Macbeth draws strength from the Sisters’ later prophecy: if he is safe until Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane, he must be safe forever:

Who can impress the forest, bid the tree

Unfix his earthbound root? Sweet bodements, good!

Rebellious dead, rise never till the Wood

Of Birnam rise . . . ( 4.1.109 –12)

His security is ironic because for Macbeth, of all people, there can be no dependence on predictable natural processes. The “rebellious dead” have already unnaturally risen once; fixed trees can move against him as well. And so, in time, they do. Outraged nature keeps matching the Macbeths’ transgressions, undoing and expelling their perversities with its own.

In tragedies where right and wrong are rendered problematic, the dramatic focus is likely to be on the complications of choice. Macbeth, on the contrary, is preoccupied less with the protagonist’s initial choice of a relatively unambiguous wrong action than with the moral decline that follows. H. B. Charlton noted that one could see in Richard III as well as Macbeth the biblical axiom that “the wages of sin is death”; but where the history play assumes the principle, Macbeth demonstrates why it has to be that way. 2 The necessity is not so much theological as psychological: we watch in Macbeth the hardening and distortion that follows on self-violation. The need to suppress part of himself in order to kill Duncan becomes a refusal to acknowledge his deed (“I am afraid to think what I have done. / Look on ’t again I dare not”: 2.2.66 –67). His later murders are all done by proxy, in an attempt to create still more distance between the destruction he wills and full psychic awareness of his responsibility. At the same time, murder becomes a necessary activity, the verb now a compulsion almost without regard to the object: plotted after he has seen the Weïrd Sisters’ apparitions, Macbeth’s attack on Macduff’s “line” ( 4.1.174 ) is an insane double displacement, of fear of Macduff himself and fury at the vision of the line of kings fathered by Banquo.

Yet the moral universe of Macbeth is not as uncomplicated as some critics have imagined. To see in the play’s human and physical nature only a straightforward pattern of sin and punishment is to gloss over the questions it raises obliquely, the moral complexities and mysteries it opens up. The Weïrd Sisters, for example, remain undefined. Where do they come from? Where do they go when they disappear from the action in Act 4? What is their place in a moral universe that ostensibly recoils against sin and punishes it? Are they human witches, or supernatural beings? Labeling them “evil” seems not so much incorrect as inadequate. Do they cause men to commit crimes, or do they only present the possibility to them? Macbeth responds to his prophecy by killing his king, but Banquo after hearing the one directed at him is not impelled to act at all. Do we take this difference as demonstrating that the Sisters have in themselves no power beyond suggestion? Or should we rather find it somewhat sinister later on when Banquo, ancestor of James I or not, sees reason in Macbeth’s success to look forward to his own—yet feels it necessary to conceal his hopes ( 3.1.1 –10)?

Even what we most take for granted becomes problematic when scrutinized. Does Macbeth really desire to be king? Lady Macbeth says he does, but what comes through in 1.5 and 1.7 is more her desire than his. Apart from one brief reference to ambition when he is ruling out other motives to kill Duncan, Macbeth himself is strangely silent about any longing for royal power and position. Instead of an obsession that fills his personal horizon, we find in Macbeth something of a motivational void. Why does he feel obligated, or compelled, to bring about an advance in station that the prophecy seems to render inevitable anyway? A. C. Bradley put his finger on this absence of positive desire when he observed that Macbeth commits his crime as if it were “an appalling duty.” 3

Recent lines of critical inquiry also call old certainties into question. Duncan’s saintly status would seem assured, yet sociological critics are disquieted by the way we are introduced to him, as he receives news of the battle in 1.2. On the one hand we hear reports of horrifying savagery in the fighting, savagery in which the loyal thanes participate as much as the rebels and invaders—more so, in fact, when Macbeth and Banquo are likened to the crucifiers of Christ (“or memorize another Golgotha,” 1.2.44 ). In response we see Duncan exulting not only in the victory but in the bloodshed, equating honor with wounds. It is not that he bears any particular guilt. Yet the mild paternal king is nevertheless implicated here in his society’s violent warrior ethic, its predicating of manly worth on prowess in killing. 4 But isn’t this just what we condemn in Lady Macbeth? Cultural analysis tends to blur the sharp demarcations, even between two such figures apparently totally opposed, and to draw them together as participants in and products of the same constellation of social values.

Lady Macbeth and Duncan meet in a more particular way, positioned as they are on the same side of Scotland’s basic division between warriors and those protected by warriors. The king is too old and fragile to fight; the lady is neither, but she is barred from battle by traditional gender conventions that assign her instead the functions of following her husband’s commands and nurturing her young. In fact, of course, Lady Macbeth’s actions and outlook thoroughly subvert this ideology, as she forcefully takes the lead in planning the murder and shames her husband into joining in by her willingness to slaughter her own nurseling. It is easy to call Lady Macbeth “evil,” but the label tends to close down analysis exactly where we ought to probe more deeply. Macbeth’s wife is restless in a social role that in spite of her formidable courage and energy offers no chance of independent action and heroic achievement. It is almost inevitable that she turn to achievement at second hand, through and for her husband. Standing perforce on the sidelines, like Duncan once again, she promotes and cheers the killing.

Other situations, too, may be more complex than at first they seem. Lady Macduff, unlike Lady Macbeth, accepts her womanly function of caring for her children and her nonwarrior status of being protected. But she is not protected. The ideology of gender seems just as destructive from the submissive side as from the rebellious, when Macduff deserts her in order to pursue his political cause against Macbeth in England and there is no husband to stand in the way of the murderers sent by Macbeth. The obedient wife dies, with her cherished son, just as the rebellious, murderous lady will die who consigned her own nursing baby to death. The moral universe of Macbeth has room for massive injustice. Traditional critics find Lady Macbeth “unnatural,” and even those who do not accept the equation of gender ideology with nature can agree with the condemnation in view of her determined suppression of all bonds of human sympathy. Clear enough. But we get more blurring and crossovers when Macduff’s wife calls him unnatural. In leaving his family defenseless in Macbeth’s dangerous Scotland, he too seems to discount human bonds. His own wife complains bitterly that “he wants the natural touch”; where even the tiny wren will fight for her young against the owl, his flight seems to signify fear rather than natural love ( 4.2.8 –16). Ross’s reply, “cruel are the times,” while it doesn’t console Lady Macduff and certainly doesn’t save her, strives to relocate the moral ambiguity of Macduff’s conduct in the situation created by Macbeth’s tyrannical rule. The very political crisis that pulls Macduff away from his family on public business puts his private life in jeopardy through the same act of desertion. But while acknowledging the peculiar tensions raised by a tyrant-king, we may also see in the Macduff family’s disaster a tragic version of a more familiar conflict: the contest between public and private commitments that can rack conventional marriages, with the wife confined to a private role while the husband is supposed to balance obligations in both spheres.

Malcolm is allied with Duncan by lineage and with Macduff by their shared role of redemptive champion in the final movement of the play. He, too, is not allowed to travel through the action unsullied. After a long absence from the scene following the murder of Duncan, he reappears in England to be sought by Macduff in the crusade against Macbeth. Malcolm is cautious and reserved, and when he does start speaking more freely, what we hear is an astonishing catalogue of self-accusations. He calls himself lustful, avaricious, guilty of every crime and totally lacking in kingly virtues:

Nay, had I power, I should

Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,

Uproar the universal peace, confound

All unity on earth. ( 4.3.113 –16)

Before people became so familiar with Shakespeare’s play, I suspect many audiences believed what Malcolm says of himself. Students on first reading still do. Why shouldn’t they? He has been absent from the stage for some time, and his only significant action in the early part of the play was to run away after his father’s murder. When this essentially unknown prince lists his vices in lengthy speeches of self-loathing, there is no indication—except an exaggeration easily ascribable to his youth—that he is not sincere. And if we do believe, we cannot help joining in Macduff’s distress. Malcolm, the last hope for redeeming Scotland from the tyrant, has let us down. Duncan’s son is more corrupt than Macbeth. He even sounds like Macbeth, whose own milk of human kindness ( 1.5.17 ) was curdled by his wife; who threatened to destroy the whole natural order, “though the treasure / Of nature’s germens tumble all together / Even till destruction sicken” ( 4.1.60 –63). In due course, Malcolm takes it all back; but his words once spoken cannot simply be canceled, erased as if they were on paper. We have already, on hearing them, mentally and emotionally processed the false “facts,” absorbed them experientially. Perhaps they continue to color indirectly our sense of the next king of Scotland.

Viewed through various lenses, then, the black and white of Macbeth may fade toward shades of gray. The play is an open system, offering some fixed markers with which to take one’s basic bearings but also, in closer scrutiny, offering provocative questions and moral ambiguities.

“Notes for a Lecture on Macbeth ” [c. 1813], in Coleridge’s Writings on Shakespeare , ed. Terence Hawkes (New York: Capricorn, 1959), p. 188.
H. B. Charlton, Shakespearian Tragedy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948), p. 141.
A. C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy (London: Macmillan, 1904), p. 358.
James L. Calderwood, If It Were Done: “Macbeth” and Tragic Action (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986), pp. 77–89.

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Master Shakespeare's Macbeth using Absolute Shakespeare's Macbeth essay, plot summary, quotes and characters study guides.

Plot Summary : A quick review of the plot of Macbeth including every important action in the play. An ideal introduction before reading the original text.

Commentary : Detailed description of each act with translations and explanations for all important quotes. The next best thing to an modern English translation.

Characters : Review of each character's role in the play including defining quotes and character motivations for all major characters.

Characters Analysis : Critical essay by influential Shakespeare scholar and commentator William Hazlitt, discussing all you need to know on the characters of Macbeth.

Macbeth Essay : Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous essay on Macbeth based on his legendary and influential lectures and notes on Shakespeare.

Shakespear’s “Macbeth”: Main Character Change Analysis Essay

Introduction.

Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare in the year 1606, an era that was marked by the English Renaissance. This character and story have been recreated effectively by Christopher Morrow and Sidney Lamb in their textbook titled Cliff’s Complete Macbeth.

Macbeth is essentially the story of a character who lives his life in a state of confusion to the degree that the only constant in his life changes. This tragic hero shows the constant change in his relationships, interactions, and above all, his level of mortality. This essay deals with the character changes in Macbeth as demonstrated in Cliff’s Complete Macbeth.

As far as relationships are concerned, Macbeth’s once-close ally Duncan is reduced to the pawn in his game of furthering his and his wife’s ambitions. In this book of witches and prophecies, Macbeth’s wife is the greatest evil who is constantly motivating him to do wrong and act according to the prophecies of the witches. She takes out twisted meanings of the prophecies so as to suit their own interests and thus poisons the mind of Macbeth to a great extent. It is imperative to mention here that Macbeth’s wife acts as a strong catalyst in the change of the character (Morrow et al, 2000; pp.1-29).

Yet, Macbeth changes a second time upon committing the act of murder. Having been convinced by the clever words of his wife, lady Macbeth, he plunges headlong into the act of preparing to kill and finally murdering Duncan with the strong conviction that he is doing the right thing. However, as is human nature, once he has committed the crime, he realizes that he has made a grave mistake as he immediately remembers the close relationship and spirit of brotherhood he shared with Duncan. He realizes that he has broken someone’s trust and that the person in question cannot come back to forgive him for this act (Morrow et al, 2000; pp.30-63).

Upon committing such a great folly, Macbeth becomes a man who lives in constant fear. He lives under the impression that everyone close to him suspects him. This attitude change is extended towards Banquo, who was once a close friend of Macbeth. Things, however, change after the murder of Duncan when Macbeth lives under the fear that Banquo will one day turn around and reveal to the whole world that Macbeth is a wrongdoer and a murderer. This fear comes from the sense of the irrational line of thought that a person follows upon committing a crime and realizing that it has all been a mistake. This fear takes the shape of relief once he sees Banquo’s murder as well (Morrow et al, 2000; pp. 64-89).

Macbeth’s character also changes as far as his wife is concerned. Having started out with pure passion and love, their relationship falls into despair following a series of murders that leave Macbeth fearful more than anyone else. The prime factor for his motivation, he begins to blame her somewhere in his subconscious mind for the state he is in. As far as the witches are concerned too, Macbeth’s attitude changes from faith to complete distrust (Morrow et al, 2000; pp.90-149)

Having started out as a nobleman, Macbeth’s intentions and way of living change throughout the story. His character follows the path of living life well and heartily until fear comes to replace it with despair and gloom.

Morrow, Christopher; Lamb, Sidney; Shakespeare, William (2000). Cliff’s Complete Macbeth. Cliff’s Notes. 3 rd Rev Edition.

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IvyPanda. (2021, August 27). Shakespear's "Macbeth": Main Character Change Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/shakespears-macbeth-main-character-change-analysis/

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1. IvyPanda . "Shakespear's "Macbeth": Main Character Change Analysis." August 27, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/shakespears-macbeth-main-character-change-analysis/.

Bibliography

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Macbeth – A* / L9 Full Mark Example Essay

This is an A* / L9 full mark example essay on Macbeth completed by a 15-year-old student in timed conditions (50 mins writing, 10 mins planning).

It contained a few minor spelling and grammatical errors – but the quality of analysis overall was very high so this didn’t affect the grade. It is extremely good on form and structure, and perhaps could do with more language analysis of poetic and grammatical devices; as the quality of thought and interpretation is so high this again did not impede the overall mark.

Thanks for reading! If you find this resource useful, you can take a look at our full online Macbeth course here . Use the code “SHAKESPEARE” to receive a 50% discount!

This course includes:

A full set of video lessons on each key element of the text: summary, themes, setting, characters, context, attitudes, analysis of key quotes, essay questions, essay examples
Downloadable documents for each video lesson
A range of example B-A* / L7-L9 grade essays, both at GCSE (ages 14-16) and A-Level (age 16+) with teacher comments and mark scheme feedback
A bonus Macbeth workbook designed to guide you through each scene of the play!

For more help with Macbeth and Tragedy, read our article here .

MACBETH EXAMPLE ESSAY:

Macbeth’s ambition for status and power grows throughout the play. Shakespeare uses Macbeth as an embodiment of greed and asks the audience to question their own actions through the use of his wrongful deeds.

In the extract, Macbeth is demonstrated to possess some ambition but with overriding morals, when writing to his wife about the prophecies, Lady Macbeth uses metaphors to describe his kind hearted nature: “yet I do fear thy nature, / It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness”. Here, Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a more gentle natured being who is loyal to his king and country. However, the very act of writing the letter demonstrates his inklings of desire, and ambition to take the throne. Perhaps, Shakespeare is aiming to ask the audience about their own thoughts, and whether they would be willing to commit heinous deeds for power and control.

Furthermore, the extract presents Macbeth’s indecisive tone when thinking of the murder – he doesn’t want to kill Duncan but knows it’s the only way to the throne. Lady Macbeth says she might need to interfere in order to persuade him; his ambition isn’t strong enough yet: “That I may pour my spirits in thine ear / And chastise with the valour of my tongue”. Here, Shakespeare portrays Lady Macbeth as a manipulative character, conveying she will seduce him in order to “sway “ his mind into killing Duncan. The very need for her persuasion insinuates Macbeth is still weighing up the consequences in his head, his ambition equal with his morality. It would be shocking for the audience to see a female character act in this authoritative way. Lady Macbeth not only holds control of her husband in a patriarchal society but the stage too, speaking in iambic pentameter to portray her status: “To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great”. It is interesting that Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth in this way; she has more ambition for power than her husband at this part of play.

As the play progresses, in Act 3, Macbeth’s ambition has grown and now kills with ease. He sends three murders to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance, as the witches predicted that he may have heirs to the throne which could end his reign. Macbeth is suspicious in this act, hiding his true intentions from his dearest companion and his wife: “I wish your horses swift and sure on foot” and “and make our faces vizards to our hearts”. There, we see, as an audience, Macbeth’s longing to remain King much stronger than his initial attitudes towards the throne He was toying with the idea of killing for the throne and now he is killing those that could interfere with his rule without a second thought. It is interesting that Shakespeare presents him this way, as though he is ignoring his morals or that they have been “numbed” by his ambition. Similarly to his wife in the first act, Macbeth also speaks in pentameter to illustrate his increase in power and dominance.

In Act 4, his ambition and dependence on power has grown even more. When speaking with the witches about the three apparitions, he uses imperatives to portray his newly adopted controlling nature: “I conjure you” and “answer me”. Here, the use of his aggressive demanding demonstrates his reliance on the throne and his need for security. By the Witches showing him the apparitions and predicting his future, he gains a sense of superiority, believing he is safe and protected from everything. Shakespeare also lengthens Macbeth’s speech in front of the Witches in comparison to Act 1 to show his power and ambition has given him confidence, confidence to speak up to the “filthy nags” and expresses his desires. Although it would be easy to infer Macbeth’s greed and ambition has grown from his power-hungry nature, a more compassionate reading of Macbeth demonstrates the pressure he feels as a Jacobean man and soldier. Perhaps he feels he has to constantly strive for more to impress those around him or instead he may want to be king to feel more worthy and possibly less insecure.

It would be unusual to see a Jacobean citizen approaching an “embodiment” of the supernatural as forming alliance with them was forbidden and frowned upon. Perhaps Shakespeare uses Macbeth to defy these stereotypical views to show that there is a supernatural, a more dark side in us all and it is up to our own decisions whereas we act on these impulses to do what is morally incorrect.

If you’re studying Macbeth, you can click here to buy our full online course. Use the code “SHAKESPEARE” to receive a 50% discount!

You will gain access to over 8 hours of engaging video content , plus downloadable PDF guides for Macbeth that cover the following topics:

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There are also tiered levels of analysis that allow you to study up to GCSE , A Level and University level .

You’ll find plenty of top level example essays that will help you to write your own perfect ones!

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Macbeth as a Strong Man

The essay below uses this simple structure:, an introductory paragraph to summarise an answer to the question, one paragraph about the extract, one about the rest of the play, one about context., doubtful it stood;, as two spent swimmers, that do cling together, and choke their art. the merciless macdonwald–, worthy to be a rebel, for to that, the multiplying villanies of nature, do swarm upon him–from the western isles, of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;, and fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,, show’d like a rebel’s whore: but all’s too weak:, for brave macbeth–well he deserves that name–, disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel,, which smoked with bloody execution,, like valour’s minion carved out his passage, till he faced the slave;, which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,, till he unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps,, and fix’d his head upon our battlements., o valiant cousin worthy gentleman, question: how far does shakespeare present macbeth as a strong man, write about:, how shakespeare presents macbeth in this speech, how shakespeare presents macbeth in the play as a whole., the essay below is written using a simple structure:, an introductory paragraph to summarise an answer to the question., a section about the extract., a section the rest of the play., a paragraph about context., before you read the answer below, why not have a think about how you'd answer this question. which quotes would you use from the speech above also, which sections from the rest of the play would you focus on and what contextual factors influenced lady macbeth's presentation, most importantly, though, have a think about how you'd write that opening paragraph - answer the question in two or three simple sentences., an example answer, during the opening of the play macbeth is presented as a perfect jacobean hero: strong, brave and heroic. however, he is incapable of standing up to his wife or of resisting the witches' magic spell and this leads to his downfall., in this extract, a wounded sergeant explains macbeth’s achievements while fighting a battle against norwegian traitors. he is called “brave macbeth – well he deserves that name.” the fact that he deserves that “name” suggests that the adjective “brave” is almost a title for him, and bravery would have been central the jacobean understanding of what made a strong man. macbeth goes on to “disdain fortune” – suggesting that he doesn’t care what fortune has in store for him, and he “carves his own passage.” the idea that he has enough inner strength to ignore fate or fortune and make a name for himself confirms that macbeth has a lot of what a strong jacobean male would need., but he is also brutal, and physically strong – two more traits that would be valued in any strong jacobean male. he approaches the “merciless macdonwald” whose “multiplying villainies” the sergeant has already explained, and “unseemed him from the nave to the chaps” before fixing his head upon “our battlements.” this level of brutality would spread fear in his enemies and show that macbeth was strong enough not to be messed with. also, the captain is careful to describe the enemy as “merciless” an adjective that makes sure that the audience is clear that macbeth is killing evil men., the sergeant continues to emphasise how macbeth’s brutality should earn him respect by saying that his sword “smoked with bloody execution.” the verb “execution” is interesting, as an execution is the killing of a criminal or someone else who deserves to die. in this respect, macbeth is not just a bloody murderer, but a noble and respectable servant of the king. his relationship to the king, who provides a source of social strength, is finally confirmed when king duncan calls him “valiant cousin” and “worthy gentleman” this statement shows that macbeth is related to the king – a really important source of strength – and is a “gentleman” – a noun which suggests that he is civilised as well., his reputation for strength, however, was not to last because he is largely bullied by the women in the play. in fact, his opening line in the play – “so fair and foul a day i have not seen” – suggests that he is under the witches influence right from the off. also, later, lady macbeth easi ly talks him into murdering duncan, saying that he is "too full of the milk of human kindness." even saying that macbeth is too full of milk was an insult as milk is feminine and this would have upset any ideas that he was a strong man., also, killing duncan sets macbeth off on a spree of murder. during the play, he kills his best friend, banquo, which would have been seen as shocking to a jacobean male audience, as loyalty to friends was very important. he also kills macduff's wife and child, both of which would have been seen as incredibly dishonourable and weak. in doing so, however, he turns everyone against him and he is eventually killed in battle., ultimately, macbeth is not presented as a strong man to the jacobean audience as, although he is brave in battle, he lacks the strength to stand up to his wife and is bullied – by a woman – into doing something he didn’t want to do. ironically, she does this by challenging his masculinity . the audience would have been very clear that lady macbeth was taunting him, but macbeth doesn't see this and ends up getting drawn into betraying his friends and the codes of jacobean masculinity..

Mr Salles Teaches English

20/30 Macbeth Answer and How to Improve it

20 marks = grade 6/7.

This was the 2023 question.

Starting with this conversation, explore how far Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a male character who changes during the play.

Schools set this for one of their mocks this year. This is stupid. The only question which won’t be asked in 2024 is this one.

It is the least effective question schools should set. So why am I posting an answer to it here?

Because I want to show you how to adapt your revision to any question which comes up.

How to Adapt Your Revision to Any Question

First, read the essay below. 20 marks is the top of grade 6 or the bottom of grade 7, depending on how grade boundaries move about.

Here’s the extract:

Macbeth changes dramatically during the play. His tragedy develops because he refuses to learn from his mistakes. Shakespeare used his protagonist Macbeth to teach King James and his Jacobean audience. He taught that to avoid becoming like “ black Macbeth ”, King James should learn from his own mistakes and Macbeth’s.

But planning the murder of Duncan is a mistake which leads to his guilt . He feels this most clearly when he asks in soliloquy, “ Is this a dagger which I see before me? ” We understand this is caused by his guilt because in soliloquy a character speaks their true, inner thoughts. Once he has murdered Duncan, his guilt is overwhelming, which is why he asks “ Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? ” This hyperbolic metaphor emphasises how powerful his guilt is.

In this extract Macbeth cares for his wife because she is suffering from the same feelings he is. She has a mind “ diseased ”, and her feelings of remorse “ weigh upon the heart ”. Macbeth feels guilt because he knows his mistakes have caused this, and he feels the same way.

Macbeth is also influenced to change through the supernatural witches. Shakespeare deliberately introduces us to the witches in Act I Scene I, before Macbeth gets to meet them. This emphasises that they will have a huge influence on his protagonist. Their influence begins by chanting his name, “ all hail Macbeth ” three times. This flattery makes him arrogant and over-confident, two feelings which will lead him to making the mistake of killing Duncan.

Macbeth also refers to the supernatural in this extract, which is much later in the play. We can see this in his use of “ curses ” and through Shakespeare’s punning of “ Seyton ” as a reference to Satan, emphasising Macbeth’s reliance on the supernatural. He loses both his morality and his ability to distrust the supernatural.

Another change is Macbeth’s attitude to violence . His violence earned him praise because it was used on the battlefield. In 11 th Century Scotland and Jacobean times, this would have been seen as brave and honourable. His power as a warrior is emphasised in the way he “ brandished steel ” and “ unseamed ” his enemy “ from the nave to chops ”.

However, by the time of this extract Macbeth’s violent language of “ flesh be hacked ” is dishonourable. His Jacobean audience has turned against him because he has used his violence for personal gain.

To conclude, Macbeth changes in many ways, but these are all caused by his own mistakes. He failed to learn from these, and continued to repeat them. Shakespeare’s wider message is not just directed at King James, but to his audience, warning them to avoid Macbeth’s kind of change, and to always change to become better.

20 marks AO4 = 4 marks

Examiner Comments This is a clear explanation

And is always focused on the question, how Macbeth changes

The student shows that the Shakespeare constructed and sequenced the play consciously

And shows several examples of Macbeth’s changes

The student focuses on the whole play, and doesn’t get locked into the extract

Instead, the extract is used as a springboard to give their ideas about the whole play

There is no need to start with the extract

The extract is mainly there to give the student something to write about if they choose to

As long as the student does refer to the extract in the answer, they will meet the exam rubric

To get into Level 5, the student should write more about Shakespeare’s methods

Or write in more detail about Shakespeare’s ideas

My guide to writing Macbeth essays has several essays of all grades for every question up to 2022.

You can find it on Amazon, here .

Or you can read it on any device for FREE, along all my other guides, also for free. Amazon gives it away, here .

My Comments

For me the main lessons I learned in writing the guide are that:

Explanations are most important. The more of these you write, the higher your mark.

Always link to Shakespeare’s purpose and ideas. That’s how you use his methods and context.

Construct your answer as an argument.

To write an argument, begin with a thesis and end with a conclusion.

I also add that the best way to organise your argument is to start at the beginning of the play, and work your way through chronologically.

So, don’t start with the extract.

This essay shows you how useful that is.

What Else to Notice

This student has revised for two answers about Macbeth.`Guilt and Violence.

They haven’t panicked when they’ve read this question. Then they have included 8 references to Macbeth’s guilt, and 5 of his violence into this answer. Go back and see those two words in italics in the answer.

That’s a perfect tactic to adapt this question to any question that comes up.

My prediction is that it will be on the supernatural. Take notes from this essay, and all the other Macbeth essays on my Substack, and then apply them to a question on the witches or the supernatural.

(Yes, there will be a video!)

Mr Salles Teaches English is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts which help you get top grades, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Feedback from Tilf.io Better than the Senior Examiner?

Macbeth changes dramatically during the play. His tragedy develops because he refuses to learn from his mistakes. Shakespeare used his protagonist Macbeth to teach King James and his Jacobean audience. He taught that to avoid becoming like “black Macbeth”, King James should learn from his own mistakes and Macbeth’s.

This introduction sets up a clear argument about Macbeth's change and its didactic purpose. However, try to directly link these changes to the question's focus on Macbeth as a male character and how societal expectations of masculinity may influence his actions and development.

The greatest change to Macbeth is his attitude to guilt. He begins as a fierce warrior defending Scotland and kills without feeling guilty. We consequently meet him as “brave Macbeth” killing in a noble cause. But planning the murder of Duncan is a mistake which leads to his guilt. He feels this most clearly when he asks in soliloquy, “Is this a dagger which I see before me?” We understand this is caused by his guilt because in soliloquy a character speaks their true, inner thoughts. Once he has murdered Duncan, his guilt is overwhelming, which is why he asks “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” This hyperbolic metaphor emphasises how powerful his guilt is.

You provide a good analysis of Macbeth's changing attitude towards guilt, supported by relevant textual evidence. To enhance your response, consider exploring how Macbeth's initial lack of guilt aligns with traditional masculine roles and how his later guilt could be seen as a departure from these roles.

In this extract Macbeth cares for his wife because she is suffering from the same feelings he is. She has a mind “diseased”, and her feelings of remorse “weigh upon the heart”. Macbeth feels guilt because he knows his mistakes have caused this, and he feels the same way.

This paragraph shows an understanding of Macbeth's empathy towards Lady Macbeth. To improve, you could discuss how Macbeth's care for his wife might challenge or conform to the expectations of masculinity in the context of the play.

Macbeth is also influenced to change through the supernatural witches. Shakespeare deliberately introduces us to the witches in Act I Scene I, before Macbeth gets to meet them. This emphasises that they will have a huge influence on his protagonist. Their influence begins by chanting his name, “all hail Macbeth” three times. This flattery makes him arrogant and over-confident, two feelings which will lead him to making the mistake of killing Duncan.

You correctly identify the witches' influence on Macbeth's transformation. To strengthen your analysis, consider how Macbeth's susceptibility to the witches' flattery might reflect on his masculinity and the societal pressures to achieve power and status.

Macbeth also refers to the supernatural in this extract, which is much later in the play. We can see this in his use of “curses” and through Shakespeare’s punning of “Seyton” as a reference to Satan, emphasising Macbeth’s reliance on the supernatural. He loses both his morality and his ability to distrust the supernatural.

This paragraph highlights Macbeth's continued engagement with the supernatural. Discuss how this reliance might be interpreted as a weakness in his masculine character, especially in the context of the play's setting.

Another change is Macbeth’s attitude to violence. His violence earned him praise because it was used on the battlefield. In 11th Century Scotland and Jacobean times, this would have been seen as brave and honourable. His power as a warrior is emphasised in the way he “brandished steel” and “unseamed” his enemy “from the nave to chops”.

You make a valid point about the shift in Macbeth's use of violence. To further align with the question, explore how this change from honorable to dishonorable violence affects Macbeth's perception as a male character.

However, by the time of this extract Macbeth’s violent language of “flesh be hacked” is dishonourable. His Jacobean audience has turned against him because he has used his violence for personal gain.

This is a good observation of the audience's changing perception of Macbeth. Consider discussing how Macbeth's dishonorable actions conflict with the heroic masculine ideal of the time.

Your conclusion effectively summarises Macbeth's changes and the play's moral message. To enhance it, reiterate how these changes relate specifically to Macbeth's masculinity and the expectations of male characters within the play.

Mark: 21 - 24 (this is a beta feature and mark may not be very accurate)

Overall feedback: Your essay demonstrates a thoughtful and developed consideration of Macbeth's changes throughout the play, with a good use of textual evidence to support your points. To improve, ensure that you consistently link your analysis back to the question's focus on Macbeth as a male character and the societal expectations of masculinity. This will help to provide a more nuanced and critical exploration of the character's development.

What went well: Good use of textual evidence to support analysis of Macbeth's changing attitudes and behaviors.

Even better if: Ensure that the analysis consistently relates back to the question's focus on Macbeth's masculinity and societal expectations of male characters.

My Comments on Tilf.io

This is even more helpful than the senior examiner. Let me tell you why.

The mark is wrong. Except that it isn’t. AQA examiners would be allowed to be 3 marks different to the examiner either way. So 17-23 is ok with AQA! Tilf.io is much closer to the exact mark.

But the most important part isn’t my grade (unless I’ve scored 100%). I want to know:

What do I do well, so I can keep on doing it.

What do I need to do better to get higher grades.

And this is where Tilf.io is even better than the senior examiner.

Look at what it wrote about ‘masculinity’.

This was an absolute gift from AQA – it is not often I get to praise their questions. But, if you write about masculinity, you have to write about ideas of manhood in 1605. You have to write about Shakespeare’s view of what it meant to be a man.

And that, my friends, forces you to get grade 7 or more. Always write about Shakespeare’s ideas!

You can try out Tilf.io for FREE. Just click here .

Tomorrow I will give paid subscribers the grade 9 version of this essay.

Thank you for reading Mr Salles Teaches English. This post is public so feel free to share it with someone else who wants top grades.

Ready for more?

Miss Huttlestone's GCSE English

Because a whole class of wonderful minds are better than just one!

‘Macbeth’ Grade 9 Example Response

Grade 9 – full mark – ‘Macbeth’ response

Starting with this extract (from act 1 scene 7), how does Shakespeare present the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?

In Shakespeare’s eponymous tragedy ‘Macbeth’, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship is a complex portrait of love, illustrating layers of utter devotion alongside overwhelming resentment. Though the couple begins the play unnaturally strong within their marriage, this seems to act as an early warning of their imminent and inevitable fall from grace, ending the play in an almost entirely different relationship than the one they began the play with.

In the exposition of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth initially appear immensely strong within their marriage, with Macbeth describing his wife as ‘my dearest partner of greatness’ in act 1 scene 5. The emotive superlative adjective ‘dearest’ is a term of endearment, and acts as a clear depiction of how valued Lady Macbeth is by her husband. Secondly, the noun ‘partner’ creates a sense of sincere equality which, as equality within marriage would have been unusual in the Jacobean era, illustrates to a contemporary audience the positive aspects of their relationship. Furthermore the lexical choice ‘greatness’ may connote ambition, and as they are ‘partner(s)’, Shakespeare suggests that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are equal in their desire for power and control, further confirming their compatibility but potentially hinting that said compatibility will serve as the couple’s hamartia.

However, the strength of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship falls into a rapid downward spiral in the subsequent scenes, as a struggle for power within the marriage ensues. This is evidenced when Macbeth, in act 1 scene 7, uses the declarative statement ‘we will proceed no further in this business’. Here, Macbeth seems to exude masculinity, embracing his gender role and dictating both his and his wife’s decisions. The negation ‘no’ clearly indicates his alleged definitive attitude. However, Lady Macbeth refuses to accept her husband’s rule, stating ‘when you durst do it, then you were a man’. She attempts to emasculate him to see their plan through. The verb ‘durst’ illustrates the risk taking behaviour that Lady Macbeth is encouraging; implying an element of toxicity within their relationship, and her harsh speech makes the cracks in their relationship further visible to the audience. It is also probable that a contemporary audience would be made severely uncomfortable in the presence of Lady Macbeth’s unapologetic display of power, and it is possible that Shakespeare attempts to paint Lady Macbeth as the villain of the play, playing upon the audience’s pre-determined fears of feminine power. Though Lady Macbeth appears to be acting entirely out of self-interest, another reader may argue that she influences her husband so heavily to commit the heinous act of regicide, as she believes that he crown may as a substitute for the child or children that Shakespeare suggests she and Macbeth have lost previously, and in turn better Macbeth’s life and bring him to the same happiness that came with the child, except in another form.

As the play progresses, Shakespeare creates more and more distance between the characters, portraying the breakdown of their relationship as gradual within the play but rapid in the overall sense of time on stage. For example, Lady Macbeth requests a servant ‘say to the king’ Lady Macbeth ‘would attend his leisure/ for a few words’. Here she is reduced to the status of someone far lesser than the king, having to request to speak to her own husband. It could be interpreted that, now as king, Macbeth holds himself above all else, even his wife, perhaps due to the belief of the divine right of kings. The use of the title rather than his name plainly indicated the lack of closeness Lady Macbeth now feels with Macbeth and intensely emotionally separates them. This same idea is referenced as Shakespeare develops the characters to almost juxtapose each other in their experiences after the murder of Duncan. For example, Macbeth seems to be trapped in a permanent day, after ‘Macbeth does murder sleep’ and his guilt and paranoia render him unable to rest. In contrast, Lady Macbeth takes on an oppositional path, suffering sleepwalking and unable to wake from her nightmare; repeating the phrase ‘to bed. To bed’ as if trapped in a never-ending night. This illustrates to the audience the extreme transformation Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship undergoes, and how differently they end up experiencing the aftermath of regicide.

In conclusion, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth begin the play almost too comfortable within their marriage, which seems to invite the presence of chaos and tragedy into their relationship. Their moral compositions are opposing one another, which leads to the distancing and total breakdown of their once successful marriage and thus serves as a warning to the audience about the effects of murder, and what the deadly sin of greed can do to a person and a marriage.

gcseenglishwithmisshuttlestone

Secondary English teacher in Herts. View all posts by gcseenglishwithmisshuttlestone

9 thoughts on “‘Macbeth’ Grade 9 Example Response”

wheres the context

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It is also probable that a contemporary audience would be made severely uncomfortable in the presence of Lady Macbeth’s unapologetic display of power, and it is possible that Shakespeare attempts to paint Lady Macbeth as the villain of the play, playing upon the audience’s pre-determined fears of feminine power.

Also ref to ‘divine right of kings’

Thank you! This is a brilliant response. Just what I needed. Could you also please include the extract in the question.

We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honored me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon.

—> until end of scene

She did (Act 1 Scene 7)

Another great resource for grade 9 Macbeth analysis https://youtu.be/bGzLDRX71bs

In order to get a grade 9 for a piece like this would you need to include a wide range of vocabulary or could you write the same thing ‘dumbed down’ and get a 9.

If the ideas were as strong then yes, but your writing must AT LEAST be ‘clear’ for a grade 6 or above.

This is really great, I’m in Year 10 doing my Mock on Thursday, a great point that i have found (because I also take history) Is the depiction of women throughout the play, during the Elizabethan era, (before the Jacobean era) many people had a changed view of women as Queen Elizabeth was such a powerful woman, glimpses of this have been shown in Jacobean plays, in this case Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is depicted as powerful although she had to be killed of to please King James (as he was a misogynist) women are also depicted as evil in the play, such as the three witches, I also found that the Witches are in three which could be a mockery to the Holy Trinity.

Literature Paper 1 Quick Revision

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

10 May 2024

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Lesson Overview: This lesson serves as a quick revision guide for Year 11 students, honing in on “Macbeth.” It covers essential elements including characters, themes, plot overview, literary techniques, a model essay, and guidance on critical analysis in essays.

Lesson Components: Character Analysis: Delve into the main characters of “Macbeth,” such as Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the witches. Discuss their motives, actions, and how they change throughout the play.

Themes: Identify and discuss the core themes of “Macbeth,” like ambition, fate, guilt, and the corrupting nature of power. Explore how these themes unfold and resolve within the play.

Plot Overview: Offer a concise summary of “Macbeth,” highlighting pivotal events and plot twists. Ensure students grasp the storyline and its significance. Literary Techniques: Explore the use of literary techniques in “Macbeth,” such as imagery, symbolism, foreshadowing, and dramatic irony. Show how these techniques deepen themes and enrich characters and plot.

Model Essay: Present a sample essay on a typical “Macbeth” exam question, focusing on structure, argumentation, and textual evidence. Analyse how the essay addresses the question, demonstrating critical thought and engagement with the text.

Critical Analysis in Essays: Guide students on how to critically approach essay writing, stressing the importance of analysing and evaluating the text rather than just summarising it. Encourage students to develop their interpretations backed by evidence from the play.

This lesson equips Year 11 students with a thorough understanding of “Macbeth,” readying them for exams. By spotlighting characters, themes, plot, literary techniques, and critical analysis, students will be well-prepared to tackle exam questions, showcasing their comprehension of the play.

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What is climate change mitigation and why is it urgent?

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Climate change mitigation involves actions to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.
Mitigation efforts include transitioning to renewable energy sources, enhancing energy efficiency, adopting regenerative agricultural practices and protecting and restoring forests and critical ecosystems.
Effective mitigation requires a whole-of-society approach and structural transformations to reduce emissions and limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
International cooperation, for example through the Paris Agreement, is crucial in guiding and achieving global and national mitigation goals.
Mitigation efforts face challenges such as the world's deep-rooted dependency on fossil fuels, the increased demand for new mineral resources and the difficulties in revamping our food systems.
These challenges also offer opportunities to improve resilience and contribute to sustainable development.

What is climate change mitigation?

Climate change mitigation refers to any action taken by governments, businesses or people to reduce or prevent greenhouse gases, or to enhance carbon sinks that remove them from the atmosphere. These gases trap heat from the sun in our planet’s atmosphere, keeping it warm.

Since the industrial era began, human activities have led to the release of dangerous levels of greenhouse gases, causing global warming and climate change. However, despite unequivocal research about the impact of our activities on the planet’s climate and growing awareness of the severe danger climate change poses to our societies, greenhouse gas emissions keep rising. If we can slow down the rise in greenhouse gases, we can slow down the pace of climate change and avoid its worst consequences.

Reducing greenhouse gases can be achieved by:

Shifting away from fossil fuels : Fossil fuels are the biggest source of greenhouse gases, so transitioning to modern renewable energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power, and advancing sustainable modes of transportation, is crucial.
Improving energy efficiency : Using less energy overall – in buildings, industries, public and private spaces, energy generation and transmission, and transportation – helps reduce emissions. This can be achieved by using thermal comfort standards, better insulation and energy efficient appliances, and by improving building design, energy transmission systems and vehicles.
Changing agricultural practices : Certain farming methods release high amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, which are potent greenhouse gases. Regenerative agricultural practices – including enhancing soil health, reducing livestock-related emissions, direct seeding techniques and using cover crops – support mitigation, improve resilience and decrease the cost burden on farmers.
The sustainable management and conservation of forests : Forests act as carbon sinks , absorbing carbon dioxide and reducing the overall concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Measures to reduce deforestation and forest degradation are key for climate mitigation and generate multiple additional benefits such as biodiversity conservation and improved water cycles.
Restoring and conserving critical ecosystems : In addition to forests, ecosystems such as wetlands, peatlands, and grasslands, as well as coastal biomes such as mangrove forests, also contribute significantly to carbon sequestration, while supporting biodiversity and enhancing climate resilience.
Creating a supportive environment : Investments, policies and regulations that encourage emission reductions, such as incentives, carbon pricing and limits on emissions from key sectors are crucial to driving climate change mitigation.

Photo: Stephane Bellerose/UNDP Mauritius

Photo: Stephane Bellerose/UNDP Mauritius

Photo: La Incre and Lizeth Jurado/PROAmazonia

Photo: La Incre and Lizeth Jurado/PROAmazonia

What is the 1.5°C goal and why do we need to stick to it?

In 2015, 196 Parties to the UN Climate Convention in Paris adopted the Paris Agreement , a landmark international treaty, aimed at curbing global warming and addressing the effects of climate change. Its core ambition is to cap the rise in global average temperatures to well below 2°C above levels observed prior to the industrial era, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.

The 1.5°C goal is extremely important, especially for vulnerable communities already experiencing severe climate change impacts. Limiting warming below 1.5°C will translate into less extreme weather events and sea level rise, less stress on food production and water access, less biodiversity and ecosystem loss, and a lower chance of irreversible climate consequences.

To limit global warming to the critical threshold of 1.5°C, it is imperative for the world to undertake significant mitigation action. This requires a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent before 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century.

What are the policy instruments that countries can use to drive mitigation?

Everyone has a role to play in climate change mitigation, from individuals adopting sustainable habits and advocating for change to governments implementing regulations, providing incentives and facilitating investments. The private sector, particularly those businesses and companies responsible for causing high emissions, should take a leading role in innovating, funding and driving climate change mitigation solutions.

International collaboration and technology transfer is also crucial given the global nature and size of the challenge. As the main platform for international cooperation on climate action, the Paris Agreement has set forth a series of responsibilities and policy tools for its signatories. One of the primary instruments for achieving the goals of the treaty is Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) . These are the national climate pledges that each Party is required to develop and update every five years. NDCs articulate how each country will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhance climate resilience. While NDCs include short- to medium-term targets, long-term low emission development strategies (LT-LEDS) are policy tools under the Paris Agreement through which countries must show how they plan to achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century. These strategies define a long-term vision that gives coherence and direction to shorter-term national climate targets.

Photo: Mucyo Serge/UNDP Rwanda

Photo: William Seal/UNDP Sudan

At the same time, the call for climate change mitigation has evolved into a call for reparative action, where high-income countries are urged to rectify past and ongoing contributions to the climate crisis. This approach reflects the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which advocates for climate justice, recognizing the unequal historical responsibility for the climate crisis, emphasizing that wealthier countries, having profited from high-emission activities, bear a greater obligation to lead in mitigating these impacts. This includes not only reducing their own emissions, but also supporting vulnerable countries in their transition to low-emission development pathways.

Another critical aspect is ensuring a just transition for workers and communities that depend on the fossil fuel industry and its many connected industries. This process must prioritize social equity and create alternative employment opportunities as part of the shift towards renewable energy and more sustainable practices.

For emerging economies, innovation and advancements in technology have now demonstrated that robust economic growth can be achieved with clean, sustainable energy sources. By integrating renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind and geothermal power into their growth strategies, these economies can reduce their emissions, enhance energy security and create new economic opportunities and jobs. This shift not only contributes to global mitigation efforts but also sets a precedent for sustainable development.

What are some of the challenges slowing down climate change mitigation efforts?

Mitigating climate change is fraught with complexities, including the global economy's deep-rooted dependency on fossil fuels and the accompanying challenge of eliminating fossil fuel subsidies. This reliance – and the vested interests that have a stake in maintaining it – presents a significant barrier to transitioning to sustainable energy sources.

The shift towards decarbonization and renewable energy is driving increased demand for critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth metals. Since new mining projects can take up to 15 years to yield output, mineral supply chains could become a bottleneck for decarbonization efforts. In addition, these minerals are predominantly found in a few, mostly low-income countries, which could heighten supply chain vulnerabilities and geopolitical tensions.

Furthermore, due to the significant demand for these minerals and the urgency of the energy transition, the scaled-up investment in the sector has the potential to exacerbate environmental degradation, economic and governance risks, and social inequalities, affecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and workers. Addressing these concerns necessitates implementing social and environmental safeguards, embracing circular economy principles, and establishing and enforcing responsible policies and regulations .

Agriculture is currently the largest driver of deforestation worldwide. A transformation in our food systems to reverse the impact that agriculture has on forests and biodiversity is undoubtedly a complex challenge. But it is also an important opportunity. The latest IPCC report highlights that adaptation and mitigation options related to land, water and food offer the greatest potential in responding to the climate crisis. Shifting to regenerative agricultural practices will not only ensure a healthy, fair and stable food supply for the world’s population, but also help to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Photo: UNDP India

Photo: Nino Zedginidze/UNDP Georgia

What are some examples of climate change mitigation?

In Mauritius , UNDP, with funding from the Green Climate Fund, has supported the government to install battery energy storage capacity that has enabled 50 MW of intermittent renewable energy to be connected to the grid, helping to avoid 81,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

In Indonesia , UNDP has been working with the government for over a decade to support sustainable palm oil production. In 2019, the country adopted a National Action Plan on Sustainable Palm Oil, which was collaboratively developed by government, industry and civil society representatives. The plan increased the adoption of practices to minimize the adverse social and environmental effects of palm oil production and to protect forests. Since 2015, 37 million tonnes of direct greenhouse gas emissions have been avoided and 824,000 hectares of land with high conservation value have been protected.

In Moldova and Paraguay , UNDP has helped set up Green City Labs that are helping build more sustainable cities. This is achieved by implementing urban land use and mobility planning, prioritizing energy efficiency in residential buildings, introducing low-carbon public transport, implementing resource-efficient waste management, and switching to renewable energy sources.

UNDP has supported the governments of Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Indonesia to implement results-based payments through the REDD+ (Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries) framework. These include payments for environmental services and community forest management programmes that channel international climate finance resources to local actors on the ground, specifically forest communities and Indigenous Peoples.

UNDP is also supporting small island developing states like the Comoros to invest in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure. Through the Africa Minigrids Program , solar minigrids will be installed in two priority communities, Grand Comore and Moheli, providing energy access through distributed renewable energy solutions to those hardest to reach.

And in South Africa , a UNDP initative to boost energy efficiency awareness among the general population and improve labelling standards has taken over commercial shopping malls.

What is UNDP’s role in supporting climate change mitigation?

UNDP aims to assist countries with their climate change mitigation efforts, guiding them towards sustainable, low-carbon and climate-resilient development. This support is in line with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to affordable and clean energy (SDG7), sustainable cities and communities (SDG11), and climate action (SDG13). Specifically, UNDP’s offer of support includes developing and improving legislation and policy, standards and regulations, capacity building, knowledge dissemination, and financial mobilization for countries to pilot and scale-up mitigation solutions such as renewable energy projects, energy efficiency initiatives and sustainable land-use practices.

With financial support from the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Fund, UNDP has an active portfolio of 94 climate change mitigation projects in 69 countries. These initiatives are not only aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also at contributing to sustainable and resilient development pathways.

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ARTS & CULTURE

How the soon-to-reopen folger shakespeare library came to be.

A full 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio will go on view as the renovated Washington, D.C. institution makes its debut

Andrea Mays and James L. Swanson

William Shakespeare portrait on the title page

Future titan of industry Henry Clay Folger Jr. lived the first part of his life in Dickensian poverty. Born in Brooklyn in 1857, he used essay contests to pay for his education at Amherst College, where he hand-washed his own laundry to save money and still could not afford coal for heat. And he was a deep admirer of William Shakespeare : He recalled delight in reading the Bard’s plays and poems “far into the night” while still at Amherst. A guest lecture by 75-year-old Ralph Waldo Emerson inspired Folger to search out the author’s 1864 “Remarks at the Celebration of the Three Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Shakespeare,” further enflaming his passion.

Still, little about his early life indicated Folger would amass the largest collection of Shakespeareana in the world: the Folger Shakespeare Library , which has been the envy of other collectors and a lifeline to generations of Shakespeare scholars. Of all the collection’s treasures, the central jewels are the First Folios —the earliest published collection of the plays, from 1623, of which only some 235 survive, in any form.

Now, as the Washington, D.C. library reopens after an ambitious renovation and expansion, it’s bringing its First Folios out of the vault and onto display. The gathering of 82 First Folios is a historic moment, and the library’s new exhibitions give visitors a variety of ways, both digital and analog, to know the Bard better. The renovated Folger is a triumph—one that preserves and honors the best of its past while incorporating breathtaking updates and innovations.

Folger was always a collector of sorts: He saved every book he ever read and from childhood assembled meticulous scrapbooks of theater tickets and other ephemera. But he’d never owned a rare book.

a black and white photograph of a bearded man in a suit standing for a portait

A chance encounter changed all that. One day in 1889, Folger wandered into a New York City auction gallery and made an impulse purchase he could ill afford. For $107.50 (around $3,650 today), he bought a later, 1685 edition of Shakespeare’s plays, also known as a Fourth Folio. It included seven “new” plays, six of them by other authors. Folger asked if he could pay in installments. He brought the volume home to his wife, Emily, who shared his literary inclinations. They opened the binding and beheld the portrait of the author, pressed from a copper engraving of the only known portrait of Shakespeare. They turned the thick, luxurious rag paper pages, poring over the beloved words.

Henry Folger never recorded what called him into his first auction gallery on that decisive 1889 day. Little could he know that answering that mysterious call set him on the path to becoming the greatest Shakespeare collector in the world; nor that the young man who could barely afford $100 for a Fourth Folio would one day pay the highest price in the world for a book (not once but three times); nor that he would create the greatest Shakespeare library on the planet. In any case, in 1893, Folger bought his first copy of a First Folio and never looked back.

When Shakespeare died in 1616, no one—not even the playwright himself—believed that his writings would endure, nor that future generations would celebrate him as the greatest playwright-poet in the history of the English language. Plays of the period were meant to be performed, not read; they were entertainment, not literature. They were not written for all time, but for their own. Shakespeare had written five long poems, 154 sonnets and, depending on how one counts them, 37 plays. In his lifetime, only half his plays were published. The other half were in danger of extinction.

In 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death, two loyal friends, fellow actors and Globe Theater shareholders John Heminges and Henry Condell, collected and published all of the plays in one mammoth volume, the First Folio. Formally called Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories & Tragedies , the First Folio is the book that preserved Shakespeare’s work for posterity, elevating the Bard to the status he enjoys today. It was the first time in history the collected plays of a single author had been printed. Without Heminges and Condell, the plays that had not been previously published—including Macbeth , The Tempest , Julius Caesar , Measure for Measure , Antony and Cleopatra , Twelfth Night and The Winter’s Tale —would have been lost.

No more than 750 copies of the First Folio were printed, a large run at the time, which signaled the editors’ confidence in the marketability of their friend’s plays. Over the last 400 years, around 500 of those copies have perished: Lost, devoured by insects or vermin, dismembered by time, or burned. Of the 235 or so surviving copies, fewer than 40 exist in coveted original condition. In October 2020, one such copy, once held at Mills College in California, sold for a record $9.9 million , making it one of the most valuable books in the world.

Henry Folger’s rise to great fortune took decades of toil. After graduating Amherst, he attended Columbia Law School at night so he could hold a full-time day job as a clerk at Charles Pratt and Company, an oil firm in Brooklyn, where he distinguished himself with an uncanny knack for facts, figures and efficiency. When that small enterprise merged with the Standard Oil Company, then the largest corporation in the world, Folger caught the eye of founder John D. Rockefeller. The richest man on the planet mentored Folger, adopting him as a trusted protégé. Their close relationship thrived on two shared passions: business and golf. Toward the end of his life, Rockefeller wrote to Folger: “I would not be outdone in appreciation of your companionship, and the delightful associations of the long years, and notably of these later years, as the ranks of the older associates are thinning out and we of the Old Guard draw closer together.”

Emily Jordan Folger, Henry’s wife and close partner in collecting, in 1931.

By 1911, when Folger became president of Standard Oil Company of New York, he had already acquired an astonishing 40 First Folios before even hitting full stride as a collector. His wife, Emily, encouraged his obsession and became his canny collaborator. A fellow bardolator—one devoted to Shakespeare and his work—she had written a master’s thesis about the playwright while studying at Vassar College. Now, she advised him on all important purchases and cataloged the collection by recording bibliographic and provenance details on index cards by the thousands.

Over the next decades, Henry and Emily Folger purchased such massive quantities of Shakespeare material that they ran out of space in their modest rented home. Folger safeguarded the most precious treasures in bank vaults and crammed the rest into hundreds of crates that he secreted in storage units scattered all over New York City. As the couple branched out into collecting other rare books, plus paintings and sheet music, the storage question became more pressing still.

To preserve their collection in perpetuity, the Folgers decided to build a library in Washington, D.C. within sight of the U.S. Capitol and gift their collection to the American people and as a triumph of industry and philanthropy. When the Folger Memorial Shakespeare Library was dedicated on April 23, 1932 (the 368th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth), the Washington Post reported it was “attended by as distinguished an audience as ever gathered in Washington for any cultural reason.” Sadly, Henry Folger died in 1930 and never got to see the completed monument to his and Emily’s great passion.

By the early 2000s, it had become obvious that the library had outgrown its home and was in desperate need of more space for its ever-expanding acquisitions of books, documents, playbills, manuscripts, paintings, artifacts, tapestries, costumes, sheet music, maps, musical instruments and more.

But the historic status of the original structure made it impossible to break through the roof and rise vertically. Nor was it possible to expand the building’s footprint. That left one option: dig deep down below and build a new 12,000-square-foot wing, which includes 6,000 square feet of new exhibit space underneath the library and its lawn.

Much of the original structure remains intact. The huge reading room preserves its Elizabethan and Tudor carved woodwork, a balcony, and the dominant “Seven Ages of Man” stained-glass window; the jewel-box theater lives on as an homage to an Elizabethan playhouse; the secluded founder’s room that the Folgers designed for their own private enjoyment endures, and Henry and Emily Folger’s ashes are entombed in a niche in the old reading room.

a person sits in a reading room in a library

The real action happens below street level, where an innovative new design of high ceilings, light-toned wood and LED lighting transforms underground rooms that ought to be dark and claustrophobic into airy, bright, spacious galleries. Stephen Kieran, principal architect behind the renovation, says it was a thrill to “unbury one of the nation’s great cultural assets, making the insight and wisdom of Shakespeare more physically and emotionally accessible. … We get to renovate both memory and architecture.”

In one such underground gallery, the Folger has resurrected its 82 First Folios (about one-third of all the copies in the world) from their hidden storage vaults and showcases them in what the library calls a “visible vault”—a gigantic wooden bookcase, with each Folio horizontal, spine facing out on a dedicated shelf, alongside a biography of each volume. No two copies of the First Folio are identical: Each one differs in size, binding, condition, completeness or provenance. Each tells its own story of romance, passion, obsession, neglect or discovery. Thanks to the new space and the innovative bookcase design, this is the first time a visitor can see all 82 together.

Indeed, this is the first time that so many First Folios have been assembled in one place in 400 years, when stacks of copies fresh off the press were piled high in Isaac Jaggard’s London printing shop.

Interactive light-up captions will answer questions about individual copies: Which was the most expensive one? The precious, so-called Vincent copy, acquired in 1903 for $48,732.50 ($1.7 million in today’s dollars—though its value is currently estimated at $8 million to $10 million). Which was the cheapest? The shabby Copy #64, also purchased in 1903 for $220 ($8,000 in today’s dollars).

Nearby stands a functional re-creation of a 17th-century hand-operated press that evokes the laborious process that went into typesetting and printing the First Folio. In an innovative and entirely new exhibit, visitors will be able to try their hand at digitally “setting” type: First you place it backward, and then, with the pull of a lever, you project the mirrored result onto a screen. A newly commissioned poem by former United States poet laureate Rita Dove, inscribed in marble along the pathway through the new West Garden, invites visitors to “clear [their] calendars” and enter this monument to Shakespeare.

Other new features include a Shakespeare map of the world that shows the beach where Viola was shipwrecked in Twelfth Night and the forest to which Rosalind was exiled in As You Like It .

What would Henry Folger say today, knowing that his reinvented library has flung open to the world the doors to his treasures? Quoting Cardinal Wolsey in The Life of King Henry the Eighth , Folger would likely speak the words he ordered carved into stone above an entrance to his library: “I shower a welcome on ye; Welcome all.”

No Bard Feelings

When two of Shakespeare’s friends compiled the first folio, a few plays didn’t make the cut By Sonja Anderson

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

An undated illustration of Pericles and his daughter, Marina.

Pericles is one of the least-performed plays in Shakespeare’s canon. Some scholars believe Shakespeare co-wrote the play with fellow playwright George Wilkins, though Wilkins was never credited. The play’s title character spends the first two acts trying to win the hands of princesses through competitions devised by their kingly fathers, and even saves a community from famine. Once married, Pericles comes to believe his new wife has died in childbirth at sea and casts her coffin overboard—even though she’s still alive! How will they reunite?

The Two Noble Kinsmen

This collaboration between Shakespeare and playwright John Fletcher borrows plotlines from Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” and follows cousins Palamon and Arcite of Thebes. Imprisoned by the Duke of Athens, the cousins espy the beautiful Emilia from their cell—and each man falls immediately in love. When Arcite is freed, he disguises himself and becomes Emilia’s servant. Thus disguised, he sets out to duel with Palamon, in a tournament organized by the Duke of Athens. Comedy and, of course, mistaken identity ensue.

Don Quixote meets Cardenio in an 18th-century engraving.

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Andrea Mays | READ MORE

Andrea Mays, the author of The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger’s Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare’s First Folio , has devoted countless hours to researching in the Folger. A protégé of Frank McCourt, she spent much of her Manhattan girlhood toting copies of the plays in her rucksack.

James L. Swanson | | READ MORE

James L. Swanson is the author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer and Chasing King's Killer: The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Assassin .

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How to Use Track Changes in Word for Your Essay? [For Students]

My essays and assignments were far from perfect, but I managed to get through them thanks to teachers who pointed out my mistakes. After correcting those errors, I had to send the revised versions for review, making sure to highlight where I made changes. If you need to highlight changes in your document to help your teacher or reviewer track your revisions, I'll show you how to track changes in Word for students.

How to Compare and Highlight Differences in Two papers?

Students often share group project documents to collaborate on adding their parts or revising the content. But what if you forgot to enable the "Track Changes" feature? Fortunately, WPS Writer, a free office suite solution, offers a "Compare" tool. This tool allows students to compare the original document with the revised version to track or acknowledge any changes made. The tool is very straightforward, so let's simplify the steps for comparing documents.

Step 1 : Let's open the original or updated document in WPS Writer.

Step 2 : Go to the "Review" tab in the toolbar and click on the "Compare" button.

Step 3 : Select "Compare..." from the drop-down menu.

Step 4 : The Compare dialog will open. First, browse and upload the original and revised documents by clicking on the "Folder" icon.

Step 5 : Once the documents are selected, click on the "More" button for advanced settings.

Step 6 : In the "Comparison settings" section, choose what to include in the comparison.

Step 7 : In the "Show changes" section, select how to view differences and where to display them in the document.

Step 8 : After exploring advanced settings, click "OK" to proceed.

Step 9 : And here we have the comparison details. It appears that my group member decided to remove some words from a passage that I wrote.

Comparing documents is useful in academic settings as it allows you to learn more in a group setting. Just like how I reviewed the changes made by my group members and tried to understand their purpose, which helped me learn from my mistakes. Additionally, comparing documents can help track changes made by group members at a glance, saving time compared to scrolling through the entire document.

Word is a great tool, especially for students who need to write essays. However, if you want to ensure compatibility across devices—whether mobile, Windows, or Mac—WPS Office is a better choice. It's a free office suite that works with all Word document versions and can even convert your papers to PDF without compromising the original formatting.

How to Use Track Changes in Word for Revising Your Essay?

When writing an essay and you want to draw attention to a specific part, especially one that marks a significant change or correction, highlighting is an effective method. By highlighting, you can ensure that your reader or reviewer notices the changes quickly, making it easier to identify key sections of your work. This is particularly useful when collaborating with teachers or peers for feedback and revisions. Follow these steps to learn how to track changes in Word.

Step 1 : Firstly, let's open the report document in WPS Writer to make some revisions.

Step 2 : Now, to remember the changes made, head to the Review tab and click on the "Track Changes" button. Alternatively, use the shortcut key "Ctrl +Shift + E" to activate this feature.

Step 3 : You'll notice the icon changes color from white to gray, indicating that Track Changes is now active.

Step 4 : Scroll down and make changes in the document; added content will be highlighted in a different color.

Step 5 : Similarly, if content is removed, it will be struck through to highlight the changes

Step 6 : To adjust settings like highlight color or author name, click on the small arrow in the "Track Changes" icon.

Step 7 : Now select "Track Changes Options.." to customize the settings.

Step 8 : Here, you can change how content insertion or deletion is highlighted in the "Markup" section.

Step 9 : In the Balloons section, users can choose whether revisions appear inline or in a separate pane on the right side of the WPS Writer interface.

Step 10 : Once changes are made, exit the Track Changes option dialog by clicking "OK".

Step 11 : Furthermore, click on the small arrow in the Track Changes icon and select "Change username".

Step 12 : Here, students can update the username, ensuring it reflects their preference. Sometimes, your nickname may be shown based on your email ID, so it's possible to change it if needed.

As a student, particularly when tackling projects and theses, the ability to track changes over time is crucial. WPS Writer excels in this area. When I receive feedback from instructors, I utilize the "Track Changes" feature. This allows me to easily see their suggestions and incorporate them into my work while retaining a record of the original text. The "Compare" feature comes in handy when collaborating with classmates. It helps us effectively visualize and merge changes made by different team members. Overall, WPS Writer's constant evolution provides a comprehensive set of features and tools that streamline my workflow and simplify academic life.

Use AI Tools to Perfect Your Paper

As a student, you might wish things were a bit less tedious so you could focus on your studies instead of worrying about the tiny details. This is where WPS Office can make a huge difference. It not only saves you from the hassle of manual tasks like formatting and highlighting, but also provides the tools to create, edit, and organize your work efficiently. Whether you're preparing a thesis, crafting an assignment, or writing an essay, WPS Office has you covered.

WPS AI takes this further by offering assistance to correct grammar and spelling errors, ensuring your document looks professional and polished. It can even generate paper outlines and suggest topic ideas, giving you a head start on your assignments. With these capabilities, you can let WPS Office handle the heavy lifting while you concentrate on creating meaningful content. It's an invaluable tool for students who want to focus on the quality of their work without getting bogged down in the technicalities.

To ensure your thesis or assignment is error-free, let's utilize WPS Writer's AI Spell Check feature.

Step 1 : Open your document and activate the "AI Spell Check" option located at the bottom of the screen.

Step 2 : If you see a word or phrase highlighted with a colored line, simply click on it.

Step 3 : A panel for WPS AI Spell Check will appear on the right side, offering suggestions.

Step 4 : Review the suggestions provided and select the most suitable one.

Besides WPS AI Spell check, WPS Writer's AI feature is an excellent tool for tackling projects. It assists in creating detailed outlines, offering valuable assistance from start to finish. Let's delve deeper into its capabilities.

Step 1 : First, open WPS Office and click "New" on the left side.

Step 2 : Then, select "Docs" to start a new document.

Step 3 : Now, click "WPS AI" at the top right.

Step 4 : A panel for WPS AI will appear on the right.

Step 5 : With WPS AI, I usually share project details and let it create an outline for me.

Step 6 : After getting the outline, I review it and make any changes needed. Finally, I click "Insert" to add it to my document and format it the way I like.

Bonus Tips: How to Convert Word to PDF without losing Format

WPS Office goes beyond traditional word processing software. It offers a comprehensive set of PDF tools that empower students to efficiently manage their documents. Fueled by advancements in AI, WPS PDF delivers an increasingly immersive learning experience.

Students can leverage WPS Writer to meticulously format their work. With the seamless conversion to PDF offered by WPS Office, all those formatting efforts are preserved, ensuring a polished final product. Furthermore, the versatile WPS PDF tools allow for further manipulation and management of these documents.

Here's a simple way for students to convert their papers to PDF using WPS Writer:

Step 1 : Open your paper in WPS Writer and click on the Menu button at the top left corner.

Step 2 : Then, select the "Export to PDF" option from the menu.

Step 3 : In the Export to PDF dialog box, choose "Common PDF" from the "Export Type" dropdown, and then click "Export to PDF" to convert your Word document to PDF .

FAQs about Remove Page Breaks in Word

1. can everyone see the tracked changes in word.

Yes, by default, the tracked alterations are visible to all individuals who access the document. However, you have options to control visibility. You can safeguard the tracked changes with a password or limit editing to specific users, ensuring that only authorized individuals can see or modify the tracked modifications. This feature is particularly beneficial for maintaining confidentiality and control over sensitive information within your document.

2. What is the purpose of using track changes in Word for essays?

Tracking changes in Word serves multiple functions when working on essays:

Revision Tracking: It records all modifications made to the document.

Collaboration: It enables collaboration among peers or instructors.

Feedback: It allows others to give feedback on the essay's content and structure.

3. What is the significance of using WPS Office for demonstrating track changes in Word?

Employing WPS Office to demonstrate track changes in Word holds significance due to its compatibility across various devices and operating systems, including mobile phones, Windows PCs, and Mac computers. It ensures that students can effectively engage with the track changes feature regardless of the device they are using.

Highlight And Track Your Change With WPS Office

When you're tracking errors and correcting them in your work, you would want to highlight the changes to ensure your teacher notices and gives you credit for the corrections and of that you must know how to track changes in Word for students. WPS Office is an excellent choice for students, offering intuitive tools to make highlighting and tracking changes simple. It's designed with students in mind, making it easier to get your work done efficiently. Download WPS Office today to streamline your editing process and ensure you earn those extra marks for your efforts.

1. 10 Best Excel Task List Templates: Track Your Tasks Like a Pro
2. 10 Free Project Tracker Excel Templates: Track Your Projects with Ease
3. How to Turn off Track Changes in WPS Office (Step-by-Step)
4. How to Do Hanging Indent in Word for Your Essay? [For Students]
5. How to Double Space in Word for Your Essay: A Guide for Students
6. How can we close Track Changes

15 years of office industry experience, tech lover and copywriter. Follow me for product reviews, comparisons, and recommendations for new apps and software.

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Ethical Lapses in the Medical Profession

More from our inbox:, don’t cave, columbia, a florida book oasis, balloon release ban.

To the Editor:

Re “ Moral Dilemmas in Medical Care ” (Opinion guest essay, May 8):

It is unsettling, and dismaying, to read Dr. Carl Elliott’s account of moral lapses continuing to exist, if not thrive, in medical education. As a neurology resident in the early 1970s, I was assigned a patient who was scheduled to have psychosurgery.

He was a prisoner who had murdered a nurse in a hospital basement, and the surgery to remove part of his brain was considered by the department to be a therapeutic and even forward-looking procedure. This was despite its being widely discredited, and involving a prisoner who could not provide truly informed consent.

A fellow resident and I knew that refusing would almost certainly result in suspension or dismissal from the residency, so we anonymously contacted our local newspapers, whose reporting resulted in an overflow protest meeting, cancellation of the psychosurgery and legislative action placing conditions on the acceptance of informed consent by prisoners.

It is lamentable that even though bioethics programs are widely incorporated into medical education, moral and ethical transgressions remain a stubborn problem as part of medical structures’ groupthink.

As Richard Feynman has emphasized , doubt, uncertainty and continued questioning are the hallmarks of scientific endeavor. They need to be an integral element of medical education to better prepare young doctors for the inevitable moral challenges that lie ahead.

Robert Hausner Mill Valley, Calif.

I would like to thank Carl Elliott for exposing the “Moral Dilemmas in Medical Care.” There is a medical school culture that favors doctors as privileged persons over patients.

I can remember multiple patient interactions in medical school in which I thanked a patient for allowing me to examine them and apologized for hurting them during my exam of their painful conditions.

I was then criticized by attending physicians for apologizing to the patients. I was told, on multiple occasions, that the patient should be thanking me for the privilege of assisting in my education.

Medical training, in a medical school culture that favors the privilege of the medical staff over the rights and feelings of patients, needs to be exposed and changed.

Doug Pasto-Crosby Nashville The writer is a retired emergency room physician.

As a psychiatrist and medical ethicist, I commend Dr. Carl Elliott for calling attention to several egregious violations of medical ethics, including failure to obtain the patient’s informed consent. Dr. Elliott could have included a discussion of physician-assisted suicide and the slippery slope of eligibility for this procedure, as my colleagues and I recently discussed in Psychiatric Times .

For example, as reported in The Journal of Eating Disorders , three patients with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa were prescribed lethal medication under Colorado’s End-of-Life Options Act. Because of the near-delusional cognitive distortions present in severe anorexia nervosa, it is extremely doubtful that afflicted patients can give truly informed consent to physician-assisted suicide. Worse still, under Colorado law, such patients are not required to avail themselves of accepted treatments for anorexia nervosa before prescription of the lethal drugs.

Tragically, what Dr. Elliott calls “the culture of medicine” has become increasingly desensitized to physician-assisted suicide, nowadays touted as just another form of medical care. In the anorexia cases cited, informed consent may have been one casualty of this cultural shift.

Ronald W. Pies Lexington, Mass. The writer is on the faculty of SUNY Upstate Medical University and Tufts University School of Medicine, but the views expressed are his own.

Carl Elliot’s article on medical ethics was excellent. But it is not just in the medical profession that there exists the “subtle danger” that assimilation into an organization will teach you to no longer recognize what is horrible.

Businesses too have a culture that can “transform your sensibility.” In many industries executives check their consciences at the office door each morning. For example, they promote cigarettes; they forget they too breathe the air as they lobby against clean-air policies; they forget they too have children or grandchildren as they fight climate-friendly policies or resist gun-control measures. The list could go on.

In every organization, we need individuals to say no to policies and actions that may benefit the organization but are harmful, even destructive, to broader society.

Colin Day Ann Arbor, Mich.

Re “ Columbia’s Protests Also Bring Pressure From a Private Donor ” (front page, May 11):

Universities are meant to be institutions of higher learning, research and service to the community. They are not items on an auction block to be sold to the highest bidder.

Universities that sell off their policy platform to spoiled one-issue donors who threaten to throw a tantrum no longer deserve our respect. Grant-making foundations should not be grandstanding online. Give money, or don’t, but don’t call a news conference about it.

If Columbia caves, why should prospective students trust it as a place where they can go to become freethinkers and explore their own political conscience as they begin to contemplate the wider world and issues of social justice?

This is a real test of Columbia and its leadership. I do not envy its president, Nemat Shafik, who has few good choices and no way to make everyone happy. What she should not sell is her integrity, or the university’s. She should stand up to these selfish donors. Learn to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Carl Henn Marathon, Texas

Re “ Book Bans? So Open a Bookstore ” (Arts, May 13):

Deep respect for the American novelist Lauren Groff and her husband, Clay Kallman, for opening the Lynx, their new bookstore in Gainesville, Fla. The store focuses on offering titles among the more than 5,100 books that were banned in Florida schools from July 2021 through December 2023.

To all the book clubbers and haters of bans: Order straight from the Lynx.

Fight evil. Read books.

Ted Gallagher New York

Re “ Keep a Firm Grip on Those Mickey Mouse Balloons. It’s the Law ” (front page, May 9):

Balloons are some of the deadliest ocean trash for wildlife, as mentioned in your article about Florida’s expected balloon release ban.

Plastic balloon debris poses a significant threat to marine life, often mistaken for food or becoming entangled in marine habitats, leading to devastating consequences for our fragile ocean ecosystems.

As the founder of Clean Miami Beach, an environmental conservation organization, I’m concerned about the impact of plastic pollution on Florida’s wildlife and coastal areas. Florida’s stunning beaches and diverse marine life are not only treasures to us locals but also draw millions of tourists each year.

Because of the dangers, intentional balloon releases have been banned in many cities and counties across the state. A poll released by Oceana showed that 87 percent of Florida voters support local, state and national policies that reduce single-use plastic. Gov. Ron DeSantis must waste no time in signing this important piece of legislation into law.

Our elected officials should continue to work together to address environmental issues so Floridians and tourists can enjoy our beautiful state without its being marred by plastic pollution.

Sophie Ringel Miami Beach

The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

Cuet ug 2024: nta changes date for delhi students. check latest update here.

On Tuesday, the National Testing Agency made an announcement regarding the postponement of the CUET-UG exam scheduled for May 15 at the Delhi center due to unavoidable circumstances. However, for students intending to appear for the entrance test in Delhi, a different date will be designated. The NTA will provide updates regarding the revised examination date shortly.

Reason for change:

How to download the cuet ug admit card 2024.

Check official website of the National Testing Agency (NTA) CUET UG at cuetug.ntaonline.in.
On the homepage, click on the CUET UG admit card link
You will be redirected to a new page, enter your login credentials such as your Application ID and password or date of birth (as required by the website)
Your admit card will be displayed on the screen
Download and take a printout of the hall ticket for future reference

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How does Macbeth Change throughout the Play?
Throughout the course of the play, Macbeth's character changes from good to evil. As the audience we are given ample opportunities to look at the way in which he changes and the influences that help bring about the shift in character. Shakespeare also uses dramatic devices to highlight Macbeths change. In this essay the influences that ...
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Macbeth is essentially the story of a character who lives his life in a state of confusion to the degree that the only constant in his life changes. This tragic hero shows the constant change in his relationships, interactions, and above all, his level of mortality. This essay deals with the character changes in Macbeth as demonstrated in Cliff ...
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Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark. To cry "Hold, hold!". Starting with this speech, explain how far you think Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a powerful woman. Write about:
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How does Macbeth's character change throughout the play?
Act 2 showed the gradual change of Macbeth's character. After the murder of the King, he was remorseful for what he did and the deed itself could be blamed on Lady Macbeth. However, he did not stop there; he framed and killed two innocent grooms that could not have known what had happened in the previous night.
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Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a female character who changes dramatically over the course of the play: she changes from a ruthless, remorseless woman who is able to manipulate her husband, to one that is sidelined by Macbeth and, ultimately, totally consumed by guilt. Shakespeare is perhaps suggesting that unchecked ambition and hubris, particularly for women, have fatal consequences.
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For example, Macbeth seems to be trapped in a permanent day, after 'Macbeth does murder sleep' and his guilt and paranoia render him unable to rest. In contrast, Lady Macbeth takes on an oppositional path, suffering sleepwalking and unable to wake from her nightmare; repeating the phrase 'to bed. To bed' as if trapped in a never-ending ...
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How to Use Track Changes in Word for Your Essay
When writing an essay and you want to draw attention to a specific part, especially one that marks a significant change or correction, highlighting is an effective method. By highlighting, you can ensure that your reader or reviewer notices the changes quickly, making it easier to identify key sections of your work.
How does Lady Macbeth's character change throughout Macbeth
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Readers discuss a guest essay by a doctor calling for changes in the medical culture. Also: Columbia donors; a Florida bookstore; a balloon release ban.
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On Tuesday, the National Testing Agency made an announcement regarding the postponement of the CUET-UG exam scheduled for May 15 at the Delhi center due to unavoidable circumstances. However, for students intending to appear for the entrance test in Delhi, a different date will be designated. The NTA will provide updates regarding the revised examination date shortly.

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No Bard Feelings

How to Use Track Changes in Word for Your Essay? [For Students]

How to Compare and Highlight Differences in Two papers?

How to Use Track Changes in Word for Revising Your Essay?

Use AI Tools to Perfect Your Paper

Bonus Tips: How to Convert Word to PDF without losing Format

FAQs about Remove Page Breaks in Word

2. What is the purpose of using track changes in Word for essays?

3. What is the significance of using WPS Office for demonstrating track changes in Word?

Highlight And Track Your Change With WPS Office

Ethical Lapses in the Medical Profession

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