how to write macbeth essay

Lady Macbeth as Powerful

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., lady macbeth:, the raven himself is hoarse, that croaks the fatal entrance of duncan, under my battlements. come, you spirits, that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full, of direst cruelty. make thick my blood., stop up the access and passage to remorse ,, that no compunctious visitings of nature, shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between, the effect and it come to my woman’s breasts,, and take my milk for gall , you murd'ring ministers,, wherever in your sightless substances, you wait on nature’s mischief. 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:, how shakespeare presents lady macbeth in this speech, how shakespeare presents lady 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., one paragraph about the extract., one about the rest of the play., before you read the answer below, why not have a think about how you'd answer this question. i've highlighted the quotes i'd write about - do you agree or would you focus elsewhere 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 majority of the play, lady macbeth is presented as being a powerful woman who defies the expected gender stereotype of the caring, soft, gentle female. by the end of the play, however, she kills herself as she discovers that although she can order the rest of the world around, she cannot control her own guilt, right at the opening of this speech, lady macbeth makes her position known when she describes “my” battlements. the use of the possessive pronoun emphasises that she thinks of the castle walls as being her own. she follows this by calling “come you spirits.” the use of this magic spell has two effects on the audience: firstly, she is calling for dark magic to come and support her. this would have reminded the audience of the possibility that she was a witch and had all the evil powers connected with them. also, she is using an imperative here: “come you spirits.” she’s not asking them but telling them. this shows that she expects even the supernatural world to answer to her demands. one of the things she demands is that they “stop up the access and passage to remorse.” this means that lady macbeth doesn’t want to feel any regret for what she is about to do, which would make her powerful. she is no longer going to be slowed down by feelings of compassion or care in her pursuit of power. finally, she says that the spirits should “take my milk for gall.” here, she is asking that her own milk be turned to poison. this suggests that she is turning something caring and supportive into something deadly, giving her even more evil powers. also, milk is pure white and suggests innocence and purity so lady macbeth is asking that what is innocent and pure about her gets turned into something deadly. throughout this speech lady macbeth sets herself up as being someone very powerful, who is able to control even the spirits., her power continues throughout the play. lady macbeth suggests the murder and talks macbeth into it – showing that she is powerfully persuasive. she also plans the murder, showing that she is intelligent as well. she also stays calm under pressure, such as when macbeth arrives with the daggers from the murder scene but lady macbeth returns them to the scene so that they don’t get caught. she is also able to manipulate macduff when she faints in shock after they discover duncan’s body. you could easily argue that lady macbeth’s ambition was more powerful than macbeth’s, and that the murder wouldn’t have ever happened with her involvement. she is determined to become powerful and will stop at nothing to get it. at the end the play though she is caught sleepwalking, and she confesses to all that they’ve done. this is interesting, however, as while she is sleep-walking she is not in control of herself so she is not really aware of what she’s doing. it could be the case that lady macbeth herself never felt guilty, though she couldn’t hide her real feelings from her dreams. in the end, she dies. malcolm claims that she killed herself quite violently, but since it happens off-stage we cannot be sure. what is clear is that although she could push macbeth around, and trick macduff, and even order the spirits to do her bidding, she couldn’t order the blood off her own hands., shakespeare presents a very powerful female character in lady macbeth, and although this would have been quite radical for people in jacobean england there were other powerful, female role models to choose from: bloody mary or queen elizabeth are good examples. this play, however, was written for king james who had just taken the throne of england, and james was not a fan of queen elizabeth – who had killed his mother, mary queen of scots (and he might not even have been a big fan of his mum, because she married the man who killed his dad) as a result, james would have enjoyed seeing this powerful woman become such a villain and then getting punished for her crimes..

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:

• Character analysis
• Plot summaries
• Deeper themes

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!

Related Posts

The Theme of Morality in To Kill A Mockingbird

Unseen Poetry Exam Practice – Spring

To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Writing – PEE Breakdown

Emily Dickinson A Level Exam Questions

Poem Analysis: Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

An Inspector Calls – Official AQA Exam Questions

The Dolls House by Katherine Mansfield: Summary + Analysis

An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge: Stories of Ourselves:

How to Get Started with Narrative Writing

Robert Frost’s Life and Poetic Career

© Copyright Scrbbly 2022

• International
• Schools directory
• Resources Jobs Schools directory News Search

Macbeth - Essay Questions Breakdown

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

9 April 2024

• Share through email
• Share through twitter
• Share through linkedin
• Share through facebook
• Share through pinterest

A complete step-by-step guide for how to plan and write a Macbeth essay, which works both for coursework and exams under timed conditions. This document is perfect for guiding students with essay structuring and planning, as well as refining their knowledge of the play.

Tailored towards GCSE + iGCSE students, but also helpful for those studying at a higher level - check the preview for further info!

NOTE: this is a breakdown of the essay questions - if you’re looking for example essays, see our Macbeth - Example GCSE + iGCSE Essays, A*-C Grades (L9-L5) and our Macbeth - Example A-Level Essays

This digital + printable + PPT document includes the following:

-A full breakdown of the essay planning process

• Two example essay plans
• An annotated extract that guides students with how to select evidence
• Breakdown of keywords and focus of the essay question
• Support with developing clear, concise and thoughtful topic sentences
• Support with selecting the correct evidence to suit points
• Support with integrating contextual and thematic concepts

Reasons to love this resource:

• Perfect for expanding students’ knowledge and interpretations
• Help students to achieve higher grades
• Suitable for students of all levels
• Visual aids for additional support!

Need more Macbeth help? Grab our free resources here: Introduction to Macbeth

Macbeth Character Analysis

View our COMPLETE MACBETH BUNDLE here!

Please review us! We always value feedback and are looking for ways to improve our resources, so all reviews are more than welcome.

Check out our shop here.

Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?

Get this resource as part of a bundle and save up to 49%

A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

MACBETH: COMPLETE BUNDLE!

All hail to thee! This bundle contains everything you need to teach or study Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the form of digital and printable PDF documents. It’s perfect for students aged 14+. **Preview two of our documents for free, to check whether it’s right for you!** [Macbeth Complete Character Analysis](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-macbeth-character-analysis-12766603) [Introduction to Macbeth - Comprehensive Study Guide](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/introduction-to-macbeth-comprehensive-study-guide-12766594) [Watch Youtube videos of this bundle content here!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC90hpWr8so&list=PLeLnxAMVPTM8UG0zuvt4dVEe7me7mmp19) **There are two levels to this bundle:** Core material for students aged 14-16 (GCSE and iGCSE) Extension material for students aged 16-18 (AS, A Level + IB) **With this bundle, students will be able to:** * Understand the structural elements and key moments of plot * Deepen their knowledge of characters, including understanding the deeper messages behind each one * Integrate the significance of the setting into their analyses and interpretations of the play as a whole * Gain confidence with understanding the dramatic form, with a focus on Shakespearean drama * Memorise a range of carefully chosen key quotations for use in essays and analysis * Develop their language, structure and form analysis skills, with guided support and examples * Identify and analyse the thematic and contextual details * Learn approaches to a range of essay question types: discursive, argumentative, close reading * Become confident with extract interpretation and analysis * Develop their knowledge of tragic conventions and apply them to the play * Expand their critical aptitude via exposure to key critical frameworks and critics’ quotations (for higher level students) * Write their own essays on Macbeth, after support with planning help and example A* / top grade model answers **Reasons to love this bundle:** * Downloadable pdfs documents, graphically designed to a high level * Visual aids (photographs and drawings) to support learning * Clearly organised categories that simplify the text for students * Print and digital versions - perfect for any learning environment * The unit has everything you need to start teaching or learning - starting with the basic story summary, going right up to deep contextual and critical wider readings. * Lots of tasks and opportunities to practice literary analysis skills - students will be guided through writing a literary analysis response to the play. **This is what you'll get with this digital and printable resource:** THE COMPLETE MACBETH COURSE * Introduction to Macbeth - Comprehensive Study Guide * Macbeth - Plot Summary + Structural Breakdown * Setting in Macbeth * Macbeth - Character Study Guide * Macbeth - Key Quotations * Macbeth - Complete Context Revision * Macbeth Key Themes Study Guide * Macbeth and Tragedy * Macbeth - Critical Interpretations + Critics' Quotations WORKSHEETS + LESSONS * Macbeth Text and Study Questions - ACT 1.1 * Macbeth Text and Study Questions - ACT 1.6 * Full Lesson: Religion in Macbeth ESSAY WRITING, QUESTIONS + EXAMPLE ANSWERS * Macbeth - How to Write Higher Level Essays * Macbeth - How to Plan Essays * Macbeth - GCSE + iGCSE Essay Questions * Example A-Level Essays, A*-C Grades * Macbeth - GCSE + iGCSE Model Essays, A*-C Grades (L9-L5) **Ready to print and teach, or start studying straight away! Please be sure to take a look at the preview images to see all the documents in this resource! Looking for other texts? Here are two more: [An Inspector Calls](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/an-inspector-calls-revision-bundle-12611113) [AQA GCSE Power and Conflict Poetry](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/aqa-power-and-conflict-poetry-bundle-12462323) You might also be interested in: [AQA GCSE English Paper 1 Complete Bundle](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/aqa-english-language-paper-1-complete-bundle-12542887) [Cambridge IGCSE Poetry Anthology 2023-2025, Songs of Ourselves Volume 2, Part 4](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/caie-cambridge-igcse-poetry-anthology-2023-2025-songs-of-ourselves-volume-2-part-4-12722377) [Cambridge A Level Poetry for 2023](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/cie-cambridge-a-level-poetry-for-2023-bundle-part-1-12735444) **Please review our content! We always value feedback and are looking for ways to improve our resources, so all reviews are more than welcome. Check out our full [shop](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/ntabani) here

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

This resource hasn't been reviewed yet

To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource:

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.

Share this:

Published by.

gcseenglishwithmisshuttlestone

Secondary English teacher in Herts. View all posts by gcseenglishwithmisshuttlestone

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

wheres the context

Like Liked by 1 person

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.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

J.R.R. Tolkien Hated Shakespeare, but Was Still Influenced by Him

• Tolkien hated Shakespeare but found inspiration in Macbeth for Lord of the Rings, improving on the Bard's storytelling.
• Macbeth influenced Ents in Isengard march and Witch-king's fate, paralleling prophecies and climactic battles in LOTR.
• King Lear also inspired Tolkien in LOTR, with Eowyn's fight similarly echoing Lear and other language allusions in the trilogy.

Two literary titans of their time, William Shakespeare and J.R.R. Tolkien , continue to rank among the all-time most celebrated authors. Yet, despite being influenced by the world's greatest playwright, Tolkien's well-documented dislike of Shakespeare has led to a fascinating relationship between the two and their work. Tolkien's criticism of Shakespeare derives from Macbeth 's representation of elves, which The Hobbit author poked fun at in The Lord of the Rings .

As Lord of the Rings fans continue to mourn the recent passing of Bernard Hill , who portrayed King Theoden of Rohan in the Oscar-winning trilogy, it's worth revisiting Middle-Earth and tracing Tolkien's dislike of Shakespeare and how, despite hating the venerated scribe's most celebrated work, Tolkien channeled inspiration from the playwright in Lord of the Rings, including King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream .

Why Did J.R.R. Tolkien Hate William Shakespeare?

Tolkien's displeasure with Shakespeare's prose derives from his school days when he was forced to study the playwright as a student. According to Tolkien Studies Volume 1 ( via Johns Hopkins University ), Tolkien's dislike of William Shakespeare began with Tolkien's disapproval of Shakespeare's devalued representation of elves in his plays and stories. In a letter written by Tolkien, the author stated ( via The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter):

"I now deeply regret having used [the term] Elves, though this is a word in ancestry and original meaning suitable enough. But the disastrous debasement of this word, in which Shakespeare played an unforgiveable part, has really overloaded it with regrettable tones, which are too much to overcome."

In another letter voicing his displeasure, Tolkien specifically criticized Shakespeare's exposition of Birnam Wood's arrival at Dunsinane Hill in the 1606 tragedy Macbeth . Tolkien felt the sequence involving the soldiers cutting off tree branches and marching forward into enemy territory as if they were animate trees was deeply disappointing and was not up to Shakespeare's reputational standard. As such, Tolkien took inspiration from the scene and rectified it in the momentous Lord of the Rings trilogy .

How Did Macbeth Influence Lord of the Rings?

According to Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey in The Road to Middle-Earth , two thematic points from Macbeth inspired The Lord of the Rings . The first involves the march of the Ents, giant tree-like humanoids that invade Isengard. The sequence is influenced by Shakespeare's botched attempt to create a fantasy-like fairytale during Birnam Wood's arrival at Dunsinane. Rather than having warriors cut off tree branches and pretend to be an army of walking trees, Tolkien went the extra mile and created an entire race of Ents to atone for what he viewed as a major flaw in Shakespeare's storytelling.

The prophesized death of Macbeth also inspired Tolkien to give the Witch-king Angmar a similar fate in the Lord of the Rings . In Macbeth , witches give Macbeth prophecies foretelling his fate. The witches warn that Macbeth will become king, that he cannot be defeated by a man born of women, and he will not be killed until Birnam Wood arrives at Dunsinane.

Similar prophecies occur in The Lord of the Rings . The most glaring parallel comes during the Battle of Pelennor Fields when Eowyn takes on Witch-king Angmar and tricks him into believing she is a man. Angmar states, "No living man may hinder me," prompting Eowyn to unmask and declare:

"But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. owyn I am, omund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him."

The exposition recalls the witches' prophecy in Macbeth stating that no man born of a woman would defeat him. Eowyn's ruse also links to Glorifindel's prophecy in LotR that "Not by the hand of man" will the Witch-king Angmar be killed. Despite detesting Shakespeare's prose and elven representation, Tolkien parallels Macbeth directly through Eowyn's confrontation with the Witch-king and his shocked response to learn she is not a man.

How King Lear Influenced The Return of the King

In his 1939 essay, On Fairy-Stories , Tolkien cited Shakespeare's Macbeth, A Midnight Summer Night's Dream , and King Lear regarding the use of fairytale storytelling. While Macbeth inspired Lord of the Rings, King Lear also shares similarities with Eowyn's battle with the Witch-king . In The Return of the King , Tolkien scholar Michael Drout cites five notable allusions to King Lear .

The Lord of the Rings: The Best Battles in the Trilogy

For example, in King Lear , the mad king states "Come not between a dragon and his wrath." The line is similar to the Witch-king telling Eowyn "Come not between The Nazgul and his prey." Another example includes Gandalf discussing "Seven stars and seven stones and one white tree," which recalls Lear's fool talking about "Seven stars." While not as influential on the story narrative and plot structure, Drout contends in the J.R.R Tolkien Encyclopedia that the similar use of language, literary idioms, and writing style suggest Tolkien studied Shakespeare more than he let on.

How A Midsummer Night's Dream Inspired The Hobbit

In addition to the tragedies Macbeth and King Lear , Tolkien took cues from Shakespeare's comedic farce A Midsummer Night's Dream when writing The Hobbit . The two authors are bound tightly by their English upbringing in Warwickshire, which explains the shared natural environment, English customs, and region-specific verbiage.

According to scholar Lisa Hopkins via Mallorn , The Hobbit 's Gandalf parallels A Midsummer 's Oberon , with both the powerful and kindhearted characters watching over the protagonists as loving guardians. In The Hobbit , Gandalf ensures Bilbo Baggins' safety and success the best he can. In A Midsummer , Oberon oversees the blissful marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta.

Moreover, in The Hobbit's book and movie adaptation , Gandalf saves Bilbo and the Dwarves from the Trolls by distracting them and deliberately causing an argument among them. The ploy is reminiscent of Puck forcing an argument between Demetrius and Lysander to avoid danger in A Midsummer .

Even the ominous representation of the surrounding woodlands is similar in both stories. According to Hopkins, the wild wood in A Midsummer and the Milkwood in The Hobbit are metaphors for the unconscious. The liminal spaces also share a similar hierarchy, with Theseus and Hippolyta living above the Mechanicals and below the Fairies, and Bilbo ranking above the giant spiders and below the forest Elves.

Although publicly declaring his dislike of Shakespeare, Tolkien was inspired by at least three of the playwrights' most famous works when writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . While imitation is often described as the best form of flattery, Tolkien sought less to impersonate Shakespeare's writing in Macbeth, King Lear, and A Midsummer Night's Dream than to improve it. Tolkien took what bothered him in Shakespeare's prose and used his brilliant imagination to give it a more fantastical spin.

Advertisement

Supported by

Peter Morgan Turns His Pen From ‘The Crown’ to the Kremlin

His new play “Patriots,” now on Broadway, follows Putin’s rise to power and the Russian oligarchs who mistakenly thought he’d be their puppet.

• Share full article

By Maureen Dowd

Going from Princess Diana, a lovely icon who generated waves of sympathy, to Vladimir Putin, an icy villain who generates waves of disdain, might be difficult for some writers.

Not Peter Morgan.

After pulling back the curtain on the British royal family for six seasons of “The Crown,” Morgan was keen to move on. He had an idea for a play about the oligarchs who, in the 1990s, helped propel an obscure Putin to power and then had to watch as their Frankenstein changed the course of Russian history in a disastrous way.

The resulting drama, “Patriots,” which opens on Broadway on April 22, offered Morgan a different way to approach recent history, and a new challenge: switching from the royals, who are household names but not ultimately very powerful, to oligarchs, who are super powerful but not generally household names.

Morgan enjoys writing about the vilified, giving them a fighting chance. In “Patriots,” he creates a jigsaw of four Russian men, their fates intertwining in the post-Soviet era, who represent a Byzantine spectrum of moral values.

“It’s just a delicious combination of characters,” Morgan, 60, told me, in an interview at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in Times Square. “There’s a sort of violence, whereas in ‘The Crown,’ there’s this politeness and there’s repression, and it’s very female. There’s something very male, very violent about this play. It felt like a natural thing to do, having spent so much time in the one world to go into another world just to relax a little.”

There were several oligarchs who helped Putin rise from a K.G.B. apparatchik in Leningrad to autocrat in the Kremlin. Morgan chose the most colorful of them for his protagonist: Boris Berezovsky, who cast himself as “the Jew behind the czar.”

Morgan tailors the tale to do one of the things he does best: One character self-destructs, and another exploits that spiral.

Michael Sheen, who played Tony Blair onscreen in a trilogy of Morgan opuses, “The Queen” with Helen Mirren, “The Deal” and “The Special Relationship,” told me that Morgan “finds a moment that is able to ripple out in front and behind, and illuminate what matters.”

Morgan said he loves “riveting personal interactions” with a backdrop of history, when you see the impetus for an event and realize “it’s because of envy, or it’s because of persecution or it’s because of jealousy or because of love.”

Despite the model of Shakespeare, he thinks that we too often tend to separate the emotional and psychological from our reading of history and politics.

“In a sense, I enjoy painting with a brush that is not too realistic, because that’s what drama can do,” he said. “We have cameras for verisimilitude and for likeness.”

Morgan is known — and oft chided — for mixing research and invention, looking for an underlying dramatic truth rather than pure accuracy. As with “The Crown,” he turned to a flock of advisers, this time Russian ones, for “Patriots.” He said he wanted to be careful not to demonize Russia. And he spent time with people who were close to Berezovsky.

He traces the rise and fall of Berezovsky (Michael Stuhlbarg), a math prodigy — “a golden child,” as a teacher calls him in the play — who built a fortune in cars, oil and TV and became a political power. He even had his own exclusive private club in Moscow.

“If there was a rock star of that era,” Morgan said, “if there was an iconic character who most typified the indulgence, the excess, in a sense the lawlessness of oligarchy, it would be him. I was interested in somebody that everybody felt was magnetic.”

Nina L. Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at the New School in Manhattan and Nikita S. Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter, was one of Morgan’s advisers on Russian history. Sitting with us, she offered her gloss on Berezovsky: “He’s the King Lear. He’s the most tragic figure you can imagine.”

Berezovsky blithely bribed and plundered. One security official told my colleague Steven Lee Myers for his biography of Putin, “ The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin ,” that Berezovsky divided people into two categories: “A condom in its packaging and a condom that has been used.” Once in power, Putin, who had been Berezovsky’s protégé, checked the power of oligarchs, including him. And Berezovsky came to see Putin as a killer who was snuffing out reforms implemented by Boris Yeltsin.

“The thing that sent me straight to my laptop, as it were,” Morgan told me, “was the tragedy of Berezovsky, something about having all those ideals and then being shattered and outmaneuvered.”

Khrushcheva interjected dryly: “Berezovsky and ideals. There’s a little bit of a stretch, right?”

Morgan defended his antihero: “The thing that Boris had to take to his grave is that he weaponized Putin through his own transgressions, being so voraciously greedy, stealing from the Russian state.” Once Putin got to the top and clamped down on the oligarchs, Berezovsky, stripped of power, became “a reluctant revolutionary.”

Other historic figures are brought into the mix. There is Alexander Litvinenko (Alex Hurt), who worked for the federal security service and investigated the bombing of Berezovsky’s car in 1994 , which left his chauffeur decapitated. He grew close to Berezovsky, became disillusioned with Putin and defected to Britain, where, in 2006, he was poisoned with polonium-210 , a radioactive isotope, and died.

Then there is the luxe oligarch Roman Abramovich (Luke Thallon), described as “the kid” when Berezovsky first meets him in the play and agrees to go into the oil business with him and become his protector. They too fall out, and in 2011 Berezovsky sues Abramovich in London, seeking billions, and loses. The judge calls Berezovsky “an unimpressive and inherently unreliable witness who regarded truth as transitory.”

Sonia Friedman, the play’s producer, said that while Morgan had initially set out to write the story of “Boris as a kingmaker,” he made Putin more central because “as the play was developing, the world was changing around the play.”

The drama is animated by the shifting relationship between Berezovsky and Putin.

When we first encounter Putin — played by Will Keen, a “Crown” alum who won an Olivier Award last year after the play’s successful London run — he’s a deputy mayor of St. Petersburg politely rebuffing a bribe from Berezovsky, who wants to give the politician a Mercedes in return for letting him set up a car dealership.

Putin says he’s happy to keep driving his old Zaporozhets: “It has sentimental value. It used to belong to my parents.”

At this point, the woman next to me, the night I saw the play, called out “Awwwww!” impressed with Putin’s filial affection.

“I think you put anyone on stage, and you cannot help but humanize them,” said Rupert Goold, the director. “That’s true of Macbeth.”

Berezovsky shepherds the mild-mannered young pol’s career, pulling him into Yeltsin’s inner circle — “letting a form of the devil into his orbit,” as Goold puts it. When the unlikely Putin ascends to the presidency — and Stalin’s dacha — he has no intention of being Berezovsky’s puppet, or even ally.

As Putin tells his former mentor, people have grown tired of “your treason and treachery, of your criminality and your disloyalty, of your perfidy and your whining and your thieving and your bribes and your decadence — all of which you dress up as patriotism and some kind of ‘political movement.’”

MORGAN, WHO LOVES WRITING about power, saw the abuse of power at an early age. His German Jewish father fled before the war to escape the Nazis, and his Roman Catholic Polish mother fled after the war to escape the Soviets. They raised Peter in Wimbledon.

“The culture in the house that I grew up in was: You can lose anything overnight,” he said. “It was a very, very Jewish culture that I grew up in, but also people who’d lost everything. Immigrants who come to a country with nothing. Both of my parents came to the U.K. with a paper bag.”

Does Berezovsky’s Jewishness inform the play?

“A lot of the first generation of oligarchs were Jewish,” Morgan said. “Interestingly, Putin has a very positive relationship with Jews. There’s nothing antisemitic about Putin, I don’t think.”

Morgan describes his characters as “four people with very different views about patriotism, what’s best for Russia, and very different views of each other.”

After Berezovsky’s death, Putin’s aides claimed that the castoff puppet master had written the president, apologizing for his “mistakes” and asking to come home to Russia; Berezovsky’s last girlfriend said it was true. Morgan had this in the London version but left it out of the Broadway version because, as Goold said, they had “one too many endings.”

(At the first Broadway preview, Stuhlbarg was able to go on as Berezovsky, even though the day before he had been hit with a rock by a homeless man in Central Park; in an odd twist, the suspect was caught near the Russian consulate on the Upper East Side.)

Losing the London court case to Abramovich broke Berezovsky, both financially and emotionally. Seven months after the verdict, he was dead . He was found hanging in his bathroom in his mansion outside London. People are still arguing whether it was a suicide or a murder.

Morgan said that originally he wanted “to make it really unambiguously a suicide, because if you put me on a lie-detector test, I would probably say that’s what it was. I’ve gone down that rabbit hole so many times. I’ve said, ‘Why was there no camera footage of anybody? There were no cars leaving. He was found in a bathroom locked on the inside.’”

He asked Khrushcheva where she stood on the matter. “I am one of those people who think that you can expect everything and anything from the K.G.B.,” she said, adding that she wouldn’t put anything past Putin “ever.”

After the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny’ s death in February in an Arctic penal colony, Morgan decided to make the cause more ambiguous. “I kept thinking that it was almost a disrespect to Navalny, and a disrespect to the other political prisoners to put Boris’s death as unambiguously a suicide,” he said, adding, “There was known to be a hit squad in the U.K. at the time.”

Russian oligarchs are of particular interest in London, where “Patriots” originated. Litvinenko was killed there. Berezovsky went into self-imposed exile and died there. Abramovich was the owner of the Chelsea Football Club until forced by sanctions to sell it . “These are all characters that we all felt connected to,” Morgan said.

But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the death of Navalny, have fueled curiosity about Putin and his rise. At one point in the play, Putin rages that Berezovsky has sent millions to help fund Ukraine’s Orange Revolution “against his own country — the country he claims to love.”

“The reality of Ukraine,” Morgan said, “has somehow seeped into the way in which an audience responds to Putin.”

I asked Morgan if Berezovsky was really so different from American billionaires who finance everything from presidential campaigns to Supreme Court vacations to satellite use over Ukraine? He replied that “oligarchy exists everywhere.”

“They have the power and influence of nation-states,” he said. “They’re supra governmental, and they’re supranational, actually.”

And what if an American oligarch cuts out the middlemen and simply makes an unlikely climb to power himself? I ask Khrushcheva if she understands Trump’s obsession with Putin.

She said that Putin was trained as a K.G.B. recruiter and therefore was capable of “amazing charm,” a “nobody pimple who came from Leningrad” who managed to leave the intelligentsia and the oligarchs “absolutely smitten.”

She surprised Morgan when she said she would rather have dinner with the murderous Vladimir than the roguish Boris. “I met him twice and he was probably as charming as Bill Clinton,” Khrushcheva said of Putin.

Outside the theater the night of the first preview, I chatted with Morgan and his girlfriend, the actress Gillian Anderson, who played Margaret Thatcher in “The Crown” and stars as anchorwoman Emily Maitlis in the new Netflix drama “Scoop,” about the BBC interview with Prince Andrew about his seamy friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The Netflix power duo — the streaming giant is a co-producer of “Patriots” and is considering a screen adaptation — appeared cozy, both with startling blue eyes and a casual-glam look, greeting friends and fans. So how is the romance going, I wondered.

“We’re just two old people trying to be in love,” said the very private Morgan. “Stop it!”

And what about the royals? When he sees the monarchy roiled by searing dramas, doesn’t he get the urge to go once more, unto the breach, and explore the new traumas of Harry and Meghan, Kate and William, Charles and Camilla? Isn’t Meghan’s American Riviera Orchard brand a siren song for a royal troubadour?

“Not even for a split second,” he said.

Maureen Dowd is an Opinion columnist for The Times. She won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. More about Maureen Dowd