thesis statement about violence in macbeth

William Shakespeare

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To call Macbeth a violent play is an understatement. It begins in battle, contains the murder of men, women, and children, and ends not just with a climactic siege but the suicide of Lady Macbeth and the beheading of its main character, Macbeth . In the process of all this bloodshed, Macbeth makes an important point about the nature of violence: every violent act, even those done for selfless reasons, seems to lead inevitably to the next. The violence through which Macbeth takes the throne, as Macbeth himself realizes, opens the way for others to try to take the throne for themselves through violence. So Macbeth must commit more violence, and more violence, until violence is all he has left. As Macbeth himself says after seeing Banquo's ghost, "blood will to blood." Violence leads to violence, a vicious cycle.

Violence ThemeTracker

Violence Quotes in Macbeth

Macbeth and Violence — Example A Grade Essay

Here’s an essay on Macbeth’s violent nature that I wrote as a mock exam practice with students. Feel free to read and analyse it, use the quotes and context for your own essays too!

It’s also useful for anyone studying Macbeth in general, especially with the following exam boards: CAIE / Cambridge, Edexcel, OCR, CCEA, WJEC / Eduqas.

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THE QUESTION

Starting with this speech, explore how far shakespeare presents macbeth as a violent character. (act 1 scene 2).

Debate: How far is Macbeth violent? (AGREE / DISAGREE)

Themes: Violence (break into different types of violence)

Focus: Character of Macbeth (what he says/does, other character’s actions towards him and speech about him)

PLAN — 6–8 mins

Thesis – Shakespeare uses Macbeth to make us question the nature of violence and whether any kind of violent behaviour is ever appropriate

Point 1 : Macbeth has an enjoyment of violence

‘Brandished steel’ ‘smoked with bloody execution’

‘Unseam’d him from the nave to’th’chops’ ‘fixed his head upon the battlements’

Context — Thou shalt not kill / Tragic hero

Point 2 : Macbeth is a violent character from the offset, but this violence is acceptable at first

‘Disdaining Fortune’ ‘valiant cousin/ worthy gentleman’

‘Worthy to be a rebel’

Context: Divine Right of Kings / James I legacy

Point 3: The witches and Lady Macbeth manipulate that violent power

‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ ‘so foul and fair a day I have not seen’

‘Will these hands never be clean?’ ‘incarnadine’

‘Is this a dagger I see before me?’

Context: Psychological power — Machiavelli / Demonology

(Point 4) Ultimately, Macbeth is undone by violence in the end

Hubris — ‘Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripp’d’

‘Traitor’ ‘Tyrant’

‘Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’

Context: Violence for evil means is unsustainable, political unrest equally is negative and unsustainable — support James

Macbeth is certainly portrayed as a violent character from the offset, but initially this seems a positive trait: the Captain, Ross and others herald him as a great warrior, both an ally and valuable asset to Duncan and his kingdom. Furthermore, Duncan himself is overjoyed at Macbeth’s skill in battle. Yet, as the play progresses and Macbeth embarks upon his tragic fall, Shakespeare encourages us to question the nature of violence itself, and whether any kind of violence is truly good. Ultimately, Shakespeare demonstrates that Macbeth’s enjoyment of violence works against him, as it is manipulated by the evil forces at work in the play, and it ends in destroying not only himself but his entire life’s work, reputation and legacy.

Firstly, Macbeth is established as a character who embraces violence, though he uses it as a force for good in the sense that he defends Duncan and his Kingdom against traitors and the King of Norway’s attack. In the play, it is interesting to note that Macbeth’s reputation precedes him — despite being the central focus of the tragedy, we do not meet him until Act 1 Scene 3, and so this extract occurs before we have seen the man himself. The Captain’s speech begins with the dramatic utterance ‘Doubtful it stood’, creating a sense of tension and uncertainty as he recounts the events of the battle to Duncan and the others. Yet, the tone of the speech becomes increasingly full of praise and confidence as he explains how Macbeth and Banquo overcame ‘Fortune’, the luck that went against them, and their strong willpower enabled them to defeat ‘the merciless Macdonwald’, the alliteration serving to underscore the Captain’s dislike of the man, while the adjective ‘merciless’ implies that the traitor himself was also cruel and violent. The sense that Macbeth enjoys the violence he enacts upon the traitor is conveyed through visual imagery, which is graphic and quite repellent: ‘his brandish’d steel… smoked with bloody execution’ and ‘he unseam’d [Macdonwald] from the nave to th’chops’. The dynamic verb ‘smoked’ suggests the intense action of the scene and the amount of fresh blood that had stained Macbeth’s sword. Furthermore, the verb ‘unseam’d’ suggests the skill with which Macbeth is able to kill — he does not simply stab the traitor, he delicately and expertly destroys him, almost as if he’s a butcher who takes pleasure in his profession, and indeed at the end of the play Macduff does call him by this same term: ‘the dead butcher and his fiend-like queen’. Interestingly, much of the violence that occurs in the play happens offstage, Duncan is murdered in between Acts 2.1 and 2.2., as are Banquo and Macduff’s family. Even in this early scene, the audience hear about the violence rather than experiencing it directly. This suggests perhaps that for a Jacobean audience at a time of political instability, Shakespeare wanted to discourage the idea or enjoyment of violence whilst still exploring the idea of it in human nature and psychology. Furthermore, a contemporary audience would be aware of the Biblical commandment ‘thou shall not kill’, which expressed that violence and murder of any kind was a sinful act against God. Therefore, we can see that Macbeth is established as a tragic hero from the offset, though he is a successful character and increasing his power within the feudal world, this power is built upon his capacity for and enjoyment of violence, which will ultimately cause him to fail and in turn warn the Jacobean audience against any kind of violence in their own lives.

We could also interpret Macbeth as inherently violent, but under control of his own power at the beginning of the play, an aspect of himself which degenerates under the influence of evil. Though he is physically great, he is easily manipulated by the witches and Lady Macbeth, all of whom are arguably psychologically stronger. The use of chiasmus in the opening scene — ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ is echoed by Macbeth’s first line in Act One Scene 3: ‘so foul and fair a day I have not seen’. Delving deeper into the meaning of these lines also reveals more about Shakespeare’s opinions on the inherent nature of violence; though the language is equivocal and can be interpreted in many ways, we can assume that the witches are implying that the world has become inverted, that ugliness and evil are now ‘fair’, what is seen as right or normal in Macbeth’s violent world. Macbeth uses similar lines, but with a different meaning, he is stating that he has never seen a day so ‘foul’, so full of gore and death, that was at the same time so ‘fair’, so good in terms of outcome, and positive for the future. Shakespeare is perhaps exposing an inherent paradox in violence here, that war and murder is thought by many to be noble if it leads to a positive political outcome. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth encourages and appeals to Macbeth’s sense for violence by directly associating it with masculinity and male traits that were considered noble or desirable in the Jacobean era. She questions him just prior to Duncan’s death, stating ‘I fear thy nature is too full o’th’milk of human kindness / to catch the nearest way’, using ‘milk’ as a symbol of femininity to imply his womanly and cowardly nature, while in turn asking evil spirits to ‘unsex’ her and fill her with ‘direst cruelty’. In this sense, it could be argued that Shakespeare is commenting on the connections between nature and violence, perhaps a Jacobean audience would have understood that Macbeth fighting for the king was an acceptable outlet for his violence, whereas Macbeth using violence for personal gain and Lady Macbeth’s wish to become more masculine, and therefore more violent, are all against the perceived view of natural gender and social roles of the time. Overall, we could say that the culture itself, which encourages Machievellian disruption and political vying for power through both women and men stepping out of the social norms of their society, encourages more violence and evil to enter the world.

Alternatively, it could be argued that Shakespeare uses Macbeth’s success through violence to criticise the nature of the Early Modern world, and so it is not Macbeth’s violence itself which is at fault, but the world which embraces and encourages this in him. Duncan responds to the Captain’s speech by exclaiming ‘valiant cousin’ ‘worthy gentleman!’, demonstrating his extreme faith in Macbeth’s powers. The Captain additionally terms him ‘Brave Macbeth’, stating ‘well he deserves that name’, suggesting that the general structure of the world supports violent and potentially unstable characters such as Macbeth, enabling them to rise to power beyond their means. Interestingly the downfall of Macbeth is foreshadowed early on in this extract, as the term ‘worthy’ is also applied to the traitor in the Captain’s speech, when he states Macdonwald is ‘worthy to be a rebel’, the repetition of this adjective perhaps subtly compares Macdonwald’s position to Macbeth’s own, as Macbeth’s own death also is similar to the initial traitors, with his own head being ‘fixed…upon the battlements’ of Inverness castle. Through this repetition of staging and terminology, we realise that the world is perhaps at fault more than Macbeth himself, as it encourages a cycle of violence and political instability. Though there is a sense of positivity in extract as Duncan has succeeded in securing the throne and defeating the traitor, the violent context in which this action occurs, being set in 11th century feudal Scotland, suggests the underlying political unrest that mirrors the political instability of Shakespeare’s own time. The play was first performed in 1606, three years after James I had been made King of England (though he was already King of Scotland at this time), and in 1605 there had been a violent attempt on his life with the Gunpowder Plot from a group of secret Catholics who felt they were being underrepresented. Shakespeare’s own family were known associates of some of the perpetrators, so it is likely that he intended to clear suspicion of his own name by creating a play that strongly supported James I’s Divine Right to rule. In this sense, we can see that the concept of a cycle of violence that is created through political instability is integral to Shakespeare’s overall purpose, he is strongly conveying to the audience that not only is Macbeth’s personal violence sinful, but the way in which society encourages people to become violent is terrible and must be stopped, for the good of everyone.

In summary, Macbeth is established from the offset as a violent character, who takes pride and pleasure in fighting and killing. However, Shakespeare is careful not to make this violent action central to the enjoyment of the play (until the very end, when Macbeth himself is defeated), to force us to engage with the psychology of violence more than the physical nature of it. Though the women in the play are passive, Lady Macbeth and the witches prove to incite violence in Macbeth’s nature and lead ultimately to more evil entering the world. Finally, we can interpret the violence of the play as a criticism of the political and social instability of Jacobean times, rather than it being purely Macbeth’s fault, Shakespeare is exploring how the society itself encourages instability through the encouragement of Machiavellian ideas such as power grabbing, nepotism, greed and ambition.

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Macbeth Essay Thesis Statements, Titles, and Topics

Post your thesis statements by March 25th, along with tentative titles and questions about essay topics. The essay prompt has been posted to Blackboard and you will also submit the final draft of your essay to Blackboard by Friday, April 3rd.

29 thoughts on “ Macbeth Essay Thesis Statements, Titles, and Topics ”

For my thesis, I would like to explore and analyze Lady Macbeth’s character and the development of her character throughout the play. I was thinking of looking into whether her development was largely influenced by Macbeth’s prophecy or if her character was the one to influence how Macbeth’s prophecy came to be. I’m having trouble wording if but I have a thesis to work from: In this essay, I will analyze Lady Macbeth’s character progression and whether or not a connection exists to Macbeth’s prophecy.

Kyla, go for it! I think you should focus on Lady Macbeth’s monologues in Act One, Scene Five and Act Five, Scene One.

Can I get Your thesis

Potential thesis: Although many blame the witches and their prophecies for Macbeth’s ill fate, it is actually his own fault. If Macbeth did not believe the witches’ prophecies, he probably wouldn’t have tried to control his “fate” which ended as a tragedy.

This is a great thesis and opens a lot of pathways for interpretation. You’ll have to explain why you put “fate” in scare quotes, as it suggests that you don’t believe fate is a major factor in the play. If you can do that, you’ll likely produce a lively discussion. Look to the debate on free will between Martin Luther and Erasmus in the “Contexts” section of the Norton Critical Edition.

I was thinking about using the idea of tyranny and masculinity for my thesis, such as other thanes or princes want to overthrow MacBeth because they felt that he was acting tyrannical. Lady MacBeth says she wants to unsex herself when she decides to kill Duncan and Malcolm tells MacDuff that he is “unknown to woman, never was forsworn” so it seems that being a man reinforces the right to kill someone. A rough thesis would be: MacBeth is right to be overthrown because he is acting tyrannical, and Malcolm will be a better king because he’s the son of King Duncan and he’s more manly than MacBeth.

Petvy, I think you’re onto something with the problem of tyranny in Macbeth. It’s not immediately clear how you could tie that in with the distortions of maculinity in the play in only four to five pages, so I’d suggest focusing on either tyranny or masculinity (or its corruption). In either case, you have to talk about why Macbeth becomes a tyrant: it has a lot to do with the ways he interprets the prophecies from the witches, who represent (along with Lady Macbeth) grotesque distortions of femininity.

Macbeth’s actions throughout the play are an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. He believes what the witches tell him about his fate and becomes intoxicated by the possibility of achieving power, which is the reason he commits all those evil acts and pays the ultimate price for it in the end, not because he is simply fulfilling his destiny.

This is promising, Ilya! Pick two or three scenes to focus on in your reading of Macbeth’s response to the prophecies.

Throughout the novel, there are many symbols used to depict evil. Light and darkness are amongst the most common ways to show that light is good and dark is bad. In a more analytical approach, we can see that without the light Macbeth is in the dark for too long and causes him to become blind to goodness. From the beginning, all that has been described to be dark or involved in darkness have affected Macbeth into becoming corrupt and mad, such as the ‘midnight’ witches and the absence of the candles that Lady Macbeth so persistently carried towards the end. A working thesis for me would be how the use of light and darkness ultimately affected/foreshadowed that Macbeth would become corrupted and even guilty for the actions he had taken.

Karyna, it’s important to remember that a novel is a certain genre of writing. Macbeth is a play. Jane Austen’s Emma (which we’ll read in a few weeks) is a novel.

Classifications aside, the light/dark theme in the play is a big topic with lots to think about. Can you narrow it down to certain things that happen in light versus in darkness? For instance, Macbeth worries that he’ll never be able to sleep soundly again after he murders Duncan. Is there something to be said about the imagery juxtaposing darkness with sleeplessness brought on by guilt?

Possible Thesis:

Darkness, concerning dusk, exceeds its function as a mere setting characteristic by acting as a symbol of foreboding. Approaching darkness (nightfall) mentioned as a setting descriptor is often followed by nefarious or immoral actions, such as murder.

I am most likely going to change the topic I’m writing on. If I’m unable to fully rationalize my thoughts for the other topic I had in mind, I’ll fall back onto this original thesis.

Cory, try and find a few passages where a character describes or reacts to the darkness. I’m wondering if the Porter might be a good character to look to. Banquo’s murderers might also be worth discussing. As for major characters, there are plenty who present responses to darkness, especially in Act II. And maybe there’s a parallel between the pervasive darkness in the play and Scotland’s peripheral position in relation to England. Scotland is a grim, wild, foul-weathered place: any parallels between the setting of the play and the qualities of darkness espoused in it?

The circumstances that surround Macbeth’s rise to power allude to an evil power. The witches were written into this play during Shakespeare’s time where hysteria took precedent. Despite Shakespeare’s time being different from Macbeth’s time, there is still an emphasis on morality and what is considered to be a ‘sinful’ act or righteous. The presence of witches and prophecies may have been used to let the audience understand the meteoric rise of Macbeth was not truly ‘good’ or ‘righteous’. The witches are shown to be malevolent, and Macbeth’s association with these otherworldly figures notions towards an unjust claim to power. These allusions to an evil power include the stress on the number 3, which is known to represent evil and unholiness. For example, there are three witches, three roles that Macbeth takes on, and three prophecies.

Sounds great, Chiara! There are some materials in the back of the Norton Critical Edition pertaining to the witches (Hecate in particular). Ian McKellen’s interview might be a good place to start.

In this paper I will argue that Macbeth’s endless ambition overpowers fate and his destiny is brought by his own free will.

Good thesis, Jordan. Discuss the claims about predestination and free will made by Martin Luther and Erasmus. Their essays are in the supplementary materials of the Norton Critical Edition of Macbeth.

Psychology and subjective reality are prominent themes in Macbeth; Banquo’s ghost, the floating dagger, voices, and blood spots are only imagined by Macbeth as he unravels throughout the play. Lady Macbeth’s insomnia and hand-washing shows the psychological effect the murders have had on her. In the end, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are both perpetrators of their own demise; they actively seek to fulfill Fate and in turn are plagued by their own minds.

Mary, these are great passages to focus on for your thesis. I like the insinuation you’re making here: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth try to manipulate Fate, but all they end up doing–over and over again beginning with the murder of Duncan–is speed up its process.

This is amazing, I am doing something similar to your thesis and took some ideas from yours thank you!

Thesis: Throughout the play, Macbeth’s actions and decisions that he’s made seem to show an underlying sense of fear that fuels them. Fear can be controlling and influential on human beings and can sometimes dictate the path of their lives, all of which can be said for the character of Macbeth. From the witches’ prophecy to the various murders he orchestrates, fear is used as a motivator within Macbeth to commit unspeakable actions and as a result, drove him into losing touch with his sense of sanity and reality, slowly becoming unhinged at the hands of fear.

Very good, Lanz! Highlight passages where a character implies or specifically mentions being afraid (or conversely, feeling courageous).

Potential Thesis Statement: By doing the wrong thing cause of greed, power, and other influences( In this case the witches) can often lead to negative outcomes, bad results, situations to become worse, and anxiety. This is what I’m thinking about using as a thesis statement, but still a little unsure. Sorry for the late response I thought the other Macbeth post was the forumn where I was suppose to write our blog response/thesis for the Macbeth essay originally.

Tayyab, this is an interesting general statement to make in relation to the events of the play, but maybe just focus on Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s responses to the witches’ prophecies. This way, you’ll have a coupe of very specific scenes towards which you can direct your close reading. As a bonus, you don’t have to spend time and energy wondering about the moral of the story. Focus instead on what the characters say and do and how and what these words and actions mean within the world of the play. Look to the supplementary materials in the back of the Norton Critical Edition for more guidance, and let me know if you have further questions.

My thesis will be about self perception and it’s connection to the choice that people believe they are supposed to make. In the case of MacBeth, he heard a prophecy and his self perception changed from being a thane to a king. Really late response but I couldn’t think of anything original til now.

Aiden, reorient your thesis to avoid making generalizations about “people.” Focus only on how self-perception troubles the characters in Macbeth, particularly as it pertains to what certain characters believe about fate versus free choice. Look to the essays by Luther and Erasmus on this topic for guidance.

For my second essay I plan to move forward to investigate Lady Macbeth’s psychosis. There’s much to analyze when it comes to Lady Macbeth’s behavior and speech. However, I’m afraid I’ve chosen a topic that is too big for a four to five-page essay. Should I focus on a specific act or scene for the essay? Additionally, I’m having difficulty wording my thesis. This is what I have so far …

In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is an unconventional female character, who possesses a dangerous ambitiousness and ruthlessness to help Macbeth become King of Scotland. Her character encourages Macbeth to commit an evil act and unleashes something within hi. As more cruel murders take place, Lady Macbeth becomes unrecognizable through her anxious and erratic behavior.

I feel like I’m not really making a claim but just summarizing her character development in the play. Any suggestions or ideas are greatly welcomed!! Thank you!

Thesis: In Macbeth, his aligned actions had played to his rise and his downfall, which only proved that determinism took control of the entirety of Macbeth’s life and the world around him.

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Violence in Macbeth

Macbeth is a prime example of a violent Jacobean drama .

As the Elizabethan age gave way to the Jacobean era new young playwrights emerged. They were very much in tune with their sophisticated London audience, who delighted in the spectacle of sex and violence, so Jacobean plays became increasingly sexual and violent. Not only was there killing and wounding with swords and daggers, poisonings, stranglings, and torture, but also a great number of minor bloodcurdling acts of physical violence. In The Changeling by Middleton and Rowley , for example, De Flores, one of the most villainous psychopaths of the Jacobean stage, stabs a rival, Alonso, three times while his back is turned. He then spies a diamond ring on his victim’s finger. He tries but fails, to remove the ring so he just cuts off the finger and puts it in his pocket before disposing of the body.

Shakespeare wrote most of his plays during the reign of King James. He, of course, had been in tune with his audiences right from the beginning of his career, catering for their interest in history and humour and classical themes during Elizabeth’s reign. And now he was filling his theatres with plays as violent as those of the best of his fellow theatre writers. Cornwall, a character in King Lear , matches De Flores’ unthinkable act by pulling out Gloucester’s eyes, with the stage direction ‘he plucks out his eyes.’

With all that violence, all those blood-drenched stages, all those dead bodies, the shock value of such things would have been somewhat blunted – so what would shock a Jacobean audience? Nothing more than the brutal murder of a child on stage, which Shakespeare provides Macbeth .

There is nothing superficial about Shakespeare’s plays, though. Unlike some of his contemporaries, his violent plays were never about violence: when he used violence it was always in the pursuit of greater meaning and the violence was either a device for characterisation, a dramatic device to move the action forward, or something else quite profound. Indeed, he was titillating his audience, pulling them in to fill the seats but, as always with Shakespeare, he had the larger picture in mind.

If the brutal killing of Macduff’s young son is not there simply to satisfy the bloodthirsty taste of the audience then what was it about? We are used to that scene being there but try and imagine an audience seeing it for the first time. What a shock it must have been, given that most members of the audience had little children and the worst thing they would have been able to imagine would have been the murder of one of them. That scene has been familiar for four centuries but it still shocks when we see it on the stage.

The text of Macbeth is infused with blood: Shakespeare uses the word more than forty times. Putting it very simply, the play is about Macbeth’s ambition to be king (read some of the many Macbeth ambition quotes ) , and having trod a bloody path to realize that he now finds it to have been a hollow and empty enterprise. His attempt to cover up his route to the throne and simply to survive as king involves increasingly desperate acts of violence, and a lot more blood, as he sets about eliminating his opposition.

Macbeth, drenched in blood

Well, what about the murder of the child? This is where we see the master dramatist at work. Shakespeare’s plays are always manipulations of the audience’s emotions. At the beginning of Macbeth Shakespeare takes care to show them Macbeth as a great popular hero, loved by the king and respected and honored by the whole of Scotland. Shakespeare builds that in many ways. When Macbeth gets the idea of murdering Duncan and being elected king we follow him down that road as Shakespeare lets us into his mind with several soliloquies. We don’t see anything else. Macbeth is hesitant. He is still a good man, and we are basically on his side as there are no counter-arguments. We also see him as someone who wants to be king but shrinks from the act he has to commit to get there, but he is bullied and manipulated by Lady Macbeth and forced into it.

The point is that Shakespeare wants us to be there with Macbeth and so at this point, we are identifying with him and wanting him to win. When he kills Duncan it’s done offstage, and all we see is the blood on his hands and his sense of the horror of what he has done. It’s not particularly horrifying for the audience as we don’t see the killing: if Shakespeare had presented the assassination onstage we would have responded differently. But now Macbeth, crowned king, begins to be paranoid. Shakespeare moves us away from the inner life of Macbeth and we have scenes where other characters talk about his violent suppression of anyone he regards as a threat. We see the murder of his best friend, Banquo, and we hear of other atrocities. We are beginning to not like Macbeth so much but perhaps we can still sympathize with his position. But then we have a scene with an intelligent and endearing child, the son of Macduff, chatting with his mother, wondering what’s happened to his father, who has fled to England. Macbeth’s hired killers enter and begin their slaughter of Macduff’s family, on the orders of Macbeth, starting with the killing of the child. Directors of productions of the play are able to make that as brutal and bloody as they like.

This scene occurs right in the middle of the play – the apex of a structure that leads up to it, with the audience on Macbeth’s side, and follows it with our horror at what a villain he is, allowing us to rejoice in his defeat – another violent act in which he is beheaded, and his head displayed onstage. Shakespeare has manipulated our response and turned us completely. The scene depicting the brutal killing of a child takes us away from our support for Macbeth, leading us to an appalled sense of horror at his actions.

The scene is central in every way. The scenes immediately adjacent to it reflect each other, and it goes back to the beginning and forwards to the end of the play in that way, the scenes before that scene and after it reflecting each other at every step, all pointing to that supreme act of violence.

Shakespeare has adopted a structure that was used by the great writers of the past – Homer and all the books of the Old and New Testaments – in which the writers place their main point at the centre of the book and lead up to and away from it, everything pointing to that main, central point. And so, to Shakespeare, the murder of a child is the main point in Macbeth. This idea has not been generally explored by Shakespearean scholars but it suggests that Shakespeare may have seen ambition’s toll as far worse than simply the downfall of a single protagonist. But whether a member of an audience understood that or not was not as important in the early 17th century as the enjoyment of a paying audience derived from witnessing such shocking violence.

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but that isnt the main focus of the play…

Heroic Violence

Macbeth is shown to be a hero at the start because of his violent nature. He kills a traitor. Ironically, Macbeth ends up becoming the traitor that is murdered at the end of the play.

The violent imagery describing Macbeth at the start of the play is honourable: his violence on the battlefield is for the king.
He is praised and rewarded for killing a treacherous thane, Macdonald (sometimes spelt Macdonwald): ‘Till he unseam’d him from the nave to th’ chops / And fixed his head upon our battlements’ (1,2).
Macbeth shows his courage and strength by cutting his enemy open from his navel (belly button) to his face.
The violent verb ‘unseam’d’ emphasises how Macbeth opens him up.
It all seems very fluid (free) in motion. This implies Macbeth is very strong and is unphased by horrifically killing another man.

Macdonald's head - message about treason

Macbeth removes his enemy’s head and displays it from the battlements. This might seem grisly, but it has a clear purpose.
When Shakespeare was writing, anyone sentenced to death for treason, such as Guy Fawkes after the failed Gunpowder Plot, would be hung, drawn and quartered (a horrible punishment of partial hanging, disembowelling and cutting of body into quarters) and their heads would be shown on pikes on Traitor’s Gate. This was the gateway prisoners would pass through as they entered the Tower of London.
This was done to make sure people thought twice before acting against their king and country.

Macbeth's head

At the end of the play, Macduff removes Macbeth’s head.
Macduff seems to be displaying it as he asks them to look at it: ‘Behold where stands / the usurper’s cursed head’ (5,9).
This moment makes Macbeth’s heroism at the start somewhat ironic – he was a hero for killing a man who seems to have been a traitor to the king. However, almost immediately after that, he himself becomes a traitor, soon murdering the king and taking over Scotland.
This relates back to the witches’ statement: 'Fair is foul, and foul is fair' (1,1) – things and people are not always what they seem.

Heroic code

The warriors fighting believed in the heroic code (defines how a noble person should act): it was honourable to die in battle.
This is why Siward says that his son ‘parted well’ (5,9). The battles were bloody and violent, but participating and fighting, even dying, bravely was very honourable. It deserved praise.
This is why Macbeth’s murder of King Duncan seems particularly evil – he killed him while he slept, without warning.
He did not give Duncan a chance to meet him equally in battle.

Lady Macbeth - Violent Imagery

Lady Macbeth uses very violent imagery to persuade her husband to murder King Duncan. She tells him she would have bashed in the brain of her own baby if she had promised to do it: ‘I would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have plucked the nipple from his boneless gums, / And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn / As you have done to this’ (1,7).

Shocking (from a woman)

This would have been very shocking to a Jacobean (during the reign of James I of England) audience.
Lady Macbeth is a woman whose main purpose, according to the values of the time, would be to give birth to and nurture children. The language she uses is very vivid and violent.

'Plucked'

The verb ‘plucked’ is simple, but devastating; it’s as if she casually removed the baby from the breast and broke the connection between them.
In this sense, Lady Macbeth goes against nature by refusing to nurture her own child and, instead, describes the violent image of her murdering it.

'Boneless'

The adjective ‘boneless’ reflects how young the child is.
He doesn’t have teeth in his gums yet. This reminds the audience of how vulnerable the baby is and how Lady Macbeth does not seem to care – again, her careless attitude goes against nature, especially for women at the time the play was set.

'Dashed'

Finally, the verb ‘dashed’ is a very aggressive one. It shows how she would have bashed in her baby’s head if she had promised to do it.

She uses violence to try and show Macbeth how strong her commitment is to anything she promises to do.
She is trying to show him he is a coward for going back on the plan.
She uses an image of violence against the thing she cares most about – her baby. She does this to show him that she’d do anything to keep her word to him and to make him change his mind.
In Lady Macbeth’s mind, this violent description shows her husband the extent she’d go to for him and, therefore, how much she loves him.

Murder and Violence

Violence leads to more violence in Macbeth . Macbeth murders the king and murders to protect his crown thereafter. He even orders for a child to be murdered.

Killing Duncan

The violence of killing King Duncan is clear from the blood on Macbeth’s hands.
King Duncan was sleeping. Macbeth was especially cowardly in the murder and he prevented him from a warrior’s death.
Macbeth refers to his hands as ‘a sorry sight’ (2,2). This suggests that he has done something incredibly weak in murdering a sleeping man, and one who he was honour-bound (morally obliged) to serve and protect.

Other murders

After King Duncan’s murder, Macbeth steps away from murdering others with his own hands. He prefers to send murderers to do this for him.
This may suggest he is still ashamed of using violence against those who don’t deserve it.
Alternatively, this could show that he cares so little about human life that he carelessly gives the job of murdering to other people – his victims do not deserve his attention.

Violence bringing violence

Macbeth says after seeing Banquo’s ghost, ‘It will have blood they say: blood will have blood’ (3,4).
This is a metaphor saying that once a violent act is committed, more violence will follow. This usually happens when a family tries to avenge (get revenge for) the first murder.

One murder after another

After murdering King Duncan, Macbeth continues to kill others in an attempt to stop anyone else from taking his throne.
He hires men to murder Banquo and his son.
He hires men to murder Lady Macduff and her son.
The guilt of murdering Duncan drives Lady Macbeth to suicide.
The murder of Duncan, Lady Macduff, and her son causes Macduff to kill Macbeth.

Protecting the crown

Macbeth will also stop at nothing to protect his crown. He punishes those disloyal to him, including women and children.
He sends murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance, who escapes.
After Macduff leaves for England, Macbeth sends more murderers to kill his wife and children in their home.

Murdering children

The murder of Macduff’s son is seen on stage: ‘he has killed me, mother’ (4,2).
The murder of children is very violent and upsetting. Children are symbolic of innocence. They cannot protect themselves.
Calling out to his ‘mother’ is very emotive (brings out feelings), because it reminds those watching of how young he is. This violence reflects how evil Macbeth has become.

1 Literary & Cultural Context

1.1 Context

1.1.1 Tragedy

1.1.2 The Supernatural & Gender

1.1.3 Politics & Monarchy

1.1.4 End of Topic Test - Context

2 Plot Summary

2.1.1 Scenes 1 & 2

2.1.2 Scene 3

2.1.3 Scenes 4-5

2.1.4 Scenes 6-7

2.1.5 End of Topic Test - Act 1

2.2 Acts 2-4

2.2.1 Act 2

2.2.2 Act 3

2.2.3 Act 4

2.3.1 Scenes 1-3

2.3.2 Scenes 4-9

2.3.3 End of Topic Test - Acts 2-5

3 Characters

3.1 Macbeth

3.1.1 Hero vs Villain

3.1.2 Ambition & Fate

3.1.3 Relationship

3.1.4 Unstable

3.1.5 End of Topic Test - Macbeth

3.2 Lady Macbeth

3.2.1 Masculine & Ruthless

3.2.2 Manipulative & Disturbed

3.3 Other Characters

3.3.1 Banquo

3.3.2 The Witches

3.3.3 Exam-Style Questions - The Witches

3.3.4 King Duncan

3.3.5 Macduff

3.3.6 End of Topic Test - Lady Macbeth & Banquo

3.3.7 End of Topic Test - Witches, Duncan & Macduff

3.4 Grade 9 - Key Characters

3.4.1 Grade 9 - Lady Macbeth Questions

4.1.1 Power & Ambition

4.1.2 Power & Ambition HyperLearning

4.1.3 Violence

4.1.4 The Supernatural

4.1.5 Masculinity

4.1.6 Armour, Kingship & The Natural Order

4.1.7 Appearances & Deception

4.1.8 Madness & Blood

4.1.9 Women, Children & Sleep

4.1.10 End of Topic Test - Themes

4.1.11 End of Topic Test - Themes 2

4.2 Grade 9 - Themes

4.2.1 Grade 9 - Themes

4.2.2 Extract Analysis

5 Writer's Techniques

5.1 Structure, Meter & Other Literary Techniques

5.1.1 Structure, Meter & Dramatic Irony

5.1.2 Pathetic Fallacy & Symbolism

5.1.3 End of Topic Test - Writer's Techniques

Jump to other topics

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Power & Ambition HyperLearning

The Supernatural

Macbeth by William Shakespeare: a timeless exploration of violence and treachery

Senior Lecturer (English and Drama) ANU, Australian National University

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In our Guide to the Classics series, experts explain key works of literature.

Macbeth issues a warning: the greatest risk to the inner life comes from the delusion that it does not exist.

“A little water clears us of this deed,” says Lady Macbeth, thinking that getting the look right will make it right. But in doing so she commits treachery upon her inner life.

In a world where existence seems increasingly to equate to self-projection, she is an example of the mistake we make when we see the visible surface of public and social media as the place where reality plays out, the place where we see what we are.

Macbeth, like most of Shakespeare’s plays, sets two worlds spinning: one of outer action and one of inner being. The collision of their orbits provides the spark for the drama. The themes of Macbeth’s outer world of action are violence and treachery. The intersecting themes of its inner world are ambition, and moral reasoning.

In exploring what holds a society together and what tears it apart, the play doesn’t just condemn violence, it dramatises its uses. The play showcases both loyal violence and treacherous violence.

In Act One, Scene One, a soldier reports that Macbeth, a Scottish general, has shown prowess on the battlefield and “unseamed” his rebel opponent, Macdonald, “from the nave to th’ chops.” That means he cut him in half.

Macbeth does this in loyal service to King Duncan, and usually enters the stage splattered with blood, that of his victims and his own – blood lost in service to his king. The military campaign is to suppress domestic rebellion. Among the rebels is the “disloyal traitor” the Thane of Cawdor, whose title Duncan transfers to Macbeth, commanding that the treacherous clan chief be executed.

Macbeth’s first promotion, then, is gained through the sanctioned violence of killing traitors. There is a fragile moment at the beginning of the play, when this violence seems to have restored order.

Read more: 'Supp'd full with horrors': 400 years of Shakespearean supernaturalism

Macbeth’s second promotion is also achieved through violence, but this time by premeditated treachery. The witches on the heath greet him as Thane of Glamis, which he is, Thane of Cawdor, which we know from Duncan’s command that he will be, and “king hereafter”.

This sets the spark to the powder keg of Macbeth’s ambition. Violence is in his repertoire and he needs only to take one violent step further to fulfil their prophecy.

The thought of killing the king, a thought “whose murder yet is but fantastical”, occurs to him immediately. And when he arrives back at his castle, his wife Lady Macbeth urges him to “catch the nearest way” to fulfilment of the prophecy by stabbing King Duncan to death as he sleeps in their home.

Here one of the inner-world themes intrudes – who is morally responsible for what Macbeth does? Do the witches wield power over him? Does Lady Macbeth, as the architect of regicide, carry equal blame with Macbeth?

Read more: Guide to the classics: Shakespeare's Hamlet, the Everest of literature

Outer and inner dimensions

The unfolding of their murderous plot is dramatised by Shakespeare as having outer and inner dimensions. The physical world is portrayed as instantly ruptured by their act of violence. Even before Duncan’s murder is discovered, Lennox speaks of the unruly night that has passed: chimneys were blown down, strange lamentings and screams of death were heard in the air, and the earth shook and was feverish.

There is dramatic irony in Macbeth’s response to this poetic description of cosmic disorder: “It was a rough night.”

Society is also fractured. Duncan’s sons flee Scotland. A mood of paranoid crisis sets in as Macbeth is crowned.

But the treachery resonates inwardly, too, and Shakespeare keeps the inner dimension perpetually before the audience. That image from Act One of a man split down the middle is a potent symbol for the destruction the Macbeths have wrought upon themselves.

The order of Macbeth’s mind begins to break down the moment he murders his king. He roams out of the king’s chamber with the bloody daggers still in his hands saying he has heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.”

Lady Macbeth seems to preserve her practical mindset for a time. She says “a little water clears us of this deed”. But this is another moment of dramatic irony. Her moral delusion is patent.

It seems that Macbeth, with his auditory and ocular hallucinations, has the clearer moral vision. Inevitably, her sleeping mind goes to war with her waking consciousness: “Out damn spot!” She cannot unsee the blood on her hands.

The Macbeths have failed to anticipate that their inner lives – their minds and their functional connection with the world – will be broken by their outer action. Remarkably, these mental, physical, spiritual breakdowns are rendered from the sufferers’ point of view.

Before he kills the king, Macbeth gives a speech about ambition that shows he has the moral insight to avoid the crime. He says he has “no spur to prick the sides of [his] intent”, using the metaphor of riding a horse to express that there is nothing about Duncan to urge him forward into the act of murder.

Macbeth realises he has “only vaulting ambition”, which leaps over itself and falls on the other side. He anticipates the catastrophe, but he kills the king anyway.

Read more: Guide to the classics: Shakespeare’s sonnets — an honest account of love and a surprising portal to the man himself

The twists and turns of moral reasoning

Why does Shakespeare include such contradictions?

Shakespeare understood that it is spellbinding to witness a character forming an inner resolution, or breaking one. In Macbeth, the stakes are high: an innocent life and a kingdom’s peace hang in the balance. The tension is relentless. Lady Macbeth enters, cutting off Macbeth’s reflection on ambition. He has just reasoned himself out of committing the murder, and she reasons him back into it.

The play dramatises the twists and turns of moral reasoning and the pressure of emotional coercion on conscience. Macbeth is wise and compassionate one instant, and preparing to kill his friend the next. This challenges our tendency to see the world in black and white, populated by good people and bad people.

All of the themes of Macbeth – violence, treachery, moral reasoning, conscience and ambition – were close the surface of public consciousness in Shakespeare’s day.

Since Henry VIII left the Catholic Church, establishing himself as the head of the Church of England in 1534, the nation’s political landscape had been riven by religious opposition. This affected people’s everyday lives and challenged their deepest inner convictions. In 1557, you could be burned as a heretic for being Protestant; in 1567, you could be burned as a heretic for being Catholic.

Being able to see the soul in motion, as Shakespeare allows his audience to do, was a fantasy that interrogators of both Catholic and Protestant persuasions would have cherished.

By the time Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, he was a member of The King’s Men – a playing company patronised directly by a new king – James the First of England and the Sixth (you guessed it) of Scotland. What can we make of the fact of Shakespeare writing a Scottish play for a Scottish king, who is also the boss of his particular business enterprise? He had to be very careful.

Shakespeare steered a clever course. His play seems mildly topical and politically correct on the surface, but underneath it complicated the moral questions of its moment.

The first thing to be aware of is that James had a preoccupation with the occult. In 1597, James had published a book called Demonology , seeking to prove and condemn witchcraft. He had it published again in 1603 when he became King of England.

Shakespeare seems to pander to this obsession when he includes witches in his play, who discuss spells and make prophetic predictions.

Notice, though, that Shakespeare leaves unanswered the question of their moral culpability. We are left wondering whether it pleased or disturbed King James that the supernatural element in the play explains very little about the actions of its characters. Shakespeare portrays the Macbeths’ ambition for power as perfectly adequate motivation for their criminal action.

The second thing to be aware of is the Gunpower Plot . When Macbeth was first staged in 1606, England was reeling from the discovery of a nearly successful conspiracy to blow up parliament. If successful, the attempt would have killed the king and a large number of the nation’s ruling class, and triggered catastrophic civic disorder.

Read more: The Gunpowder Plot: torture and persecution in fact and fiction

Gunpowder, treason and plot

On 4 November 1605, Guy Fawkes was arrested. A letter tipping off a member of parliament had led to the discovery of a stash of barrels of gunpowder in a cellar under parliament. Under torture, Fawkes revealed the names of his Catholic conspirators.

The discovery of the plot was promoted as a defining moment of victory for the Protestant nation against its Catholic traitors within, and led to intensified persecution of Catholics across Europe.

The adage, don’t waste a crisis, seems to have been heeded by James. Even in its own moment, the event became a black and white moral fable, in which treachery was weeded out and punished with violence. The traitors were tortured and publicly executed. Their bodies were literally quartered.

How did Shakespeare’s play, first performed in 1606, engage with the Gunpowder Plot and the grisly punishment of its perpetrators?

On the surface, Shakespeare cashed in on the way the Gunpowder Plot had shocked the people of London. Fireworks, or “squibs”, were used at the opening of the play as special effects for the “thunder and lightning” called for in the script. It is easy to imagine the first audience jumping with terror and then telling friends to attend the next spectacular performance.

By inventing the witches, Shakespeare also sets up ambiguous, almost imaginary figures of evil who “melt into air”. Were these anything like the monsters that the trial of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators had created in the public imagination? Many understood the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot to be an act of supernatural preservation of their God-ordained ruler. A silver commemorative medal from 1605 bears the Latin inscription: “You [God], the keeper of James, have not slept.”

Tracing a parallel with this sensibility, Shakespeare borrows Banquo – a real 11th century person believed to be an ancestor of King James – from the historical Chronicles of Raphael Holinshed . His characterisation, deviating from that of Holinshed, puts King James, through association, on the side of right in the play.

Shakespeare’s story of Banquo, who is murdered on Macbeth’s orders but returns as a ghost, seems to shore up by supernatural intervention James’ right to the throne. That is, until we consider that the witches who prophesy that Banquo will be the father of kings are the same ones who predict Macbeth’s ascent to the crown.

Shakespeare’s play is unsettling. It provides a thought experiment. It teases out the moral ambiguities of a society whose members see others in black and white, while permitting shades of grey in themselves.

It is a society in which treachery is punished with sanctioned violence, but in which ambition paves the way to real power via both violence and treachery. It is the kingdom of Scotland riven by contending clans. It is England of 1606 reeling from the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. It is our world of perpetual crisis.

Crisis appeals to the human imagination because it offers to suspend the rules by which we normally operate. Crisis can, as Macbeth shows, make moral compromises appeal as “the nearest way” to increased power. It can make brutal measures seem necessary to retain it.

Macbeth issues a warning for our times about the harm done to individuals and societies when they allow the will for power to drown out the inner voice of conscience.

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Discuss the theme of the corrupting influence of power in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Theme the corrupting influence of power in Macbeth

Table of Contents

William Shakespeare’s tragic play “ Macbeth ” explores the theme of the corrupting influence of power. The play delves into the consequences of unchecked ambition and the transformation of Macbeth, the protagonist, from a noble and loyal subject to a ruthless tyrant.

Theme the corrupting influence of power in Macbeth:- As Macbeth gains power and authority, he succumbs to its corrupting force, leading to his downfall and the destruction of those around him. This essay will analyze the various aspects of power portrayed in the play and examine how Shakespeare illustrates the gradual corruption of Macbeth’s character through his thirst for power.

The Temptation of Ambition

From the beginning of the play, Macbeth’s ambition is aroused when he hears the prophecies of the three witches, predicting that he will become the Thane of Cawdor and eventually the king. This prophecy ignites his desire for power, and the seed of corruption is planted. Macbeth’s initial hesitation to commit regicide demonstrates his moral conscience, but his wife, Lady Macbeth, manipulates him, questioning his masculinity and urging him to seize the opportunity.

Macbeth “Summary”

Macbeth is a tragic play written by William Shakespeare around 1606. Set in Scotland, it tells the story of Macbeth, a brave and loyal general, whose ambition is ignited by supernatural forces, leading him to commit heinous acts in his quest for power and ultimately resulting in his downfall.

Theme the corrupting influence of power in Macbeth:- The play begins with Macbeth and his friend Banquo encountering three witches, also known as the Weird Sisters, who prophesy that Macbeth will become the Thane of Cawdor and eventually the king. Encouraged by these prophecies, Macbeth becomes consumed by his desire for power and decides to take matters into his own hands.

With the support of his ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth plots and murders King Duncan, who is a guest in their castle. Macbeth is plagued by guilt and paranoia after committing the regicide, but he is also driven to eliminate anyone who poses a threat to his position. He orders the murder of Banquo, who suspects Macbeth’s involvement in Duncan’s death, as well as Banquo’s son, Fleance.

Theme the corrupting influence of power in Macbeth:- As Macbeth spirals deeper into madness, he seeks guidance from the witches again, who provide him with more prophecies that further fuel his delusions. He becomes increasingly ruthless, ordering the slaughter of Macduff’s family and engaging in a final battle against the forces that oppose him.

However, Macbeth’s tyrannical reign and his reliance on the witches’ prophecies ultimately lead to his downfall. Lady Macbeth, burdened by guilt and haunted by the consequences of their actions, descends into madness and dies. Macbeth learns of her death and is filled with despair, yet he resolves to fight to the bitter end.

Theme the corrupting influence of power in Macbeth:- In the final battle, Macbeth faces Macduff, who was born through a cesarean section and thus fulfills the witches’ prophecy that “none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.” However, Macduff reveals that he was “untimely ripped” from his mother’s womb, making him the exception. Macduff kills Macbeth, restoring order and rightful rule to Scotland.

Macbeth serves as a cautionary tale about the corrupting influence of ambition and the consequences of unchecked power. The play explores themes of guilt, fate, and the nature of evil, showcasing Shakespeare’s profound understanding of human psychology and the destructive potential of ambition.

William Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” vividly portrays the corrupting influence of power through the tragic transformation of its protagonist. Macbeth’s journey from a noble and virtuous individual to a ruthless and tyrannical ruler exemplifies the destructive nature of unchecked ambition.

Theme the corrupting influence of power in Macbeth:- As Macbeth gains power, his morality deteriorates, leading him to commit heinous acts and disregard the values he once held dear. The erosion of his relationships and the isolation he experiences further emphasize the corrupting influence of power.

Theme the corrupting influence of power in Macbeth:- Ultimately, Macbeth’s downfall serves as a cautionary tale, reminding audiences of the consequences of succumbing to the allure of power without considering the moral implications. Shakespeare’s exploration of the theme of the corrupting influence of power in “Macbeth” continues to resonate with audiences, prompting reflection on the fragile nature of human morality and the dangers of unbridled ambition.

Q: What is the main theme of “Macbeth”?

A: The main theme of “Macbeth” is the corrupting influence of power. The play explores how unchecked ambition and the pursuit of power can lead individuals to commit immoral and destructive acts, ultimately resulting in their downfall.

Q: What are some examples of Macbeth’s corruption throughout the play?

A: Macbeth’s corruption is evident in his transformation from a loyal and honorable subject to a ruthless tyrant. Some examples of his corruption include his initial hesitation to commit regicide but ultimately succumbing to his ambition, his willingness to murder King Duncan and others to secure his position, his increasing paranoia and fear that lead to the elimination of potential threats, and his gradual detachment from morality and reality as he becomes more consumed by power.

Q: How does power affect Macbeth’s relationships?

A: Power erodes Macbeth’s relationships throughout the play. His relationship with Lady Macbeth, initially based on mutual ambition, deteriorates as guilt and madness consume them both. Macbeth’s tyrannical rule isolates him from his subjects, who turn against him, and even his loyal allies distance themselves. The corrupting influence of power not only destroys Macbeth’s moral compass but also erodes the bonds he once held dear.

Q: What is the overall message or moral of “Macbeth”?

A: The overall message of “Macbeth” is a cautionary one about the corrupting nature of unchecked ambition and the pursuit of power. The play warns against the consequences of sacrificing one’s morality and disregarding the well-being of others in the relentless pursuit of personal gain. It serves as a reminder of the fragility of human morality and the destructive path that can result from succumbing to the allure of power without ethical restraint.

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Mr Salles Teaches English

Kingship in Macbeth

(a grade 8 essay, improved to grade 9).

Hi again Mr Salles - I hope you are well,

Here is an essay I have written on the theme of kingship, tyranny and natural order.

If you have a spare few minutes, please let me know what mark this would get and how I can improve it to get full marks :)

Shakespeare cleverly crafts the themes of kingship/tyranny/natural order through the devolution of Macbeth. By contrasting morality and corruption within Macbeth and Banquo, Shakespeare cautions against ambition and associates it with the supernatural - a very disturbing idea for the contemporary audience, contributing to Shakespeare’s overall purpose of trying to flatter King James I and warn the nobility against rebellion.

Shakespeare constructs Banquo as a foil to Macbeth by illustrating their contrasting reactions to the same evil force - the supernatural and temptation. Banquo represents the route that Macbeth chose not to take: the path where ambition does not lead to betrayal and murder. Thus, it is Banquo’s ghost, rather than Duncan’s, that haunts Macbeth and conveys to the contemporary audience that restraint will lead to a fruition of power as Banquo’s lineage stays on the throne for the longest.

The witches’ equivocation: “ Lesser than Macbeth, and greater ” paradoxically suggests the drastic difference between Banquo and Macbeth, foreshadowing character development as the witches' prophecies come true. Banquo will never be king, but he does father a line of kings. Macbeth, on the other hand, will become the King of Scotland which is commendable in terms of the Divine Order; Macbeth’s reign of power will be one of selfishness and greed as he fulfils his cruel desire for power, eliminating all obstacles that stand in the way of his kingship.

As a result, Macbeth holds the shorter end of the stick in this paradox, facing paranoia, insomnia, guilt, and a tragic demise, therefore proving its accuracy. Here, Shakespeare is flattering King James I, as he was descendant of Banquo and Fleance, in order to gain his trust and potentially patronage for his theatre. This also helps Shakespeare later in the play when he subtly warns James I not to be repressive and tyrannical in his rule.

Shakespeare ensures Banquo isn’t perfect as he is tempted on some level by the Witches’ prophecy, but his ability to reject evil is what makes him a moral character and an antithesis to Macbeth. He is less able to resist temptation when he sleeps “ I dream’d of the three weird sisters last night ”, but instead of trying to hide this, he confesses to God and asks for help in remaining moral and virtuous.

This references the Bible as Jesus was tempted three times by the devil and resisted: perhaps Shakespeare is attempting to draw parallels between Banquo and Jesus which would have been largely impactful to a Christian contemporary audience, further warning about the devastating consequences of temptation and tyranny by contrasting this with the holy and biblical ideas associated with resistance to temptation and ambition.

Shakespeare demonstrates how the acquisition of power invokes an irreversible change in character, subverting the audience’s expectations as he implies that a person’s poor qualities are amplified by the crown and personal desire - Macbeth becomes paranoid.

In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is conveyed as the epitome of a loyal and quintessential Scottish soldier when the captain recalls Macbeth’s noble actions as he “ carv’d the passage ” of the traitor Macdonwald. Specifically, the emotive verb “ carv’d ” carries strong connotations of combative expertise and nobility. Alternatively, it could allude to him carving his name famously in the beginning of the play and eventually notoriously at the end of the play, foreshadowing his drastic moral decline. The stark contrast between Macbeth murdering an enemy of the king (which would be seen as an enemy to God due to the Divine Right of Kings believed by the contemporary audience) and when he commits regicide - the ultimate sin.

Shakespeare explores the consequences of usurpation - for the nation it is a nightmare; an illegitimate king can only become a tyrant, using ever greater acts of violence to maintain his rule. However, Shakespeare is careful to emphasise how the tyrant himself suffers at his own hands - violence traumatises the violent person as well as the victims. Macbeth ‘ fixed [Macdonwald’s] head upon our battlements ’. The head is symbolic as a motif of Macbeth’s declining heroism. First he is at his moral peak as he beheads the King’s enemy, effectively God’s enemy in the eyes of the contemporary audience, then after having his moral endurance tested in the form of ‘ supernatural soliciting ’ he goes out to commit regicide, losing all virtue. Finally, Shakespeare uses this motif to highlight the negative consequences to his audience as the ‘head’ foreshadows Macbeth’s later disgrace as his own head becomes described as ‘ the usurper’s cursed head’ that is reminiscent of his previous morality before he was corrupted by ambition and the witches’ prophecies.

Supernatural

Shakespeare forces his audience to question whether the unlawful act of treason has a supernatural urge, whether there are malign witches and demonic forces working against the moral bonds of mankind. Macbeth’s growing inclination towards ‘supernatural soliciting’ leaves him in a perplexed self-questioning state " why hath it given me earnestness of success/commencing in a truth ?” Linguistically, the sibilance of ‘ supernatural soliciting’ is deliberately used by Shakespeare to raise his audience’s alarm, given the satanic connotations and reference to devastating sorcery in the form of ‘soliciting’.

Likewise, Macbeth’s rhetorical question is used by Shakespeare to create a self-doubting, unstable and malevolent fallacy created by the engagement with the ‘agents of the dark’.

This repeated motif of the supernatural was especially significant to a contemporary Christian audience as witches were believed to be women who made a pact with the Devil, but it also would have especially attracted the interests of King James I - Macbeth was first performed to him and his courtiers. James I hated witchcraft and wrote Daemonologie - a book about the supernatural. Here, Shakespeare is flattering the king by incorporating his interests into his play and is also warning the nobility who were unhappy with James as king at the time by suggesting their desire to overthrow James I was manipulated into existence by the supernatural and witches.

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This is a very ambitious title – normally you would have just kingship or tyranny set as the question. And then you are going to make it even more ambitious by introducing the supernatural!

This has led to a very convoluted thesis – having at least 3 ideas is excellent, but it has to make sense. You could simplify this:

Shakespeare contrasts the characters of Macbeth and Banquo to caution against ambition. Unchecked ambition is associated with the supernatural, which allows Shakespeare characterise ambition as inherently evil. Macbeth becomes a tyrannical king because he welcomes “supernatural soliciting.” The focus on the supernatural also contributes to Shakespeare’s overall purpose of trying to flatter King James I and warn the nobility against rebellion.

Notice how I have structured this differently in order to make one point at a time.

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“Macbeth” by Shakespeare: Lady Macbeth Thesis Statement

In Shakespeare’s play, Lady Macbeth is revealed as an ambitious woman, overwhelmed with her desire to become a queen. She proves her strong verbal influence on her husband, who does not dare to challenge fate. Shakespeare created a vivid female character, combining a craving for villainy and the inability to survive the crime. Lady Macbeth is walking in her sleep, and her attempts to wash off the blood from her hands, as well as talking aloud are indicative of a clouding of her mind. The queen’s subsequent suicide refer to a human’s strong innate rejection of the crime she committed. Strong, courageous, capable of any act for the sake of power, Lady Macbeth by the end of the tragedy becomes a weak and sickly woman, while her husband, on the contrary, is embittered and angry. Writing a thesis statement on that character proves to be a complex task, as the statement needs to provide a comprehensive insight on Lady Macbeth, her deeds and their consequences.

When conducting a research on Lady Macbeth’s character, it is important to consider the social and historical context of the time period the play refers to. Moreover, one also has to acknowledge the basis on which Shakespeare build Macbeth ’s plot: Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland . It would be wise to do additional research on the image of the XVI century woman, and compare the character traits of Lady Macbeth’s to those reflected in the general views accepted in society. For example, Reyes and Kenny (2020) argue that “Lady Macbeth is one of these violent women whose violence defies gender roles, but this violence also simultaneously upholds traditional patriarchal modes of power” (p. 1). Thus, for a comprehensive thesis statement, it is crucial to choose a particular aspect of Lady Macbeth’s character, and make the research revolve around it, reviewing her image in different contexts.

Reyes, C., & Kenny, A. (2020). Shakespeare’s violent women: A feminist analysis of Lady Macbeth. UC Riverside Undergraduate Research Journal Submit , 14 (1). Web.

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2: Violence in Macbeth – ‘Steeped in blood …’

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This chapter analyses how William Shakespeare's Macbeth offered Roman Polanski scope for a realisation of the evil inherent in the human conditioning its setting of eleventh-century Scotland and the story of feuding, warlike tribes. It explores Polanski's idea of the underlying desire for power in the human condition that leads to evil in the film Macbeth by making extensive use of blood and gore. It also explains the sight of blood and gory effects that provide an unhealthy stimulus for the gratification of the coarser natures of the audience. The chapter mentions Mario Bava's Black Sunday (1960) and George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), which were introduced as a new type of horror that made full use of grisly effects. It reviews critical responses to the presence of violence in horror films that are dismissed as unaesthetic.

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GCSE Macbeth thesis and model paragraph - Macbeth's ambition

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

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A model thesis and first paragraph for the question: How does Shakespeare present Macbeth’s ambition? Topic sentence for second and third paragraphs and room for writing a We Do model, followed by students’ independent paragraph. I Do We Do You Do structure applied to essay. Great for introducing essay writing or feedback after assessment.

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