Macbeth Revision Notes
Subject: English Literature | Level: GCSE | Exam Board: OCR
Unlock top marks in your OCR GCSE English Literature exam with this guide to Shakespeare's Macbeth. This guide deconstructs the play's core themes of ambition, guilt, and fate, providing examiner-level insights and multi-modal resources to elevate your analysis from mid-level to outstanding."
Revision Notes & Key Concepts
## Overview
Shakespeare's *Macbeth* is a dark, psychological thriller and one of the most powerful tragedies ever written. It charts the rapid, bloody rise and fall of a Scottish general whose ambition, spurred on by a supernatural prophecy, leads him to murder his king and seize the throne. For the OCR J352/02 exam, candidates must demonstrate a dual skillset: forensic analysis of Shakespeare's language and structure in a specific extract (Part a), and a broader, conceptualised argument about a theme or character across the entire play, integrating contextual understanding (Part b). Examiners are looking for a critical, argumentative style, not just a summary of the plot. Credit is given for precise textual references and a sophisticated understanding of how Shakespeare’s methods shape meaning and affect the audience. This guide will equip you with the tools to analyse the text with precision and construct the high-level arguments required for the top grades.
## Plot/Content Overview
* **Act 1**: On a desolate heath, three witches prophesy that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland. When the first part of the prophecy comes true, Macbeth, encouraged by his ruthlessly ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth, begins to contemplate murdering King Duncan. He struggles with his conscience but is ultimately persuaded by Lady Macbeth's manipulation.
* **Act 2**: Macbeth sees a vision of a bloody dagger and, after a moment of hesitation, murders Duncan in his sleep. He is immediately consumed by guilt. Duncan's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, flee, fearing for their lives, which allows Macbeth to frame them for the murder and claim the throne.
* **Act 3**: Now king, Macbeth is paranoid and insecure. He remembers the witches prophesied that Banquo's descendants would be kings, so he hires murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. Banquo is killed, but Fleance escapes. At a state banquet, Macbeth is tormented by the ghost of Banquo, invisible to everyone else. His erratic behaviour alarms the court.
* **Act 4**: Macbeth seeks out the witches again. They show him a series of apparitions that give him a false sense of security: he is told to beware Macduff, but also that "none of woman born shall harm Macbeth" and that he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill. Meanwhile, Macduff has fled to England to join forces with Malcolm. In a fit of rage, Macbeth orders the slaughter of Macduff's wife and children.
* **Act 5**: Lady Macbeth, driven mad by guilt, is seen sleepwalking and trying to wash imaginary bloodstains from her hands. She dies, likely by suicide. Malcolm and Macduff's army, using branches from Birnam Wood as camouflage, advances on Macbeth's castle at Dunsinane. Macbeth, clinging to the witches' prophecies, goes into battle. He learns that Macduff was "from his mother's womb untimely ripped" (born by Caesarean section) and is therefore not 'of woman born'. Macduff kills Macbeth, and Malcolm is hailed as the rightful King of Scotland.
## Themes
### Theme 1: Ambition
Ambition is the central driving force of the play. It is Macbeth's "vaulting ambition" that leads him down a path of destruction. Shakespeare presents ambition as a dangerous and corrupting quality when it is not tempered by morality. Initially, Macbeth is a celebrated hero, but his desire for power, ignited by the witches' prophecy, consumes him.
**Key Quotes**:
- "I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself / And falls on th' other" (Act 1, Scene 7) - Macbeth himself recognises that his ambition is a wild horse that is likely to lead to his own downfall. This metaphor is a crucial piece of analysis for AO2.
- "To be thus is nothing, / But to be safely thus" (Act 3, Scene 1) - This shows that even after becoming king, Macbeth's ambition is not satisfied. It has morphed into a paranoid desire to secure his power at any cost, highlighting its insatiable and destructive nature.
### Theme 2: Guilt and Conscience
Shakespeare explores the psychological consequences of evil actions. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are tormented by guilt, which manifests in different ways. Macbeth is plagued by visions and paranoia, while Lady Macbeth descends into madness. The play suggests that it is impossible to escape the consequences of one's actions, and that the internal punishment of guilt can be more terrible than any external one.
**Key Quotes**:
- "Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red." (Act 2, Scene 2) - Macbeth's hyperbolic language reveals the depth of his guilt immediately after murdering Duncan. The imagery of blood is a powerful motif for guilt throughout the play.
- "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" (Act 5, Scene 1) - Lady Macbeth's desperate, fragmented speech in her sleepwalking scene shows the complete breakdown of her once-steely resolve. The blood she once thought could be washed away has permanently stained her conscience.
### Theme 3: Kingship vs. Tyranny
The play contrasts the qualities of a good king with the actions of a tyrant. Duncan is presented as a virtuous, divinely appointed ruler who brings order and stability to Scotland. Macbeth, in contrast, is a usurper who rules through fear and violence, plunging the country into chaos. This theme would have resonated strongly with a Jacobean audience, who believed in the Divine Right of Kings.
**Key Quotes**:
- "[Duncan's] virtues / Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against / The deep damnation of his taking-off" (Act 1, Scene 7) - Macbeth acknowledges Duncan's goodness, which makes his crime seem even more heinous. The angelic imagery contrasts sharply with the hellish descriptions of Macbeth's reign.
- "Not in the legions / Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned / In evils to top Macbeth." (Act 4, Scene 3) - Macduff's description of Macbeth shows how he is viewed by his subjects. He is not just a bad king; he is seen as a demonic figure, the antithesis of a true, God-given monarch.
## Character Analysis
### Macbeth
**Role**: The tragic hero and protagonist of the play.
**Key Traits**: Brave, ambitious, imaginative, but also weak-willed, impressionable, and ultimately tyrannical.
**Character Arc**: Macbeth begins as a loyal and courageous nobleman. However, his encounter with the witches and the manipulation of his wife ignite his dormant ambition. He murders his way to the throne, but his reign is marked by paranoia, guilt, and further bloodshed. By the end of the play, he is a nihilistic, battle-hardened tyrant who has lost everything, including his own humanity.
**Essential Quotes**:
- "Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires" (Act 1, Scene 4)
- "I am in blood / Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er" (Act 3, Scene 4)
- "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more." (Act 5, Scene 5)
### Lady Macbeth
**Role**: Macbeth's wife and a key instigator of the plot.
**Key Traits**: Ambitious, ruthless, manipulative, and initially more determined than her husband.
**Character Arc**: Lady Macbeth is a complex and fascinating character. She calls upon evil spirits to "unsex" her, wishing to cast off her feminine qualities to be capable of murder. She is the driving force behind the plot to kill Duncan. However, she underestimates the psychological toll of their actions. While Macbeth grows hardened to violence, Lady Macbeth is consumed by guilt, eventually leading to her madness and death.
**Essential Quotes**:
- "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!" (Act 1, Scene 5)
- "Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't." (Act 1, Scene 5)
- "A little water clears us of this deed." (Act 2, Scene 2) - This line provides a stark, ironic contrast to her later obsession with washing the blood from her hands.
## Writer's Methods
* **Soliloquy**: Shakespeare uses soliloquies to provide the audience with direct access to the inner thoughts and turmoil of his characters, particularly Macbeth. The famous "Is this a dagger which I see before me?" soliloquy is a prime example, revealing Macbeth's psychological state on the brink of regicide.
* **Imagery**: The play is rich with powerful and recurring patterns of imagery. The most significant are blood (symbolising guilt), darkness and night (symbolising evil), and sleep (or the lack of it, symbolising a guilty conscience).
* **Dramatic Irony**: The audience often knows more than the characters on stage, creating tension and suspense. For example, we know Macbeth is plotting to kill Duncan while Duncan is praising Macbeth's loyalty.
* **Verse and Prose**: Shakespeare varies the language used by his characters. The nobles generally speak in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), which gives their speech a sense of gravity and importance. The witches speak in rhyming trochaic tetrameter, which sounds unnatural and chant-like. Prose is used for moments of madness, such as Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene.
## Context
* **The Divine Right of Kings**: The belief that the monarch was chosen by God and that to challenge the king was to challenge God. Shakespeare wrote *Macbeth* shortly after James I (James VI of Scotland) ascended to the English throne. The play can be seen as a warning against regicide and a validation of James's rightful claim.
* **The Gunpowder Plot (1605)**: A failed attempt by a group of English Catholics to assassinate King James I. The plot heightened anxieties about treason and political instability, themes that are central to *Macbeth*. The Porter's speech in Act 2 contains a direct reference to "equivocation", a concept associated with the trial of one of the plotters.
* **Witchcraft**: In the Jacobean era, there was a widespread and genuine belief in witches and the supernatural. King James I himself was fascinated by the subject and had written a book called *Daemonologie*. The inclusion of the witches would have been genuinely terrifying for a contemporary audience.
* **Gender Roles**: Lady Macbeth subverts traditional Jacobean expectations of femininity. Her ambition, ruthlessness, and dominance in her relationship with Macbeth would have been seen as unnatural and shocking.
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Worked Examples
Worked Example
Question: Starting with this extract from Act 1 Scene 5, explore how Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a powerful and influential character.
**LADY MACBETH**
[Reads]
*‘They met me in the day of success: and I have
learned by the perfectest report, they have more in
them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire
to question them further, they made themselves air,
into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in
the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who
all-hailed me ‘Thane of Cawdor’; by which title,
before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred
me to the coming on of time, with ‘Hail, king that
shalt be!’ This have I thought good to deliver
thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou
mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being
ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it
to thy heart, and farewell.’*
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'ldst have, great Glamis,
That which cries, ‘Thus thou must do, if thou have it’;
And that which rather thou dost fear to do
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear
And chastise with the valor of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crowned withal.
Solution: **Introduction**:
Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a figure of immense power and influence from her very first appearance in Act 1, Scene 5. In this extract, through her reaction to Macbeth's letter and her subsequent soliloquy, she is established as the driving force behind the regicidal plot, subverting Jacobean expectations of femininity through her ambition and psychological dominance. This initial portrayal is developed throughout the first half of the play, though Shakespeare later reveals the tragic, psychological cost of her unnatural cruelty.
**Extract Analysis**:
In the extract, Lady Macbeth's power is immediately evident in her decisive response to the witches' prophecy. Unlike her husband, who is "rapt in the wonder of it", she is instantly pragmatic. Her declaration, "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be / What thou art promised," is not a hope, but a statement of intent. The modal verb "shalt" conveys absolute certainty, positioning her as a character who does not wait for fate but actively shapes it. Furthermore, Shakespeare gives her the insight to dissect her husband's character flaws. She fears his nature is "too full o' th' milk of human kindness". The metaphor of "milk" associates Macbeth with a nurturing, feminine quality, which she sees as a weakness. This is a striking subversion of gender norms; she desires to be less of a woman, while her husband is, in her eyes, too much of one. Her power is explicitly articulated in her desire to "pour my spirits in thine ear". The verb "pour" suggests an almost supernatural act of transference, as if she is a witch herself, casting a spell on her husband. The phrase "chastise with the valor of my tongue" presents her words as a weapon, cementing her role as the dominant partner in the relationship.
**Wider Text Analysis**:
This initial presentation of Lady Macbeth's power is confirmed and amplified in the scenes that follow. In Act 1, Scene 7, when Macbeth resolves not to go through with the murder, it is Lady Macbeth's brutal and emasculating rhetoric that forces him back on course. She attacks his courage, asking, "Was the hope drunk / Wherein you dressed yourself?" and famously declares she would have "dashed the brains out" of her own child rather than break a promise. This shocking, violent imagery demonstrates the unnatural extent of her ambition and her complete emotional control over Macbeth. Her power is also practical; she plans the murder, from drugging the guards to planting the daggers. Her instruction to Macbeth to "look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't" is a masterclass in deception, revealing her political cunning. However, Shakespeare also shows the limits of her power. Her initial confidence that "a little water clears us of this deed" proves tragically ironic. Her influence wanes as Macbeth grows more tyrannical and independent in his cruelty, excluding her from his plot to kill Banquo. Her ultimate powerlessness is starkly revealed in her final appearance in Act 5, Scene 1, where she is reduced to a tormented, sleepwalking figure, her mind broken by the guilt she once dismissed. Her earlier invocation to the "spirits" to "unsex" her has been answered, but it has destroyed her, not empowered her.
**Conclusion**:
In conclusion, Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a character of formidable power and influence, particularly in the first half of the play. She is the catalyst for the tragedy, manipulating her husband with a combination of psychological insight, ruthless ambition, and a shocking rejection of her own femininity. However, her power is ultimately self-destructive. By exploring her descent into madness and despair, Shakespeare offers a cautionary tale about the consequences of unnatural ambition and the inescapable nature of a guilty conscience.
Worked Example
Question: ‘Macbeth’s downfall is caused by his own ambition, not by the witches.’ To what extent do you agree?
Solution: **Introduction**:
While the witches' prophecies act as the catalyst for the tragedy of *Macbeth*, it is ultimately Macbeth's own "vaulting ambition" and his conscious decision to act upon their words that lead to his downfall. Shakespeare masterfully constructs a narrative in which supernatural suggestion and human agency are intertwined, but the final responsibility for the regicide and subsequent tyranny lies with Macbeth himself. This essay will argue that the witches merely provide the spark for a fire that was already waiting to be lit within Macbeth's character.
**Witches as Catalyst (Argument For)**:
It is undeniable that the witches are a powerful influence. Their initial prophecy that Macbeth will be king plants a seed of ambition that might otherwise have remained dormant. Banquo himself notes that Macbeth is "rapt withal" upon hearing their greeting. The witches' language is seductive and ambiguous, and their supernatural nature gives their words a weight that a mortal suggestion would not have. Their later apparitions in Act 4 are deliberately designed to foster a sense of false security in Macbeth, leading him to his doom. The prophecy that "none of woman born shall harm Macbeth" is a perfect example of the "equivocation" that was a key contextual fear in the Jacobean era, and it directly encourages Macbeth's reckless overconfidence in the final act. In this sense, they are not merely passive observers but active agents of temptation.
**Macbeth's Ambition as the Cause (Argument Against)**:
However, the witches never command Macbeth to do anything. They simply present him with a possible future. His reaction, contrasted with Banquo's, is telling. While Banquo is cautious and warns that the instruments of darkness "tell us truths... to betray's / In deepest consequence," Macbeth is immediately consumed by the idea. His aside, "Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires," reveals that the ambition to be king is already present within him. He knows his desires are "black and deep" even before his wife encourages him. Furthermore, Macbeth makes a series of conscious choices. He chooses to write to his wife, knowing it will provoke her. He chooses to listen to her arguments. Most importantly, in his soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 7, he rationally weighs the pros and cons of the murder and concludes that only his "vaulting ambition" is pushing him forward. He is not under a spell; he is a man making a terrible choice. After the murder of Duncan, his ambition does not cease; it metastasizes into a paranoid need to secure his throne, leading him to murder Banquo and Macduff's family without any prompting from the witches.
**Conclusion**:
In conclusion, while the witches are a significant force in the play, they are not the sole cause of Macbeth's downfall. They act as a catalyst, exploiting a pre-existing flaw in Macbeth's character. Shakespeare suggests that fate and free will are not mutually exclusive; the witches may have foreseen Macbeth's potential, but it is Macbeth who chooses to realise that potential through bloodshed and tyranny. His downfall is a tragedy of his own making, a testament to the corrupting power of unchecked ambition. The witches may have shown him the path, but he chose to walk it.
Practice Questions
Question: Explore how Shakespeare presents the theme of guilt in *Macbeth*.
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Question: How does Shakespeare present the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?
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Question: Explore the significance of the supernatural in *Macbeth*.
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Question: ‘Lady Macbeth is a more evil character than her husband.’ To what extent do you agree?
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