Macbeth: Writer's Methods and Techniques (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

The best responses at GCSE don’t limit their analysis to individual words and phrases. Examiners are really looking for an analysis of Shakespeare’s overall aims, so try to take a “whole-text” approach to the writer’s methods and techniques. Each of the below topics do just that:

• Form
• Structure
• Blank Verse and Prose
• Symbolism

Macbeth is a Shakespearean tragedy. It is important that the examiner knows from your essays that you understand the conventions of tragedy, as this is a valuable – and sophisticated – understanding of the writer’s craft and methods.

Shakespearean tragedies usually consist of:

• A tragic hero: a once-heroic figure (in this case Macbeth) who is destined to die because of his…
• Fatal flaw (hamartia): is a character trait that leads to the tragic hero’s downfall. For Macbeth, it is his ambition
• A foil: a character who stands in contrast to the tragic hero, who conforms to the typical societal expectations of the era (here: Banquo; he is much more skeptical of the witches, for example)
• Fate: all tragic heroes cannot escape their fate or destiny. In Macbeth, it can be seen as an expression of man’s powerlessness over God and his natural order
• The supernatural: the supernatural represents a threat to the natural order of things, as set out by God. Here, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth essentially side with the supernatural and, therefore, against God’s plan
• Catharsis: a moment of shared expression for the audience. In Macbeth, it is more than relief that Macbeth (ultimately, our villain) has died, it is sympathy for the once heroic figure that he was, and could have been. This is sometimes known as a technique called the tragic waste
• Conflict: in Macbeth we have external conflict (assassinations; Macduff’s ultimate revenge) and internal (the mental decline of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth)
• A final restoration of the status quo: this means, essentially, that things go back to normal after the death of the tragic hero. Here, Malcolm (the rightful heir to the throne) is installed as king

The structure of a tragedy

Many of Shakespeare’s tragedies follow the same five-part structure:

1. Exposition: this is the introduction to the play for the audience, and an introduction to the themes and atmosphere. In Macbeth, it is very significant that we are introduced to witches (the supernatural) in a storm, who claim that “fair is foul and foul is fair” (the natural order is about to be disrupted). Foreshadowing often occurs in the exposition
2. Rising action: here is when the tragic hero’s tragic flaw is exposed and an inevitable chain of events starts. In the play, it could be said that Macbeth believing the witches’ prophecies and sending the letter to Lady Macbeth represents this stage
3. Climax: this is the turning point in the play where the tragic hero has come too far to go back. In the language of tragedy, this is called peripeteia. In Macbeth, it is Macbeth finally deciding to go ahead and kill King Duncan
4. Falling action: tragic hero and avenging hero (Macduff) clash. The tragic hero finally comes to the realisation that he is to be defeated (Macbeth realises that he is not, in fact, invincible). This moment of realisation is called the anagnorisis 
5. Denouement: normality and the natural order is restored. Macbeth is killed and Malcolm becomes king, as rightful heir to Duncan

• Shakespeare used three forms of poetic language when he wrote his plays:
• Blank verse
• Rhymed verse
• Prose
• Each of the three forms are used throughout Macbeth
• Shakespeare used these different forms of language for dramatic purposes; they performed different functions:
• To distinguish characters from one another
• To reveal the psychology of characters
• To show character development

Blank verse

• Blank verse consists of unrhymed lines of ten syllables, although it does not always exactly fit that pattern
• Typically in Shakespeare plays, the blank verse represents human feelings in speeches and soliloquies, and the everyday ordinariness of life. It is the form used the most by Shakespeare
• In Macbeth, the famous soliloquies before the murder of Duncan from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are in blank verse

Rhymed verse

• Rhymed verse consists of sets of rhymed couplets: two successive lines that rhyme with each other at the end of the line
• Shakespeare used rhymed verse to reflect ritualistic and supernatural events in his plays
• In Macbeth, the witches speak in rhyming couplets
• This is reminiscent of the chanting of a spell
• It separates them from the human characters and makes them seem unnatural

• But – unusual for a human character – Shakespeare also has Macbeth speak in rhymed couplets:
• Shakespeare has Macbeth echo the form of language of the witches to link them together in evil, and to suggest Macbeth has been enchanted by their prophecies
• Although it is typical for Shakespeare to finish each of his scenes with a rhyming couplet, the words that Macbeth rhymes at the end of Act II, Scene I, (“knell” and “Hell”) put the audience immediately in mind of the witches
• After he sees Banquo’s ghost in Act III, Scene IV, Shakespeare has Macbeth speak the final 10 lines of the scene in rhyming couplets, perhaps showing that he has been corrupted by the supernatural

Prose

• Prose is unrhymed lines with no pattern or rhythm
• Shakespeare used prose for serious episodes, letters or when characters appear to be losing their minds (when it would be unrealistic for them to speak poetically)
• In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses prose when presenting the letter to Lady Macbeth from Macbeth concerning the witches’ prophecies
• More significantly, Shakespeare expresses Lady Macbeth’s madness in Act V, Scene I using prose:
• She no longer has the ability to speak in the ordinary speech of blank verse
• This is a reflection of her disordered mind
• It may also be Shakespeare suggesting that she has lost touch with reality

Shakespeare uses many symbols throughout the play. However, the following symbols are used multiple times across the text and are thus known as motifs. If you understand the following motifs you will be able to use them in almost any essay.

Sleep

• In the play, sleep represents peace or calm
• Immediately after he murders Duncan, Macbeth hears a disembodied voice telling him that “Macbeth does murder sleep” (Act II, Scene II):
• He is hallucinating, and Shakespeare may be suggesting it is his conscience talking
• By committing the mortal sin of regicide, Macbeth has ended the possibility of a peaceful life, with extreme feelings of guilt keeping him awake
• Shakespeare could also be suggesting that Macbeth will be prevented from having eternal peace or going to Heaven

• The peace that sleep represents in the play could also be a reference to the disruption of the Great Chain of Being:
• Macbeth has disrupted God’s order by murdering a king
• There is now no peace and order in the kingdom

• Lady Macbeth eventually has her own sleep disrupted: she walks and talks in her sleep in Act V, Scene I:
• Guilt has finally overwhelmed her
• She, too, will be prevented from having the eternal peace of going to Heaven

Blood

• After the murder of King Duncan, blood comes to represent guilt
• Even before Duncan’s murder, Macbeth sees a hallucination of a bloodied dagger:
• This foreshadows the feelings of guilt Macbeth feels towards the murder of Duncan
• Later in the same soliloquy, Macbeth talks of “gouts” (spots) of blood on the dagger
• This foreshadows Lady Macbeth later in the play who hallucinates “spots” of blood
• Immediately after the murder of Duncan, Lady Macbeth suggests that “a little water clears us of this deed”:
• She is confidently assuring Macbeth that they can easily clear their consciences of the guilt
• This represents the hubris, or arrogance, of Lady Macbeth

• Later in the play Lady Macbeth cannot stop hallucinating that she has blood on her hands:
• The blood (guilt) is on her hands and is sending her insane
• This is ironic, given her calm assertion earlier in the play that dealing with regicide would be easy

• Banquo’s ghost is also covered in blood:
• Shakespeare is, therefore, suggesting that Macbeth feels guilty for the murder of his comrade and best friend
• Macbeth also states that “blood will have blood” in the same scene (Act III, Scene IV), suggesting that he is trapped in a cycle of unending violence and guilt

Hallucinations 

• Like blood, hallucinations represent the guilt Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel for having committed the mortal sin of regicide
• The hallucinations include:
• The bloody dagger (seen by Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII)
• The voice stating that Macbeth has murdered sleep (Macbeth, Act II, Scene II)
• Banquo’s ghost (Macbeth, Act III, Scene IV)
• Blood on hands (Lady Macbeth, Act V, Scene I)
• Only Lady Macbeth and Macbeth hallucinate in the play, and only they can see their own hallucinations:
• Shakespeare may be suggesting that these are not, in fact, real visions, but exist only in the minds of our main characters
• They could, therefore, represent the characters’ psychological realities
• The hallucinations could also be seen as a symbol of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth losing their grip on reality:
• Shakespeare could be suggesting this mental decline is the result of extreme guilt and the hubris of believing they could deal with regicide 
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s mental disorder could also represent greater disorder in the Great Chain of Being
• This is the chaos brought about by murdering God’s choice of ruler

Light and dark

• In Macbeth, light and dark stand for good and evil
• When Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are plotting the murder of King Duncan, Shakespeare frequently includes imagery of light and dark in their soliloquies:
• In Act I, Scene V, Lady Macbeth calls for a “thick night” and the “dun nest (murkiest) smoke”
• These are explicitly dark, and represent Lady Macbeth’s evil desires
• In Act I, Scene VII, Macbeth also expresses his “deep desires”, which he describes as “dark”, while also commanding the “light” not to see them
• Shakespeare is suggesting that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are fully aware of the evil and sinful nature of their plan and want to hide it from God (represented by “light” and “stars”), but their own ambition leads them to act anyway

• The three witches also create darkness

• In Act I, Scene I, the three witches create a storm, which reflects their own evil natures and also foreshadows the evil acts that will be committed later in the play 

• The chaos that Macbeth has brought to the Kingdom of Scotland results in darkness:
• There are thunderstorms the night of the regicide
• In Act II, Scene IV, characters talk about strange natural occurrences, including the day being as dark as night
• These are all the result of the disruption to the Great Chain of Being: evil being allowed into the world