Essay Two

INTRODUCTION

Shakespeare’s tragedies, though incredibly unique, still carry relevance to the modern era despite being over four centuries old. Whether it is the various fatal flaws in his characters or the heavily themed, intricate, and ultimately tragic plots, Shakespeare’s texts are steeped in integrity, evoking audience’s interests across continents and generations.¹ One his most important and poignant is Macbeth,² whose complex and tragic characters represent themes of power, ambition, guilt, violence, and power still relevant to today’s context.

1. This is a more general introduction to suit the broader scope of this prompt.

2. Always make sure you distinguish between Macbeth the play and Macbeth the character (either by italicising, underlining, or putting single quote marks around the play’s title).

PARAGRAPH 1

Macbeth presents situations in which the nature of power is confused and the struggle for it violent and destructive. Throughout the text, various characters are given promises of power and such promise leads to their corruption and eventually cruel demise. Macbeth, the central character and arguably antagonist, is granted a supernatural prophecy that he will become Thane of Cawdor and then “king herafter.”³ This initial prophecy is what sends the tragedy into motion, as lured by the promise of power via his own internal ambition, Macbeth finds himself committing horrible actions in order to wield and maintain the power seemingly destined for him. Macbeth’s murder of Duncan is objectively a wrong action, and is obviously wrong by today’s standards – even to Shakespeare’s contemporary audience⁴ this blatant example of the corruption of power would have been harrowing. Contextually, under the rule of King James I, Shakespeare’s audience would have been familiar with the corruption power brought as very similar to Macbeth’s assassination, there was an attempted assassination and usurpation of King James I. Known as the infamous Gunpowder Plot,⁵ Shakespeare took obvious inspiration from that and the real history, as the real king Macbeth slew the real king Duncan in order to become high king of Scotland, displaying the relevancy of the themes of power present in the play.⁶

3. Try to keep your quotes short and sweet. This kind of precision makes it even easier for your assessor to give you marks!

4. I’d also recommend talking about both modern and historical audiences, as this adds more sophistication to your argument.

5. Context is an important part of all Shakespearean texts and should have a place in your essay.

6. This paragraph ends with an incisive remark about authorial intent, and the overarching message of the play – it’s a good idea to learn a handful of these broad interpretations that you can apply to multiple essay questions and themes.

PARAGRAPH 2

Outside of power and the struggles it brings, Macbeth puts forth other topics relevant to a modern context,⁷ one of the most interesting of which being gender. Shakespeare, seemingly going against his context’s view on the role of women, presents a complex range of ideas and perspectives from the point of view of the women in his text. The most obvious of these is Lady Macbeth’s arc, in which she desires power significantly more than her husband and manipulates him to raise their social standing, elevating her to the status of a queen. Contextually, even in a male-driven society, queens could still wield immense political power, with Queen Elizabeth I being a longtime patron of Shakespeare and an incredibly powerful monarch. Yet Shakespeare goes further and addresses a topic incredibly relevant to modern times with Lady Macbeth and the other female characters of the play, and that is dissatisfaction with their role and rights within society. Lady Macbeth makes this palpable in her infamous “unsex me spirits” declaration, while Lady Macduff admonishes the foolishness of her husband’s exile from Scotland and grows angry at her lack of knowledge of why, harshly responding to someone telling her to be patient for her husband with the line “patience... he had none. His flight was madness.”⁸ Yet the extent of this female representation goes further as the use of the witches and Hecate as the commanders of destiny, though they can be interpreted as evil, wield immense power for females⁹ and seemingly punish Macbeth for his arrogance and lead him to his downfall through prophecy. Thus, Shakespeare’s exploration of the boundaries of gender expectations remains a resonant message for modern audiences.

7. This is an effective linking sentence to bridge the gap between one paragraph and the next, all while ensuring a sustained focus on the prompt.

8. This paragraph displays a highly adept integration of quotes and evidence from across the text, blending them with analysis in a very fluent way.

9. Linking separate themes and ideas together is a crucial at writing at a highly level and shows the marker a deep understanding of the text.

PARAGRAPH 3

In addition, the play also conveys to its audience the transcendent¹⁰ message that violence only begets more violence. Shakespeare depicts how self-destructive small acts of violence can be to the character of a person. To use Macbeth as an example, a seemingly good man at the beginning of the text is twisted into a violent and murderous tyrant by its end. Initially hesitant, Macbeth eventually succumbs to his own dark ambitions and kills Duncan, beginning a cycle of violence. This act then requires Macbeth to continue killing to hide his secret and to maintain his position as king, including his murder of the servants and ordered killing of Banquo. Moreover, he incites others to want to commit violence against him,¹¹ such as Malcolm and Macduff, as a consequence. This cycle of murder and war only gets bigger and bigger as Macbeth is seemingly consumed by violence and darkly demonstrates the callousness that is an irrevocable part of society and humanity. Macbeth’s trajectory takes him from a man hesitating to commit one murder in Act 1 to a person who promotes the order “hang those who talk of fear” in Act 5, referring to innocent civilians afraid of the war he created. Shakespeare raises a powerful message here and one that remains relevant to any society that is plagued by violence and fallibility.

10. This is a good word to use when commenting on the play’s textual integrity.

11. Here, we have a great dissection of the cyclical nature of violence and death in the play. Remember that there are two core parts of this vicious cycle: Macbeth must commit more and more murders, and his increasingly violent actions compel other characters to act violently as well.

CONCLUSION

To say that Macbeth is somewhat relevant to a modern context is a severe understatement. The messages and themes that the text’s characters represent are incredibly relevant and express a number of versatile ideas and commentaries on modern society’s issues. Ultimately,¹² Shakespeare’s composition of Macbeth serves as a testament to the enduring traits of humanity, both good and bad, and acts as a stark reminder of what we are capable of.