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We are now inside Macbeth's castle. Some hours have passed.
There is, however, a dramatic contrast to the last time we saw Macbeth. The good side of him is again
momentarily revealed before Lady Macbeth takes command once more, both persuading and bullying him
to her point of view.
NATURE vs EVIL
In Shakespearian times, nature was considered to be God's playground, a place of peace and holiness.
Within this holiness lies human nature itself. A holy king -- like Duncan or Edward of England -- was
seen to have had the gift of healing in his hands.
Evil, however, can destroy all of this -- and evil comes into human nature through the devil. Once
corrupted, human nature will then wreak havoc in nature itself.
Shakespeare uses a clever counterbalance of good and evil in these scenes. While Act 1, Scene 6
presents the holiness of nature, Act 1, Scene 7 reveals the exact opposite: the triumph of evil in the
person of Lady Macbeth.
Macbeth has thought out the logic of his loyalty to Duncan and how he should be defending the king and
not murdering him. He is then confronted with a bullying wife who humiliates him into submission.
Lady Macbeth takes the perfect example of woman's nature -- a mother's natural instinct while suckling
her baby -- and overturns it: "I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from
his boneless gums, and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this."
The audience is left aghast at this barefaced barbarity -- and then one witnesses Macbeth crumble to
become Lady Macbeth's lapdog once again.
Have you looked at the questions in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer the following questions:
"If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly."
- What does Macbeth mean by these words? (2)
[Need help?]
Macbeth's prayer in this soliloquy is that the murder of Duncan would be swift and final. He wants the
event to be over with as fast as possible.
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"If th'assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease, success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all . . . here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come."
- What is Macbeth's main concern as expressed in these words? (2)
[Need help?]
Macbeth wishes that the murder of Duncan will be the end of the issue, that his death will have no further
ramifications.
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- What does Macbeth mean when he says "We'd jump the life to come"? (2)
[Need help?]
Once Duncan is dead, that will be the end of it. Macbeth even goes so far as to say that he would be
prepared to forfeit his eternal life to bring that about.
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"That we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague th'inventor."
- What is Macbeth's main concern as is shown by these words? (4)
[Need help?]
Macbeth is well aware that, once he has murdered Duncan, his own life will be in danger.
"Blood will have blood" or, as people say today, "What goes around, comes around!"
The murder will not be the end of the incident. His whole life will thereupon be spent protecting himself
from revenge.
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Macbeth puts up a good argument as to why he should not be murdering Duncan.
- What are the main points in this argument? (5)
[Need help?]
- Macbeth is Duncan's subject and a citizen of Scotland who should be protecting his king against
murder.
- Duncan is there in the castle as Macbeth's guest and Macbeth should therefore be defending him, not
lifting the dagger himself to murder his guest.
- Duncan has been such a good king that, should Macbeth murder him, his very goodness would shout
out accusations against his murderer.
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"I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on th'other - "
- Rewrite Macbeth's argument in your own words. (2)
[Need help?]
Macbeth uses the image of horse riding. The spur is what goads the horse into action.
The action, of course, is the murder of Duncan but Macbeth says he has no spur to stick into the horse's
side.
He only has ambition -- but ambition itself is dangerous because it could cause him to trip over the
murder and fall down on the other side, allowing everyone to leap upon him.
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- Explain the use of the apostrophe in "o'erleaps" and "th'other". (2)
[Need help?]
The use of the apostrophe is to shorten the number of syllables.
Shakespeare, like most playwrights of his day, wrote in iambic pentametres, i.e. each line of the verse has
10 syllables broken up into five feet, each of which is iambic -- an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed one.
If the line happens to consist of 11 syllables, then two syllables need to be combined.
This is shown by the use of the apostrophe:
- "Overleaps" (two syllables) become "o'erleaps" (one syllable);
- "the other" (three syllables) becomes "th'other" (two syllables).
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Macbeth explains to his wife that he will no longer proceed with the murder. "We will proceed no
further . . . "
- What reasons does Macbeth give Lady Macbeth for this decision? (4)
[Need help?]
Macbeth explains to his wife that the king has recently honoured him by giving him the title of Thane of
Cawdor.
At the same time, all the people from the king down respect and admire him. He should therefore bask
in their praise, not turn around and commit murder.
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- What is Lady Macbeth's reaction to his decision? Explain fully. (2)
[Need help?]
Lady Macbeth's response is to humiliate her husband. She accuses him of being a coward, of lacking love
for her and of breaking promises to her.
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Lady Macbeth decides to participate in the murder herself.
- What does she intend to do? (3)
[Need help?]
Lady Macbeth will do all of the preparations for murdering Duncan, won't she?
- She will wait for Duncan to sleep and will then make his chamberlains drunk;
- Once they are drunk, there will be nothing she and Macbeth can't do to Duncan;
- Of course, she also leaves the daggers there for Macbeth to find -- but that we only find out in another
scene.
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