The Witches and Fate Vs Free Will Essay Plan

Question 1

Thesis Statements

Answer 1

1. In ‘Macbeth’, the witches have no tangible supernatural power. Their influence and ability lies in their immense intelligence and psychological understanding.
2. Macbeth is inherently evil and his personal ambition exceeds his Christian and patriotic heroism - he curates women as a source and focal point of evil serving his own ambition by preying on the weakness in their psyche.
3. Shakespeare criticises the patriarchy, which leaves women no other choice than to become menaces and take seemingly ‘supernatural’ forms. The female desire for power is communicated through becoming masculine.

Question 2

Act 1, Scene 1 - the witches are not powerful, through the use of metaphor and equivocation

Answer 2

‘fair is foul, and foul is fair’ - equivocation emphasises the religious and political conflict of the time, criminal and cunning phrasing.
‘Foul is fair’ implies the ‘foul’ seeming role of the witches is not an evil force - indicating a sense of justice and vengeance on the patriarchy
‘but in a sieve I’ll thither sail / like a rat without a tail’ - ‘sieve’ - highly unlikely metaphor, symbolises lack of power
‘I’ll do, I’ll do, I’ll do’ - repetition suggest conviction however the action of vengeance is not named - implies there is no real power of the witches
‘pilot’s thumb’ - metaphor suggests Macbeth is in control and is responsible for his own moral decline or victory
‘weird sisters, hand in hand’ - action is symbolic of women need to unite to protect themselves from the patriarchy

Question 3

Act 1, Scene 3 - Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches

Answer 3

‘your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so’ - noun, ‘beards’ reflects how women could only achieve borrowed power through looks. The masculinity of the witches here implies their desire to become male to achieve power - similar to Lady Macbeth

‘look into the seeds of time’ - allusion to prophetic powers James I believed in, is multi-faceted. Predicting events and looking into the future could signal wisdom, therefore the only power the witches actually have is a high degree of intelligence, not evil control. Suggests Macbeth wouldn’t have become King without them as they can’t actually see into the future, however they have a profound psychological understanding of Macbeth and his tragic flaw of ambition

Question 4

Act 1, Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth as a fourth witch

Answer 4

‘my dearest partner in greatness’ - superlative reinforces Macbeth’s confidence in her to act/plot, emphasises a manipulative nature in Macbeth
noun ‘greatness’ implies she can achieve as a woman, but this is not true in the Jacobean era - Macbeth is already twisted as he manipulates her by tempting her with the possibility of power he knows she cannot achieve, to meet his own ends
later, Hecate tells the witches Macbeth, ‘loves for his own ends, not for you’ in Act 4 Scene 1 - implies women are desperate for the respect of men and to feel value - as a construct of the patriarchy, Macbeth has Lady Macbeth serve him to meet his own ends

‘come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts’

‘spirits’ - not an evil or malicious term - neutral, suggests LM sees them for the vulnerable yet intelligent women that they are

‘tend on mortal thoughts’ - noun, ‘thoughts’ = power of the supernatural is not real unless we psychologically invest in it, as Macbeth does

‘to cry, ‘Hold, hold’’ - foreshadows Macbeth’s later cry, ‘Hold enough’ - implies Macbeth is influenced by his wife is she was most affected by his ambition (‘take my milk for gall’ shows extent of her sacrifice), implies Lady Macbeth’s influence on Macbeth was more powerful than the witches, as he used her as a source of evil - psychology of their marriage

Question 5

Act 2, Scene 1 - Macbeth’s soliloquy

Answer 5

‘Tarquin’s ravishing strides’ - graphic allusion to a Roman King who murdered his kin
classical reference - shows Macbeth’s rejection of religious heroism, only worships evil forces and through this his personal moral decline is evident

‘heaven or hell’ - equivocation reinforces the deceit of Macbeth, and his embrace of usurpation - summarises him as a force against Christianity

‘Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight?’ - dagger isn’t really there, it is a product of Macbeth’s mind

Question 6

Act 4, Scene 1 - schism in Macbeth’s psyche has caused hubris which is his downfall

Answer 6

‘double, double, toil and trouble’
rhyme is juvenile and implies no power
noun, ‘trouble’ has no real association with hellish evil, an innocent word suggesting they can only ‘trouble’ Macbeth
‘something wicked this way comes’
adjective ‘wicked’ - Macbeth is the inherently evil one
‘none of woman born shall harm Macbeth’ - tone of invincibility is ludicrous, completely rejects the human condition and reveals the extent of Macbeth’s hubris/psychology betraying him

Question 7

Macbeth in Act 5 Scene 5

Answer 7

‘life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player’

metaphor of life suggests Macbeth lived in the darkness and evil of his potential to become King, the plosives ‘p’ implying his disgust as his abandonment of God and belief in his indestructibility, his pursuit of tyranny which has perpetuated his suffering, when originally Macbeth has the potential of all thanes - the potential to serve and restore order as demonstrated by Macduff