1. Analysing Macbeth
Mini extracts

2. ACT 1

3. - short sentences - rhythm - alliteration/fricative of ‘f’ - paradox
Act 1 – scene 1
FIRST WITCH: Where the place?
SECOND WITCH: Upon the heath.
THIRD WITCH: There to meet with Macbeth.
FIRST WITCH: I come, Graymalkin!
SECOND WITCH: Paddock calls.
THIRD WITCH: Anon.
ALL: Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Key words
Heath = wild, grassy land without many trees
Anon = soon
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to create a sense of unease?
- short sentences - rhythm - alliteration/fricative of ‘f’ - paradox
Consider:

4. - short sentences - rhythm - alliteration/fricative of ‘f’ - paradox
Act 1 – scene 1
FIRST WITCH: Where the place?
SECOND WITCH: Upon the heath.
THIRD WITCH: There to meet with Macbeth.
FIRST WITCH: I come, Graymalkin!
SECOND WITCH: Paddock calls.
THIRD WITCH: Anon.
ALL: Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to create a sense of unease?
- short sentences - rhythm - alliteration/fricative of ‘f’ - paradox
Consider:
Shakespeare uses short sentences to create a sense of unease and chaos about the witches, with all 3 speaking straight after each other. The final lines contain alliteration and fricatives, used by Shakespeare to create a flowing almost chant like feeling to what’s being said. This would create a very unsettling feeling for the audience, and the paradox contained within the line confuses them and makes them think things may not be what they seem.

5. Act 1 – Sc 2
Captain: And fortune on his damned quarrel smiling,
Showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak,
For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name -
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Key words:
Disdaining = showing contempt = looking down on someone/something as though it’s not worthy of your attention
Brandished = waving around
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to create a sense of excitement?
- Caesura - Sound imagery (alliteration, plosives) - Word choices - superlatives
Consider:

6. Act 1 – Sc 2
Captain: And fortune on his damned quarrel smiling,
Showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak,
For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name -
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to create a sense of excitement?
- Caesura - Sound imagery (alliteration, plosives) - Word choices - superlatives
Consider:
The Captain presents Macbeth as a very brave warrior. The extract has a sense of excitement about it with the use of the words ‘brandished steel’ and ‘bloody execution’. The plosive and alliterative ‘b’ emphasise the sense of action. The caesura highlights the bravery of Macbeth because of the shift in tone and the interruption to describing Macdonald’s tyranny, and the use of the word ‘all’ suggests Macbeth has no match.

7. - metaphor - rhythm Act 1: Sc 4
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to enhance the theme that appearances can be deceptive?
Consider:
Macbeth
Stars, hide your fires,
Let not light see my black and deep desires
- metaphor - rhythm

8. Act 1 – scene 5
LADY MACBETH
The raven himself is hoarse,
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to create an unsettling mood?
- imagery of raven - sound imagery – plosives - caesura - specific word choice
Consider:

9. - sound imagery – plosives - specific word choices
Act 1 – scene 5
LADY MACBETH
And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull
Of the direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake fell my purpose
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to create a MENACING mood?
- sound imagery – plosives - specific word choices
Consider:

10. Act 1 – scene 5
Lady Macbeth
Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor,
Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter,
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to create a FOREBODING mood?
- structural similarity with witches - specific word choices - fricative
Consider:
Foreboding = future misfortune/evil

11. - simile - metaphor - rule of 3 - assonance
Act 1 – scene 5
Lady Macbeth
To beguile the time,
Look like the time, bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under’t.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to create a mood of deceit?
- simile - metaphor - rule of 3 - assonance
Consider:

12. - sibilance - word choices - dramatic irony
Act 1 – scene 6
Duncan
This castle has a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to create an ironic mood?
- sibilance - word choices - dramatic irony
Consider:
Seat = position, location
Nimbly = quick to understand

13. - word choices - plosives - caesura
Act 1 – scene 7
Macbeth
But in these cases,
We still have judgement here that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which being taught, return
To plague th’inventor. This even-handed justice
Commends th’ingredience of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to create a mood of hesitation?
- word choices - plosives - caesura
Consider:

14. - word choices - simile - alliteration contrast
Act 1 – scene 7
Macbeth
Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like like angels, trumpet-tongued against
The deep damnation of his taking-off.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to enhance Duncan’s qualities?
- word choices - simile - alliteration contrast
Consider:
Borne = grown and presented
Faculties = temperament/ personality
Meek = gentle
Virtues = qualities
Plead = appeal with earnest (sincerity)
Damnation = condemn, declaring something to be bad

15. - rhetorical questions - caesura - plosives
Act 1 – scene 7
Lady Macbeth
Was the hope drunk
Wherin you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
And wakes it now to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time,
Such I account thy love.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight Lady Macbeth’s manipulation?
- rhetorical questions - caesura - plosives
Consider:

16. - alliteration - sibilance - word choice
Act 1 – scene 7
Lady Macbeth
When in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lies as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
Th’unguarded Duncan?
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight Lady Macbeth’s cunning nature?
- alliteration - sibilance - word choice
Consider:
Swinish – like a pig
Drenched natures – their minds are soaked with alcohol
Cunning = planning in a deceitful way

17. ACT 2

18. - Metaphor - Simile - Word choice - Punctuation (dashes)
Act 2 – Sc 1
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight Banquo’s apprehension?
Banquo
Hold, take my sword – There’s husbandry in heaven,
There candles are all out. – Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet, I would not sleep
- Metaphor - Simile - Word choice - Punctuation (dashes)
Consider:
Husbandry = thrift, economical, careful abut how much used
Summons = message or call to do something
Apprehension = worry

19. - Sound imagery - Alliteration and plosives - Caesura - Punctuation
Act 2 – Sc 1
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight Macbeth’s turmoil?
Macbeth
I see thee still
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There’s no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes.
- Sound imagery - Alliteration and plosives - Caesura - Punctuation
Consider:
Dudgeon = handle
Gouts = large drops
Turmoil = confusion

20. - Metaphor - Caesura - Short sentence - Imperative
Act 2 – Sc 2
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight Lady Macbeth’s assertive nature?
Lady Macbeth
My hands are of your colour, but I shame
To wear a heart so white.
Knock within
I hear a knocking
At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber;
A little water clears us of this deed.
How easy it is then!
- Metaphor - Caesura - Short sentence - Imperative
Consider:

21. - Word choices - Metaphors - Plosives - Pathetic fallacy
Act 2 – Sc 3
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight the eerireness of the night?
Lennox The night has been unruly: where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down, and as they say, Lamentings heard i’th’air, strange screams of death And prophesying with accents terrible Of dire combustion and confused events, New hatched to th’woeful time.
- Word choices - Metaphors - Plosives - Pathetic fallacy
Consider:
Unruly = disruptive, lawless
Lamentings = regrets
Dire combustion = terrible fires

22. - Epizeuxis - Personification - Metaphor - Hyperbole
Act 2 – Sc 3
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight the panic and disbelief in Macduff?
Macduff: O horror, horror, horror, Tongue nor heart cannot conceive, nor name thee. Macbeth & Lennox: What’s the matter? Macduff: Confusion hath now made his masterpiece: Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord’s anointed temple and stole thence The life of the building.
- Epizeuxis - Personification - Metaphor - Hyperbole
Consider:
Sacrilegious = violation of something sacred
Ope = open
Anointed = blessed

23. - Sibilance - Long sentence - Isocolon - Irony - Alliteration
Act 2 – Sc 3
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight the contrast between Lady Macbeth and Macduff?
Lady Macbeth: What’s the business That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak. Macduff: O gentle lady, ‘Tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The repetition in a woman’s ear Would murder as it fell. – enter Banquo O Banquo, Banquo Our royal master’s murdered.
- Sibilance - Long sentence - Isocolon - Irony - Alliteration
Consider:
Parley = talk with

24. - Poetic voice - Listing - Exaggeration
Act 2 – Sc 3
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight the deceit of Macbeth?
Macbeth: O, yet I do repent me of my fury That I did kill them. Macduff: Wherefore did you so? Macbeth: Who can be wise, amazed, temperate, and furious, Loyal and neutral in a moment? No man. Th’expedition of my violent love Outran the pauser, reason.
- Poetic voice - Listing - Exaggeration
Consider:
Repent =feel sorry for
Wherefore = why
Temperate = calm, sensible
Expedition = haste, quickness
Pauser = the thing that delays

25. - Poetic voice - Sibilance - Hyperbole
Act 2 – Sc 3
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight the deceit of Macbeth?
Macbeth: Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature, For ruin’s wasteful entrance.
- Poetic voice - Sibilance - Hyperbole
Consider:
Breech in nature = destroyed natural cycle

26. - Metaphor - Repetition (isocolon)
Act 2 – Sc 3
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight the danger Malcolm and Donaldbain are in?
Donaldbain: Where we are, There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the ner’er in blood, The nearer bloody.
- Metaphor - Repetition (isocolon)
Consider:

27. - Pathetic fallacy - Metaphors
Act 2 – Sc 4
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to highlight the mood in Scotland?
Ross: By th’clock ‘tis day And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. Is’t night’s predominance, or day’s shame, That darkness does the face of the earth entomb When all living light should kiss it?
- Pathetic fallacy - Metaphors
Consider:
Travelling lamp = the sun
The day’s shame = Duncan’s murder
Entomb = place in a tomb (burial chamber)

28. ACT 3

29. - Contrast - Caesura Act 3 – Sc 1
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to keep Banquo as a moral frame of reference?
Banquo: If there come truth from them – As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine – Why by the verities on thee made good, May they not be my oracles as well And set me up in hope? But hush, no more.
- Contrast - Caesura
Consider:
Verities = truths

30. - Metaphor - word choice
Act 3 – Sc 1
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to show us Macbeth’s annoyance?
Macbeth: Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, No son of mine succeeding.
- Metaphor - word choice
Consider:
Sceptre = royal walking stick
Gripe = grasp
Wrenched = removed forcefully
Unlineal = no future generations

31. - Word choice - Metaphor
Act 3 – Sc 1
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to show us Macbeth’s state of mind?
Macbeth: For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind: For them, the gracious Duncan have I murdered, Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
- Word choice - Metaphor
Consider:
Filed = defiled, tainted, destroyed
Rancours = bitterness
Vessel of my peace = the mind

32. - Caesura - Personification - Word Choice - Metaphor
Act 3 – Sc 2
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to illustrate Macbeth’s dark intentions?
Macbeth: Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale.
- Caesura - Personification - Word Choice - Metaphor
Consider:
Seeling = blinding
The bond keeping him pale is that Banquo still lives

33. - Caesura - Plosive - Alliteration of w - Imperative
Act 3: Sc 4
LADY MACBETH
     
O proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear.
This is the air-drawn dagger which you said
Led you to Duncan. Oh, these flaws and starts,
Impostors to true fear, would well become
A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
Why do you make such faces? When all’s done,
You look but on a stool.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to enhance the humiliation of Macbeth ?
- Caesura - Plosive - Alliteration of w - Imperative
Consider:

34. - Caesura - Superlatives - Imagery - Punctuation
Act 3: Sc 4
I will tomorrow— And betimes I will—to the weird sisters. More shall they speak, for now I am bent to know, By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good, All causes shall give way. I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to create a mood of intensity?
MACBETH
- Caesura - Superlatives - Imagery - Punctuation
Consider:

35. - Word choice - Repetition - Sarcasm - Alliteration - Caesura
Act 3: Sc 6
Lennox The gracious Duncan Was pitied of Macbeth; marry, he was dead. And the right-valiant Banquo walked too late, Whom you may say, if’t please you, Flenace killed, For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late. Who cannot want the thought how monstrous It was for Malcolm and for Donaldbain To kill their gracious father.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to emphasise that appearances can be deceptive?
- Word choice - Repetition - Sarcasm - Alliteration - Caesura
Consider:

36. ACT 4

37. - anaphora - word choice
Act 4: Sc 1
MACBETH I conjure you by that which you profess, Howe'er you come to know it, answer me. Though you untie the winds and let them fight Against the churches, though the yeasty waves Confound and swallow navigation up, Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down, Though castles topple on their warders' heads, Though palaces and pyramids do slope Their heads to their foundations, though the treasure Of nature’s germens tumble all together, Even till destruction sicken, answer me To what I ask you.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to emphasise the extent of the witches nastiness?
- anaphora - word choice
Consider:

38. - caesura - allusion - word choice - personification
Act 4: Sc 1
MACBETH Then live, Macduff. What need I fear of thee? But yet I’ll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate. Thou shalt not live, That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to emphasise the distorted nature of Macbeth’s ambition?
Consider:
- caesura - allusion - word choice - personification

39. - caesura - isocolon - listing - short sentence - rhyming couplet
Act 4: Sc 1
MACBETH From this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now, To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: The castle of Macduff I will surprise, Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge o' th' sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool. This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to emphasise the distorted nature of Macbeth’s ambition?
Consider:
- caesura - isocolon - listing - short sentence - rhyming couplet

40. - imperative - isocolon - metaphor - contrast - tricolon
Act 4: Sc 2
LADY MACDUFF Wisdom! To leave his wife, to leave his babes, His mansion and his titles in a place From whence himself does fly? He loves us not; He wants the natural touch. For the poor wren, The most diminutive of birds, will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. All is the fear and nothing is the love, As little is the wisdom, where the flight So runs against all reason.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to emphasise the frustration of Lady Macduff?
Consider:
- imperative - isocolon - metaphor - contrast - tricolon
He wants the natural touch = lacks feeling for his family
Diminutive = small and gentle

41. Act 4: Sc 2
FIRST MURDERER: Where is your husband? LADY MACDUFF: I hope, in no place so unsanctified Where such as thou mayst find him. FIRST MURDERER: He’s a traitor. SON: Thou liest, thou shag-haired villain! FIRST MURDERER: (Stabbing him) What, you egg! Young fry of treachery (almost kills him) SON : He has killed me, mother. Run away, I pray you!
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to emphasise the violence of the scene?
Consider:
- imperative - dialogue - stage directions - word choice - structure – plot design
Unsanctified – unholy
Treachery = perfidy

42. - metaphor - personificaiton
Act 4: Sc 3
MALCOLM I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash Is added to her wounds.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to emphasise Malcolm’s sadness at the state of the Scotland?
Consider:
- metaphor - personificaiton
yoke = slavery

43. ACT 5

44. - USE OF PROSE - diacope - sentence structure - punctuation
Act 5: Sc 1
LADY MACBETH Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to emphasise Lady Macbeth’s state of mind?
Consider:
- USE OF PROSE - diacope - sentence structure - punctuation

45. - sound imagery - personification - alliteration
Act 5: Sc 5
MACBETH Hang out our banners on the outward walls. The cry is still “They come!” Our castle’s strength Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie Till famine and the ague eat them up.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to emphasise Macbeth’s false sense of security?
Consider:
- sound imagery - personification - alliteration

46. - caesura - metaphor - alliteration - partial onomatopoeia (struts)
Act 5: Sc 5
Macbeth And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
Using the extract, how does Shakespeare use language to emphasise Macbeth’s false sense of security?
Consider:
- caesura - metaphor - alliteration - partial onomatopoeia (struts)