macbeth writing assignments

The Primary Shakespeare Company

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES FOR KS2

How it works...

Here you'll find everything you need to teach a term's work around Macbeth. There are bespoke plans for Literacy, Maths, Science, Art, Shakespeare and MFL + quizzes and games.

Click on each act and you will find a whole week's worth of activities.

The literacy, maths, and french resources are designed to correspond to each act of the play, so the Act 1 literacy resources all pertain to Act1 and you can work your way through the play over the course of a term.

There is one maths lesson per week, differentiated for year groups. Two Science learning journeys, one Art project and 5 french lessons.

There is also a filmed storytelling performance of the play that you can use for reference.

Just click below to get going.....

storytelling Films

Festival song.

At the end of each Shakespeare Festival every class takes the stage to sing the end song together. Here you can download the lyrics and play the song.

Download Lyrics

This year we worked with MA Theatre for Young Audiences and MA Actor Musician Students from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama to produce three storytelling performances. Each one was devised by the students based on the play. Under normal non - covid circumstances we would tour one show that all our schools would come together in boroughs to see, but this year as a precaution each school got their own individual performance. All three stories are told differently - we couldn't film them in schools for child protection reasons, so here is rehearsal room footage. Enjoy!

Devised and Performed by

Angus Tikka

Charlotte Hannah

Melinda Orengo

Kit Salterkay

Emmanuel Mendes Da Silva 

Sophie Golby

Tori Chapman

12 excellent teaching resources for Macbeth – make Macbeth easy

by mindroar | Jun 25, 2021 | blog | 0 comments

Looking for teaching resources for Macbeth? Are you teaching Macbeth in high school and desperately looking for activities for the Shakespearean tragedy? Check out these 12 resources and make Macbeth easy.

Pre-reading activities for Macbeth

1. shakespearean insult lesson.

If your students are unfamiliar with Shakespeare, it can be a steep learning curve. This can make it difficult to teach Shakespeare’s Macbeth .

Students often feel intimidated by the language and find it hard to get into. And if you’re teaching Shakespeare for the first time, or one of his plays for the first time, you can feel intimidated yourself!

A great way to overcome this fear factor is to have some fun activities for teaching Shakespearean language and the play you will be teaching.

One of my favorite ways to start any unit about Shakespeare is by having a Shakespearean Insult Lesson (see h ere for my blog post about it and here for my digital and in-class lesson ).

Not only is the Shakespearean insult lesson lots of fun, but it also helps reduce the fear factor of Shakespearean language.

2. Watch a video about Shakespeare and his plays

Another great way to introduce students to Shakespeare and Macbeth is to watch a short video about Shakespeare’s life and his tragedies.

There are heaps of videos around, but some of my favorites are the Crash Course videos: this one , which is all about Shakespeare’s life, and this one , which is about Shakespeare’s tragedies.

Both videos are short and sweet, less than fifteen minutes. The video about Shakespeare’s tragedies covers King Lear in more depth, so you can also stop the video at about eight minutes and fifteen seconds if you’re short on time.

The videos are funny and engaging, and they use illustration, a presenter, and quotes to delve deeper into Shakespeare’s life and plays. That series also has a video about Shakespeare’s comedies, just in case you teach any of those too.

If you’re looking for a worksheet to go with the videos, check out our Shakespeare life and plays bundle on TPT.

3. Take a personality quiz

As you know, teaching Macbeth to high school students requires capturing their interest. And for teens, one of the best ways to do that is to relate the content to their own lives.

A great way to do that is this fun pre-reading activity for Macbeth , a personality quiz by High School Help. In the activity, students take a fun quiz to see which character they are most like. And under the guise of a fun activity, students are inadvertently learning about major characters from the play.

High School Help also has a free anticipation guide for the play, covering important themes. Other helpful pre-reading resources for Macbeth by High School Help include this scavenger hunt .

4. Watch a video about Macbeth

Now, once you’ve introduced Shakespeare and your students are more comfortable with the language, you might be wondering how to teach Macbeth specifically.

The Crash Course Literature series also has two videos specifically about Macbeth . Again, I rate these highly as they’re short, entertaining, and cover important content such as plot, characters, and themes.

If you’re looking for worksheets for these, we have some too. Check out the Macbeth bundle , which has worksheets for both of the videos.

But be wary of plot spoilers! If you’re happy for students to know the plot in advance, go for it. If not, you may want to watch the videos during or after reading instead.

While reading activities for Macbeth

Ok, so you’ve gotten your kids into the play, they know a little about Shakespeare and his tragedies, and they’re no longer intimidated by the language.

Now you need some teaching resources for Macbeth that you can use while reading the play.

5. Read some comics

These comics by David Rickert give an introduction to the main events of each act and have an activity that explains an important concept or literary device.

Using comics is a great way to take away that fear that students often have of not understanding Shakespearean language. As an added bonus, the visuals in comics often help with comprehension.

6. Learn the characters with body biographies

These body biographies by Danielle Knight of Study All Knight are another idea for teaching Macbeth . In the activity, students analyze characters in an engaging way. In completing the projects, students have to:

• to find direct quotes
• analyze how the character has changed (or stayed the same)
• explore the characters’ inner thoughts/feelings
• analyze the characters’ values and beliefs
• explore the characters’ strengths/weaknesses
• identify the characters’ goal/s in the play
• describe what the characters look like
• choose the characters’ best accomplishment/s
• identify symbols
• and describe the characters’ background, family, personality, and conflict

These posters are fantastic for collaborative learning, require in-depth analysis, and are great to display once completed.

7. Close reading workbook analyzing through literary lens

This close reading workbook by Dr Jenna Copper is another idea for teaching Macbeth , this time through a literary analysis lens. The workbook has 16 close reading excerpts from all acts of the play and covering analysis through many different literary theories such as:

• gender studies
• psychological

The workbook also has an answer key and can be used in-person or online.

8. Character map activity

One thing about reading Shakespeare that can be difficult for students is keeping track of all of the characters. With fourteen characters, and a bunch of M-names, keeping track of who is who and who’s doing what can be tricky. This activity by Laura Randazzo helps with that.

The character map activity is available to print or in a Google slides version. Students can use the map to work out or remember relationships between characters. And don’t worry, the answer key is included!

9. Scene-by-scene study questions

Another great teaching resource to help with teaching Macbeth is this scene-by-scene study questions resource, also by Laura Randazzo. These questions can help students keep track of important plot points, make inferences, and explore their own personal opinions.

The Macbeth study questions can be used in class, as part of homework, as quizzes, or as enrichment activities. Or you can use bits and pieces of different questions for different purposes or activities. There is also an answer key.

After reading Macbeth activities

So you’ve finished reading or watching Macbeth and now you come to the pointy end where you need to review before an assessment task. These great Macbeth review activities are sure to be a hit with your students.

10. Escape room review activity

This escape room activity by Room 213 is a great, in-depth way to review the play in class. There are challenges/puzzles for students to complete, as well as cards to help or hinder students. In the game, students must use their knowledge of the play to help Malcolm and Macduff rescue Scotland from Macbeth.

11. Review bingo game

This Macbeth review bingo game by Juggling ELA is a great way to quickly review the play. The game covers characters, symbols, and terms/definitions. It also has 30 different bingo cards, as well as one blank card so that you can write your own card. It also has a digital version .

12. Digital escape room

This digital escape room by English Bulldog is a great way to review Macbeth if you are wanting something shorter than the Room 213 version, or if you are still learning online.

The review game covers different verse forms and literary devices, major characters, the theme of appearance vs reality, plot sequence, and students have to unscramble a soliloquy.

What’s your favorite teaching resource for Macbeth ?

We hope you’ve found some fresh, engaging, and exciting resources to teach Macbeth to your high school students. If you have favorite teaching resources for Macbeth, let us know!

Want more Shakespeare?

Blog posts you may be interested in:

• 5 awesome free resources to teach Shakespeare
• Fun, engaging, and easy Shakespearean insults lesson you have to try
• Worried about teaching Shakespeare? How to make it fun + easy

Products you may be interested in:

• Crash Course Literature Shakespeare worksheet bundle
• Shakespearean insults lesson for ANY play digital activity
• Crash Course Literature Romeo and Juliet mini-bundle
• Crash Course Literature Hamlet mini-bundle
• CrashCourse Theater and Drama Shakespeare mini-bundle
• Crash Course Literature Shakespeare’s sonnets

Gretchen Gales

Writer, editor, teacher, teaching tools: 5 writing prompts for macbeth.

Macbeth is one of my favorite plays to teach. It’s short, but impactful. If you have an interest in teaching your students Macbeth , there are many ways to adapt your curriculum to fit their needs. Many adaptations of the play exist, including the classic text, graphic novels, movies, and more.

First thing’s first: you should have an arsenal of good, open-ended writing prompts for daily journals or short writing assignments. These are especially useful for classes who need immediate “real life” connections to the text. They’re also ready in a pinch if you have to find last-minute materials. I’ve assembled some basic, yet aesthetically-pleasing journal prompts to help guide written discussion. You may be surprised at what students come up with, so don’t forget to let them share their ideas out loud.

Caution : For prompts and other content relating to fortunes and spells, be conscious of your school community’s attitudes towards topics involving the occult. Some families are uncomfortable with anything related to these topics, so have an alternative assignment ready. For journals, tell them they can write on a different topic.

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• My Storyboards

The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Students will love creating a Macbeth storyboard to summarize the story and examine the various characters and literary devices. Check out the Macbeth lesson plans below that are Common Core aligned. These Macbeth activities and Macbeth projects ideas are designed to save teachers precious time all while engaging students!

Student Activities for Macbeth

William Shakespeare's Macbeth continues to be one of his most celebrated plays, even today. While it is not one of his more elaborately constructed works, it nonetheless examines the complicated nature of the human soul, especially when tempted with power and ambition. We watch Macbeth as he is tempted by the lure of the crown, and ultimately—with prodding from Lady Macbeth—decides to murder King Duncan and usurp the throne.

In this moment, he becomes not a king, but a tyrant, and ultimately it is this flaw in his character, his violent ambition, that leads to his downfall. The play examines important themes such as the danger of unbridled ambition, the contrast between a true leader and a tyrant, and the age-old debate of fate vs. free will in a person's life.

Macbeth Essential Questions

• How does ambition motivate people, as both a positive and negative trait?
• When do you feel guilt, and when do you experience remorse?
• To what extent, and in what ways does power affect a person's actions?

Macbeth by William Shakespeare Summary

Please note: This summary comprises the full story of Macbeth and therefore contains spoilers !

The Tragedy of Macbeth play is one of William Shakespeare's best-known works. The shortest (and one of the bloodiest) of Shakespeare's tragedies, the story begins with victory and honors for the brave Scottish general, Macbeth. The play follows his descent from noble soldier to nefarious traitor.

As the play begins, Macbeth receives a prophecy from three witches that one day he will become king. This prediction inevitably consumes him with ambition and greed. He is further led down his treacherous path by his wife, Lady Macbeth, who urges him to murder King Duncan and seize the throne without hesitation. Having done so, and ascended to the throne, Macbeth is consumed by guilt and fear. He becomes tyrannical, paranoid, and suspicious. He resorts to killing others to secure his place, and, as the bloodbath continues, this drives both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to arrogance, madness, and their eventual deaths.

Macbeth’s good friend, Banquo also was also given a prophecy by the witches. They said that, although Banquo would never be a king, he would produce a line of kings. Banquo accepted this fate with patience while Macbeth took action against Banquo and his son, Fleance.

Macbeth is not Shakespeare’s most complex play, but it is one of his most thrilling and emotionally intense. Shakespeare’s other major tragedies explore the intellectual dilemmas faced by the characters, while Macbeth meteorically rises and plummets from beginning to end.

About the Author

William Shakespeare is perhaps the most well-known playwright of all time. Born in April of 1564 in a small city in England, little is known about his childhood life. He had two older sisters and three younger brothers, and enjoyed learning about history and poetry in elementary school. When he was older, William married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children.

William was part of Lord Chamberlain’s Men, an acting company in England. He wrote plays and acted for the company, and his plays became very popular in the city. As he became more and more well-known, Shakespeare wrote more and more plays, averaging about a play and a half per year and totalling 37 plays in his lifetime!

Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of 52, but is still known as one of the most influential writers of the English language. His works are the most often quoted, second only to the Bible!

Discussion Questions to Use in Pairs or Groups

These questions may be used during reading, or upon completion of the play. While it is best to get students discussing what they’ve read, these questions can also be answered individually in a reader’s notebook. It is always such a joy to hear the different opinions that students have, even though they are reading the same information!

• Macbeth’s actions were influenced by others in the play. Who influenced the decisions that he made? Give specific examples from the play to support your answer.
• What do you think is the major theme of this play? Give examples of how it is prevalent throughout the play acts . Note: others may have varying opinions!
• Obviously Macbeth’s character changes a great deal from the beginning to the end of the play. Discuss the ways in which he has changed. Be sure to back up your answers with textual evidence.
• What are some examples of Macbeth’s good qualities that have been used for the wrong purposes?
• What are the consequences for the choices that Macbeth made throughout the play?
• Discuss your thoughts on Lady Macbeth. Does she play as much of a role as Macbeth does, when it comes to their fate?
• How is Macbeth’s friend, Banquo, vastly different from Macbeth? What happens to him?

Macbeth Activities and Project Ideas

Storyboard That is an excellent tool for students to create fun and engaging projects as a culminating activity after finishing a novel or a play. In addition to our premade activities, here are some ideas that teachers can customize and assign to students to spark creativity in individual students, pairs, or small groups for a final project. Several of these ideas include Storyboard That template that can be printed out or copied into your teacher dashboard and assigned digitally. All final projects can be printed out, presented as a slide show, or, for an extra challenge, as an animated gif!

• For Groups: Choose a scene from the play to reenact it to the class. Use the traditional storyboard layout to plan out your scenes. You can add text to your storyboards, or simply use the cells to visualize each scene of your play.
• Using the timeline layout, retell the play in chronological order. Our timeline layout gives you the options to include year, month, day, and even hour! You may also choose to omit these altogether.
• Choose a setting from the story and create a map of the setting using the small poster or worksheet layout. Use free form or other text boxes to include a key or label the different parts of the map.
• Using one of Storyboard That’s board game templates , create a game based on the play for your classmates to play!
• For Groups: Divide the scenes of the play amongst your group members. Each member of the group creates a storyboard for their assigned scene. This can be done as a collaborative project, or separately for longer plays and novels.
• Using the worksheet layout and Storyboard That’s worksheet assets, create a test or a quiz for other students in the class. You can create all kinds of questions such as multiple choice, short answer, and even matching! When you are done, be sure to make an answer key.
• Using one of Storyboard That’s biography poster templates, create a poster about the character of your choice. Be sure to include important biographical features such as: place and date of birth, family life, accomplishments, etc.
• Choose a scene from the play and create a storyboard that shows that scene from another character’s point of view. For an extra challenge, use the T-chart layout to compare the original point of view with another character’s point of view!
• Create a book jacket of the play using one of Storyboard That’s book jacket templates. Use Storyboard That art to create the cover, and write a summary of the story on the back, just like real books have!
• Using one of Storyboard That’s social media templates as a starting point, create a social media page for one or more of the characters in the play. Be sure to think how the character thinks while creating this page.
• Create a scrapbook page made by one of the characters in the play. Storyboard That has lots of premade templates that you can use as is, or change to fit your character’s personality! Check out our scrapbook templates today!
• Who is the third murderer of Banquo? Come up with a solution to this mystery!
• Connect the witches' prophecy to Macbeth's downfall in each act. Create a storyboard to describe their connection.
• Create a Macbeth storyboard that shows the ways Lady Macbeth portrays the theme of ambition.
• Create a storyboard to visually depict a major soliloquy or monologue from the play.

Buy Macbeth on Amazon

Other Plays Written by William Shakespeare

• All’s Well That Ends Well
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• As You Like It
• Love’s Labour’s Lost
• Much Ado About Nothing
• The Taming of the Shrew
• The Tempest
• The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
• The Tragedy of Hamlet
• The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
• The Tragedy of Othello
• The Tragedy of Richard III
• The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
• Twelfth Night

How to Analyze "The Tragedy of Macbeth" Using Storyboard That

Choose a macbeth analysis topic.

Select a specific aspect of "The Tragedy of Macbeth" that you want to analyze with your students. This could include themes, characters, literary devices, or key scenes. For example, you could focus on the theme of ambition, the character development of Macbeth, or the use of dramatic irony.

Select a Storyboard Template

Choose a storyboard template that best fits your analysis topic. Consider using the plot diagram template to analyze the story's structure, the character analysis template to delve into the traits and motivations of specific characters, or the theme analysis template to explore the central themes of the play.

Customize the Storyboard

Customize the storyboard template by adding text boxes, images, and captions to analyze and explain your chosen topic. Encourage students to use quotes from the play as textual evidence to support their analysis. They can also incorporate visual elements to enhance their understanding and interpretation.

Complete the Analysis

Guide your students in completing their storyboard analysis. Encourage them to thoroughly analyze their chosen topic, provide thoughtful interpretations, and make connections to the overall meaning and impact of the play. Remind them to use specific examples and evidence from the text to support their analysis.

Discuss and Share

Facilitate a class discussion where students can share their storyboard analyses. Encourage them to explain their interpretations, listen to their classmates' perspectives, and engage in respectful dialogue. This collaborative discussion will deepen their understanding and encourage critical thinking.

Frequently Asked Questions about Macbeth

What are the main themes in macbeth .

There are many ongoing themes in this play. The supernatural is a consistent theme, with the Three Weird Sisters being the most prevalent example of the supernatural. Some other themes in Macbeth include ambition, power, and appearance versus reality.

Who are the main characters in Macbeth ?

While there are many important characters in this play, the main characters include Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, King Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff.

Why does Macbeth kill Banquo?

Although Banquo was once Macbeth’s trusted friend, Macbeth realizes he can no longer be trusted and thinks that Banquo is a threat to him. As a result, Macbeth has Banquo murdered.

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Macbeth - Narrative writing

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Lessons (20)

To build knowledge of the historical context of the play 'macbeth', to investigate c making soft and hard sounds.

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To explore using the simple past, present and future tense

To analyse the opening of the play macbeth, to develop a rich understanding of words associated with dark and rainy weather, to generate vocabulary, to practise and apply knowledge of c making soft and hard sounds, including test, to practise writing complex sentences, to plan the setting description, to write the setting description, to analyse quotes from the script, to investigate greek etymology: words with 'ch' 'ph' and 'sc' spellings, to explore the past, present and future progressive tense, to analyse evidence from the clip, to develop a rich understanding of words associated with intelligence and confidence, to practise using precise verbs and adverbs for characterisation, to practise and apply knowledge of greek etymology: 'ch' 'ph' and 'sc' spellings, including test, to plan a character description, to write a character description (part 2), to write a character description (part 3).

30 Macbeth Essay Topics

Most commonly assigned as required reading for high school and college students, Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. The play is set in medieval Scotland and chronicles the rise and fall of its eponymous protagonist, Macbeth, who murders his way to the throne but is ultimately undone by his ambition and paranoia.

While Macbeth can be a challenging read, it is also one of the most rewarding, offering a complex and multi-layered exploration of themes like ambition, morality, and fate.

If you are tasked with writing an essay on Macbeth, there are many possible essay writing formats you can use to analyze, compare, summarize, and discuss the play. This guide will walk you through writing a Macbeth essay and provide 30 Macbeth essay topics to get you started on your next writing assignment.

Argumentative Essay Writing for Macbeth

An argumentative essay is a type of essay that asks you to take a position on a given issue or question. Argumentative essays are common assignments in high school and college, especially in literature courses.

In an argumentative essay about Macbeth, you will take one position on one of the play’s many themes and argue for your interpretation using specific evidence from the text.

Argumentative essay topics for Macbeth need to include both sides of the argument and should be framed as a question. For example, “Is Macbeth a tragic hero?” or “What is the role of gender in Macbeth?”

Once you have chosen your topic, you will need to find evidence from the play to support your position. Be sure to cite specific lines and passages from the text as evidence in your essay.

Comparative Essay Writing for Macbeth

Comparative essays ask you to compare and contrast two or more things such as characters, themes, motifs, plot elements, etc. A comparative essay about Macbeth can take many different forms, but one common approach is to compare the characters of Macbeth and Banquo.

When writing a comparative essay about Macbeth and Banquo, you will want to consider how they are similar and different. What motivates them? How do they react to the events of the play? Are they good or evil? You can also compare and contrast other pairs of characters, such as Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff or Duncan and Malcolm.

Persuasive Essay About Macbeth

In a persuasive essay, your goal as the writer is to convince your reader to agree with your position on a given issue or question. Like an argumentative essay, you will want to use evidence from the play to support your claims.

When writing a persuasive essay about Macbeth, you can take a position on anything from whether or not Macbeth is a tragic hero to what motivates the characters in the play.

Unlike an argumentative essay on Macbeth, a persuasive essay about the play will need to be heavily opinionated to make a convincing argument. Be sure to take a clear and definitive stance on your chosen topic, and use specific evidence from the play to support your claims.

Narrative Essay About Macbeth

A narrative essay is a type of essay that tells a story. In a narrative essay about Macbeth, you will be asked to recount and describe an event or series of events from the play. Your goal in a narrative essay is not to take a position or argue a point but simply to tell the story in an engaging and interesting way.

Formatting Citations for a Macbeth Essay

Since you will need to cite directly from the play to back up the arguments and comparisons drawn from the play, it’s essential to understand the correct formatting for quotations from Macbeth.

If you are asked to write in MLA formatting (standard at most educational institutions), each quotation will need to be ended with the speaker’s name in italics, followed by the act, scene number, and line number(s) in parentheses.

For example:

“…Creeps in this petty pace from day to day” ( Macbeth 5.5.17-28).

If the quoted text is more than one line, be sure to separate each verse with a forward slash as follows:

“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day” ( Macbeth 5.5.17-28).

If the quoted text is part of a conversation, use block quotations by indenting each line of the quoted text 1″ from the left margin (hit the TAB button twice). Additionally, you’ll need to capitalize all of the letters in the name. End the quote with the plays name, act, and scene number as follows:

HAMLET. To be, or not to be–that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them… ( Hamlet 3.1.56-60)

You’ll notice that after the initial 1″ margin, each subsequent line will also need an additional indentation. If quoting dialogue from two or more people, each person should start with capital letters and an indented 1″ margin:

FIRST WITCH. When shall we three meet again?

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

SECOND WITCH. When the hurlyburly’s done,

When the battle’s lost and won . ( Macbeth 1.1.1-4)

With the vast amount of information and things to discuss in the play Macbeth, it can be hard to narrow it all down to one topic. But, with this list of 30 Macbeth essay topics, you should have no trouble coming up with an essay to fit your needs.

• How does Macbeth’s character change throughout the play?
• Is Macbeth a tragic hero? Why or why not?
• Who is most responsible for Macbeth’s downfall?
• Discuss the role of gender in Macbeth.
• Is ambition a positive or negative trait? Use examples from Macbeth to support your claim.
• How does Shakespeare use the supernatural in Macbeth?
• Discuss the role of fate in Macbeth.
• Compare and contrast Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship.
• Discuss the role of deception in Macbeth.
• What motivates the characters in Macbeth?
• Is violence ever justified? Use examples from Macbeth to support your claim.
• Discuss the theme of ambition in Macbeth.
• Compare and contrast the characters of Macbeth and Banquo.
• Discuss the theme of power in Macbeth.
• Discuss the theme of loyalty in Macbeth.
• What is the significance of the witches in Macbeth?
• How does Shakespeare use foreshadowing in Macbeth?
• Discuss the role of greed in Macbeth.
• What is the significance of Macbeth’s soliloquies?
• Discuss the theme of betrayal in Macbeth.
• Compare and contrast Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s attitudes toward power.
• Discuss the theme of sanity vs. insanity in Macbeth.
• Discuss the theme of appearance vs. reality in Macbeth.
• How does Shakespeare use irony in Macbeth?
• What is the significance of blood in Macbeth?
• Discuss the theme of corruption in Macbeth.
• What is the significance of nature vs. nurture in Macbeth?
• Discuss the theme of good vs. evil in Macbeth.
• What is the significance of the title “Macbeth”?

With these Macbeth essay topics, you should have no trouble coming up with an essay to fit your needs. Remember to cite all quotes and paraphrases from the play Macbeth and use MLA format.

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Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 0 )

Macbeth . . . is done upon a stronger and more systematic principle of contrast than any other of Shakespeare’s plays. It moves upon the verge of an abyss, and is a constant struggle between life and death. The action is desperate and the reaction is dreadful. It is a huddling together of fierce extremes, a war of opposite natures which of them shall destroy the other. There is nothing but what has a violent end or violent beginnings. The lights and shades are laid on with a determined hand; the transitions from triumph to despair, from the height of terror to the repose of death, are sudden and startling; every passion brings in its fellow-contrary, and the thoughts pitch and jostle against each other as in the dark. The whole play is an unruly chaos of strange and forbidden things, where the ground rocks under our feet. Shakespear’s genius here took its full swing, and trod upon the farthest bounds of nature and passion.

—William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays

Macbeth completes William Shakespeare’s great tragic quartet while expanding, echoing, and altering key elements of Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear into one of the most terrifying stage experiences. Like Hamlet, Macbeth treats the  consequences  of  regicide,  but  from  the  perspective  of  the  usurpers,  not  the  dispossessed.  Like  Othello,  Macbeth   centers  its  intrigue  on  the  intimate  relations  of  husband  and  wife.  Like  Lear,  Macbeth   explores  female  villainy,  creating in Lady Macbeth one of Shakespeare’s most complex, powerful, and frightening woman characters. Different from Hamlet and Othello, in which the tragic action is reserved for their climaxes and an emphasis on cause over effect, Macbeth, like Lear, locates the tragic tipping point at the play’s outset to concentrate on inexorable consequences. Like Othello, Macbeth, Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, achieves an almost unbearable intensity by eliminating subplots, inessential characters, and tonal shifts to focus almost exclusively on the crime’s devastating impact on husband and wife.

What is singular about Macbeth, compared to the other three great Shakespearean tragedies, is its villain-hero. If Hamlet mainly executes rather than murders,  if  Othello  is  “more  sinned  against  than  sinning,”  and  if  Lear  is  “a  very foolish fond old man” buffeted by surrounding evil, Macbeth knowingly chooses  evil  and  becomes  the  bloodiest  and  most  dehumanized  of  Shakespeare’s tragic protagonists. Macbeth treats coldblooded, premeditated murder from the killer’s perspective, anticipating the psychological dissection and guilt-ridden expressionism that Feodor Dostoevsky will employ in Crime and Punishment . Critic Harold Bloom groups the protagonist as “the culminating figure  in  the  sequence  of  what  might  be  called  Shakespeare’s  Grand  Negations: Richard III, Iago, Edmund, Macbeth.” With Macbeth, however, Shakespeare takes us further inside a villain’s mind and imagination, while daringly engaging  our  sympathy  and  identification  with  a  murderer.  “The  problem  Shakespeare  gave  himself  in  Macbeth  was  a  tremendous  one,”  Critic  Wayne  C. Booth has stated.

Take a good man, a noble man, a man admired by all who know him—and  destroy  him,  not  only  physically  and  emotionally,  as  the  Greeks  destroyed their heroes, but also morally and intellectually. As if this were not difficult enough as a dramatic hurdle, while transforming him into one of the most despicable mortals conceivable, maintain him as a tragic hero—that is, keep him so sympathetic that, when he comes to his death, the audience will pity rather than detest him and will be relieved to see him out of his misery rather than pleased to see him destroyed.

Unlike Richard III, Iago, or Edmund, Macbeth is less a virtuoso of villainy or an amoral nihilist than a man with a conscience who succumbs to evil and obliterates the humanity that he is compelled to suppress. Macbeth is Shakespeare’s  greatest  psychological  portrait  of  self-destruction  and  the  human  capacity for evil seen from inside with an intimacy that horrifies because of our forced identification with Macbeth.

Although  there  is  no  certainty  in  dating  the  composition  or  the  first performance  of  Macbeth,   allusions  in  the  play  to  contemporary  events  fix the  likely  date  of  both  as  1606,  shortly  after  the  completion  and  debut  of  King Lear. Scholars have suggested that Macbeth was acted before James I at Hampton  Court  on  August  7,  1606,  during  the  royal  visit  of  King  Christian IV of Denmark and that it may have been especially written for a royal performance. Its subject, as well as its version of Scottish history, suggest an effort both to flatter and to avoid offending the Scottish king James. Macbeth is a chronicle play in which Shakespeare took his major plot elements from Raphael  Holinshed’s  Chronicles  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland  (1587),  but  with  significant  modifications.  The  usurping  Macbeth’s  decade-long  (and  largely  successful)  reign  is  abbreviated  with  an  emphasis  on  the  internal  and external destruction caused by Macbeth’s seizing the throne and trying to hold onto it. For the details of King Duncan’s death, Shakespeare used Holinshed’s  account  of  the  murder  of  an  earlier  king  Duff  by  Donwald,  who cast suspicion on drunken servants and whose ambitious wife played a significant role in the crime. Shakespeare also eliminated Banquo as the historical Macbeth’s co-conspirator in the murder to promote Banquo’s innocence and nobility in originating a kingly line from which James traced his legitimacy. Additional prominence is also given to the Weird Sisters, whom Holinshed only mentions in their initial meeting of Macbeth on the heath. The prophetic warning “beware Macduff” is attributed to “certain wizards in whose words Macbeth put great confidence.” The importance of the witches and  the  occult  in  Macbeth   must  have  been  meant  to  appeal  to  a  king  who  produced a treatise, Daemonologie (1597), on witch-craft.

The uncanny sets the tone of moral ambiguity from the play’s outset as the three witches gather to encounter Macbeth “When the battle’s lost and won” in an inverted world in which “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” Nothing in the play will be what it seems, and the tragedy results from the confusion and  conflict  between  the  fair—honor,  nobility,  duty—and  the  foul—rank  ambition and bloody murder. Throughout the play nature reflects the disorder and violence of the action. Opening with thunder and lightning, the drama is set in a Scotland contending with the rebellion of the thane (feudal lord) of Cawdor, whom the fearless and courageous Macbeth has vanquished on the battlefield. The play, therefore, initially establishes Macbeth as a dutiful and trusted vassal of the king, Duncan of Scotland, deserving to be rewarded with the rebel’s title for restoring peace and order in the realm. “What he hath lost,” Duncan declares, “noble Macbeth hath won.” News of this honor reaches Macbeth through the witches, who greet him both as the thane of Cawdor and “king hereafter” and his comrade-in-arms Banquo as one who “shalt get kings, though thou be none.” Like the ghost in Hamlet , the  Weird  Sisters  are  left  purposefully  ambiguous  and  problematic.  Are  they  agents  of  fate  that  determine  Macbeth’s  doom,  predicting  and  even  dictating  the  inevitable,  or  do  they  merely  signal  a  latency  in  Macbeth’s  ambitious character?

When he is greeted by the king’s emissaries as thane of Cawdor, Macbeth begins to wonder if the first predictions of the witches came true and what will come of the second of “king hereafter”:

This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings: My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is But what is not.

Macbeth  will  be  defined  by  his  “horrible  imaginings,”  by  his  considerable  intellectual and imaginative capacity both to understand what he knows to be true and right and his opposed desires and their frightful consequences. Only Hamlet has as fully a developed interior life and dramatized mental processes as  Macbeth  in  Shakespeare’s  plays.  Macbeth’s  ambition  is  initially  checked  by his conscience and by his fear of the unforeseen consequence of violating moral  laws.  Shakespeare  brilliantly  dramatizes  Macbeth’s  mental  conflict in near stream of consciousness, associational fashion:

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. 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. 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’ingredients of our poison’d chalice To our own lips. He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against The deep damnation of his taking-off, And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself And falls on the other.

Macbeth’s “spur” comes in the form of Lady Macbeth, who plays on her husband’s selfimage of courage and virility to commit to the murder. She also reveals her own shocking cancellation of gender imperatives in shaming her husband into action, in one of the most shocking passages of the play:

. . . I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. 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.

Horrified  at  his  wife’s  resolve  and  cold-blooded  calculation  in  devising  the  plot,  Macbeth  urges  his  wife  to  “Bring  forth  menchildren  only,  /  For  thy  undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males,” but commits “Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.”

With the decision to kill the king taken, the play accelerates unrelentingly through a succession of powerful scenes: Duncan’s and Banquo’s murders, the banquet scene in which Banquo’s ghost appears, Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking, and Macbeth’s final battle with Macduff, Thane of Fife. Duncan’s offstage murder  contrasts  Macbeth’s  “horrible  imaginings”  concerning  the  implications and Lady Macbeth’s chilling practicality. Macbeth’s question, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” is answered by his wife: “A little water clears us of this deed; / How easy is it then!” The knocking at the door of the castle, ominously signaling the revelation of the crime, prompts the play’s one comic respite in the Porter’s drunken foolery that he is at the door of “Hell’s Gate” controlling the entrance of the damned. With the fl ight of Duncan’s sons, who fear for their lives, causing them to be suspected as murderers, Macbeth is named king, and the play’s focus shifts to Macbeth’s keeping and consolidating the power he has seized. Having gained what the witches prophesied, Macbeth next tries to prevent their prediction that Banquo’s descendants will reign by setting assassins to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. The plan goes awry, and Fleance escapes, leaving Macbeth again at the mercy of the witches’ prophecy. His psychic breakdown is dramatized by his seeing Banquo’s ghost occupying Macbeth’s place at the banquet. Pushed to  the  edge  of  mental  collapse,  Macbeth  steels  himself  to  meet  the  witches  again to learn what is in store for him: “Iam in blood,” he declares, “Stepp’d in so far that, should Iwade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

The witches reassure him that “none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” and that he will never be vanquished until “Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him.” Confident that he is invulnerable, Macbeth  responds  to  the  rebellion  mounted  by  Duncan’s  son  Malcolm  and  Macduff, who has joined him in England, by ordering the slaughter of Lady Macduff and her children. Macbeth has progressed from a murderer in fulfillment of the witches predictions to a murderer (of Banquo) in order to subvert their predictions and then to pointless butchery that serves no other purpose than as an exercise in willful destruction. Ironically, Macbeth, whom his wife feared  was  “too  full  o’  the  milk  of  human  kindness  /  To  catch  the  nearest  way” to serve his ambition, displays the same cold calculation that frightened him  about  his  wife,  while  Lady  Macbeth  succumbs  psychically  to  her  own  “horrible  imaginings.”  Lady  Macbeth  relives  the  murder  as  she  sleepwalks,  Shakespeare’s version of the workings of the unconscious. The blood in her tormented  conscience  that  formerly  could  be  removed  with  a  little  water  is  now a permanent noxious stain in which “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten.” Women’s cries announcing her offstage death are greeted by Macbeth with detached indifference:

I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have cool’d To hear a nightshriek, and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in’t. Ihave supp’d full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me.

Macbeth reveals himself here as an emotional and moral void. Confirmation that “The Queen, my lord, is dead” prompts only the bitter comment, “She should have died hereafter.” For Macbeth, life has lost all meaning, refl ected in the bleakest lines Shakespeare ever composed:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time; 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.

Time and the world that Macbeth had sought to rule are revealed to him as empty and futile, embodied in a metaphor from the theater with life as a histrionic, talentless actor in a tedious, pointless play.

Macbeth’s final testing comes when Malcolm orders his troops to camoufl  age  their  movement  by  carrying  boughs  from  Birnam  Woods  in  their march toward Dunsinane and from Macduff, whom he faces in combat and reveals that he was “from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripp’d,” that is, born by cesarean section and therefore not “of woman born.” This revelation, the final fulfillment of the witches’ prophecies, causes Macbeth to fl ee, but he is prompted  by  Macduff’s  taunt  of  cowardice  and  order  to  surrender  to  meet  Macduff’s challenge, despite knowing the deadly outcome:

Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, And damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”

Macbeth  returns  to  the  world  of  combat  where  his  initial  distinctions  were  honorably earned and tragically lost.

The play concludes with order restored to Scotland, as Macduff presents Macbeth’s severed head to Malcolm, who is hailed as king. Malcolm may assert his control and diminish Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as “this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen,” but the audience knows more than that. We know what  Malcolm  does  not,  that  it  will  not  be  his  royal  line  but  Banquo’s  that  will eventually rule Scotland, and inevitably another round of rebellion and murder is to come. We also know in horrifying human terms the making of a butcher and a fiend who refuse to be so easily dismissed as aberrations.

Macbeth Oxford Lecture by Emma Smith

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

Macbeth Ebook pdf (8MB)

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Everyday AI > 5 tips to write better AI prompts

5 tips to write better AI prompts

Generative AI has the ongoing ability to provide the answers and results that you need, but since it depends on what is being looked for, it’s only as good as the prompts that you give it. Discover some tips on how to write strong AI prompts and frame your questions so you can get the most out of these advanced tools.

What are AI prompts?

An AI prompt functions as a conversation starter. The instructions and requests that you input into the text window of an AI tool will determine the result that you get. These results depend on the word usage and phrasing of your prompts, the length and specificity, and any context you can provide it.

Because AI is so open-ended, writing and honing the most accurate prompt can seem nearly limitless. The more that you familiarize yourself with AI tools, the more that this open-endedness will seem beneficial.

Tips for crafting an effective AI prompt

There are no limits to an AI prompt; it can be as simple as a phrase or include multiple detailed paragraphs. However, if you want results tailored to your needs, these tips can inform your inputs:

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Determine your goals

What kind of answer are you looking for: a to-do list and a schedule, a few bulleted points of advice, or a fully formed passage that fits a certain style of writing? The way you frame a prompt shapes the AI tool’s output.

Write simply and directly

Be clear and concise when you frame your question or request, without adding extraneous details that might steer AI into an unwanted direction. Be sure to ask AI for one task at a time, otherwise you might get jumbled results.

Be specific

Relatively few AI-generated answers are one-size-fits-all, so it’s important to add any details that relate to your life or your needs. For example, if you’re asking AI to create a fitness plan , tell the tool your goals and timeframe, your current mobility and strength levels, and other details that work specifically for you. Ask open-ended questions. Instead of relying on true/false answers, ask for pros and cons.

Add necessary context

Context is key for tailoring AI results to your exact needs. If you’re asking AI for recipe advice , add some helpful context. For example, are you throwing an Italian dinner party for your closest friends, one of whom is gluten-free? Be sure to mention this so that your response can be better personalized to what you’re looking for. This strategy is especially helpful for generating specific writing projects such as party invitations, postcards , or other ways for assisting with creative endeavors.

Expand on details

If you want more information on an aspect of your AI-generated results, ask away! Perhaps a question about vacation activities mentions outdoor hiking, which might pique your interest. Or the fitness plan involves kettlebells, a fitness routine you’re unfamiliar but interested in. You can ask a follow-up question while preserving your initial results.

AI isn’t perfect, nor can it read your mind; therefore, you might not get the result that you need or that you want to use the first time you try. Refine your AI prompts or start over from scratch, if necessary.

No matter what your everyday task is, you can get the most out of AI by using strong prompts—especially when you expand and add context. Check out more everyday AI tips to enhance your daily routine.

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