Macbeth — William Shakespeare (c.1606)

Macbeth is OCR's most popular Shakespeare text for Component 02 Section B. Expect an extract-based question (15 marks) and a whole-text essay (25 marks). AO4 (SPaG) is also assessed here. You must demonstrate understanding of dramatic methods, Elizabethan/Jacobean context, and language analysis.

Context — essential for AO3

Jacobean context (c.1606):

• Gunpowder Plot (1605): Catholic plot to blow up Parliament. Written immediately after, Macbeth dramatises treachery and regicide — deeply resonant for a traumatised audience.
• James I: King of Scotland before England; wrote Daemonologie (1597) on witchcraft; Shakespeare was flattering the new king by making witches central AND by tracing James's ancestry to Banquo.
• Divine right of kings: the belief that killing the king was a sin against God — Macbeth's murder of Duncan is the ultimate transgression.
• The great chain of being: the medieval/Renaissance idea of a divinely ordered hierarchy; regicide disrupts the natural order (symbolised by the unnatural events after Duncan's murder).
• Gunpowder Plot aftermath: fear of equivocation (saying one thing meaning another) — the Porter scene references this directly.

Key themes and dramatic structure

Ambition: Macbeth's "vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself" — the fatal flaw that drives him to murder.

Gender and power: Lady Macbeth's "unsex me here" — she calls on supernatural forces to remove her femininity and give her the cruelty she associates with masculine power. A Jacobean audience would find her transgression of gender norms deeply disturbing.

Appearance vs reality: "Fair is foul and foul is fair" (Witches) — the play's central paradox. Nothing is what it seems: the witches tell truth deceptively; the Macbeths are gracious hosts/murderers.

The supernatural: witches, Banquo's ghost, visions. In 1606, audiences believed in witches. Macbeth's descent is partly driven by demonic influence (the witches) — which raises questions about free will and responsibility.

Key characters

Character	Dramatic function
Macbeth	Tragic hero: great but flawed; the audience watches his fall
Lady Macbeth	Catalyst and foil; begins stronger than Macbeth; disintegrates through guilt faster than he does
The Witches	Temptation; equivocation; represent the disorder Macbeth unleashes
Banquo	Contrast: shares temptation but resists; represents the path not taken
Duncan	Saintly king; his murder = ultimate crime; symbolises the natural order
Macduff	Nemesis; retribution; born "from his mother's womb / Untimely ripped" — the loophole that fulfils the prophecy

Key dramatic techniques

• Soliloquy: Macbeth's "Is this a dagger which I see before me?" — reveals inner turmoil; theatrical device to share private thought.
• Aside: used to create dramatic irony (audience knows Macbeth's thoughts when other characters don't).
• Equivocation: witches' prophecies are literally true but misleading: "no man of woman born" / "till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane" — both have loopholes.
• Dramatic irony: Duncan calls Macbeth's castle "a pleasant seat" moments before his murder there.
• Stagecraft: the banquet scene (Act 3, Sc 4) — Banquo's ghost visible to Macbeth and the audience but not other guests; Lady Macbeth desperately manages the situation.

Language analysis highlights

• "Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires" — metaphor of light/dark; Macbeth is aware his desires are morally wrong; the darkness he calls for is both literal (night for murder) and moral.
• "Out, damned spot! out, I say!" — Lady Macbeth's disintegration; she cannot wash away guilt physically; the spot is psychological, not real.
• "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day" — Macbeth's nihilism by Act 5; repetition of "tomorrow" creates a sense of endless, meaningless time; life has become empty.

Common OCR exam mistakes

1. Treating the witches as causing Macbeth's downfall — they tempt but do not control. Shakespeare deliberately leaves agency ambiguous; Macbeth makes his own choices.
2. Ignoring the extract in extract questions — you MUST focus on the provided text and analyse specific words/phrases, not write a general essay.
3. Missing stagecraft and dramatic technique questions: soliloquy, aside, dramatic irony are all AO2 marks waiting to be picked up.
4. Under-using AO3 — Jacobean context must be woven into the analysis, not stated separately.