Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,
I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly,
false thanes,
And mingle with the English epicures:
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.
Enter a Servant
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!
Where got'st thou that goose look?
Task
Consider the above passage from 'Macbeth'.
Locate the piece in your copy of the text (Act V Scene III)
Write a few paragraphs making comment on it.
You should include reference to...
It's context within the whole play...contextualise the piece.
Iambic Pentameter
- Does it follow the iambic pentameter pattern?
- Where?
- Why?
- Which words or syllables are highlighted by the verse form?
The Divine Right of Kings
The use of rhetoric (his quotation from the witches is a form of rhetoric.)
Where this extract fits into the model of the tragic hero
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G'luck
All though Macbeth,is considered a villain throughout the play,the manipulation of the witches is relevant in this scene. Ambition in the play,will always be Macbeth down fall,his trust for the witches is shown and makes him vulnerable to outside influencers. As an audience,the empathy for Macbeth is witnessed in this scene the impact of the damage ambition can do to one man. As a older man,and also a solider his innocence is portrayed by his decisions made to be become king. To be king to Macbeth,he believes is his destiny but the audience are unable to relate to his,because his life is sacrificed for his dream to be king. As a scene this reflects the dramatic life choices that Macbeth has to choose,the audience when watching the play would want Macbeth to realise the danger he is,his arrogance stops him from realising the truth that his life is in danger. The scene shows Macbeth makes him the ultimate hero of his own personality,his personality takes over and the ambitious side is shown to the audience.
ReplyDeleteLanguage in this scene,is of importance Shakespeare's famous iambic pentameter is used in this scene to emphasis the powerful character of Macbeth 'Was he not born of woman?The spirits that know'.This quotation highlights the powerful character of Macbeth. As king he believes he is invincible,due to the procedure of Macduff birth. Of course the dramatic irony of the play,is the audience know he is in danger but Macbeth fails realise it. The emphasis is on the stressed words for example 'Was' this shows the fragile character of Mabeth also his ambitious character seems to want to know the truth so he can be prepared to fight.
Through out the scene the iambic pentameter starts to change,this is towards the middle of the act 'the mind I sway by and the heart I bear'.Again this quotation shows the fragile nature of Macbeth,the iambic pentameter is no longer in this line because the important of the speech is no longer needed.
The rhetoric language emphasises the controlling power the witches posse,'The spirits that know' Macbeth trusts the words of the witches and believes that they are helping .But truth is that Macbeth was never meant to be king because he was not choose by god,he had an ambition to be king .Macbeth dream finally has to end,so his death is a sacrifice has to play because he was not chosen,he was never meant to be king. As the audience finally begin to realise Macbeth ultimate dream was never going to come true,the empathy we feel for him shows as we realise he been trapped in his so dreams to be the king. When he knows he can never do this,as a character Macbeth is torn between his dream and the realities of his life. The fact he can be king due to rules set by god,and at the beginning Macbeth feels he invincible,and will out live. The death he commits are to keep his dream staying true.
To me Macbeth,his dreams finally catch up with,I feel comparison from me to Macbeth,the ambition nature for your dreams to come true. But in the end of the play,Macbeth knows his dreams are unable to last forever. The whole play to me,is Macbeth ultimate dream and he unable to cope with his dream finally coming true. The tragedy occurs when Macbeth commits his first murder this shows a man,with ambition to be the greatest,for me his wife knows the outcome of this lie they are playing are part in.
Nicole Hall
This passage taken from Macbeth can been found in act 5 scene three. Within this scene we see that the information that the witches have said he is now coming to believe 100% his ambition and power has now taken over him. Looking at this text within the whole play I believe this then highlighting that Macbeth has now accepted what happens will happen I.E fate, this then being a contrast to the beginning of the play when he first meets the witches. The passage also shows how Macbeth has gone from being a vulnerable character to a strong minded individual. Looking from an audiences perspective I can see how Shakespeare is using empathy to help show Macbeths bad qualities I.E having to much ambition can then control a person life. Also the empathy we feel for Macbeth once we realise his dreams to be a ruler is coming to a end as we as an audience start to consider his life will be taken just merely because of bad choices.
ReplyDeleteThe extract helps show the model of a tragic hero because within the extract we see that Macbeth will surrender under the correct circumstances. Macbeths Hamartia is that he is to ambitious and doesn’t know when to give up “ Shall e'er have power upon thee” this therefore showing he believes himself to be invincible.
The rhetoric language helps convey the amount of power the witches have over Macbeth 'The spirits that know' this then helping us as a reader believe the witches to be spiritualistic and magical powers which can be thought is helping Macbeth.
The divine right of kings is the belief that kings were chosen by god therefore then elaborating on the fact that Macbeth should never had been put as king and god did not choose him. Furthermore the quotation ‘Was he not born of woman?’
Helps add the realisation that his right to be king is coming to an end as we know that Macduff was born of c-section, this then being what the witches predicted. The dramatic irony which Shakespeare places here helps use as a reader to become engaged within the story as we know something that the stage does not.
Through out the scene the use of iambic pentameter isn’t consistence as it opens with iambic but then starts to drift off until the ending of the extract. The iambic pattern goes stressed unstressed and so on Bring me no more reports; let them fly all: this then allowing the pace of the poem to quickening up. When the iambic pentameter is not present within in the line structure it is because it is no longer needed.
Sarah Pettigrew.
This extract comes from Act V Scene III and it shows Macbeth's realisation that what the witches said is actually coming true. After being portrayed as weak and doubtful in events from when he first planned to kill Duncan, we see a sudden burst strength and confidence in this extract. Most notably in the opening lines
ReplyDelete"Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,"
These lines are written in strong, regular iambic penatameter, which gives the impression that it would be spoken with confidence and authority, how a king would be expected to speak. This authority is underlined by the iambic pentameter stressing the commands in his speech such as "Bring...let...fly...remove".
This strength is, however, short-lived as he quickly falls into a rhetoric to try and reassure himself that he is right to be so confident.
The use of rhetorical questions reveals his doubtfulness and the line
"I cannot taint with fear..." shows that he must have fear of Macduff otherwise he would not of mentioned it. By the end of his speech he has regained the structure of iambic pentameter, which shows that he has, for the moment, regained his composure.
We also see him starting to trust in the witches. He quotes them:
" 'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
Shall e'er have power upon thee.' "
He does this in an effort to reassure himself. He also refers to them as "The spirits that know" which could show his now total trust in them. An alternative view of this could be that he is in fact trying to shift the blame for his actions onto the witches in an attempt to clear his own conscience.
We also see one aspect of how Macbeth is a tragic hero. He has all these doubts in his rhetoric to himself and the audience wills him to listen to his own conscience however, his burning ambition, fuelled by the belief that he is invincible, overrides his conscience and propels him toward his inevitable fate. This is his fatal flaw.
This belief that he is invincible plays a large role in the dramatic irony surrounding Macbeth's eventual demise. His belief stem from when the witches told him that he cannot be killed by a man born of woman. Macbeth takes this to mean all men, the audience, on the other hand, are aware that Macduff was actually born by c-section, therefore can and will be the one to kill Macbeth. The divine right of kings also factors in here which is the belief that a king is appointed by God and is second only to God. This was a popular belief in the Jacobean period. Macbeth took the divine right from Duncan by killing him, but this does not give Macbeth the divine right to be king as he was not appointed by God. Therefore it was inevitable that he would soon lose the thrown to someone who was the rightful king, in this case Macduff.
This extract was taken from one of William Shakespeare's most tragedy play “Mecbeth”, it was found in beginning of act five scene three, in this scene. In this act, a group of Scottish army led by Macduff and Malcolm was moving toward disloyal general Mecbeth's castle, but, Mecbeth still staying in his castle and tells the Doctor that he does not fear the invasion force because of the predictions of the witches that no man born of woman can kill him.
ReplyDeleteThis extract was begun with iambic pentameter, it was started with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, for example:
Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,
The iambic pentameter device was used to make readers pick up the story easier and more importantly, it was used to emphasis Mecbeth was a powerful character, he was confident and authoritarian.
There also have a strong dramatic irony during Mecbeth's speech, where he said:
'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
This sentence showed that Mecbeth still doesn't realise that he was tricked by the witches, because the audiences were knew that Macduff who was born by the c-section is the one that will kill Mecbeth, but only Mecbeth did not realise this prediction. The use of rhetoric language showed that witches have controlling powers on Mecbeth, This also showed that Mecbeth was a tragic hero, his fetal claw was ambition, because of ambition, Mecbeth killed King Duncan, and he was too confident to believe every thing that witches told him and he believes the Divine Right of Kings, which is the belief that kings were chosen by the god.