Class Essay Macbeth

What I have been learning:
Golden: Gather ideas, organise ideas, link paragraphs, enabling phrases, neat and tidy ( this part is just to finish the acronym).

(Lady Macbeth

Admired

-Determined- smashes babies -13

-Manipulative- called her husband a girl because he didn’t want to commit regicide.-7

-Brave- she was willing to kill the king and clean up the act-10

-Remorseful- she was haunted by guilt and died.’out damn spot’-6

-loving -6

The best

-Determined- smashes babies

-Loving - she still loves and cares for Macbeth

-Remorseful- she was haunted by guilt and died.’out damn spot’-6)

How have I been learning it: as a class we used our new skills to create a practise essay to prepare us for our actual essay.
 Why have I been learning it: To prepare us for future essays and give us skills. To learn how to go about writing an essay.

What have I been learning: How to structure a paragraph. (There are many strong, formidable female characters in literature but none quite compare to Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth. She had several qualities which made audiences like, dislike or admire her. Admired qualities which helped us understand the text include determination, love for macbeth and her remorse.)

How have I been learning it: We have been working as a class on the structure, content and linking of a paragraph.
Why have I been learning this: paragraphs are used very often in school work and in future life. Knowing how to write a paragraph will help me in the long run because it is a necessary skill to have.

What have I been learning: how to use evidence in a paragraph.
“ Out damn spot, out I say” , one of the most famous lines in literature, was a quote by Shakespeare which shows us Lady macbeth’s slow descent into madness due to guilt and remorse.
How I have been learning it: We have been using quotes from a certain text. We have also been using examples such as summary of a part of the text to strengthen the essay.
Why have I been learning this: Using evidence to strengthen your point can be useful in many different writing genres. It also shows how well you know the text you are referring to.

Macbeth questions

Here I am doing some tasks to prepare for the Macbeth essay. This will help me remember and understand the play, making it easier when it comes to the essay.

I am learning:
How this shows my learning:
I am wondering:

Valiant soldier or violent schemer at the beginning? In the beginning Macbeth was a loyal, valiant thane of Glamis. He was loyal to King Duncan and his country.  “For Brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name - ” (Act I, Scene 2, Line 16).
Macbeth would fight and die for his King and Country. Later on things change.

Explain his decision to murder Lady Macduff & children (increasingly erratic & illogical behaviour): Macbeth got angry at Mac-duff because he ran away to team with Malcolm. As revenge ( because he couldn't kill mac-duff) Macbeth savagely kills Lady Mac-duff and her children. In the end karma does hit him.

Which factor is most influential: (a) Witches & their prophesy? (b) Vaulting ambition? (c) Lady Macbeth? In my opinion the most influential would ( without thinking) be ambition but at the end of the play the witches' prophecy eventually comes true. Everything the witches said happened. Lady Macbeth was a little influential at the beginning, using his self image to taunt him, but was later ignored and eventually met her doom because of guilt

Is he nothing more than a “dead butcher” or do we the audience feel differently about him at the end?
In the end I think we all despise Macbeth but feel sorry for him too. We agree he is a bit of a butcher because he has killed many innocent people for no good reason, lied, acted heartless, committed treason, regicide and  just acted plain rude (understatement). We also feel sorry for him because he didn't ask to see the witches and for his life to go down hill, killing is still bad (don't kill, Kids).

Why is he obsessed with killing Banquo? (oh yeah, and Fleance too). So, it goes down like this...
1. Macbeth does the good ol' stabby stabby and kills King Duncan ( who was a great king and didn't deserve this)
2. Banquo is suspicious of Macbeth
3. Macbeth is suspicious of Banquo being suspicious of Macbeth. The witches said Banquo's children will be kings, rather than Macbeth's, this makes Macbeth worried.
4. Macbeth starts thinking that Banquo's children are going to be kings.
5.To stop the prophecy of Banquo's children being kings, Macbeth orders some people to kill Banquo and Fleance( his son)
6. Banquo dies but Fleance runs away and lives another day.

Macbeth is scared that Banquo's children ect will be king because the witches said so ( and so far they have told the truth) so Macbeth gets some murderers to kill them off. Fleance escapes (which isn't good for Macbeth).

Macbeth character

Macbeth's character changes a fair bit through out the play. Some traits stay the same. Here is a blog post about Macbeth's changing character. This is for English.

I am learning:
How this shows my learning:
I am wondering:




The start of the play:

courageous: 'For Brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name.'
Loyal: at the begining of the play he was loyal to king Duncan. After killing him he was only loyal to his ambition.

Developed into a character that was:

Ambitious: After he is given the title of ' thane of cawdor' he becomes more and more ambitious with one thing in mind, the crown. He does anything to become ruler, including killing people ( lots of people(so much death)) and lying.
Deceptive: "Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,/But be the serpent under't"
Ruthless: He kills so many people, innocent people, not so innocent people, it doesn't matter to him; if they are in the way to becoming/staying king consider them murdered ( or their families murdered like Mac-duff)


In the end he becomes:

World weary: he thinks everyone is out to get him, take away his crown ect. They soon die because of Macbeth.

Philosophical: "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"

Brave: he fights right to the end, dies fighting, bravery is a trait he has throughout the play.

Defiant:Macbeth  is not planning to bow down to Malcolm and chooses to die fighting than to surrender.