The ONLY MACBETH REVISION you will EVER NEED for TOP GRADES

Summary

This video by Mr. Salles provides a comprehensive revision of Shakespeare's "Macbeth", offering insights into the play's events, characters, and key themes. Focusing on Macbeth's psychological complexity, the video argues that his fatal flaw is not ambition but a bloodlust that drives the narrative. It examines significant scenes like Duncan's murder, Banquo's ghost, and Lady Macbeth's role. Through a chronological analysis, it highlights how both characters' flaws converge, leading to their downfall. This engaging analysis empowers viewers to achieve top grades by understanding Macbeth's motivations and dynamics thoroughly.

Highlights

• Macbeth delights in the act of killing, revealing his true nature. ⚔️
• Lady Macbeth seems powerful, but she misunderstands her husband. 🕵️‍♀️
• The witches provide prophecies but don't drive Macbeth's actions. 🔮
• Banquo's murder stems from Macbeth's jealousy rather than strategic ambition. 😡
• The psychological turmoil is central to grasping the characters' descent. 🧠

Key Takeaways

• Macbeth's true flaw isn't ambition; it's his bloodlust. 🔪
• Lady Macbeth's ambition and manipulation are misjudged by many. 👑
• The witches influence Macbeth less than his own desires. 🧙‍♀️
• Understanding the psychological dynamics can ace your exams. 📚
• Shakespeare's themes explore power, fate, and human flaw intricacies. 🎭

Overview

The video kicks off with a detailed breakdown of Macbeth's character, revealing that his true tragedy lies in his love for violence, rather than mere ambition. This interpretation departs from the conventional understanding, offering a fresh perspective on his actions throughout the play, especially when contemplating King Duncan's murder.

Lady Macbeth is dissected next, shedding light on her psychological insights—or lack thereof. While traditionally seen as the mastermind behind Macbeth's downfall, the video argues she is somewhat oblivious to his intrinsic bloodlust, which ultimately blindsides her, leading to her madness and demise.

A critical analysis of key events, such as Banquo's death and the witches' prophecies, pieces together the overarching themes of the play. It emphasizes the less-discussed forces at work, including societal and psychological pressures that drive the characters, ultimately leading to their tragic ends.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 02:00: Introduction and Overview of Macbeth's Character This chapter provides an introduction and overview of Macbeth's character in Shakespeare's play. It highlights the importance of understanding 12 key events, presented in chronological order, to excel at answering questions about the play. The chapter emphasizes the first significant event concerning Macbeth's character: the Rebellion against Scotland. This event sets the stage for understanding Macbeth's motivations and actions throughout the play.
• 02:00 - 04:00: The Rebellion and Macbeth's Brutality The chapter titled 'The Rebellion and Macbeth's Brutality' revolves around the invasion by the Norwegians and the betrayal by some Scottish nobles who sided with them. Macbeth, a central figure in the narrative, showcases his brutal nature by killing the rebel Scottish leader, McDonald. The method of McDonald's execution is particularly telling of Macbeth's character, as it is described by a sergeant who recounts how Macbeth shook hands with and bid farewell to McDonald in a dramatic fashion before killing him. This action highlights Macbeth's ruthless and brutal demeanor amid the chaos of the rebellion.
• 04:00 - 10:00: The Witches' Prophecies and Macbeth's Ambition In this chapter, the scene is set where Macbeth encounters vivid prophecies delivered by witches, fueling his ambition. A particularly graphic imagery is used to describe violence, illustrating Macbeth's ruthless nature. The narrative highlights his prowess in battle, implying his capacity for both bravery and brutality. His interaction and exchange are likened humorously to casual banter, using modern language and humor to underline the nonchalance with which he engages with violence and fate.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Lady Macbeth's Influence and Ambition The chapter 'Lady Macbeth's Influence and Ambition' explores the intense and sometimes dark influence that Lady Macbeth has over her husband, Macbeth. The summary focuses on Macbeth's prowess and enjoyment in killing, which at first is seen as heroic because it is done for his king and country. However, the chapter hints at the personal and ambitious motivations behind his actions, leading to a moral ambiguity around his character. Lady Macbeth's ambition and influence are crucial in steering Macbeth's actions, transforming his public's perception of a hero into a morally questionable figure.
• 15:00 - 20:00: The Plan to Kill Duncan and Macbeth's Inner Conflict The chapter explores Macbeth's internal struggle and his tragic flaw, or 'hamartia.' He finds a certain pleasure in his dark ambitions and actions. The focus is on deciphering Macbeth's motivations for wanting to kill King Duncan, questioning whether it is purely to fulfill the prophecy and become king or if there is a deeper, innate desire to commit the act.
• 20:00 - 25:00: Banquo's Murder and Its Consequences The chapter discusses the role of the witches in 'Macbeth', focusing on how they influence Macbeth's actions and decisions. It highlights that while the witches prophesy Macbeth's future as king, they never explicitly instruct him to commit any murders, including that of King Duncan, to achieve his destiny. The chapter implies that the witches' role is more about suggestion and temptation rather than direct orders, which leaves Macbeth to choose his own path to fulfilling those prophecies.
• 25:00 - 30:00: Macbeth's Downfall and Isolation The chapter revolves around Macbeth's inevitable downfall and growing isolation after he learns the witches' prophecy. The prophecy foretells his rise to the position of the Thane of Cawdor, which quickly comes true. Macbeth interprets this as fate aligning with the witches' words, convincing him of his destined path. This realization starts to steer his actions, leading him down a path of ambitious pursuits and moral decay. The chapter likely explores the psychological impact of the prophecy on Macbeth as he grapples with existential questions, prompting a shift in his moral compass and relationships.
• 30:00 - 40:00: Lady Macbeth's Guilt and Death The chapter opens with Macbeth receiving news from witches that suggest his rise to power. Rather than taking the news as a positive sign, Macbeth's mind is immediately consumed by the thought of murder. He struggles with the horrific image of his own dark ambitions made real, questioning why such violent thoughts disturb him so deeply. This passage highlights Macbeth's internal conflict and foreshadows the turmoil brought on by his and Lady Macbeth's actions.
• 40:00 - 46:00: Macbeth's Nihilism and Final Battle The chapter explores Macbeth's philosophical transformation towards nihilism as he grapples with the witches' prophecy. Despite receiving assurance from the witches that fate will ensure his rise to kingship, Macbeth begins to obsess over the idea of accelerating his ascent to power. This internal conflict highlights a significant character flaw as Macbeth's faith in fate is overshadowed by his ambition and desire for control. Shakespeare uses this moment to illustrate Macbeth's moral confusion and the psychological turmoil that comes with his ambition.
• 46:00 - 50:00: Conclusion and Analysis of Macbeth's Tragic Flaws In the conclusion and analysis of Macbeth's tragic flaws, the focus is on the common belief that Macbeth turns to murder purely due to ambition. However, the speaker challenges this notion, suggesting that ambition might not fully explain Macbeth's actions. The ambition is described as immediate and impulsive, fueling his consideration of murder. The speaker hints at a forthcoming argument that will provide an alternative explanation for Macbeth's tragic decisions, suggesting a deeper complexity to his character than mere ambition.

The ONLY MACBETH REVISION you will EVER NEED for TOP GRADES Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 the idea in this video is that I'm going to give you 12 events in the play they're all going to be in chronological order and if you learn something about each of these 12 you will be able to answer any single question at top grade level the play starts off with the most important event about MC Beth's character and it is the Rebellion against Scotland not only are the
• 00:30 - 01:00 Norwegians invading but some of the Scottish Nobles have sided with the Norwegians we find out that McBeth has killed the rebel Scottish leader McDonald and the way he has killed him tells us a huge amount so the sergeant tells us that McBeth shook hands and B farewell to McDonald
• 01:00 - 01:30 but not until he had unseened him from the Nave the naval to the chops or the chaps the chin so he'd slice him open from his belly button all the way up to here and then he'd shaken hands with him and said goodbye mate though he's not Australian but you get the idea he is the master of a oneliner he's really enjoyed this moment it has been a
• 01:30 - 02:00 personal killing you can't do this to somebody at length it would involve a dagger and it would have been personal this tells us not only that McBeth is a fantastic Warrior not only that he is fearless but that he absolutely Revels in killing at the beginning he is a hero because that killing is on behalf of his King King and his country but that quote
• 02:00 - 02:30 shows us what his true hamartia his true weaknesses he absolutely really enjoys what he does now when we get to the prophecies you're going to have to say to yourself well how much of the desire to kill King Duncan is in order for him to become king versus how much is his innate desire to kill so to answer that
• 02:30 - 03:00 question we go to episode number two the meeting with the witches now you already know that the witches are in the play in order to flatter King James and his obsession with witchcraft but consider this The Witches never tell MC Beth what to do they don't say in order to become king you've got to kill King Duncan they just say you're going to become king they don't say in order to become thing of cordor he has to kill the th of
• 03:00 - 03:30 cordor instead he just they just say you'll become th of cordor and of course what happens he finds out straight away almost that he is the thing of cordor and so logic would dictate H the witches made this prophecy about me becoming thing of cordor now suddenly I am well that's just fate taking over I'm going to be all right these witches are giving
• 03:30 - 04:00 me fantastic news but no that isn't the immediate thought in at bet head instead his mind turns immediately to murder even though the witches have just shown him murder isn't necessary for a prophecy to come true so MC Beth says to himself why why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image do unfix my hair so he's like looking at his own
• 04:00 - 04:30 decision making and thinking look MC Beth The Witches have literally just shown you that fate will take care of you becoming King why oh why are you suddenly thinking about becoming King this is Shakespeare telling us what's wrong with MC Beth the next idea that MC Beth has is well if chance may have me King so if fate is going to make him King anyway chance may Crown me without
• 04:30 - 05:00 my stir I don't have to do anything so this is super important because most of you will have been taught that the reason that Beth turns to murder is ambition and that's not necessarily so you can argue that his ambition is so immediate that he can't wait to become king and because he can't wait then he thinks about murder so you can argue that but later I'm going to show you why that is not the best argument then we
• 05:00 - 05:30 have this marvelous moment when he decides to write to Lady M Beth now the first thing we have to ask ourselves is why on Earth does he write the letter in the first place the letter of course tells about the witcher's prophecies calls his wife my dearest partner in greatness and he talks about the greatness that is Promised thee
• 05:30 - 06:00 so he doesn't say to her look I'm going to become king no no he says the main thing about this is that you are going to become Queen McBeth understands lady mcbeth's ambition is greater than his own ambition now that we know that let's think about why he's written to her if we look at the staging we can see that MC Beth arrives just after lady McBeth has read
• 06:00 - 06:30 the letter in other words the messenger delivering it has ridden like crazy ahead of M Beth to get the letter there first why M Beth can deliver that news in person easy peasy it's going to be instant communication but he doesn't want that he wants lady MC Beth to think through a plan how is her ambition to be Queen going to be realized he has this
• 06:30 - 07:00 psychological understanding of her you've probably been taught that she is the one with the psychological understanding of McBeth that she is the one who manipulates him but the letter tells us that is topsy turvy that is not so he is exploiting his psychological knowledge of her to get her help because he knows he can't kill Duncan himself as
• 07:00 - 07:30 I'll show you in a minute he doesn't have enough drive to get him to kill Duncan despite his ambition now another quote that you need to use to show that lady MC Beth doesn't have this deep psychological understanding of her husband is her reaction when she asks to be unsexed she says she needs this power of Cruelty to be filled from the toe to the crown top full of darus Cruelty
• 07:30 - 08:00 because of what McBeth is missing MC Beth is too full of the milk of human kindness now what did we learn about McBeth at the very beginning that he Revels in killing he takes real pleasure not just in defending his country but but in this sense of humor that he can
• 08:00 - 08:30 use with these onliners as he dispatches McDonald this is not by any any assessment it's impossible to say that this is a man who is full of the milk of humankindness it makes no sense at all and so her assessment of him is clearly and completely wrong that is one of the reasons why her assessment of her self is going to be
• 08:30 - 09:00 completely wrong remember she's going to say to M Beth yep let me plan the the murder put all this night's great business in my dispatch and then of course she pulls out of it because Duncan looks like her father later on she thinks there is no problem with Bloodshed With Murder She talks about blood just being painted fears she doesn't believe that Bano can scam Beth when he's dead she takes a completely proud practical view she doesn't think
• 09:00 - 09:30 that the imagination and guilt is going to play any part in her life but we get to the sleepwalking scene and we find out she's consumed by guilt so much that she commits suicide and so rather than this being just a Divine punishment it's actually something she's brought on herself because she simply doesn't have good psychological insight she doesn't understand her husband and she doesn't
• 09:30 - 10:00 understand herself that is why she ends up feeling so guilty and committing suicide now that diversion will help you write any essay on lady McBeth and it will get to grade nine because nobody else is going to be writing that stuff unless they've watched this video so keep it on the down low okay now we come to our next incident which is the plan to kill Duncan this is the one about about ambition so MC Beth says I have no
• 10:00 - 10:30 spur to prick the sides of my intent but only vaulting ambition which or leaps itself and falls on the other let's unpick this he's got the intent what is it that he intends to do kill Duncan brilliant what's going to make him kill Duncan in this metaphor are Spurs so you
• 10:30 - 11:00 know what Spurs are they're on the boots of the rider and so MC Beth is his intent he's got this ambition and he says this is not enough my ambition is vaulting it's going to make me leap towards killing Duncan but is he going to succeed no he's going to over leap and he's going to fall on the other side so he says look I've got this ambition but if I just use ambition to kill
• 11:00 - 11:30 Duncan I am going to fail my ambition is not enough and so we go back to the metaphor if his ambition are his Spurs what is the rider going to be that's wearing those Spurs the rider is partly or holy going to be lady McBeth she is the one who is going to help him come over this hurdle
• 11:30 - 12:00 so that they do not fail that is the whole point of the discussion that he has with Lady McBeth she isn't the one who comes up with the plan to persuade him she is the one who delivers the plan that he always wanted he Maneuvers her into giving him this plan and backing him let's go back to the letter he called her my dearest
• 12:00 - 12:30 partner of greatness think how unusual that would have been at the time in a patriarchal society where women were literally the property of their fathers and husbands MC Beth wipes all that patriarchal stuff away and he says to her you and I are Partners we are equals you and I alone in this Society exist this way this is
• 12:30 - 13:00 why we're going to be so great Shakespeare also gives MC Beth a soliloquy just before he kills Duncan why is that important well in a soliloquy the character speaks their true feelings so we get a complete insight into MC Beth's mind so he's on his way this is the famous dagger speech you know is this a dagger I see before me his hand will turned towards my hand all that stuff so he doesn't mention lady MC Beth once once there isn't a
• 13:00 - 13:30 single moment where he says I'm killing at Beth in order to satisfy my wife like he doesn't even mention her name there's nothing to do with her in fact what he focuses on first because these are the first words is the dagger what does this tell us that he's in love with killing it is the killing which excites him as he goes through the Soliloquy he then sees Blood on the dagger why it's the blood that excites him we know that from
• 13:30 - 14:00 the way that he killed McDonald in such an up close and personal way this is the thrill for him yes he will also become king and that plan is going to work he believes because his wife has come up with the practicalities of it how are we going to silence the Grooms we're going to drug them how is MC Beth going to know that they're ready asleep and they won't wake up when he comes in to kill Duncan oh she's going to have a signal on on the Bell he's going to go in and
• 14:00 - 14:30 kill them how will he make sure that everybody thinks the Grooms did it oh he's going to use the their daggers to kill Duncan and then he's going to leave the daggers on their bodies covered in blood whose plan lady MC Beth's he trusts her plan he knows that this plan will work and if we jump forward in time it does work the thing that will go wrong is the killing of banquet if they don't kill banro and I'll show
• 14:30 - 15:00 you in a minute they don't kill banro they get away with it they become king and queen no Rebellion everything's fine and dandy event number six is the way they both react to the murder you can pick any number of reactions here how MC Beth thinks he's murdered sleep how Lady MC Beth calls him a coward but all those things are secondary the most important quote here here is what MC Beth says
• 15:00 - 15:30 about himself to know my deed to best not know myself this act of murder has confirmed to McBeth the things about himself he would rather not admit yes on one level this is destroying the great chain of being this is an attack against God because he's killing the King who is being appointed by God that is Shakespeare's political
• 15:30 - 16:00 message okay but the psychological message also for MC Beth is he now can't have a story in which he is the hero of his own life why because he is given in to his innate desires to kill not just that he has killed a king but that he's filled with blood lust that this is his personality he has this Psychopathic attraction to spilling blood and so he
• 16:00 - 16:30 immediately regrets The Killing and says awake Duncan with thy knocking I wish thou couldst immediately he regrets what he's done he now has to admit what he's really like here's some grade nine context for you to use if you can follow it in a tragedy which comes to us to Shakespeare from Greek Theater the the hero is Noble but they have one fatal
• 16:30 - 17:00 flaw that's called their hamartia well we can see that's MC Beth he's been this hero who saved the country he's got this one fatal flaw which I'm telling you is not ambition but his desire to kill if you want to go with ambition that's fine examiners love that teachers love that so he is if you like a typical Greek tragic hero except in Greek tragedy the hero gets this idea of what their fate
• 17:00 - 17:30 is going to be and they do everything they can to avoid that fate McBeth is completely Topsy turby he is the opposite he tries to reach his fate he knows that if he just waits he will be fated to become king but his hamartia is that he doesn't wait he doesn't allow that fate to f fill itself
• 17:30 - 18:00 instead he takes agency power control he takes the decision to get there himself another reason this is important is Shakespeare is writing at a time when people have stopped believing that their lives are mapped out by their birth you know you go back 50 years from Shakespeare and you'll find that by and large people are born into their roles in life they follow the same careers as their parents they wouldn't have the
• 18:00 - 18:30 word careers the same occupation you're born to a blacksmith you become a blacksmith you're born to a farmer you become a farmer you're born to a thatcher you become a thatcher Shakespeare was born to a glove maker and a wool farmer what does he do doesn't farm sheep he doesn't make gloves he completely changes his own destiny and Shakespeare isn't on his own London is filling up with people who are writing new ways of living not just
• 18:30 - 19:00 metaphorically and living those new lives but also literally they're writing these plays which creates the theaters which didn't exist before you know Shakespeare is walking into theaters that are only 10 15 years old or sometimes one day old this is a boom industry it's completely new it's like when you take your Mickey out of your parents because they talk about a time when they didn't have mobile phone phones and there was no such thing as
• 19:00 - 19:30 the internet okay this is a massive social Revolution and Shakespeare is in the middle of it another quote that reveals blood lust is M Beth's real problem is his description of the Dead Duncan he talks about Duncan's silver skin laced with his golden blood so obviously we got these precious metals silver and gold to symbolize dun 's royalty but which bit is more important
• 19:30 - 20:00 Duncan's blood that's why it's golden that symbolizes obviously how important Duncan is but it also symbolizes what's important to MC Beth not just becoming King but taking Duncan's blood he's obsessed with this image of blood we're going to come back to it later in the video now we come to number seven M Beth's plan to kill Banquo now lady MC
• 20:00 - 20:30 Beth also agrees that killing Banquo is a really good idea yeah she says in them Nature's patterns not etern so she's saying to MC Beth look banro is not Eternal why don't you kill him but he doesn't let lady McBeth plan this why not well partly it's because he wants to protect her he says be innocent of the knowledge dearest Chuck that's the
• 20:30 - 21:00 psychological understanding he has about his wife he knows that if she engages in the plan to kill Banquo she's going to feel completely guilty about it and it could destroy her what reason would she have for feeling guilty well because it's not really connected to ambition let me explain MC Beth does not have to kill Banquo The Witches have just said that
• 21:00 - 21:30 he's not going to become king but his sons will become Kings so it's quite logical for him to live a really long time as king why would MC Beth think that because the witches said Bano will not be a king yeah so that means Bano is not going to kill MC Beth to become king and it also means that when fleance becomes king that's got to be way into the future because Banquo is going to be
• 21:30 - 22:00 too old or dead to become king himself and so if he just waits he knows that his fate is going to be pretty sweet but instead he thinks about murdering Banquo so Bano can't have any more children and murdering fleance well that's not ambition is it that's already King if he kills Bano and fleance that's not going to make him King for any longer the only reason he can come up with is jealousy so he says
• 22:00 - 22:30 the gods have put a Barron scepter and a fruitless Crown so he says the gods have put a fruitless Crown upon his head and a Barron scepter in his hands he's Barren with no fruit in other words what the gods have done is they've said to him you're not going to have children mate and Beth believes that because his children have died we know that because lady MC Beth tells us about the child
• 22:30 - 23:00 who has recently died she still got milk in her breast but the child is dead so we know he's acting out of grief and despair that he doesn't have any children and he's beginning to think he never will they won't survive this is why he has this metaphor of his fruitless crown and his Barren scepter and so it's simple jealousy that that it's not his kids who are going to
• 23:00 - 23:30 become king but banquos that makes him decide to kill both Banquo and fleance well what's the spur that's going to make him act on that jealousy to go from jealousy to murder you know it he loves The Killing he loves the blood lust this is why when the murderers come back to tell him what they've done they emphasize the blood the 20 trenched gashes on banquo's face this is why we come to event number
• 23:30 - 24:00 eight banquo's ghost what does MC Beth focus on never Shake thy gory locks at me thou canst not say I did it so first up he focuses on the blood coming rivulets running down banquo's hair it's the blood that catches his attention
• 24:00 - 24:30 because it is the blood that most fascinates him you can decide whether this is just a projection of mcbeth's imagination or whether the ghost actually appears but either way you're going to argue that it's the blood that draws him to banquo's ghost the next thing that happens is that he says Thou canst not say I did it well none of the Nobles at court at this Feast know that that Beth has had Bano
• 24:30 - 25:00 killed so who do they think he's talking about with blood all over his head you can't say I did it obviously they put two and two together and they make five which turns out to be four because the five is that Beth is confessing to killing Duncan and the four accidentally is well you're right I'm not confessing that but you got me so from this moment this turning point in the play all the
• 25:00 - 25:30 Nobles now have a reason to question MC Beth a legitimate reason to suspect him of killing Duncan and it's from this moment that the Nobles start to Desert him so if we go back to the idea of a Greek tragedy McBeth has engineered his own destruction this is the hamartia moment this is when the fatal flaw leads to his
• 25:30 - 26:00 death if this moment hadn't happened Nobles wouldn't blame him for killing Duncan he'd still be king this is the moment when we find out his true hamartia well what was it it's that he loves killing he loves the blood this is why everybody turns against him so I'm actually going to skip the second meeting with the witches although I do love the quote but by the pricking of my thumbs Something Wicked This Way Comes
• 26:00 - 26:30 because it allows us to realize it's not the witches who are the most evil characters present they are evil but they think that MC Beth is more wicked he is the one who is coming so I love that because it gives me a great alternative perspective and it proves that MC Beth isn't driven by The Witch's power he's driven by his own own evil which I'm saying is is his addiction to
• 26:30 - 27:00 killing and blood lust he decides he's going to kill McDuff and he decides that even when he's heard that McDuff has already gone to England well what does he do with his bloodlust he doesn't say all right I need a plan he says well I can't kill McDuff I'll just kill his wife I'll kill his children and then I'll kill everybody in his castle everyone he's related to everyone ever cared about going to kill the lot of
• 27:00 - 27:30 them why because you know it he loves killing and how he explains it to himself is I am in blood stepped in so far that returning were as tedious as go over so he's invented this metaphor of a river of blood and he says look I'm halfway through so if I go back and stop killing I'll have all those memories of the people I've killed well I might as well just go and really enjoy myself get
• 27:30 - 28:00 to the other side of the river might be sweet over there I'll just keep killing those more people and then you know I've got all these memories of all the ones I've killed so far adding more it's not going to cause any problem I'm already in this River of blood and it won't be so tedious it'll be more exciting it'll be more thrilling if I keep murdering now Shakespeare doesn't have to give him those lines but he does it to point point us to M Beth's hamartia his motive
• 28:00 - 28:30 for murdering Duncan in the first place our next event is Lady MC Beth's sleepwalking and her mental illness so what's interesting here is MC Beth thought he'd murdered sleep but actually he's sleeping really fine thank you and it's his wife who can't sleep it shows us once again his great psychological insight into his wife's State of Mind he was right not to include her in the plan
• 28:30 - 29:00 to kill Banquo lady McBeth isn't just obsessed with the killing of Duncan the thing that she's been guilty of she's also incredibly upset about the later killings that M Beth has carried out she recognizes that she's created or given license to this monster who can't stop killing and that's why the smell of blood won't leave her hand it's not just Duncan's blood it's the blood that MC
• 29:00 - 29:30 Beth keeps spilling this is why she says the the of f had a wife where is she now lady MC Beth now realizes that MC Beth isn't killing out of ambition he's just killing indiscriminately because he loves it this could be another psychological reason why they are sleeping apart she is now divorced from him in a metaphorical sense because he's not a man that she married or at least he's not the man she thought she married
• 29:30 - 30:00 Beth of course knew himself better she's the one who thought he was full of the milk of humankindness she has been deluded about him all this time and now that she seen what he's really like she can't cope McBeth on the other hand still loves his wife consider this he's on the battlements and he knows the English are invading and he's getting ready for that Invasion and during that
• 30:00 - 30:30 he hires a doctor to try and cure the psychological sickness of his wife then he brings the doctor up to him and said how did it go you know he cares passionately about his wife getting better now at this stage and this is crucial he also knows that the witches have lied to him he knows that there's no way he can survive why well he's a general and he can see too many of his
• 30:30 - 31:00 Lords with all their soldiers have deserted and gone to the English side so he knows there's absolutely no way that he's going to survive this and yet he wants his wife to be able to live on she can only live on if he cures her mental state soon she's going to have to live without him because he's going to die and what other evidence apart from Mr Sal telling you to we have that MC Beth knows he's going to die well I love this
• 31:00 - 31:30 quote about the witches he says infected be the air where on they ride and Damned all those that trust them so he knows that their prophecies are a complete lie before the audience see that play out in real time he's absolutely certain that he can't trust this idea of invincibility he knows it's hogwash now we come to his reaction to the death of
• 31:30 - 32:00 Lady MC Beth this can be quoted to show that he doesn't care about her out out brief candle could be interpreted as a moment where he just treats her life as insignificant just like snuffing out a candle flame she should have died Hereafter can be seen as a throwaway line yeah I'm happy for her to Die Why did she have to do it now I've got important things on my mind but we've already seen that isn't his
• 32:00 - 32:30 psychological State instead when he talks about the candle this is like a religious symbol the light on the candle is used in Christian iconography and symbolism to suggest God's light well obviously he's turned against God but what's he replaced that with the worship of his wife he worships her in a very real sense and that backs up the idea that he takes such Supreme care of her
• 32:30 - 33:00 or wants to as he's going into battle this proves his love when she dies he loses all interest in his own life he decides to turn against God in a real way he says life is a tale told by an idiot full of Sound and Fury signifying nothing well who's the idiot in this metaphor it's it's not him how do I know that well because he talks about him
• 33:00 - 33:30 living a script that someone else has written he says I'm a poor player life's butter walking Shadow a poor player that struts his life upon the stage in other words when we're alive we're just playing the role of actors on a stage and our words and actions have already been written down who's written them well obviously God this is the the idiot that MC Beth is having a go at he's
• 33:30 - 34:00 saying God has created his own life God has created the flaws in him and so God is ultimately responsible for MC Beth's fate now obviously we can be deeply critical of this as a modern audience as well as a Christian audience at the time so this turning against God automatically condemns him to Hell obviously the audience don't need that they've got plenty of reasons for condemning him to hell not least he's killed the king who's been appointed by
• 34:00 - 34:30 God in their belief but he is now not taking any responsibility for his own actions he's not saying yeah I brought this on myself if only I just killed dun I could have remained King lady McBeth could have remained Queen she wouldn't have gone mad I wouldn't have gone on this mad killing spree and more importantly the English wouldn't be invading me and I wouldn't be just about to lose my throne my life well no he doesn't blame himself at all he just
• 34:30 - 35:00 turns around and says everything I've done has been for absolutely nothing this is called nalism it's a nealis view of life that life is ultimately pointless because it means that whether we do good or bad doesn't make any difference because there's no one to judge us at the end and there is no point to life other than the meaning we give it this is the point at which MC Beth decides is going to be easier to
• 35:00 - 35:30 die tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow brings on its Petty pace so all his future days seem utterly pointless and Petty he'd rather end it now well in a Roman tragedy he would Now kill himself he'd do the honorable thing kill himself to retain his status as a hero even though a FLA one but MC Beth says why should I play the Roman fool and fall
• 35:30 - 36:00 upon my sword so he takes this idea of classical heroism and rejects it completely he says no I'm not going to kill myself only an idiot would do that I am going to see how this story pans out I am the player on the stage the actor on the stage and I want to get to the end of the play to see how I'm going to die he doesn't believe he's going to escape death but he wants to know the ending how's it going to happen and this
• 36:00 - 36:30 brings us to the fight with McDuff so McBeth says to McDuff thou losest labor in other words you're wasting your strength you're wasting your time this strongly suggests to us that they're at midf fight and that Beth is clearly winning and then he's thinking oh God who the hell is going to kill me like you know how's this going to happen I want to know the end he's already killed Seward who he told you know I lead a
• 36:30 - 37:00 Charmed Life you can't kill me Seward says oh I reckon I can and Beth goes go on then try it kills Seward and he's like who is not born a woman you know he's going around his castle show yourself I want to find this person who isn't born of a woman so McDuff turns around and says aha I wasn't born of a woman I was untimely ripped from my mother's wound and so MC Beth then says oh I'm full of
• 37:00 - 37:30 fear what's he afraid of they stop the fight to have this discussion you MC Beth says oh really I maybe I won't fight you then I don't really want to be killed and McDuff says well if you're not killed you can surrender and uh we'll just parade you around the streets like a monster so MC Beth's final words are a welcoming of death he says lay on McDuff and Damned be him who first cries hold enough so he knows it's going to
• 37:30 - 38:00 end in death he knows it's going to be him and he's anxious to get there more quickly this means that he can die in battle possibly it means in the narrative that he can tell himself about his own life that he is going to die still a warrior still a hero in his own mind this of course is deeply ironic to Shakespeare's audience who seem him as the anti-hero and Shakespeare makes sure
• 38:00 - 38:30 that we don't end the play there with this image of M Beth seeing himself as a hero so Shakespeare's parting words here is that MC Beth was a dead butcher someone who just liked killing not somebody who had this massive ambition to become king that wasn't his fatal flaw it was that he enjoyed killing the ambition is given to Lady McBeth she is described as the fiend-like queen now
• 38:30 - 39:00 that's a really interesting assessment it tells us that in the view of Malcolm mcbeth's hamartia was his wife as well as his own blood lust it wasn't ambition it was the desire to kill and it was fueled by his wife's ambition the fiend-like queen now when you get to the end of the play you've got the choice of deciding whether this is a misogynistic view of Lady McBeth or whether it's a
• 39:00 - 39:30 patriarchal view that Shakespeare is brought into and you can also write about his perspective about the role of a king how the whole play is in support of King James because King James is descended from Banquo and how it's a warning a cautionary tail towards the Nobles not to think about rebellion or murdering the king K you will need that contextual information in order to write
• 39:30 - 40:00 a really logical argument that gets top marks but the thing that this video helps you most with is understanding the psychology of McBeth and Lady MC Beth and the lack of influence of the witches in his decision making those three things are going to superpower you towards a top grade you only need 12 of those events 12 of those quotes and you
• 40:00 - 40:30 can get grade nine if you want to see what a Grade 9 essay on that Beth looks like luckily that's the video coming up next