Hey can someone mark this AQA English Literature Essay -

Starting with this scene (Act 2 Scene 1) , explain how Shakespeare presents Macbeth as violent in this extract. [30 marks] In Shakespeare's tragedy, ‘Macbeth’, Macbeth is presented as an inherently violent and powerful individual, who in this extract is presented as violent in a religious, fate and psychological context. One way Macbeth is presented as violent is through the metaphors and questions he poses to himself at the start of the soliloquy. ‘To feeling as to sight, or art thou but A dagger of the mind’. Shakespeare has used the metaphor ‘dagger of the mind’, to convey to the audience that Macbeth is currently hallucinating, he is in a delusional state and is unaware of the current reality. He is imagining a dagger in front of him that is guiding him to kill King Duncan. This state would be rather frightening for the Jacobean audience as Macbeth - a man who has proven himself to have immense physical strength i.e. “From the nave to the chaps” - is in a state of mind where he cannot control himself. Inflicting a sense of turmoil and uncertainty onto the audience as he is in the presence of the divine king. As the soliloquy progresses, it becomes clear that Macbeth is announcing his intentions that he is going to commit regicide. Macbeth goes onto the second stage of the soliloquy where he describes his murder weapon as an “Instrument”, this afflicts the idea to the audience that Macbeth enjoys the presence of his murder weapon, and enjoys using it. An instrument would usually be something that would incite peace and joy, but here it will end up with the death of King Duncan, disrupting the ‘Great Chain of Being’, which would order everything in society in a hierarchical fashion, God is at the top, with Kings being his representatives on earth, and peasants at the bottom. Macbeth has surpassed this (very prevalent in the Jacobean time) law and makes the audience infer how violent he is, that he is willing and malicious enough to kill God’s representative on earth. Shakespeare presents Macbeth using gory imagery, and incorporates the recurring motif of blood, where Macbeth states, ‘I see thee still and on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood’, here Macbeth is reminiscing and foreshadowing the idea that when he kills Duncan, he will see his corpse in with ‘gouts of blood’, Macbeth has a desire for this to occur as he meticulously describes every detail of Duncan’s cadaver, this is inherently violent behaviour and shows how Macbeth lacks remorse and is a menace. Toward the end of the speech, Macbeth starts using declaritives, to amplify his desire to commit regicide and take the crown. Although Macbeth’s murderous persona could be seen as him being inherently violent, it could be inferred that Lady Macbeth’s emasculation of Macbeth and belittling of him has reduced him as a person, and caused him to lose all concept of reality. As in the Jacobean period, women were below men and were expected to be more ‘feminine’, i.e. raise the family and mind the kids. However, Lady Macbeth has surpassed this and this power struggle may have perplexed Macbeth to cause him to lose his sanity. On the other hand, the witches could be seen to have corrupted Macbeth and caused him to gain these murderous and horrific desires to kill the king. This resonated well with a Jacobean audience as witchcraft was seen as a prevalent issue and witches were often falsely accused and killed, leading to a lot of superstition. Richard I’s ‘Demonoly’ only amplified these fears and made people worry about the violent nature of witchcraft and the effect it can have on humans, i.e. Macbeth.Overall I think it is clear that Macbeth is an inherently violent individual, who may not be fully at fault for his murderous virtues, but still goes with them and actions them, foregrounding his violent nature on top of his military experience.I'm in year 11 please don't judge English isn't my best subject.