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What Grade? - literature answer for Macbeth

Kind of started waffling but can someone please give me feedback on my answer??

question about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's relationship:

The relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can arguably be one of the most unusual relationships across the whole variety of Shakespeare's plays. The female dominating the male came as a shock to most of the Jacobean audience, as domination of females was not a common thing - rather the male would be superior over their spouses.
Our first glimpse to the relationship, when Lady Macbeth upon receiving the letter fears her husbands kindness and waits his arrival so that she can manipulate him and whisper her spirits into 'thine ear.' Thus coming as another shock to the audience of the Jacobean era, as associating with the supernatural was not looked down upon by Lady Macbeth as it would have been by many, including King James himself who was on the throne at the time of this play. This brings about an indication that Lady Macbeth has previously had associations witch the supernatural - possibly the witches themselves. Macbeth rather than being superior to Lady Macbeth, treats her as his equals and his first reaction is to turn to her for advice. Though Lady Macbeth can be seen as one of the main reasons for Macbeth's downfall, and her own, Macbeth turns to her for advice, rather than making decisions for himself. Hence, their relationship is seen as unusual and is not an accurate representation of a Jacobean couple, rather it has been 'tended' by the supernatural, greed and desires.
Macbeth, treating his wife as his equal, leads to his own downfall as Lady Macbeth is soon influenced by the desire of power leading her to cause Macbeth to commit treason. Not only was this classed as treason, it was also a huge sin against God, as it opposed the Divine Right of Kings, a belief held by many that the King was appointed into position by God. Therefore, killing of the king was seen as a huge sin that sparked anger withing God himself. Lady Macbeth becomes dominating over her husband and questions his manliness to an extent where she calls on to spirits to 'unsex' her. Again, this is unusual as women of the Jacobean era were more likely to be subtle and fragile beings. Though this dominating nature of Lady Macbeth is unusual, it would be seen by the audience as a norm as many Shakespearean plays often portrayed male characters with stereotypical feminine traits. Macbeth fails to have the courage that a man of this era would have had.
However, as the play progresses we tend to see a shift in power. After murdering Duncan, Macbeth transgresses into a sense of madness. Even though Lady Macbeth was the mastermind behind King Duncan's murder, Macbeth is resilient to seek her advice about her plan to murder Banquo, and tells her 'be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck.' Lady Macbeth transforms from a manipulative character to a character that is overran by guilt, where Macbeth turns into a more evil character who sees murdering as the only option to get rid of those who he sees as threats. Shakespeare introduces hints of a more humane side to Lady Macbeth, as she is now overran by guilt and although she was very ambitious and greedy for power, does have some subtle qualities that allows her to fit in with the generation of women at that time. We see that at the start of the play she struggles to murder Duncan because he resembles her father, bringing out the soft spot within her. Macbeth however, soon becomes so corrupted with the want for power that he fails to acknowledge his own wife's death and upon hearing the news just says 'she should have died hereafter.' Thus, their relationship at the end of the play is hugely differing to the way the two were represented at the beginning.

Reply 1

smeagol19

i know im definitely not qualified to criticize so you don't have to agree(!) but i thought that the opening sentence was quite weak as you said it 'can arguably be' which is just kinda stating the question. In the introduction you need to set your opinion clearly and have one side of an argument that will be discussed throughout. There's good context and points but you could probably go more into some of the language. I really don't know about grades but good luck (tomorrow I assume?) and i hope someone else can give some better feedback!!