Could you please mark this out of 30.

Just a note after briefly looking:
I don’t think you need to say act 5.1.
Act 5 is fine. Dont memorise things that won’t get you any marks
Even if you don’t know the act, you could just say “Later in the play ...... and it would be perfectly fine.

Hi, I am a year 11 student that has written an essay on How Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a character who changes throughout the play. I was just wondering if someone could give this a mark out of 30 thank you.

In the play Macbeth by Shakespeare, Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a character who changes dramatically throughout the play. Lady Macbeth is first presented as a clever and manipulative woman who uses her husband to achieve power but near the end of the play Lady Macbeth is presented as a weak and mentally unstable woman who is unrecognisable from the confident woman at the beginning of the play.

At the beginning of the play in Act 1.5 Lady Macbeth has a soliloquy whilst she eagerly awaits the arrival of Macbeth and the ‘fatal entrance of Duncan’ which cements the fact that she is the driving force behind Macbeth and ventures around the theme of masculinity and womanhood. Lady Macbeth invites the ‘spirits’ to ‘unsex’ her and ‘fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty’ which shows that she believes she must be as strong as a man to complete this murder and her womanhood, which is represented by the symbols of her ‘breasts’ and ‘milk’ which are normally symbols of nurture, impede her ability to complete this task. The use oft the word crown also denotes the top of her head but could show her eagerness for power and her eagerness to become queen. Lady Macbeth also tries to use nature to hide her evil and malevolence when she asks for the ‘thick night’ to hide the actions of her in a ‘dunnest smoke’ and ‘blanket of dark’, showing a small amount of guilt due to the fact that she wishes no one else to witness her doing this ask but still wishes to do this due to the lure of power. Furthermore in act 1.7, Lady Macbeth ruthlessly persuades Macbeth into murdering Duncan when she calls him ‘green and pale’ and a ‘coward’ and further goes on to make a brutal point about her lack of pity towards him when she says that she would have ‘dashed the brains out’ of her child whilst it fed from her breast which shows that the ‘milk of human kindness’, which Lady Macbeth complains Macbeth is too full of, is truly absent from her. This would have shocked the Jacobean audience as in those times women were not in a position of power and would have belonged to their fathers or brothers which is a stark contrast of the positions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as their roles are reversed here with Lady Macbeth being the dominating force in the relationship.

In Act 2.2 after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth’s concience is clearly disturbed which is shown by him not being able to ‘pronounce ‘Amen’?’ and the way he sees himself murdering sleep. To this Lady Macbeth criticizes him and also is hardened to this deed as ‘What hath quenched them hath given [her] fire’, showing that this has exhilarated her and could reference the fight or flight response to which she has taken the fight response shown by the ‘bold’ and ‘fire’ this has given her which is a stark contrast to Macbeth who has chosen the flight response which is shown when he says ‘I’ll go no more’ when asked to return the bloody daggers. This again would have shocked the Jacobean audience as they would have been used to a man taking the initiative and being more confident.

The extract which takes place in Act 5.1, shows Lady Macbeth who has been reduced to an emotional and unstable wreck which shows a contrast to her confident and domineering state earlier in the play. This takes place shortly before Lady Macbeth takes her own life and shows her descent into insanity. This is shown when she recalls murders that have happened earlier in the play: ‘The Thane of Fife had wife’ which refers to Lady Macduff who was brutally murdered by Macbeth whilst he was after Macduff and then soon after Lady Macbeth says ‘Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on’s grave. After this Lady Macbeth believes she hears a ‘knocking at the gate’ which refers to Act 2.2 after the muder of Duncan ‘I hear a knocking’ which slightly panics Lady Macbeth even though she was confident and calm which foreshadows her descent into madness later in the play. The misorder of these events show Lady Macbeth’s confusion in her mind which suggests that to her all these murders have merged into one event of blood and violence in her head showing the extent of Lady Macbeth’s troubled mind. Shakespeare also further foreshadows her madness when Lady Macbeth says ‘These deeds must not be thought / After these ways; so, it will make us mad.’ which is ironic as this is exactly what has happened to Lady Macbeth now; she has thought too much about these and that has driven her to madness and emotional instability.

Lady Macbeth's insanity is further shown later in Act 5.1 when she says ‘What’s done cannot be undone.’ which is a direct reference to her line in Act 2.2 when she says ‘What’s done is done.’, showing an distinct contrast in her state of mind due to the change from optimism to pessimism. This shows a change in the personality of Lady Macbeth who was once a person who did not see the negatives of her actions to one who was constantly questioning the consequences of her actions. Another way the madness of Lady Macbeth is shown is the structure of Act 5.1. In Act 5.1, Lady Macbeth speaks in prose which contrasts her speaking in iambic pentameter like the other characters prior to this scene. This shows the mess that is Lady Macbeth because of the change from well structured lines to continuous flowing lines which shows the constant flowing of Lady Macbeth’s thoughts, which do not stop and will forever haunt her. This could also show a demotion of Lady Macbeth compared to other characters as characters like Macbeth and Macduff speak in iambic pentameter till the end of the play. This change in character would not have shocked the Jacobean audience who would have expected to see a woman not as domineering and confident but as submissive and weak compared to her husband.

In conclusion Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a woman who changes drastically throughout the play from a dominating and confident woman to an emotionally disturbed insane woman who has many anxieties such as ‘All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand’. This change would have promoted to the Jacobean audience about the graveness of treason against the King which was exactly what James I wanted the people of England to know after a recent plot against his life.

Is the aqa question