Macbeth GCSE English Literature: Consider these questions and thus deepen your responses.
1) Why do the witches meet in a deserted, uncivilised place? Why are they not named? Are the three an unholy trinity? What does Hecate bring to the supernatural aspect of the play?
2) Why is the witches’ mantra ‘fair is foul’ so indicative of the moral degeneration explored in the play? Is this mantra contaminating for the language of the drama?
3) How would you describe the intimacy that exists between Macbeth and his wife? Is it exceptionally passionate? Does it negate the codes of the time? Why is their intimacy so dangerous? And why does Lady Macbeth die before her husband? (Evaluate in both dramatic and psychological terms).
4) Why does the play need Banquo? Is he necessarily a ‘good’ man? Why does he appear as a ghost and King Duncan does not?
5) Consider the significance of Lady MacDuff. What sort of contrast does she provide to Lady Macbeth? Is she right to reprimand her absent husband before she is so brutally murdered?
6) Why are the Macbeths childless? Is murder their most vicious ‘child’ then? Does their childlessness render them, killers?
7) Does your opinion of MacDuff change in the play? Why is his transformation necessary to the resolution of the play?
8) Is the ‘tomorrow’ speech in Act Five redeeming in any way for the fallen, ‘lost’ Macbeth? Can we all empathise with the despair expressed by Macbeth in this soliloquy?
These are very thought provoking and stimulating questions – an excellent way to begin to approach Macbeth’s dark supernatural brilliance!
My first thoughts on ‘Fair is foul…’ – this turning upside down of moral order is disturbing because it mocks our hope for justice where goodness is rewarded and evil punished. It brilliantly turns the day time, light filled space of moral clarity and safety into the madness of night’s immorality. More immediately, it prefigures the bleak irony of Duncan’s misunderstanding of appearances, when he observes , ‘This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.’