She Should Have Died Hereafter..

Carefully read the following excerpt from the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Shakespeare characterizes Macbeththrough the use of various literary techniques, and extrapolate to infer the role this might play in a plotline.

She should have died hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Bleed, bleed, poor country!

The following is an excerpt from William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth (1606). Read the passage carefully. Then, write a well-organized essay in which you analyze the playwright's literary techniques and how they reveal the two characters' attitudes towards the subject.

MACDUFF
     Bleed, bleed, poor country!
Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,
For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy wrongs;
The title is affeered.—Fare thee well, lord.
I would not be the villain that thou think’st
For the whole space that’s in the tyrant’s grasp,
And the rich East to boot.

MALCOLM
     Be not offended.
I speak not as in absolute fear of you.
I think our country sinks beneath the yoke.
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds. I think withal
There would be hands uplifted in my right;
And here from gracious England have I offer
Of goodly thousands. But, for all this,
When I shall tread upon the tyrant’s head,
Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country
Shall have more vices than it had before,
More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever,
By him that shall succeed.

The Queen, My Lord, is dead...

How does Macbeth's tone following Lady Macbeth's death reveal his true nature/character?

SEY.

The Queen, my lord, is dead.

MACB.

She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Enter Macbeth’s Messenger.

Thou com’st to use thy tongue;

Thy story quickly.

 MESS.

Gracious my lord,

I should report that which I say I saw,

But know not how to do’t.

MACB.

Well, say, sir.

 MESS.

As I did stand my watch upon the hill,

I look’d toward Birnan, and anon methought

The wood began to move.

MACB.

Liar and slave!

 MESS.

Let me endure your wrath, if’t be not so.

Within this three mile may you see it coming;

I say, a moving grove.

MACB.

If thou speak’st false,

Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive,

Till famine cling thee; if thy speech be sooth,

I care not if thou dost for me as much.

I pull in resolution, and begin

To doubt th’ equivocation of the fiend

That lies like truth. “Fear not, till Birnan wood

Do come to Dunsinane,” and now a wood

Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!

If this which he avouches does appear,

There is nor flying hence, nor tarrying here.

I gin to be a-weary of the sun,

And wish th’ estate o’ th’ world were now undone.

Ring the alarum-bell! Blow wind, come wrack,

At least we’ll die with harness on our back.

Exeunt.

 ​

Be Lion-Mettled

Read this passage of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and analyze how the author uses Macbeth's attitude to reveal the hunger for power in a monarchy. 

THIRD APPARITION 

Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care

Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:

Macbeth shall never vanquished be until

Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill

Shall come against him.

MACBETH

     That will never be.

Who can impress the forest, bid the tree

Unfix his earthbound root? Sweet bodements!

 Good!

Rebellious dead, rise never till the wood

Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth

Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath

To time and mortal custom.

 Yet my heart

Throbs to know one thing. Tell me, if your art

Can tell so much: shall Banquo’s issue ever

Reign in this kingdom?

Yet Here's a Spot

In the fifth and final Act of Shakespeare's Macbeth, set in 11th century Scotland, a queen named Lady Macbeth laments her husband's tyranny and her initial involvement in his murderous rise to power. Use tone, diction and contrast to reveal her inner turmoil in a thorough analysis of the excerpt.   Lady M.  Yet here’s a spot.
Doct.  Hark! she speaks. I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
Lady M.  Out, damned spot! out, I say! One; two: why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky! Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
Doct.  Do you mark that?	20
Lady M.  The Thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now? What! will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with this starting.
Doct.  Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.
Gen.  She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: Heaven knows what she has known.
Lady M.  Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! oh!
Doct.  What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.	25
Gen.  I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body.
Doct.  Well, well, well.
Gen.  Pray God it be, sir.
Doct.  This disease is beyond my practice: yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.
Lady M.  Wash your hands, put on your night-gown; look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on ’s grave.	30
Doct.  Even so?
Lady M.  To bed, to bed: there’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.  [Exit.
Doct.  Will she go now to bed?
Gen.  Directly.
Doct.  Foul whisperings are abroad. Unnatural deeds	35
Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets;
More needs she the divine than the physician.
God, God forgive us all! Look after her;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,	40
And still keep eyes upon her. So, good-night:
My mind she has mated, and amaz’d my sight.
I think, but dare not speak.
Gen.        Good-night, good doctor.  [Exeunt.

Parts of the Whole

How can Shakespeare use one solitary passage to illuminate the meaning of the entire play of Macbeth? 

Exploring Setting

What different "layers" of text does Shakespeare reveal through his use of setting? Consider dominant discourses of Elizabethan England, augmenting characterization, imagery, tone, theme, etc.