Macbeth Essay

To complete our discussion of Macbeth, you will write a 2-3 page essay on one of the topics listed below. In your
essay, you will need to use at least 3 quotations from the book and for each topic you will need to give specific
examples from the text to prove your point. As usual, you will need to include an introduction, thesis statement, body
paragraphs, evidence, commentary, and a conclusion. If you choose to create your own topic, you will need to
receive my permission prior to the beginning of the writing process.

Note: If you change your topic, you must complete the prewriting for your NEW topic.

Topics:

1. Who is most responsible or should be held accountable for the events that transpire in the play – witches,
Macbeth, or Lady Macbeth? Construct clear and focused arguments to prove your point.
2. Examine fate versus free will in the play. Is fate responsible for the events that transpire (was everything
destined to happen) or did Macbeth have free will (did his choices determine the results)? Is Macbeth’s tragic
flaw a result of nature or nurture?
3. Examine how a person’s actions and decisions can affect their fate and change their life. Why does Macbeth,
who knows that his actions are evil and will be punished, continue to choose evil? Remember that he did not
begin the play as evil. How does Macbeth change throughout the play? Pinpoint key moments in his
evolution from war hero to tyrant. Use evidence from the text to support your answer.
4. An important aspect (theme) in Macbeth is the relationship between gender and power. The play explores
“natural” and “unnatural” gender behavior by offering varying views on what constitutes real “manhood.”
Find evidence in the play that deals with “manliness,” masculine identity, being a man, etc. How do the
various characters define “manhood”? How do these definitions shift over time?
5. Macbeth may be a murderer, but he is also in some ways a character we can identify with. How does
Shakespeare show Macbeth sympathetically so that we can almost identify with him, even if we are horrified
by him? What scenes help us identify with him? Feel sorry for him?
6. How does Shakespeare use night or darkness as a metaphor for what is happening in the play? Find
quotations where characters connect night and/or darkness to emotions or actions in the play. You will be
looking at connotation (associations, connections, emotions) for night and/or darkness.
7. Macbeth begins with the three (3) witches chanting, “Fair is foul and foul is fair,” a line that evokes the
natural world upside down (the reversal of the natural order). Look for other indications of nature gone awry
within the play. Where does the natural imagery occur? (Note references to weather, birds, sterility, fertility,
disease and health, etc.) Where does unnatural imagery occur? Unnatural behavior? Use textual evidence.

Due Dates

Thesis: Block Day, Feb. 8-9

Outline: In class on Thursday, Feb. 10

Rough Draft: Monday, Feb. 14 /

Final Draft: Friday, Feb. 18, 2011

Total: 60 points
Quote Assignment:

Directions: Select a quote, discuss in what context it is used, and add commentary. (Quote + Context + Commentary)

Quote (include citation, 1.1.12 means Act 1, Scene 1, line 12)

Context: Explain who is saying it. What is the situation?
Commentary: Offer your own ideas about the significance of the quotation.

Example:

Quotation: “Come you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here….”

Context: Lady Macbeth is talking to herself, trying to get into the right frame of mind to do “what it takes” to make
Macbeth king and herself queen. She knows that it will include murder.

Commentary: Women are traditionally thought to be gentle and nurturing. Lady Macbeth also has these qualities,
but she is praying to get rid of them so that she can commit cold-blooded murder.