example exam question(a)Read the extract.
How does Shakespeare present Macbeth at this point in the play? Refer closely to details from the extract to support your answer. [15] MACBETH Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. Exit Servant Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw. Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going; And such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There's no such thing: It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder, Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace. With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives: Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. A bell rings I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell. Exit |
summaryBanquo, who has come to Inverness with Duncan, wrestles with the witches' prophecy. He must restrain himself the “cursed thoughts” that tempt him in his dreams.
When Banquo raises the topic of the prophecy as Macbeth enters the scene, Macbeth pretends that he has given little thought to the witches' prophesy. After Banquo and his son Fleance leave the scene, Macbeth imagines that he sees a bloody dagger pointing toward Duncan's chamber. Frightened by the apparition of a "dagger of the mind," he prays that the earth will "hear not [his] steps" as he completes his bloody plan. The bell rings—a signal from Lady Macbeth—and he sets off toward Duncan's room. Key quotes Banquo
There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, and yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers, Restrain me in the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose. Analysis Banquo is tired. He is afraid of his thoughts of the prophecy. Metaphor= Stars&Candles. Apostrophe=calling on merciful powers, this is different from Lady Macbeth. Macbeth Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. Analysis Appearance vs. Reality. What Macbeth sees is perhaps different to what is really true. Macbeth Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going, and such an instrument I want to use. Analysis Macbeth has the opportunity to kill Duncan, as the vision of the dagger leads Macbeth to him. |