HL Sample Answer 1


Macbeth


Most revealing in this soliloquy is Macbeth’s ability to see his own flawed nature as overly ambitious. He interrogates his motivation and concludes: ‘I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on the other.’


So uncomfortable is Macbeth with the idea of murdering Duncan that he cannot use the word ‘murder’. Instead, he employs a number of euphemisms: ‘It’, ‘surcease’, ‘the deed’, ‘his taking- off’, ‘the horrid deed’. Even moments before he kills Duncan, Macbeth is presented as a man plagued by doubt but still


driven on by the irresistible allure of power. Macbeth’s dagger soliloquy dramatically illustrates this inner turmoil. He sees a dagger before him, the blade and handle covered in blood. The dagger points him towards Duncan’s room. He pauses as he imagines half the world plunged in darkness and envisages ‘withered murder’ creeping like a ghost. Again, Macbeth reflects on the brutal evil that he is about to commit but nonetheless proceeds. Shakespeare wants us to see Macbeth not as a flat villain, but rather as a flawed and complex character, reluctant to commit evil but nonetheless unable to resist his ‘vaulting ambition’. As the play proceeds, Macbeth’s obsessions and fears change. Our insight into his mind-set is


again understood as he speaks in soliloquy. Following the murder of Duncan, Macbeth grows fearful of his friend Banquo. This suspicion grows out of the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs will be kings. He bitterly remarks that the witches have ‘placed a fruitless crown’ upon his head and a ‘barren sceptre’ in his grip. Macbeth arrogantly looks to change fate by murdering Banquo and his son Fleance. This soliloquy reveals Macbeth as more at home with the idea of murder. Having realised his ambition to be King, he now desperately looks to hold on to the reigns of power. By this point of the play Macbeth’s soul is becoming increasingly mired in blood. His conscience is starting to give way to paranoia and suspicion. By the final act of the play, Macbeth has become a more frightening, yet more pitiful figure. In


a short soliloquy, he reflects on the emptiness of his ambition, how it has left him friendless, unloved and alone. Despairingly he notes, ‘I have lived long enough: my way of life / Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf’. Macbeth recognises that although he has gained the crown it is a hollow victory if he is reviled:


‘that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.’ Macbeth clearly recognises that he inspires fear – he has after all ruled with a bloody hand –


but that this is not enough. This soliloquy offers moving insight into a man who recognises the emptiness of his own pride and ambition. It is perhaps not enough to inspire our forgiveness, but it does evoke our pity for his flawed nature. Macbeth’s spiritual death and utter disillusionment is fully understood by the audience in his


final soliloquy. He poetically reflects on the futility of existence. The image of a fading candle and pointless actor reveals Macbeth’s world-weary defeatism: ‘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


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