How To Write The Perfect GCSE Essay On LADY MACBETH! 👸

Lady Macbeth is a powerful and complex character. As one of the play’s central characters, you can certainly bank on her possibly coming up in your mock exams or your final GCSE exams.

Many students do badly when writing about her as they get often describe her as “bad” and “evil”. They make basic points like “Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth he’s not man enough”.

To do well in Macbeth – you need to go beyond this. Here’s what you should write about if you get a Lady Macbeth question:

1️⃣ She’s ruthlessly ambitious:

Lady Macbeth is the driving force behind King Duncan’s death and she influences Macbeth to murder him. In fact, this is why many Jacobeans saw her as the “fourth witch”.

Quote:

“I fear thy nature.. is too full o’ the milk of human kindness”

2️⃣ She reverses gender roles:

She dominates her marriage with Macbeth and even questions his masculinity as a way to push him to kill the King. She appears to play the role of the husband whilst Macbeth seems far more obedient – like Shakespeare’s audience would have expected of a wife.

Quote:

“When you durst do it, then you were a man.”

3️⃣ She experiences the most dramatic change:

She shifts from being bloodthirsty, ruthless and ambitious to being remorseful and guilty. By Act 5, she is a shadow of her former self and she is so overwhelmed by her cruel actions that she hallucinates and commits suicide.

Quote:
“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!”

PS: I am running an Macbeth HALF TERM class on 29 October going over a GCSE model answer plus you’ll get a 3-page cheat sheet for your mocks: https://www.firstratetutors.com/october-literature

Happy studying! 😊