How Does Shakespeare Present Violence in Macbeth?
Student Essay 30/30
I’m writing a guide in which I look at student exam answers to the Macbeth extract question for AQA.
Most students do much worse writing about the extract first. It is a terrible way to structure an exam question.
The very best students can make this work, especially, as here, the extract appears toward the beginning of the play. Because the best way to write an essay is to move through the play chronologically. There are lots of reasons for this, which I’ll go through in a later post.
The 30/30 Essay
Shakespeare portrays Macbeth’s violence in this extract and the play as a whole, offering us HYPERBOLIC and graphic description. When faced with a problem, Macbeth’s first thoughts always appear to be violent.
The captain in this extract portrays Macbeth wielding a sword which appears to be designed for murder, “with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution.” The speed of his fighting is conveyed with “smoked”, and the “execution” is so sudden that we can imagine smoke literally rising from his sword. Our first impression of Macbeth is that he kills enthusiastically. Its “brandished steel” portrays how well suited Macbeth is to battle, which suggests he has always been predisposed to violence. We understand that Macbeth’s violence is admirable and a sign of his bravery. The effect of Macbeth’s violence is to exhaust his enemies, so that they were “as two spent swimmers that do cling together”. The verb “cling” implies their desperation.
We understand what a powerful warrior Macbeth must be, and that he uses his violent skill loyally to fight for Scotland. The captain calls him “brave Macbeth” to emphasise how his violence makes him a superior warrior. This loyalty is honourable. Shakespeare glorifies Macbeth at the beginning of the play to prepare for the shocking CONTRAST of his downfall. Macbeth has a dramatic effect on others, as we see when he exhausts the army, like “two spent swimmers”.
Initially, therefore, Macbeth’s violence is a sign of his skill and loyalty to King Duncan and protect his country. The description that he “unseamed him from the nave to th’ chaps” is graphically violent, but Macbeth’s enthusiasm is portrayed as loyalty to Duncan. He basically rips people apart to be sure they are totally dead. He wants to be certain he has performed his role properly.
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