Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a man that is power hungry. He may have done this to emphasize his theme of power.One way in which Shakespeare has done this is in the use of imperative sentence and deviations of line structures.
“Sleek o’er YOUR rugged looks. BE BRIGHT AND JOVIAL among YOUR guest tonight”
At this point, Lady Macbeth is commanding Macbeth very subtlety as well as convincing Macbeth that he is in controll. This presents Lady Macbeth as a calm, controlled lady, a leader. This would make Macbeth the minority in the relationship. However this is when the tables flip as uses the same group of pronouns while interrupting her iambic pentameter.
“So shall I, love, and so, I pray, be YOU”
This shows that Macbeth is speaking the same tongue as his lady. This gives the audience a new interpretation of Macbeth as the connotions of Lady Macbeth speech is commanding and (at times) indirect or sly making her seem more powerful. Afer this, Macbeth makes many remarks of there unsafety and begins to release his darker hungry side.
“YOU MUST leave this”
States Lady Macbeth, without her subtlety or calmness but with directness and anger. She knows now that her husband is taking control of the relationship and she trying to fight back with rage and undeveloped answers. Not the connotation of a leader.
May 23, 2014 at 12:40 pm
Comments you received printed in class:
Well done Blert: You think about the connotations and effect of many different devices, referring back to how it affects our understanding of character.
To develop:
• Make sure to keep your main focus on the character at hand – you seem to have made more comments about Lady Macbeth than Macbeth. It would be easier to focus on the language Macbeth uses and look closely at that. You can refer to Lady Macbeth’s treatment of Macbeth as long as your main focus is HIS reaction.
• You don’t need to have your quotes so separate, you can embed them in the paragraph which you are on.
• Check the meaning of connotation in a dictionary and check you are using it where it is most appropriate.