Reading and Literature Studies · Reading Like a Grade 10 Critic: Literature, Information and ShakespeareMacbeth, Part 4: Critical Lenses, Evaluation and Connections
1.8 1.7 1.5About 70 minutes
Learning goals- I can analyse how Macbeth presents power, gender and class.
- I can explain how Shakespeare's context and audience shaped the play.
- I can evaluate how believable and effective the play is, using criteria.
- I can connect Macbeth to other texts, the world and my own experience.
Words to know
critical lens
A particular focus (such as gender, power or class) used to analyse a text.
patron
A powerful person who supports an artist.
source
An earlier text a writer draws on.
masculinity
Ideas about what it means to be a man, which differ across times and cultures.
propaganda
Information shaped to promote a particular political view.
perspective
The point of view a text comes from.
Hook: who writes the history?
There's an old saying: History is written by the winners. At the end of Macbeth, the new king, Malcolm, calls Macbeth this dead butcher and Lady Macbeth his fiend-like queen. That's the winner talking. Is it the whole truth? In this lesson you'll read Macbeth critically: who has power in the play, how women and servants are shown, and why Shakespeare told the story the way he did. Then you'll evaluate the play and connect it to your world.
Lens 1: power and politics
Shakespeare was not writing history. He was writing for an audience that included King James I, whose family, the Stuarts, claimed descent from Banquo. In Shakespeare's main source, Holinshed's Chronicles, Banquo is Macbeth's partner in Duncan's murder. In the play, Banquo is innocent and noble, and the witches show a line of eight kings descended from him. Making the king's ancestor a hero was politically wise.
The real King Macbeth ruled Scotland from 1040 to 1057, after Duncan I was killed in battle. Historians describe a reign that lasted many years and was not obviously the bloody tyranny of the play.
Worked exampleLet's analyse a perspective in the play
Analyse the perspective behind Shakespeare's portrayal of Banquo, and comment on what it shows about power.
- Evidence from the play: Banquo resists temptation (I fear / Thou play'dst most foully for 't) and is murdered by Macbeth. In 4.1 the witches show eight kings from his line, with Banquo's ghost pointing to them as his own.
- Evidence from context: in Holinshed, Banquo helps kill Duncan. King James, the play's royal patron, claimed descent from Banquo.
- Perspective: the play takes the perspective of the Stuart monarchy: the king's ancestors are good, and killing a king is the worst crime (James himself had survived the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a plan to blow up Parliament while he was there).
- Question raised about power: writers who depend on powerful patrons may shape stories to please them. Readers should ask who benefits from a version of history.
The play's noble Banquo reflects the perspective of King James's monarchy; changing the source to flatter a powerful patron raises questions about who shapes history and why.
Lens 2: gender
- The witches are women who live outside society's rules, and the play links them to evil. In James's Scotland, real people, mostly women, were accused and executed as witches; James himself took part in witch trials in the 1590s. A critical reader can ask how the play's portrayal might have reinforced dangerous beliefs of its time.
- Lady Macbeth calls on dark spirits to remove her feminine qualities so she can be cruel (unsex me here, 1.5), and she challenges her husband's manhood. The play seems to ask whether power and violence were seen as masculine, and what happens to a woman who seeks power.
- Macduff offers another idea of masculinity. Told to Dispute it like a man, he answers: I shall do so; / But I must also feel it as a man (4.3).
Lens 3: class and comic characters
The curriculum asks you to consider the fairness of depictions of comic characters in a Shakespeare play. The Porter in 2.3 is a servant who is drunk, rude and comic. Some readers see him as a stereotype of the lower classes: there to be laughed at. Others point out that he has some of the sharpest wit in the play, and that his joke about being the porter of hell-gate is the truest description of Macbeth's castle. A fair analysis looks at both.
Worked exampleLet's evaluate the play's effectiveness
Evaluate how effectively Macbeth makes its main character's downfall believable. Use criteria and evidence.
- Criterion 1, motivation: a believable downfall must grow from the character's choices. Evidence: Macbeth's black and deep desires (1.4) appear before his wife's pressure, and he admits his vaulting ambition (1.7). His later murders are driven by fear (full of scorpions). The motivation is clear and consistent.
- Criterion 2, gradual change: Evidence: he moves from hesitation (We will proceed no further) to planning murder alone (3.1) to ordering the murder of Macduff's wife and children (4.2). Each step makes the next one easier: I am in blood / Stepp'd in so far...
- A weakness: the action moves very fast; the whole tragedy can feel compressed, and some readers find Lady Macbeth's collapse sudden because she does not appear at all in Act 4.
- Judgement: the downfall is mostly believable because Shakespeare shows Macbeth's thinking at each stage through soliloquies, though its speed leaves some changes (especially Lady Macbeth's) for the audience to infer.
Mostly believable: clear motivation and step-by-step escalation, shown through soliloquies; the fast pace and Lady Macbeth's unseen decline are weaknesses.
Extending your understanding: connections
- Text-to-text: like Icarus (Lesson 10), Macbeth ignores limits and falls. Like the speaker of The Road Not Taken (Lesson 4), he makes a choice in which way leads on to way, though his choices lead to murder, not a quiet sigh.
- Text-to-world: leaders who seize or keep power through fear, propaganda that rewrites history, and people who justify wrongdoing one step at a time all appear in the news and in history.
- Text-to-self: have you ever told one small lie that needed a bigger lie to cover it? That is Macbeth's pattern on a small scale. Use the So what? test to bring each connection back to the play.
Just for funFunny-but-true: according to a chronicle written in his own century, the real King Macbeth travelled to Rome in 1050 and gave money to the poor there. Not quite the dead butcher Shakespeare's Malcolm describes.
Hands-on activityPut Macbeth on trial
You need: one or more family members, a free copy of the play, and index cards or paper.
- Hold a short mock trial: Who is most responsible for Duncan's death: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth or the witches?
- Each person takes a side and prepares three pieces of evidence, quoted with act and scene, on cards.
- Take turns: each side presents for two minutes, then answers one question from the other side.
- Afterward, write a paragraph that evaluates which side's evidence was strongest, and one critical question the trial raised (for example: Why are the witches, women outside society, so easy to blame?).
What to look for: quotations with act and scene, arguments that answer the other side, and a written evaluation that names criteria for strongest evidence.
Your turn
1How is Banquo different in Holinshed's Chronicles and in Shakespeare's play?
In Holinshed, Banquo helps murder Duncan; in Shakespeare, he is innocent and noble.
2Why might Shakespeare have changed Banquo?
King James I, his royal patron, claimed descent from Banquo; making Banquo noble flattered the king.
3What does Lady Macbeth's When you durst do it, then you were a man suggest about her view of masculinity?
She links being a man to daring violence and ambition.
4How does Macduff's I must also feel it as a man challenge that view?
He shows that feeling grief is part of being a man; strength can include emotion.
5Give one argument that the Porter is depicted unfairly, and one that he is not.
Unfair: he is a drunk servant used for laughs, a lower-class stereotype. Fair: he is witty, and his hell-gate joke tells a deep truth about the castle.
6What perspective does Malcolm's phrase this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen represent?
The winner's perspective: the new king's judgement, which leaves out the complexity the audience has seen.
7Make a text-to-self connection to Macbeth's I am in blood / Stepp'd in so far and apply the So what? test.
Sample: Once I told a small lie, then had to lie again to cover it. So what? It helps me see that Macbeth's murders follow the same pattern: each crime makes going back feel harder than going on.
More practice: warm-up
1When did the real King Macbeth rule Scotland?
2What was Shakespeare's main source for Macbeth?
3What was the Gunpowder Plot (1605)?
A plan to blow up Parliament while King James was there.
4In which scene does Lady Macbeth say unsex me here?
5Who calls Macbeth this dead butcher?
More practice: on your own
1Why should readers be cautious about treating Macbeth as history?
Shakespeare changed his sources for dramatic and political reasons (Banquo's innocence, Duncan murdered in his sleep); the real Macbeth ruled for 17 years and Duncan died in battle.
2How might the play's witches have affected attitudes in Shakespeare's time?
Showing witches as truly evil and powerful could have reinforced belief in witchcraft at a time when real people, mostly women, were being accused and executed as witches.
3Evaluate one strength of Macbeth as a play that engages audiences.
Sample: dramatic irony (the audience knows the murders while other characters don't) creates constant tension, for example at the banquet when Macbeth wishes Banquo were present.
4Name a text-to-text connection between Macbeth and the Icarus myth and explain it.
Both show overreaching ambition and a fall: Icarus flies too close to the sun; Macbeth seizes a crown he wasn't meant to have and is destroyed.
5What question about power does Malcolm's final speech raise?
Who gets to define the past: the new ruler's judgement becomes the official story, which may simplify or leave out the truth.
Challenge
1Write a paragraph analysing how Macbeth presents the connection between gender and power, using Lady Macbeth and Macduff. Comment on one question it raises for readers today.
Sample: Macbeth repeatedly ties manhood to violence. Lady Macbeth asks spirits to 'unsex' her so she can be cruel, then taunts her husband: 'When you durst do it, then you were a man.' The play shows where this idea leads: to murder, guilt and collapse. Macduff offers a different model; urged to 'Dispute it like a man', he replies, 'I must also feel it as a man.' The contrast raises a question still debated today: is strength the willingness to dominate, or the courage to feel?
2Argue whether Shakespeare's changes to the historical record make the play less valuable. Consider purpose and audience.
A strong answer recognizes the play is drama, not history: its purpose is to explore ambition, guilt and power, and the changes serve those themes and its royal audience. It may still note the cost: generations of audiences remember the real Macbeth as a villain. Look for a judgement that weighs purpose against accuracy.
3Choose a director's decision (show Banquo's ghost on stage, or leave the chair empty) and evaluate which is more effective, with reasons.
Visible ghost: the audience shares Macbeth's terror and guilt. Empty chair: the audience sees what the guests see, so Macbeth looks mad; this stresses that the ghost may be a product of guilt. A strong answer chooses one, uses criteria (effect on audience, fit with themes) and acknowledges the other option's strength.
Quiz
1. In Holinshed's Chronicles, Banquo...
2. Shakespeare's noble Banquo most likely reflects...
3. I must also feel it as a man is said by...
4. Which statement best shows critical literacy about the witches?
5. Malcolm's description this dead butcher represents...
6. A strong evaluation of whether Macbeth's fall is believable would...
What this lesson teaches: the final Macbeth lesson, covering ENG2D Reading 1.8 (critical literacy: perspectives and biases about power, gender and class, including the curriculum's example of how fairly comic characters are depicted in a Shakespeare play), 1.7 (evaluating the play's effectiveness with evidence) and 1.5 (extending understanding through connections).
How to help at home:
- Join the mock trial; teens love arguing with adults when they have the evidence.
- Ask: "Whose version of events do we get at the end? Whose is missing?"
- Talk about leaders or events in the news that show ambition, fear or rewriting history.
Common difficulties:
- Treating the play as history. Separate the drama from the real Macbeth.
- Critical lenses becoming accusations. The goal is to explain how the text presents gender, class and power, with evidence, not to dismiss Shakespeare.
- Witch trials were real and many victims were women; discuss respectfully.
Facts used: In Holinshed's Chronicles (1587 edition), Banquo assists in Duncan's murder. James VI and I traced his Stuart ancestry to Banquo (a figure historians consider legendary). The historical Macbeth ruled 1040 to 1057; Duncan I was killed in battle in 1040. James was involved in the North Berwick witch trials of the early 1590s. The Gunpowder Plot was in November 1605. The chronicler Marianus Scotus, writing in the 11th century, records Macbeth's journey to Rome in 1050 and his gifts to the poor.