Q1) Read Act 4, Scene 3 of Macbeth, from the beginning of the scene to “Yet grace must still look

so.” Using this extract as a starting point, discuss how far Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a cruel
tyrant.

A cruel tyrant could be defined as someone who uses their power to oppress and cause pain to
others, has no remorse, and acts for themselves rather than for the good of their people. In
‘Macbeth’, there is evidence that the main character is a tyrant, including his killing of innocent
people to keep his position as king. However, he does feel guilt about his bad deeds and he often
acts through fear, suggesting he is not wholly selfish and cruel. He is not simply a cruel tyrant,
therefore, but is also a flawed character who is easily controlled by his fears.

In Act Four, Scene Three, Malcom and Macduff describe Macbeth as a “tyrant” and discuss his
cruelty, saying that “Each new morn, / New widows howl, new orphans cry”. This shows that
Macbeth is causing misery and suffering to his subjects. The repetition of “new” emphasises that the
murders are happening regularly. Macbeth seems prepared to go to any length to hold power and is
willing to cause suffering to do so. At this point in the play, he is therefore behaving as a cruel tyrant.

Macduff shows how Scotland as a whole is suffering under Macbeth’s rule. He uses personification
when describing how heaven “yelled” in pain and sadness. This emphasises how the whole country
is being oppressed by Macbeth. Macbeth is clearly causing distress rather than acting for the good of
the country he rules, reinforcing the reader’s impression of him as a tyrannical ruler.

The most clear-cut example of Macbeth’s tyranny elsewhere in the play is when he hires two
murderers to ensure that Macduff’s wife and children are “Savagely slaughtered”, because the
witches’ apparition warns him to “beware Macduff”. The alliteration of “Savagely slaughtered” gives
the phrase a harsh tone that makes the murders seem especially aggressive and cruel, suggesting
that Macbeth’s decision to have them killed was inhumane. This shows how far he is driven by his
selfish desire to be king and by his need to destroy any threat to his power.

However, although some of the acts that Macbeth commits are undoubtedly tyrannical, he is deeply
troubled by what he has done. After murdering Duncan, it is clear that Macbeth feels very guilty. He
says “Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep,’ the innocent
sleep”. His rambling speech, with its repetition of “sleep”, shows that he is confused, upset and
plagued by guilt. The theme of hallucination and imagination, shown here in the voice Macbeth
hears, recurs throughout the play, usually as a sign of his troubled conscience. For example, after
having Banquo murdered, Macbeth sees his ghost at the banquet, showing that he is horrified at
what he has done. Macbeth’s remorse and regret suggest that he is not entirely a cruel tyrant.

Furthermore, as a brave man, unused to feeling fear, Macbeth is frightened of being thought weak,
cowardly or unmanly. It is this fear, at least in part, that drives him to acts of tyranny, rather than
just a desire to hurt others. At first, this is because Lady Macbeth questions his bravery and
manliness, and later because he questions it himself, and feels the need to prove himself. When
Macbeth is killed, the audience feels a mixture of relief, pity and regret. If he was purely a tyrant, his
death would come as a relief, so the audience’s reaction at this point demonstrates that his
character is more complex than this.

In summary, Macbeth often behaves in a cruel and tyrannical way. However, his guilt about his acts
of tyranny and the fact that he is driven to some of these acts through fear show that he is not a
straightforward cruel tyrant. Instead, he is a complicated character, driven by a mixture of motives
that are not always cruel or oppressive in their nature. These things together show that ultimately,
Macbeth is merely very human.
In Shakespeare’s eponymous tragedy ‘Macbeth’, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship is a complex
portrait of love, illustrating layers of utter devotion alongside overwhelming resentment. Though the couple
begins the play unnaturally strong within their marriage, this seems to act as an early warning of their
imminent and inevitable fall from grace, ending the play in an almost entirely different relationship than the
one they began the play with.

In the exposition of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth initially appear immensely strong within their
marriage, with Macbeth describing his wife as ‘my dearest partner of greatness’ in act 1 scene 5. The emotive
superlative adjective ‘dearest’ is a term of endearment, and acts as a clear depiction of how valued Lady
Macbeth is by her husband. Secondly, the noun ‘partner’ creates a sense of sincere equality which, as equality
within marriage would have been unusual in the Jacobean era, illustrates to a contemporary audience the
positive aspects of their relationship. Furthermore the lexical choice ‘greatness’ may connote ambition, and as
they are ‘partner(s)’, Shakespeare suggests that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are equal in their desire for power
and control, further confirming their compatibility but potentially hinting that said compatibility will serve as
the couple’s hamartia.

However, the strength of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship falls into a rapid downward spiral in the
subsequent scenes, as a struggle for power within the marriage ensues. This is evidenced when Macbeth, in
act 1 scene 7, uses the declarative statement ‘we will proceed no further in this business’. Here, Macbeth
seems to exude masculinity, embracing his gender role and dictating both his and his wife’s decisions. The
negation ‘no’ clearly indicates his alleged definitive attitude. However, Lady Macbeth refuses to accept her
husband’s rule, stating ‘when you durst do it, then you were a man’. She attempts to emasculate him to see
their plan through. The verb ‘durst’ illustrates the risk taking behaviour that Lady Macbeth is encouraging;
implying an element of toxicity within their relationship, and her harsh speech makes the cracks in their
relationship further visible to the audience. It is also probable that a contemporary audience would be made
severely uncomfortable in the presence of Lady Macbeth’s unapologetic display of power, and it is possible
that Shakespeare attempts to paint Lady Macbeth as the Machiavellian villain of the play, playing upon the
audience’s pre-determined fears of feminine power. Though Lady Macbeth appears to be acting entirely out of
self-interest, another reader may argue that she influences her husband so heavily to commit the heinous act
of regicide, as she believes that the crown may act as a substitute for the child or children that Shakespeare
suggests she and Macbeth have lost previously, and in turn better Macbeth’s life and bring him to the same
happiness that came with the child, except in another form.

As the play progresses, Shakespeare creates more and more distance between the characters, portraying the
breakdown of their relationship as gradual within the play but rapid in the overall sense of time on stage. For
example, Lady Macbeth requests a servant ‘say to the king’ Lady Macbeth ‘would attend his leisure/ for a few
words’. Here she is reduced to the status of someone far lesser than the king, having to request to speak to her
own husband. It could be interpreted that, now as king, Macbeth holds himself above all else, even his wife,
perhaps due to the belief of the divine right of kings. The use of the title rather than his name plainly indicated
the lack of closeness Lady Macbeth now feels with Macbeth and intensely emotionally separates them. This
same idea is referenced as Shakespeare develops the characters to almost juxtapose each other in their
experiences after the murder of Duncan. For example, Macbeth seems to be trapped in a permanent day, after
‘Macbeth does murder sleep’ and his guilt and paranoia render him unable to rest. In contrast, Lady Macbeth
takes on an oppositional path, suffering sleepwalking and unable to wake from her nightmare; repeating the
phrase ‘to bed. To bed’ as if trapped in a never-ending night. This illustrates to the audience the extreme
transformation Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship undergoes, and how differently they end up
experiencing the aftermath of regicide.

In conclusion, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth begin the play almost too comfortable within their marriage, which
seems to invite the presence of chaos and tragedy into their relationship. Their moral compositions are
opposing one another, which leads to the distancing and total breakdown of their once successful marriage
and thus serves as a warning to the audience about the effects of murder, and what the deadly sin of greed
can do to a person and a marriage.