 Hello and welcome to what will be a fairly brief lesson today, looking at Macbeth and more specifically what I would predict for this question and indeed what may come up for the June 2022 summer exams. Now, I wasn't actually originally going to do this lesson, okay? So I wasn't actually going to make predictions because sometimes making predictions and conjectures can be a little bit tricky. However, a lot of you guys pestered me especially on TikTok. So I decided to compile, as you can see behind me, literally all the questions that I've been asked in relation to the Macbeth exam between 2017 to 2021. And what I'm going to do is basically go over these questions as well as obviously which scenes that extract related to and then make some predictions related to what my conjecture is for this upcoming Macbeth exam, which is going to be in two days for when this video is released, okay? So today is Monday. I can't remember the specific day, but it's in two days this exam, okay? So guys, let's quickly begin by talking about Macbeth, okay? So remember that Macbeth, you either are going to get a character related question or a theme question. Rarely you might get both, but of course you're going to have the extract, which obviously shows you the character speaking. So specific chosen extracts. And then the question will either ask you to focus on theme or character, okay? So let's have a look at literally all the Macbeth questions that AQA has asked historically over time. Let's see if there's any trends, all right? So let's begin with the 2017 question. Remember, of course, you always get an extract, but the most important thing to remember with this question is you have to begin your discussion with an answer and evidence. I would suggest three pieces of evidence related to the extract, but you're always asked in a second bullet point to talk about the player as a whole. This is where your memorized quotes come in, okay? Now in the 2017 exam, you received an extract taken from Act 1, scene five. This is where Lady Macbeth has just read the letter from Macbeth, which has told him about the witch's prophecies, and she's wondering whether he's too full of the milk of human kindness in order to kill King Duncan. In other words, she's worried that he's too full of the milk of human kindness to kill the king and become king himself, okay? So obviously you can see that she's really ambitious, she wants Macbeth to influence her husband when he comes back from war to kill King Duncan in order to become the king. Now the question itself for this 2017 paper asked, how shakes represents ambition, okay? So you're given the Lady Macbeth extract, and of course, you then have to talk about how we can see that Lady Macbeth within the extract is ambitious, but equally when you then talk about elsewhere in the play, how is ambition presented? And of course, you can then relate this to Macbeth, okay? So of course, Macbeth initially becomes ambitious because the witches plant these seeds of ambition in his mind. But of course, you can also contrast him with either Banco or Macduff, who have the position to take power to take charge, okay? So of course, Macduff is the person that kills Macbeth at the end. He doesn't take the power for himself. He then hands the crown back over to Malcolm, showing that he's not ambitious. But of course, Banco also hears the same prophecy from the witches, okay? So Banco hears the witches prophesied to Macbeth, Hill Macbeth, Thane of Cordill, Thane of Glombs, and then of course, King hereafter. They tell him that his children will be kings, but Banco never acts on this, okay? So he never develops ambition. So that's what you could discuss if you were to get an ambition question. Of course, you want to talk about how Lady Macbeth, she sees her femininity as a sign of weakness. She is incredibly ambitious, which led many Jacobians to see her as the fourth witch. But of course, you also want to relate it to Macbeth, who then later becomes corrupted by ambition. And of course, Banco and Macduff, who never become ambitious. That's 2017 exam. Let's talk about the 2018 exam. Now you received an extract, or if you do sit this exam paper as part of your practice, you will see an extract taken from Act 1, Scene 3. This is right after the witches have prophesied, you know, Macbeth, who's going to be Thane of Cordill and then King. And of course, they've also prophesied that Banco, his children, will be kings. Now in the extract, Macbeth has just been named Thane of Cordill. Then Banco tells him, hey, the instruments of darkness tell us truths in order to misguide us. So Macbeth is basically kind of starting to become ambitious because one of the witches prophecies has come true. However, Banco tells him, hold on, hold on, you can't trust the witches. Okay. Now the question obviously asks how Shakespeare presents the attitudes of Macbeth and Banco to the supernatural. So this is a really interesting question that came up in 2018 because it combined theme, but also character, the theme being supernatural related to the witches related to also, for example, if you're talking about supernatural, you think about the hallucinations, these are supernatural elements within the play, the apparitions to that come to Macbeth in Act 4, Scene 1. But of course, in this question, you also were asked to contrast Macbeth's attitudes towards the supernatural versus Banco's attitudes towards the supernatural. Now, of course, within the extract, you want to talk about how Banco is very typical of Jacobean people. He doesn't believe that the witches, what they say is true, it should be trusted. And of course, also you can alternate between other referring to Jacobean, King James VI versus Elizabethan, okay, Queen Elizabeth, because Shakespeare lived through both monarchs. Anyway, here of course with this question, when you're thinking about Macbeth and Banco's attitude towards the supernatural, you simply just want to talk about related to the extract, three things which show that Banco is very mistrustful, whilst Macbeth is letting himself be influenced. But of course, when you're talking about elsewhere, definitely talk about how Macbeth's hallucination of Banco's dead ghost shows that he's been so influenced by the supernatural that he has betrayed his very close friend, whilst Banco actually in Act 3, Scene 1, when he reflects on everything that Macbeth has gotten, thou hast it now, King Caudal, Glamis, all right. He is showing that he's worried that Macbeth played most foully for it. In other words, he doesn't ever trust the supernatural. You want to talk about that. Let's look at the 2019 exam. So this exam in 2019 presented you with an extract taken from Act 1, Scene 2. This is when the captain is speaking. So, Macdonald, who was the previous Sane of Caudal, Macbeth evidently kills him in the captain's speech when he's reporting back to King Duncan. The captain says, oh my gosh, Valiant Macbeth, well, he deserves that name. He killed Macdonald, the Sane of Caudal who never met before, and he stabbed him from the nape to the chaps and then chopped his head off, pay it on the battlements, okay? So captain obviously sets up our expectation as the audience of Macbeth, this valiant knight who's amazing and so on, right? Now, the question says, how does Shakespeare present Macbeth as a violent character, okay? I put man here because it couldn't fit in the whole whiteboard. Anyway, so the question asks you to look at the extract, the captain's recollection of events, and we're asked to talk about how Macbeth is presented as a violent character. And of course, he is presented as a violent character within the captain's recollection of events, but we are supposed to admire it because he is protecting and fighting so violently for his king, King Duncan. However, this violence, you want to contrast it with later on, when he hires the murderers, and of course, also his violence, which is turned against his king, all of which become very negative, okay? So initially, the really positive traits in the sense that Macbeth uses his violence, his bravery, which is seen very positively by Jacobians, okay? Remember, Jacobians believed and really admired the violent qualities of knights fighting for the king. However, this violence is then turned in order to fill his own ambition, okay? And this, and of course, the more he increasingly becomes corrupted by ambition, the worse his violent gets, he becomes a tyrant, he misleads Scotland. Let's look at the 2020 question. 2020 is taken from Mat5 Scene 1. This is where Lady Macbeth has gone crazy, and she sees spots of blood outdone spot on her hands, okay? So she obviously becomes really guilty. The gravity of all her terrible actions catch up with her, and she sees spots of blood on her hands that obviously are no spots, because the doctor and the gentleman looking on her after she's sleepwalking. Now, this question asks you to, it gives you a statement. It tells you that Lady Macbeth is a female character who changes during the play. Do you agree? To what extent do you agree? And of course, she clearly does change, okay? So you want to agree with that kind of statement and talk about how she changes during the play, okay? She goes from being very ambitious, very bloodthirsty, you know, she's willing to even give up her gender if that means becoming powerful on sex me hair. So come the spirits that tend to mortal thoughts on sex me hair. However, you then want to contrast it with Act 5 Scene 1. Of course, the extracts that you'd be given and talk about how she's very penitent, very remorseful, and she sees the error in her ways, and also she's so sad that she's changed her husband in such a negative way. The 2021 exam presented you with Act 2 Scene 2. This is right after Macbeth has just killed King Duncan. Macbeth is very, very shocked. He's very traumatized. He has the daggers with him. And Lady Macbeth is annoyed. She's angry. She says, ah, infirm of purpose, give me the daggers, right? So she, she also tells him that the dead are butters pictures to the eye of childhood that fears a painter devil. In other words, she's mocking him and basically saying, how can you be so scared of seeing these blood of the king? You know, give me the daggers, go and wash your hands. Okay. A little water clears us of this deed. Now, this question tells you or asks you to talk about the relationship how Shakespeare presents a relationship to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This is a character question. And you have to talk about both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Of course, when you're talking about the extract itself, we can see that Lady Macbeth is very commanding. She's the dominant one in the relationship whilst Macbeth is the one that's very submissive. He follows her and he follows her within her plot. Of course, you want to contrast this with later on in the play where Lady Macbeth is totally sidelined by Macbeth. Okay. So by act five, scene one, when she's seeing these spots of blood on her hands, Macbeth has completely forgotten about her. He's so consumed with his ambition. And even when she dies now later on, I believe it's act five, scene five, when Satan tells Macbeth the queen, my Lord has died. He says she should have died hereafter. We can see that the relationship becomes very distant once Macbeth becomes completely corrupted by ambition. So these are the questions. Okay. And as I mentioned, if you look at the questions and I've highlighted or rather underlined the keywords within the question, so the 2017 question was related to theme. It was a theme question. It was to talk about, we're talking about ambition. The 2018 question asked you to talk about both characters. So Macbeth and Banquo, but the supernatural. Okay. So this was both a theme, but also mainly a character question as well. Okay. Because you're talking about two characters, how their attitudes are towards the supernatural. So you've got two theme questions in two years in a row, 2017, 2018. But we have a reference to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth also in 2017 and 18. Let's have a look at the 2019. So 2019 we're given the captain is of course not one of the main characters, but the main question asked you to focus on a character question. It's to do with Macbeth. How's he presented as a violent man? It's a character question. The 2020 question is a character question too. But in this case, it's Lady Macbeth. How she changes as a female character. And then the final 2021 exam is actually a character question too. Okay. So it's both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. So arguably for three years in a row, you had a Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and then a Macbeth and Lady Macbeth question. My suggestion, if I were to look at this kind of historical pattern is it's been about three years since you got a theme question. And the last three years were character questions related to the Macbeth's okay, are the Lady Macbeth or Macbeth's character. So my prediction would be that you might not get a Lady Macbeth or Macbeth question, unless a QA is feeling incredibly generous. But I would also think that because the last three years were mainly character question, they might actually revert to a theme question. Now my argument would be if you were to get a character question, you might very likely get a witch's question. Okay. So remember that the witches, Banquo and King Duncan are three of the other main characters that you should anticipate questions on. And I would think that the witches are probably a very popular character that maybe a QA might be anticipating giving you if you were to get another character question for the fourth year in a row. I wouldn't bank on either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth, I would probably bank more on the witches if I were in your position revising this. However, I would also argue if it's not a witch character question, you might actually get a supernatural character question, okay, or rather a supernatural theme question. In other words, you might be asked or given, you know, one of the supernatural scenes, right? So either act one scene one when we see the witches act one scene three when this we see them again and the obviously prophesying to Macbeth and Banquo. Of course, we've got the apparition scenes in act four, scene one, or you could anticipate getting either the floating dagger scene. This is when Macbeth sees a floating dagger before he kills King Duncan. You could also anticipate maybe if it's a supernatural question, Macbeth seeing the dead ghost of Banquo. And of course, you might also anticipate, which I think is a very low chance, okay, because it's just two years ago, but you might get a spots of blood Lady Macbeth question, okay, but my anticipation would be you could either get a witch's question or a supernatural theme question. Okay, that's my anticipation. So I'm going to do is I'm going to just present you with a quick plan if you were to get so I'm going to make the bold statement that you might get a supernatural or witches question. Okay, so either supernatural question, which is theme, or witches question, which is character. Okay, now what I'm going to do is just present to you what you can write about if you were to answer either the witches or the supernatural, because of course the two sides of the same coin. Given that I've made the incredibly bold claim in the bold conjecture that you might get a witches or supernatural question for the 2022 summer exams, what I do want to do is present to you with a plan and key quotes you can consider if you were to write either a question on the witches or supernatural because remember that the witches and supernatural are simply two sides of the same coin. Now, if you were to, you know, for your upcoming exams get a witches or a supernatural question, literally these are the five talking points as well as the quotations that you should consider when writing about either the witches or the supernatural. Okay, now the first point to discuss to consider is remember that Shakespeare wants to use this play as a warning that the supernatural is evil. They are agents of chaos. Shakespeare begins at one scene one with the witches to indicate to us that witches cause unnecessary chaos, unnecessary turmoil, they just cause wanton destruction. The quote that illustrates that they are the agents of chaos, they are not good. Okay, witches and witches were never seen by Shakespeare's audience as good. Okay, it's not Harry Potter. This is Shakespeare's audience. The first quote that illustrates this is when the witches say in that one scene one, fair is far and foul is fair. In other words, they are about to cause, you know, evil to be good and good to be evil. Okay, which obviously shows that they are agents of chaos. And also when the witches encounter Macbeth in banquet, they say hell Macbeth, dot, dot, dot, so ellipsis, Thane of Glamis, ellipsis, Thane of Cordo, ellipsis, king here after. They cause unnecessary chaos once peace returns to Scotland after Macbeth has won the war for King Duncan. The second quote you want to discuss when considering a question on either the witches or supernatural. Remember that I use the word supernatural interchangeably. Okay, so when I say supernatural, you can also substitute that if you've got a witch's question. So just say witches. Okay. Now the second point you want to consider when when talking about the supernatural or how the witches are presented is they are presented by Shakespeare as revealing what we call half truths. Now this is such an important point to remember with Macbeth. A lot of students make the error when they're talking about either the witches or the supernatural. They say things like the witches like to Macbeth. The witches lie and cause problems. Remember that the witches never ever lie. What they do is they just reveal partial truths to Macbeth. And then Macbeth acts on this partial information. And this leads him to make a series of mistakes, but they never once lie to him. Okay, they only reveal partial truths. And then Macbeth acts on this partial truth and makes a series of errors. Now the quotes you want to illustrate that illustrates this is obviously when Banco tells Macbeth and he warns him not to trust the witches. He tells him instruments of darkness tell us truths. In other words, the instruments of darkness, i.e. the witches are the supernatural. The show us just half truths. They show us partial truths before they then misguide us and cause our own downfall. And of course, the very classic, the perfect example of the witches revealing half truths. And in this case, the apparitions is when Macbeth is told, none of woman born shall harm Macbeth. Technically, a lot of Jacobians and Elizabethans, people during Shakespeare's time, believed that women who were born through a Caesarean or a C-section, not born through the birth canal were not naturally born. Okay, they weren't born of women. However, obviously people who were born through the birth canal through the natural way were of woman born. So technically the witches weren't lying to him. Technically the apparitions weren't lying to him, but they didn't tell him the full truth. Okay, so of course that's why this none of woman born quote is so important. The third thing you want to talk about if you're writing either about the witches or supernatural is how they are illustrated as reversing the natural order. Remember that the witches and the supernatural are bad because the reverse nature, okay? Everything becomes topsy-turvy. Unnatural things happen whilst natural things stop happening. Now the key scene to consider which illustrates the reversal of the natural order is when the old man is speaking to Ross a nobleman. So this is after King Duncan has died, the old man is saying, look, I've lived for a long time. Three score and ten I have lived, right? However, I've never seen all of these weird things happening. And he tells Ross a falcon ellipsis mousing owl hawked at. In other words, he says that a bird of prey, a predator like a falcon, was killed by an owl which is weaker than it. Okay, he's saying really weird things are happening. You know, it seems that the supernatural order has taken over because very strange things against nature are happening. The prey is eating the predator. Equally, Ross agrees and he says that Duncan's horses dot dot dot against obedience flung their stalls. In other words, King Duncan's very well trained horses went against the nature and just stop listening to humans, stop listening to any type of instruction. Again, the natural order has been reversed. The fourth point you want to consider when writing about either the witches or supernatural is they cause intense feelings of guilt and remorse. In fact, Lady Macbeth becomes so intensely remorseful and guilty that she ends up killing herself. Okay. Now the quotes you want to illustrate that want to talk about that illustrate the witches and the supernatural cause intense guilt and remorse is of course the dagger scene when Macbeth sees a floating dagger. Macbeth seen Banco's dead ghost and of course Lady Macbeth seen spots of blood on hands all three hallucinations. So the first one when Macbeth sees a floating dagger, he states nature seems dead and wicked dreams abuse the curtain sleep. In other words, he's saying that you know, when I'm seeing this floating dagger, considering what I'm about to do, I might literally never be able to sleep again. I'm going to have so much paranoia. But most importantly, as I'm about to commit this crime against God, nature seems to be completely dead, right? So nothing is moving. And it seems that witchcraft is celebrating this terrible action. The next quotation in which illustrates this that the supernatural or the witches cause intense guilt and remorse is of course when Macbeth tells the ghost of Banco never shake that glory locks at me again here. He's really guilty says that can't not say I did it. Never shake that glory locks at me. In other words, you can see that he's become very guilty about having killed Banco but also increasingly paranoid that his son Fleance will come back and kill him. And finally, when Lady Macbeth sees spots of blood on her hands and she's very, very horrified. Okay. And of course, this is an hallucination. She says outdown spot. This is an exclamatory sentence. Of course, this illustrates that the supernatural causes intense feelings of guilt and remorse. The final thing that you want to say if you're either writing about the witches or the supernatural is that the supernatural always betray those who trust the supernatural. They even trigger Macbeth's fatal flaw, his hamshire of ambition. Okay. If Macbeth didn't become ambitious, he would have just been a very admired night. He would have, you know, lived a very long life serving King Duncan, but of course the witches cause this fatal flaw, the corrupt and also the supernatural corrupts us. Okay. And once they've corrupted us, they then end up betraying us. Okay. Now, the quote that illustrates this is when Macbeth in act five realises and he recognises that he probably might die and he says out, out brief candle here. He's talking about his brief life after trust in the supernatural. But of course, just as when Macduff reveals to him that he was not of woman born, Macbeth realises, oh, I'm about to die. And then he says, I hope nobody will ever believe the supernatural. Nobody will ever make a choice like me in believing the witches because this is going to cause your destruction. And he says, be these juggling fiends no more believed fiends means devils. Okay. So he realises that the witches are devils. And then Macduff, obviously kills him and chops his head off, puts it on a pike, just like the way Macbeth had chopped McDonald's head off per on a pike. Okay. So of course, here we can see that when discussing other the witches or the supernatural, they betray, it betrays and causes and triggers fatal flaws within the characters that trust the supernatural and the witches. Okay. So that's really it. If you were to write about the witches and supernatural, that's what I think will come up. But of course, obviously, do try and consider revising for the other key characters. Okay. And also the other themes. Thanks so much for listening.