Macbeth

Shakespeare presents Macbeth’s mental state as deteriorating after receiving news that his murderers had successfully killed Banquo, an example of this is shown in act 3 scene 4 “thou canst say I did it; never shake thy glory locks at me!” this implies that Macbeth is starting to hallucinate and sees Banquo’s ghost sitting on a stool this happens because he could no longer keep the guilt of killing his friend inside of him and goes into a state of guilt and shock. The words ‘gory locks’ represent Banquo’s hair which is possibly matted from blood and dirt. The blood on Banquo’s hair could represent Macbeth’s guilt in this scene. Shakespeare uses the technique of dramatic irony because the audience know what Macbeth has killed King Duncan and has sent murders to kill Banquo and his son Fleance yet most of the characters in the play don’t know that Macbeth has done this. However is Carol Ann Duffys poem stealing the character shows no guilt in any of his actions an example of this is found in stanza 5, “I stole a guitar and thought I might learn to play. I nicked a bust of Shakespeare once, flogged it.” I can infer from this that he doesn’t know right from wrong which is why he doesn’t have guilt for what he does. The ‘words flogged’ it present that he has no interest in anything that he steals he just does it because he doesn’t know better. This poem was written during the 1980’s which made problematic children at schools be excluded when do something bad. This was written to show that children will only get worse if they are excluded and that they should be disciplined in school.
Shakespeare presents Macbeth as paranoid after killing king Duncan and example of this is shown in act 2 scene 2, “But wherefore could not I pronounce amen? I had most need of a blessing and amen stuck in my throat” this conveys that he . Shakespeare uses repetition of the word amen to show that his mind is unstable as he is repeating the word and to show his reaction due to committing a...