KNOWLEDGE

Macbeth

practice question 4

The question itself is shown below or you can download it as a PDF.

Starting with this extract, explore how Shakespeare presents ideas about masculinity in the play.

Write about

  • how Shakespeare presents ideas about masculinity in this extract

  • how Shakespeare presents ideas about masculinity in the play as a whole

Extract from Act 1 Scene 2

Sergeant          Doubtful it stood;
As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonald--
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villanies of nature
Do swarm upon him--from the western isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;
And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Showed like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak:
For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--
Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chaps,
And fixed his head upon our battlements.

Duncan  O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!

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Macbeth - Practice 3

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Macbeth - Practice 5