KNOWLEDGE
Macbeth
practice question 5
The question itself is shown below or you can download it as a PDF.
Starting with this speech, explore how Shakespeare presents the Macbeths’ relationship.
Write about
how Shakespeare presents the Macbeths’ relationship in this speech
how Shakespeare presents the Macbeths’ relationship in the play as a whole
Extract from Act 1 Scene 7
MACBETH Prithee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
LADY MACBETH What beast was't, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
MACBETH If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail.