The Ultimate Macbeth Analysis! ft. Mr Salles

welcome to another video you've got mr

everything english and we are three days

out three days out of your second

english literature exam and this exam

looks at shakespeare which is

predominantly your macbeth and romeo and

juliet and it looks like unseen poetry

now

based upon the title of this video and

probably the thumbnail of this video

you probably click on the video for

different reasons as your exams are so

close guys so close

you know we do what we can to help you

so we bring out one of the og's of

youtube english videos guys so today

guys we have mr sales and he will be

helping me

um go over

some stuff when it comes to macbeth

thank you very much for having me on

your channel i can't tell you how

excited i am

let's get into our first quotation which

you're going to be able to use

whatever the question is

what quotation have we got guys what

we're going through is the one that

makes you giggle we are going through

and sex me here now this is the

quotation that we've chosen

now there's many reasons why we chose

this quotation because there's a

gazillion others to choose from

guys this quotation can be used for so

many different questions for example

i'll give you guys one it can be used as

a straight shoe for the character of

lady macbeth

if you get any question at all when it

talks about the character of lady

macbeth

unsex me here is your best friend

because it always fits certain other

questions yeah there's going to be loads

aren't there so this happens

when she wants supernatural help to

unsex her so obviously that's going to

fit a question on the supernatural yeah

so guys you were supernatural you've got

lady macbeth then you've got the idea of

power and ambition her her drive because

this is what she's willing to do to get

what she achieves so you've got her as a

character you've got the supernatural

you've got ambition you've got her quest

for power which comes with her quest for

ambition so any others

yeah so interestingly you might think

well could i use that to talk about

macbeth

and actually you can because this gives

us a real insight into what their

marriage must be like and what it must

be like to be

the wife of a powerful man and why she

needs to change that yeah because you

could write a whole paragraph how

macbeth is a weak character because of

the type of woman that he has and that

then links to gender roles that the

links to patriarchy guys you see is like

a never ending spiral this quote guys

can be applied to so many different

questions

now so the first thing that we do with a

quote is we see what we can find in it

because i want to say guys what do you

elevens do sir every game to silence

yeah let me sit there sir i can't

analyze my quote and what do i say so

what'd you pick it for

all the quotes in the book why did you

pick one that you can't analyze so what

we have to do is first analyze the chord

together now what do we analyze it for

we analyze it for a02 so very briefly in

case someone here doesn't know what ao2

is guys in a nutshell

what would you say so ao2 is i wish you

hadn't asked me that so they're language

features language devices yeah so like

ao2 is looking at language structure and

form language is looking at language

devices verbs adjectives structure is

structured devices and form is looking

at what are you actually reading and how

does that affect so we're going to start

from language

any language devices in this course that

you think are worth talking about any

language device okay so i'll start off

with

the imperative here

so the imperative means she's giving a

command

so that's really interesting to us

because she's asking for supernatural

help but she's saying give it to me i'm

in charge should we think about it go

for it

[Laughter]

on the imperative here where she's

giving a command so using this

vocabulary is going to really help me

ask the examiner to give me high marks

she's been commanding okay what are you

going to go for now guys we're going to

analyze these later for now we're just

picking what can we find so let's start

with the prefix over here guys we are

looking at the word

the word but the part of the word

and this is the prefix so we have the

imperative we have the prefix

done for language because there's

probably a gazillion other language

devices but there's only so much you can

talk about in a paragraph so next on the

list is structure what can we find here

now i'll start with this guys for me

guys this quote is also foreshadowing

now what is it foreshadowing we can

discuss that again later but for now we

are looking at the idea that this quote

is for shadowing i'm actually going to

steal something that mr everything

english taught me earlier

and it's the juxtaposition so i'll just

put that here

and what's being juxtaposed here is the

letter that macbeth sent lady macbeth

and we're going to give you the full

analysis in a second brilliant for now

we're just going to pick and the last

thing guys is form

so is this a point

is oh well it does rhyme occasionally

what are we reading here what are we

looking at sir

i do make fun of this because at least

30 of students will write down in the

novel instead of in the play

guys when you perform for me as a

starting point what is this

what am i looking at and the basic form

of this as you all should know it is a

play and a play has an audience now we

again go into the detail later for now

this is what we're going to be

discussing

now let's go back to the language and

let's begin analyzing the imperative and

let's begin with the prefix so the flow

is yours you may begin with either or

i'll start with the imperative then

so

why is she commanding the witches to

give her help and the main reason

is that there is a sense of urgency

she knows that duncan is coming

and this is the only opportunity that

she's going to get to persuade macbeth

to kill duncan and in order to do that

she believes and we'll explore why later

but she needs to be unsexed and so it

has to happen now

because this opportunity will not come

again and on that urgency point you

could add the idea of desperation nice

because

it's urgent because she understands it

must happen tonight but that in turn

results in her becoming desperate

maybe if duncan wasn't coming tonight

maybe this wouldn't be said yes it's the

idea that listen if i'm going to do this

i've got to do this tonight i can't wait

so guys the urgency and the desperation

they go hand in hand

say at this point

would you say she's powerful or she's

weak

based upon this part of the quote the

idea that she's she's asking for this to

happen yes right here not right now

because you can argue

it can show strength or it can show

weakness yes which one would you go for

i would go for

if we go for the desperation yep she

wants to feel powerful but underneath it

she knows that this is probably going to

fail but it's just too big an

opportunity to pass up yeah and don't

you think right the fact that she's

asking for this

it shows she understands what she

currently is yes isn't enough yeah she's

too weak and she knows that yeah so she

understands that

her existing form if you like the woman

she currently is isn't enough yeah she

can't do what she needs to do as she

currently is so guys i would if i was

looking at this court right when it

comes to strength and power

and so on i will start off that she's

weak

but she's looking for power

she's searching for power and that in

itself emphasizes guys her state that

she begins with now that's that part

guys desperation right here right now

you can then if we ignore this part here

i think we're not done yet i think this

part here then shows her driving force

because

un sex me here

she's being asked to be unsexed and

she's being asked to get it done right

now right here

but why

what is the driving factor for this to

happen

yes duncan's coming but what does duncan

coming mean

yes macbeth wrote a her letter but what

do all those things mean for example mr

salaz might say to me he might give me a

letter that says one day you will have

one million subscribers

but to do that you must clean mr broth

how did i make that jump how did i make

that leap she reads a letter from

macbeth

and she becomes like this how does she

go from that

to this state right here right now

there's no there's not been an hour or

two of thinking there's not been a day

that's passed she goes from the letter

to this and guys

it reveals something for me

that's always been there

there's something that's always been

there for example if you did give me a

letter saying that to get a million subs

yeah i must keep mr buff i would say sir

you're mad what you talking about

because it's not in my mind yeah but

there's obviously something that's been

niggling there for a while and she's not

on a closet gonna grasp it this is it

this is my chance to get what i've

always wanted and what is that guys

that's her desire to be powerful and

that's her desire to achieve whatever

she's wanted to in life sorry for

rambling but that's that part of the

call

so we're gonna move on or should we

stick with this for a bit longer well

i'm gonna introduce something to back

you up there thank you so much because

it's a really useful thing to think why

does macbeth bother to write this letter

in the first place when he arrives

minutes after the letter

and it's because

he understands exactly what you've just

been describing he knows that lady

macbeth is going to come up with a plan

to kill duncan and he can't do it

himself

and so he knows he needs her help and

this letter is what's going to give her

that spark that urgency unsexed me here

to make me cruel enough

to kill the king that's a very good

point because i've made that point in my

own videos but i've never made the link

that he writes to letter knowing yeah

that he's coming soon after yeah that's

a very very good point uh he's almost

preparing preparing him yes for what he

needs

a separate point but this now links to

when people say that lady macbeth is the

driving force dude maybe macbeth was the

one that pulled her in the first place

yeah why the letter yeah he gets her

ready because he's the muscle she's the

brains like it yeah yeah so it's that

pull all right so what you asking for is

she asking for a gender change what is

she doing in this quote yes what's

happening yeah students often get

confused about this like

she's going to be a man this is mad but

no she isn't asking for a gender change

so you've got a really good way of

talking about this prefix take it away

mr everything english guys when we look

at something being undone like i always

think about unzipping your jacket it's

the reverse of what you've just done

so she's asking to be unsexed now guys

remember in english there's multiple

interpretations it's okay to have a

difference of opinion now when i look at

unsex i don't look at her saying

make me from a female into a man

it's her trying to reduce

all the qualities

that make a woman

exactly that a woman now stereotypically

mr sales what would you say

how men or women are different this may

go down a different line of conversation

but other women are more caring

yeah and definitely that's how they were

perceived then any other things that

were

different well they're nurturing they're

there to care for people but in order to

bring them up as moral

individuals um

that's that yeah and guys that's that

that's what she's saying get rid of my

ability to care so make me cruel and you

can link that to the quote which talks

about fill me with the diver's cruelty

then she talks about um

the idea of her milk

and how for a woman her her milk is a

symbol of that nurturing that nasa has

talked about that care that affection

get rid of it i don't want that so it's

getting rid of all those qualities that

make me a soft affectionate a caring a

nurturing woman and instead replace that

with the opposite so guys that is what i

will talk about when i'm doing unsex

so this yeah i'd go

into that and i'd talk about the social

expectations

uh

so

what society whoops can't talk and write

at the same time talk about the

expectations of women but also this

tells us what the expectations of men

are that they have to be cruel that they

have to be violent

and that helps us understand that beth

better which means we're also going to

be able to use this to talk about him

so it's really

useful to be able to talk about

society's expectations of both sexes

with this same quotation yeah perfect i

like that a lot

so that's the language

that's the language when it comes to

this particular quote you've got the

imperative and you've got the prefix

then we move on to the structure

now

where is the juxtaposition position

there yeah

so guys there we have the juxtaposition

and

earlier off camera uh me and mr salaz

were talking about this particular quote

and how it might be juxtaposition and

what i argue guys is that

in this quote juxtaposes

juxtaposition guys is when you have two

contrasting ideas for those you may not

know here guys this goes against this

contrast what she does earlier

when she first reads the letter she just

talks about macbeth the whole time yeah

he's too full of the milk of human

kindness and i'm gonna chastise him with

the valor of my tongue it's all about

him yeah nothing is about her

but this is the opposite

that's why it's juxtaposition for the

first time

since she finds out what needs to be

done

she recognizes herself in all of this

and what she needs to do so that's why i

would see it as juxtaposition i like to

when when you're writing about a

quotation it's a really good skill to be

able to link it to other other things

and what

if we talk about that letter

macbeth says to her

my dearest partner in greatness

and so greatness gives her the ambition

but he also calls her a partner

and says we're in this together and i

think that's what leads to her now

thinking about herself as an equal to

macbeth yeah and guys

that

and that i always use the word catalyst

yeah and we were talking about earlier

like i'm not a scientist but a catalyst

is something that speeds up her reaction

and that what mr just mentioned is that

that gets her going because for now for

once in her life she's starting to see

herself not as a

a a trophy to her husband but she's his

partner on this venture and that's what

starts to speed up and create a

character who realizes that hold on a

second

this is what macbeth's lacking but now

this is what i'm lacking and if we can

both improve then together we can be a

super power company because that's what

i call them guys i call lady macbeth and

macbeth a power couple up to f3 and then

it kind of changes but up to act three

guys they're our ultimate power couple

so guys we've got language language

structure and i think we had structural

rehearsal we had four shadows yeah

what would you say is foreshadowing

um well

this is foreshadowing her ultimate

failure so when we see her in the

sleepwalking scene

she keeps referencing lots of feminine

imagery so she starts talking about

perfumes of arabia

she starts talking about the thing of

fife had a wife

she's thinking about femininity and of

course she's filled with guilt about

what she's done

and

part of that guilt isn't just that she's

going to go to hell it's that she's gone

against her own sex so shakespeare is

portraying her at the end as regretting

this action she was so urgent about

and that's one of the reasons society

punishes her

through death yeah and i

on adding on to that point

this quote then guys it gives her a full

sense of security

and that's why she becomes like that yes

because she never wasn't sexed yeah it

never happened yes she was always that

woman that kid hence why she committed

suicide hence why she she guys she

crashes because she begins to think yeah

now i'm on second but it was always

there yes it was always there guys

what's the performance a performance can

only last for so long

she performs this

she performed this unsexed version of

herself but sooner or later the cracks

begin to show

but

also adding on to the foreshadowing

don't you think it foreshadows that she

understands the task at hand

and the importance of that task because

she knows what she has to do

this is not no

small

request if you like

she understands that for me to become

powerful for me to for us to be partners

in greatness

a lot has to change yes and guys is

foreshadowing her understanding the task

that she

must now go on

i do feel sorry for her though

yeah i've got a lot of scientists i just

yeah people tend to hate ladybug right i

kind of swear for you because

what the witches do to macbeth macbeth

does to her okay like he isn't he yeah

he they they manipulate him he

manipulates her yeah and it's quite

unfortunate yeah because

she

decides to give everything up yes for

power yes for ambition

now guys this is just interpretation i'm

not saying she's in love with macbeth

but maybe a little bit before her

husband

maybe just a tiny bit you can argue that

because

in her pursuit of all of this

she understands that she'll become

powerful and also with macbeth but

unfortunately based upon the social

expectation and the gender role of the

time macbeth can keep that role for

longer because in society a man was

cruel a man was strong a man was brave

but she crashes yes when does she

disappear in the play after actually

yeah

he he deliberately stops sleeping with

her which is why we get the sleepwalking

scene he's not actually with her yeah um

and he the key moment is when he says um

be innocent of the knowledge dearest

chuck and he won't tell her about

killing banquo and he cuts her off

yeah and it's that point isn't it so who

uses who yeah it's that debate yeah

because based upon that

maybe she was the one that was used i

agree with you with mr mcmahon okay guys

so that was the language that was the

structure now we move on to the form

that is the third element of ao2 now the

form guys is the idea of it being a play

and it being an audience and how do you

link all this stuff

to it being a play

sir

you said you said a very good point

earlier so one of the key things here

when you watch the play in production

and you should go and see if you get the

chance is lady macbeth is often played

as a highly desirable sexual woman who

uses her sexuality in part to persuade

her husband to kill duncan she isn't

just a kind of cruel figure who's

exploiting him by belittling his

masculinity and undermining him she does

that as well

but she's also incredibly sexual in the

way that she approaches him and often

it's staged in that way so that we can

understand that beth's desire to please

his wife as a partner because he's so

powerfully attracted to her and that

happens even after she says on sex me

here yeah and a lot of that discussion

it goes further under the gender roles

because guys remember

an audience watching this play

they would come from fixed roles if

you're a man you must do this this is

this if you're a roman you must do this

this this this

shakespeare in this play from the very

beginning from act one scene one with

the witches yes to act one scene five

very quickly

and very early on he tips gender roles

upside down

and all of this i think we underestimate

the role of the supernatural

because the supernatural is what

shakespeare uses to explore expose the

flawed society yeah he uses the

supernatural to show us that look at how

women are expected to be look how men

are expected to behave through the

witches he shows us that as a man when

you're given a little bit of power you

latch on to it as a woman they are they

they are dying for recognition they are

dying for power so another point about

the audience is that for that audience

for when it comes to a play imagine them

sitting there and you've got this

spectacle you've got women with bids

yeah you've got you've got lady macbeth

begging to to to reduce everything that

makes her female and those values she

was getting rid of where did they come

from they came from the very people

sitting in that audience because the

values were created by society

so it's a massive massive guys challenge

to the norms of gender in society

this is quite a good analysis what do

you think yeah i think that's going to

get everybody to a great nine

plagiarism plagiarism plagiarism don't

watch this video i don't use these

all ideas

guys ao3 so a01 guys was the reference

ao2 was us talking about the language

the structure and the form

803 is the context and when we say

context sir do we talk about mr salis

how many kids shakespeare had and what

university he went to yeah

so typically what happens is students go

oh yeah i know i've got to put con

context in here and they write a

paragraph of context which gets

absolutely no money to think about

context is

what can i include that will help me

with the interpretations i've come up

with so you only pick the stuff that's

relevant

so pick something

and this is going to be a no-brainer

the question

the one context that comes up in every

text or 99.9 percent or text starts with

p starts i give you a clue does hit the

patriarchy

guys patriarchy patriarchy patriarchy if

you've watched enough of my videos you

know guys i always say

the majority of texts that we do for

english uh literature when it comes to

19th century when it comes to

shakespeare it comes with a modern text

patriarchy or a patriarchal society

will always be there now patriarchy guys

as a as a base point as a very basic

analysis is people say when men are

dominant in society but it's this

dominance in all facets is through the

media through the education to the

governance and this in turn

has an impact on the women who become

sexualized objects for example so for

example if you want to sell a car what

you do you put a woman on the bonnet

that's the fruits of a patriarchal

society

now

how are we linking patriarchy

to this how are we linking patriarchy to

this how does this quote

show the show we show the maybe the

danger or the problems

of living in a patriarchal society

here's a few angles the first angle the

first angle guys you want to come to

is it shows us and this this is your

clay obvious point it shows the problems

of a patriarchal society it shows you

what kind of people patriarchy produces

it produces people who can never be

comfortable in their own skin if you're

a man you're searching for that yeah

kind of strong powerful courageous brave

macbeth that's what you're looking for

and if you're a woman

as you are you better be beautiful

because if you're not beautiful then

you're completely stuck

so it produces women

who are willing to go to all lengths

because in a patriarchal society to be

powerful they must be masculine

what do you think sir yeah i totally

agree with that um if we want to link

the patriarchy to the structure of the

play

he starts with the witches in order to

say that look

gender is a major theme of my play and

that's why i'm starting with these

witches who need power because they are

not beautiful deliberately described as

ugly

and the other bit of contextual

information that lady macbeth introduces

is that her baby has died and we can

even infer that she's still lactating

she's still producing that breast milk

because the baby has recently died and

that also helps explain

why she wants power in another form

because society says

you've got to give beth an air and

you've got to become a mother and she's

failed to do that and because she's

failed to do that that drives her desire

to become a queen to get power in other

ways i like that and again making links

across the text guys yeah that point

that i would just play by mrs alice goes

straight back there as well yeah the

idea that she's failed him in one place

but now let me try to make it successful

in the other

another thing my patriarchy is i would

argue that macbeth is also a victim of

patriarchy

in this text

and the reason i was saying macbeth is a

victim of patriarchy is because

unfortunately and like this happens in

the world today as well

unfortunately as a man he's bought in to

all those catchphrases if you like so

both of them together they try to live

up

to expectations that are really

impossible to me

and i think shakespeare hits the nail on

the head

through the witches the witches are

literally walking talking

problems of patriarchy yeah from

literally from the way they talk from

the way they dress from the way they

look from the way they behave

they are the product of a patriarchal

society

and that's the first context

that you can link you to the second one

guys this is halley's what do you think

freud should be bringing a bit of freud

go for some aid to get get your freud in

now guys this one

you can use it all of you can use it i

think it's quant i think it's pretty

solid context yes that every student can

use guys the next one right you can talk

about

freud and you can talk about the idea so

mr sanders if this building was on fire

what would you do

what would what would be if this

building was on fire right now

if you see flames around there what

would you do this is like sas

the window

then i'd take your camera

take the valuables uh but we'd save each

other's lives because we're noble and

then we'd save the money and how did you

behave when you crossed the road

what are you doing do you ever cross

throw with your eyes closed

i i hope you say no

i've never done that

now guys why am i asking these questions

because as human beings we have natural

instincts survival all of us want to

survive so for example if somebody

punches you your reflex is to move no

one even if you haven't been taught how

to draw your punch your reflex is to

move when you're young guys i remember

when a dog chased me i would run 100

miles per hour i would jump over walls

that are like seven foot tall

what is it guys we all have natural

instincts survival is a natural instinct

what instinct is she displaying here

guys what instinct is she displaying

here there are three instincts that we

look at survival then you have the idea

of worship everyone worships something

doesn't mean you worship god some people

worship money some people

worship ambitions

power sorry some people are slaves to

their desires and that's that here guys

she when you look at her it fully argue

that lady macbeth has become a slave to

her desire for power and she is willing

to do whatever it takes now that links

to the super ego and the ego but forget

that for now for this context just talk

about the idea of the id and how she

becomes a slave to her to her innate

desire

we all have desires i wanna i'm hungry

for example if i get hungry i can either

walk into a shop and steal the food or i

can get the food wait in line and pay

for my food we all have desires how you

fulfill them differs and that's what

separates maybe the good from the bad

she has a desire to be powerful

she has the desire to become the queen

to make her husband powerful

but

her id is so consumed with what she

wants that she can't see since and

therefore she's willing to do whatever

it takes

and this is what leads to her ultimate

downfall because

at this moment in time she's so consumed

by her id she has the the idea of a

conscience isn't infinitely yeah but

later in acts five when her conscience

comes into play

she crumbles and she crashes

anything else you want to add in peter's

well i like your idea of the id so my

last idea will be to try and link that

to macbeth yes so that you can also use

this in a macbeth question um so he's

very slightly different because you

talked about his conscience and that

conscience comes up all the time so this

has now given me a way of interpreting

the imaginary dagger scene that i

haven't thought of before but you've

just taught me

this is

him giving freedom to his own aid when

he sees the dagger he's saying look i've

thought of all the reasons that i

shouldn't kill duncan but actually

that's

not my id i'm just going to listen to

the eid and that's what creates the

visionary dagger with the gaps of blood

and he follows it to kill duncan so he

aligns himself with his wife

yes

now

guys we've done

ao1 we've done ao2 we've done ao3 we've

tried our best

to talk you through these different

stages

we've talked about the different

questions that may come up

um guys we talk about the different

questions that may come up for this

quote

but as a whole guys when it comes to

unsex me here yes

it's a very basic quote

if you're a student which you all are

but predominantly you are

and you have an english teacher i can

almost guarantee you that your english

teacher has discussed this quote

because it's a very good quote to

discuss

but the point of this video guys one of

the key points is to show you guys that

it's not necessarily a matter of picking

lines and lines of evidence we've

analyzed three words and sex me here

and from these three words we discussed

so much

now can you use everything that me and

mrs sales discussed in a paragraph

probably not it's too much

but the whole purpose is that as a

student you're able to on the day of

your exam read the question and decide

which parts you're going to use

which parts you're going to leave out

you may completely ignore our structural

analysis and rely upon the language

because the question fits it

so that is what you have to do on the

exam

and finally guys finally finally finally

any parting thoughts any parting

thoughts uh i'm always looking for ways

to make the exam easier and so this is a

trick that my son taught me when he was

doing gcses

and he only learnt about eight

quotations for each text

and he said no matter what the question

is i'm going to find a way to fit that

quotation in exactly what i do yeah i do

ten yeah i'll do ten for alex and he

genuinely did that and he got 99

uh he's a scientist and a mathematician

he couldn't care less about english

um

and what we've done here

if you follow through the video and go

back through it you'll see that we've

made it link to all the different parts

of the play to the different characters

to the different questions and if you do

your revision like that with five to ten

quotations you will easily answer every

single question you can get asked i

agree

now guys we will end the video here now

this is the first of two videos the

second video is dropping on mrs

salazar's channel

tomorrow i believe the link for mr

channel is in the bio so do click do

subscribe

to check out all the other excellent

previous content

if you enjoyed this collab

do let me know and do let us both know

in the comments if you want future

content like this guys do let us know

as always it's been mr everything

english and it's been mr sanders

peace