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Hi there and welcome to Studyclix Explains.
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Studyclix Explains is a new branch of the Studyclix Podcast, dedicated to bringing you notes and useful analysis that you can use in your Leaving Cert subjects.
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We’ve team up once again with Peter Tobin to bring you a mini podcast series. This time all about Macbeth.
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Peter Tobin is an English teacher who has a Youtube channel called ‘Mr Tobin Leaving Cert English’ where you can find a whole bunch of free videos covering different parts of the Leaving Cert course.
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We’ve linked his channel in this episode’s description, we cannot recommend enough that you check it out and subscribe to get updates new content he’s making.
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For Studyclix Explains, Peter’s recorded a series of episodes where he goes into specific aspects of what you need to know about Macbeth.
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He aims to equip you with not just the basics of this Shakespeare play the examiners expect from students, but the knowledge to get deeper interpretations that will get you those high marks.
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This is the first podcast in this series, so to kick us off, we’re going to hear Peter talk about Macbeth himself.
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Exploring his character, and analysing how he develops as the play progresses.
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The next voice you’re going to hear is Peter’s enjoy listening.

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Hi everyone, when you’re studying Macbeth for any exam but for the Leaving cert in particular, it’s really important to have developed and considered responses to the play. 00.01.20 - 00.01.25 One of the best ways to show this is to have a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of the characters.
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Now, simply put, this means being able to see the characters in a variety of ways.
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I’m going to go through a few ways of understanding the character of Macbeth
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The first is that he’s a character destroyed by his ambition.
The second is that his individualism and selfishness mean he can’t survive in the world he’s born into.
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The third is that he’s suffering a crisis of masculinity.
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Now the character of Macbeth may be understood in a number of different ways.
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On the first level, we can see Macbeth as a character who is destroyed by having too much ambition.
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He is already a thane - a lord, he is the King’s most trusted general and yet he is not happy. He wants the crown for himself and all it takes is a prophecy from the “weird sisters” to set him off.
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In pursuing that ambition, he ends up destroying himself, his family, everything. To look at Macbeth in this way is to take Shakespeare’s message to be a warning of the dangers of being over ambitious.
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Shakespeare makes it clear the impact that this surplus of ambition has on Macbeth. 00.02.30 - 00.02.40
At the beginning, he is portrayed as a brave, noble warrior. He is described as “brave Macbeth”, by the Bloody Sergeant and “valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” by King Duncan in Act 1 Scene 2.
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But over the course of the play he changes completely so that by the end, in Act 5 Scene 8, the epithet Malcolm uses to describe him is “dead butcher”.
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He undergoes a transformation from Act 1 through to Act 5 and we see this play out before our very eyes.
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Macbeth wants to be king, he is aware of the ambition within him. In Act 1 Scene 7 he says,
“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent but only vaulting ambition…”.
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Here he acknowledges that there’s no reason for him to kill Duncan but his own ambition.
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There is a remarkable passage before this quote where he goes through all of the reasons why he shouldn’t kill the king.
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Shakespeare is painting a picture of a man who is at war with himself.
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He has the ambition within him but logic and reason, even his own mind, is telling him not to do it.
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Predictably, after Macbeth carries out the murder, he begins to suffer the consequences almost immediately.
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He is frightened and rambling in his speech when he tries to speak with his wife, a direct contrast with the experienced and skilled warrior on the battlefield described in Act 1 Scene 2
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and the well-spoken, eloquent Macbeth we see just one scene earlier.
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He believes that he has “murdered sleep” and even heard a voice call out that:
“Macbeth shall sleep no more”.
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When we consider sleep as a symbol of peace of mind,
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t’s clear that Shakespeare is showing us that Macbeth’s deeds, in the name of ambition,
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have destroyed his conscience and he will no longer have peace of mind. He has destroyed that part of himself.
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This is clearly a huge price to pay for an ambitious nature
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and many people have interpreted this as Shakespeare’s warning about the cost of being over-ambitious.
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Another consequence of Macbeth’s actions is his descent into blood and further murders.
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It’s a path that he cannot turn back on once he has begun
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and he makes this clear in Act 3 Scene 4 when he says “blood will have blood”.
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The spilling of blood simply leads to more blood being spilt.
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And this represents the guilt on his conscience.
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Later in the same scene, Macbeth says:
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I am in blood stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.
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Now this is a really poignant image of Macbeth
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wading through a river of blood and realising that he may as well keep going as returning to what he was before.
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Again, Shakespeare is showing the consequences of unchecked ambition.
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Aside from seeing the play Macbeth as a cautionary tale about the dangers of ambition
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there are other ways of looking at the character of Macbeth
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especially if we consider Shakespeare’s intentions when writing the play.
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As we know from the Introduction, the play was written in the same year that the Gunpowder Plot
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Which was a plot to assassinate King James - the king at the time - was foiled.
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Shakespeare, as one of the King’s Men and a servant to the court
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wrote a play that supports the traditions and the established hierarchies of the court and the crown.
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It’s important to remember that Shakespeare was writing at a time of change
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when ideas about authority, rules and man’s place within the world were changing.
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Macbeth, as a Thane and one of Duncan’s most trusted generals
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has a very privileged position.
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Generally, the crown is passed down to a King’s eldest son.
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In Scotland, as a consequence of bloody wars
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there was an exception made and a King was allowed to choose his successor
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it didn’t have to be his son.
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Macbeth expects Duncan to choose him and, when he doesn’t, he plots to kill him.
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Shakespeare is writing the play in support of the monarchy
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and in support of the idea of Kingship
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and so, he makes an example of Macbeth
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and shows what happens when you step outside of your pre-ordained role within society.
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Macbeth has gone against the established rules and traditions.
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He is not being loyal to his king or his country, or even God.
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he is simply being loyal to his own ambition
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And this is something monarchs and royal families all over Europe
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Were deeply afraid of
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And this is something that Shakespeare cannot condone.
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Looking at Macbeth in this light
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we see that all the things that befall him are the consequences of his individualism and his selfishness.
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In Act 3 Scene 4 he says:
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for mine own good / All causes shall give way
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Life, Shakespeare appears to be saying,
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has meaning only within the roles decided for us by god and, by extension, the King.
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Macbeth cannot be happy once he steps outside his position.
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To go against the establishment of selfish individualism
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is to open the door to chaos, evil and, ultimately, death.
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Finally, another way to look at the character of Macbeth
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is as an exploration of masculinity.
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We have, in the beginning, the presentation of Macbeth in stereotypically masculine terms.
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He is described as “carving” his way through the men on the battlefield
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and “unseaming” the rebel lord, Macdonald.
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Macbeth is powerful, warrior-like and manly.
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The closeness exhibited with his wife in the letter she reads in Act 1 Scene 5
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as well as the dominance she shows in their subsequent scenes together
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changes the picture somewhat.
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How can Macbeth be presented as a warrior on one hand and yet almost afraid of his wife on the other?
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His reluctance to kill the king
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his indecision before the act and his fear afterwards
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are all signs of his weakness
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or as Lady Macbeth puts it, his excess of “human kindness”.
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So within Macbeth, there are two types of masculinity.
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The stereotypical one that surrounds ideas of violence and cruelty.
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When Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to “unsex her” and fill her with “direst cruelty”
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it’s so that she can be manly enough to kill Duncan.
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When Macbeth is trying to encourage the murderers to kill Banquo
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They respond with "we are men my liege".
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When Macbeth is trying to fend off his wife’s bullying he says:
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I dare do all that may become a man
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and when Lady Macbeth is trying to goad her husband into killing Duncan, she attacks his manhood
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saying "Are you a man?" and "when you durst do it, then you were a man".
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The other type of masculinity is rational, kind and decent.
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This is exhibited when Macbeth lists the reasons he shouldn’t kill the King.
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Chief among them is that he is a man, not just that he is the king.
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We also see this side of Macbeth in his closeness with his wife as well as his regrets in Act 5.
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Macbeth then is torn between these competing types of masculinity.
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He eventually goes against the kindness in his own heart
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and resorts to the stereotypical presentation of masculinity
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and this ends up being his downfall.
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Perhaps his downfall as much as ambition is
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In summary, then we have looked at three ways of interpreting the character of Macbeth.
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The first is that he’s a character destroyed by his ambiton
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the second is that his individualism and selfishness mean he can’t survive in the world he’s born into
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and the third is that he’s suffering a crisis of masculinity
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There are of course other ways to read the character
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but I hope you’ve found some of these interesting and thought-provoking your study of Macbeth.