Macbeth - Decline of Power part 1: Lady Macbeth

Welcome to our Learning with Harris podcast on the Decline of Power in Macbeth. These podcasts aim to give you insights and new ways of thinking about the play and its characters for you to go away and research in your own time to further enhance your knowledge. I will discuss some areas of interest for you and signal when you may want to make notes so grab a paper and pen before we begin. If something isn't clear or you want to listen again simply pause or rewind the recording. In this podcast we will be looking specifically at Lady Macbeth and her loss of power over the course of the play. The next podcast in this series will take a closer look at Macbeth and his Decline of Power. Once you have listened to both you will be ready to answer the following exam question. How does Shakespeare present the Decline of Power in Macbeth? So let's first begin by posing a few questions and pausing to collect our thoughts. Pause the podcast after each question to note down your ideas before we discuss them together. Question 1. Who has power in the play? Question 2. Who loses their power in the play? And question 3. Why do they lose their power? Pause the podcast and jot those down and your ideas now. Welcome back. Let's take each question in turn. Firstly, who has power in the play? Of course this is a difficult question to answer as different characters have power at different points in the play. But very simply we can assert that at the beginning King Duncan has power. For example he has enough power to make Macbeth the Thane of Cordeau. We then see how Lady Macbeth has power over Macbeth. You know she has the power to make him change his mind and murder Duncan. Then this murderous action actually increases Macbeth's power and we see him lead tyrannically which means like a dictator brutally murdering others showing his dominance and power as well. But then what happens next leads us to our question 2. And our obvious answers are Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Did you think of anyone else? Why they lose their power is a matter of discussion later in our podcast. Let's remind ourselves of the essay question we will be able to answer later. So in order to answer this question successfully we are going to look specifically at Lady Macbeth today. Remember to check out the channel for the episode of Macbeth's decline of power. We will consider how and why their power diminishes and diminishes by the way as just another word for decreases. So as mentioned we are taking Lady Macbeth first. So let's go directly to where we see her so diminished and powerless. Pause the podcast and write down where you think we see Lady Macbeth at her least powerful in the play. I'm sure most of you wrote that she is at her least powerful when we see her last and that's in act 5 scene 1. And this is when she returns to stage, sleepwalking and trying in earnest to wash the blood of her hands and rid herself of her new found guilt for everything that she has caused. So how does Shakespeare present Lady Macbeth as powerless? Firstly, Macbeth's own nambulism. Now that is another word for sleepwalking. She shows her lacking control over her thoughts and her actions. In this sleepwalking state she unknowingly reveals the truth when she asks rhetorically yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. Who do you think the old man she is referring to is? Yes it's Duncan. So by commenting that Duncan had so much blood in him, she gives away her part in his murder. Through this episode Shakespeare shows how Lady Macbeth has lost her characteristic control and her concealment of what lies beneath the surface. She goes on to comment that now I quote, "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." Here, Lady Macbeth is desperate, alleging that even perfume will not cover up or get rid of the blood and guilt. Note even her description of her hand is little, which signals her awareness of her loss of power and her retreat into weakness. Interestingly, she stands on stage in a nightgown. Pause the recording and consider what do you think her nightgown symbolises? So Shakespeare frequently uses the nightgown or a general state of undress as a symbol of weakness and vulnerability. We see this in Hamlet actually and King Lear too. Shakespeare dresses Lady Macbeth in a nightgown to emphasise her weakness at this moment. As she desperately tries to wash the blood of her hands and get rid of that guilt. In recent stage productions, Lady Macbeth has also been depicted on her knees as well. So get ready to pause the podcast and answer the question that's coming. How do you think this position of Lady Macbeth on her knees on stage reflects her status and power? I think this low physical position displays her low levels of power at this point in the play. There is another method that Shakespeare uses to show Lady Macbeth lack of power here. Towards the end of the scene, she fails to complete full sentences, wailing 'oh, oh, oh, instead'. Lady Macbeth had lost complete control of her actions in her sleepwalking state and now she has lost control of her words. So far then, we have shown that Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth's decline of power through, firstly her son, Nambulism, then her words and actions that reveal her part in the murder. Her change from full sentences into wailing, her costumes and in some productions, the characters position on stage two. Another way that Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth's decline of power is through the change we see from her speaking inverse. To prose. Make sure you listen to them at Beth and Meet a Podcast, which is available on the same channel for further explanation on this complicated method. But I'll explain it briefly here too. So, when I say verse, I mean characters speaking in a way that sounds quite poetic. The lines are roughly made up of ten syllables and you might have heard of Iambic pentameter. But when I say prose, I mean that when you see it on the page, the words look more like they do in a novel or storybook. And if a character speaks in prose, it also sounds a lot less rhythmical and poetic. So in this scene, at five scene one, Lady Macbeth no longer talks in verse. We no longer see her talking in those ten syllable lines of Iambic pentameter that Shakespeare regularly puts into the mouths of royalty. Instead, Lady Macbeth talks plainly in prose. Pause the podcast to answer this question. If characters of royalty normally talk in verse, which sort of characters do you think we normally see talking in prose? Welcome back. Yes, servants and lower class characters who mostly talk in prose. So, and get ready to pause the podcast again. Why do you think that Shakespeare makes Lady Macbeth talking prose here in this scene? Doesn't it match, though, that when she loses her strength and control of her actions, she also loses her control over verse and reverts to speaking ways typically associated with the lower classes who traditionally didn't have much power? This change from verse to prose is a further example of how Shakespeare exaggerates Lady Macbeth's lack of control and her descent into powerlessness. Having shown the variety of ways Shakespeare shows Lady Macbeth has lost power and control, we shall now consider what it was that caused her decline and loss of power. Pause the podcast to answer this next question. What do you think cause Lady Macbeth to fall to this state that we've seen her in in Act 5, Scene 1? Remember how Lady Macbeth is seen vigorously trying to get blood off her hands? Well, as we've hinted at already, the image of blood on her hands suggests to the audience that guilt is the cause of her decline into insanity and weakness. Know how blood is a symbol of guilt elsewhere in the play? So, after murdering King Duncan Macbeth asks if Great Neptune's ocean will wash this blood clean from his hand. And there he is desperate to free himself from the blood and therefore symbolically the guilt he has as a result of his actions. Similarly, Lady Macbeth comments how the sleepy groom should be covered in the blood of Duncan. Symbolically she is transferring the apparent guilt from themselves onto the King's guards. We can then see that Shakespeare uses the symbol of blood to show guilt repeatedly in his play. So our image of Lady Macbeth at the end of her life, desperately washing the blood from her hands, shows both her decline into weakness and vulnerability and that its cause was the feelings of guilt. However, Is it worth considering that she is mad and fragile for other reasons too? Could it not be because she has been driven out of the decision making but might bet himself? In Act 3, scene 2, Macbeth comments on how his mind is full of scorpions because of his situation. But, Lady Macbeth does not understand or even empathise with this. Lady tells him to sleek over his rugged looks and be bright and jovial amongst the guests. I.e. she basically tells him to get over it and get on with his duties. Why would we then assume that she has the capacity to develop remorse later in the play? In Act 5, when she has banished any signs of guilt from her husband before and show no capacity for it herself? Indeed, perhaps one could counter this by saying that many more murders are committed after this scene and perhaps it is the extent of the death that she causes with that initial command to Macbeth that makes her feel guilty. And this interpretation I agree is valid. However, could there not be something else leading Lady Macbeth to her downfall other than self-recognition, regret and guilt? Definitely, who is the director of the most recent stage production of Macbeth at the Royal Shakespeare Company, declares that Lady Macbeth's decline could also be caused by her decreased participation in agency and her and her husband's lives. Do you remember how it was Lady Macbeth driving the action at the start of the play? Well by Act 3, it is Macbeth hinting at future action instead. He says, "Thou knowest Banquo and his flions lives. But why now?" He is King, is Macbeth worrying about Banquo and flions. He's the King, he shouldn't worry. Pause the podcast to jot down what you know as the reason Macbeth worries about Banquo and his son still being alive. Hopefully you remembered that the witch's predicted Banquo's heirs would become King. So Macbeth is clearly conflicted and concerned about flions ending his reign as King. Back to the main point though, why is Lady Macbeth powerless? So note how it is Macbeth who has been in charge here. He is the one thinking about their position of power and its threats. And Lady Macbeth is no longer able to satisfy Macbeth with her words. Here's final rhyming coupler in this scene is, "Thou marvels step my words but hold thee still. Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill." And saying "Hold thee still." Macbeth now commands her not to do anything or question him. Macbeth begins to command Lady Macbeth, which is a reversal of what we have seen before when Lady Macbeth was previously commanding him. This rhyming coupler, so still an ill, also establishes the final breakdown of communication between the couple. Shakespeare traditionally uses rhyming couplets to signify unity and a coming together of sorts. But Lady Macbeth here is bewildered at the end of this scene and her husband and wife no longer share a plan or conviction. As mentioned, it was Lady Macbeth previously making the decisions and Macbeth asking the questions. But now Macbeth's implicit suggestion that he plans to kill Banquo and his son have gone unread by Lady Macbeth. She asks "What's to be done?" To which he commands "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck." Her question "What's to be done?" Demonstrates both how she is currently locked out of his plans and her desire to be included in those plans. But I don't think she just wants to know the answer for "knowledge is sake." She wants to know the answer to make sure she is included in the continuation of this royal couple's narrative. Macbeth's answer "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck." shows his determination to keep his wife out of his plans. She is no longer the agent she once was. Could it be then that this lack of agency in her husband's life has contributed to her decline as well as the guilt? Remember our essay question "How does Shakespeare present the decline of power in Macbeth?" In today's podcast, we have discussed how Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth's decline of power. Pause the podcast to see what you can remember about how Shakespeare presented Lady Macbeth's decline of power. Welcome back. We commented on how Shakespeare presented Lady Macbeth losing control of her actions when she frantically washes blood from her little hand. We commented on Shakespeare's presentation of Lady Macbeth losing control of her words when she reveals the truth to the doctor and her servant woman. We commented on her sleepwalking. We commented too on the staging of Lady Macbeth in her nightgown and how some recent productions have shown her on her knees. And finally, we talked about Shakespeare's use of prose for Lady Macbeth, which is a switch from her typical use of verse. In today's podcast, we have also discussed some reasons behind why Lady Macbeth lost her power. What do you think? Is it guilt? Or is it a loss of agency in her husband's decisions? Or perhaps you think it's both? A final task to do now, once this podcast is finished, is to go through the play and see if you can spot other ways that Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth's loss of power. This has been a learning with Harris podcast, Anai and Rianne Walls. Junient to our next podcast, where we will be thinking about Macbeth's loss of power and making sure that we can answer the exam question, how does Shakespeare present the decline of power in Macbeth? Why not start thinking now about the presentation of Macbeth's loss of power? Looking forward to sharing thoughts with you soon.