Macbeth Analysis Act 5 Scene 3: Full Commentary

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See also my Macbeth Soliloquies Playlist:
• Shakespeare Soliloquie...
See also my tips on reading Shakespeare’s LANGUAGE: dai.ly/x80qtdh
You might also find my Romeo and Juliet series interesting: dai.ly/x80qt0r
This video is a line-by-line walkthrough guide for William Shakespeare’s Macbeth: Act 5, Scene 3.
I provide a close reading of the entire scene, including:
- Detailed explication
- Commentary
- Literary analysis
All commentary is supplemented by in-text, line-by-line study notes designed to help students:
- Prepare for GCSE, A-Level, IB, and AP evaluation
- Prepare for general high school and college quizzes, exams, and essays
- Generate ideas for analysis essays
- Participate knowledgeably in class discussions
This video discusses :
PLOT:
- Macbeth is alone in his castle
- Servant announces that 10,00 troops are approaching
- Macbeth lashes out at servant (desperation of the bully); vows to fight till the end
- Doctor informs Macbeth that Lady Macbeth suffers a mental affliction
- Macbeth asks the doctor if his medical science can cure mental illness, implying his own mental illness; doctor says no and Macbeth lashes out at him
- Increasingly desperate Macbeth clings to witches’ prophecies/equivocations for protection
CHARACTER:
- Macbeth: desperate; nihilistic; self-deluded; bully; isolated; scapegoating; depressed; return to physical bravery, minus the love and honour he enjoyed for his service and sacrifice
THEME:
- Scapegoating; weak, frightened people turn bully
- Projection: we see what we want to see; Macbeth clings to the lies he knows are lies but wants to believe
- Nihilism; let the world burn; the Joker
- Alienation from self and from society leads to depression; without sources of positive emotion (“honour, love, obedience, troops of friends”), we are vulnerable
- Redemption question: alienation, pity, genuine pain = redemption?
-Appearance vs reality: Macbeth’s entire world is composed of nothing but lies = wasteland
- Nihilism: let myself/society burn; suicidal abandon; the Joker
- Wasteland: Scotland as diseased
Writing a LITERATURE ANALYSIS ESSAY? See my practical guide, with model papers:
• Literature Analysis
If you're interested in Shakespeare analysis, see my other playlists:
MACBETH:
• Macbeth Scene by Scene...
For Macbeth THESIS STATEMENT prompts see:
• Playlist
ROMEO and JULIET:
• Romeo and Juliet
For Romeo and Juliet THESIS STATEMENT prompts see:
• Playlist
HAMLET:
• Hamlet Scene by Scene
For Hamlet THESIS STATEMENT prompts see:
• Playlist
OTHELLO:
• Othello
TWELFTH NIGHT:
• Twelfth Night

[@daz4288]

How do you think Macbeth is presented overall in this scene?

[@5QShakespeare]

Sad, afraid, isolated, nihilistic, desperate. Watch Ian McKellen (1979) do this scene and you'll understand exactly what Shakespeare was thinking. No other version comes close to that performance.

[@daz4288]

Alright thanks

[@ollieflynn419]

Thank You

[@5QShakespeare]

You're welcome, Ollie. Hope you find the videos useful:)

[@merle309]

What he said: "I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack'd. Give me my armour" could have sounded like an honourable and noble act of sacrifice, if it was for the greater good - but it's not. His enemies, one of the thanes could have said exactly the same and we would have paised him for fighting for his country and sacrificing himself for a greater purpose. But since this lines come from Macbeth, we read it as suicidal abandon and "let myself burn". I think, that's very interesting

[@5QShakespeare]

Yes. That's an interesting observation. In his best plays, Shakespeare insists on complexity. Like Othello, Macbeth is depicted in the beginning as quite admirable. Each play delineates the unravelling of that nobility due to their tragic character flaws - we are the agents of our own destruction. Macbeth's "nobility" in the end is a perverted, inverted mirror image of his bravery at the beginning. Ditto Othello.

[@seanchan08]

@@5QShakespeare perverted??? what

[@5QShakespeare]

Haha. In the other sense of the word: corrupted, distorted:) @@seanchan08