Explore how Shakespeare presents the character of Lady Macbeth in this extract. You must refer to the text to support your answer.(20 marks )

Act 1 Scene 5 Macbeth

LADY MACBETH:

The raven himself is hoarse

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood; Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry 'Hold, hold!'

Enter MACBETH

Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! Thy letters have transported me beyond This ignorant present, and I feel now The future in the instant.

Explore how Shakespeare presents

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth with a strong sense of ambition and greed which would have been expected more in a man when this was written, implying she is no longer a feminine character. The quote "Unsex me here" implies she doesn't want the gender bias that will come with being a ruler. She is openly rejecting femininity which would have been foreign to the audience watching the play at the time.

Furthermore, Lady Macbeth is presented as an evil being, associating with demons and the suoernatural. This would have terrified the audience as most people were very religious and superstitious. Likewise, the king at the time King James was obsessed with demonology and witchcraft. The play was written for the King, and this would have interested him. We see in the quote Come you spirits, tend on mortal thoughts" she is calling upon demons to help her in this crime and turn her pure with cruelty. This shows that Lady Macbeth is evil as Macbeth was approached by witches whereas his wife calls upon them.

In addition, Lady Macbeth is presented as a fem fatal - the female villain-. We see this in the quote "come to my womans breasts and take my milk for gall" this suggests she is rejecting the only thing that was seen as any value in a woman and replaces it with poison. Shakespeare is breaking the female stereotype of the Jackobean era, a woman had to be delicate, submissive and sweet whereas Lady Macbeth rebels against her expectations and becomes the most dangerous villain of the play.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)

what are the phrases to choose from?