Macbeth – Interesting Literature

A Short Analysis of Lady Macbeth’s ‘But Screw Your Courage to the Sticking-Place’ Speech

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Lady Macbeth’s speech beginning ‘We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail’ comes at the end of Act 1 of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Lady Macbeth’s words come just after she has taunted her husband for his perceived lack of manliness, because he is now vacillating and having second thoughts about their plan to kill Duncan so Macbeth can seize the crown of Scotland for himself. We have analysed the earlier exchange between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth here.

A Short Analysis of Lady Macbeth’s ‘Was the Hope Drunk Wherein You Dress’d Yourself’ Speech

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Was the hope drunk wherein you dress’d yourself?’ So Lady Macbeth taunts her husband for his loss of resolve, in Act 1 Scene 7 of Shakespeare’s play. The scene, and Lady Macbeth’s exchange with her husband, bring the first act of Macbeth to a close, paving the way for the bloody events that will follow in the next act.

A Short Analysis of Lady Macbeth’s ‘The Raven Himself is Hoarse’ Speech

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The raven himself is hoarse / That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan’: so begins Lady Macbeth’s first great soliloquy or monologue in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The speech comes in Act 1 Scene 5, immediately after Lady Macbeth has received news from a messenger that Duncan, the King, will be arriving at the castle that night, accompanied by Lady Macbeth’s own husband, Macbeth, who has just been made Thane of Cawdor by Duncan.

A Summary and Analysis of the Porter Scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Act 2 Scene 3 of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is often known as ‘the Porter scene’. The Porter, the one comic turn in an otherwise overwhelmingly dark and violent play, dominates the scene, as well as making reference to the most momentous event of 1605, the shock of which would have been fresh in the minds of Shakespeare’s original audience in 1606.

A Short Analysis of ‘When Shall We Three Meet Again’ from Macbeth

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘When Shall We Three Meet Again’ is the opening line of William Shakespeare’s great tragedy, Macbeth. Spoken by the First Witch, the line immediately ushers us into a world of witches, prophecy, and black magic, elements which Shakespeare probably chose to include because the new King of England, James I, had written censoriously about witchcraft in his book Demonologie.