Primo compito d’inglese del primo trimestre.

ANALYSIS OF THE LETTER.

This is an extract from Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth”. It deals with the letter of Macbeth to his wife. The extract can be subdivided into two parts: in the first part Macbeth writes to his wife about the witches’ prophecy and in the second part Lady Macbeth reflects about her husnand’s behaviour. Through the text Shakespeare underlines Macbeth’s faults:

-his submission to his wife: he wrote her immediately.

-his insecurity and his need for support: at line 13 he calls his wife “my dearest partner of greatness” which underlines the importance of his wife in his life and in his decisions.

-Macbeth belives in the supernatural. This belief is the cause of all the facts that will happen later. He also never refers to the witches as “witches” but he calls them “these weird sisters” (l. 9): he doesn’t think that they may imply somenthing bad.

 -his greed of power: he gives value to the witches prophecies beause he is really interested in power. This is the cause of all coming events.

His greed of power is also underlined between lines one and seven where he is still dreaming and thinking about the prophecy.

between lines eight and twelve there is a series of verbs, commas and repetitions of word “me”: this underlines he is excited with the prophecy and he is still dreaming.

Also between lines fifteen and seventeen he dreams about his future status. 

As I explained before, in the second part Lady Macbeth is introduced. Right from the start of the second part the reader understands the woman’s decision to make the prophecy come true. She is a strong woman, stronger than her husband and Shakespeare wants to underline that. She thinks her husband’s kidness as a fault and so she thinks e can’t catch the nearest way to be king. She thinks that the only way to be king is to kill king Duncan. She calls this way “the nearest way”. She compares her husband to a child at line twentyone, “too full of the human kidness”, so her husband is a baby who needs attentions , help and support to do something.

The phrases are subdivided by commas in lines: through this Shakespeare wants to underline the opposite behaviours of her husband, he is too kind but he also has a greed of power. Lady Macbeth is depicted as an evil creature recalling the medieval ballads, she brings her man to evil but she doesn’t act.