Hello and welcome to the penultimate lesson in this unit, "Macbeth and Masculinity: The Struggle for Power." In this lesson, we are going to be looking at "Masculinity as Macbeth's Hamartia." My name is Mr. Barnsley, fantastic to see you all again, thank you for rejoining me for this, one of the final lessons in this unit.

And by the end of today's lesson, you are gonna be able to confidently describe how insecurities surrounding masculinity led or lead to Macbeth's downfall.

We're gonna start, as we always do, looking at some of the keywords that we should expect to encounter in today's lesson.

So, five words that we will be looking at today are offspring, hamartia, hubris, bloodlust, and facade.

Okay, so your children can be referred to as your offspring, so offspring is another word for children.

Hamartia, a keyword in today's lesson, it was in the title.

It means a character's fatal flaw.

Their biggest flaw, if you will.

Hubris means excessive pride.

Bloodlust is another way of describing an uncontrollable desire to kill or to harm others.

And finally, a facade is a deceptive outer appearance, so an outer appearance that might trick or deceive others.

There are three parts to today's lesson on "Masculinity as Macbeth's Hamartia." The first, we're gonna look at Macduff and Macbeth's rivalry, then we will really focus on Macbeth's hamartia, before ending the lesson doing some writing about Macbeth's hamartia.

So, we're gonna start by looking at a scene from the end of the play which focuses on Macduff and Macbeth's rivalry.

So, this scene that we are gonna look at comes from Act 4, Scene 3, and this is shortly after Macbeth has had MacDuff's wife and children killed.

Remember, towards the end of the play, Macbeth believes Macduff is the only person who is standing between him and keeping his crown.

So, what we see here is a conversation between Macduff and Malcolm, the rightful heir to the Scottish throne, where Macduff is taking in what has happened, the terrible, heinous crime that has happened, the murder of his wife and children.

And he says, "He has no children.

All of my pretty ones? Did you say all? Oh, hell-kite, all? What, all of my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop?" Malcolm, "Dispute it like a man." So, let's take a step back and work out what's happening here.

So, what we're seeing is Macduff's visceral, emotional reaction to finding out that his wife and children have been killed.

And we see Malcolm's response, "Dispute it like a man," fight it like a man.

Let's dig a bit deeper into the language here.

Macduff says, "He has no children." He's speaking about Macbeth here.

What do you think is the significance of this statement? And why do you think Macbeth has targeted, why has Macbeth targeted MacDuff's offspring, his children? And let's think about Malcolm's response here.

What does it tell us about how men were supposed to behave in patriarchal societies? Pause the video, take two minutes to discuss this, and press play when you're ready to continue.

I heard some really good ideas there.

Well done to people who were saying, look, it's really significant here that Macbeth has no children because, fundamentally, his lack of male heir is fueling this terrible behaviour, is fueling his desire to have power and sit on the throne.

And it's really interesting that he targets Macduff's children.

Yes, he wants Macduff killed, but by killing Macduff's children, again, he's trying to prevent there being future enemies.

So, again, it goes back to the importance of offspring, of children, of having a male heir.

Now, what's interesting about Malcolm's response is that he says, "Dispute it like a man." He wants Macduff to go and fight Macbeth, kill Macbeth over this action.

And it reminds us that particularly in these patriarchal societies in 11th century Gaelic, in the Jacobean era, that men were supposed to be violent.

They were supposed to be angry.

They were supposed to want revenge.

Let's see what Macduff's response is.

Macduff says, "I shall do.

But I must also feel it like a man." Malcolm, "Be this the whetstone of your sword.

Let grief convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it." Let's dig a bit deeper here.

Macduff says, "Yes, I am gonna fight Macbeth.

I will get my revenge." But he says, "I must almost also feel it as a man." Think about why this might be an unconventional response, particularly in a patriarchal society.

And when we look at Malcolm's response, he says, "Turn your grief into anger.

Do not let your heart soften.

Get angry, enrage it." So, I want to think about what kind of comparisons we see between how Macduff responds to the news of the death of his family and think about the end of the play when we find out that Lady Macbeth has taken her own life and Macbeth finds that out.

What is the difference between their responses? So, again, let's pause the video for two minutes, have a quick discussion in a little bit more detail about this scene.

Press play when you are ready to continue.

Great to hear some fantastic responses there.

Really liked people who were pulling out that Macduff's response is unconventional because he is in touch with his emotions.

He feels and acknowledges his trauma.

This is not ways that we'd maybe expect men to behave.

We expect men to want to get revenge, want and act in violent and angry ways, so to see a man in touch with his emotions is fairly revolutionary, a revolutionary depiction of masculinity in Jacobean times.

What's also interesting is the comparison we can make between Macduff and Macbeth.

Yes, Macduff feels these emotions, but he's gonna channel these emotions and use it to get revenge.

Macbeth, on the other hand, when he finds out about the death of Lady Macbeth, he spirals, he becomes completely isolated and feels like he has nothing left to live for.

It's a very, again, potentially Shakespeare is here criticising the impact that feminine influences have in Macbeth's life even after their death.

So, we do see quite different reactions between Macduff and Macbeth when they are faced with grief and I think we could ask the question, really, if Macbeth responded in a similar way to Macduff, how that final battle may have gone on? So, I think it's really interesting to note that Macduff also acts as a foil to Macbeth, not just because he's courageous, but because of the way he deals with his emotions and he deals with his grief.

Okay, let's do a check for understanding.

I would like you to tell me which of these three sentences is not a valid comparison between Macduff and Macbeth.

So, A, whilst Macduff fights with honour, Macbeth uses cowardly techniques to dispose of his enemies.

Neither Macduff nor Macbeth channel their grief appropriately.

Or C, whereas Macbeth becomes subdued after Lady Macbeth's death, Macduff channels his grief into avenging his family's murder.

Choose your response and share it now.

Congratulations if you said B, neither Macduff nor Macbeth channel their grief appropriately.

I'm not sure if that is a valid comparison.

I think we could argue that Macduff deals with his grief in a much better way than Macbeth does.

Okay, over to a task, we are gonna now annotate this extract from Act 4, Scene 3, with comparative sentences about the differences between Macduff and Macbeth's behaviour in the play.

So, I'm gonna reshare the extract on the screen and I'm gonna give you some questions to guide you.

And I want your responses, your annotations, your labels to be comparative sentences, so use comparative sentences to draw on similarities or more than likely differences between Macduff and Macbeth.

So, here's that first extract.

I would like you to think about how does Macbeth's lack of children make him different from Macduff? So, a comparative sentence that you may wish to use is, "Whilst Macbeth's lack of children have left him bitter and ruthless, Macduff.

." And a second question I'd like you to answer on this section is, has Macbeth ever disputed it like a man? So, can you write a comparative sentence for me about the different ways Macbeth and Macduff kind of dispute, fight? So, pause the video and I want you to add your annotations to the first half of this extract.

Well done, I'm sure we had some great responses there.

Now let's move on to the second part of the extract.

"But I must also feel it as a man." How does this response make Macduff different to Macbeth? So, let's have another comparative annotation here.

What difference does this show between Macduff and Macbeth? And then finally, "Let grief convert anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it." What comparison can we can be made between Macduff and the way Macbeth reacts to the news of Lady Macbeth's death? So, think about how they both respond to grief.

So, pause the video and press play when you are ready for some feedback.

Okay, we're gonna go through some feedback now.

As ever, in English, there can be hundreds, thousands of different responses here.

What I'm gonna share with you are just some examples.

And if you like these, you can add these to your own annotations.

So, I've said, "Whilst Macbeth's lack of children have left him bitter and ruthless, Macduff believed his role as a father had equal importance to his role as a warrior." Okay, so MacDuff's grief shows that being a father was incredibly important to him, like it was to Banquo.

And when we see "Dispute it like a man," we can say, "Unlike Macduff, who will certainly dispute his family's death like a man, Macbeth has always disposed of his enemies in a cowardly fashion." So, Macduff is gonna fight Macbeth head on to get revenge, whereas we've seen Macbeth kind of killed Duncan in his sleep and he paid for murderers to kill Banquo and Macduff's family.

So, we can argue that Macduff, sorry, Macbeth has never really disputed it like a man, or like you would expect a stereotypical man to fight in the Jacobean era.

And in the second section, we can say, well, "Despite Macduff being desperate for revenge, he's presented as a well-rounded man who understands his emotions.

On the other hand, Macbeth displays hyper-masculine qualities in an attempt to hide his insecurities." So, Macduff acknowledges his weakness, his flaws, his trauma, and acknowledges his emotions, and that makes him a well-rounded man.

Whereas Macbeth wants to hide his insecurities, his trauma, his emotions about not being a father, and he hides this by acting in a hyper-masculine, hyper-violent, hyper-ambitious way.

And finally, we could say, "Whereas Macbeth becomes subdued after Lady Macbeth's death, isolated, Macduff channels his grief into avenging his family's murder." Okay, we're gonna move on to the second part of today's lesson where we're gonna focus specifically on Macbeth's hamartia.

Remember, that means his fatal flaw, his biggest flaw.

So, let's start.

This is not the first time we've talked about the flaws and what led to Macbeth's downfall.

Why don't you start by having a quick discussion? Pause for two minutes and think about, in your opinion, what is Macbeth's hamartia? What is his greatest fatal flaw? Pause the video and press play when you want to continue.

I heard some fantastic discussions there, loads of good ideas, and I want us to kind of pool all these ideas together and see if we can spot like a common pattern or a common feature of these different arguments that we could have for what is Macbeth's hamartia.

So, I hear many people talking about his hubris, his pride, his ambition, you know, his desire to be seen as powerful, and that definitely is something that leads to his downfall, I think we can all agree.

Some people may have argued that actually it's his susceptibility to external pressures, so the fact that he allows himself to be manipulated by Lady Macbeth, he allows himself to be manipulated by the witches is a real flaw of his, a character flaw of his, and actually that's the thing, the fatal flaw that leads to his downfall.

Other people could argue that it's his bloodlust, it's his violent nature, his desperation to harm and maim and kill.

Duncan, Banquo, Macduff's family.

All of this could very easily be argued as his fatal flaw.

But I'm gonna argue that all three of these are connected, and they're all connected by what I would say is his overarching hamartia.

And that is the insecurities regarding his masculinity.

He's ambitious, he's hubristic, because he feels he has let his wife down because he has not provided her with a male heir, so he wants to be ambitious to prove to her that he's a real man.

And we know his lack of male heir means that he's more susceptible to Lady Macbeth's manipulation, he's more susceptible to listening to the witches' prophecies.

And as a result, his bloodlust is him behaving in a hyper-masculine way as almost a facade to cover up on the fact that he actually feels really insecure about his masculinity.

Now I want to make this really clear.

This is just one opinion.

This is not the right answer.

There cannot be a right answer.

But this is one opinion that I think is like an umbrella for all of the different behaviours that Macbeth exhibits and shows.

So, I want to ask a question.

If we think that Macbeth's hamartia is his insecurities regarding his masculinity, can we have any sympathy for him? Can we say he's a victim of living in a patriarchal society which expected men to behave in a certain way? Pause the video, have a bit of discussion and see how this inference, how this interpretation, how does it feel for you? Does it make sense? Can you get on board with it? Do you have any sympathy for Macbeth? Have a quick discussion and press play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, we are gonna do a check for understanding now, and I want you to match each of these traits, each of these flaws, and I want you to match it with the justification, the inference that justifies that Macbeth's insecurities are his greatest hamartia or are his fatal flaw.

Okay, so pause the video, this might take you a few minutes, press play when you are ready for the responses.

Okay, well done on that, let's check your answers and you can see how well you did.

So, his hubris, we could argue that his arrogance and his ambition are a facade, they're a cover to conceal the insecurities that he is feeling.

His susceptibility to external pressures.

Well, we can say that Macbeth is desperate to satisfy his wife.

He feels like he's failed her in his duty to provide her with a male heir, so when she emasculates him, it really impacts him.

And we can also say that his bloodlust is actually him overcompensating.

He's adopting a hyper-masculine trait such as violence to cover up for the fact that he's actually very insecure about his masculinity.

Okay, our second task, we are going to annotate a timeline explaining how each of these key events from the play either fuel Macbeth's insecurities or are as a result of his insecurities.

So, all of these incidents either cause him to feel insecure or he does these things because he feels insecure.

Let's look at a couple of examples.

So, in Acts 1, Scene 3, the prophecies.

Well, we think, you know, these fuel his insecurities because Banquo's prophecy in particular highlights that Macbeth does not have a son of his own.

Lady Macbeth's manipulation.

Well, this is a result of his insecurities.

Lady Macbeth is able to emasculate her husband, she's able to target him because she knows he has these insecurities around his lack of male heir.

So, the rest of the events we're gonna look at is Duncan's murder, Banquo's murder, Banquo's ghost appearing, the second prophecies, Macduff's family being murdered, Lady Macbeth's death, Birnam Wood moving towards the castle, and, ultimately, Macbeth's death.

So, on your timeline I would like you to explain how each of these events either fuel Macbeth's insecurities, make him feel insecure, or they are a result of insecurities, he behaves this way because of his insecurities.

Pause the video, take as much time as you need to do this, and press play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, well done.

Let's have an opportunity here now to do a bit of self-assessment, self-reflection, and assess our timelines.

So, what I'd like to do is reread your work and I would like you to identify where you've done the following.

Identify where you have explained how a scene fuels Macbeth's insecurities.

Identify where you've explained how Macbeth's insecurities may have affected his behaviour in that scene.

If you can see moments where Macbeth has acted in a hubristic manner in the scene, have you linked that back to his insecurities? So, if you said that he's being arrogant or really ambitious here, have you linked that back to his insecurity? If that moment, if that scene is him being influenced by external pressures, can you link that back to his insecurity? If Macbeth has acted with bloodlust, in a violent manner in that scene, have you explained how that links to his insecurities? Okay, we are now gonna move on to the final part of today's lesson, writing about Macbeth's hamartia.

So, what I want to do before we start writing is think about how we can move our writing, our analysis, from a more surface-level understanding to a deeper analysis.

Throughout this unit, we've really been focusing on deeper, nuanced interpretations, moving beyond just a surface-level understanding of why Macbeth behaves the way he does, to a much deeper, more critical kind of thinking.

So, let's think about what is the difference between a really good essay that shows some understanding of the surface-level interpretations and an essay which provides deeper analysis.

So, first of all, when you're writing an essay with surface-level understanding, you are gonna understand the text and you're gonna have a point of view, okay? That's gonna be a really good essay if you understand what the text is about and you have your opinions on it.

But a deeper analysis is gonna ask you to have a more nuanced understanding, kind of start to think of some critical points of view, maybe think of some ideas that not everyone will be talking about.

For surface-level understanding, you're gonna have a very clear argument and you will stick to your argument throughout your essay.

But for deeper analysis, your argument might be more evaluative.

Your thesis, your overarching argument, might be quite critical, and your whole essay is gonna hang on, like a coat hanger, you're gonna be hanging all of your ideas onto that really kind of critical or evaluative thesis statement.

In an essay which shows really good surface-level understanding, your argument will show that you understand the plot, it'll show that you understand the characters, and it'll show you understand the writer's purpose.

But if you want to dig deeper, you're gonna have a real razor-sharp focus on what the writer's central message is.

What do you think the most important thing that Shakespeare is trying to say is? And then you need to think every kind of bit of analysis about plot or characters always have to link back to that central message.

Why does Shakespeare do this for the plot? Why does Shakespeare make a character act in a certain way? And finally, for an essay that shows really good surface-level understanding, your ideas will show conventional understanding, so the interpretations of the text that most people will be talking about and understanding.

Whereas for deeper analysis, you will have your own interpretation of the text that it will centre around.

You will maybe be talking about things, ideas, reasons why Macbeth behaves the way he does that maybe most students wouldn't be necessarily discussing.

So, let's have a look at this in a little bit more detail.

So, a surface level interpretation is that Macbeth's hamartia, his fatal flaw is ambition.

That's absolutely right, there's nothing wrong with that, that is a good sentence.

If you put that in an essay, that's a great sentence to include.

But if we want to really dig deeper and give some kind of critical or evaluative response, we might want to think in more detail beyond his hamartia is simply his ambition.

So, what might deeper analysis look like? Well, it might start with a perhaps because we're gonna be tentative here and acknowledge that this interpretation is not one that's believed by everyone.

"Perhaps Macbeth's ambitious nature is only one aspect of his true hamartia.

The crippling insecurities he feels regarding his lack of patrilineal line.

Arguably, both his ambitious and hubristic natures are a facade to cope with the disappointment he feels for not providing his wife with a male heir.

Shakespeare uses Macbeth's downfall to warn about the need for humility in leaders." So, this offers deeper analysis because it looks beyond ambition, which is probably the most common interpretation of what Macbeth's hamartia is.

It looks beyond that and says that both that and his hubris are a result of his insecurity.

But it also reminds us that Shakespeare's got a purpose here, which is saying you need to be humble, you need humility in a leader.

And Macbeth certainly isn't that.

He masks, he uses a facade, he masks his insecurities by behaving in this ambitious, hubristic way.

And Shakespeare is saying don't do that.

Good leaders are humble, they show humility.

Okay, I would like you, let's do a quick check for understanding.

I would like you to select three criteria you should expect to show if you are doing deeper analysis of a text.

So, three of these you would expect to see in a response that is showing deeper analysis, one you would expect in a response that were showing probably more surface-level response.

So, A, a nuanced understanding of the text.

B, an evaluative argument throughout.

C, a razor-sharp focus on the author's central message.

D, a focus on conventional interpretations of the text.

Which three would you expect to see in deeper analysis? Make your choices now.

Congratulations if you said A, B, and C.

All of these you would expect to see in a deeper analysis of a text.

Right, final task then for today.

A student has handed in their essay and the feedback says you have got a good understanding of conventional interpretations.

Okay, good, some great feedback to receive.

Here is the section, here is the section from the essay.

"Evidently, Macbeth's hamartia is his vaulting ambition, which the audience is first introduced to in Act 1, Scene 3.

It is this ambitious streak which Lady Macbeth looks to unleash in Act 1, Scene 7, as she emasculates her husband.

As a result, the audience sees a ruthlessness in Macbeth, fueled by ambition, as he murders his allies Duncan and Banquo." This is a really good section of an essay.

It shows a real understanding of some of the more conventional interpretations, that his hamartia is his ambition and Lady Macbeth emasculates him and unlocks this.

Really good.

But I want to challenge you to make it even better.

See if you can use some of our more nuanced understanding to dig deeper here.

So, what I'd like you to do is rewrite this and include a more nuanced argument showing a critical understanding of the text as a construct.

Okay, so try and show that Shakespeare is using this text to have a very specific message.

I want you to include some tentative language, though, because when we're including our more nuanced, our deeper analysis, we have got to acknowledge that not everyone is going to, this isn't a conventional interpretation and not everyone will agree with us.

See if we can use as many of today's keywords in our response as we can.

Make sure any quotations you use to support your arguments are embedded and make sure you are referencing key events in the text.

How did that feel? Challenging task? I told you I'm gonna stretch and challenge you all as we come towards the end of this unit, but I'm really, really impressed by how you have tackled some really, really difficult concepts and your understanding of the play of "Macbeth" is developing and your analysis is going deeper and deeper.

So, I want you to reread this paragraph you have just written and I would like you to identify where you have done the following.

Where have you introduced a more nuanced argument, showing a critical understanding of the text and how the text's been used as a construct? Where have you used tentative language? Where have you incorporated today's keywords? Where have you embedded quotations? And where have you made references to key events in the text? So, pause the video and spend a couple of minutes rereading your work and seeing how well you've done in comparison to today's success criteria.

Okay, that's it, we've come towards the end of today's lesson, "Masculinity as Macbeth's Hamartia." Again, it's been challenging, but I've been so impressed with the way that you have tackled this and the conversations, discussions, and the writing that you are doing.

It shows that you are making such great progress, so, well done.

Let's have a quick summary of what we've covered in today's lesson.

So, we have argued that Macbeth's hamartia is actually his crippling insecurities he feels regarding his masculinity.

This isn't to say that this is the only interpretation or this is the right interpretation, hence why I've used the word arguably there.

But it's important or it's a really kind of interesting interpretation, and it's one that you may wish to use in your writing in the future.

His hamartia results in his hubris, his bloodlust, and his susceptibility to external pressures.

So, the fact he's insecure about his masculinity means that he puts on this facade where he behaves in a hubristic way and it kind of fuels his bloodlust, but also it allows him to be susceptible to pressures from his wife and from the witches.

But like Duncan and Banquo, Macduff also acts as a foil to Macbeth.

Macduff is a heroic and noble man who is in touch with his emotions, and this serves to highlight all of Macbeth's insecurities.

And finally, it could be argued that Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, are both victims of the patriarchal society they live in.

So, we can have a little bit of sympathy for them, even though they behave in such terrible ways.

Thank you so much for joining me for today's lesson.

Do make sure you challenge yourself to complete the exit quiz and check your understanding of today's lesson, and I hope to see you for our final lesson in the unit.

Thank you for joining me, bye bye.