Macbeth Essay

You have three options for the Macbeth essay. You can see that they are worth different amounts of points, and this is because one option is significantly more challenging than the others and will take more work and thought. Please read carefully and make certain to follow the criteria for the essays. Essays must be typed and should be emailed to me at adavis@clevelandschools.org.

Choose one of the three options below and write a thorough essay on the topic. You should include at least three textual references in your paper, and work them SUBTLY into it. In other words, don't just throw a quote out there. Work the quote in and then follow up. Explain it. Also, you need to reference it, which you can do by using parenthetical references (Act I, scene 4, line 284). Quotes DO NOT have to be full lines or sentences! If you are writing your essay and establishing Lady Macbeth as the epitome of evil, you might use the phrase "his fiend-like queen" (Act V, scene 7, line 32). *I made that reference up. I don't have it memorized.

Option #1-- worth 95 points
One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in Macbeth struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.
***Important notes: First of all, you need to decide if you are going to show someone struggling to free him/herself from power or seeking to gain power. Secondly, you need to decide which character you are going to use. Due to the last part of the prompt, you need to establish what you believe to be the meaning of the work, THEN use the character's power struggle to enhance that meaning.

Option #2-- worth 90 points
Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may even betray their own values. In a well- written essay, analyze the nature of betrayal in Macbeth and how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
***Important notes: This is a two-fold question. First of all, you need to understand what the meaning of the work as a whole IS. Secondly, you are going to use the nature of betrayal (with several examples) and how that contributes to the meaning.

Option #3-- worth 105 points
This one is a little bit of a choose your own adventure. Using the word you traced, compose an essay that illustrates movement, progression, change, or revelation. It might be that you show how Macbeth changes through the play by looking at the different ways he uses the word "blood". It might be that you explain how Lady Macbeth's is revealed by the light/dark motif and the word "night". This is as broad as your creative minds.
***Important notes: Make certain that you use textual references all the way through and that you are PROVING something in your essay.

Don't ask about length of these essays. I don't give requirements as far as paragraphs or page lengths. The answer to the "how long" question is simply "however long it needs to be to do the job thoroughly".