Shakespeare constructs our understanding of Lady Macbeth by using emotive language in her speech and through the way she commands Macbeth to make her seem manipulative and controlling of their relationship.

One of the ways I think Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth through Shakespeare’s choice to use the superstitious language. The first example I will use is when Lady Macbeth and Macbeth meet-up after he had killed king Duncan she says “I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?”. Shakespeare using the terms “owl scream” and “crickets cry” is a use of emotive language as the ‘owl’ isn’t actually screaming nor the ‘crickets’ were actually crying. This isn’t the only connotations that this phrase had as this also was a bad omen in the Jacobean era as the screaming of an owl represents the nightwatchman who would ring the bell outside the cell of a prisoner condemned to death and the crying of crickets was the herald of death. The reasons why I think Shakespeare is using this superstitious terminology is because Lady Macbeth is possibly superstitious herself and that she actually heard these noises or she was using a metaphor for Duncan’s death. The other reason I think Shakespeare does this is to show Lady Macbeth trying to manipulate Macbeth into believing her superstition. The reason why I think that Lady Macbeth would do this is if Macbeth is superstitious then he will believe in witches and start carrying out the prophecies without being so scared.

Another way that Shakespeare portrays Lady Macbeth as manipulative is how she calls Macbeth cowardly and using Macbeth’s weakness of trying to prove himself to Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth says ” My hands are of your colour; but I shame to wear a heart so white” to Macbeth, this means that she also has blood on her hands but would be ashamed to have a heart so bloodless. Lady Macbeth is saying how she would be ashamed to be so weak and fragile after killing someone and implying that Macbeth should stop hyperventilating and start concentrating on the job in hand. Shakespeare uses another example of emotive language with the term “heart so white”, as the heart is commonly associated with a persons ability to empathize and love so by saying Macbeth’s heart is white Lady Macbeth is saying how he is lacking empathy and love towards her. In any relationship you need some degree of empathy and love so by saying Macbeth is lacking this quality Lady Macbeth is almost saying that Macbeth might be threatening their relationship which is a very manipulative thing to say to someone who seems to want the relationship to continue.

To conclude all of the points I have described in this assessment, I explored the way in which Shakespeare show’s the superstitious nature of the Jacobean era and how Lady Macbeth uses this to manipulate Macbeth. I also looked at the lengths that someone will go when they love another person and how Lady Macbeth takes advantage of Macbeths love for her by using it to manipulate him. I conclude that Lady Macbeth was very manipulative and only had her own self interests at heart without thinking about how it might affect Macbeth or the whole of Scotland.

Over the half term I read Cherub Mad Dogs.

Cherub Mad Dogs is about a boy named James Adams who works for a secret organisation named Cherub. These are highly trained who go undercover against some of the worlds most dangerous criminals. This a turf war breaks out between to gangs and they need information fast so they send in four agents with James being one of them.

I think this Cherub book and the whole cherub series is really enjoyable for the teenage reader as in this book their is a lot of fast paced action but also the adolescent struggles that a lot of teens go through. I really liked the book and maybe the language is not the most sophisticated but it’s gripping still.