Macbeth: Context Explained - A GCSE English Literature Revision Guide
- Tom
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is one of the most widely studied texts on the GCSE English Literature syllabus. Its exploration of ambition, power, guilt, and morality makes it both dramatically compelling and rich in analytical possibility. Moreover, it makes it my favourite play!
Across all GCSE exam boards, students are not rewarded for memorising historical facts, but for using contextual knowledge to deepen their interpretation of the play. Understanding when and why Macbeth was written allows students to explain Shakespeare’s ideas more clearly and produce more convincing, higher-level responses.
Macbeth on the GCSE syllabus
Macbeth appears regularly on GCSE English Literature specifications, including AQA, Edexcel (Pearson), OCR, and Eduqas / WJEC.
Although question styles vary, exam boards consistently assess understanding of characters and themes, analysis of language and structure, and relevant, integrated contextual understanding. Context should never be bolted on. Instead, it should help explain why characters behave as they do and how Shakespeare’s audience might have responded.
Shakespeare’s England: life in the early 1600s
Macbeth was written around 1606, during the reign of King James I. Jacobean society was deeply hierarchical, strongly religious, and governed by the belief that God had created a natural order that structured everything from kingship to family life.
This belief is clear when Duncan praises Macbeth early in the play, calling him:
“O worthiest cousin!”
At this point, Macbeth is presented as loyal, honourable, and fully aligned with social and moral order. Shakespeare deliberately establishes this image so that Macbeth’s later betrayal feels not only criminal, but unnatural, a direct violation of God’s design. For a Jacobean audience, such a fall would be profoundly disturbing.
The Divine Right of Kings and the guilt of regicide
One of the most important contextual ideas for Macbeth is the Divine Right of Kings, the belief that monarchs were chosen by God and ruled as His representatives on earth.
This belief transforms Duncan’s murder into a spiritual crime. Macbeth recognises this immediately, asking:
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?”
The exaggerated imagery suggests that Macbeth understands the enormity of what he has done. The blood becomes a symbol of permanent guilt, reflecting the Jacobean belief that sins against God cannot simply be washed away.
This blood and guilt motif is later echoed by Lady Macbeth as she sleepwalks, crying:
“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!”
Although she once claimed that “a little water clears us of this deed”, she is ultimately unable to escape the psychological consequences of regicide. Shakespeare uses both characters to show that guilt is unavoidable when divine order is violated, reinforcing contemporary beliefs about kingship and moral consequence.
King James I, Banquo, and Shakespeare’s intentions
King James I ascended to the English throne in 1603, uniting England and Scotland. Shakespeare almost certainly wrote Macbeth with the new king in mind, shaping the play to flatter and reassure him.
This is particularly evident in the character of Banquo. While Banquo hears similar prophecies to Macbeth, they are notably not the same. The witches tell him:
“Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.”
Unlike Macbeth, Banquo is not promised personal power. Instead, the prophecy focuses on his descendants. Banquo responds cautiously, warning that:
“Oftentimes, to win us to our harm, / The instruments of darkness tell us truths.”
Later, Macbeth is tormented by a vision of Banquo’s heirs:
“And many more, and some I see / That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry.”
For a Jacobean audience, this image of an endless royal line would be highly significant. James I believed he was descended from Banquo, and Shakespeare uses this prophecy to legitimise his rule. By presenting Banquo as morally restrained and honourable, Shakespeare contrasts rightful kingship with Macbeth’s destructive ambition.
Witches, superstition, and fear in Jacobean society
Jacobean audiences genuinely feared witches. King James himself wrote Daemonologie, a book warning of their influence, and witch trials were common during the period.
The witches’ chant:
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair”
immediately establishes a world in which moral boundaries are blurred. This use of paradox reflects a society turned upside down, a deeply unsettling idea for a Jacobean audience who believed in clear moral and social hierarchies.
The witches are also associated with physical corruption and decay. Their cauldron contains disturbing ingredients, including:
“Eye of newt and toe of frog… Finger of birth-strangled babe.”
These grotesque images emphasise how closely the witches are linked to death, disorder, and the violation of nature. Macbeth’s willingness to seek them out later in the play, declaring:
“I conjure you, by that which you profess”
shows how far he has fallen. Shakespeare presents the witches not as controllers of fate, but as forces that exploit human ambition. Their prophecies tempt Macbeth, but it is his choices that lead to destruction.
Masculinity, power, and honour
In Jacobean society, masculinity was closely associated with violence, bravery, and honour in battle. Macbeth is initially celebrated for these qualities:
“For brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name.”
However, Shakespeare exposes the danger of these ideals when Lady Macbeth calls on dark forces to strip her of femininity:
“Unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty.”
This shocking plea reveals her rejection of traditional gender roles, which associated women with compassion and nurturing. By asking to be “unsexed”, Lady Macbeth aligns herself with violence and ambition, traits associated with masculinity in Jacobean culture.
She later weaponises these expectations against Macbeth, declaring:
“When you durst do it, then you were a man.”
Shakespeare suggests that defining masculinity through violence leads to moral collapse. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth suffer as a result of attempting to redefine themselves through power and cruelty.
Order, disorder, and the natural world
Jacobean audiences believed that moral disorder would be reflected in nature. Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare repeatedly shows nature responding violently to human wrongdoing.
After Duncan’s murder, Lennox describes:
“The night has been unruly.”
Elsewhere, a messenger reports that:
“A falcon, towering in her pride of place, / Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.”
This image reverses the natural hierarchy, just as Macbeth has overturned the social order. Duncan’s horses are also described as turning cannibal, another sign of unnatural behaviour:
“’Tis said they ate each other.”
Even the sun fails to rise properly after the murder, suggesting cosmic disorder. The witches’ cauldron, filled with distorted animal parts, further reinforces the idea that Scotland has become a place of corruption and chaos.
Order is only restored when Malcolm becomes king, reaffirming Shakespeare’s message that rightful leadership is essential for stability.
How GCSE exam boards reward context in Macbeth
While all GCSE exam boards assess context in Macbeth, they do so slightly differently.
AQA rewards tightly integrated context linked directly to analysis. Edexcel (Pearson) values discussion of writer’s intentions and audience response. OCR allows slightly more explicit contextual explanation, provided it is supported by close reference to the text. Eduqas and WJEC encourage discussion of ideas and beliefs of the time, especially where they illuminate themes and characterisation.
Across all boards, the principle remains the same. Context should support analysis, not replace it.
Final thoughts
Macbeth is shaped by the fears, beliefs, and politics of Shakespeare’s time. Understanding this context allows students to see the play not simply as a story about ambition, but as a warning about power, morality, and the consequences of disrupting natural and divine order.
Used thoughtfully, contextual knowledge transforms GCSE essays, helping students write with confidence, clarity, and insight.
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