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Look Like the Innocent Flower, But be the Serpent: Full Analysis — Transcript

by Mr Salles Teaches English · 2,464 words · 355 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00hello and welcome to a new kind of video
0:04to get you the very top grades I've
0:07started experimenting with making
0:09quotations memorable by attaching them
0:12to a picture so here we have look like
0:15the innocent flower but be the serpent
0:18under it it depends on the addition you
0:21might get an apostrophe T there
0:23depending on the Shakespeare you're
0:25looking at and then I'm going to link
0:28the quotation to every single essay type
0:31that you could possibly get because I
0:33want to show you that this one quotation
0:35will fit every essay you could possibly
0:38get and then in this series I'll do that
0:41with a range of 10 quotations so one in
0:45each separate video to show you how you
0:48can get your revision down to some key
0:51quotations that have all the power to
0:54give you the top grades so the first
0:57thing we're going to look at is context
0:59because at grade 7 I need to link the
1:02context to the meaning of the play well
1:05we're going to zoom in on this idea of
1:07the word of the serpent which comes
1:09straight out of Genesis which is the
1:11first bit book of the Old Testament of
1:13the Bible and Shakespeare's making this
1:16allusion deliberately to give the
1:20audience a shorthand for evil because
1:23the serpent is Satan and the serpent
1:26tempted Eve to tempt Adam to eat of the
1:29forbidden fruit and this was the fruit
1:32of the knowledge of good and evil so if
1:34we take that to the play Lady Macbeth is
1:37clearly the serpent who is tempting
1:41Macbeth and here she is asking Macbeth
1:44to become like her so she sees herself
1:48as the serpent and she wants Macbeth to
1:51become serpent like evil like Satan as
1:54she is so one interpretation of the
1:58context here is Shakespeare is clearly
2:00showing the evil nature of Lady Macbeth
2:03and he's linking her to the weird
2:06sisters the witches and therefore he
2:10blames her more in this context for
2:12Macbeth
2:14downfall and Macbeth himself he's
2:16arguing that she is the temptress like
2:19Eve and she has caused his downfall
2:23okay mister sighs that's great but what
2:26if the question is about Macbeth and
2:28Banquo then you get an extract that
2:31doesn't include Lady Macbeth and the
2:33question is about Macbeth as a powerful
2:35powerful character what do you do then
2:38brilliant well I go back to that
2:39quotation and I ask myself whether
2:42Macbeth is a powerful character here so
2:45the interpretation we just looked at
2:47suggested that Lady Macbeth is
2:50controlling her husband and therefore
2:53she is more powerful then if we follow
2:57the trajectory of the characters
2:59throughout the play we see that Lady
3:01Macbeth becomes increasingly less
3:03powerful and certainly once Macbeth has
3:06had Banquo killed he stops sleeping with
3:10his wife that's why in the sleepwalking
3:11scene
3:12Macbeth isn't there she appears on her
3:14own and he stops confiding in her he
3:18says the innocent of the knowledge
3:19dearest Chuck he won't tell her that
3:22he's going to kill Banquo and eventually
3:24of course she commits suicide on her own
3:27apparently abandoned by her husband so
3:30we can read this as a play in which
3:33Macbeth becomes increasingly powerful
3:36but in the end that power turns on him
3:40and kills him the other way we can look
3:44at Macbeth power with this quotation is
3:46by thinking of him as like the flower so
3:50he appears innocent but the flower isn't
3:55just an innocent image it is also a
3:58deliberately feminine image so Lady
4:01Macbeth is advising her husband with
4:03this quotation to be more feminine which
4:07is ironic because she has just had her
4:10speech where she asks the murdering
4:12ministers to unsex her and make her more
4:16masculine again showing how she's trying
4:19to become more powerful than her husband
4:22right let's sample another question
4:25which looks like it's going to be about
4:27Lady Macbeth
4:28we're looking at the letter that some
4:30Beth wrote to her and how does
4:32Shakespeare presentment Beth as a
4:34dangerous character
4:36well brilliant this brings us to the
4:38idea of duplicitous
4:41duplicity is where you in fact deceive
4:45the observer and we can see clearly that
4:48Macbeth is duplicitous he appears like
4:51the welcoming guest who is going to
4:54celebrate Duncan's great victory and
4:56then murders him in his sleep he also
5:00tries to deceive Banquo when he asked
5:04Banquo is it far you right tonight goes
5:06Fleance with you but Banquo is not
5:09deceived because Banquo understands the
5:13danger that Macbeth is like the serpent
5:15and so he refuses to tell Macbeth where
5:20and when he is riding now that's really
5:24interesting because when Macbeth has
5:27Banquo killed but Fleance escapes he
5:30says we have scorched the snake not
5:34kill'd it and so he uses this same
5:37imagery of the serpent to describe
5:40Banquo because he knows Banquo is an
5:44equal match for him so although Macbeth
5:48is powerful he realizes that Banquo is
5:51just as powerful he is another snake so
5:56yes Macbeth is dangerous now if we turn
6:00to the context idea again and we bring
6:03in the symbolism from Genesis from the
6:06Garden of Eden we can clearly see that
6:08Macbeth is also a dangerous character in
6:12that he brings evil into the world he is
6:15destroying the Eden which was the
6:18political union under King Duncan and
6:21he's destroyed that taken Scotland away
6:25from this paradise that he had with the
6:27angelic Duncan and replacing it with his
6:30satanic rule and you can easily talk
6:33about how under his rule Scotland is a
6:37victim of assassination and murder and
6:41you can then link that to the way that
6:43he slaughters Macduff's family including
6:48his children which you could say is the
6:51very definition of an evil act and that
6:55stage in the play Macbeth has indeed
6:58become the serpent okay our next
7:01question Macbeth is considering whether
7:04to kill Duncan he has that soliloquy
7:07about how wonderful Duncan is what a
7:09mistake it would be to kill him and the
7:12question says starting with this extract
7:14how does Shakespeare explore that should
7:18say the issue of morality
7:20well obviously morality is the idea of
7:22right and wrong
7:24well I've explored that idea quite fully
7:26already but now I can take the context a
7:28little further so Shakespeare now is
7:31writing for a Jacobean audience who
7:35would have expected a strong Christian
7:38message in the play but I want more than
7:41one interpretation so although this is
7:44the language that his read not his
7:47readers sorry his audience would have
7:49understood and taken as Christian
7:52symbolism something more interesting is
7:54happening so one understanding of the
7:59story of Adam and Eve is that their
8:01crime in turning against God and
8:04disobeying his commandment is what is
8:07called original sin
8:09now original sin means that because we
8:12are all descended from Adam and Eve we
8:14all are born with their sin therefore we
8:17are all born much more evil than we are
8:21good we have to be trained to be good
8:23well now if we look at the character of
8:26Macbeth we could argue that he's only
8:29been a good character because his
8:32violence and addiction to killing has
8:35prior to this being used to serve the
8:37king so if you look at the description
8:41of the battle where he unseen the
8:44opposing general from the knave to the
8:47chops so literally sliced him open from
8:50his belly button up to his chin we can
8:53see a delight in Kill
8:55so one interpretation is that the Beth
8:58has always been a psychopathic killer
9:00because he has always been born with
9:03this original sin so he doesn't have to
9:06become the serpent underneath he
9:09actually is or we could take the
9:13opposing view and think that actually no
9:17he's just a mixture between good and
9:18evil but Lady Macbeth when she notices
9:21his goodness his milk of human kindness
9:24decides to get rid of that and make him
9:28more evil more serpent like now the
9:32other great moral dilemma that
9:33Shakespeare sets up as he asks whether
9:36Macbeth is made to act in any way by the
9:40witches or whether he chooses to act
9:43that way and if we go back to the
9:46Christian context of the story of the
9:48serpent the serpent does not make Eve do
9:52anything he just suggests what will
9:56happen if she eats the forbidden fruit
9:58in other words Eve has complete freewill
10:02to break God's commandment or to keep it
10:06and not to break it and in this same way
10:09Macbeth has that same choice he says why
10:14then I might be crowned without Meister
10:16in other words he doesn't have to kill
10:18Duncan in order to become king but he
10:23exercises his free will for evil he
10:27chooses to do the evil act in order to
10:30get what he wants and this idea of free
10:32will is central to Christian faith at
10:35the time and the whole idea is you need
10:38to exercise your free will in order to
10:40choose the good and moral choice next we
10:45have an extract where Lady Macbeth is
10:48talking about her to Macbeth about his
10:52decision not to kill Duncan and the
10:55question is exploring the ways that Lady
10:58Macbeth is presented as a powerful woman
11:01well we've clearly discussed that
11:03already haven't we in the sense that she
11:06emasculates Macbeth that me
11:08she takes away his masculinity by asking
11:11him to pretend to be the flower and she
11:15also takes away his masculinity by
11:17taking charge he orders him about and
11:20this quotation is one of those such
11:23orders she's clearly commanding her
11:26husband and he actually obeys he takes
11:30her advice and does become the disguised
11:33serpent underneath the flower of
11:36hospitality next we have a question
11:39about the witches I'm hoping you can
11:42guess that the question will therefore
11:44be about the supernatural so now I go
11:49back to this quotation which suggests
11:51that it might not be the witches who
11:54have influenced Macbeth the most we
11:57could argue his wife has influenced him
11:59the most or we could argue that no he is
12:03born with this original sin and has
12:06always been a psychological killer in
12:08the service of King Duncan and actually
12:12therefore the witches and his wife don't
12:15have much to do with it at all he is
12:17finally expressing his true nature
12:20finally coming out from underneath the
12:23flower that he appeared to be before and
12:25revealing his true self all we can use
12:30the quotation another way and say that
12:32Lady Macbeth is now choosing this
12:35satanic imagery about the serpent
12:38because she sees herself as in league
12:42with the supernatural forces the
12:45murdering ministers she calls onto one
12:47sec sir just as her husband is in league
12:50with the supernatural forces of the
12:53witches and therefore this idea of
12:55becoming the serpent is not just an
13:00indication of his original sin but also
13:03an indication of how the influence of
13:05the witches has worked on his mind and
13:08so what I'm trying to save it as you can
13:10agree that he's affected by the
13:13supernatural or totally disagree but in
13:17both cases this quotation will help you
13:19argue both sides
13:22okay what if the question is about the
13:26theme of guilt well I come back to the
13:29quotation and Lady Macbeth has killed
13:32herself because of the great guilt she
13:34feels and we could argue that that guilt
13:38begins here when she advises her husband
13:41to be duplicitous and look innocent but
13:45become the murderous serpent and killing
13:47Duncan so this quotation if you like is
13:50the genesis see what I did there
13:53because Genesis means the birth of it so
13:56this is the genesis of the idea that
13:58leads Macbeth to kill Duncan and she
14:02blames herself for planting that seed
14:04and for convincing him to become the
14:07serpent now I can also look at Macbeth
14:11Macbeth does indeed become a serpent in
14:15that he kills and does he feel guilt I'd
14:18argue you could easily interpret the
14:20play to show that he feels no guilt
14:22whatsoever about killing Duncan and he
14:26only starts having his visions of ghosts
14:28when he gets his friend killed he feels
14:32guilty only about having Banquo killed
14:35not about having Duncan killed all we
14:38could even go a step further and say
14:40well actually it's not guilt that makes
14:43him see the ghost of Banquo it's fear of
14:45what Banquo can still do because Fleance
14:49is so alive in other words
14:51Banquo has beaten that Beth Banquo has
14:54arranged for that which is prophecy to
14:57come true that his sons will become
15:00kings and that Beth will die without an
15:03heir so Macbeth perhaps doesn't feel
15:07guilty at all or you could argue that he
15:10does have this crisis of guilt but only
15:13in the context of having Banquo killed
15:16so here's another question about
15:18Macbeth's in a conflict well that's
15:21obviously summarized in this brilliant
15:24meta flaw
15:24the conflict between innocence and evil
15:28between the flower and the serpent
15:29between choosing to wait in order to
15:32become King or taking the moment
15:35of history in his hands and
15:37assassinating Duncan in order to
15:38accelerate his becoming king so
15:41hopefully you can see how versatile this
15:44quotation is I am going to put some two
15:47links in the description to the video
15:49now one link to how you can get hold of
15:53this image if you want it and another
15:56link which shows you how to get hold of
15:58those extract questions which I found on
16:01the internet so YouTube are now allowing
16:06youtubers to sell merchandise have no
16:09idea if there's any market for it but
16:11anyway I'm putting that design on a mug
16:13to see if anyone wants to buy it for
16:15their teacher and actually most of my
16:17viewers are adult so who knows you might
16:19want to buy it for yourself if you don't
16:21it doesn't matter didn't take me long to
16:23create and I enjoyed drawing it and then
16:27there'll be another link to some
16:29benedict school who have produced this
16:32PDF for their students and made it
16:34available to the world big shout out to
16:37some Benedict's people after my own
16:39heart
16:39producing resources for free just that
16:42my videos are thank you very much I hope
16:44you enjoyed this series they are going
16:47to be nine more to come so do subscribe
16:49down here if you would like to and give
16:53me any comments about what you think of
16:54the new style of video because hey you
16:57you might love them or you might hate
16:58them I I'd love to know which see you
17:01soon on my channel

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