Love using this death-tracker for Macbeth. Students have to work out who dies, when/how they die and most significantly how the different deaths are connected. @Team_English1 what trends do you notice? I'll start... 1/ The play begins and ends with a patriotic Scottish soldier slaying a 'rebel'. Whilst the parallelism glorifies the military might of Scotland (a nod to King James), the transition of roles and clear death-loop forefronts the play's warning on desiring power above one's station.2/

Besides its overall cyclical structure and tragic arc, Macbeth is rich with stand-alone extracts that oscillate in focus, pace, tension and motifs - perfect for embedding structural analysis. A good example is Act 2.3 - the discovery of the regicide: 1/ This scene begins with a continuation of the 'knocking' from the previous scene. The reoccurring sound creates an ominous cause and effect impact, suggesting Macbeth cannot escape the consequences of committing regicide. This riddles audiences with anticipation and excitement. 2/

A thread on on paradoxes in Macbeth

A paradox is a statement which appears self-contradictory, but when examined closer turns out to be true.

Paradoxes expose how the lines between what is true and untrue are arbitrary. However, those trapped within them rarely realise this. 1/ The witches are arguably the most paradoxical characters in the play: they are supernatural, yet live in the natural world; they do not lie, yet do not tell the truth either; they 'should be women', 'yet [their] beards forbid [us] to interpret that they are so'. 2/