Macbeth's Schooldays.

Macbeth Coursework

Macbeth’s Schooldays

The school, like many other schools at the time, had a reputation for being poorly equipped. As you entered through the gates, there was a small recreational area and beyond that the main school building. To the left was a church, which the boys were herded into once every morning and afternoon. There was no particular school uniform; boys came to the school in whatever garments they had at home. There was a large problem with truancy at the school, but this was often due to the fact that many of the boys had to walk 10 miles over the Scottish Highlands to reach the school every morning. However Master Macbeth was an inhabitant of the area surrounding the school and he was also a keen student, so he was always on time for his lessons. He was excellent in both academics and dueling, and his efforts with a sword were incredible, as he surpassed many of his teachers in the subject. It was clear that Macbeth had a talent for speaking publicly and he wrote beautiful poetry. However even at the age of 15 the boys were not often allowed to talk, and were always expected to treat the masters with full respect. If they did not they would receive what could often be seen as unbearable punishment.

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This unspoken law of the school often shut off an outlet in Macbeth that he desperately needed, and the creative abilities he had, along with his never-ending thought processes, were shut inside him. At the time, as in the previous centuries and the centuries to come, there was an abundant supply of mad people in Scotland. Macbeth was not completely mad, but he was slightly mentally deranged. He did not have any friends in school apart from a boy called Master Banquo who he shared a passion for dueling with. However Macbeth often felt patronized by Banquo and constantly felt uneasy in his presence. The main reason that Macbeth did not have any friends was because he had a habit of talking to himself. Often Master Macbeth would get so involved in his conversations with himself that he would start staring at things that weren’t there are waving his arms frantically in the air. The other boys found this particularly strange and most of them tried to avoid running into Macbeth around the school. In one dueling lesson, out on the marshes behind the school, Macbeth was about to fight a boy called Macduff, who was particularly wary of Macbeth, when he suddenly lifted his arms to the air and stared up into the sky. At this point he started talking to himself:

MACBETH

Is this a dagger I see before me?

It shines with a mysterious wonder,

I am no less than enthralled by it,

For it seems to be leading me towards Macduff!

SCHOOLMASTER

Master Macbeth, pray tell me what had taken control of you?

Macbeth continues to wander aimlessly around field

MACBETH

Pray forgive me master,

A strange affliction hath plagued me,

This sword sees me fit to fight

At this point Macbeth began to fight Macduff and at the cost of a graze on his right arm he defeated him. The continuous dueling at the school gave Macbeth a certain hunger for violence on the spur of the moment. At this time Macbeth had made Acquaintances with a girl who he was later to marry. This girl picked up on Macbeth’s violent side and decided to exploit it. She convinced him that he could somehow become head boy at the school by killing the present head boy in one of the duels. However the swords used were blunt and wooden, so Macbeth conspired to hide a real steel sword in his clothes and then bring it out as the fight began. Macbeth’s thought processes began to come to light, and he started hoping that somehow the doing of the deed would be the end of the matter and that nothing would follow that could result in his downfall. At that moment in time Macbeth’s extreme paranoia came into the scene and he started thinking that quite a few people would suspect him. In this way he assured himself that by killing 5 or 6 of the boys that could lay the blame on him, he would be safe from suspicion. However there was still a part of him that felt like he would overleap the horse of his ambition and land face down on the other side.

As Macbeth drew near to the gates, he said goodbye to his future wife, who left him saying that he would be truly courageous if he killed the head-boy. He walked into the recreational area and looked around him for his victims. As the master called the boys out to the marsh, He called back the 5 boys he was planning on killing and drew out the sword. Using his great swordsmanship he swiftly killed them all as the last boy he killed drew out his wooden sword too late. Hw walked down to the marsh and faced the head-boy, who looked frightened by the menacing look in Macbeth’s eye. As the master called for the duel to start he drew out the already bloody sword and slew him then and there. All those watching suddenly gasped and Macbeth ran as fast as he could away from the marsh. This prompted the start of Macbeth’s downfall, both mentally and physically. He fled with his family to another part of Scotland, but the psychological effects of the incident would remain with Macbeth for the rest of his life.