Ineffective thesis: In Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth suffers from paranoia as a result of killing

Duncan (This is correct. However, it is a statement of fact and a thesis statement must be
arguable and have your ideas attached to it).

First of all: What does Macbeth do and say and how does he respond to Lady Macbeth?
What themes connect to the paranoia Macbeth feels? What's your argument about this idea?

And then consider:

● What action takes place in the passage?
● What words strike you as interesting?
● How does Shakespeare use language to construct meaning?
● Why is this passage meaningful to the play as a whole?

Some points to consider in forming thesis:

● The use of the owl (superstition suggests anxiety; foreshadows demise of Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth)
● Macbeth returns with the bloody daggers when he should have left them there with the
guards (absent minded suggests panic)
● Use of stichomythia (suggests panic and disorder)
● Macbeth expresses regret and guilt; Lady Macbeth says it should be seen as a positive
act (highlights Macbeth’s pessimism)
● Macbeth hears voices, explains that he heard someone cry ‘murder’ when he was in the
act of killing Duncan but that they went back to sleep and he could not say ‘Amen’; he
continues to hear voices (suggests paranoia)
● Macbeth worries about a voice that says ‘Sleep no more’
● Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth not to be so anxious.
● The knocking at the gate (suggests Macbeth’s isolation; foreshadows how he will later
find himself under siege)

Using three of the above points, make an argument and form your thesis:

In Act 2, Scene 2, following the murder of Duncan, Macbeth becomes paranoid, as can be seen
through his reaction to owl, the knocking at the gate and his hearing of voices that say ‘sleep no
more’.

OR

In Act 2, Scene 2, Shakespeare makes use of the play’s major themes and motifs in order to
dramatise Macbeth’s psychological torment. This can be seen in Lady Macbeth remonstrating
and berating Macbeth over his manifest despondency when returns with the daggers, in
Macbeth’s preoccupation with sleep, hands and water, and, lastly, in the apparent remorse
demonstrated by both toward the end of the scene. [A thesis can be more than one sentence]
Topic sentences