Lady Macbeth definitely gives Macbeth the push to murder the king, if she wouldn’t have encouraged him I think Macbeth wouldn’t have killed the king. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth resembles qualities of a man in the Elizabethan time period, she is constantly questioning Macbeth’s manhood for example, “And live a coward in thine own esteem,” 1.7.43. Lady Macbeth is questioning Macbeth’s esteem by referring to him as a coward, she is trying to mould him into the stereotypical man from that time period. She essentially wants him to have the same traits as herself. Another example “When you durst do it, then you were a man;” 1.7.49. She is leading Macbeth on to believe that he is no man and his infact unbecoming of one. I would use the word “aggressive” to describe Lady Macbeth because she is very determined in making her husband king, by consistently reminding him he is a coward and unbecoming of a man. In that time period, for a wife to be treating her husband in any disrespectful form was viewed in a negative way and was practically unheard of. To conclude, Lady Macbeth has a very unusual behaviour considering the time period of this play and her character possesses traits of a stereotypical man in an Elizabethan period, she is extremely determined which is shown through her aggressive behaviour when around Macbeth. 

I thought in Grade 9 I would get so much more homework compared to Grade 8, but actually, the topics we learned were similar to what we learnt last year, just covering different topics and going more in depth. One special moment was when I sang a solo for Music, it’s nice to hear really good things about my voice. Not only do I feel appreciated for singing, but also for my acting skills during Drama and to see that people around me appreciate my special abilities. It has really boosted my confidence in knowing what I could do, like for example having the guts to perform in front of a crowd of people.

In the activities part, I continued Choir by joining the high school choir Sonos. I enjoy it so much and it is very fun, my favourite part about it is learning a new song and adding different harmonies. Choir is still helping me build my confidence in being a risk taker because sometimes you have to audition to get a solo part in the song, I would tell myself “You can do it,” and this helped me try new things that are actually really fun.

I like learning about the topics in Music, especially composing music. When I learnt that a lot of songs are made up of these special notes and it is so cool how many songs you can make by making a random code. I can also boost my creativity because we have to come up with our own music, it could also be for singing because I love to sing if you haven’t noticed already. Next year I want to continue to develop my friendships because I feel that I have found people I can trust and are comfortable around which was a goal I had from Grade 8 and I feel I have accomplished that goal. I also want to improve my grades, like from 5 to 6 and maybe even to a 7 in Enterprise because I am very close to getting my desired grade. I am concerned about having harder and longer tests/exams and that’s what could make my grades drop. I do have to say I am looking forward to the rest of the IGCSE course and growing my knowledge even further!

Amanda Walton