macbeth 2

• keywords:

  • Foil, soliloquy, litotes, guilt, insanity, honesty/dishonesty
• A foil is a character that juxtaposes another in order to reveal things about their personalities.

  • In this case, Banquo is a tool to explore man's reaction to temptation.
• Macbeth's dishonest dual nature juxtaposes Banquo's.

  • Banquo: "I dream'd last night of the three weird sisters."
  • Macbeth: "I think not of them" - which not true.
  • Banquo's honesty amplifies Macbeth's dishonesty and deception.
• Banquo is emblematic of Jesus:

  • He confesses his temptation, Banquo claims the heaven's "candles are all out", in reference to the lack of stars in the sky.
  • Banquo seeks solace from heaven rather than trying to hide like Macbeth's "stars hide your fires".
• This motif of stars: "candles are all out" (Banquo) and "stars hide your fires" (Macbeth):

  • Exposes Macbeth and Banquo as diametrically opposed in their aspirations.
  • Macbeth wants to hide his malicious intentions from God yet Banquo wants to confess his temptations to be free of them.
• Banquo is an important tool in characterizing Macbeth as a tragedy, as it exposes Macbeth's hamartia of ambition that drives his heinous acts.

  • Banquo too was subject to the same temptation but actively chose to resist it.
  • Hamartia is a key component of tragedy.
• Soliloques are a device used by Shakespeare to give the audience insight into the inner workings of a character's mind, in Act 2, Scene 1, just before killing King Duncan we are given an insight into the mental turmoil of Macbeth:

  • This is a volta (turning point) for Macbeth's character as it is when he begins to experience the effects of guilt.
• The rhetorical question "Is this a dagger in which I see before me, the handle towards my hand? Come let me clutch thee" shows Macbeth's internal conflict and confusion.

  • It foreshadows his later madness.
  • The phrase "handle towards my hand" suggests he is ridding himself of responsibility over the murder as if it were being offered or forced upon him.
  • From this, we learn he can acknowledge the immorality of his actions, yet ambition takes over.
• The ambiguous phrase "fatal vision":

  • The adjective "fatal" simultaneously alludes to the fatalities that will come as a result of the tragedy and the idea that his actions are decreed by fate.
  • This latter suggests another example of Macbeth abstaining from responsibility as he dismisses it as conducted by higher powers or destiny.
• ["dagger" hallucination] The staging here can be interesting as if the dagger is shown on stage, it draws the audience into Macbeth's madness.

  • A contemporary audience would be confounded by the enigma of the supernatural and the power they hold.
  • Conversely, if the dagger is invisible, Macbeth's madness becomes apparent earlier in the play.
• Macbeth exclaims "I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more/Macbeth doth murder sleep', the innocent sleep" which portrays he is so perturbed by guilt that he is imprisoned into a state of relentlessness.

  • The repetition of 'sleep' portrays him stumbling over his words, he has even lost control of his lexis and articulation.
• The motif of sleep: Sleep plays an important role in exploring the notion of innocence throughout the play, an inability to sleep is synonymous with a loss of innocence.

  • Sleep presents tranquillity and healing - "sore labour's bath"
  • The noun "bath" reinforces this as it connotes cleanliness which is also synonymized with the innocence through the allusions of washing blood.
• Macbeth's abandonment of religion is salient:

  • He hears "God bless us", paired with biblical cries of "Amen"
  • Highlights how Macbeth has deviated so far from God and religion