A ghost or ghost like image of someone or something
Equivocation
The use of ambiguous and vague language to conceal the truth and avoid getting in trouble
Tyrant
A cruel and oppressive leader who acts like a dictator
Hamartia
A fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero
Allegory
When a story,character etc is used to convey a typically moral or political meaning which relates to real world issues
Anagnorisis
A moment in the play when the tragic hero recognises their looming downfall due to their tragic flaw or when a main character recognises someone's true identity
Vice
A behaviour or trait which is immoral
Paganism
Non/pre Christian religion beliefs and ideologies
Catharsis
The purging or cleansing of previous emotions usually caused by the pity or fear the audience experiences at the end of a tragedy play.
In act 5 the audience feels catharsis after Macbeth is stripped of his majesty, loses his wife and then his life evoking pity within the reader
Double entendre
Words or phrases that have a double meaning and is deliberately ambiguous
Nihilism
Believing life is pointless and meaningless
Eponymous
Used to describe works which have been named after their protagonist (e.g Macbeth)
Nihilistic figure
someone who belives in nothing and has no loyalties or purpose other than an impulse to destroy
radical scepticism which condemns existence
Proleptic irony
when something happens or is said which can be contradicted later on
Duplicitous
someone who purposely lies to people especially by saying different things to different people or acting in different way at different times
Predestination
the belief that everything that happens has already been determined by God and that he has already set a master plan so there's no deviating from it
people have no control over events because everything has already been decided by God
God has already chosen those he has intended to save and has determined things in order of who will have salvation and who will not