Macbeth

Cards (50)

  • The play’s protagonist.
  • A ‘tragic hero’ – being a great man, who falls because of his fatal flaw: ambition.
  • Duncan’s ‘valiant cousin’
  • Introduced as the Thane of Glamis and is rewarded Thane of Cawdor for fighting valiantly and defeating the enemy; takes the Crown to become king of Scotland.
  • Macbeth is recognised by all for his courageous nature: ‘For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name’ - The Captain.
  • Lady Macbeth believes he is too good – too kind and too soft – to do what is necessary to become king: ‘yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way’.
  • Banquo believes Macbeth to be deceitful: ‘Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, / As the weird women promised, and, I fear, / Thou play’dst most foully for’t’
  • Again, Malcolm, the rightful King, has the last say on Macbeth, referring to him as ‘this dead butcher’.
  • Shakespeare does not present Macbeth as a wholly bad person – he began the play with admirable qualities but, under the influence of the witches and his wife, he changed.
  • Thus, you need to balance his final condition – the treacherous, mass murderer under the sway of supernatural forces – with his earlier and finer qualities: his love of his wife, his sensitive imagination and bravery.
  • By the end, Macbeth is still brave: he insists ‘I’ll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hacked. Give me my armour’ (5:3) and ‘Yet I will try the last’ (5:8), reminding us of how heroic and courageous he is.
  • God is good; the witches are evil; Macbeth is simply human. He is tempted, as is Banquo (and Duncan, through language) and, yet, they don’t succumb.
  • First description: ‘for brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name’ (captain speaking of him to Duncan, after his defeating the rebel forces).
  • Final description: ‘hell-hound’ and ‘villain’ by Macduff, before Macduff defeats him in battle.
  • Act 1: described as brave and valiant. In Act 2, Scene 1, during the dagger soliloquy, he personifies murder, passing the blame for his forthcoming actions, portraying himself as a coward.
  • Lady Macbeth later calls him a coward for refusing to kill the king. Macbeth is tragic partly because he comes to depends upon the witches’ information.
  • Act 1: Ambitious, brave, loyal
  • Act 2: Anxious, cowardly, paranoid
  • Act 3: Insular, merciless, paranoid
  • Act 4: Irrational, arrogant, isolated.
  • Act 5: Fearful, emotionless, brave.
  • His characteristics, the witches and Lady Macbeth cause him to do what he does.
  • His characteristics - particularly ambition, which is personified by Shakespeare to give the impression that it is a part of Macbeth that he cannot control.
  • The Witches – twofold: their prophecies provide Macbeth with ideas that he chose to act upon; through language, it becomes evident that the witches may be channelling Macbeth or controlling him through supernatural means. Regardless of which is believed, it’s ultimately irrelevant: the witches influence Macbeth, supernaturally or naturally, into committing a terrible deed.
  • Lady Macbeth – questions his masculinity and his courage, referring to him as a coward and, essentially, bullying him into acting on the witches’ prophecy. For Macbeth, bravery is extremely important and it is always the appeals to courage which tempt him – to him, courage and bravery are what make a man.
  • A Scottish general and the Thane of Glamis. He fights valiantly for his country, and is highly regarded by everyone, including the king.
  • Macbeth is led to evil thoughts after hearing the Weird Sisters' prophecies - urged on by his wife, he murders Duncan, employs three men to murder Banquo, and has Macuff's family slaughtered.
  • In the play's finale, he is killed by Macduff.
  • "So fair and foul a day I have not seen"
  • "If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me"
  • "Stars, hide your fires / Let not light see my black and deep desires"
  • "My dearest partner of greatness" (talking of Lady Macbeth)
  • "Yet do I (LM) fear thy nature / Is is too full o'th' milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way"
  • "Here's here in double trust: / First, I am his kinsman and his subject, / Strong both against the deed./ Then as his host"
  • "We will proceed no further in this business"
  • "I dare do all that may become a man,/ Who dares do more, is none"
  • "Away, and mock the time with the fairest show: False face must hide what the false heart doth know"
  • "Is this a dagger which I see before me,/ The handle toward my hand?"
  • "I heard a voice cry, 'sleep no more./ Macbeth doth murder sleep' "
  • "Our fears in Banquo stick deep"