Macbeth

• Fair is foul, and foul is fair,Hover through the fog and filthy air.


  The witches' paradox in Act 1 scene 1. Supernatural

  
• "Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires,"

  Personification that reveals Macbeth's dark intentions in Act 1 Scene 3. Compuntous.

  
• "Look like th' Innocent flower, but be the serpent under't"


  Lady Macbeth's instructions to Macbeth and allusion to the Gunpowder Plot (this relates to English history in which English Catholics planned the Death of King Henry I). Unscrupulous and machiavellian

  
• "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?"

  Macbeth's hyperbolic metaphor for the guilt he feels in killing Duncan...He is penitent but he knows his actions are incorrigible. Also contrast to later when he doesn't feel guilty anymore

  
• "From this moment the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand"


  Macbeth's decisive language after hearing the witches prophecies in Act 4...Quite unorthodox, going against the idea of fate at the time.

  
• "Out damned spot! Out I say"


  A symbol of Lady Macbeth's guilt and her inability to escape it...shes culpable but she cannot be set free as she still clings to the supernatural. shown through the imperative language of a 'ruler

  
• "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from crown to toe top full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood"


  Lady Macbeth wants all her femininity taken away from her, anything that would make her compasionate and kind, anything that would make her think twice about the murder she wants taken away.
• A tragic hero


  A literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on the ultimate downfall of the character

  
• sycophantic


  behaving or done in an obsequious way in order to gain advantage

  
• Machiavellian

  cunning and deceitful
• Hamartia


  a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine
• Hubris

  excessive pride or arrogance that results in the downfall of the protagonist of a tragedy
• "Fair is foul, and foul is fair/ Hover through the fog and filthy air"

  Good is bad and bad is good- Antithesis. Hints that good Macbeth turns bad.- rhyming couplets adds to the evil foreboding atmosphere. Starts theme of reality vs appearances. Spectral
• "Till he unseamed him from the nave to th'chaps"- Captain

  Mouth to the belly - brave/ heroic Macbeth killed the traitor Macdonwald with the Scottish army. valiant, Audacious and resolute. Foreshadows that he is not above violence
• "Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend"


  Ironic, he is being told "hail" yet when he becomes King this language no longer reflects who he is. He WAS admired. He WAS meritorious
• " Or memorise another Golgotha"- Captain


  Allusions/religious imagery- re-enact a slaughter like Christ's crucifixion.The reference to the place of the death of Christ would not only highly resonate with a deeply religious audience but also that Macbeth is being likened to Christ, suggesting again his good character. Moreover leading to sympathy at his death because he was once a noble respectable man who succumbed to evil. It could also foreshadow that like Christ who had a sword put in his side, Macbeth will suffer the same death by the sword.
• "disloyal traitor, the thane of cawdor"


  cyclical structure of the play. Last thane of Cawdor was a traitor and now MacBeth, the new thane of Cawdor is also a traitor
• "Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,/ Which smoked with bloody execution"

  Metaphor/ imagery of a gory sword smoking from hot blood.- foreshadow to dagger scene where he has become a tyrant. Shakespeare contrasts eerie witch scene with gory battle scene- violent mood for play
• "O valiant cousin, worthy gentlemen"- Duncan


  Later Duncan is killed by him- link to "This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air/ Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself."- dramatic irony. Duncan was quite ingenuous
• "When the hurly-burly's done/ When the battle's lost and won"

  Rhyming couplets & paradoxes (contradicts itself) - unclear at first but becomes clearer throughout.
• "brave" & "valiant"


  Macbeth is a hero and loyal to king, but as the witches say, things may not be as they seem.
• "The merciless Macdonwald"


  Very ironic- later Macbeth
• "What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won"


  Thane of Cawdor executed for being a "disloyal traitor"
• "Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o'th' Tiger"


  Tiger- an English ship that finally arrived home after disastrous 81week voyage. Metaphor of a sailor representing Macbeth- storm stops him sleeping like Macbeth guilt stops his sleep. Ship is destroyed like Scotland
• "Sleep shall neither night nor day"

  Sailor- Foreshadow
• "A drum, a drum: / Macbeth doth come"

  Rhyming couplets- link to knocking?
• "Thrice to thine and thrice to mine, /And thrice again, to make up nine"

  Three times in my direction, three times in your's. Creates a circle for Macbeth to walk into.- Assonance
• "So foul and fair a day i have not seen"


  Macbeth's first line of the whole play- link to Witches, he is a puppet of the witches from the moment he walks into their circle, he is spell bound. Links him to the supernatural
• "neither beg nor fear/ Your favours nor your hate"


  Parallelism
• "Hail", "Hail", "Hail"

  Witches each talk in threes. The witches talk in sing-song voices so its like a canon
• "Stay you imperfect speakers. Tell me more"


  Macbeth uses imperatives. Showing he is capable
• "Why do you dress me/ In borrowed robes"


  Macbeth questions why he's Thane of Cawdor. Ironic- later doesn't borrow but murders Duncan's position.
• "The instruments of darkness tell us truths;/ Win us with honest trifles, to betray's / In deep consequence."- Banquo


  Banquo knows they are evil witches that manipulate
• (Aside) "Cannot be ill, cannot be good."


  Macbeth talks to himself. Unsure if the Witches are good or bad, Banquo knows they're evil
• "Worthy Macbeth"- Banquo


  In act 3, lose all trust as friends
• "rapt withal"


  Macbeth is left spellbound by the witches within his thoughts. - lust for power fighting between ambition and conscience.
• "Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds"


  Duncan asks if Macbeth was scared in battle. It appears that he wanted to bathe in the blood of the enemy.
• "What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won"- Duncan


  Fate has Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, but later he tries to change is fate through murder
• "Sleep shall neither night nor day"- Witches


  Metaphor/foreshadow of Macbeth losing sleep like the sailor. Further symbolic of Scotland under Macbeth's tyranny later on- nationwide shock & fear
• "All hail Macbeth...", "All hail Macbeth...", "All hail Macbeth..."- Each Witch

  Anaphora- repletion of words at the beginning of successive sentences. Link to religious Father, Son and Holy Spirit?