Key Vocab

• Hamartia

  tragic flaw
• Hamartia (tragic flaw) Macbeth’s hamartia is his “vaulting ambition” which ultimately leads to his tragic downfall.
• Hubris

  excessive pride and confidence
• Hubris (excessive pride and confidence) Macbeth is instilled with excessive confidence when the witches tell him that ‘none of woman born shall harm Macbeth’.
• Peripeteia

  a turning point
• Peripeteia (a turning point) For example, when Macbeth realises that ‘I am in blood / Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er’
• Anagnorisis

  crucial discovery
• Anagnorisis (crucial discovery)

  An example is Macbeth realising that he is not invincible: ‘Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped’
• Catharsis

  a cleansing of anxiety
• Catharsis (a cleansing of anxiety)

  This occurs for the audience at the end of the play when Macbeth is killed: justice is done and a moral balance is restored