Macbeth

• 'O full of scorpions is my mind'


  'Scorpions' represent the mental torment and pain that he is enduring

  Also can be symbolic of his uneasiness and desire to kill Banquo and Fleance
• 'all great Neptune's oceans wash this blood clean from my hand?'


  Metaphorical blood as blood can usually be washed away however he is stating that the deed can never be forgotten or undone
• "If chance will have me king why, chance may crown me without my stir"


  Almost questions what Lady Macbeth is telling him to do which he seems afraid to do and doesn't abide by the typical gender roles and ideologies

  States that if fate wants him to be king then he will be king regardless of his actions
• 'Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripped'


  Shows the loophole in what the witches had told Macbeth portraying them to be deceiving and untrustworthy as they had Macbeth believe he was invincible
• 'dagger of the mind, a false creation' 


  Resemblant of his guilt of killing Duncan as he is no longer able to distinguish what is real and what is not

  Motif of dagger keeps on appearing throughout the play emphasising his mental trauma from his initial wrongdoing

  Appearance vs reality runs throughout the play

  Reminder that Macbeth himself is false
• 'I am afraid to think what I have done'


  Shows a high level of regret for his actions

  His tragic hero qualities shine through as we are made to feel bad for him
• 'Out, out brief candle'


  Can be symbolic of the futility of mans power and life
• 'poor player that struts and frets'


  Macbeth compares his existence to the condition of a mere ghost

  Audience is meant to feel even more sympathy for Macbeth
• 'Macbeth does murder sleep'


  Macbeth is punished with sleeplessness

  Personification of sleep shows the causality and that he has sacrificed his own sleep by putting Duncan into a permanent 'sleep'
• 'I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent'


  Macbeth is stating that he has a lack of motivation and driving him is his 'vaulting ambition'

  This is ultimately his hamartia as he is a tragic hero
• 'Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake thy gory locks at me'


  Shows Macbeth going insane as his mental endurance is being slowly corroded by his own actions

  Only Macbeth can see the ghost which creates dramatic tension because of the confusion the guests have
• 'the bell invites me'

  'hear it not Duncan'

  'knell that summons thee to heaven or hell 


  Motif of the bell appears

  Wants Duncan to be unaware of his own murder and wishes that it will go unnoticed

  Biblical allusions to signify that he is going to be killed, suggestion of hell is ironic as this is where Macbeth ends up
• 'false face must hide what the false heart doth know'


  Appearance vs reality

  'False face' having connotations of the lies he is telling people about Duncan's murder

  'False heart' means that his heart is truly evil however he acts as if he is pure and much like the Macbeth in the beginning
• 'I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares to do more is none'


  He will do what a man has to do even in this extreme of regicide however he will not do anymore than this as if he did then he would not be a man

  Potentially linking into supernatural and evil consuming someone making them inhuman?
• 'We have scotch'd the snake, not killed it
'


  Macbeth is worried about Banquo returning as it threatens his kinship due to the witches foretelling that Banquo will 'get kings' meaning that his descendants will be of royalty

  Religious imagery behind the description of Banquo as a snake as the snake tempts fate in the Bible
• 'secret, black, and midnight hags!'


  Summons forth the witches and contrasts the beginning due to the arrogance behind this interaction whereas he was shocked and surprised

  Potentially turning more evil the more he is involved with the supernatural
• 'Let not light see my black and deep desires'


  Doesn't want people to know his plans for becoming king

  Colour imagery signifies the further meaning behind this having demonic connotations