Macbeth

• Macbeth symbolises the perils of ambition
• Macbeth


  • Tragic hero, starts in a position of glory and success but falls from grace due to his unchecked ambition
• Hamartia


  Fatal flaw of tragic heroes, Macbeth's is his unchecked ambition
• Noble status


  Used to give Macbeth a place to fall from
• Macbeth's journey


  • From hero to villain, from brave warrior to coward, explores gender, power, and morality
• Macbeth's relationship with his wife


  Allows examination of gender roles, marital relations, and power in society
• Philosophical significance of Macbeth's character

  Defined by his ambition and guilt, explores predestination and fate
• Macbeth's life seems to be controlled by fate, but the extent to which his story was foretold or of his own making is questioned
• Macbeth's character in context of gender

  Explores masculinity and femininity, toxic masculinity, and repressive masculinity
• Macbeth's fear of being emasculated


  Explored through his character, associated with violence and femininity
• Macbeth's ideals of valour, power, and violence


  Become synonymous with masculinity, driving his pursuit of kingship
• Macbeth's relationship with Lady Macbeth


  Influences his decisions, power dynamics change as the play progresses, he allows himself to be manipulated by her
• Macbeth's fatal flaw


  Ambition
• Macbeth's disputed masculinity is his weakness, any challenge to his manhood can convince him to commit any crime
• Macbeth allows himself to be manipulated by his superior

  She has the power to strip him of his masculinity
• Ambition is Macbeth's fatal flaw
• Disputed masculinity is Macbeth's weakness
• Macbeth's ambition strives more to be indisputably 'manly' than to be king
• Jacobean England was deeply religious
• Faith is mentioned in the play full of sinners and treachery
• Macbeth rarely mentions God by name
• Macbeth worries about the destination of his immortal soul
• Macbeth sacrifices eternal life in Heaven for power and status on Earth
• Macbeth copes with turning his back on God
• Macbeth acknowledges that Heaven will object to his plans
• Macbeth frets that Duncan's virtues will cry out against the murder
• Killing Duncan is a landmark decision in Macbeth's moral path
• Killing Duncan is a conscious choice to embrace corrupt temptation
• Macbeth has a moral crisis and an identity crisis after the murder
• Macbeth will "sleep no more" after the murder
• Macbeth could not "say Amen" after the murder
• Macbeth's life as he knows it is over after the murder
• Macbeth has strayed from God's path and lost God's protection
• Shakespeare constructs Scotland as a godless, Hellish land after the murder
• Macbeth's mental state mirrors the state of his kingdom
• Living without God is suggested as the worst fate a man can have
• Male friendships were a huge part of Jacobean culture
• Men in Jacobean society were emotionally and psychologically attuned to each other
• Male solidarity and loyalty were important values influenced by military standards
• In battle, soldiers relied on each other and desertion was unthinkable