Macbeth

• “Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’other?“


  personifcation-portray it as possessing a potency comparable to a human force that can exert influence and corruption in his innocent mind

  Metaphor- draws a parallel between him and a jockey who overestimates their ability to leap over any obstacle and end up falling down
• “If chance will have me king why chance may crown me“
• “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!”- witches
• Ambition is the driving force behind tragedy in the play
• Ambition is the hamartia of both lady Macbeth and Macbeth.
• “Make thick my blood,stop up th’access and passage to remorse“?


  imperative-“make” commanding for emotional restraint and a callous indifference

  femme fatal- not only manipulative by emasulating macbeth but rejects her womanhood and motherhood
• “A little water clears us of this deed“?


  Her callousness becomes apparent as she employs litotes such as the underestimate of a little not only to trivialise the act of murder but to emasculate Macbeth
• ”deed”?

  The euphemism highlights a paradoxical aspect of her character doesn’t want to acknowledge the gravity of the heinous act
• “He hath wisdom that doth guide his valour act in safety“
• “I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’th’milk of human kindess”?
• “Worthy cawdor…all hail here after” to “coward”?


  Juxtaposition- L.M initial flattery curdles into a poisonous insult in which emasculate Macbeth. having hailed him as a soon to be king and now reduces him to a mere “coward“
• Shakespeare masterfully dismantles the idea of rigid gender roles in Macbeth
• [enters with a taper]?


  her need for light in eternal darkness

  Jesus was seen as the light of the world providing salvation and sin- L.M dependency on light could illuminate how she is hopeful for sin and salvation and retribution for her sin
• “Come thick night“? In Act 1 contrast her downfall?


  Antithesis to her earlier presentation in Act 1 where she calls upon the night and want darkness
• Serves as a foil to Macbeth epitomising an ideal balance between ambition and responsibility
• doesn’t completelet lack ambition but understands the detremental impact of perusing ambition and erternal consequences
• Banquo restrained form succumbing to uncheck ambition fuelled by supernatural prophecies
• Shakespeare utilises ambition as a central theme to underpin the play, revealing morally corrosive and blinding influence on individuals driven by self-fufilling and egocentric aspirations
• Shakespeare intertwines the act of a regicide with tormenting guilt, a potent reminder of the potential consequences of those who disrupt the divinely ordained order
• Lady Macbeths guilt and insanity drive her into a state of somnambulism, this allows the audience to view the turmoil within her mind. Her anxious state completely juxtaposea her past domineering self and gives the impression of her being possessed
• “Full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife”?


  • macbeth Is consumed by evil, poisonous thoughts
  • scorpions connate pain - guilt is causing him physical pain- scorpions don’t kill immediately- path to his inevitable downfall
• “Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t”?


  • this
• “out damn spot ! out I say ! “?


  • Her frantic repetition and imperative tone conveys her desperate attempt to rid herself of the metaphorical bloodstain of guilt
  • The short emphatic sentence mirrors lady Macbeth deteriorating mental state emphasising her inner turmoil
• “Dash’d the brains out“?


  • plosive- crates a brutal sound mirroring her brutal rejection of motherly instincts
  • the merciless act of rejecting maternal inclination characterises Lady Macbeth as violent and determined
• Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses lady Macbeth to explore the effect of power in the hands of women in patriarchal society and to represent power as a dangerous and destructive force when combined with ambition outside of the parameters of the established great chain of being
• Initially, lady Macbeth is presented as strong willed figure of dominant nature however eventually lady Macbeth power diminishes as guilt plays her mind until her mental deterioration results and her tragic death
• In at one scene seven Shakespeare presents lady Macbeth as powerful through her dominant figure in her relationship with Macbeth by constantly emasculating and manipulating Macbeth especially in the early part of this play 


  her insistence to him “to be more than what you were you would be so much more than man”-attempts to emasculate him by stating that he would be so much more than man- comparative “more“ implies that he is not manly at the moment hence lady Macbeth loses her respect for her battle-hero husband the once “brave Macbeth” in act 1 scene 2
• Violent imagery of “given suck“,“pluck my nipples“ and “dash the brains out” emphasise lady Macbeth lack of maternal instant and her commitment to power
• In her first appearance in the play, Shakespeare presents lady Macbeth as a powerful figure done through Her soliloquy in which she summon the spirit to unsex her to make thick her blood to rid her emotions


  She recognised that such ambition and malevolent visions can only be achieved with the age of dark and worldy powers
• In act or two scene two lady Macbeth remains an authoritative pragmatic figure however she also notably begins to show anxiety following Duncan’s murder


  “Had he not resembled my father as he slept,I had done it.”
• Towards the end of the play in act five scene one lady Macbeth power has diminished as she descend into madness and lack of control of her overwhelmed by guilt and unable to sleep. She now speaks in prose revealing her panic disturbed mind.
• To the Jacoben audience lady Macbeth defied Jacoben norms where women were confined to maternal love
• The imagery of Macbeth's soliloquy reveals the intentions he would like to achieve ("assassination," "success"), but its construction shows the workings of a mind still very much in confusion.
• In his soliloquy, it sounds as a profound insight into his inner turmoil and guilt following Duncan’s murder through the use of vivid imagery metaphorical language Shakespeare humanism Macbeth allowing the audience to emphasise with his moral struggles the repetition of the phrase “Macbeth does murder sleep”
• “Is this the dagger i see before me “?


  • noun- alludes to the danger which Macbeth used to kill Duncan- the illusions can be seen to represent his fear and guilt regarding the murder
  • rhetorical question suggestion that he is unsure of what he is seeing - 7 deadly sins