English Macbeth

• 'fair is foul, and foul is fair' - witches
• 'double double toil and trouble fire burn and cauldron bubble' - witches
• 'all hail macbeth that shalt be king hereafter!' - witches
• 'out damned spot! out i say!' - lady m
• 'unsex me here' - lm
• Ambition


  • Horrid image doth unfix my hair
  • Make my seated heart knock at my ribs
• Horrid


  Adjective that highlights Macbeth's thoughts of killing the king
• Unfix my hair


  Metaphor comparing thoughts of murder to shocking his hair like a lightning bolt
• Seated heart


  Personification of rested heart
• Knock at my ribs


  Personification of beating rapidly due to the digestion
• Killing the king is the greatest sin
• Macbeth is terrified of his own thoughts, shows hamartia within him
• Dearest


  Superlative most important
• Stars, hide your fires


  Personification of star (heaven)
• Let not light see my black and deep desires


  Juxtaposition between light and dark, highlights Macbeth's evil ideas against god
• Subject


  Obeys by the laws of the king
• Will all Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand

  Rhetorical question shows fear, Hyperbole - his sin Blood will dye all of the oceans clean because of the deed
• It will stain, can't get rid of it without god
• Macbeth can no longer ask for forgiveness, God has rejected him
• O full of scorpions is my mind

  Metaphor comparing his dark thoughts/fears to scorpions, Suggests his thoughts are killing him, ripping him apart, driving him insane
• Dearest chuck


  Pet name that diminishes her role and power
• We have scotch'd the snake

  Biblical allusion to garden of Eden and the sin of temptation, Ironic as they have remained loyal and Macbeth is the duplicitous character
• I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined


  Adjectives rule of three, Suggests he's trapped, isolated, can not escape, Metaphor prophecy that he'll die
• Blood will have blood


  Metaphor comparing blood to violence, revenge, Foreshadows Macbeth's murderers will ultimately lead to his death
• Out, damn'd spot


  Repetition is imperative, however the tone is imperative, Symbolic of how little power she holds, Damned-adjective-shows her desperation, Also shows/means not to be forgiven by god and will go to hell, Spot-metaphor - for her guilt
• I have supp'd full with horrors: direness familiar to my slaughterous thoughts


  Metaphor for committed violence, Highlights how far Macbeth has fallen since he last encountered with the witches
• Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty face from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time

  Repetition shows the pacing soliloquy as it's clear Macbeth realises this is the end, Harsh tone in tomorrow adds to the bitterness in potentially the tragic and deeming death of his wife but also what he has given up for nothing
• Creeps


  Personification indicating that time sneaks up on you, Also suggests that it is cowardly indicating the anger in Macbeth
• All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death

  Personification - yesterday's our past (lighted) that our past told us how the present would be great we metaphorically idiots to believe time as it only leads us to death
• Dusty


  Adjective indicates that our lives will be forgotten, No-one looks or cares for what we've done
• Life's but a walking shadow a poor player that struts and frets his hour, upon the stage and then is heard no more


  Walking shadow-personification-walking indicates that life/time always moves forward however a shadow is something that isn't fully formed, that is hidden (perhaps in our future), Links with the metaphor of a candle as we can only see the present and what is in front of us, Poor player-metaphor - to life, Poor-adjective-means without power (maybe against time), Player is an actor meaning we all pretend to be something we're not, Stage-metaphor of life. The comparison of life to an hour suggests that our time on earth is short, we all think life has meaning. Sre worthy but ironically we are forgotten (poor player) struts.stage
• Out, out brief candle


  Repetition is imperative, Macbeth could be angry about how brief life is, Could also potentially link to his disgust about time, Candle-metaphor - for life. Candles can be extinguished suddenly or unexpectedly. Could link to how none of us know how long we have. Life is like a fickle
• Brave Macbeth - well he deserve that name, Hero, honoured
• What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won
• Too full o'th'milk of human kindness

  Milk-feminine, seen as weak, life-giving, Kindness' - not a characteristic she admires, Perceives kindness negatively, Metaphor for weakness
• Pour my spirits in thine ear


  Pour-verb-connotes something she will do actively and can't be stopped/forcing on him, Metaphor for her manipulative words to power/magic
• Valour of my tongue

  Personification-her tongue/words are strong/powerful
• Unsex me here


  Metaphor, Suggests she wants to remove her weakness/feminine characteristic
• Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under't


  Innocent-adjective-contrasts with what they're going to do, Flower-simile-comparison to a flower, Be the serpent under't-comparison to a snake = dangerous, kills, Flower' 'snake- juxtaposes each other
• Take my milk for gall

  Milk-symbolic for life, Juxtaposes with gall(poison), Rejecting her place in the Great Chain Of Being, Rejecting god