Appearence vs reality

• Visions or things Macbeth sees throughout the play

  • A bloody dagger
  • Knocking
  • A voice telling him he's murdered sleep
  • Banquo's ghost
• Visions Lady Macbeth has in Act V, Scene I

  • Blood on her hands
• Hallucinations


  Representations of guilt
• Macbeth feels conflicted even before he murders Duncan

  He sees the bloody dagger floating in front of him just before he commits regicide by murdering King Duncan
• Repeated knocking and voice telling Macbeth he's murdered sleep


  Represent the lack of peace the character will experience from now on
• Lady Macbeth sees visions of blood on her hands


  Metaphor for her responsibility for Duncan's murder, and her guilt
• It is not clear if Shakespeare intended for these visions to be real or not, but they certainly represent psychological realities for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
• Shakespeare presents guilt as inescapable; there is no escape from the consequences of evil acts
• Duplicitous


  Two-faced, or deceitful
• Deception is a repeated motif throughout the play
• Examples of deception and duplicity


  • The witches constantly mislead Macbeth
  • Macbeth kills a traitor in battle
  • The former Thane of Cawdor was plotting against King Duncan
  • Macduff is wrongly accused of being a traitor
  • Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to present himself as innocent to Duncan while plotting his murder
  • Macbeth lies to Banquo
• Shakespeare could be suggesting that those who deceive and lie do not – and should not – prosper
• Shakespeare could also be suggesting that once a character starts lying – or using violence – to protect themselves, it only ends up in a cycle of more deceit or violence
• In Act I, Scene V, Lady Macbeth calls on evil spirits to give her 'masculine' characteristics; she wants to be "cruel"
• Lady Macbeth wants to remove those traits that are stereotypically feminine: being motherly or nurturing, having remorse for evil acts
• Shakespeare has Lady Macbeth describe Macbeth in feminine terms: "too full o'th'milk of human kindness"
• Shakespeare is presenting an atypical relationship, where Lady Macbeth wields more power than Macbeth
• Jacobean audiences would have found this power dynamic disturbing and unnatural
• Shakespeare could be suggesting that this type of unnatural relationship is bound to end in tragedy