English

• Lady Macbeth


  A character from the play Macbeth
• Lady Macbeth: '"Make thick my blood, stop up th access and passage to remorse." (Act)'
• Imperative


  A grammatical mood that forms a command or request
• The imperative "make thick my blood illustrates how she commands for emotional restraint and a callous (cruel) indifference
• Recognising that her aspirations for tyranny require a detachment from femininity and the accompanying emotions, Lady Macbeth seeks to rid herself of these elements to pave the way for her ruthless ambitions
• Femme fatale


  A seductive and manipulative woman who can lure men into danger or sin- it is a common trope within literature and poetry
• Lady Macbeth is a femme fatale as she not only is manipulative but rejects her womanhood and motherhood- a typical trope (theme or idea) of a femme fatale
• Tarquin: '"With Tarquin's ravishing strides towards his design" (Act 2)'
• Macbeth ambitiously strives to emulate Tarquin, the Roman tyrant


  Whom raped his wife, so he can embody what it means to be a ruthless blood-thristy leader
• Macbeth's ambition is further fuelled by the lingering emasculation (using his masculinity against him)


  He experienced at the hands of Lady Macbeth in Act 1
• Power


  Becomes synonymous (closely linked) with brutality for Macbeth
• Macbeth's insatiable ambition


  Propels him towards a relentless pursuit of dominance through brute force
• Design


  Connotes intentional creation, mirroring Macbeth's intentional crafting of his desired position as King through ambitious pursuits
• Despite his transgression (going against) of natural order in this pursuit

  The seductive allure of these temptations of power and authority obstructs him from seeing the permanent and eternal consequences he will face
• Lady Macbeth: '"A little water clears us of this deed" (Act 2)'
• Litotes


  Under exaggeration
• Lady Macbeth's omnipotent (all-powerful) ambitions


  Blind her to the profound mental turmoil Macbeth is experiencing
• Lady Macbeth employs litotes

  1. Trivialise (make it seem less important) the act of murder

  2. Emasculate Macbeth, encouraging him further along his murderous path
• Euphemism


  Substituting a phrase or word with something less harsh or blunt
• Lady Macbeth characterises regicide as a mere "deed"


  Highlights a paradoxical (conflicting) aspect of her character
• Despite her ambitions to shed feminine traits and embrace tyrannical brutality

  She struggles to articulate the gravity (seriousness) of the heinous (evil) act
• This foreshadows her descent into a melodramatic state of insanity in Act 5, where she grapples with an inability to fully grasp the enormity of the sins committed
• aggression - hostile behavior intended to harm someone else
• Macbeth: '"so foul and fair a day I have not seen" (act.)'
• Paradoxical expression


  "fair is foul and foul is fair"
• Macbeth echoes the paradoxical expression

  It foreshadows that he will become a vessel for their twisted misconduct right from the offset
• Macbeth emulates the witches' paradoxical and oxymoronic phrases before encountering them


  It suggests a predestined susceptibility to manipulation and deception
• Phrase "have not seen"


  Evokes a vivid image of blindness
• The blindness evoked by the phrase "have not seen"


  Foreshadows how Macbeth's unchecked hubris (ego/pride) becomes a driving force leading him astray
• "It was a strange figure-like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man": '(stave 2)'
• Juxtaposition between "child" and "old man"


  The juxtaposition of it being "like a child and simultaneously "like an old man" is metaphorical for Scrooge. He appears physically alike to an "old man" as he is branded an "old sinner, yet is vulnerable and isolated akin to how he was as a "child"
• The contrast between youth and age


  Emphasises the interconnectedness of time, that the past inevitably shapes the present and influences the future
• The mixture of both youth and age was a fascination within the Victorian era- their emphasis on the youth of children caused a parallel interest to those in their older age.
• By presenting the ghost as an amalgamation of youthfulness and old age


  Dickens captures the fascination of his readership allowing him to use the juxtaposing depiction to emphasise the motif of time (recurring symbol or theme) throughout the novella
• The motif of time, personified through the ghosts of past, present and future


  Is used to illustrate the timelessness of the message of moral growth, compassion and redemption
• "Stars hide your fires. Let no light see my black and deep desires": '(Act 4)'
• Dark and light imagery


  The contrast between the ominous connotations associated with "black" and the bright imagery linked to "light" highlights Macbeth's dichotomous (divided into two) character
• Macbeth wants to shroud his sinister motives in metaphorical darkness


  As if his true intentions come to "light" this would obstruct him from acquiring his illegitimate title of King
• The rhyme between "desires" and "fires"


  Has a resemblance to the enchanting spellcasting technique employed by the Witches, who also utilise rhyming couplets to accentuate their deceptions
• Macbeth's descent into a shadowy and malevolent trajectory


  As he is asking for his duplicitous intentions to be revealed so he can fulfil his ambitious ego-centric desires