Macbeth

• "Stars hide your fires, let no light see my black and deep desires"


  "Deep" -> Need to keep secret hidden

  "Stars" -> Destiny in the stars, worried that every one can see his plans

  Juxtaposition of the light from the stars and darkness of his desires -> Contrasts external and internal.

  Inner conflict - personification of stars

  "D" alliteration -> Inner turmoil
• "Vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself and falls on the other"


  "Vaulting" -> Acknowledges ambition = danger

  Personification of ambition -> Has no control over his own ambition

  "o'erleaps" -> Bypassing others in the great chain of being

  "Leaping" -> Fully committed to regicide
• "Art thou a dagger of the mind, a false creation"


  Foreshadows murder

  Metaphor -> Incredibly stressed, guilt, trying to find a way out

  Hallucination -> Corrupting influence of the supernatural
• "Thou canst not say I did it; Never shake thy gory locks at me"


  Horrified -> Cowardly, contrasts valiant Macbeth

  Caesura and Imperative -> emphasize terror and attempt to gain control

  Supernatural revenge -> God's punishment for listening to the witches
• "Secret, Black and midnight hags"


  Believes he can control his fate through the witches

  Used to be terrified of them, yet now he seeks them

  Corrupted by power

  Triplet -> Illustrates Macbeth as bold and unfoolish, he is not scared of them as he does not realise they're toying with him.
• "Secret, Black and midnight hags"


  Believes he can control his fate through the witches

  Used to be terrified of them, yet now he seeks them

  Corrupted by power

  Triplet -> Illustrates Macbeth as bold and unfoolish, he is not scared of them as he does not realise they're toying with him.