English M

• "fair is foul and foul is fair" -> act 1, scene 1

  (WITCHES)


  -> Fricative allows the line to be memorable to the audience

  -> The fricatives also make the line sound threatening, making the audience feel apprehensive

  -> Macbeth says "so foul and fair a day I have not seen" in act 1, scene 3: this foreshadows his later involvement with the witches:

  In this quote, Macbeth is commenting on the strange and paradoxical nature of the day. The day is "foul" because it is characterized by thunder, lightning, and a general sense of darkness and evil, but it is also "fair" because Macbeth has just been named Thane of Cawdor, a high-ranking title that he had not expected to receive.

  This quote sets the tone for the rest of the play, as it introduces the idea of the ambiguous nature of reality and the blurred lines between good and evil. It also foreshadows Macbeth's own internal struggle with his ambition and his eventual descent into darkness and madness.

  -> The witches speak in trochaic tetrameter, while other characters speak in iambic pentameter, which gives the impression that the witches are evil, since they speak in a rhythm that sounds like a chant
• "noble Macbeth" -> act 1, scene 2

  (KING DUNCAN)


  Macbeth is praised by King Duncan
• "stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires" -> act 1, scene 4

  (MACBETH)

  -> Rhyming couplet aligns M with the witches -> the contemporary audience dislikes M for thinking of committing regicide -> a shocking thought

  -> M is conflicted: he yearns for power, but does not want to go against the Divine right of kings

  -> The juxtaposition between "stars", "fires", "light" and "black", and "deep" emphasises the choice M must take between his ambition (his hamartia) and moralitySee an expert-written answer!We have an expert-written solution to this problem!
• "Yet I do fear thy nature. It is too full o'th' milk of human kindness" -> act 1, scene 5

  (LADY MACBETH)


  -> Implies that although M is a soldier, he is not a murderer by nature

  -> LM views kindness as a weakness: she is insulting M by comparing him to a woman, since LM believes M is too weak and vulnerable to commit regicide

  -> LM's views would not be shared by the contemporary audience: this would immediately establish LM as an antagonist, since she is disregarding Jacobean stereotypes of women
• "come, you spirits, that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty" -> act 1, scene 5

  (LADY MACBETH)


  -> LM must embody masculine traits in order to kill King Duncan, as she does not believe her husband has the masculinity to do it himself

  -> This is unnatural behaviour for a stereotypical Jacobean woman, therefore LM mut call upon the supernatural

  -> Alternative: this implies that LM is not cruel by nature, as she asks to be filled with it, foreshadowing that she cannot handle the consequences of this unnatural role
• "look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't" -> act 1, scene 5

  (LADY MACBETH)


  -> Conveys idea of deception

  -> Assonance of 'o' -> emphasises LM's manipulation

  -> Semantic contrast between flower and serpent emphasises deception

  -> "flower" is a metaphor and has connotations of generosity and benevolence -> traits of a stereotypical Jacobean woman -> insulting M once again by telling him to focus on his feminine traits

  -> The "serpent" is a metaphor for original sin -> the story of Adam and Eve, which the contemporary audience know well, so they know that LM is evil and misanthropic
• "false face must hide what false heart doth know" -> act 1, scene 7

  (MACBETH)


  -> Repetition of "false" -> accentuates the couples deception

  -> While the couple are deceptive towards others, they are passionate towards each other: they love each other
• "will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" -> act 2, scene 2

  (MACBETH)


  -> Hyperbolic language

  -> Neptune is a roman god -> M is rejecting Christian imagery

  -> Guilt: M is consumed with guilt, which is Shakespeare teaching the audience the consequences of regicide -> this flatters King James

  -> "wash this blood" perhaps links to the Christian imagery of baptism -> M wants to feel pure and "clean" again
• "what's done is done" -> act 3, scene 2

  (LADY MACBETH)

  -> Dramatic irony: LM thinks that M is worrying about the regicide, but he is actually plotting his murder without his wife's involvement -> decline in LM's power and a strain in their relationship

  -> Alternatively, M could be protecting his wife from further involvement: he wants her to form to stereotypes of women in order to protect her
• "O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife" -> act 3, scene 2

  (MACBETH)

  -> M's mind feels poisoned by guilt and sin

  -> The double stress of "o, full" breaks iambic pentameter and highlights M's agony

  -> "dear wife" -> dear has connotations of expensive: M perhaps blames his wife for the 'expensive' mistake of deciding to kill the king

  -> "full of scorpions" -> M is not blaming himself, he is not admitting to his responsibility

  -> M is plagued by guilt -> the contemporary audience would feel relief that M is being mentally punished
• "thou canst not say that I did it: never shake thy gory locks at me" -> act 3, scene 4

  (MACBETH)

  -> Macbeth is plagued by guilt

  -> Banquo's ghost is a symbol of M's guilt

  -> Portrays M as a misanthropic character: he feels more guilt over the death of Banquo than over the death of the king -> defies the great chain of being, and makes the contemporary audience feel hatred towards M

  -> Alternatively: King James believed he was a descendant from the real Banquo, therefore he would feel flattered
• "the castle of Macduff I will surprise" -> act 4, scene 1

  (MACBETH)


  -> Before this scene, each murder had a purpose, but now M is acting impulsively and wants to kill innocent people -> no longer any sympathy for Macbeth

  -> This murder is shown onstage: this could be to show the audience that M has failed morally

  -> The child's death is symbolic of M's moral decline
• "a most miraculous work in this good king" -> act 4, scene 3

  (MALCOLM)

  -> Kingship: King Edward (King of england) was believed to have healing hands -> he was viewed as a hero and a saint
• "Out, damned spot" -> act 5, scene 1

  (LADY MACBETH)


  -> Christian belief: LM is being "damned" and punished because she has exercised her free will by committing regicide and emasculating herself

  -> The spot of blood could symbolise the sinful act of regicide: God has marked LM as sinful since she killed a King, the worst sin of all as the King was appointed by God due to the Divine Right of Kings -> Shakespeare is emphasising the awful fates of those who plot against the King: this flatters King James since it links to the Gunpowder plot
• "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" -> act 5, scene 1

  (LADY MACBETH)


  -> Feminine language of "perfume" and "little" -> implies that LM no longer wants to be "unsexed" and wants to conform to the expectations of Jacobean women

  -> Ambition: LM believes she should punish herself for emasculating herself and being ambitious, so she commits suicide

  -> Christian belief that if you committed suicide, you went to Hell -> LM can still smell the blood, symbolising that God, as an omniscient being, will always know of her sins, and LM can never escape God's judgement

  -> Shakespeare is warning his audience that committing regicide is a mental torment, worse than the physical torment of Hell -> flatters King James due to the Great Chain of Being