Macbeth

• why do you dress me in borrowed robes?

  • title that doesn’t belong to him
  • hope from the audience that he may see through the witches evil and change but he doesn’t
  • motif of clothes is a symbol of power and identity
  • hierarchal ranking is superficial and temporary
  • gives illusion of status, status can be removed like clothing
• Macbeth as a puppet to the witches

  • macbeth emulates the witches and is entranced by their spells
  • indoctrinated by their prophecies to the point where he changed his actions and becomes a hubristic tyrant
  • malleable, he is easily moulded and manipulated
  • antithesis of his old ‘brave self’ , ideal man
  • mentally fragile to the women in the play
• So foul and fair a day i have not seen

  • Macbeth’s first words in the play
  • Oxymoronic language mirrors witches
  • Before he even met the witches
  • Influenced by the witches malevolence
  • Mouthpiece for the witches
  • Easy vessel for their misconduct
• ”Brave Macbeth”


  epithet ‘brave’ emphasises that macbeth is the ideal man that aligns with jacobean stereotypes

  he is loyal and powerful, valuable portrayal during king james’ rule as assasinations were made against him
• “Stars hide your fires let not light see my dark and deep desires“

  Macbeth admits his ambition and is aware it’s wrong because of the divine right of kings

  Semantic field of light connotes religious imagery, macbeth wants to hide his desires from God

  Juxtaposition between light and dark, Macbeth is conflicted between good and bad
• “Stars hide your fires let not light see your black and deep desires”

  Rhyme parallels the language used by the witches, Macbeth has been bewitched

  Alliteration in ‘deep desires’ reinforces that his ambition is accomplished by dark desires
• “False face must hide what false heart doth know”

  appearance VS reality

  he is duplicitous, appears valiant but is deceitful and malevolent

  repetition of false emphasises his false and undeserving reign

  defied the great chain of being
• “on my head placed a fruitless crown”


  ‘placed’ = carefully crafted, not natural, he meticulously manipulated his position

  macbeths rule not being fruitful signifies his tainted kingship

  manipulation of great chain of being

  committed ultimate sin of killing the king/god

  knows his actions but is in too deep
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s immorality and violation of kingship is contrasted through the moral natures of Malcom and Macduff who are virtuous characters
• “Henceforth be earls, the first that scotland in such an honour named“


  restoration of order, rightful king

  restoring divine right

  he will reward those that stayed loyal to scotland, shows he is macbeth’s foil
• “oh scotland, scotland”

  repetition emphasised the distress at the fall of scotland

  laments the loss of order and morality of the country

  personifies scotland

  like he is mourning a person

  values kingship in the highest regard
• Lady Macbeth is an androgynous character (displays man and woman traits)

  By losing her feminine traits she loses her sanity

  Plays a pivotal role in Macbeths perception of his gender through emasculating him

  Could be seen as supernatural by Jacobean audience
• Lady M’s ambition is more intense than Macbeths

  Craves power, has been weak all her life

  After Duncans murder she loses power and is fixated on paranoia
• Eventually LM is broken by grief and takes her own life
• Only way for Lady Macbeth to climb the social ladder was for Macbeth to become king
• Male characters assume because she is a woman, LM is not involved with violence, these miscalculations allow her to get away with a lot
• Female wiles mean she can easily manipulate Macbeth due to social conventions surrounding wimen
• Only the audience know the extent of her plots and motivations during her soliloqulies, emphasises appearance VS reality
• Lady Macbeth‘s hallucinations are the side effects to her fragmented self
• “out damned spot”

  out = imperatives used to show desperation for power, now show desperation for being free of guilt

  ’damned’ = biblical reference to be condemned to eternal punishment
• “Unsex me here“


  Imperative verb showing desperation of power

  Her gender is a painful reminder of the children she can’t have
• “Take my milk for gall”


  only thing limiting her powers is she can’t have children, struggles to place herself in soceity

  milk = nurturing female qualities

  gall = poison, bad male qualities
• “to bed to bed”

  sleep = vulnerability, loss of control

  juxtaposes macbeth who can’t sleep and thinks he is invincible as king
• “look the innocent flower but be the serpent underneath”


  after gunpowder plot, King James awarded medal showing serpent and a flower under it, by comparing LM to this violent act she is a villain in the eyes of a Jacobean audience

  ”serpent” = biblical = adam and eve = temptation
• “i fear thy nature too full of milk of human kindness”


  Ironic, emasculates macbeth

  Metaphor for maternal love, emasculating macbeth giving him nurturing female qualities
• shakespeares intentions: guilt

  cautionary tale to teach audience true consequences of regicide and guilt as a sign to repent before it is too late , they will be left with the overwhelming guilt that will lead to their tragic downfall
• DJ Enright critic analysis


  Macbeth is a long distance runner of evil, Lady Macbeth is a sprinter

  Lady Macbeth downplays the ultimate sin of regicide as only the audience know the true extent of her evil leading her to take advantage of it and continue to sin
• "I heard a voice cry' sleep no more!"

  motif of sleep is synonymous to innocence

  macbeth is troubled by guilt to the point where his sleep is disrupted

  exclamative foreshadows Macbeths tragic end

  consequences of committing the ultimate sin

  no longer uses imperatives 'hide your fires' but reflects on the cries that torment his mind
• "a little water clears us of this deed"


  Lady Macbeths ambition blinds her of the mental issues macbeth has

  understatement 'little' downplays the murder and emasculates macbeth as she attempts to push him further into his downfall

  explores euphemism to characterise murder as a simple 'deed'

  paradoxical character, struggles to understand severity of her act

  ALTERNATIVELY: euphemistic language suggests she doesn't want to face her actions although she knows what she has done

  foreshadows her descent into madness
• (enters with a taper) stage directions act 5


  emblematic of lady Macbeths search for light and solace in the hopes of breaking free from her dark reality

  christian symbolism of light = hope for divine guidance

  subconscious plea for redemption

  search for light is the antithesis to her former self who craved darkness and called for it to fuel her evil

  motif of light and dark shows how conflicted she is between good and bad, trying to maintain the image of a subservient typical Jacobean woman