themes

• kingship - good and bad king/ruler


  contrast between duncan (loyal & trusting king) vs Macbeth (cold & selfish)
• divine right of kings (context)


  the idea that the king was chosen by God ( the Jacobean era was a very religious society)
• the great chain of being (context)


  A hierarchal/ ordered society where all people and nature were below the king and God was above everyone/everything
• supernatural


  the evil supernatural force the witches held( Macbeth was unlikely to commit his deeds without the witches influence)
• Supernatural


  Macbeth and Lady Macbeths visions/hallucinations- the dagger/the sleepwalking washing off blood/seeing Banquos ghost- all symbols of guilt
• good and evil


  idea that evil was linked to gender- Lady M believes cruelty and aggresion is associated with masculinity which is why she asks spirits to 'unsex' her because her feminity holds her back from violent acts
• good and evil


  M is a good man who commits evil acts - at the beginning he was a noble an with potential for greatness but his goodness was overpowered by his zealotry/ ambition for power
• ambition


  shows how it can create selfish ruthless people when driven by ambition
• ambition


  macbeths biggest motivation for all of his evil acts
• ambition


  both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth destroyed by ambition