Macbeth

• Gender:

  • Overwhelmingly, Shakespeare writes Macbeth to be a symbol for toxic and repressive masculinity, ultimately associating manhood with violence.
  • At the same time, though, Macbeth's fear of being emasculated, and the feminine' traits he inherits at certain points in the play, means Shakespeare uses his character to explore femininity.
  • he will be exposed as effeminate
• The concept of the tragic hero was popular in Shakespeare's plays and in Renaissance theatre as a whole. There are several stages to a tragic hero's journey shown by macbeth:

  • The hubris, or excessive pride and disrespect for the natural order
  • Peripeteia, or reversal of fate
  • Anagnorisis, or discovery
  • Nemesis, or unavoidable punishment
  • catharsis, where the audience feels pity and fear for the protagonist in their undoing.
• ambition:

  • is a sin when it goes against God's will for the way things are meant to be.
  • Macbeth fights his way up the Chain of Being
  • goes against it led by his ambition
  • Shakespeare seems to want to teach his audience the importance of self-awareness, conscience, and self-restraint.
  • You should be content with God's plans for you.
  • You should control your ambition, and not let your ambition control you.
  • At a time when people were plotting to kill the king and fear of espionage (spying) was rife, these were very relevant and important messages.
• Guilty:

  • Immediately after the murder, Macbeth becomes a man who is guilt-ridden and tragically remorseful.
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  • His guilt makes him a nihilistic figure, a character tormented by his own conscience. surrounded by blood. darkness. and death.
  • unchecked ambition causes Macbeth's downfall,
  • his guilt makes his undoing unbearable for him and the audience.
• • With each scene that passes, he seems to have made the opposite choice to the scene before.
  • His main soliloquies are full of debate, deliberation, and anxiety. Already, we see a glimpse of the guilt that will haunt him after the murder takes place.
  • We see his moral compass and conscience have a voice,
  • but there are also moments where he seems heartless and dead set on being king regardless of consequence.
  • Right up until he kills Duncan, it's not impossible that he could back out.
• Ending: two different Macbeths walk the stage

  • One is violent and ruthless, hellbent on furthering his own power and status, no matter the cost.
  • The other is dejected, dispirited, and nihilistic, someone who knows his power is meaningless and is haunted by his own mortality, but can't do anything about either
  • . He is friendless, loveless, and hopeless, as Shakespeare shows that killing your king and going against God will bring nothing but misery and suffering.
• • metaphor "smoked with bloody execution"

  • implies violence is a destructive force, like fire. Shakespeare combines smoke and blood, two motifs that recur
  • The imagery could be an allusion to the flaming swords featured in the Bible.
  • Angels and other representatives of God were granted flaming swords - for example to guard the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve were thrown out.
  • This link portrays Macbeth as a soldier of God, suggesting he fights on the side of good and has God's blessing.
  • Shakespeare shows how highly respected and admired Macbeth was by his peers.
• "stars, hide your fires"

  • "stars" might represent the gods or the heavens. he fears their judgement and disappointment.
  • "stars" could be previous heros. It was common in mythology for heros to be immortalised in the stars, like with constellations.
  • Macbeth still wants his chance at being a hero to his country.
• imagery and metaphors used in this excerpt emphasise how life is a facade, with no purpose or meaning to it.

  • The nouns "candle", "shadow",
  • "tale" all connote imitation and emptiness they are all temporary or delicate.
  • Shakespeare suggests that everyone is insignificant, a mere candle flame compared to the light of the whole universe
  • . The semantic field of facade could show how people, particularly Macbeth, focus on the wrong things in life, so that they are looking at "shadow[s]" or "tales]" rather than the reality.
• Macbeth has been so fixated on his ambition and power that he has missed what really matters - or, in a more nihilistic interpretation, he never realised that nothing really matters. His ambition can't live on past his death, and nor can his power. His crisis is caused by the undeniable truth of his own mortality, which nothing can contend with. For all his "sound and fury" - his violence and painful guilt - he has accomplished nothing everlasting: it signifies "nothing".