Macbeth

• ’art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend‘


  Euphemism for murder, the prophecies have turned her straight to murder suggesting she sees the idea with distance, the physical reality of the crime is not real to her she later uses the modal verb “wouldst” her lines hypothetically repeat with the repetition of it which suggests conjecture and hope and the line syntactically twists between clauses suggesting rational unbalance of ”ambition” and “illness”.
• “I have no spur to pick the sides of my intent only vaulting ambition”


  extended metaphor refers to horses and horse-ship suggests an inexperienced rider who attempts to vault onto a horse and falls to the ground; macbeth foresees this mistake of regicide as his down fall that shall ruin him.
• “come you spirits that tend to mortal thoughts, unsex me here”


  use of vivid and evocative imagery, would not of been standard language for a Jacobean woman to use . She wishes to become a creature of callous nature with neither the human weakness of male or female she also requests for “murdering ministers” to turn her breast milk into poison, this emphasaises her desperation to the readers.
• “stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more”


  macbeth uses an imperative in attempt to have control over the supernatural though he holds his curiosity at distance through conditional adjectives, the noun “imperfect” connotes to the fact the prophecies were incomplete because the witches do not want to be truthful in the way at which Macbeth shall achieve kingship.
• “Out damned spot! Out, I say!”


  Blood and the volumes of it are symbolic throughout the play for guilt, she refers to Duncan’s blood which she hallucinates on her hands because she is riddled with guilt for the sins she committed, the contemporary audience would have seen this is as a punishment from God for disrupting the great chain of being, the word “damned” has a double meaning she is damning the blood she can’t get rid of yet also damning herself for committing such a sin that haunts her.
• “I am in blood steeped so far, that I wade no more”


  metaphor symbolises Macbeth's guilt, he has gone to far down the path of sin and evil to return. He refers to his path to power as a river of blood he is wading through which highlights the more he kills the further he drowns in the blood which is actually his own guilt for his sins we further she a turning point for Macbeth of no return to which he becomes a remorseless tyrant.
• “what he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won”


  foreshadows Macbeth's own fate and down fall to be the same as Mac Donald, the juxtaposition between the two thanes, one loyal and one dishonourable is ironic as we know Macbeth falls to the same fate and ends up the traitor.
• “I fear thou plays’t most foully for it“


  Banquo‘s soliloquy in which it becomes apparent to him that all of the witches prophecies have become true however is is suspicious of foul play, like Macbeth he has his own ambitions of his son becoming king but he is not willing to kill for them, banqueo looses all trust in Macbeth he is now socially and morally isolated from his former best friend.
• “there’s husbandry in heaven; their candles are out, take thee that too”


  uneasily banqueo observes the lights to heaven are out which highlights the disruption of the chain of being, the use of “candles“ for stars highlights there is no hope or redemption left for Macbeth, foreshadows Duncan's murder.
• “o horror, horror, horror! tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee”


  Macduff is full of raw grief and outrage at the death of his beloved king the personification of tongue and heart gives them human characteristics which hints to the fact he was murdered by someone as well as Macduff was literally left speechless and was unable to speak of the regicide.
• “most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope“


  Biblical metaphor, later compares Duncan’s body to a ”temple” which had been anointed by god which has been broken open and had its contents stolen, connotes to Duncan’s life but as well his title of king.
• “in thunder, lightning or in rain? when the Hurley burleys done, when the battles lost and won”


  Shakespeare uses pathetic fallacy to foreshadow the dismal events that are about to occur, it suggests there will be a major upset in the order when they meet Macbeth, “Hurley burley” is also suggestive of a revolt and chaos that Scotland will face.
• “fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air”


  the couplet that the witches chant about their future meeting with Macbeth. Foreshadows what will occur in the play and that appearances can be deceiving, fair and foul are metaphors for each other and the filthy air and fog suggests the moral uncertainty Scotland will face.
• “stars hide your fires. let light not see my black and deepest desires“


  Macbeth is admitting he knows his ambition is wrong, links to the fact the contemporary audience would have been aware regicide was the most sacrilegious sin as it disrupted the divine right of kings. Macbeth wishes to hide his desires from god, furthermore the juxtaposition of “black” with the concept of light suggests Macbeth is inwardly conflicted between a path of ambition or morality. The alliteration of deepest desires emphasises how corrupt Macbeth is with ambition.
• “is this a dagger I see before me”


  Rhetorical question yo demonstrate how Macbeth remained conflicted right up in till Duncan’s death, he questions his own sanity as he’s unsure if this dagger is a hallucination of his ”heat oppressed brain” the choice of a dagger by Shakespeare is used to highlight how devastating the betrayal was because a dagger is an intimate weapon of close contact and it emphasises how close Duncan and Macbeth were.
• “sleep no more, Macbeth doth murder sleep”


  immediately demonstrates guilt potentially evoking empathy from the audience, however regicide was portrayed as the highest sin in Jacobean society, Macbeths guilt strays away from the conventional 2D tragic hero in tragedy’s, Macbeths depth as an antagonist would of sparked interest amongst Shakespeare's audience. Macbeths frantic language portrays the fear of the consequences of his actions, as a God fearing audience the Jacobean society would of seen Macbeths inability to sleep as a direct punishment from God separating you from God.