Paper 1

• What's done is done

  Euphemism. Ironic as it conveys Lady Macbeth's anxieties. or is it a flippancy towards the scale of the crime committed?
• What's done cannot be undone


  Lady Macbeth to herself while sleep walking Ironic as she had said earlier on to Macbeth that "what's done is done" - she now realises that we cannot be rid so easily of our actions - they always return to haunt us and drive us mad

  guilty and loss of ambition
• sleep shall neither night nor day


  Foreshadows Lady Macbeth, and how she eventually goes mad and cannot sleep from guilt.
• your highness part is to receive our duties are to your throne and state children


  a good king looks after his kingdom like how q father looks after his son
• I have given suck

  there are no Macbeth children, hinting that one died

  symbolises the Macbeth's being unfit rulers
• a fruitless crown and a barren sceptor

  no kids
• "Pity, like a naked new-born babe"


  symbolises Duncan's innocence
• I dreamt last night of the weird sisters

  banquo admits that he is troubled by the witch's prophecies - he is being honest about the fact that he seems to be growing more superstitious it appears he wishes to discuss their experience with the richest further however he takes moral responsibility
• There, if I grow, The harvest is your own.

  Banquo to Duncan
• That is a step on which I must fall down, o else o'er leap


  Macbeth realises what he has to do to become king
• deep and black desires


  Macbeth has always thought about being king
• hast played most foully for it

  banquo fears that macbeth committed regicide but he doesn't stand up to macbeth or flee instead he accepts macbeth's reign
• let your Highness command upon me to which my duties are with the most indissoluble the forever knit

  banquo accepts macbeth's reign
• "signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine/ On all deservers"


  Duncan is generous but weak
• Elizabeth I had no heir and there was political instability


  macbeth had no heir symbolises political instability
• that my keen knife see not the wound it makes


  lady Macbeth doesn't want to have responsibility for what she's about to do

  ​
• we'd jump the life to come but in these cases we still have judgment here


  Macbeth would kill Duncan if there was no judgment in the afterlife
• a little water clears us of this deed

  Ironic/ foreshadowing to her frantic hand washing at end of play
• full of scorpions is my mind


  This metaphor reveals both Macbeth's paranoia and his 'deep and dark desires.' The metaphorical scorpions have replaced the 'milk of human kindness' cementing Macbeth as a villain.

  his mind is poisoned from all the killing
• security is mortals chiefest memory

  Hecate - understands The weakness of mankind and wishes to punish Macbeth
• Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles


  karma

  disrupted natural order
• then you were a man


  Lady Macbeth belittles his masculinity

  talked about regicide before
• you should be women but your beards forbid me to interpret


  ambiguity
• I would...have...dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done this

  LM willing to sacrifice her own child to satisfy her desires and for ambitions sake
• Macbeth kills his best friend and tries to kill his son which was a strategical move so Macbeth were not lose the crown to banquos children. Macbeth kills lady mcduff and his son for no reason at all other than rage

  the death of the mcduff's son symbolizes the death of Macbeth revival
• cursed thoughts


  banquo dreamt of the witches and couldn't trust himself to not do something evil - he takes moral responsibility
• Macbeth calls on darkness to hide his deep and black desires whereas banquo calls and merciful powers to fight off the thoughts


  banquo is a foil to show how Macbeth should have acted.

  he's morally ambiguous and has the same vices as Macbeth; he allows himself to be tainted by the witches but doesn't act out on his desires
• hubristic


  excessively proud or self-confident
• Peripetia


  a sudden and unexpected change of fortune or reverse of circumstances (especially in a literary work)
• Vicisitude


  a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant
• That made you break this enterprise to me


  Lm and Macbeth have discussed this before
• Chiasmus


  A statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed

  Fair is foul and foul is fair
• Violence, guilt, and blindness

  Most violent acts are done offstage - Macbeth killing MacDonald, Duncan, lm's suicide, Macbeth's beheading

  Exceptions banquo & macduff's family, done by minor characters, de-emphasising the violence and excluding Macbeth, placing greater emphasis on the psychological motivations & consequences "o, full of scorpions is my mind"

  Some atrocities are so awful that even death finds them intolerable
• "Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye"


  The murder of Duncan will blind the world

  Macbeth thinks Macduff has come to pluck out his eyes the next day (what hands are here? Ha they pluck out mine eyes)

  Macduff describes the sight of Duncan's body as blinding - approach the chamber and destroy your sight

  The sight of banquos ghost "sears" Macbeth's "eyeballs"

  Some atrocities are so awful that even death finds them intolerable, it's better to be blind than to see such horrors
• Sophicle's Oedipus Rex


  Tragedy where Oedipus blinds himself after discovering his wife is his mother
• present fears are less than horrible imaginings

  Most violent acts are offstage making them up to the audiences imagination and more terrifying
• Lady Macbeth's downfall


  Introduced whilst reading her husband's words and her name is a consequence of her husband, diminishing her as a character and being a vessel for her hubby

  Also doesn't have a voice of her own at the end of act 5 scene 1 when she is sleepwalking and the guilt is talking for her

  She gains all her influence and presence through her husband and rapidly diminished as the play goes on
• revenge


  Contrasts justice being done

  Duncan asks whether the traitorous cawdaw has been executed

  Macbeth kills Duncan's guards = not justice but claims to have acted in revenge for Duncan's murder
• Blood will have blood


  Macbeth is saying if you spill blood, more will be spilt (revenge) and Macbeth is sensing something bad is going to happen through all the weird things happening to him after seeing banquo's ghost

  When macbeth summons the witches, banquo "smiles" at him, implying his revenge is complete and his descendants will be kings

  Macduffs vengeance after Macbeth kills his family embody the theme of justice prevailing over tyranny - gunpowder plot
• supernatural structure


  pathetic fallacy and witches intro

  difference in influence - banquo v Macbeth

  represents 17th century fears & pendle

  reveals Macbeth's true intention

  dagger & banquos ghost - guilt

  LM & dark forces

  Shakespeare's dislike of witches using caracteres

  other context