macbeth

• macbeth is englufed by guilt and a tragic hero
• macbeth emulates (mimics) the witches
• macbeth's harmartia (fatal flaw) and hubris (excessive pride) inevitably leads to his ultimate downfall
• macbeth usurped the throne by killing duncan
• witches speak in trochaic tetrameter and rhyming couplets to highlight to the audience their distinct difference and incantations they cast
• "i have no spur to prick the sides of my intent but vaulting ambition which overleaps itself and falls" - Macbeth

  • ambition drives him - only reason to kill king
  • willing to overleap overs in line
• "his virtues will plead like angels...against the deep damnation of his taking off" - Macbeth

  • biblical imagery - against God and divine right of kings
  • alliteration - sinful, supernatural
  • worse than normal regicide
• "double double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble" - witches

  • double = deception
  • rhyming couplets - disrupt natural world and manipulate macbeth
  • creating turmoil and chaos
• "fair is foul and foul is fair" - witches

  "so foul and fair a day i have not seen" - Macbeth
• "come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts. unsex me here...milk for gall" - LM
• "is this a dagger which i see before me" - Macbeth
• "macbeth doth murder sleep...innocent sleep"
• "owl scream and crickets cry"
• "instruments of darkness...inhabitants of the earth" - Banquo
• "nature seems dead and wicked dreams abuse the curtained sleep"
• "upon my head they placed a fruitless crown"
• "we will perform in measure, time and place" - Malcolm
• "look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under't" - LM

  • Adam & Eve
  • appearance vs reality
• "out damned spot out i say!" - LM
• "a little water clears us of this deed" - LM
• "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" - LM

  • perfume used to cure disease
  • Arabia most expensive
  • hand - symbol of responsibility
• • abuse of power and ambition
  • Christianity - greatest sin is killing king
  • dramatic tragedy
  • divine right of kings: James I related to Banquo = flattering him
  • great chain of being - disrupted by supernatural
  • James I 'demonologie' interested in witches - topic on trend - foreshadows impact
• "a butcher and his fiend like queen"
• "dress me in borrowed robes" - M

  "hang loose about him like a giants robe"
• "unseamed him from the nave to the chops...valiant cousin worthy gentlemen"

  • foreshadows brutality and ruthlessness
  • Duncan rewards his nobles
• "tomorrow tomorrow and tomorrow...to the last syllable of recorded time" - M