macbeth

• Macbeth


  The eponymous character of this Shakespearean tragedy

  
• Macbeth


  • Starts out in a position of glory and success, but falls from grace due to an error in judgement of his own making
  • His fatal flaw is his unchecked ambition
• When we are introduced to Macbeth, he is presented as the stereotypical hero, the ideal warrior
• Tragic hero


  A character who starts out in a position of glory and success, but falls from grace due to an error in judgement of their own making
• Macbeth


  • His journey from hero to villain, from brave warrior to coward, allows for an exploration of gender, power, and morality
• Macbeth's relationship with his wife


  Allows Shakespeare to examine gender roles, marital relations, and power in his own society

  
• Macbeth


  His personality is defined by both his ambition and his guilt
• A question Shakespeare explores through Macbeth is one of predestination; Macbeth's life seems to be controlled by fate, but how much of Macbeth's story was foretold, and how much was of his own making?

  
• Macbeth's gender performance


  • Ambiguous, used by Shakespeare to explore both masculinity and femininity
• Masculinity for Macbeth


  Synonymous with ideals of valour, power, and violence
• Macbeth's relationship with Lady Macbeth


  He allows himself to be manipulated by her, because she has the power to strip him of his masculinity
• Macbeth's ambition strives for, more than to be king, is to be indisputably 'manly'
• Religion in Macbeth


  The idea of Heaven and Hell plays heavily on Macbeth's mind, suggesting he is worried about the destination of his immortal soul
• Macbeth kills Duncan


  A landmark decision in his moral path, as it is a conscious choice to put an end to his good ways and embrace corrupt temptation
• Scotland after the murder

  Shakespeare constructs it as a godless, Hellish land to match its king
• Male friendships and homosociality in Jacobean society


  Part of Macbeth's moral crisis comes from the ideal of male friendship, as killing Duncan means betraying a friend, relative, and his king
• Tragic hero


  • The concept was popular in Shakespeare's plays and in Renaissance theatre as a whole, with several stages to the tragic hero's journey
• Macbeth's hamartia


  His unchecked ambition
• Macbeth's guilt


  Makes his undoing unbearable for him and the audience, suggesting that the real punishment for regicide isn't execution, but guilt
• Macbeth


  • The play is filled with violence and conflict, both internal and external
• ambition propels him into unescapable regret


  Suggesting that the real punishment for regicide isn't execution, but guilt
• Even when no one suspects him of foul play, Macbeth is troubled and cannot enjoy the life he sacrificed his immortal soul (what Christians believed lived on after death and went to Heaven or Hell) for
• Shakespeare suggests that the conscience, or inner voice of God, that we all have ensures that no crime or sin can go unpunished
• He proposes that no one can cope with the guilt our conscience creates, nor can we live with the knowledge of our own evil
• The play of 'Macbeth'


  • Filled with violence and conflict, both internal and external

  
• The smallest scale of conflict he endures

  His internal conflict
• The largest conflict


  The conflict between free will and fate that takes over the whole universe
• Conflicts in the play


  • Good and evil
  • Supernatural and the natural
  • Appearances and reality
• Violence


  Largely associated with manhood and masculinity, particularly by Macbeth
• Whenever his manliness is challenged, Macbeth responds by committing a violent, ruthless act
• Weakness


  Viewed by Macbeth as signs of femininity
• Cruelty and violence


  Linked with masculine ideals of honour and bravery
• Men are supposed to be noble and strong leaders, and Macbeth interprets this as bloodlust
• Shakespeare could be implying that ideals such as bravery and honour are used to disguise injustice
• Warfare and violence are presented as necessary and respectable measures, allowing men to follow selfish emotion rather than selfless logic
• Violence and bloodshed are used to maintain tyranny and corruption
• They are tools for bad kings
• Unlike Duncan's reign


  Macbeth's reign is plagued by disease and murder
• If Macbeth was an effective ruler who obtained his power through fair means, he wouldn't need to use violence to protect himself
• Macbeth's power is wrongly gained, and his reign is corrupt