Macbeth

• Desolate place


  Barren, sinister, otherworldly setting
• Witches + occult


  • Weather & setting & foreshadowing
• "A desolate place": 'Pathetic fallacy of adj 'desolate connotes barren, sinister, otherworldly setting'
• Desolate setting


  External manifestation of not only desolate setting but of the witches' own desolation of morality + affiliation w/the occult
• Symbolic of ostracization/alienation of women who transgress from norms of reality
• Structurally immediately sets exposition in ominous/foreboding tone- prepares Jacobean audience of dismay of events yet to envelop
• "When shall we three meet again , In Thunder, lightning or in rain": '"There to meet Macbeth"'
• Trochaic tetrameter + tricolon + rhyming couplets


  • Sets witches apart, creates incantation-like rhythm + motif of 3- odd number- associates witches w/ occult +exemplifies their deliberate provocation of supernatural- deliberate depravity
• Peripherality of the 3 settings -liminality between civilization & witches
• Thunder


  Usually sent by God-> meddling w nature-> chaos - highlights displacement from social order - proleptically foreshadows chaos they will bring
• Macbeth's intertwining w witches


  Proleptically foreshadows inevitable & inescapable moral downfall from grace
• Antimetabole + speech in unison


  • Suggests psychic connections- occult
• Paradoxical logic of witches

  Inhuman, otherworldly
• Fricatives 'fog & filthy' + semantic field of dirt and lack of clarity-creates uncertainty that permeates rest of play
• Consequently both weather & setting symbolic for not only alienation of witches but their power- suggests ability to control external objects
• Serves to project to a superstitious Jacobean audience the threat & risk of involving oneself w/the supernatural- and later, for Macbeth
• Macbeth


  • Hubristic ambition, excessive pride & past valiance
• 'smoked', 'bloody'


  Abject visceral violent imagery
• Heroically & graphically presents Macbeth's physical prowess, ruthlessness, brutality, heralding him as fearless
• Body parts 'nave'- 'chaps'


  Dehumanisation + lack of regard for human life-> merciless &proud of his actions- arrogance, hubris
• Simile 'like a valour's minion'


  Macbeth's follower of bravery
• Hyperbolises Macbeth's unwavering loyalty to king Duncan
• 'carved'


  Butcher connotations-> foreshadowing to end 'dead butcher'
• Noble & valiant introductory portrayal of Macbeth is archetypal of heroes in tragedies
• Arrogance, Hubris & excessive pride= hamartia- foreshadows peripeteia by end of play
• Structural juxtaposition between loyalty & dissent makes his later betrayal more emphatic
• Biblical imagery pertaining to crucifixion


  Hyperbolised devotion to bravery of Macbeth & Banquo thru olfactory bloodshed
• Animals -metaphors


  Symbolise bravery valiance,strength, fearlessness but also wild and predatorial- hints at potentially dangerous nature of Macbeth
• Antimetabole uncannily reminiscent of 'foul is fair' in opening scene- highlights how witches intertwined with Macbeth
• Macbeth becomes amoral/ nihilistic w/out conscience
• "All hail Macbeth, Thane of Galmis/Cawdor that shalt be king hereafter": '"Stay you imperfect speakers. Tell me more"'
• All three witches predict of Macbeth's powerful positions
• Imperative 'stay' & 'tell'


  Signifies hunger & avarice for power
• Early indication of Macbeth's greed for power & transgression into malevolence when tempted & prospect of power
• Highlights Macbeth's openness to evil + manipulativeness of witches- > see gradually rids of any sense of conscience or morality -> regicide
• Witches' role in Macbeth's moral devolution into tyranny & nihilism
• Euphemism for murder


  Unwillingness to accept reality = conflicting dilemma between regicide & morality
• Alternatively -Macbeth's fantastical thought of regicide /Killing Duncan -dark forces of supernatural have permeated Macbeth
• Modality of verb 'should'


  Suggest witches' transgression from conventions of femininity, ostracising them & further underlining the liminality between witches & civilization
• Displays lack of femininity as scandalous/sinful