deep analysis quotes

• Enter Thunder and lightning' A1S1


  Pathetic fallacy "thunder and lightning " to accompany the witches' first appearance displays the extent of their wickedness through the corruption of nature.
• Glamis hath murder'd sleep and therefore Cawdor /Shall sleep no more:Macbeth shall sleep no more' A2S2 Macbeth


  -Epimone (repetition of a point)

  -Fragmentation of personality portrays his descent into madness.

  -By murdering sleep, Macbeth has murdered his own internal peace and mental tranquility as we see in the rest of the play, his paranoia and inner turmoil rule his mind.
• Macduff knocking A2S3


  The noise is partly the knocking of their consciences and partly an actual exterior knocking. Symbolically, the knocking is the knocking of justice, or of vengeance.
• "To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings./

  Rather than so, come, fate, into the list" A3S1 Macbeth


  -Incredulous epistrophe (repetition of a word at end of sentence)

  -As if Macbeth is trying to convince himself that the Witches could not possibly have spoken the truth. Whereas Banquo still trusts in the fateful prophecy, Macbeth is all too ready to dismiss it.

  -In Act I, Scene 2, the wounded captain reported that "Brave Macbeth" was prepared to "disdain Fortune". Now he goes one step further by challenging Fate itself "into the list".
• "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow/Creeps in this petty pace from day to day" A5S5 Macbeth


  The polysyndetic repetition of "tomorrow" highlights the endlessness of days. Trivialisation of life conveyed by monosyllabic plosive alliteration "petty pace" evoking his spitting contempt for his trivial existence
• "Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless crown/And put a barren sceptre in my grip" A3S1 Macbeth


  Metaphors of "fruitless crown" and "barren sceptre" suggest how hopeless and powerless Macbeth feels, indicating the importance of lineage.
• "by the grace of Grace/We will perform in measure, time and place" A5S8 Malcolm


  The repetition of "grace" implies the piety of Malcolm, serving God faithfully and honestly. Rhyming couplet "Grace...place" further suggests the newfound harmony and purity of Scotland, restored now by this divinely sponsored King.
• "each new morn,/New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows/Strike heaven on the face" A4S3 Macduff


  -Tricolonic anaphora magnifies sense of chaos enveloping Scotland, emphasising horrific suffering.

  -The noun "morn" suggests that the murders are done at night, accentuating the atmosphere of dread and moral ambiguity which this lamentation creates.

  -The personification of "new sorrows" as they "strike heaven" itself indicates the insult to God which Macbeth's manipulations are, as he "disdain(s) Fortune", disregards morality, and plunges the kingdom into darkness.

  -The verb "howl" is significant in terms of gender roles - animalisation of women. This is ironic considering the cries of Lady Macduff and murderers which invaded their house.
• 'heat opressed brain'

  -soliloquy

  -links to freud/id

  -oppressed brain (oxymoron)

  -can link to power of witches, lady m, ambition, guilt
• 'I will pour mine spirits in thine ear' A1S5 Lady M

  AO3- relevant to jacobean audience, as a popular play at the time was Hamlet, and in it the king was murdered by poison in his ear - link to corruption- lady m is corrupting the 'milk of human kindness'
• 'something wicked this way comes'

  -juxtaposition (shows how evil m has become, because even the witches are calling him wicked)

  -Ominous declaration magnifies the sense that he is morally destitute and has become the epitome of evil

  -chremamorphism(when you objectify a human): m has become so evil, they don't even recognise him

  -typically women are objectifyed, but in this m is objectifyed, a ploy by shakespeare to demonstrate the gender reversal roles in the play

  -m is so wicked, his kingship is fake. contrasts to 'brave macbeth'

  -lady m was the catalyst for him to turn out like this
• 'instruments of darkeness tell us truths [...] only to betray' -banquo

  -metaphor

  -foreshadows the entire play
• "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand," A5S1 Lady Macbeth


  -Olfactory hyperbolic image

  -Echoes "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?".

  -Presents Lady Macbeth's hypocrisy as under her facade of "undaunted mettle", she feels just as guilty.
• "Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't" Lady Macbeth A1S5

  -Refers to the coin James had made after the Gunpowder Plot.

  -lady m urging m to be duplicitous and deceitful.

  -portrays lady m defiance of stereotypical gender roles. -Women were expected to be innocent, delicate "flower(s)" which she juxtaposes as a deadly, treacherous "serpent"
• The id is the part of ourselves that urges us to do things that will make us feel good or bring us pleasure, regardless of whether those things are socially acceptable or not.
• shakespeare aimed to flatter king james' interest in the supernatural, and he wanted to teach his audience the consequences of losing your sanity to the supernatural
• macbeth is a greek based tragedy
• macbeths hamartia is ambition
• hubris is excessive pride
• "When the hurly-burly's done/When the battle's lost and won" A1S1 Witches

  -Trochaic tetrameter (creates a chanting sound and an eerie tone to the witches)

  -The paradoxical nature of the witches' speech highlights their otherness

  -also highlights their equivocatory nature which leads to Macbeth's death.
• Fair is foul and foul is fair' A1S1 Witches

  -Antithetical chiasmus

  -Extreme moral ambiguity which frames Macbeth's scheming desires.

  -introduces idea that something disturbing and dark is within Scotland,

  -macbeth is the metaphorical embodiment of this darkness in the play
• increasing uses of caesura in macbeths later soliquies shows his descending madness following the murder