Macbeth

• ’disdaining fortune… smok’d w bloody execution (Act1)
• Smok’d connotations :


  smok’d could connnote to heat and hell, foreshadowing his malevolent nature he will later face moral and psychological ramifications for
• The phrase ‘disdaining fortune’ shows a disregard for his fate, and his attempt to manipulate the natural order. This becomes evident in his disruption of the divine rights of king
• Synatx:


  Although Macbeth receives commendation for his stoic bravery as a soldier in act 1, this syntax implies a symboitic relationship between his downfall and his intristic proclivity for violence
• The positioning of ‘fortune’ preceding ‘execution‘ foreshadows Macbeth acquisition of an illegitimate title and wealth through violent means, but how this will also lead to his eventual execution
• ‘Iam in blood / stepp’d in so far that should i wade no more , returning were as tediuos‘ (act3)
• Motif of blood:


  previously, the blood was mainly on his hands, yet now it has enrobed his entire body, and by extension is entire sense of being
• Macbeth response to fear and guilt has transition from being horrified to indulging further in heinous acts, murder now becomes his means of self-preservation
• ‘Wade‘ has biblical allusions :


  Macbeth metaphorical waiting in blood exemplifies how he acknowledges his conscience is permanently stained with guilt as a result of his violence
• Similar to cane in the book of Genesis who commits the first murder in the Bible, his irreversible acts of murder of his brother Abel results into punishment by God