Key Scenes and Analysis

• The Rebellion - Act 1 Scene 2


  "unseamed him from the naves to the chaps"

  • he enjoyed it, a fearless warrior
  • revels in killing - his true hamartia
• Meeting the witches - Act 1 Scene 3

  • "shalt be king hereafter"
  • they never tell him what to do
  • hamartia of killing
• Reaction to the prophecies - Act 1 Scene 3


  "whose harmful image doth unfix my hair"

  • Shakespeare's way of communicating his hamartia
  • "chances may crown me without my stir"
  • he doesn't have to kill - immediate ambition
• Lady Macbeth's Letter - Act 1 Scene 5


  "what greatness is promised thee"

  • she will become Queen - he understands that her ambition is greater than his own
  • He enters after she has read the letter - she can think through a plan, has psychological insight that he cannot do it himself
  • "partner" - ignores patriarchy, they are equal
• Lady Macbeth Soliloquy - Act 1 Scene 5


  "Unsex me here"

  "Crown to the toe"

  "Too full of th' milk of human kindness" - this isnt true, she doesn't understand Macbeth or herself, wants to do it herself but won't as he "resembled her father"
• Plan to kill Duncan - Act 1 Scene 7


  "I have no spur"- ambition alone will cause him to fail, Lady Macbeth will be the spur to help him, she delivers the plan he always wanted
• Macbeths Soliloquy - Act 2 Scene 1


  "Is this a dagger which i see before me?" - he's excited by the killing, doesn't mention Lady Macbeth, he trusts her plan
• Reaction to the murder - Act 2 Scene 2


  "best not know myself" - has a psychopathic attraction to spilling blood, regrets what he's done and has to admit what he's really like
• Tragic Hero Context

  In a tragedy, a hero is noble yet has a hamartia, like Macbeth (his desire to kill), except in Greek tragedy, the hero gets an idea of their fate and does what they can to avoid it. Macbeth is the opposite; he tries to reach his fate. People in this time had stopped believing that their lives were mapped out, and were changing their destiny.
• "golden blood"


  the blood is whats important to macbeth
• Plan to kill Banquo - Act 3 Scene 1


  "not eternal" -he doesn't have to kill Banquo, he's jealous

  "fruitless crown" - doesn't think he'll ever have children to take over his reign.

  "be innocent of th'knowledge" - doesn't let her be invoved, he knows that she'll feel guilty for it
• Banquo's Ghost - Act 3 Scene 4


  "gory locks"- the blood catches his attention, most fascinating

  He has engineered his own downfall, nobles blame him

  "Cans't say I have done't"
• Killing MacDuff's Family - Act 4 Scene 1 


  "returning were as tedious as go o'er" - It will be more thrilling and exciting this time
• Lady Macbeth Sleepwalking - Act 5 Scene 1


  "heres the smell of blood" - he's not who she thought he was

  Macbeth knows that he won't survive, wants to cure her
• Reaction to Lady Macbeth's Death - Act 5 Scene 5


  "She should have died hereafter" - inconvenience

  "Out! Out brief candle!"- used in Christian iconography, Gods light, worshipped her and wants to look after her
• "Why would I play the Roman fool and die?"


  Doesn't want to kill himself like what is done in Roman tragedies

  "poor player" - wants to see how his life pans out
• End - Act 5 Scene 9


  "Dead butcher" - just liked killing, ambition was not his hamartia

  "Fiend-like Queen" - Lady Macbeth is more ambitious than Macbeth