Macbeth lh

• The Captain, describing Macbeth’s actions in battle:

  “Brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name”
• Macbeth, when he is considering murdering King Duncan:

  “Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires”

  Dark and light imagery show Macbeth’s dichotomous (split in two) character

  Rhyming couplet resemble an enchanting spell like those from the witches
• Lady Macbeth, when she finds out about the witches’ prophecies and also plots to kill the king with Macbeth:

  “ Come you spirits … Unsex me here”

  Syntax of spirits before unsex shows that she believes that the supernatural have power

  Imperative of come you show that she is familiar with the spirits
• Lady Macbeth, convincing Macbeth to be deceitful:

  “Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t”
• The Captain, describing Macbeth’s actions in battle:

  “His brandish’d steel, which smoked with bloody execution”

  Smoked could connotate heat and hell foreshadowing his evilness
• Lady Macbeth, convincing Macbeth to murder King Duncan:

  “When you durst do it, then you were a man”
• The witches favourite chant:

  "Fair is foul, and foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air"

  Speak in paradoxes foreshadowing moral ambiguity

  Trochaic tetrameter which contrast the iambic pentameter that the nobles use showing that they are other worldly
• Macbeth, when he hallucinates and sees a dagger:

  “Is this a dagger which I see before me,

  The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee."
• Macbeth, after he kills King Duncan and feels guilty:

  “Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hand?”
• Macbeth, pretending that he has only just discovered Duncan’s body and grieving over his death commenting on his skin and blood:

  “Here lay Duncan, his silver skin laced with his golden blood”
• Banquo, beginning to grow suspicious of Macbeth:

  “I fear, thou play’dst most foully”
• Macbeth, refusing to tell Lady Macbeth of his plans to kill Banquo:

  “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck”
• Macbeth asking his wife for support in killing Banquo

  "So, prithee, go with me"
• Lady Macbeth seeing blood on her hands

  " Out, damned spot! out, I say! "

  Spot could symbolise the scar of guilt

  Spot could symbolise being possessed by demons as at the time it was believed madness was a effect of this which if further emphasised by dammed which has connotations of evil
• Macbeth after hearing that Lady Macbeth died

  " Life is but a walking shadow "
• A shadow is a minor actor in a play which is dismissed and unmemorable
• King James wrote the book "Basilikon Doron" which had all the good and bad traits of a king
• King James had a great interest in witches so he wrote a book called "Daemonogie" which justified the death penalty for witches and encouraged people to go on witch hunts
• Lady Macbeth’s lack of guilt

  “ A little water clears us of the deed “

  Litotes (under-exaggeration) shows he omnipotent ambitions blind her from the mental turmoil Macbeth feels

  Euphemism of “deed“ which juxtaposes her character in act 5
• Critic D.J. Enright argues that Macbeth is a 'long distance runner of evil' compared to Lady Macbeth's role as a 'sprinter'. Unlike his wife, who succumbs to the mental burden of their crimes, Macbeth endures a gradual descent into madness.
• Shakespeares intentions

  • Show corrosive effects of individuals driven by egocentric ambitions
  • Indirect allegory of the consequences of those who disrupt the chain of order
  • Warn the audience of the dangerous consequences of succumbing to the allure of supernatural powers
• Macbeth being supper ambitions

  ” Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls “

  Personification of ambition shows it as a human force that can corrupt the mind

  “fall” shows Macbeths awareness to his hamartia

  Metaphor draws a parallel between a horse and a jockey and Macbeth thinks that he can control this animalistic force which is self-deceptive
• Macbeth felling so guilty he cannot sleep

  “ I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more ! Macbeth does murder sleep “

  Motif of sleep links it to innocence and Macbeth has no innocence as he committed regicide so cannot sleep

  Juxtaposes the imperative verbs used before like “stars hide your fires“ but now he is haunted by cries

  Exclamative sentence emphasises his irreversible guilt
• Lady Macbeth the baby killer

  “ Dash‘d the brains out “

  Plosive shows harsh resection of motherhood and tendency for violence

  Juxtaposition between ”dash’d” and “brains” reflects her conflicted character

  Irony and her brain is the one who ends up being harmed
• Banquo hating witches

  “ Instruments of darkness “

  Auditory image implies the hypnotic trance that Macbeth is under

  Plosive of darkness creates harsh foreshadowing for Macbeth
• Macduff calling Macbeth out

  “ Turn, hell-hound, turn “

  Epithet (nickname) of hell-hound

  Repetition shows how he has upheaved Scotland

  Repetition could show a turn back to natural order
• Malcom being a good leader

  “ What I am truly, // Is thine and my poor countries to command “

  Caesura gives audience time to meditate on Malcolm’s dedication

  Possessive pronoun shows parental tenderness

  Poor evokes sympathy for the country under Macbeths rulle and Malcom is the foil
• Lady Macbeth stars the play speaking in blank verse which is often used by nobles but in act 5 disintegrates into disjointed prose which inferior characters and lower classes use.
• Th witches talking about Macbeth after he becomes king

  " Something wicked this way comes "

  Juxtaposition as the witches are calling him wicked

  Chremamorphism dehumanises him as he is so evil now