Macbeth

• "He unseamed him from the nave to the crops"


  • The captain describes how Macbeth won the rebellion by killing Macdonald
  • unseamed = metaphor, he's skilled he can unstitch a body like a tailor
• "Bellona's bridegroom"


  • Ross describes Macbeth in the second battle against Cawdor and Norway
  • Suggests he's married to war - foreshadows how he abandons his real wife to England fighting
• "You shall be king"


  • Macbeth and Banquo discuss the witches' predictions once they leave
  • one line of iambic pentameter shows how close they are at the beginning of the play
  • Macbeth joking but his first thought is about Banquo's children being kings even though he should
• " my dearest partner of greatness"


  • dearest = closest person to him
  • partner =equals, work with each other
  • greatness = both power hungry
• “Fatal vision”


  • Macbeth sees a dagger just before killing Duncan
  • fatal = deadly or it’s his fate to kill Duncan
  • he wants the dagger to be a juxtaposition for an excuse for killing Duncan
• “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hands?” 


  • Macbeth regrets killing Duncan when he sees the blood on his hands
  • motif blood = guilt
  • symbolic blood stains his hands , you can’t was it of like the stains on your conscience
• “Fruitless crown”


  • Privately, he thinks being king is pointless if Banquo’s son will b king.
  • metephor of fruit suggests he has worked for no benefit
• “Dearest chuck“


  • Macbeth won’t tell lady Macbeth about his plan to kill Banquo
  • patronising, infantilising her
  • he doesn’t think he needs her anymore
  • ironic that he has repeated dearest, this shows she has fallen
• “Yet I will try the last”


  • He decides to die fighting Macduff, even though he knows he is doomEd
  • He dies full of pride and stubbornness
  • a violent and self centred death
  • mirror image of the start
• “Died hereafter“


  • He hears of his wifes death as Malcolm’s army arrives to defeat him
  • reacts with apathy, he has marginalised her
  • doesn’t care however he goes into a soliloquy about pointlessness of life - broke him
• “Gory locks”


  • Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost at the feast of his crowning
  • blood - motif of guilt, Macbeth isn’t scared, he regrets killing Banquo
  • supernatural or hallucinations?
• “Blood will have blood”


  • He admits to lady Macbeth after the feast that he regrets the murders
  • like karma - fear revenge
  • like a chain reaction, he can‘t stop killing and lying and violence