Macbeth

• Power and kingship:

  • What makes a good king?
  • was a popular topic in England at the time
  • divided in how it should be ran
• Power and kingship:

  • Duncan
  • posses all qualities of a good king
  • noble, nurturing, responsible, strong leader
  • successful reign emphasises Macbeth's disastrous one
• Power and kingship:

  • Duncan
  • benevolent ruler
  • shown as a kind and just ruler
  • demonstrates important aspects of kingship
  • "signs of nobleness like stars shall shine / On all deservers"
  • rewards those who do good
  • interpreted as virtue and nobility are visible traits in a person
  • invested in his followers
  • "I have begun to plant thee and will labour / To make thee full of growing"
  • dedicated to self-improvement and success of others
  • those who seek to kill him still admire him
• Power and kingship:

  • Duncan
  • fair
  • governs fairly for his country
  • rewards those who does good
  • "more is thy due than more that al can pay"
  • punishes traitors
  • "go pronounce his present death / And with his former title greet Macbeth"
• Power and kingship:

  • Duncan
  • produces heir
  • Jacobean audience know trouble dying monarch without heir would have created
  • provided political stability and security
  • "We will establish our estate upon / Our eldest Malcolm
  • trustworthy king
• Power and kingship:

  • Duncan
  • too trusting
  • dependent on others to be a perfect king
  • "There's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face. / He was a gentleman on whom I built / An absolute trust
  • placed confidence in a man who betrayed him
  • poor judge of character
  • dramatic irony due to Macbeth's murder
• Power and kingship:

  • Duncan
  • doesn't learn from mistakes
  • Macbeth is trusted
  • "valiant cousin, worthy gentleman"
  • repetition of betrayal
  • "there's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face"
  • impossible to see through someone's deception
  • Duncan is a perfect king but cannot contend with wickedness of others
• Power and kingship:

  • Macbeth
  • begins with ideal qualities of a king
  • "brave Macbeth"
  • proving admirable and impressive Macbeth
  • strength in character beyond being a good fighter
  • irony in his later cowedly act against Duncan
• Power and kingship:

  • Macbeth
  • Ascension to the throne
  • noble traits disappear
  • closer to the throne Macbeth is the more corrupt he gets
  • Macbeth and Duncan contrasted rulings
  • Macbeth = unsuccessful
  • ascension to throne is unrighteous
  • their for power
  • Shakespeare explores how power corrupts minds of men
• Power and kingship:

  • Macbeth
  • callous leadership
  • "those he commands move only commands / nothing in love"
• Power and kingship:

  • Macbeth
  • no heir
  • lack of lineage and heir
  • emasculated
• Power and kingship:

  • death of king
  • reaction of Duncan vs Macbeth's death represent how the two ruled
  • impact of kings on environment represent Shakespeare views on kingship and tyranny
  • believing a good monarch provided stability, security and progress
• Power and kingship:

  death of king

  • Duncan's death brought chaos
  • atmosphere before death's discovery implies even nature is effected by murder
  • "the night has been unruly"
  • "strange screams of death"
  • "Of dire combustion and confused events"
  • kings body is discovered
  • "By th'clock 'tis day / dark night strangles the travelling lamp"
  • duncan's death has permenant effect on weather
  • disrupts natural order
  • "Tis unnatural"
  • "A falcon tow'ring in her pride of place / Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed"
  • state of world has altered to mirror murder
  • mightily falcon killed by inferior
• Power and kingship:

  • death of king
  • Macbeth
  • Macbeth's death is celebrated
  • "hell-hound"
  • "dead butcher and his fiend-like queen"
• Power and kingship:

  • death of king
  • Macduff
  • only wants best for country
  • Kills Macbeth yet still gives crown to rightful heir
  • patriotic
  • "bleed, bleed, poor country"
  • "O nation miserable"
  • "Fit to govern? / No, not to live"
  • corrupt king is a crime worthy of death
• Power and kingship:

  death of king

  • Malcolm
  • ascension to the throne
  • rightful place on throne by end
  • with speech that shows he posses the same wisdom and compassion as his father
  • symbol of hope
  • not as naïve and gullible as father
  • ran away after fathers murder
  • coward
• Power and kingship:

  death of king

  • Malcolm
  • traits of noble king
  • wise
  • "offer[ing] up a week, poor, innocent lamb / to appease an angry God"
  • juxtaposition 'innocent lamb + 'angry God'
  • severe power imbalance
  • show clear moral differences
• Power and kingship:

  death of king

  • Malcolm
  • patriotic
  • pure, honest and dedicated king
  • worries for Scotland's future
  • "It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash / is added to her wounds
  • personification of Scotland emphasises importance to him
• Power and kingship:

  development of the Theme

  • kingship is introduced when witches give prophecy
  • seen as a destination or a goal
• Ambition

  • Macbeth's manipulative ambition propels plot
  • corrupting
  • looses nobility because of it
  • suffer deep remorse and guilt over actions
• Ambition

  Historical context

  • written at start of Jacobean era
  • rigid class system and intricate social hierarchy
  • ambition treated as dangerous quality
  • great chain of being
  • everything is placed in its specific place
• Ambition

  Macbeth

  • follows Macbeths quest to fulfil ambitions
  • "black and deep desires"
• Ambition

  Macbeth

  • witches
  • witches reveal prophecy to Macbeth
  • Do not mention murder but macbeth immediatly jumps to the thought
  • "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical"
• Ambition

  Macbeth

  • tragic flaw
  • Shakespearian tragedy = all protagonists have a tragic pr fatal flaw setting in action a chain of events
  • Macbeth is willing to give up everything to be king
  • murders cause them to grow mad with guilt
  • visions of a dagger
  • "a dagger of the mind, a false creation"
• Ambition

  Macbeth

  • murder
  • ambition leads to Macbeth murdering king
  • sees it as the only option
  • "I have no spur // to prick the sides of my intent, but only // vaulting ambition
  • admits that it is only ambition that leads him to want to kill the king
• Ambition

  Lady Macbeth

  • Lady is also seen as another motivator to Macbeth's ambition
  • relentlessly criticises actions and ack of masculinity
  • attitude lead him to kill Duncan
  • ambition contributes to her own insanity
  • Her mind also jumps to murder when hearing about prophecy
  • ambition and confidence ot act on her desires
  • "Art not without ambition, but without // The illness should attend it"
• Ambition

  Lady Macbeth

  • masculinity
  • as a woman would have been pressure to appear less ambitious
  • encourages husband to commit murder does not carry it out herself
  • more ruthless and single minded in ambition
  • uses gender norm to shame Macbeth
  • power dynamic uncommon - challenging stereotypical gender norms
• Ambition

  desire for power

  • overwhelming ambition leads to loss and suffering
  • both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth end up dead
  • less powerful and less happy by then
  • corrupts characters
• Ambition

  guilt

  • guilt is result
  • tormented
  • Banquo's ghost symbolises Macbeths mind - unhinged by guilt
  • now
  • Banquo's ghost was real and a supernatural event
  • Jacobean era
• Ambition

  guilt

  • blood
  • symbolises sin
  • intimately connect to guilt
  • "Will all great // Neptune's ocean wash this blood // Clean from my hand? //
  • sin of Duncan's murder will not wash away and more likely to turn ocean red
  • hallucinated blood
  • "dagger in the mind" "And on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood"
  • beggining blood does not symbolise blood, symbolised loyalty and bravery
  • "which smoked with bloody execution
• Appearance vs. Reality

  Witches

  • creates paradox with contradictory statements
  • "when the battle is lost and won"
  • two sides to every story
  • "fair is foul, and foul is fair"
  • good and bad can exist at the same time
  • shakespear warning audience that no one can be trusted
  • grotesque appearance of witched
  • "not like th' inhabitants o' th' Earth"
  • create chaos and confusion without violence
  • human greed makes us vulnerable to deception and betrayal
• Appearance vs. Reality

  Lady Macbeth

  • ambitions fuel deception ensuring she disguises her true intention
• Appearance vs. Reality

  Lady Macbeth

  • Feminine vs Masculine
  • wants to keep conscience clear and hide her crimes
  • "Come, thick night"
  • "Nor heaven peep through the blanket of dark"
  • caught between reality and imagination
  • hallucinations symbolise her loosing control
• Appearance vs. Reality

  Lady Macbeth

  • Feminine vs Masculine
  • teaches Macbeth how he should act
  • "Look like th'innocent flower / But be the serpent under't"
  • juxtaposition
  • importance of outward appearance
  • religious story of Adam and Eve
  • mistrust
• Appearance vs. Reality

  Lady Macbeth

  • Feminine vs Masculine
  • outward appearance would cause audience to assume weakness
  • inner working of mind realises she is stereotypically masculine
  • more power and masculinity is destroyed by her weak mind
• Appearance vs. Reality

  Macbeth

  • viewed as honourable warrior and king despite awful crimes
  • deception and façade
  • loosing sight of true self
• Appearance vs. Reality

  Macbeth

  • descriptions
  • "O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman"
  • honour and noble
  • situational irony
  • words reveal nothing about true character
• Appearance vs. Reality

  Macbeth

  • outward appearance
  • "false face must hide what the false heart doth know
  • rhyming couplet find contentment in plan
  • juxtaposition of 'false face' + 'false heart' highlight divide in someone's outside and their true nature
• Appearance vs. Reality

  Macbeth

  • overcome by reality
  • exploitation of appearance
  • unable to tell what is reality
  • crumbling away
  • conflict of appearance and reality is in Macbeth's own head
• Appearance vs. Reality

  secondary characters

  • Duncan
  • good king yet vulnerable due to his gullibility
  • believes Macbeth deserves it but in reality Macbeth does not
  • "worthy gentleman" - Macbeth
  • "honourable hostess" - Lady Macbeth
  • humiliating
  • true evil is so dangerous because it arrives eith the face of goodness
  • most vulnerable are those who don't understand that the world is evil