Macbeth

• “Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other” (Act 1)

  Personification - Macbeth personifies his ambition, alike to human force that can corrupt his formerly innocent mind

  Fall shows Macbeths awareness that his all encompassing ambition is his hamartia destined to lead to his mental and physical decline

  Metaphor - the metaphorical portrayal of Macbeths “vaulting ambition“ draws parallel between him and a jockey who is to manage an untameable, almost animalistic force which is self deceptive implying he can control this force
• “I heard a voice cry “sleep no more” Macbeth does murder sleep (Act 2)


  Motif of sleep making it synonymous of innocence. Lack of sleep equals departure from innocence as he committed regicide

  went from imperative commands like “stars hide your fires” but now is the mental haunted by “cries”

  Exclamative scentences emphasises the enduring and irreversible nature of Macbeths loss of innocence. His disruption of the natural order through his wickedness has forever condemned his mind to the relentless torment of guilt