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• Tragic hero/heroine


  A character who has a downfall
• Macbeth


  A tragic hero who starts off noble and valiant but has a downfall
• Fatal flaw


  Something that causes a tragic hero's downfall
• Hamartia


  Macbeth's fatal flaw, his ambition
• Motif


  A recurring symbol or theme
• Irresistible Allure


  Being pulled in, e.g. by ambition, violence, kingship
• Tyrannical


  Cruel and oppressive
• Carcass of insanity


  A shell of their former selves, having lost their mind
• Hubris


  Excessive pride
• Violating divine order/law


  Disrupting the divine right of kings
• Bits of context


  • King James I
  • Divine right of kings
  • Great chain of being
  • Demonology
  • Seven deadly sins
  • Patriarchy
• King James I


  Patron who funded Shakespeare's plays, Shakespeare wanted to appease him
• Divine right of kings


  Belief that God chooses the king, disrupting this was seen as an assault on God
• Great chain of being


  God created the world with a hierarchical order, the rich above the poor, men above women
• Demonology


  A book written by King James I describing the supernatural and how to punish witchcraft
• Seven deadly sins


  Sins to be avoided within Christianity, including greed, wrath, pride, envy
• Patriarchy


  A male-dominated society where women were inferior to men
• Key themes


  • Violence
  • Ambition
  • Guilt
  • Gender
  • Appearance vs reality
  • Supernatural
• Kingship links to all the key themes, it doesn't need to be a key theme itself
• Shakespeare's intentions


  • Utilising ambition as a central theme to reveal its morally corrosive and blinding influence
  • Using the play as a veiled allegory to teach, intertwining regicide with tormenting guilt
  • Cautioning the audience about the perilous consequences of succumbing to the irresistible allure of supernatural powers
• Key quotes


  • "Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself And falls on the other"
  • "Macbeth doth murder sleep" - the innocent, the sleep-like state of being
  • "Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under 't"
  • "Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?"
  • "Out, damned spot! out, I say!"
• The key quotes can be linked to multiple key themes, with some links stronger than others
• Macbeth: 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep'
• Motif of sleep


  Sleep is synonymous with innocence, a lack of sleep signifies a departure from innocence
• Macbeth previously used imperative commands


  Now he is mentally haunted by cries
• Exclamative sentence


  Emphasises the enduring and irreversible nature of Macbeth's loss of innocence
• Lady Macbeth: 'Dash the brains out'
• Plosive sounds


  Mirror Lady Macbeth's brutality and rejection of motherly instincts
• Juxtaposition


  Between 'dash' and 'brains' reflects Lady Macbeth's conflicting nature - violent exterior but fragile interior
• Lady Macbeth seeks to disrupt the brain


  This ironically becomes the locus of her own downfall
• Lady Macbeth: 'Enters with a taper'
• Taper (candle)


  Symbolises Lady Macbeth's plea for redemption and divine guidance, her seeking of light and hope to overcome her mental darkness
• Contrast with Lady Macbeth's earlier call for 'thick night'


  Shows her character development and the motif of darkness vs light
• The Witches: 'Instruments of darkness'
• Auditory image


  Implies a malevolent musicality to the Witches' speech, which has a hypnotic trance-like effect on Macbeth
• Plosive sounds


  Foreshadow the ominous and grim destiny the Witches will inflict on Macbeth
• Banquo is immune to the Witches' hypnotic musicality
• The Witches: 'Fair is foul, and foul is fair'
• Paradoxes


  Establish a sense of contradiction and disorientation, foreshadowing the chaos and disorder the Witches will bring
• Destiny


  Fate of birth