Macbeth

Macbeth

1. Violence

   • The murder of King Duncan takes place off stage to make it more horrific.
   • The dagger evolves to an apparition, then points the way to Duncan, drips blood. Exemplifies Macbeth's stream of consciousness
   • Storms - pathetic fallacy, nature is being turned on its head.
   • Bloody business is a euphimism for Duncan's murder.
   • INFANTICIDE- killing children
     • REGICIDE- killing a king
   • Act 1 Scene 2, ascending tricolon of "double, "doubly and "redoubled"
   • Motifs of the heavens being obscured "thick night" and "stars hide your fires"
   • "blood, they say: blood will have blood"
   • "Douly redoubled strokes upon the foe", at the beginning, Macbeth is praised for his blood- thirsty behaviour. The irony is that his violence will eventually cause his downfall.

2. The Power of the Crown

   • The apparition of the mirror: duplicity, reflection of deterioration and anxiety of succession
   • Act 1 Scene 2, the entourage of people surrounding the king is a visualisation of the power of the crown
     • When Macbeth has lost the loyalty of his followers, the stage directions show all of the thanes without Macbeth illustrating his isolation.
   • PRIMOGENITURE- the eldest son succeeds
     • "upon my head, they have placed a fruitless crown"
   • Political anxiety - the rightful king of Scotland is in England
   • Macbeth's descent is mirrored by Scotland
     • "and each new day a gash is added to her wounds"
   • Lady Macbeth's dialogue becomes longer as she manipulates Macbeth and gains more power in the relationship.
   • It was thought that the king was the divine ruler and was appointed by God.
   • "To be thus is nothing but to be safely thus" Macbeth cannot secure the line of succession
   • Repeated motif of horticulture, a king must grow his kingdom

3. Witchcraft and the Supernatural

   • Motif of birds shows the boundless abilities of the witches
     • "if you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then to me"
   • Oppression of women transcended into the fear of witchcraft
     • "unsex me here" Lady Macbeth
   • Spectoral appearances are the only sources of light in the dark play
     • "the instruments of darkness, tell us truths, win us with honest trifles"
   • The witches are sycophantic
     • Vindictive
   • The first people to introduce Macbeth are the witches, foreshadowing his downfall that is owed to them
     • "fair and foul"
   • Trochaic tetrameter in scene 1 emulates the curses and spells of the witches"

4. Macbeth's Demise

   • CARDINAL SINS
     • Paranoia drives his to commit lower actions such as killing women and children
     • Macbeth uses imperitive commands to talk to the witches
       • "stay you imperfect speakers
   • Macbeth's ego is his hubris
     • He never questions the truth of the witches
     • Despotic rule, tyrant
   • Deterioration of relationship with Lady Macbeth
     • He begins to keep the witches from Lady Macbeth and isolates himself
     • "My dearest partner of greatness" Lady Macbeth superlative
   • COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
     • "or have we eaten on the insane root that takes reason prisoner"
   • Duplicity
     • "there's no art to find the minds construction in the face"
     • "look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't"
     • "false face must hide what the false heart doth know"
   • "though the brightest fell"
     • Reference to Lucifer, religious allusion, archetypal fall
   • "it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury"
     • ironic because Macbeth's demise was owed to the witches who only used words to persuade him
     • "cabined, cribbed, confined" alliteration, ascending tricolon, emphasises Macbeth's fragmentation of psyche