Macbeth

Macbeth

The Supernatural
1. Witches and The Supernatural
  1. The witches are sometimes referred to as the 'weird sisters' by other characters, showing that they are rejected from society, and are not welcome and are outcasts in the natural realm. This can symbolise that they're supernatural presence is rejected from the real world.
  2. In Act 1 Scene 1, the Witches are the first characters that the audience experience of the play. The scene starts of with 'Thunder and Lightning' to set the background for the play. This pathetic fallacy technique acts as symbol of nature's response to the witches. This shows disturbance in tranquility and the 'natural order' (-showing that even nature fears them due to them beyond beyond nature)
    1. Historical Context: Jacobean audience scared of storms due to vast destruction to their houses and buildings.
  3. Trochaic Tetrameter: Intonation/stress on the off beat - opposite to iambic pentameter, opposite to how people speak in the play. Iambic pentameter imitates the sound of a heartbeat - the purity of life, this sounds like something wrong like a disease..
  4. When answering a question about the supernatural: START WITH THE WITCHES!
2. Macbeth and The Supernatural
  1. Macbeth first experiences the witches' visions, he says: 'Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more
    1. He is already vulnerable to The Supernatural and its influence upon him, he pleads and years for the witches to tell him more
    2. 'Imperfect' - Macbeth knows that they are evil and ungodly yet he is drawn by his curiosity.
  2. Compare to Banquo. SHOW THE INFLUENCE OVER HIM - POSSESSION
  3. Banquo is a foil character - the opposite of Macbeth.
    1. 'Have we eaten on the insane root?' - Are we drugged, hallucinating, is this even real?
      1. 'Insane' - not normal, unnatural
    2. 'Oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths' - they tell us truths to harm or deceive us - he knows what they are doing.
    3. He resists the temptation, he sees the bigger clearer picture, he is not under their influence.
    4. Shakespeare uses foil characters to show the protagonists characteristics and FLAWS for the audience to contrast and understand the character of Macbeth. To understand his temptation.
  4. ' I will not fight with thee' - Macbeth gives in, his tragic fall - climax - he was being toyed.
3. Lady Macbeth and The Supernatural
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
1. APPEARANCE Vs. REALITY
  1. Appearance
    1. Presents them as a strong couple in front of subjects.
    2. Macbeth is like a marionette played on strings by Lady Macbeth which is yearning for power.
  2. Reality
    1. At the end, they are alone - battling their demons
      1. Quest for power -> relationship and sanity crumbles
    2. Lady Macbeth has the POWER
      1. She plans the murders
        ACT 3 SCENE 1
        She has lost all power and control over her husband
        Her tctics don't work anymore
        She insists they still preesent themselves as a strong beautiful couple through imagery - RELATING BACK TO APPEARANCE Vs. REALITY
        'Look like th' innocent flower, But be the serpent under ’t'
        How they present themselves in the public eye is not the same behind closed doors
        Lady Macbeth loses power behind closed doors
        She sleepwalks due to her involvement in the murders
        THEME OF GUILT - Blames herself
        She no longer seeks the husband she married
        As he continues to kill innocent women and children
        Her isolation from her husband has added to her insanity
        But Macbeth's hunger for power has pulled him away.
        Leaving Lady Macbeth alone - adrift.
        She saw them as a power couple
        Together through it all
        Partners in greatness
        Appearance
        Eventhough Shakespeare presented Lady Macbeth as being the powerful one in the relationship
        With her influence over her husband
        She never really had any power
        She needed a husband to be powerful - to become Queen.
        She is poweless without him
        Alone and weak
        Suicide not too big of a surprise
        She asked the spirits to 'Unsex' her
        But all they did was take her power away - the very thing she longed for
      2. Lady Macbeth was meant to kill the King.
        'my knife' 'my fell purpose'
  3. SELFISH
    1. Macbeth's fault or Lady Macbeth's fault?
    2. Or was it external forces?
2. When Macbeth finds out that Lady Macbeth is dead he is not shocked.
  1. 'she should have died hereafter, there would have been a time for such word.'
    1. She would have died anyway - this news was inevitable.
3. ACT 1 SCENE 5
  1. Macebth sends letter about witches to Lady Macbeth
    1. 'Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it.'
      1. 'Too full o' th' milk of human kindness'
      2. Could foreshadow being driven my ambition - referring to Lady Macbeth's illness towards the end.
    2. A good wife would tell him its a bad idea, that he shouldn't trust the witches - to not kill. She should put him over anything else.
      1. However: she makes the decision to persuade him to do it - driven my her ambition
4. 'Dearest partner in Greatness'
  1. Both their ambition
    1. Both driven mad by it
5. Lady Macbeth holds power in relationship - NOT the expectation in the Jacobean era.
  1. When Macbeth has doubts she use various techniques/tactics to persuade him.
    1. Reminding him that it was HIS idea
    2. Violent imagery - infantcide
      1. 'dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this.'
    3. Emasculates and insults him
  2. Unusual presentation of powerful women on stage.
6. ACT 2 SCENE 3
  1. Macbeth announces he has killed the guard.
    1. Lady Macbeth then faints
      1. Perhaps a distraction?
      2. Perhaps she is shocked that he has killed without her knowledge
        Showing us that he is not too full of the 'milk of human kindness' after all
7. At beginning they are deeply in love and united in their ambition.
  1. But by the end, power became more important.
    1. She should've never have persuaded Macbeth in the first place
      1. She had no right, she had no relationship to Duncan whereas Macbeth has a close one.

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	Created by Jakub Trybull over 7 years ago