The Themes of Macbeth

Ambition
1. Macbeth seeks power
  1. Spurred on by his wife
2. Causes his downfall
  1. "I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Vaulting ambition
Evil
1. The urge to destroy whatever is good
2. The underlying presence of murderous intention and action
  1. "Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Order and Disorder
1. The struggle to mantain or destroy social and natural bonds
  1. The Destruction of morality and mutual trust
  2. "Uproar the universal peace, confound/ All unity on earth
Appearance and Reality
1. Evil lurks behind fair looks
2. Deceit and hypocrisy mean that appearances cannot be trusted
  1. Lady Macbeth's "look like th' innocent flower, / But be the serpent under 't"
Guilt and Conscience
1. Macbeth knows that what he does us wrong.
  1. He does it and has to suffer the agonies of conscience as a result
    1. "O, full of scorpions is my mind"
Equivocation
1. Telling deliberately misleading half-truths
  1. "Th' equivocation of the fiend/ That lies like truth"
Violence and Tyranny
1. Warfare, destruction and oppression
  1. "Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell"
Man
1. The violent feudal society of hierarchical male power breeds bloody stereotypes of what it is to be man.
  1. "I dare do all that may become a man"
  2. "But I must also feel it as a man"

Resource summary

	Created by springbok.spring over 9 years ago