Language techniques: Macbeth

Language techniques: Macbeth

1. setting and mood

   • Creates a dark supernatural atmosphere
   • dark atmosphere foreshadows Macbeth's dark future
     • tragic hero always has a fatal flaw (ambition; lust for power)

2. Imagery

   • Metaphor
     • "Fair is foul and foul is fair"
   • Similie
   • Personification
   • creates pictures and images
   • references to blood, darkness and disease

3. Themes

   • Guilt
     • hallucinations
     • Insanity
   • Loyalty and betrayal
     • Lack of trust
   • Ambition
     • L.Macbeth's lust for power
   • Supernatural
     • Paradox
     • Darkness
   • Contrast
     • Macbeth's inner struggle

4. Dramatic Irony

   • what effect does it have on the audience?
   • soliloquies cause tension for the audience
   • which characters seem false

5. Paradox

   • links with the supernatural
   • values are reversed: good and bad; strong and weak
   • creates confusion and mystrey
   • False appearances -> L.Macbeth

6. Foreshadowing

   • effect: creates tension
   • witches predict what is going to happen
   • their prediction foreshadows and causes Macbeth's downfall

7. Symbolism

   • Blood: Guilt
     • "the murder may have passed, the blood remains"
   • Sounds
     • changes mood
     • Storm = witches

8. Form, Structure and Plot

   • Dream scenes
     • Lady Macbeth
   • Fast pace
     • chaotic: shows characters state of mind
       • things are moving too quickly to process