Act 4 Scene 1

Act 4 Scene 1

1. Witches ritual- they chant and circle the cauldron, throwing in repulsive ingredients to make a sickening brew

   • They are summoning spirits

2. Ingredients

   • 'finger of a birth strangled babe'
     • 'eye of a newt'
       • 'toe of a frog'
   • Lists that accumulate words or phrases to increase the dramatic effect and sinister atmosphere
   • use of hyphenated adjectives
     • two-fold balls'
       • 'hell-broth'
         • 'birth-strangled;
     • to convey striking imiages- adds depth and description
   • repulsive

3. Witches

   • 'Double, double toil and trouble'
     • repeated refrain
       • ritualistic/scheming
       • chant like
     • Pacing, circling around the cauldron

4. Macbeth's response

   • more confident
     • 'secret, black, midnight hags!'
       • knows what they are- contrast to the confusion before
       • 'answer me'
         • 'let me see'
           • use of imperatives
           • 'tell me, thou unknown power-'
             • But is still interrupted
               • 'Listen, but speak not to't'
                 • rejection to his assertiveness
   • 'Though..'
     • repeated- reckless, not caring about the consequences
       • 'winds'
         • 'castles topple'
           • disruption to the Great Chain of being

5. The apparitions

   • 1st apparition
     • 'armed head'
       • imminent physical threat- Macduff's army
       • Warning about Macduff
     • 2nd apparition
       • 'a bloody child'
         • more horrific image- becoming more frightening
         • no naturally born man can harm Macbeth
       • 3rd apparition
         • 'a child crowned, with a tree in his hand'
           • strange image- foreshadowing
           • Promises that he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane
   • equivocation
     • giving Macbeth a false sense of security
     • deceitful, trickery- misleading him
   • 'Show of eight kings'
     • mirror- many more of them to come
     • visual depiction of Banquo's prediction
       • children becoming king
   • Macbeth's anger
     • 'sear my eyeballs'
       • He is perturbed and distressed by what he has seen
         • 'Why do you show me this?'
           • confusion
             • starts to doubt the witches
               • 'damned all those that trust them'
                 • irony
     • decides to take action
       • 'the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand'
         • belief- at the time they though that thought was what separated man from animal
       • will murder Macduff's family
         • 'his wife, his babes'
           • colateral damage
             • killing everyone who stands in his way