Themes on Macbeth

Themes on Macbeth

1. Ambition

   • Kingship
     • Macbeth talks to Duncan as a good king
     • Macbeth worries that his "fruitless crown" means he won't leave a line of kings after he dies
       • " no son of mine succeeding
   • Power
     • Lady Macbeth's power over Macbeth
     • Macbeth's power over Scotland
     • Macbeth's loss of power when the rebels rise up against him
     • Control
     • Tryanny
     • Consequences of ambition
       • Before the murder, Macbeth knows that his "vaulting ambition" could lead to his downfall
       • The Thane of Cawdor is executed for his ambitious plot to overthrow Duncan

2. Supernatural

   • Witches
     • Apparitions (conjured by the witches)
   • Hallucinations
   • Ghosts
     • Banquo's ghost appears at the feast- symbol of Macbeth's. He is haunted by his actions
   • Fate and free will
     • Is Macbeth free to make his own choices?
     • Macbeth believes fate drive his actions. He seems to deny his own free will

3. Good and evil

   • Witches
   • Lady Macbeth summoning the spirits
   • Hallucinations
   • Deception
     • Macbeth's duplicity
     • Lady Macbeth encourages him to be duplicitous "look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it
     • Appearance vs reality
     • Pretending to be someone you're not "stars hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires
   • Tyranny
     • Macbeth's tyrannical leadership
     • Overthrown by Macduff
     • Good can triumph over evil
     • Good characters are heroic and brave
   • Murder and violence
     • Macbeth's crimes get darker and darker- murders Duncan, then Banquo, then Macduff's family

4. Appearance us reality

   • Act 1 scenes 1 and 2: The witches invoke confusion ("Fair is foul, and foul is fair").
   • Act 1 scene 4: Duncan reflects on the traitorous Thane of Cawdor and ironically rewards Macbeth with this little saying, "I have begun to plant thee, and will labour/to make the full of growing".
   • Act 1 scene 6: Duncan remarks on Macbeth's castle having "a pleasant seat" as Macbeth plots his murder.

5. Loyalty and Guilt

   • Blood symbolises guilt
     • Blood on Macbeth's hands- can't be washed away, even with "all of Neptune's ocean"
     • Lady Macbeth can't wash the blood off her hands "out out damped spot"
   • Sleep symbolises innocence
     • Duncan murdered in his sleep- Macbeth can't sleep because of the guilt he feels
     • Lady Macbeth sleep walks and reveals her guilt
   • Conscience
     • Macbeth's conscience symbolised by the dagger?
     • Lady Macbeth asks for the spirits to remove her femininity- her conscience- so that she can be "Filled from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty
     • When do Macbeth and Lady Macbeth lose their consciences?
       • Guilt implies they do have a conscience after all