Macbeth

Macbeth

1. written in 1623, jacabean era

2. Macbeth

   • guilt
     • "will all great neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?"
       • he feels guilty and unclean about what he has done and his guilty conscience will weigh on him for an eternity longer as he can wash the blood off him but he can't erase the memories of how he killed Duncan: his king, cousin and friend.

3. The divine right of kings means that the king is an extension of God on Earth and is able to enact God's will on Earth.

   • king James has this and wants to reinforce the ideas in the public eye, he funds Shakespeare and so it is imbedded into the play throughout.
   • Duncan has this so when Macbeth kills him it knocks the chain of beings out of order as he doesn't have the authority to kill a king through regicide.
     • this allows Macbeth to be defeated later on as he doesn't have the divine right of kings to keep him safe due to being a false monarch.

4. Lady Macbeth

   • Victim or Villain
     • she is a villain as she manipulates Macbeth into Regicide and goes against her role as a woman as she has masculine ambition and calls on the supernatural to take her feminine attributes.
       • 'unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direct cruelty' act 1 scene 5
     • She is also a victim of the patriarchal system as she can't gain power in society without having to forego her femininity and then is punished for wanting the same things as male characters due to her gender.
       • “Here's the smell of blood still. All perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” act 5 scene 1
   • ambition
     • "Thou wouldst be great Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it" Act 1 scene 5
       • Lady Macbeth is the driving force as she can't rise socially due to being a women so has to force her husband to act out her desires and uses him to get her more power and influence.
   • guilt

5. what are rhyming couplets used for?

   • rhyming couplets are used to signify evil characters like the witches as it differered from the normal iambic pentameter so the audience would pick up on this and realize they are not good characters.
     • Macbeth starts to talk in rhyming coplets over the duration of the play to show his desent into evil and his change from good due to his ambition.
   • rhyming couplets are also used to demonstrate the ending of the scene as they historically didn't have a curtain to showcase the scene end for the audience.

6. why did Shakespeare give the characters similar names?

   • Macbeth and Macduff have similar names to demonstrate the duality of human nature as you can be good while still being partially evil and vice versa, having similar names makes them two sides of the same coin. Macbeth commits treason and regicide for greed to become king whereas Macduff commits regicide and treason to get Malcolm into power and fight for Scotland. both commit the same crimes however their different motivation cause them to have different fates.
   • lady Macbeth and lady Macduff juxtapose each other as LMD is a mother and conforms to Jacobean societal expectations whereas LMB doesn't conform to societal beliefs as she has no children and has masculine ambition, this contrast demonstrates the effect of children on women.

7. the effects of nature after the murder of Duncan

   • the stars stop shining in the night sky
     • act 2 scene 1
   • nature is out of balance due to the disruption of the chain of beings, this means the weaker become stronger and leave their normal level in life.
     • "a falcon towering in her pride of place was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed" Act 2 scene 4

8. Banquo