Macbeth:Themes - created from Mind Map

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Appearances and Realities

Good vs Evil

Guilt

Religion

The Supernatural

Macbeth himself

Hallucinations/The Mind

The Witches

Deceptive predictions

Is introduced to the play as a nobleman, a fearless warrior, worthy of being king - yet is revealed to have murderous thoughts in his heart, capable of plotting against his king.

Creates a public facade - "look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it" - when the time comes to kill King Duncan

The Dagger

Banquo's ghost

The blood on Macbeth's hands

The blood on Lady Macbeth's hands

"Is that a dagger which I see before me"

"Were the graced person of our Banquo present"

"Not all of great Neptune's sea could wash my hands clean"

"Will these hands never be clean"

Can be interpreted the witches seduced Macbeth into his sinister and devious thoughts to become King which questions, are Macbeth's actions are true representation of himself or the manipulation of the witches?

"Fair is foul and foul is fair"

"That I may pour my spirits in thine ear"

What seems good is bad; Macbeth What seems bad is good; Malcom flees Scotland when his father dies but looks guilty

The appearance of the predictions lure Macbeth but the reality behind them destroy him

"None of woman born shall harm Macbeth"

"Fear not til Birnam Wood come to Dusinane"

Macbeth as good

Macbeth as evil

At the start of the play he is a very successful and highly esteemed member of a social group, loaded with honours and enjoying every prospect of further commendation. As the play opens, we learn of his heroic actions in defense of the kingdom and his friendship and esteem between nobles is evident.

"[He is a man] full of the milk of human kindness"

Injured soldier reports: "For brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name"

Duncan says Macbeth is "valiant" and "honorable". Counter: reality is shown through the filtrated thoughts of another's perception. Even in the acknowledgement of Macbeth's greatness, we are unable to ascertain what truth is, having to take it from another vantage point.

Fear from Lady Macbeth that he isn't bad enough

The murder of King Duncan shows a drastic change between Macbeth's good and evil nature. It becomes more apparent as the play goes on as he losses his conscience, solely killing Macduff's family from the fear of losing power and showing no sign on remorse or emotion at the suicidal death of his wife.

Ambition

"Let not light see my black and deep desires"

His human feelings are gradually destroyed until at the end of the play he becomes the unnatural man, cut off from humanity and from God. As his link with humanity weaken, so does also his desire to live, until at last he sinks into total despair which is the surest evidence of his damnation.

Macbeth's power of imagination enables him to see all the implications of his evil deed in their most frightening form

"New widows howl, new orphans cry , new sorrows strike heaven on the face"

The hero in gothic literature is often a "villain". The hero is isolated from others by his fall and either becomes a monster or confronts a monster who is his double. He becomes a "Satanic hero" if, like Satan, he has courageously defied the rules of God's universe and has tried to transform himself into a God. Just like Macbeth has become so enticed by the power he has gained through his murderous deeds.

Banquo's ghost - "never shake thy gory locks at me"

Presented as a dangerous quality which causes the downfall of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth; ambition is the driving force of the play.

Macbeth's ambition

Macbeth seems clear that it his ambition that drives his murderous actions, quoted in Act 1 that his sense of ambition is "vaulting".

Macbeth's exceeding ambition, which represents evil, is so overwhelming that in the struggle with it his moral consciousness and better feelings get defeated and leave him utterly wretched. His passion for power and instinct of self-assertion are so vehement that no inward or outward misery could persuade him to relinquish crime, or to advance from remorse to repentance

Once Macbeth has a taste of power, he's willing to kill anyone (men, women and children) who he thinks might undermine his seat on Scotland's throne. He puts his own desires before the good of his country, and, in the end, is destroyed by that ambition.

Lady Macbeth is the driving force that encourages him to overcome his strong sense of guilt and take action against the prophesies.

Shakespeare does not give either characters an opportunity to enjoy their achievements - perhaps suggesting that it is more satisfying to achieve your goals fairly than to achieve them through corruption.

Macduff demonstrates a moral code is more important in positions of power than blind ambition.

When Macbeth plans to murder King Duncan, his moral code is still evident - it is just "vaulted" by his ambition. We can really see Macbeth struggling with the evil he is about to commit:

"Why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair"

Macbeth is plagued with guilt: he starts hallucinating, seeing ghosts and hearing voices:

It softens Macbeth's ambition and callousness. His brutality is balanced by his guilt - a quality that enables the audience to identify with Macbeth throughout the play despite his tyranny - making him a tragic hero.

Lady Macbeth's guilt is subconsciously expressed through her dreams. Shakespeare is perhaps suggesting that we are unable to escape guilt for wrongdoing. By the end of the play Lady Macbeth's guilt becomes untenable she eventually kills herself, Evidently, the intensity of her guilt and shames was stronger than anything she consciously conveyed.

The use of the small stained spot of blood ("yet here's a spot") on Lady Macbeth's hands represents her psychological guilt as she questions "will these hands never be clean?"

"I hear a voice cry 'Sleep no more!' Macbeth does murder sleep"

"Is that a dagger which I see before me?"

The voices act as Macbeth's moral conscience seeping through, no longer able to be suppressed.

Macbeth goes against religion when he chooses to carry out the act of mudrer. He calls for darkness and the extinction of nature. The violation of his acts alienates him from God. Immediatley after the murder, he finds he cannot utter the word "Amen".

The play combines Christianity and Supernatural which contribute to the theme of appearance vs reality - Adam and Eve - the tragedy of the sin and heaven and hell

Act 2 Scene 4

The Great Chain of Being

The old man

Darkness

Beliefs about social class and gender came from the great chain of being

Macbeth commits a crime against God when he murders King Duncan - he was placed there by God and only God can replace him

Macbeth has disrupted the great chain of being - contextually chaos within the world would be expected. Macbeth's actions (microcosom) therefore have an effect upon the greater world (macrocosm)

"Turn'd wild in nature" Kind Duncan's horses have gone wild

"a falcon; killed by an ordinary owl" unnatural - metaphorically representative of Macbeth as the owl and King Duncan as the falcon

A message to the audience that tresion is bad (main message of play)

He is wise - with age comes wisdom

He represents the common man as he is an unnamed character showing that Macbeth's actions have had an effect on everyone making it a universal problem

Stereotypical view of God as old - viewed as a messanger from God

Direct religious reference to Jesus' crucifixion - "By the clock tis day, and yet Dark night"

"dark strangles the travelling lamp" - night obscures the sun indicating that even the heavens are behaving strangely; the state of things is literally and figuratively dark - an unnatural state. Macbeth's crime has unleashed a supernatural chaos.

Lady Macbeth

The final battle scene

The Witches

Association with the witches, "these weird sisters saluted me". Lady Macbeth's manipulation of Macbeth works hand in hand with the witches

Sinister language

Casting spells to manipulate Macbeth "Hie thee Hither that i may pour my spirits in thy ear" supernatural behavior

Direct referral to the witches supernatural nature "I have since learned that they have supernatural powers"

"And take my milk for gall", the language suggests that her womanhood, represented by breasts and milk, usually symbols nurture, impedes her from performing acts of violence and cruelty, which she associates with manliness. Even more, note the reference to the four humours, in particular "gall" comes from yellow bile. An imbalance of yellow bile in the body turns one ruthless and insolent.

"Unsex me here", Lady Macbeth prays to the evil spirits, associated with the supernatural at the time, to be filled with masculinity and the cruelty associated with being a man already suggesting she has no remorse.

Archetypal monster

The prophecies come true

Act 4 Scene 1

The witches creation of the charm is made up of poisonous ingredients. It can be interpreted as the creation of a monster - made up of body parts; "eye of newt", "tongue of dog", "lizards leg. The strong implication is that Macbeth himself is no longer a complete human being; has become half-man, half-monster.

Made up of 3 parts: the Witches casting of the spell, the supernatural answers to Macbeth's demands and his return to the cold world of political and social reality. The scene's structure deliberately recalls the opening scenes of the play. Once more Macbeth's destiny is in question. Once more he receives 3 prophecies and left on his own to interpret the prophecies. And once more he fails to understand that Fate in inevitable, however he chooses to act.

Witches displayed as sadistic - animal abuse, segregation of the abnormalities, child abuse

Supernatural powers in order to receive the ingredients

The ingredients of the "nose of a turk and Tartar's lips", the "liver of Jew" contextually inform the audience of the anti semitic country at the time. Foreigners were a social anxiety during Shakespearean times because no one had travelled thus there was no awareness of any other cultures or societies other than Christianity which was wide spread.