Paradoxes in Macbeth

"The instruments of darkness tell us truths, / Win us with honest trifles, to betray's / In deepest consequence" (I.iii. 123-125)

Context: Macbeth and Banquo have just heard the prophecy from the witches, and Banquo tries to make sense of all he has learned.

Contradiction:

Theme:

Paradox:

"Wouldst not play false, and yet wouldst wrongly win" I.V 20-21

Context: Macbeth has just learned that he has become Thane of Cawdor, this marks the first time that the witches prophecy has come true.

Contradiction: The contradiction is that Banquo believes that this small victory for Macbeth may lead him to bigger worse things.

Revelation: The revelation is that he realizes that his future may not be as bright as the witches describe it.

Theme:Hope

Paradox: Ross' good news has bad implications.

"Yet do I fear thy nature, it is too full o'th'milk of human kindness" (I. v. 23-25)

Context:Lady Macbeth has just received a letter from Macbeth speaking of how witches told him he would be king. She thinks that his feminity/kindness will keep him from getting that position.

Contradiction: Too much kindness is a weakness

Theme: Ambition

"thou wouldst be great; / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it" (I.iii).

Context: Lady Macbeth has just heard the witches' prophecy that Macbeth will become king.

Contradiction: For Macbeth to be great, he must be bad.

Revelation: This contradiction reveals that, in a world where fair is foul and foul is fair, what is normally :great" cannot come without some element of "illness" or evil.

Theme: Strength and weakness

Paradox: For Macbeth to be great, he must be bad.

"Nothing in his life became him like leaving it" (I.IV 7-8).

Context: Malcolm has received news about the execution of the Thane of Cawdor, and relays the message to Duncan.

Contradiction: Death was the greatest achievement in the Thane's life was death.

What does it reveal: It reveals that the Thane's life was worthless, but he seemed to be "studied" in dying

Themes: Morality & Sanity

"I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none" (I, vii, 47-48)

Context: one of Macbeth's monologues when he debates what it means to be a man. Although Macbeth believes that certain qualities and tendencies are what makes someone masculine, one can lose their masculinity if they express these qualities excessively.

Contradiction:Macbeth states that excessive masculinity is actually feminine. This is contradictory because masculinity is often seen as the opposite of femininity

Revelation when someone becomes too absorbed in their ego and loses control over their temper, their masculine qualities can actually turn into weakness.

Theme: Masculine vs feminine

Paradox: To be excessively masculine is feminine

"Mine eyes are made the fools o'th'other senses, or else worth all the rest" (II.i.44-45).

Context: Macbeth is doubting his desicion to kill Duncan, and does not know if he will go through with it. When he says this line, he is thinking about the moral repercussions of committing the crime.

Contradiction: The eyes can either be deceived or they can be the most powerful sense

Theme: morality

Paradox: What i see is either real or fake

"That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;\ what hath quench'd them hath given me fire." (II, ii, 1-2)

Context: Duncan has been murdered, and Lady Macbeth has been drinking like Duncan's chaimberlans.

Contradiction: Alcohol, which makes others weak, makes Lady Macbeth strong.

Theme: Ambition

Paradox: What weakens others strengthens me

"To know my deed, 'twere best not know my self" (II, ii, 76).

Although this statement seems to make any logical sense, it actually does have some meaning. Macbeth believes that he will not be able to think about and digest the murder without disconnecting his own role in the murder. Macbeth attempts to avoid the remorse that would come from associating his own actions with the murder of Duncan.

"Naught's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content./Tis safer to be that which we destroy/Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy" (3.2.8-9).

Context: Lady Macbeth is experiencing feelings of severe guilt, and shares her worries with Macbeth.

Contradiction: Lady Macbeth says that it is safer to be destroyed, than to live.

Revelation: it is better to be dead than to live with the guilt of being alive

Theme: Remorse/Morality

Paradox: Death is safer than life

"Better be with the dead,\ whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,\ than on the torture of the mind to lie\ in restless ecstasy." (III, ii, 19-23)

Context: Macbeth agrees with Lady Macbeth, and continues to talk about his guilt.

Contradiction: Macbeth says that death is peace and life is torture

Revelation: Macbeth believes that he will find peace if he is dead rather than alive because while he is alive, he will always struggle with the guilt of his murders. Another interesting idea here is the double meaning of peace.

Theme: Death/Remorse

Paradox:

"Our fears in Banquo stick deep, and in his royalty of nature reigns which would be fear'd" (43).

Context: Macbeth discusses Banquo's murder with the two murderers, and Macbeth justifies his desire to kill Banquo.

Contradiction + What it reveals: Macbeth fears Banquo's natural ability to rule nobly, and thinks that righteousness is dangerous.

Theme: Morality

Paradox: It's precisely what's good that must be killed.

"Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides, With twenty trenched gashes on his head" (Act 3, scene 4, 26-27, page 51)

Context: Murderers confirm that Banquo is dead.

Contradiction: The murderers say that safety is having gashes in your head.

Revelation: Macbeth shows a trend of preferring death than life. (See above)

Theme: Ambition + Morality

Paradox: It is safer to be dead than alive.

"Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell;\ though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,\ yet grace must still look so." (IV, iii, 22-24)

Context: Malcolm and Macduff test eachother, and discuss Macbeth's tyranny.

Contradiction: if foul things try to seem graceful, gracefulness would still seem graceful. It seems as though something foul could not be graceful, yet this quote implies a sort of virtue in foul things. Just like the shiboleth, "fair is foul and foul is fair," this paradox swaps the roles of virtue and evil,

This paradox has a greater significance in the play because Macbeth constantly challenges the expectations of what we think of to be normal. Whether it be sanity or foul actions, Macbeth highlights how actions are characterized only by how they are viewed by society and not for what they truly are.

Theme: Opposite is the truth

Paradox: Bad seems good, but good must also seem good.

"But I remember now I am in this earthly world where to do harm is often laudable, to do good sometime accounted dangerous folly" (71).

Context: Lady Macduff talks to the messenger right before the murderers come, and she has been warned she is in danger.

Contradiction: Lady McD says that harm is good and good is harmful

Theme: Opposite is the truth

Paradox: Harm is honorable and honor is harmful.

"Malcolm: Dispute it like a man. \ Macduff: I shall do so; \ But I must also feel it as a man;" (IV.iii.221-224)

Ross notifies Macduff that his family has been savagely slaughtered by order of Macbeth..

Dealing with loss bravely (masculine) vs. being a man and feeling grief (feminine)

It reveals that masculine men can feel emotions similar to women.

Gender

In order to be masculine, you must posses grief like a woman.

"...And with some sweet oblivious antidote \ Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff \ Which weighs upon the heart?" (V.iii.44-46).

"I pull in resolution and begin \ To doubt th'equivocation of the fiend \ That lies like truth...." (V.v.41-43).