Quotes

‘I am in blood stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as o’er

• Context: All→ Gun powder plot → Shakespeare trying to warn James I not to become a violent king & take revenge (keep peaceful society) → performed before nobles

• Plot → M is king & safe, keeps killing because of bloodlust & ultimate authority & can do it

• Theme → Violence/bloodlust, Kingship → Shakespeare wants to flatter & show King James how to behave as king (avoid reprisals after Gun powder plot)

‘ Whats done cannot be undone’

• Plot → Lady Macbeth’s words to her husband → after killing Duncan, meant to stop him thinking about what he’s done → FATE (words imply)

• Context → great chain of being (order of beings) → to try to change your status to become King when that’s not ur destiny is impossible → A way of expressing fate

  • Violence/Bloodlust they have started is going to keep growing → no way of going back

  • Patriarchy → Woman’s role is set in society & she can’t change it → arguably LM’s motivation in play as desire to change her status as a woman → she’s not allowed any power/authority unless married to it → has to change Macbeth’s status to improve her own → When she does that, the patriarchy punishes her, God punishes her (‘Out, Damned spot! Out, I say!’) & she eventually commits suicide. In beliefs of the day her soul would go to hell

‘ It will have blood they say: blood will have blood’

• Context: Christianity → Turning away from it → going to link to theme of supernatural & where LM & M are turning towards supernatural help, the help from Satan.

• Theme: Supernatural → ‘It’ → M is afraid to voice the identity of Satan → what he is doing is so taboo, so transgressive

  • 3 repetitions of ‘blood’ → Macbeth’s bloodlust that drives him towards not just killing Duncan but Banquo, Lady Macduff, Macduff’s children → arguably caused by being a warrior in a martial society, he is just engaged in this phenomenal & blood battle → turned his mind & wits

  • Repetition of ‘will’ → invoking idea of fate as a tragic hero → doesn’t believe he can change his fate here → opposite of Greek tragic hero (Die while desperately trying to avoid their fate) → Macbeth rushes towards it as fast as he can

‘Me thought I heard a voice cry, “sleep no more!” ‘

• Plot → Macbeth says just after he has committed regicide & killed King Duncan

• Context: Christianity → Being punished by God Because he is breaking the Great Chain of Being

  • Patronage → Shakespeare writing pay for King James, being performed at his palace Infront of him & nobles → wants to flatter the King by pointing out the dangers of regicide → you will become King but it will be a poisoned chalice

‘Will all great neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand’

• Plot → Macbeth expressing his guilt Links to Christianity & ambition:

• Context : Ambition/Christianity→ Being punished for his ambition to kill the King, but is also being punished for his challenge against God → Choose a Pagan/Roman God ‘Neptune’ to talk about → Metaphor, he’s rejecting a Christian God just as in his actions he’s rejecting a Christian God → His own imagery condemns him in the mind of the audience as an atheist/ pagan (Great Chain of Being), someone who’s turned against the Christian God

  • Sin of tragic hero in Greek theatre → Hubris (excessive pride & arrogance directed towards the gods) → suffering from pride where he rejects a Christian God Infront of a Christian audience who will all turn against him → Patronage (James I), Shakespeare saying it would be an unchristian act which will be punished by God for you to turn against your King → Great Chain of Being supports that view

  • ‘Blood’ his ambition is to due with violence/bloodlust as becoming King

‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent but only vaulting ambition which overleap itself and falls on th’other

• context: patriarchy → LM is the rider who will prick his sides with their spurs → going to urge him on to kill Duncan → taking control, has power in relationship → totally unexpected in patriarchal society where power lies with men → in this marriage M is happy to give power to his wife (trusts her)

• Ambition → M says he only has ‘vaulting ambition’ which is not enough (ambition is not the thing that makes him kill Duncan), makes him want to kill Duncan but needs more → that’s his bloodlust & love for his wife

• ‘overleaps itself’ → knows from beiggining he’s likely to fail if all he has is ambition. Is it ambition for his wife (please her) or is there a deeper cause → giving in to his worse desires involves regicide & further bloodshed(Violence/bloodlust)

‘False face must hide what the false heart doth know’

• Plot → LM → instruction to husband (patriarchy)

• patriarchy → shows how much M trusts LM & how much he’s willing for her to direct him → attack on society → women known to be worse than men → Christianity → the original sin → Eve took forbidden fruit first & then tempted Adam, consequently God punished her worse than Adam.

• Supposed to be disgusted with LM → alliteration of sound ‘False Face’, ‘False’ → fricative is always aggressive & indicative of disgust → reflects audiences opinion, which is opp of Macbeth’s opinion

• Shakespeare asking how women gain power in a patriarchal society → perhaps they are forced by society to become manipulative, forced to become what society calls evil → not necessarily their fault

• Christianity → original sin → Shakespeare asking is it fair women are treated not just as 2nd class citizens but also as more evil than men → what the plays about. At the end of play who is more evil, LM or M

‘Out! Damned spot! One, two -why, then ‘tis time to do’t ‘

• Plot → From LM, Last time LM is in partnership with her husband

• imagining being her husband on her way to kill Duncan → ‘Why, then ‘tis time to do’t ‘ those r M’s thoughts → she is ringing the bell twice to give him the instruction that it’s safe to kill Duncan

• ‘Damned spot!’ → ‘Damned’ means her soul is going to hell. M spends little time thinking about Hell but this obsesses LM & possibly leads to her suicide at end

• Christianity → going to be punished for her unchristian act & also because she’s defied the Great Chain of Being → God isn’t just going to punish her with hell when she’s dead, he’s going to recreate hell while she’s alive

• Shakespeare uses this ironically later → ‘Out Out I say’ (LM) & M will echo that → ‘… Out, out, brief candle…’ → going to mirror his wife’s language exactly → argue they are still perfectly in love & in tune/ suggest this is a symbol of how they r apart → only starts to echo her language once she’s dead, in the sleepwalking scene she’s alone

‘Hell is murky’

• Supernatural → LM appealed to Supernatural to ‘unsex her’ & persuade M to murder the king → she is punished with hell → punishment Shakespeare’s Christian audience would demand, a fitting end to the fiendlike queen → modern audience might look beyond that & see how far patriarchal society has forced LM into making immoral choices in order to achieve authority & power

‘ Look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t ‘

• Plot → LM says

• Christianity → ‘serpent’ → serpent of genesis that persuaded eve to temp Adam to eat the forbidden fruit → consequently she’s directly linked to idea of hell & punishment she deserves

  • Suggests M has been tempted into killing Duncan by his wife

  • alternative → M’s innate desire to kill Duncan & the bloodlust that drives it & blame him → in tragedy, always a hero’s Hubris (arrogance, thinks they can get away with something leads to their downfall) → ultimately final responsibility has to be M’s not his wife’s

• Shakespeare emphasizes how LM challenges the patriarchy → asks her husband to be feminine, look like a flower -feminine image → arguably S suggesting if male & female roles were more equal then this lust for power wouldn’t occur or he is demonizing LM (more conventional view) in order to punish her for breaking society’s patriarchal rules

‘Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full of the milk of human kindness

• LM knows M best & she feels he doesn’t have it in him to commit regicide, to become truly evil → backs the idea that he doesn’t have enough ambition → he needs her to help him

• Christianity → Places LM in place of Eve, tempting Adam

• However M sent a letter to LM telling her about the witch’s promises → he needs her help, he knows it & encourages it → uses LM to help him develop the necessary evil to kill Duncan → Both of them are guilty & need to be punished

‘I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none’

• plot → M says

• Great Chain of Being → this is his place as a man, must be subservient to my king & also to my God → not able to break out of these social constraints but want to → wants to become king, become in charge of his own destiny

• Repetition of ‘dare’ → Shakespeare is illustrating M’s hubris again (arrogance) → patriarchal → has opportunity to dare things as a man, LM not allowed that by society → S playing with his audiences expectations & asking about role of women in this society (is it fair)

‘ There’s daggers in men’s smiles ‘

• plot → said by Donalbain

• links to app vs reality

• ‘men’ → attack on patriarchal society → suggesting men are the people at fault → men caused the evils in society & women r reacting to their powerless state by turning towards alternative means of getting power → turning towards supernatural (LM) & also turning towards her husband

• Metaphor echoes LM’s advice to ‘look like th’innocent flower but be the serpent under’t ‘

• S asking what causes men to become so evil → martial society, one built on butchery, on killing → all people who succeed in society here are soldiers → men who have to kill to advance their status in society → How M become Thane of Cawdor & arguably Thane of Glams → Great problem: Men are educated as warriors from moment they’re born

‘By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes’

• plot → witches know M is coming back & 1 says this

• Not the witches who r wicked but M → M is the supernatural evil that the witches sense → by transgressing against society & committing regicide M has become not just evil human being but has a kind of supernatural evil power → this perhaps allows him to kill any man he fights apart one not of woman born

• Fate → Macduff turned up → M had killed his family therefore M has sealed his own fate exactly as a Greek tragedy demands → His hubris has lead to his downfall

‘Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand. Come, let me clutch thee’

• Plot → M imagining a dagger before he goes to kill Duncan

• Visions → clear sign he is being punished with madness → fate warning him not to go through with the regicide → has been given the chance to know that killing the king will drive him mad but he rejects that sign → classic Greek tragedy → hubris in action

• Suggests the murder is M’s idea all along → conjures up the dagger, its his mind → exercising his free will → alliteration of ‘come’ and ‘clutch’ → ordering the dagger to allow him to hold it to kill the king

• Flatters King James → warns nobles that consequence of thinking about killing the king is that they too will be driven mad → God won’t just punish them in some remote afterlife he will make hell on earth start now for the murderer

‘double double, toil & trouble, fire burn & cauldron bubble’

• plot → said by witches

• Trochaic tetrameter (child’s rhyme) → suggests S is also playing with King James → KJ believed in witches, participated in witch trials & believed they tried to assassinate him at sea = clear flattery → KJ stopped people getting convicted a witch

  • on other hand by giving a trochaic tetrameter to this S is also positing the idea that perhaps witches are a fantasy → S is suggesting that these particular women are not necessarily witches, all they have is the power of sight → Oracles in Greek tragedy → they weren’t evil just telling the tragic hero the future which they couldn’t avoid, their fate

‘And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle’

• plot → from M when he learns LM died

• ‘Out, out brief candle’ → echoes LM words, shows they’re united

• First part is nihilistic (belief life has no meaning, therefore pointless to have religious belief/ follow moral rules) → rejection of god’s plan to bring believers to heaven & condemn sinners to hell → no mention of hell → M isn’t really thinking about it

• ‘death is dusty’ → he’s going to die without leaving an heir → his wife is dead, his child is dead & he knows the person who’s going to stand in contrast to him is Banquo → his sons are going to be kings

• Tragic hero has turned against his own hubris → realised he’s embraced this fate himself & that it’s worthless → God’s punishment → Christianity & Great Chain of Being

‘Fair is foul & foul is fair’

• Plot → beginning of the play

• nihilistic → paints the world as something with no meaning → life has no meaning & no purpose → Christianity & Great Chain of being → asks why should we pursue our ambitions no matter where they lead us → M later in the play believes ambition is pointless

• His male ambition has been thwarted but female ambition → ambition of witches has been realised → able to destroy M simply by showing him the future → haven’t actually made him do anything → because they are women in a patriarchal society (have no power) → cant make him do anything

• Perhaps S conveys his disgust at this through the fricative alliteration ‘f’ or feel disgust at witches themselves → represent satanic evil

‘Come you spirits that tend on mortal throughs unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty’

• Plot → LM invoking power of supernatural

• ‘spirits’ are going to attend to serve her → needs to be unsexed → patriarchal society → women are denied power

• S making direct link between way that women are prevented from having agency & identity & authority & need to turn for evil/ supernatural help

• LM is incredibly ambitious → deliberately refers to her head as the crown ‘fill me from the crown to the toe’ → obsessed with idea of becoming queen so crown comes first

• criticism of what it’s like to be male → she needs to become ‘full of direst cruelty’ → this is what patriarchal society makes males → that why she thinks she needs to become cruel to succeed

• S is arguably deeply critical of this patriarchal society that produces these kinds of murderous men

‘Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts & frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more’

• S has a metaphor entirely about acting on stage, being voiced by an actor on the stage

• this method of looking at life as a illusion/ as script written by something else is an attack against God → Christianity & Great chain of being → whole story is about trying to improve a script he was given

• attack on great chain of being → says we are all given our status at birth & we have to learn to accept it → M says absolutely not, must strive to better our condition → makes him a modern human being → that’s how S must have thought because he has reinvented himself (son of glovemaker becoming equivalent of multi-millionaire in London theatre)

• Attack on patriarchal society → If he’s an actor living a life that’s only equivalent to an hour on the stage & only poor actor because of part he’s been given imagine what it feels like to be LM → M is thinking about that now, she’s just died → her death makes him angry at the scriptwriter, at God, if society which is 2nd scriptwriter if there is no God & society’s expectations → attack on society

‘It is a tale told by an idiot, Full of sound and fury signifying nothing’

• nihilistic view M comes to → except there is a God & sacrilegiously, blasphemously that God is an idiot → attacking God for creating a Christian society which is unfair, which doesn’t make sense, which doesn’t offer people opportunity

• At the end of it → M sees his whole life has been pointless → it’s been a struggle for advancement & it’s given him no pleasure → has no wife, no children, no future → typical of tragic hero in their hubristic state to blame everything else, to blame fate instead of himself

• there is no fate other than M’s hubris → could’ve become King naturally, could’ve waited for future to unfold but he took the decision to shape his own fate → Makes him a Shakespearean tragic hero → fails because he deserves to fail

• Complete attack against very fabric of society → based on Christian faith → Jacobean audience would completely reject M’s view