macbeth ambition

Vaulting ambition , which overleaps itself

Technique : metaphor

Context ambition was seen a sinful over reaching

Intention: Shakespeare exposes ambition as his fatal flaw

Effect: the audience expects this flaw to destroy him

STARZ, hide your fires let not light see my black and deep desires

Technique: light versus dark imagery

Context: darkness associated with evil and secrecy from God

Intention: shows Macbeth already plotting and secrecy

Effect: the audience senses he embraces evil willingly

that would be great art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it

Technique: antithesis

Context: masculinity title of violence in Jacobean society

Intention: lady Macbeth pushes him to adopt ruthless ambition

Effect: the audience see her as manipulative and dangerous

We will proceed no further in this business

Technique: declarative refusal

Context: shows tension between ambition and conscience

Intention: Shakespeare dramatises his moral hesitation

Effect: audience glimpse hope for restraint later crushed

Screw your courage to the sticking place

Technique: imperative and metaphor

Context: Lady Macbeth challenges masculinity

Intention: to show her manipulation driving him to act

Effect: the audience is alarmed at her power over him

I am settled and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat

Technique: resolution within the soliloquy

Context: turning point where ambition outweigh conscience

Intention: signal his commitment to Regicide

Effect: audience spread the inevitable crime

To be thus is nothing but to be safely thus

Technique: repetition and paranoia

Context: kingship means little without security

Intention: ambition creates further fear instead of peace

Effect: audience see ambition is endless and destructive

Our fears in Banquo stick deep

Technique:metaphor

Context: ambition now fuels the paranoia of others

Intention: show ambition turning Macbeth against loyal friends

Affect: audience recognise ambition, corrupt relationships

We have scorched the snake not killed it

Technique: metaphor

Context: violence seen as never ending once begun

Intention: Shakespeare shows ambition leads to repeated murder

Effect: Audience see Macbeth trapped in a cycle of blood