Macbeth

“fair is foul, and foul is fair” - the witches

• foreshadowing → predicts Macbeth’s first line

• blurs the line between right and wrong

• oxymoron and paradox → contradictory

• establishes that things are rarely what they appear to be on the surface

• written in trochaic tetrameter rather than standard iambic pentameter, mimicking a mystical, chant-like spell that sets it apart from the normal human speech in the play.

“unseamed him from the nave to the chaps” - captain

• brutal imagery

• shows that violence is second nature to Macbeth and he has the brutality to kill

• describes Macbeth as a fearless warrior

• chopping off someone’s head was believed to be the worst punishment and humiliating

• at this stage in the play this extreme violence is viewed as honourable and heroic.

“so foul and fair a day I have not seen” - Macbeth

• oxymoron → creates tension

• sense of predestination → mirrors what the witches chanted earlier

• supernatural influences

“he was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust” - Duncan

• Duncan’s flaw is that he trusts too easily

• Dramatic irony → just as he speaks about misjudging the old thane of Cawdor, Duncan heaps praise and trust onto Macbeth

• foreshadowing → signals that history is about to repeat itself

“stars, hide your fires! let not light see my black and deep desires”

• light vs dark

• black represents sin, wickedness and evil

• light represents purity

• rhyme → link to the witches

• Macbeth is aware of how his yearning for power is sinful and corrupt

• Fate vs free will → by defying the natural order and trying to cheat destiny for the throne, Macbeth embraces evil rather than acting as a passive victim of the witches

• independent thought → this moment proves Macbeth’s plan of regicide before LM pushes him later in the play

“take my milk for gall” - Lady Macbeth

• no more children → no legacy → why kill Duncan?

• substituting femininity for poison

• milk represents purity, motherhood, femininity

• gall represents evil, poison, cruelty

• the imperative verb “take” shows LM’s determination to gain power

• challenges Jacobean expectations that women should be gentle, obedient and maternal

• also suggests she cannot achieve power independently, revealing a weakness

“The raven himself is hoarse” - LM

• symbol of death

• bad omen

• Duncan’s fate is sealed

• “hoarse” suggests that the raven has been crying for so long that it’s voice is exhausted, creating an ominous tone

• dark and threatening imagery

“come, you spirits” - LM

• cannot pray to God

• must pray to the supernatural instead

“nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark” - LM

• willing to defy God

• metaphor

• fears divine judgement but is determined to prevent God witnessing her actions

• fears being judged by divine power

• not completely powerful since she cannot escape morality or divine judgement

“unsex me here”

• embraces the supernatural
  desire for immediate transformation

• wants command over supernatural

• strips herself of womanhood

• rejecting traditional feminine traits

• believes gender to be weakness

“I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself / And falls on th'other."

• a spur is a small spike worn on the rider to urge the horse forward → Macbeth says he has no moral, valid reason

• Macbeth predicts that his unchecked drive will cause his own destruction

• metaphor

"Look like th' innocent flower, But be the serpent under 't"

• “look” is an imperative verb

• flower has gentle connotations

• serpent is a biblical reference to the fall → lady Macbeth tempts Macbeth into murder

• theme of duplicity

• shows LM’s dominant control over her hesitant husband at this stage in the play

“assasination” , “this business” , “the deed”

• euphemisms

• creates an emotional distance between himself and the crime

• shows that he initially retains a conscience and morality

“So clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels”

• Duncan is untainted, morally pure ruler

• Macbeth realises that murder is sacrilegious

• relevant to the gunpowder plot

“bought golden opinions”, “newest gloss not cast aside so soon”

• gold suggests high worth, prestige and honour

• Macbeth enjoys status

• bought implies that he paid a heavy price, risking his life on the battlefield, to earn his respect, just to throw it away

“when you durst do it, then you were a man”

• LM equates man with cruelty and violence

• reversal of gender roles since men were meant to be dominant, not women

• meant to act as a catalyst