ENG AT2 - Macbeth

Critical Essay, context, tragic structure - quotes

Fair is foul and

…foul is fair

Macbeth - so fair and foul a day…

antimetabole of the witches and macbeth's opening line indicate shis corruption to supernatural forces.

Like Valour's

minion…

positive epithet/ The simlie symbolises Macbeth's intial heroism and bravery. This emulates his loyalty t the king but also the providential beliefs of the time e.g. Great Chain of Being. The witches are able to corrupt him which alerts us to the fallibility of morality. Corrupted by outside influences. =

Thunder

and lightning

the stage direction and pathetic fallacy puts supernatural an sinister connotations onto th ewitches. Dark and gloomy setting established and conflates the witches eith supernatural elements. the presence of the witches is alwas makred with this gloomy, foreboding weather. The desolation of the weather mirrors the supernatural corruption inherent to the witches.

All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee…

All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter

supernatural corruption is occuring and the reigicidal thoughts and intent are culminating. Contrast between valour minion. we are all suspected of disloyalty in an instant. Macbeth is diverting from providential belied and faith in Christian Dogma. Transhistorical in its message that we must not allow our morality to be corrupted by ambition. Human nature is prone to evil and corruption. important to hold a strong moral compass so not to be led astray.

Instruments of

Darkness

banquo acts as the voice of reason, contrasts between macbeth and banquo. M gives into the superntural forces. re establishing the fallibility of human nature, how a weak moral compass will inevitably lead to your downfall.

Whose horrid image

doth unfix my hair

aside - contemplation of the wtiches prophecy and revealing how his mind is now in disorder. Macbeth is problematising the divine order and is deviating from the theological values of the time. Cautioning us of the errors of secular ideas such as self detminism. M becomes an antagonist to his won theocentric context, evident through his balsphemous and regicidal desries. Hegemony - live by the rules of the time.

Stars, hide you fires,

let not light see my black and deep desires.

his internal thoughts are so evil that he pleads with God to look awa. He is very much aware of his black and deep desires.

asking god to look away from his heretical actison and signals M's moral decay due to his eroded loyalty to Duncan and this God. You will suffer from divine retribution and emphasis on the guilt that you will feel when fighting for your morality andloyalty with your regicidal and blasphemous thoughts

look lke th'innoncent

flower, but be the serpent under't

biblica allusion to the Book of Genesis where Statan is presented as a serpent. Warns against the rise of secular ideas such as a free will which functions in dissonance with thoelogical epistomologies that saturated the Jacobean context. Straying from God's ordained rule and therefore will hav consequecnes.

Is this a dagger for which

I see before me…

Macbeth's pschomachic collapse becomes evident and is established as the tragic hero. His contemplation of regicidal thoughts becomes the catalyst for his mental disarray where his fight between the forces of good, God and Duncan and Evil, killing th eking, broadens the warning or betraying providnetial epistomologies in a Jacobean context.

A dagger of the mind, a false creation

Proceeding from the heat opressed brain?

"heat opressed brain" represents the intolerable build of guilt from the thoughts of acting sin and how Divine Order is warning macbeth of the potential consequences of going against the natural order. establishing himself as the antagonist by going through the murder reinforcing his image and symbolism of going against porvidential beliefs and emerging renaissance humanist ideals.

I could not say 'Amen'

Shakespeares warns of self determinsim and free will that characterised the Renaissance hUmanism paradigm. HE also establishes this moral disconnection where he not only betrayed the king but also betrayed God and the Natrual Order.

Will all of great Neptune's ocean was

this blood clean from my hand?

the refleciton of Macbeht's inner turmoil of his significant act of sin reveals the caution that is being shared, if you dsin so deep and overwhelming, there is nothing that can help rid of it.

sacrilegious murder…

murder and treason

repetition of murder

horses…they eat each other

complete upheaval in nature

strange events

entropic due to the order being dismantled. Entropy is a result.

cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd

his plans of power and ambition is faling apart where his illegitimate reign and tyranny is being overhtrown by the divine order. He reveals this through the claustrophobic imagery and idea that fate is closing in on him and his downfall as the traigc hero is inescapable. Powerless to change. he is help captive by his ambition and lust for power this encapsulates the consequence of his hamartia.

the table is full -[Enter Banquo's ghost]

he is going through his psychomachic collapse in the banquetscene, dilapidated sanity. Enduring consequecnes of betraying his friend, the king, and ultimately God and the NAtural ORder. Banquo's ghost is a dramturgical portrayal os Macbeth's internal turmoil.

I am in blood, stepp'd in so far that should i wade no more returning were as tedious as go o'ver

Macbeth envisions that he is spo consumed by guild that he is in this metaphoric river of blood and it exmplifies the irreversible spiraling of deterioration of Macbeth's morality.

All the bloodshed that was caused was because of the sinful acts that he had committed. Develops the peripeteia. sin manifests in psychological consequences, spirallinginto absolute

Bleed, bleed, poor country!

the wrongful and tyrannical reign destroys the country as a consequence of going agaisnt the natural order and specifically the divine right of kings. M is contributing to the chaos and destruction of Scotland.

Betraying and decieving Scotland.

personal impact of pschological collapse but also having a much