MACBETH act1

Key quotes from act 1 of Macbeth

Fair is foul, and foul is fair -Witches

Juxtaposition

Fair and foul are opposites, yet they share the same letter showing they arent that dissimilar

Repetition

Alliteration

Like a spell/ chant

Brave Macbeth… unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops -Witches

Brave - adjective

Unseamed - metaphor for sewing, destroying sewing=masculine, sewing is stereotypically feminine

Violent imagery

So foul and fair a day i have not seen -M

Witches language- already connected

Audience wont trust Macbeth- Daemonology- king James

All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter! -Witches

Witches praising Macbeth

Against Great Chain of Being?

Foreshadowing Macbeth’s ambition starts

Sets plot for the play

Have we eaten on the insane root, that takes the reason prisoner? -B

Insane root- causing madness

Banquo questioning sanity

He doesnt believe the witches

Opposite reaction to macbeth

Personification

The supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good -M

sounds seductive- has a lust for killing, supernatural

M acknowledges it is against natural order

Taking witches predictions literally

Something good cannot lead to something so evil

M doesnt believe it is evil - already under witches influence

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs -M

Regicide, idea of killing Duncan

Shocks and scares macbeth

Seated personification- calm

Knock personification - alarmed fear

Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires, the eye wink at the hand -M

Adjectives - evil, deeply engraved into macbeth

Imperative - Wants darkness, does not want light on his thoughts of regicide, GCoB Macbeth thinks he can use imperative on the stars

Personification - doesn’t want to see himself kill Duncan so he doesn’t feel guilt, he isn’t responsible his hand is

He is choosing to kill Duncan

Yet do i fear thy nature; it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness… art not without ambition, but without illness should attend it - LM

LM thinks M is too good

Verb- LM is worried M is too weak

LM thinks M is too feminine- Milk connotes breast milk

M not a murderer by nature

Jacobean society-

Masculine=violent, tough, cruel

Feminine=weak, nurturing, good

Men had an unappreciated deeper side

Come you spirits… unsex me here… come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall… come, thick night -LM

Imperative

Witches, LM is unreligious

LM wants to be masculine- gain power, be cruel, be violent

LM against Jacobean societies view on women

Make milk poisonous, kill child- not nurturing

Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t -LM

Appear innocent so no one would suspect you

Enjambment- contrast between outer and inner self

Hide his deceit, garden of Eden - serpent symbolises evil

LM is M’s temptress- Eve from adam and eve

this castle hath a pleasant seat; the air numbly and sweetly recommends itself -D

Positive adjectives

Dramatic Irony- the castle is where Duncan is murdered

Personification

I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’ other. -M

Metaphor- horse riding

Speed up

M only has the witches predictions to back up M committing regicide- giving him ambition

Metaphor, personification- M will either fall or suceed, like a horse rider going over a vault

Screw your courage to the sticking-place and we’ll not fail. -LM

Metaphor LM telling M to be brave- shows he isnt manly, hurts his ego, makes him want to do it to be more manly- LM being manipulative, temptress A+E

Metaphor musical instrument, cross bow

LM telling M that if he is brave and manly then he will become king