English Sem 2 Year 10

Banquo’s Ghost

• Supernatural occurence and similar external forces are beyond human control- hence cannot be willingly ignored or dismissed.

• Ghost breaks the illusion of banquet (Act 3, Scene 4), intended to celebrate Macbeth’s appearance as a successful and confident leader. But the ghost disrupts the natural order in the eyes of Jacobean audience by exposing Macbeth’s reality of inner guilt

• Actions have consequences- no matter who you are these disruptions cannot be ignored.

Lady Macbeth’s Rituals (Act 5, Scene 5)

• Rituals are remenants of her fractured psyche

• Lady M desperate to gain control over undeniable guilt as she falls into loop of obssesive behaviour of completing her rituals. Ex. washing her hands every ‘quarter of an hour’ as noted by her gentlewoman- her personal attendant, in (Act 5, Scene 1)

• Psychological state has been fully bewitched in the eyes of Jacobean audience

• At this point is thoroughly corrupted both mentally and morally

Candle

• Lady M not physically involved in the murders of Duncan or Banquo unlike Macbeth- apart from rituals, candle she carries symbolises the dimming of her soul as she awaits God’s final judgment.

• Absence of candle in final moments of Lady Macbeth’s life = Divine retribution (punishment from a higher power)

• Macbeth- symbolises the extinguishing of his hope and the growing moral darkness that decays him- ‘Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.’ Act 5, Scene 5

• Fear of the dark

Text Structure: Short and fragmented speech

To show mental instability as a result of exposure to the supernatural forces- seen as evil during the Jacobean Era.

Paranoid fixation on Macbeth’s inability to say ‘Amen’ (Act 2, Scene 2)

• Right after commiting regicide- start of moral corruption

• “Consider it not so deeply”- Lady M intercepts with

Witches

• ‘Fear not, Macbeth; no man that’s born of woman shall e’er have power upon thee.’ (Act 4, Scene 1)

• Macbeth takes the prophecy at face value, interpreting it literally and feeling invulnerable

• Epilogue (Act 5, Scene 8): audience discovers that MacDuff who kills Macbeth was “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped”

• Meaning MacDuff delivered by a caesarean section so not “born of woman" in the traditional sense.

Witches character

• Witches seen as agents of evil speak in paradoxes and ambiguous statements

• The witches often speak in rhythm and rhyme "Double, double toil and trouble, / Fire burn and cauldron bubble", which gives their words a sense of certainty and power.