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‘I heard a voice cry “sleep no more!” Macbeth hath murder sleep’
Guilt, ambition, violence, appearance vs reality
recurring motif of sleep which is synonymous to innocence and peace - Macbeth loss of sleep = loss of innocence and sanity as a result of violating kingship and divine order
change in character - no longer uses imperatives like ‘stars hide your fires’ as in his guilt he is haunted by transgression of the divine right of kings
exclamative sentence - emphasises irreversible nature of his eternal torment of guilt as he has disrupted divine right of kings through violating kingship
Sempiternal, he will battle with moral restlessness as he finds no redemption or salvation from sin
LM - ‘too full o the milk of human kindness’ and ‘coward’
contrasts ‘worthy Cawdor’
Violence, ambition, gender
emasculated Macbeth - uses a feminine image linked with motherhood - catalyses him into committing regicide to become king - manipulates and reduces him
Not just a questioning of his masculinity but a brutal attack on the very essence of his identity and his battlefield reputation
comparing her with act 5 - she propels Macbeth into becoming king through emasculation which she is later punished for as she goes crazy and kills herself
LM exploits rigid gender roles of Jacobean era to propel Macbeth into violating kingship
‘instruments of darkness’
supernatural, appearance vs reality, ambition
auditory image to characterise the witches implies a malevolent musicality - their words possess and almost hypnotic trance which catalyses his usurpation of kingship
Plosives - harsh sound foreshadows the dark, ominous, grim destiny the witches inflict upon Macbeth due to his blind violation of divine right of kings
‘whats done is done’ - LM
ridiculing it, dismissing it, making it seem like it is irrelevant because she doesn’t want to face the full magnitude of what they have done
they have committed regicide which is one of the ultimate sins in the Jacobean era, because we know the divine right of kings. If anything happened to the king, it therefore was an assault and a violation of God. So perhaps we could see her downplaying it continuously to Macbeth is her trying to downplay it in her own mind so she doesn't have to face the gravity of the acts they committed
‘will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hands’… ‘amen’ x3
Macbeth obsesses about the blood on his hands - blood represents guilt which he fears will torment him
He is aware that his tyrannical ambition has disrupted the Natural order - ocean has been corrupted by his murder of Duncan
Neptune is a pagan God - reflects Macb’s desperation to rid himself of guilt as he fears he has lost Gods blessing - eternal damnation
‘take my milk for gall’ ‘unsex me here’
