MACBETH ANNOTATIONS ACT 1

Scene 1

“thunder and lightning”

• pathetic fallacy -> bad omen of evil, trouble, foreboding danger, ominous setting

• links to ideas of supernatural, and strange, mysterious forces -> mix of fear and wonder (inhuman powers)

“when the hurlyburly's done,

when the battle’s lost and won”  

• rhyming couplet

• Catalectic trochaic tetrameter -> deviates from order + way of speaking resembles incantations, otherworldly nature

• hurlyburly -> referencing war and chaos

• lost + won -> paradoxes, antithesis -> DISORDER and CHAOS -> misleading, mysterious nature 

“heath” 

• wilderness, outside civilised, ordered world, secretive and mysterious 

• Shared line connotes urgency and tension between the witches, as if they hold bad intentions and are plotting something

“Fair is foul and foul is fair”

• Catalectic tetrameter -> add dramatic effect

• Things aren’t always as they seem -> illusion

• Chiasmus -> confusion

“However through the fog and the filthy air”

• 9 syllables as opposed to 8 -> hypermetric line

• Disorderly world

• Obscurity, darkness, impure, unsettling presence

Scene 2 - first part

“fortune on his damned…”

• fate personified -> seem in favour of rebels

“For brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name -”

• parenthesis -> emphasis Macbeth’s bravery as the adjective well describes his nature

“For brave…. steel” 

• Perfect iambic pentameter (blank verse) -> emphasise order

“brave, valour, worthy, brandished steel, worthy”

• semantic field of bravery/ nobility/ heroic 

“Like valour’s minion” 

• oxymoron: slave + bravery

• SIMILE: working for bravery himself, emphasises his bravery and nobility

• Short line (metrical deviation) -> overcome with emotion

“unseamed him from the nave to the chops”

• violent imagery

• Chremamorphism -> treating traitors like an object -> inhumanely -> punished ruthlessly for treachery -> loyal to the King/ country/ throne

• Like taking stitches out from fabric, easily and skillfully maimed him

“O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman”

• Exclamative -> king’s admiration

• “Cousin” -> close to the king (respected, important to him)

• Dialogue: Captain conveying Macbeth’s bravery to the King himself -> demonstrating Macbeth’s loyalty to the king and comparing his deeds as worthy for royal acknowledgements

Scene 2 - Later part

“Our bosom interest… title greet Macbeth”

• rhyming couplet -> Macbeth and death are linked -> gets his power violence 

“What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won” 

• antithesis (LAN) -> not inherited the title but had to kill in order to get it

Scene 3 - First part

“Killing swine” 

• tropes of witches killing livestock

• causing harm -> powerful

• Establishing themselves as forces of disorder and chaos”

“What are these, so withered and so wild in their attire”

• Anaphora -> emphasis

• Alliteration -> repeated sound create strange, tense, uneasy mood

• “these” -> determiner with no accompanying noun so can’t described exactly what is before him -> unsettled

“th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth”

• don’t belong, othered, not human

• rhetorical questions -> unsure

• Dialogue between the witches -> conversing with the supernatural yet Banquo + Macbeth are confused, and asking them more questions -> Witches have the power in that situation

• Semantic field of otherworldliness

“choppy finer, beard” -> don’t conform to female body standards

“All hail Macbeth” x3 -> anaphora + hypometric deviation

“are ye fantastical” -> confusion at their presence

“rapt withal” -> zoned out, Macbeth’s overwhelmed

Scene 3 - Macbeth’s Aside

• Aside -> revealing his inner thoughts

• “prologues” -> metaphor for the Cawdor title -> just the beginning

• “Cannot be ill, cannot be good” -> anaphora + antithesis -> can’t decipher if witches had bad or good intentions

• “Commencing in a truth?” -> rhetorical question -> confused 

• “yield to that suggestion” -> internal conflict, tempted by chance of being king, euphemism for murder, doesn’t like the idea

• negative imagery/ feeling

• “Against the use of nature” -> rhetorical question -> doesn’t want to use unnatural means

• “my thought” -> euphemism (even in private, can’t directly address his thoughts, regicide is unspeakable)

• “fantastical” -> theoretical + “murder” -> first mention of murder

• “If chance will have me King, why chance may crown me, without my stir” -> confident in the prophecy, lets thing be meant is meant to be after the internal debate 

Scene 4 - Macbeth, Banquo + Duncan

- “An absolute trust” - separate line -> highlight’s Duncan’s flaw (too trusting - repeating his mistake) + SIBILANCE -> emphasis on the trust with tone of certainty

- Macbeth, stage directions, enters -> ironic since Macbeth is still a traitor

- “O worthiest cousin” -> immediately welcoming Macbeth as his family  + superlative/ sibilance -> not considered possibility of being a traitor

- “Sin of ingratitude” -> METAPHOR, not rewarded him enough -> sin denotes unforgivable actions, linked to his feeling of lack of gratitude, urging himself to do more

- If deserved less, “proportion of both thanks and payment might have been [his]!” -> exclamative, passionate, eager to ensure he is rewarded + demonstrating his kindness and appreciation for others -> DRAMATIC IRONY, fatal flaw of failing to recognise traitors

- Duncan is presented as GOOD HEARTED BUT NAIVE (too grateful, gracious, humble)

- Macbeth, “duties are to [Duncan’s] throne” -> demonstrating loyalty, reflects Duncan’s soft and gullible nature, not knowing his true, ulterior intentions -> Macbeth directly referring to throne and idea of ultimate power not Duncan

- In flattering Duncan, can manipulate and deceive him into being unaware of his malicious motives 

- DOUBLE MEANING of these words -> appears loyal but seek throne but Duncan is oblivious (irony)

- “harvest is [Duncan’s] own” (Banquo” -> directly places Duncan as being in possession of his harvest with pronoun “own” -> truly loyal to him, truly noble thane, so Duncan is still highly regarded not just for flattery but out of respect for his character

Scene 4 - Macbeth’s Private Mind

• Aside -> revealing true motives and intentions

• “step” -> obstacles on way of the crown METAPHOR

• “For in my way it lies” preventing him from being king -> regicide an option

• “Stars hide… desires” -> RHYMING COUPLET -> 

emphasising the darkness of his deed and how the unspeakable sin of regicide of clouding his mind

• “hide” -> doesn’t want anyone to know about his sinful desires

• Semantic field of darkness and evil -> “black” “hide” “fear” -> sinister deeds

• Trying to keep sense of morality but struggles with temptation

Scene 5 - beginning

• Macbeth’s letter in prose

• “my dearest partner of greatness” -> both driven by power, same or equal level (LM has power too)

• “They” -> not addressing directly they were witches -> suspicion of conversing with the supernatural (bad omen)

• “thee/thy” -> informal, close

• LM’s SOLILOQUY 1-> private conversation, not meant for anyone to hear so true, inner thoughts

• “milk of human kindness” -> metaphor -> Macbeth is too moral + compassionate

• MILK: innocence, nurturing -> believes Macbeth doesn’t have the capacity to kill

• “The illness should attend it” -> Macbeth is ambitious but not wicked METAPHOR -> wouldn’t act on his ambitions as morals would stop him

• “pour my spirits in thine ear” -> looks down on Macbeth, has to manipulate him -> supernatural, evil (spirits = METAPHOR for her influence) -> Macbeth is gullible/ impressionable, needs to use Macbeth to gain power

• “Hie thee hither” -> alliteration, sense of urgency to ensure Macbeth will kill Duncan and ensure the throne is theirs”

• “And chastise… to have thee” -> perfect iambic pentameter -> thinking very carefully and clearly -> needs the power, cunning

• “golden round” -> METONYMY -> represent the crown to present the entire monarchy which could be hers)

• “Metaphysical aid” -> supernatural help

Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth’s 2nd Soliloquy

• Soliloquy -> innermost desires and thoughts

• “Come you spirits” -> imperative verbs -> indicate certainty + authority -> calling out the supernatural directly (bold, powerful)

• “unsex me here” -> recognises her femininity is a weakness and wants to remove them

• “Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood” -> catalectic iambic pentameter -> wants the ability to murder herself, needs power, doesn’t believe in Macbeth -> DEMANDING

• thick blood -> willing to resort to sinful means and lose her morals in the pursuit of power

• “take my milk for gall you murd’ring ministers” -> gall (bitter and ruthlessly kill without regret), murd’ring (vocative for witches + alliteration -> repetition shows her desperation to call on the witches and give her what she wants), milk (take her innocence and purity METAPHOR -> rid herself of motherly characteristics like mercy, empathy, care)

• “thick night” -> secrecy

• “smoke of hell” -> metaphor 

• “keen knife” -> ambition -> wants to kill

• “blanket of dark” -> doesn’t want to be seen, hide and secret

• “Hold, hold!” -> exclamative -> no one can prevent or stop her

Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s convo

• “Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor” -> tone changes to flatter Macbeth

• “O never Shall sun that morrow see”-> EUPHEMISM -> Duncan will be dead

• STRUCTURE: LM speaks a lot more than Macbeth -> power imbalance 

• “as a book where men may read strange matters” -> SIMILE to say she can read his emotions, hasn’t disguised his intentions and emotions well

• “th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t” -> Juxtaposition -> METAPHOR -> trick everyone and hide true, ulterior motives, show purity, innocence, delicate, but truly sneaky, vicious, evil, cruel

• Serpent -> biblical imagery -> encouraging to be evil as the devil was

• “business” -> euphemism for the murder but seems as feast

• “dispatch” -> seems to welcome everyone (euphemism for murder)

• “must be provided for” -> feed but E for killing

• Euphemism to manipulate Macbeth, as thinks too kind and make him feel confident in committing regicide, make him not reconsider

Scene 6

• “heaven’s breath smells wooingly” -> describes castle as homely in positive manner

• “air is delicate” + LM walks in (juxtaposition and ironic)

• “loves that follows us sometime is our trouble” -> too naive and trusting 

• “we thank as love” -> dramatic irony

• Lady Macbeth shows no remorse

• “we love him highly”

Scene 7 - Macbeth’s soliloquy

• “IT were done” -> Euphemism for murder -> not directly addressing it -> struggling with morality 

• “th’ assassination” -> direct reference -> ambition becoming stronger 

• “surcease success” -> E for murder

• “this blow” -> E for murder

• “bloody instructions” -> E for regicide”

• “even-handed justice” -> E

• “poisoned chalice to our own lips” -> consequences 

• SOLILOQUY -> afraid even by himself to address it 

• Lots of indirect language (his conscience affecting him) -> can’t admit it to himself either -> shame, guilt

• “the deed” -> E

• “trumpet-tongued” -> loud for all to hear his virtuous deeds -> alliteration to emphasis his goodness

• “deep damnation” -> assonance -> pain 

• “taking-off” -> E -> expressing his anger

• “vaulting ambition” -> realises his flaw, and resists it due to noble character 

• “horrid deed” -> E

Scene 7 - Lady Macbeth + Macbeth’s convo (masculinity)

• “golden opinions” -> colour imagery, valued, special -> Duncan has made him feel known and proud of himself, sees goodness in Duncan

• Epiplexis -> shaming Macbeth with questions -> mocking his worry + current state

• “what it did so freely?” -> referring to how Macbeth’s easily killed in battle to how he can’t kill Duncan now due to the difference in his conscience

• “I account thy love” -> you don’t love me enough to do this (not brave nor strong)

• “as thou art in desire?” -> projecting her own wishes onto him (as if it’s his choice and desire and he wants to do it)

• “coward” -> not constant enough, challenging his masculinity by refusing this

• “like the poor cat..” -> has no courage, can’t get what he wants without getting his hands dirty -> silly to believe he can rise to power morally and without evil means

• “Prithee peace” -> alliteration -> desperate to stop her mocking him”

• POWER IMBALANCE IN SPEED AND STRUCTURE

• “then you were a man” -> only by committing regicide can he proves his masculinity

• “be so much more the man” -> emasculation 

•  “milks me -” -> pauses for emphasis, intends to hurt him with her words and manipulate his

• Would even kill her own baby -> affirms her powerful, merciless nature -> wouldn’t hesitate (violent)

• If we should fail… We fail?” -> Macbeth expects answers but she breaks ADJACENCY PAIRS and answers his question with a question to regain power by mocking his fear and ridiculing his worry + making him insecure

• “We’ll not fail” -> reassures him later