Macbeth

Essay Plans and Quote Analysis

LM: Machiavellian

• “A little water clears us of this deed” - 2,2

• Lack of remorse: machiavellan

• ‘Water’: baptism, biblical

• ‘Deed’: insignificant, maybe positive

• Motif of hands- inescapable guilt

• “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand” - M: 2,2 => juxtaposition

• “Out damned spot, out I say” - LM: 5,1 => Irony

• Subverts archetypal associated with women; not being bothered by regicide is shocking

LM: Multifaceted

• “Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done't” - 2,2

• Softer side: actual emotion

• Shows us how at the core she is ‘just a woman’

• Foreshadows her spiraling throughout the play

• Unsure language: different from imperatives

• Message to the JA not to be masculine and commit regicide

• “Come on, gentle my lord” - 3,2

• Contrast to emasculation at first

• Message to the audience that at the end of the day, you should stay in your place

• Many female protagonists- eventually fail

• Paired with male actors: discourage women from speaking out, doing masculine things

LM: Ambitious

• “ Screw your courage to the sticking place, and we'll not fail” - 1,7

• Imperative: screw, not => controlling the situation

• Ambition and surety

• ‘we'll not fail’: absolutely sure they'll be successful

• So focused on getting there that she doesn't know what to do when she does

• Hamartia

• “If we should fail” - M:1,7

• Juxtaposition => M is scared, she's confident

• Unsure language: if, should

• Shows the JA the madness and inner workings of a killer, they're curious after the Gunpowder Plot

• Rude language (how dare she!!!!)

LM: Deceptive

• “Your face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters” - 1,5

• My thane: affection- sees his title as the best of him

• As a book: simile

• Face: motif of innocence and failing to deceive

• ‘Read strange matters’: teaches M to be deceptive

• “There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face” - D: 1,4

• Subtle irony

• Shocks the JA: a woman was not supposed to be giving advice on deception

• ‘seen and not heard’

• Deceiving the king: huge sin, JA shocked

LM: Emasculating

• “Are you a man?” (Speaking so only M can hear)

  • ‘Are’: imperative, rude

  • Most direct question to his masculinity

  • Speaking silently: facade of being a dutiful wife => deception

• “I dare do all that may become a man” - M:1,7

  • Brings up his masculinity repeatedly: knows it his one of his insecurities and triggers

  • ‘Dare do all’: masculiity is his hamartia

  • Takes advantage of his masculinity

  • Garden of Eden

  • JA is shocked at her rudeness to her husband, curious about the ghost at the dinner table

  • James I was fascinated by ghosts and demons, helped to appease him.

LM: Guilt

• “Out, damned spot! out, I say!” - 5,1

  • ‘Out’: imperative

  • ‘damned spot’: rude language, atypical for the JA

  • “I say”: rude, dominant

  • Sleepwalking, speaks in prose

  • Enters, carrying a candle: needs light and security5

  • stages of grief:

• A little water clears us of this deed” - LM:2,2

  • Lack of remorse: machiavellian

  • ‘Water’: baptism, biblical‘

  • Deed’: insignificant, maybe positive

  • Ironic

  • Motif of hands- inescapable guilt

  • JA is intrigued at her descent into madness, see her mask off for the first time

  • Dismissal of murder and violence: masculine

M: Honourable

• “For brave Macbeth- well he deserves that name” - Captain: 1,2

  • Ephithet: ‘brave’ - Highlights Macbeth’s bravery and valour

  • Makes his downfall more tragic; fall from grace

  • Freitag's Pyramid: Exposition

  • ‘Deserves’: violence was a good thing in the JE

  • JA would admire M's heroism

• “Then yield thee, coward” - Macduff: 5,8

  • Extreme irony

  • Full circle; Macbeth is the useless rebel this time

  • Slain by the sword the same way he once slew Macdonald

  • Climax

  • Cyclic structure

  • Direct contrast to “never shook hands”

  • JA is on the edge of their seats, completed shocked by what's happening

  • Those who attempted regicide would always be defeated: message to JA

  • Pleased James I after Gunpowder Plot

Deceptive

• “False face must hide what false heart doth know” - 1,7

  • ‘Must hide’: deception, has to hide his intentions

  • ‘False heart’: ill intentions

  • ‘False face’: a mask of deception

  • Motif of knowing someone's thoughts by looking at their face

  • Decided to murder duncan, asks LM to be kind and convincing

  • JA is intrigued, want to know the inner workings of a killer

  • Gunpowder Plot: were interested by the thinking of a murderer

• “Your face……..is as a book where men may read strange matters” - LM:1,5

  • ‘face’: reference to D not being able to know who to trust

  • ‘Strange matters’: their plans and ill intentions

  • ‘As a book’: Simile - Says that it is easy to know his thoughts based on the look on his face

Ambition

• “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition” - 1,7

  • ‘Spur’: Metaphor for horsemen

  • No motivation, only ambition

  • Acknowledges the consequences of unchecked ambition

  • Foreshadows how he is going to fall down due to how high he has leapt

  • JA would be shocked by his thoughts aginst the king

  • JA would want to know how traitors think

• “A step on which I must fall down, or else o'erleap!” - M: 1,4

  • Considers Malcolm being heir as an obstacle

  • ‘Fall down’: metaphor for failing

  • ‘O'erleap’: metaphor for success

  • ‘Step’: GCoB - tiered hierarchy; sees him as a stepping stone to being King

  • JA would be shocked at the sudden turn of events, M's thoughts

Guilt

• “This is a sorry sight. (Looking on his hands)” - 2,2

  • ‘Hands’: motif for guilt

  • The same way he can't escape his hands, he can't escape his guilt

  • JA horrified by the murder and guilt

• “My hands are of your colour, yet I shame to wear a heart so white” - 2,2

  • juxtaposition to his guilt

  • ‘White’: innocence

  • Juxtaposes red and white: innocence and guilt

  • JA horrified by how she speaks to him

  • Too rude and dominating for a woman

Paranoid

• “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife” - 3,2

  • ‘scorpions’: metaphor for paranoia and unease

  • Mind is plagued by anxiety and guilt

  • Angry at B and F benefiting from his efforts

  • ‘Dear wife’: considers her his equal, superior even

  • JA horrified at murder, overwhelming guilt

  • Post-Gunpowder Plot, JA was curious about killers