Macbeth 20 quotes Mr Salles English

Key of themes

Violence/bloodlust

Supernatural

Kingship

Ambition

Key of context

Catholicism/Christianity

Martial feminism/patriarchy

Patronage, James I

God, Great Chain of Being

‘I am in blood stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er’ - M

‘no more’ - can’t make him safer by killing Macduff’s fam, only to show authority

Gunpowder plot - Shakespeare warning King James not to become violent king and take revenge

‘What’s done cannot be undone’ - LM

LM says after M kills Duncan

Chain of being can’t change

Feminism, women’s roles won’t change but LM is trying to change that
Has to change M’s status to improve her own

Fate

Violence will continue, no going back

‘It will have blood they say: blood will have blood’ - Macbeth

‘It’ - M doesn’t voice the identity of Satan

‘will’ - fate → tragic hero, can’t change his fate

‘blood’ x3 - links to M’s bloodlust, caused by being warrior in martial society

M + LM turning away from Christianity, towards supernatural for help (Satan)

‘Methought I heard a voice cry, “sleep no more” - M

Punished by God for breaking the great chain of being

Wants to flatter James I by showing dangers of regicide

‘Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood from my hand?’ - M

Punished for ambition to kill king

‘Neptune’ - metaphor - mentions pagan god, rejecting Christian God
Hubris - excessive pride + arrogance towards God

Shakespeare suggesting it’s an un-Christian act, punishable by God, to turn against king

‘blood’ - guilt; ambition is bloodlust as much as wanting to be king

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

‘spur’ - LM encourages to kill D

‘but only vaulting ambition’ - knows he will fail with only ambition; ambition isn’t enough, he needs more (bloodlust)

‘falls on the other’ - foreshadowing death

‘False face must hide what the false heart doth know’ - LM

LM says this, instruction to her husband showing how much M trusts his wife

Shakespeare asking is it fair that women are treated as more evil than men'

Links to society, women worse than men → original sin, Eve took fruit first + tempted Adam

‘F’ sounds = fricative, aggressive and shows disgust

‘Out! Damned spot! One, two - why, then ‘tis time to do it’ - LM

‘Damned’ - LM’s soul is going to Hell

Defied Great Chain of Being, so God will recreate Hell for her while she’s alive

LM saying M’s thoughts on his way to kill D

‘Look like th’ innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it’ - LM

M’s innate desire to kill D, and the bloodlust that drives it
Final responsibility is M’s, not his wife’s

‘innocent flower’ - LM asks M to have a feminine image → demonising LM, to be punished for breaking patriarchal rules

‘serpent’ - Christian image, persuaded Eve to eat from tree

‘Yes do I fear thy nature is too full o’the milk of human kindness’ - LM

M doesn’t have enough ambition, needs LM to help develop the necessary evil to kill D

‘milk’ - female breastfeeding

‘I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none’ - M

‘dare’ x2 - Hubris (arrogance)

this is all he has to do as a man, must serve the king + God

‘man’ - LM not allowed this as a woman in society - is this fair?

‘There’s daggers in men’s smiles’ - Donalbain

metaphor echoes LM’s advice to ‘look like innocent flower’

‘men’s smiles’ - attack on patriarchal society - men are at fault → while women turn to alternative ways for power, such as LM calling on spirits (supernatural)

Shakespeare asks, why are men so evil? Because of martial society, soldiers are the ones in power.

‘By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes’ - witches

‘wicked’ - Macbeth is evil here, he’s the supernatural that witches sense → by transgressing against society + regicide, M has supernatural evil power

‘Is this a dagger which I see before me, handle towards my hand?
Come, let me clutch thee’ - M

Visions, being punished with madness

‘Come, let me clutch’ - free will

OR hallucinations from witches in his mind, it’s his intention all along

Fate warns him that regicide will make him go mad

Flatters King James I, warns nobles that killing king will make them mad

‘Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble’ - witches

Rhythm like a child’s rhyme suggests Shakespeare is playing with James I (wrote books about witchcraft etc)

OR that witches are a fantasy, not real

‘And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.
Out, out brief candle’ - M

Symbolises human intervention, Macbeth interfering with fate
Candle can blow out naturally or be blown out by human

‘Out, out’ - echoes LM’s words, shows they’re united

Nihilistic = belief that life has no meaning, rejection of God’s plan to bring believes to Heaven + sinner to Hell

Turns against his hubris + has embraced his worthless fate - punishment from God

‘dusty - M will die without leaving an heir

‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ - witches

Motif → ‘when battle’s lost and won’

Witches don’t make M do anything, they don’t have the power to, so they show the future

Life has no meaning/purpose

Fricative alliteration = Shakespeare showing disgust or disgust at the witches because of Satanic evil

‘Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from crown to toe, topful of direst cruelty’ - LM

‘unsex me’ - can’t be evil or seek power as a woman

‘crown to toe’ - ambition, relates to king/queen

saying ‘crown’ first shows obsession with getting throne

‘direst cruelty’ - what males are in patriarchal society
Shakespeare critical of patriarchal society producing murderous men

‘Life’s a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour on stage then it heard no more’ - M

Metaphor: life is an illusion, a script written by something else

M’s story is about trying to improve the script he’s been given
→ shows Shakespeare’s modern views, son of glovemaker became very rich + famous
→ attack on chain of being which says we are given our role at birth

Nihilistic - life isn’t meaningless, but meaning is written by someone else

‘It a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’ - M

‘idiot’ - attacking God for creating unfair Christian society that doesn’t make sense or offer opportunity

Gained no pleasure in his life

‘nothing’ - nihilistic

Hubristic → blames everything except himself

Jacobean audience reject M’s view