Macbeth quotes (Mr Salles)
“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other” (1.7)
His intent (the horse) is not enough, it can’t jump far enough
The only thing driving this jump is his ambition
He needs something to wear the spurs (shoes) - Lady Macbeth
His ambition for the throne is not enough to kill Duncan, it is actually that plus LM that does it. This means that his Hamartia could not be his ambition but actually his love for LM
This is true as he said it in a soliloquy
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air.” (1.1)
Witches describe the weather and lightly describe their possible power
Introduces the idea of duality and the idea that you can’t trust stuff - fair is foul and foul is fair → also links with the idea that Duncan gives about not being able to judge a man by his looks
Also shows how maybe Macbeth could have avoided his fate because of the switching of fair and foul showing how everything is not set in stone. This is interesting as in Greek tragedy their hero does whatever they can to avoid their fate but everything they do actually brings them closer to their fate.
Macbeth becoming King would have been fair if he just waited (he was going to become King anyway), but he made it foul by committing regicide. Opposite of a Greek tragedy.
Fricative F sounds used in harsh words (e.g. fuck) because saying the f sound makes you bare your teeth like you’re going to physically attack someone.
This could convey the violence of the witches desires and show how sinister they are
Also could be flipped as they are portrayed very child-like because their use trochaic tetrameter (a very child like meter), and this again shows the duality of what’s on the outside vs the in. → also on the outside they seem innocent is because they don’t actually tell Macbeth to do anything bad. Again shows how Macbeth is the one responsible for his path and murders.
“Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One-two-why then ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?”(1.5)
Out damned spot shows how LM now realises she’s going to hell now and wants to get rid of it
The spot of blood she’s imagining is her guilt
Returns to this idea again with Hell is murky - the light she carry arounds with her to clear the murkiness symbolises Christianity.
LM is the brains behind the operation as she is reassuring Macbeth that they will get away with it because they are the ultimate power in the land so nobody can do anything. She is wrong - as soon as the nobles find out after Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo they all turn on him.
The tragedy of LM was that she didn’t understand how vulnerable she would be to her own mind because she orchestrated this - ambition too great leads to excessive grief and her plea for supernatural help links her to hell.
“Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull Of direst cruelty!” (1.5)
Shows how LM is rejecting the patriarchy → you have to be a man, and be cruel. Shakespeare is suggesting to King James that he shouldn’t be cruel or end up like LM (Macbeth fails because he is a cruel ruler, not because he killed Duncan)
In the Holinshed Chronicles the real Macbeth stayed King for quite a long time even though everybody knew he killed Duncan because he was a good King.
Show show women only get power through their relationship with men so that the only thing she can do to get power is to go through her husband.
Another powerful female character (the witches) have beards to make them seem more masculine + excluded from society for having no husband so just hang with each other and became evil
LM just lost her child - failed wife + grieving therefore failed in her role in society so part of the reason she chooses this new way to do well → mentions the crown to show that being Queen is what she thinks she needs
“FIRST WITCH: Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
SECOND WITCH: Not so happy, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH: Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.” (1.3)
Flattery of King James - believed he was a descendant of Banquo, and by making Banquo noble he’s suggesting King James’ ancestry is noble + chosen by God - Fleance chosen by God (Diving Right of Kings) (only one that didn’t die). If his nobles try be like Macbeth bad things with happen.
Banquo is antithesis to Macbeth - tells nobles to be like Banquo and not like Macbeth
Witches suggesting that Banquo will be much happier than Macbeth because he’s not going to act on his evil thoughts, however suggests that they know that Macbeth will - they believe he’s inherently evil and easily persuaded by LM
“I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums And dash’d the brains out had I so sworn as you Have done to this.
Shows how she has abandoned all sense of being feminine and doing her role of providing a child
Also shows how badly the death of her child has affected her
She believes that God has chosen for her child to die so she wants to attack God through his representative on Earth - the King as chosen through TDRoK
Consonance of B’s and D’s towards the end of the quote shows how aggressive she was with her persuasion and how he cannot break his promise to her and must follow through with utmost aggression.
Because society says her only job is to have a child but they keep dying out of her control we could have sympathy to her and why she turns evil- Shakespeare not happy with this society and it should change. Could be flipped into that LM is exceeding her role as a women and she is rightly punished.
“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. it is a tale Told by an idiots, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.” (5.5)
Out out - same as LM out damned spot → shows how they are both evil and how closely attuned they are to each other and how much he loves her - perhaps his hamartia. The candle is a Christian image, suggesting that his love for her is greater than his love for God
Expressing his nihilistic view that life is pointless → fate is already decided by God so life is pointless (tragedy)
Could also be self-deception, he just doesn’t like the choices he’s made and is now blaming God for his actions. He doesn’t want to face the fact that he’s made his wife so guilty and made her commit suicide. This is very ironic.
Also ironic/humorous that it is actually an actor playing the part of Macbeth on a stage.
Context: Shakespeare was only meant to be a glovemaker but he became one of the most popular and famous playwrights ever → he’s a self made man, and pretty much invented that class of people who don’t just follow on from where they were when they were born but instead carve their own path. Very much not a thing at the time he was. Therefore he looks on at Macbeth at somebody who could make their own choices.
Macbeth made the mistake of writing his own script in blood and completely turning away from God and making the audience resent him.
“Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it” (1.5)
LM’s advice to Macbeth comes straight out of Genesis with the serpent (Satan) tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.
Shakespeare is suggesting that LM is the person who influenced Macbeth just like how Eve influenced Adam - misogynistic interpretation of the bible which King James was a fan of - he thought Women were evil because they caused original sin. Could just be flattering James, not Shakespeare’s view.
King James made a commemorative coin to signify his victory in the gunpowder plot and it had a serpent under some flowers - Shakespeare is ingratiating himself with King James.
“I ‘gin to be aweary of the sun And wish the estate o’ the world were no undone.” (5.5)
Shows how he understand that he’s going to die and this he now does not believe the witches
He wants to destroy everything - a very childish impulse → message to the nobles that they are very childish to overthrow the king.
The sun symbolises God and by rejecting the sun (God) the world is meaningless so you might as well destroy it.
“Heat oppressed brain”
molded and forced like plastic - the heat is LM and the witches
context: id which is the bit of the mind that has aggression and desire and that overpowers his brain
Oxymoron
soliloquy
links to kingship (wants it so bad he lets this happen to him), witches and LM (they did this to him), Macbeth (its about him), ambition (his ambition leads to this)
“Something wicked this way comes”
Witches say this when Macbeth is coming over
Juxtaposition shows how witches are calling him wicked, calling gods rep on earth wicked when they themselves are wicked
chremamorphism → dehumanise and objectify Macbeth, he’s become so evil they don’t even recognise him
links to witches (witches believed that they were innocent because they are saying that Macbeth is the bad guy, also supernatural not as powerful as expected because in 4 acts he has surpassed their evilness),
Kingship - he is not worthy of being the king, its fake so they can bypass DRoK
Macbeth - shows his change from ‘brave macbeth’ has become ‘something wicked’
LM - She is the cause of this change - act like the innocent flower… the serpent has taken over and produced this.
“Instruments of darkness tell us truths…only to betray”
Metaphor - Banquo tells us that the witches are going to play/toy with us like an instrument → they are just toying because they are so powerful
Foreshadows the rest of the play - they tell truths (will be Cawdor, king) but then betray him with the misleading comments “no many born of a woman” “till great Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane”
Witches → entertainment for them and shows their evil nature, limited but powerful control
Macbeth → shows us that he was chosen, the witches chose him to tell their truths to then betray, he already had the right ingredients to be manipulated.
LM → She does the same thing (betrays him when she calls him a coward) to get her own power.