Act 2 Flashcards
(II, i, 25-29)
Macbeth, Banquo
“If you shall cleave to my consent, when ‘tis, It shall make honor for you.
(II, i, 51)
Macbeth
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?”
- rhetorical question, uncertainty and inner turmoil
- symbolises ambition and violent path chosen
- paradox tool of murder contrast moral hesitation, conflict between ambition and concience
(II, ii, 10-11)
Lady Macbeth
“The attempt and not the deed Confounds us.”
- antithesis, difference between intention and actions
- paradox, the thought of committing murder can be as confounding as actually committing it, suggests deeper psychological struggle
- personification, contemplating violence has overwhelming effect on characters
(II, ii, 28-29)
Macbeth
“Listening their fear, I could not say ‘Amen,’ When they did say ‘God bless us!’”
- irony, once believed in sanctity of life, is cut off from divine grace after murder
- symbolism, amen symbolises purity, faith and connection to god, M moral corruption and estrangement from god
(II, ii, 33-34)
Lady Macbeth
“These deeds must not be thought After these ways; so it will make us mad.”
- irony/foreshadowing to eventual mindless states
- imperative mood indicates urgency of forgetting
- paradox, while supressing thoughts to maintain sanity, the act of suppression leads to madness
(II, ii, 45-47)
Lady Macbeth
“You do unbend your noble strength, to think So brainsickly of things.”
(II, iii, 1-12)
Porter
“Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the key…But this place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil porter it no further.”
- imagery of Macbeths house as a hellish environment
- metaphor, transition between moral realm and chaotic, evil world m + LM entered
- hyperbole, exaggerates idea of access to place of evil highlighting gravity of situation and absurdity of their actions
- irony, ‘place too cold for hell’ realm of hell preferable to coldness of their crime, unnaturalness of their actions
(II, iii, 34-41)
Lennox
“The night has been unruly: where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, Lamentings heard i’ the air, strange screams of death… some say, the earth Was feverous and did shake.”
- Pathetic fallacy as unruly, chaotic/ominous atmosphere
- foreshadowing tragic events that occurred
- metaphor for earth as ‘feverous’ or sick
- imagery of nature
(II, iii, 68-69)
Lady Macbeth
“Woe, alas! What, in our house?”
- dramatic irony, look like the flower
(II, iii, 71-73)
Macbeth
“from this instant There’s nothing serious in mortality.”
- hyperbole, exaggerates life has lost all meaning, emphasising despair
- paradox, an inherently serious concept is void of importance due to decisions
- nihilistic point of view
- imagery to the transient nature of life
- epiphany - turning point recognising futility and emptiness of life after committing heinous acts
(II, iii, 111-114)
Banquo
“Fears and scruples shake us: In the great hand of God I stand, and thence Against the undivulged pretense I fight Of treasonous malice.”
- personification, powerful effect
- metaphor, divine power and providence
- antithesis, contrast between great hand of god and undivulged pretense’ conflict between divine justice and treachery
Banquo
“So I lose none In seeking to augment it, but still keep my bosom franchised and allegiance clear, I shall be counsel’d.”
Macbeth
“nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtain’d sleep;
witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate’s offerings.”
Lady Macbeth
“A little water clears us of this deed.”
- conscious easily cleared
- hubris, contrast her husband immediate guilt
Macbeth
What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?”
- Rhetorical question impossibility of escaping guilt,
- imagery of blood,
- ocean symbolises overwhelming force cannot cleanse conscience
- personification
- hyperbole - exaggerate idea of cleansing, deeply stained hands
