Macbeth Flashcards
‘Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, till thou applaud the deed’
Different interpretation = MB’s desire to keep the things he has done concealed from LMB can be interpreted in two ways, he loves her and wants to protect her or it is a symptom that they are becoming emotionally distant.
‘My hands are of your color but I shame to wear a heart so white’
Context = DRK - MB knows that he has dammed his soul to hell, and his guilt is causing tension. Also LMB mocks MB’s masculinity, which would have been the ultimate insult for a great warrior.
Language = white symbolises cowardice for not killing Duncan. This is ironic because as she kill’s herself after washing blood off her hands in her sleep.
‘Why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image unfix my hair’
Language = MB’s first thought is one of murder . The adjective ’horrid’ suggests MB knows that murdering Duncan to achieve his ambition is morally wrong. The verb ‘unfix’ suggests that the strength of his ambition terrifies him.
‘ I am blood stepped in so far… returning were as tedious as go o’ er’
Language = metaphor of a river of blood. MB realises that he cannot undo the murders he has committed, so he may as well continue to destroy his enemies to maintain his place on the throne.
‘A poor player struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more’
Language = extended metaphor of people as actors and life as a stage, MB realises that in the wider scheme of things, he is just a ‘poor player’ with a limited amount of time in earth and once he is dead, he will be forgotten. All his ambition has been for nothing and he has dammed his soul to hell.
‘Give to the edge of the sword to his wife, his babes’
Language = emotive language. When MB learns that MD has fled to England, he takes revenge by murdering his family.
Reader = audience will despise MB for his cruelty for murdering innocent children.
‘ they rise again… and push us from our stools’
Deeper meaning = MB is terrified by the appearance of Banquo ghost, which is a projection of his guilty conscience. The ‘stool’ could symbolise the throne. MB is afraid that the murders that he has committed will lose him the throne.
I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked’
Language = violent verbs. MB dies as he began the play - fighting.
Reader = creates pathos for the audience- pity because he was once a great man
Context = warnings to murders that they will be punished
‘I have almost forgot the taste of fears’
Language = alliteration. In contrast to scenes after Duncan’s murder, MB will no longer feel fear. He has no loyalty from his people and is ready to die. The natural order - and the rightful king can then be restored.
‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition’
Language = metaphor. MB’s ambition battles with his conscience. He knows he has no motive for killing a morally good king.
Context = MB knows killing a king is an act against god. The play was performed after the gunpowder plot - warning to those who might seek to kill James I
‘She should have died hereafter’
Different interpretation = MB’s response can be interpreted in two different ways; as he is being attacked by the English, he doesn’t have time to grief her death or she died too young
‘ i could not say amen… every noise appals me’
Context = after the murder, MB cannot pray, therefore he cannot ask god for forgiveness. He is also terrified that the murder will be discovered. Jacobeans believed in the DRK: the king was appointed by god. MB realises that he has dammed his soul and Murdered gods representative on earth.
‘Bellonas bridegroom… unseamed him from the nave to the chaps’
Language = metaphor. MB is compared to the husband of the goddess of war. However, his brutal violence is seen as noble and brave because he is a loyal subject fighting for his king on the battlefield.
‘Artificial sprites… shall draw him on in his confusion’
The witches decide to deceive MB to punish him.
Reader/ different interpretations = Audience may feel MB deserves to be punished or sympathy as he shouldn’t have trusted the witches.
