Macbeth Flashcards
Power - witches influence Macbeth
‘All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!’
Witches plant the idea of power into Macbeth’s mind
Power - Macbeth is disturbed by the idea of regicide
‘My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man’
‘Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires’
Regicide was one of the worst crimes to commit (Divine Right of Kings). Macbeth is meddling with power that he should seriously leave alone
Power - Macbeth’s abuse of power
‘A show of eight kings’ … ‘Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo. Down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs.’
Macbeth shows clear disgust at the eight kings, who appear to be Banquo’s heirs.
‘And though I could with barefaced power sweep him from my sight.’
Since I’m king, I could just use my raw power to destroy him (Banquo)
Ross: ‘By th’clock ‘tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp.’
Lamp = sun. Duncan’s rule and his life have both been extinguished by Macbeth, who has committed the most ‘unnatural’ act of all - upending the natural order of power
Power - Macbeth stealing power that is not rightfully his
‘From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth’
Duncan’s son Malcolm, whose birthright and throne has been stolen by Macbeth
Duncan: ‘Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter the Prince of Cumberland…’
This is all Macbeth needs to decide that Malcolm and Duncan are nothing but obstacles in his path to ultimate power
Fate - Banquo
‘Restrain in me the cursèd thoughts that nature gives way to in repose.’
‘There, if I grow, the harvest is your own.’
- if he is allowed to grow in the king’s favour, the harvest will be dedicated to Duncan
‘The instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray’s in deepst consequence.’
- evil forces sometimes say true things to tempt people into harming themselves and make awful things happen
Fate - Macbeth
‘Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane I cannot taint with fear.’
‘What’s the boy Malcolm? Was he not born of woman?’
‘If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir’
‘I am in blood, stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er’
Fate - witches
‘All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!’
‘None of woman born shall harm Macbeth’
‘Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him’
Immorality - Macbeth
‘brave Macbeth… with his brandish’d steel, which smok’d with bloody execution’
‘they smack of honour both’
moral enough to understand the reprehensibility of regicide
uses euphemisms in the soliloquy ‘th’assassination’ and ‘the deed’ suggesting that he is appalled and cannot bring himself to say the words
‘too full o’the milk of human kindness’
The witches - character quotes
‘And oftentimes to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths’
‘Infected be the air whereon they ride, and damned all those that trust them’ (Macbeth)
‘Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.’
Context - the Jacobean Era
Many Jacobean dramas are cynical and pessimistic, full of moral corruption and revenge and exaggerate the misery of the human condition.
Context - the Gunpowder Plot
A small group of angry Catholics, fed up with ongoing persecution at the hands of the Protestant monarchy, plotted to blow up King James I and his government. The most notorious conspirator, Guy Fawkes, was caught in a cellar ready to ignite 20 barrels of gunpowder. The conspirators were sentenced to death which includes hanging, drawing, and quartering.
Context - the Great Chain of Being
God designed an orderly system for both nature and humankind. It is considered a sin against God for anyone to try and alter their station in the chain has God himself chose where you belonged.
Context - the Divine Right of Kings
God selected the monarch (King Duncan) as his representative. The monarch derives their power directly from God. Thus, to kill a king is to directly challenge God.
Context - women
Women were powerless and their status was determined by their father and then their husband when they got married. The concept of gender equality was very foreign.
