Macbeth Flashcards
What is a Hamartia?
A fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a hero
E.g. Macbeths Ambition
Who is the main protagonist in the play
Macbeth
Give Four Words you could use to describe Macbeth
• Ambitious
• Violent
• Guilty
• Impressionable (Easily-Influenced)
Give Macbeth quotes that link to his Ambition
• He had ‘no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting Ambition’
• ‘We have Scotched the snake, not killed it’
• (Greed) - ‘she should have died hereafter’
Give Macbeth quotes that link to Voilence
• ‘Unseamed him from the nave to the chops’
• ‘fixed his had upon our battlements’
• (psychological): ‘I’m afraid to think what I have done’ (after killing D)
• Macduff: ‘hell-hound’
• Young Siward: ‘abhorred tryant’
‘Is this a dagger which I see before, the handle toward my hand’
Zoom in on this quote
In this scene, Macbeth is hallucinating, Shakespeare deliberately uses the noun ‘dagger’ to symbolise murder and death, which implies that Macbeths conscience is prompting him to commit regicide. In Addition to this, the fact that the handle is towards his hand proves this point further, it’s as if the the dagger wants him to take on the desicion.
This all shows Macbeths Ambition.
Give Macbeth quotes about his Guilt
• ‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand’
•’Macbeth does murder sleep’
• ‘Macbeth shall sleep no more’ (symbolism of Guilt).
Give Macbeth quotes on how he is Impressionable (easily-influenced)
• His conscience (helps) to influence him: ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me? The handle toward my hand?’
• Lady Macbeth manipulates him by questioning his masculinity, saying if he killed the kind he would be ‘so much more of a man’, as well as calling him a ‘coward’.
What compression did Shakespeare do between how much Macbeth & Banquo believe the witches prophecies.
Macbeth believes the witches as soon as the first prophecy comes true; ‘thane of cawdor’.
Whereas, Banquo believes that the witches are ‘instruments of darkness’ and that they want to ‘win us our harm’.
Shakespeare deliberately does this to contrast the two characters, deliberately highlighting how Macbeth is ambitious and easily-influenced, whereas Banquo is ‘noble’.
