Macbeth Flashcards
“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”
Lady Macbeth goading Macbeth into murdering King Duncan. She entices him into looking pure and seeming as though to have good intentions to fool people, but to secretly be evil and sly. The noun “serpent” also holds religious connotations, representing the devil. This shows the extent of which Lady Macbeth wanted him to be purely sinister.
“False face must hide what the false heart doth know”
The end of the first act. Macbeth is finally giving in to Lady Macbeth’s manipulation. He now is accepting and in a state of anxiety after realising he’s going to do this. Immediately, he feels guilt and feels the need he’s not acting like himself through the use of “false face” and believes he’s had a change of heart that is wrong shown through “false heart”.
“Fair is foul and foul is fair”
This use of alliteration foreshadows a corruption of justice and a change in the works of hierarchy and fairness.
“To be king/stands not within the prospect of belief/no more than to be Cawdor” act 1 scene 3 Macbeth ambition
Macbeth at the beginning has lack of ambition or just hasn’t discovered them yet. He isn’t get controlled by his ambition. Sees being king and thane of Cawdor as impossible. The ideas of both are tied together so when he becomes thane of Cawdor he realises his potential and it feeds his ambition to become king
“My thought, whose murder is yet fantastical” act 1 scene 3 Macbeth ambition
Macbeth’s blossoming ambition is shown through him theorising about murder regardless of the fact the witches never mentioned murder. Shakespeare reveals here that his initial ambition is entirely of his own creation
“Fill me from the crown to the toe-top full of direst cruelty” Lady mc ambition
Lady Macbeth commanding spirits to remove any womanly qualities of innocence or kindness in order to achieve her full potential. She thinks she needs to be co plenteous cruel to get what she wants. The idea of subverted gender roles suggests she may be the more ambitious one. Referencing her head as the “crown” amplifies her desire to be queen
“I have no spur/to prick the sides of my intent, but only/vaulting ambition which oerleaps itself/and falls. Macbeth ambition
Spur to whip a horse and makes it go faster suggests he needs a push to act on ambition (Lady Macbeth). However, this is likened to the gentle touch of a prick, suggesting it’s easy to provoke him into acting on ambition. “Vaulting ambition” portrays image repeated throughout the play of him climbing places in the great chain of being . Verb “falls” shows he ps aware of his fatal flaw and if he pushes too far he will fail
“Worthy” “great” “good” Macbeth
“Black” Macbeth “bloody butcher” “hell kite”
Juxtaposing semantic fields portrays the food and evil in Macbeth (beginning and end)
Lady Macbeth “take my milk for gall” supernatural
The fact that she believes they can take away her feminine characteristics shows how powerful the supernatural were viewed in Elizabethan society
“O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!”Macbeth guilt
Rather face a wild animal than the ghost of Banquo - and in turn, his guilt. The metaphor emphasises the guilty conscience of Macbeth and that it has power over him so much that he is imagining a ghost. His sanity struggles due to guilt.
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash thus blood clean from my hand?” Macbeth- guilt
Rhetorical question, real blood but also representing the overwhelming guilt he feels after killing king Duncan. The dramatic language tells us he’s finding it hard to cope with and therefore may struggle to keep it a secret as he has a heavy conscience
“Out damned spot, out I say!”
! Shows how desperate she is to get rid of her guilt which is protruding through her dreams (which Elizabethan audience would believe is her truth coming out from God). Guilt causes her to loose grip with reality
“Yet I do fear thy nature; it is too full o’th’milk of human kindness” Lady Macbeth- power in gender
Suggests they are likened to opposing gender roles. Mac Beth is like a woman-weak. And she is like a man- powerful and brave. Shattering expectations of stereotypes of the time. She’s ashamed of her gender and feels you have to be male to be powerful. She’s do,infant over Macbeth and has the biggest influence over him
Power/gender context
Elizabethan women were known by their husband and could only obtain power through them. Women were seen as innocent and weak, men were seen as powerful and brave.
“Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here!”Lady Macbeth gender and power
Lady Macbeth is disliked as she is a woman in power, stepping out of her ordained place as a woman and also having contact with the supernatural(Elizabethans were very wary of supernatural)
How is Lady Macbeth’s power undermined?
When she becomes mentally ill due to guilt- returns back to feminine kindness and conscience. She dies offstage, not heroically like Macbeth
“Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t” abuse of power
Lady Macbeth using emotional blackmail to goad Macbeth into murder. “Look”and “be” imperative verbs, showing dominance in command. She loads responsibility onto him to hide her dark desires but do the dirty deeds also. She definitely abuses power over him. He’s a puppet fulfilling her ambition. “Serpent”religious connotations of the devil
“To be thus is nothing but to be safely thus”abuse of power
What once he could’ve never dreamed of now doesn’t satisfy him . Power has obscured his perception on happiness. Now power is worth nothing without an heir. He feels restless and insecure even after becoming kind as he aspires for absolute power. “Our fears in Banquo” evidently, he will demolish anything in his way for power including his best friend
Scotland referred to as a “grave”and where “good men’s lives expire” “the dead mans knell rings often” corrupt power
Suggests Macbeth has killed innocent people under his rule. semantic field of death shows him taking advantage of his power
Ross claims Scotland “cannot be called our mother, but our grave” corrupt power
Juxtaposition of grave-death and mother-life, congrats Duncan’s and Macbeth’s rule. Echoes the misery under Macbeth’s rule as he only cares about his power
“All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!”
“All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!”
“All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”
Witches
Witches playing with Macbeth’s ambition and planting seeds of ambition and murder in his mind. These prophecies are key in foreshadowing events in the play and without these 3 lines nothing would have happened
“You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are”Banquo on witches
Banquo reflects views on witches at that time. Shows Banquo doesn’t think they should be likened unto humans like him but that they are creatures. He’s acknowledging their physical flaws
“Lesser than Macbeth and greater”
“Not so happy yet much happier”
“Though shalt get kings. Though thou shall be none”witches
Witches telling Banquo he’s lesser than Macbeth as he’ll never be king himself but better because his descendants will be. Foreshadowing
“I am in blood stepped so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go oer” Macbeth violence and blood
Shows continuance of violence due to extent of damage he has caused. Metaphor shows wading through blood, shows he’s starting to give up fighting his violent instincts
