Macbeth Flashcards
Macbeth is influenced by the witches, echoing the witches words
“So foul and fair a day i have not seen”
Rhetorical question links to religion and evil. motif of clothing
“why do you dress me in borrow’d robes”
paranoid. supernatural fear. He knows he betraying
nature
“whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs against the use of nature?
If Macbeth kills Duncan then it will end.
“might be the be-all and the end-all-here”
Macbeth doesn’t want consequences of regicide
“th’assassination and consequences”
teach others our crimes which then return against us
“but in these cases, we still have judgement here that we but teach bloody instructions”
stain of regicide. foreshadows how they are marked
“when we have mark’d with blood those sleepy two of his own chamber, and us’d their very daggers, that they have done’t?”
insanity and hallucination
“is this a dagger which i see before me, the handle towards my hand?”
Themes of dreams and nightmares. Regicide is unnatural
“nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse the curtain’d sleep. Witchcraft celebrates”
life will be perfect when Banquo’s dead
“Who wear our health but sticky in his life, which in his death were perfect”
Rhyming couplets and influence of the witches
“it is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight, if it find heaven, must find it out tonight.”
metaphor, mind is poisoned. people aren’t happy until they are dead
“O,full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know’st that Banquo and his Fleance lives”
symbol of quilt and murder
“there’s blood upon thy face”
directed at the ghost - signs of insanity
“never shake thy gory locks at me!”
insanity and confusion shows he is paranoid
“this is more strange than such a murder is”
deception and evil
“and to our dear friend Banquo”
animal imagery. Dehumanises himself
“Russian bear, rhinoceros, th’Hyrcan tiger”
the fear of the ghost removes his masculinity
“why so, being gone, i am a man again.”
Rhyming couplets links to the witches and supernatural
“strange things i have in head that will to hand, which must be acted ere they may be scann’d”
repetition of imperative. Macbeth is trying to control them
“howe’er you come to know it, answer me. Even till destruction sickens: answer me”
witches corrupt all around them. irony shows his lack of control
“infected be the air whereon they ride, and damn’d all those that trust them”
Macbeth decides to have Macduffs family killed
“his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line”
Macbeth is confident he’s invinsable
“Till Birnam Wood removes to Dunsinane, i cannot taint with fear”
mental illness and nature imagery
“a rooted sorrow, troubles of the brain”
Rhyming couplets and influence of witches
“i will not be afraid of death and bane, till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane”
empathises his power
“i have almost forgot the taste of fears”
metaphor shows the fidgety of life
“out, out, brief candle, life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage”
life has become meaningless without his life
“told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing”
empathises Macbeth’s cruelty and afraidness
“if thou speak’st false upon the next tree shall thou hang alive”
tragic realisation witches lied to them
“fear not, till Birnam Wood comes toward Dunsinane”
