macbeth act 4 Flashcards
“The very firstlings of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand
Embedded and contextualised example: After discovering that Macduff has already fled to England, Macbeth vows to stop procrastinating and just do what he wants: from this point forward, “the very firstlings of [his] heart shall be / The firstlings of [his] hand”
This quotation captures Macbeth’s moral nadir in the play - the point at which he is most evil and corrupt
The noun “firstlings” evokes an image of children - his thoughts and acts are being born - which is cruelly ironic considering the thought he has had is to murder the children of Macduff
The alliterative juxtaposition of “heart” and “hand” is used to metonymically represent desires and actions - but this too is ironic since “heart” is normally associated with goodness and emotion, neither of which Macbeth seems to possess any longer
These lines show another way in which Macbeth has changed dramatically since Act 1 Scene 7 when Shakespeare used a lengthy soliloquy to stage Macbeth weighing up the reasons for and against killing Duncan - he presented Macbeth, at this point, as a man of reason, a man who could consider things carefully and rationally - that man is gone now - the Macbeth of Act 4 is a man of pure instinct and of utter selfishness
Relevant characters and themes: Macbeth, power and corruption, greed and ambition, good and evil, free will and control
All my pretty ones? / Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? / What, all my pretty chickens and their dam / At one fell swoop?
Embedded and contextualised example: When he learns of the slaughter of his family, Macduff is overcome by grief and disbelief: “All my pretty ones?” he asks. “Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop?”
This scene and this speech in particular are crucial for getting the audience to feel sympathy for Macduff and so to root for him in the final act of the play
The language is densely packed with methods
The repetition of the quantifier ‘all’ to emphasise the extent of Macduff’s loss – he has lost everything
The repeated interrogatives show his continued disbelief, his inability to accept the reality of his family’s slaughter
The short sentences help to convey how frantically his mind is working to process his grief
The final metaphor reveals the paternal affection he felt – and still feels – for his lost family: the image of chickens presents the family as fragile, innocent and harmless – as mere chickens, slaughtered by the villainous, predatory Macbeth, a kite (a bird of prey) from Hell
Relevant characters and themes: Macbeth, Macduff, masculinity and femininity, guilt and remorse, good and evil
