Macbeth Ambition Flashcards
Ts1: the witches prediction that MB will be king touches on his hamartia: his ambition.
‘Why do i yield to that suggestion whos horrid image does unfix my hair’
‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition’
Ts2: LMB knows her husband is ambitious but too kind of a man to act upon his desires
‘Too full o’th milk of human kindness’
‘Like the poor cat i’th’adage’
‘My hands are of your colour but i shame to wear a heart so white’
‘When you durst do it, then you were a man’
Ts3: Banquo is ambitious for his son’s to be kings, but unlike macbeth, he leaves it to fate.
‘’Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires’
‘It was said…that myself should be the root and father of many kings’
‘Barren sceptre’
Ts4:achieving his ambition does not bring Macbeth contentment, and he dies knowing he’ll be forgotten
‘A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more’
Topic sentences:
Ts1- witches prediction touches upon his hamartia
Ts2- LMB knows husband has ambition but too good of a person to achieve it.
Ts3: banquo ambitious for his sons to be kings but unlike MB, he leaves it to fate.
Ts4: achieving his ambition doesnt bring contentment and he knows he will be forgotten
‘Why do i yield to that suggestion whose horrid image does unfix my hair’
L= MB’s first thought is one of murder. The adjective ‘horrid’ suggests that MB knows murdering D to achieve his ambition is morally wrong. The verb ‘unfix’ suggests that the strength of his ambition terrifies him.
‘Too full o’th milk of human kindness’
L= metaphor. LMB feminizes MB; she knows he is ambitious but too kind to act upon achieving his ambitions off the battlefield. She realises that she will need to manipulate him into murdering King Duncan.
‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition’
L= metaphor. MB’s ambition battles with his conscience. He knows he has no motive for killing a morally good king. C= DRK. MB knows killing a king is an act against God. The play was performed after the Gunpowder Plot- Shakespeare sends a warning to those who might seek to murder a morally good king, like James 1.
‘Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires’
MB, unlike Banquo, is prepared to not leave it to fate for who gets king.
L= adjectives ‘black’ and ‘deep’ suggest MB knows his murderous ambition is morally wrong but also very strong.
D/I= the stars symbolise the light of heaven- he does not want God to see what he is planning to do, but he is going to commit the murder anyway.
‘It was said… that myself should be the root and father of many kings’
L= metaphor. Banquo hopes that his descendants will become kings of Scotland. The metaphor creates an image of a family tree of kings with Banquo as its root. C= Shakespeare was deliberstely flattering James I, for whom the play was written, as he was a scottish descendant of Banquo.
‘A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more’
L= extended metaphor of people as actors and life as a stage. MB realised that, in the wider scheme of things, he is just a ‘poor player’ with a limited amount of time on Earth and once he is dead, he will be forgotten. All his ambition has been for nothing and he has damned his soul to Hell.
Ts5: MB is ambitious for his descendants to be kings
‘Barren sceptre’
Ts6: MB’s ambition leads him to commit regicide and struggle with his conscience in doing so
‘His virtues will plead like angels… against the deep damnations of his taking off’
‘Heat-oppressed brain’
‘Wake Duncan with thy knocking, I would thou could’st’
‘Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?’
Ts7: MB’s ambition to become king leads him to become a callous murderer
‘I am in blood stepped in so far, returning were as tedious as go o’er’
‘His wife, his babes’
Ts8: MB desires to conceal his ambition but LMB encourages him to become a deceitful murderer
