Macbeth - Appearance/Reality

Question 1

‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair,’

Answer 1

Witches - Act 1:
* ‘and’ - both good and bad can exist at the same time
* no one and & nothing can be trusted
* no cetrainty of mortality
* the battles ‘lost’ & ‘won’ - two sides to every story

Question 2

‘Look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t’

Answer 2

Lady Macbeth - Act 1, Scene 5:
* dangerous divide between looking like smth vs being smth
* ‘flower’ - femininity
* ‘serpent’ - masculinity, trickery, alludes to story of Adam and Eve where serpent is symbol of devil
* appearances are moldable - no insight on someone

Question 3

‘is this a dagger i see’

Answer 3

Macbeth - Act 2, Scene 1:
* suffers exploitation of appearance - ‘dagger’ & ‘Ghose of Banquo’ shows loss of sense of reality
* evil parts of him expressed thru hallucinations - he tried to ‘disguise’ them
* true nature cant be changed, despite appearance changing
* can trust his mind anymore - biggest effect of appearnce v reality

Question 4

‘my keen knife see not the wound it makes’

Answer 4

Lady Macbeth - Act 1, Scene 5:
* implies level of deception
* ‘knife’ - symbol of lady m
* further on, ‘ blanket’ & ‘dark’ - semantic field of darkness, reliance on what we can see, criticism on society’s focus on black+white truths

Question 5

‘There’s husbandry in heaven, their candles are all out,’

Answer 5

Banquo - Act 2, Scene 1:
* darkness - symoblises distress
* pathetic fallacy, fog, sun cant get thru - atmosphere of obscurity & fear
* starless night - omen of hopelessness
compare to ‘stars hide your…’