MacBeth Lit Flashcards
MB
First impressions ‘brave macbeth’-distinguish by rank or title
Aristocracy-highest class
‘What he hath lost, noble macbeth have won’
MB is set up as a good soldier who is loyal to the king- semantic field of winning and losing-fortune and fate, the supernatural will intermingle with that
‘So foul and fair a day i have not seen’ clear paradox, echoes the witches
He is our tragic hero-‘Noble MB’ who is flawed by ambition and against the natural order , fated to doom
He is driven by the prophecies
He begins as a protagonist and ends as a antagonist
ARISTOTLE once said ‘a man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall’=Duncan calls him ‘noble’ ‘brave’ and ‘great’
Hamartia(fatal flaw) tragic flow , his pride (hubris) leads to ambition and leads to his downfall
LM insults his manhood
Peripeteia:after killing Duncan arranged murders to kill fleance and Banquo
‘I am blood steppd so far that should i wade no more returning…’
Anagorisis- he is aware of LM death
Ambition
Ambition motivates MB to commit terrible deeds, he changes from a ‘valiant’ soldier to a ‘dead butcher’
He shows that his ambition is dangerous, it can quickly spiral out of control, MB considers morality of killing Duncan for a long time but doesn’t hesitate for Banquo.
Once MB starts killing, he has to kill more and more to make his postion secure
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical , shakes so my single state of man,that function is smotherd in surmise and nothing is but what is not
MB is quick to jump to murder, the fact that this first thought was killing the king is suspicious or murderous ambition ‘shakes’ verb mean to fall, something unsteady and could foreshadow the witches DECEPTION and the INEVITABILITY downfall of MB, metaphor ‘smootherd in surmise’ means to think, the witches dont mention about killing Duncan, he does it himself, ‘fantastical’ beyond realism
Stars hide your fire, let not light see my black and deep desires
Personification of the stars, sibilance of ‘S’ emphasises the heinous nature of regicide, ‘deep’ suggests his ambition and ‘black’ suggests he has a conscience,
Audience believed that ‘stars controlled fate’, he’s asking fate to help him, made him more malevolent-juxtaposition of ‘fall’ or ‘o’rleap’ language reflects the future and fate, and his inevitable death/downfall
‘Overleap’ means to over reach by leaping too far, as our tragic hero he is punished for that
Why do i yield to that suggestion whose horrid image does unfix my hair and make my reared heart knock at my ribs, agains the use of nature
MB is questioning himself if he should go against nature by killing the king-human nature is being questioned by the act of murder also he would go against natural order by forcing fate
MB is asking the prophecies if they are good, why does he find himself contemplating killing Duncan, its un natural thing to do, this quote pivotally shows us that MB is already contemplating regicide to gain the crown
He refers to king Duncan as a ‘horrid image’ and then goes further ‘unfix my hair’ shows that he is physically changing
‘Makes seated heart knock out my ribs’ thought that murder make him feel nervous, anxious, worried
Adjective ‘horrid’ naturally something with horror, foreshadows that the witches are corrupting MB morality, they are mentally corrupting, they are detrimental affect on him-juxtaposition of ‘seated’ and ‘knock’ shows the physical beginnings of distress and guilt, the phrase ‘against the use of nature’ hints the immorality of regicide as defying the great chain of being
We will proceed no further in this business
False face must hide what the false heart doth know
Juxtaposition ‘hide’ and ‘know’ show appearance and reality are perminent
Is this a dagger i see before me
He starts talking about hallucination of the dagger-directly to the weapon as if two personalities are at conflict, conscious and sub conscious
Literally- to grab alternatively meaning is to become tense with fright, how ambition of flaw is taking hold of MB and unable to suppress these desires, its as if hes asking for permission-addressing the witches
Caesura ‘the handle towards my hands’, hesitation, how he’s not overly confident about the act of regicide
‘Come’ imperative
Macbeth does murder sleep
Literally references murdering Duncan, contrast with our brave warrior from the opening scenes and sets MB up to be a coward, if he wont be able to sleep it will end up with insanity
According to the psychologists guilty would link to fear of exposure and punishment
