MACBETH Sentences to Include Flashcards
This is a play of…
paradoxes and strange juxtapositions
Only four years before this play, Shakespeare used the musical metaphor ‘untune that string and hark what discord follows’ in his play Troilus and Cressida. The audience of Macbeth…
would have understood that if the Great Chain of Being is broken or interrupted, chaos follows.
Macbeth’s narrative trajectory is that of an Aristotelian Tragic hero. He has…
power and status, and through his hamartia, the joint flaws of his susceptibility to do evil, he declines to death and despair.
Banquo’s appearance as a ghost and Macbeth’s irrational outburst is a structural turning point in the play as…
it is the first time that his madness is public. Lady Macbeth’s ability to keep Macbeth contained begins to slip from this point until she sadly fades from the action of the play.
Arguably, the audience feels some pathos as Macbeth…
realises that his scheme has lost him everything and he recognises ‘life is but a walking shadow’.
Shakespeare explores the way in which ambition and betrayal…
corrupt people and whole countries in this play.
It could be argued that Shakespeare wants to present the idea that regicide…
leads to madness, paranoia and death, to please King James I, who we know would’ve watched this play.
Lady Macbeth tries to repress and deny her guilt. She may regret her command of…
the spirits to ‘stop up the access and passage to remorse.’ The metaphor ‘sleek o’er your rugged looks’ shows how she thinks that appearances will fool others. This arguably leads to her madness.
