Macbeth Themes

Question 1

What are the key themes in Macbeth?

Answer 1

• Violence
• Ambition and manipulation
• Guilt and madness
• Gender
• Appearance vs reality
• Supernatural

Question 2

Quotes for the theme of violence.

Answer 2

‘Blood will have blood’ - reflects the cyclical nature of violence and his understanding that one violent act leads to another
‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?’ - link to the theme of guilt and previous quote - blood becomes a symbol of the irreversible act of violence.
‘Here lay Duncan His silver skin laced with his golden blood’ - juxtaposition of the beauty of life and the brutality of death and how this is done by violence.

Question 3

Quotes related to ambition?

Answer 3

• ‘When you durst do it, then you were a man’ - emasculating Macbeth to manipulate him into doing what she wants him to do.
• contrast ‘golden round’ and ‘golden opinions’ - Macbeth went for the latter because of ambition.
• ‘no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition’ - use of imagery of a horse that jumps high, but has a big dip and fall

Question 4

Quotes related to manipulation?

Answer 4

• ‘When you durst do it, then you were a man’ - emasculating Macbeth to manipulate him into doing what she wants him to do.
• ‘My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white’ - undermining Macbeth’s masculinity by juxtaposing cowardice of Macbeth and her lack of shame to manipulate Macbeth into feeling weak and unworthy.
• ‘Be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck’ - marks the point where Macbeth takes the lead in the dynamic within their relationship. Manipulates Lady Macbeth.

Question 5

What are quotes of guilt and madness?

Answer 5

• ‘All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand’ + ‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?’ - consumption of complete guilt and madness
• ‘Glamis hath murdered sleep therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more’ - zoning out of the questions that Lady Macbeth is asking him illustrating how guilt has engulfed him + shows mental descent
• ‘O, full of scorpions is my mind’ - illustrates how his worry and insecurity over the throne is affecting his sanity + link how this unnatural imagery reflects the unnatural act of regicide from a ‘noble’ soldier who fought for the king.

Question 6

Quotes on gender?

Answer 6

• ‘But I must also feel it like a man’ - Macduff correctly identifies that men should be able to feel grief and sorrow too
• ‘When you durst do it, then you were a man’ + ‘Are you a man?’
• ‘come you spirits; unsex me here’ - illustrates Lady Macbeth’s full awareness of the social limitations as a woman, so she asks the supernatural to strip her of those limitations (wants to be strong and murderous instead of weak and feminine).

Question 7

Quotes on appearance vs reality?

Answer 7

• ‘false face must hide what the false heart doth know’ - duplicitous with his intentions: appears valiant and noble yet is deceitful and malevolent. Repetition of false -> unnatural taking of the crown
• ‘Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t’ - again highlights duplicitous intentions.
• ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’ - juxtaposition of ‘foul’ and ‘fair’ along with the fricative alliteration foreshadows the witches meeting Macbeth.

Question 8

Quotes on the supernatural?

Answer 8

• ‘come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall’ - in the four humours, excess gall was thought to create anger and aggression showing how the ‘spirits’ are abnormal and chaotic.
• ‘something wicked this way comes’ - Macbeth’s aura had diminished due to his lack of morality and him going against the divine right of kings.
• ‘Is this a dagger that I see before me’ - the supernatural have led him to envision a dagger showing how interactions with them lead to mental decline.