Macbeth Themes Flashcards
What are the three main themes of Macbeth?
- Ambition and Power
- Supernatural
- Appearances and Reality
How is ambition an power shown in the play?
- The fatal flaw
- leadership
- greed
How does the fatal flaw show ambition and power?
In a tragic play, the fatal flaw refers to the basic mistake in the central character’s personality which drives their actions. Macbeth is basically a good man who goes wrong. He is driven by a need for power which eventually sets him on a path to his own destruction. His wife shares this fatal flaw with him.
Analyse:
‘I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on th’other – / [Enter Lady Macbeth] / How now? What news?’ (Act 1 Scene 7)
Macbeth has been thinking about whether or not he should murder Duncan. He reaches the conclusion that the only thing that is motivating him (his ‘spur’) is ambition which he compares to a horse leaping over an obstacle (‘vaulting ambition’). As for the horse and rider, what is on the other side of the obstacle is unknown - it could, of course, be disaster. However, before Macbeth can complete the thought and turn away from the crime, he is interrupted by Lady Macbeth entering. Had she not appeared at this point, the outcome might have been different.
How does leadership show ambition and power?
In Macbeth, Shakespeare shows us three very different leaders. Duncan is not a good king as although he is kind and generous, he is weak. Macbeth is strong but becomes a bullying dictator. Malcolm seems to strike a healthy balance and combines the good qualities of both men.
Analyse:
The king-becoming graces - / As justice, verity, temp’rance, stableness, / Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, / Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude - / I have no relish of them, but abound / In the division of each several crime, / Acting it many ways. (Act 4 Scene 3)
Malcolm lists the qualities of a good king or leader when he is testing Macduff’s loyalty. As part of the test Malcolm pretends that he has none of these qualities either. It is clear is that Macbeth does not have any of these virtues; if anything he displays the absolute opposites. Even his courage, clearly reported at the start of the play, has deserted him as he terrorises and murders those around him.
How does greed show ambition and power?
As part of Macbeth’s ambition he becomes greedy and selfish. He cannot accept that Banquo’s descendants will become kings after him and sets out to alter the prediction by having Banquo and Fleance murdered. He is even unprepared to share power with his wife as he puts her to one side, making secretive decisions and apparently not even caring when she dies.
Analyse:
For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind; / For them, the gracious Duncan have I murdered, / Put rancours in the vessel of my peace, / Only for them, and mine eternal jewel / Given to the common enemy of man, / To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings. / Rather than so, come Fate into the list, / And champion me to th’utterance. (Act 3 Scene 1)
As Macbeth completely believes the Witches’ predictions he must also believe that Banquo’s descendants will inherit the throne after him (‘the seed of Banquo kings’). He thinks that everything he has done has ultimately been for their benefit (‘For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind’); he has even put his soul (‘mine eternal jewel’) in danger. His greed means that he wishes to keep power for himself and his own family. So he concludes that the only way forward is to try to alter the prediction by murdering Banquo and Fleance.
How is evil and supernatural shown in the play?
- wicked thoughts and actions
- the activities of the Witches
- the disruption of nature
How is wicked thoughts and action show evil and supernatural in the play?
The Witches’ predictions encourage Macbeth to think wicked thoughts and carry out evil deeds. As well as murder, Macbeth is also guilty of lying, deception, cowardice, seeking out further contact with evil forces, behaving brutally with both physical and verbal violence and showing a lack of love and concern for others.
Analyse:
Present fears / Are less than horrible imaginings. / My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, / Shakes so my single state of man that function / Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is, / But what is not. (Act 1 Scene 3)
Before the first murder of the play takes place there is a slow build up as Macbeth wrestles with his conscience. The wicked thoughts he has are almost worse than the actual deeds (‘Present fears / Are less than horrible imaginings’). He becomes more concerned with what might happen rather than reality (‘nothing is, but what is not’) and uses evil methods to achieve his desires. Once Duncan’s murder has taken place, a line has been crossed and further acts of wickedness keep on coming.
How does the activities of the witches show evil and supernatural in the play?
The Witches’ appearance at the start of the play in the middle of a thunderstorm (apparently of their own creation) sets the tone for what is to follow. As well as predicting the future, controlling the weather and casting evil spells, they also discuss the wicked acts they carry out against ordinary men and women. In a couple of scenes they interact with Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft.
Analyse:
Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’th’Tiger: / But in a sieve I’ll thither sail, / And like a rat without a tail, / I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do…….. I’ll drain him dry as hay: / Sleep shall neither night nor day / Hang upon his penthouse lid; / He shall live a man forbid. / Weary sennights nine times nine, / Shall he dwindle, peak and pine. (Act 1 Scene 3
One of the Witches describes how a sailor’s wife has insulted her and how she plans to take her revenge (‘I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do’). She plans to follow his ship (The Tiger) and drain the life out of him by not allowing him to sleep. She is going to keep this up for 567 days (‘sennights nine times nine’ or 7 × 9 × 9). As both Macbeth and, particularly, his wife discover, sleep deprivation is an awful punishment.
How does the disruption of nature show evil and supernatural?
The opening of the play takes place in the middle of a thunderstorm. A further storm rages on the night of Duncan’s murder and many highly unnatural occurrences are reported in Act 2 Scene 4. In the final scenes of the play, it seems that the trees have come to life as Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane and Macbeth is defeated by Macduff who was not naturally born.
Analyse:
The night has been unruly: where we lay, / Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, / Lamentings heard i’th’air, strange screams of death / And prophesying with accents terrible / Of dire combustion and confused events, New hatched to th’woeful time. The obscure bird / Clamoured the livelong night. Some say, the Earth / Was feverous and did shake. (Act 2 Scene 3)
Moments before Macduff announces the discovery of Duncan’s dead body, Lennox talks about events that were occurring while the murder was taking place. These include strong winds, strange ghostly cries in the night, an owl screeching (thought to be a bad omen) and even an earthquake. The natural world has been disturbed and disrupted following the unnatural killing of a king.
