metalanguage Flashcards
“Out, out brief candle”
Metaphor: Compares the span to the life of a candle. Macbeth’s metaphor refers to Lady Macbeth’s death, that after a brief time of shining on his own life, has gone out.
“The night is long that never finds the day.”
Metaphor: Dawn (the symbol of good) will soon break to displace night (the symbol of evil)
“All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!”
Dramatic irony: Macbeth does not know King Duncan has already made him the Thane of Cawdor. He trusts the witches and believes he is able to fulfil their prophecies
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?”
Biblical allusion to Neptune, the Roman god of the sea
“Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters.”
Simile: Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that his facial expressions betray his inner thoughts, likening him to a book that others can easily read
“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day”
Repetition: Shakespeare shows us Macbeth has come to the conclusion that one “To-morrow” is no more significant that the next - nothing new will happen, nothing matters and that existence is meaningless.
Its a mere reflection from Macbeth, questioning the worth of his actions, questioning the tediousness of life
“Duncan’s horses… Turned wild in nature… [and] ate each other.”
Macabre, Gruesome imagery can be seen as a symbol for the deteriorating state of patriarchy within the kingdom as the king’s horses, associated with prestige and loyalty - become cannibalistic in their nature
“Is he dispatch’d?”
Euphemism: Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s way of speaking of murder. “dispatch”
“from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty”, making “thick [her] blood” as she calls for the “spirits” to “unsex” her and fulfil these unnatural transgressive desires
Soliloquy: Exposes her unnatural feminine desires to transgress into a liminal, dehumanise state by the evil supernatural powers of the spirit world
Shakespeare’s characterisation of the ‘Old man’
- Similar to a chorus of the Aristotelian tragedy
Symbolic representation of common man as a whole; and thus, proving to the audience that the effect of Macbeth’s murderous crime has inflicted consequences on everyone - not just those of a higher social status behind the castle walls.
“sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care”
motif of guiltless “sleep” to form a reminder of that which Macbeth must consequently be deprived of as punishment for his sins. Exposes that sleep may only be granted to those whom remain innocent
“Macbeth shall sleep no more.”
motif that sleep becomes a forbidden comfort for many of the characters burdened with a restlessly guilty mind
Banquo’s ghost
Dramatic irony: When Macbeth speaks to Banquo’s ghost, and the guest consider him a disturbed man and claim his needs to be left alone. The characters are not aware, as much as the audience, that Banquo’s ghost in their midst
acts as an instrument of justice and punishment.
It is an objectification of externalization of the subjective state of Macbeth. It is a creation of his guilt, obsessed imagination and as Lady Macbeth reminds him very much like the dagger he sees just before the murder of Duncan.
“A little water clears us of this deed.”
Biblical allusion to Pontius Pilate publicly washing his hands to absolve himself of any guilt for Christ’s crucifixion
“Look like th’ innocent flower,
But be the serpent under ’t.”
Simile: Lady Macbeth exhorts her husband to conceal his murderous crime with innocent behaviour, similar to a snake lurking beneath a harmless flower
“Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care.”
symbolises a sleep like death
“fair is foul, and foul is fair”
Paradox: To contrast two juxtaposing words, such as “fair” and “foul”, could be interpreted as a transgressive paradox which blurs the boundaries between the two words
A tool to foreshadow how all that initially held a “fair” nature will progressively become “foul” due to greed and hunger for power
“tis day…dark night [still] strangles the travelling lamp…emtomb[ing]…living light.”
Shakespeare presents that in the literal sense the rare occurrence of an eclipse has removed any form of radiating sunlight, casting a shadow over the entire “face of earth”. However, a more analytical reading of Shakespeare’s use of metaphor would suggest that Shakespeare is illustrating the gruesome consequences of Macbeth’s transgressive abuse of the boundaries of life and death, which has caused severe disruption to the natural cycle of day and night.
“Fair is foul and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
Repetition of the “f” consonance (alliteration) and the repetition of fair and foul. Enhances the duplicity of the sentence but at the same time demonstrates how in Macbeth’s world, these two things go hand in hand. Witches symbolize the reversal of the moral order of the play. Evil is good to them and so it becomes for Macbeth.
“And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death”
Shakespeare personifies “yesterdays”, saying that every day that passes leads people closer to death. Using figurative language to express a literal truth.
Macbeth’s focus is so narrow that he can only see the passing of time as something leading to death. In Macbeth’s despairing worldview, there is no growth, only an inexorable march to the grave
“What thou wouldst highly/ That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false/ And yet wouldst wrongly win.”
The repetition of the word ‘wouldst’ in these lines portray Lady Macbeth’s quick thoughts as she starts to formulate a plan for the murder of Duncan and enhances the doubt she feels for her husband’s emotional ability to undertake the task – yet she knows that he would like very much to be king
“dark night strangl[ing] the travelling lamp” or even “entomb[ing]” the earth’s light. Shakespeare’s use of lexis within these extracts, such as “strangles…[and] entombs”
Personification: Creates associations with murder, violence and death, which could create the sense that purity, innocence and light has become a suffering victim to the transgressive acts of Macbeth; which later foreshadows the effects Macbeth’s tyrannical reign inflicts on Scotland as a whole
“stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires”
motif : suggest that Macbeth has become unnatural and corrupted, as his cravings for darkness to hide his true intentions appears to have been answered by unnatural or even supernatural forces - exposing that Macbeth is no longer in mental conflict between good and evil anymore, he is perfectly in tune now with the dark forces of the supernatural.
“something wicked this way comes”
Foreshadow: If the witches are as hideous and evil as Shakespeare arguably presents them, what does it say about Macbeth that they consider him ‘wicked’?
“You should be women, / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so.”
Juxtaposition: in terms of appearance, the witches seem to be a blur between male and female. They “should” be women, yet aren’t - not quite. You could possibly link this to Lady Macbeth’s “unsex me here” speech - is Lady Macbeth trying to emulate the androgynous nature of the witches? By removing her femininity, which constrains her, is she becoming more witch-like? The fact that the witches should be female but aren’t doesn’t only highlight the blurring of boundaries, it also takes what is usually the womanly, protective and maternal role and violate it horribly, just as Lady Macbeth does when she goes on about dashing a baby’s brains out.
‘O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!’
Animal imagery: Macbeth uses a metaphor to explain that his guilty conscience is attacking and stinging him.
‘It will have blood they say: blood will have blood.’
blood symbolism: Macbeth recalls an old saying that blood shed through violence seeks more blood in revenge, creating a cycle of bloodshed; he feels trapped in the inevitability of this violence.
“Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down; / Though castles topple on their warders’ heads; / Though palaces and pyramids do slope…”
Analepsis: Makes his language sound like something of an incantation.
This suggests that the witches have an influence on Macbeth throughout the entire play, and arguably strengthens the interpretation that they are controlling him.
“the poor wren / (The most diminutive of birds)”
This bird imagery roots Lady Macduff in the natural world and also presents her as a weak, passive character. She also calls her son “Poor bird!” The mother/son relationship here is obvious, visual and loving. Yet Lady Macbeth’s role as a mother comes in one grotesque line, where she tells Macbeth she would dash her newborn son’s brains out for his love.
“So foul and fair a day I have not seen.”
echoing of this line enforces the interpretation that the witches are figments of Macbeth’s imagination or are manifestations of his inner conflict. Alternatively, you could argue that the link between Macbeth and the witches blurs a line between “worthy Macbeth” and the ‘evil’ witches - perhaps suggesting that there is a darker side to the character who has been set up as a valiant hero.
“I am steeped in blood so far [that] to go back were as tedious as to go o’er”
Their prophecies propel Macbeth in his bloody journey,
whereas the hidden truths, when finally revealed, show that Macbeth was but a puppet of malign forces
“I have liv’d long enough, my way of life is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf”
Metaphor: suggest that death is soon, like the decaying autumnal leaves that depart at the end of the year, the death of the summer, Macbeth is nearing his death, completely disenchanted with life due to the death of Lady Macbeth his “dearest partner of greatness”.
“Each new morn / New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows / Strike heaven on the face,”
Dramatic irony: Whilst describing the suffering country under Macbeth’s reign, he does not realize that he too had become a widower.
“I would, while it was smiling on my face / have dash’d the brains out”
Lady Macbeth
