Supernatural Flashcards
Topic sentence 1
The witches are the catalysts for the action, and they exploit Macbeth’s hamartia – his ambition.
‘fair is foul and foul is fair’
‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, only vaulting ambition’
‘stars hide your fires, let no light see my black and deep desires’
‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’
L = paradox/chiasmus. Predict MB king, good as leads to murder, which evil, to achieve ambition. Shows equivocation ( use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth) of witches.
inverses moral order
C = illegal meetings
S = chant in catalectic trochaic tetrameter- associate with chants and spells
R = shock/thrill
‘I have no spur to prick the sides of intention, but my vaulting ambition’
After hearing witches
L = metaphor. MB’s ambition battles with his conscience. He knows he has no motive for killing a morally good king.
C = DRK. Act against God.
GPP -warning to those who might seek to murder a morally good king, like James 1.
‘Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires’
L = adjectives ‘black’ and ‘deep’ suggest MB knows his murderous ambition is morally wrong but also very strong.
The stars symbolize the light of heaven – he does not want God to see what he is planning to do, but he is going to commit the murder anyway. Damn soul
Topic sentence 2
Banquo is less trusting of the witches and cautions Macbeth that they might have evil intentions.
‘instruments of darkness’
‘if’
‘instruments of darkness’
L = metaphor. B realise they could be evil agents of devil and tempt MB into sinning C = reflects James 1’s belief in witches as evil agents, described in his book ‘Daemonologie’. Shakespeare flatters his patron the king by including a subject in which he was interested. Also believed he was a descendant of B
‘if’
L = condition. B more skeptical whereas MB more credulous. B is wise like King James I
Topic sentence 3
The supernatural also occurs in the appearance of Banquo’s ghost.
‘thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold’
‘they rise again and push us from our stools’
‘thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold’
D = the ghost is not just supernatural, it is a projection of his guilty conscience after murdering Banquo. R = ghost terrifies audience; also a warning of how murderers will be punished – dead will come back to haunt them. C = Gunpowder Plot.
‘they rise again…and push us from our stools’
L = the stools symbolise the throne – MB ordered B’s death to protect throne but still threatens. Banquo’s ghost is a projection of Macbeth’s guilty conscience that increases his paranoia.
Topic sentence 4
Later in the play, the witches recognise Macbeth’s evil, and seek to deceive him.
‘by the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this was comes’
‘artificial sprites…shall draw him on in his confusion’
‘by the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes’
L= rhyming couplet. The know MB has become as evil as they are. C = It was believed witches could sense the approach of evil. C = James I book ,"Demonologie" DC= chants in catalectic trochaic tetrameter- associated with chants and spells
‘artificial sprites… shall draw him on in his confusion’
The witches decide to deceive Macbeth about his future to punish him.
R/I = Audience may feel MB deserves punishment for his evil or feel sympathy as he shouldn’t have trusted the witches.
C = AC Bradley tragic hero
Topic sentence 5
At the end of the play, Macbeth realises he has been deceived, and the witches have led him to damn his soul.
‘juggling fiends
‘juggling fiends’
L = metaphor. MB realises he has been deceived by the witches as agents fo the devil and that he has damned his soul to Hell for murdering a king. C = DRK
