The supernatural Flashcards
Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Who? The witches
When? Start of the play
What? It shows that everything considered good is in fact bad, and what is considered bad is actually good.
that look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ Earth and yet are on ‘t
Who? Banquo
When? Start of the play
What? Describes the unusual and strange occurrence of the supernatural, and helps to create an unsettling atmosphere for the play.
Come you spirits and tend on mortal thoughts
Who? Lady Macbeth
When? Act 1, Scene 5
What? She is calling upon the supernatural for their help
double, double toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble
Who? The witches
When? At the start of the play
What? This is the spell used to control Macbeth, and ultimately bring about his ruin
Extra: The rhyming pattern of this breaks the typical pattern of normal speech dialect, creates a haunting atmosphere.
My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still
Who? Macduff
When? Act 5, Scene 7
What? Just as Macbeth is haunted by evil spirits, Macduff is haunted by the ghosts of his murdered family
So fair and foul a day I have not seen.
Who? Macbeth
When? At the beginning of the play
What? Here Macbeth is paraphrasing the open words of the witches. It is up to individual interpretation to identify whether his paraphrasing is indicative of Macbeth already being controlled by the witches, or that he is already slightly evil.
Come here you spirits…Unsex me
Who? Lady Macbeth
What? She is calling on the spirits to take away her feminine traits, and replace them with masculine cruelty. She wishes to subvert gender norms, which would have felt deeply unsettling for Jacobean audiences.
The term ‘Come’ is an imperative verb, which indicates her commanding personality.
