Themes Flashcards
1
Q
Explain the Theme of natural order and kingship in Macbeth.
A
- Contemporary beliefs in the Great Chain of Being and the Divine Right of Kings defined the hierarchical structure of Jacobean society and its relationship with the wider world.
- Macbeth’s regicidal act and usurpation of the throne breaks this natural order, and so the consequences he faces constitute a warning to the audience.
- Nature itself becomes disordered as a result of Duncan’s murder, mirroring and symbolising the unnatural act of regicidal treason.
2
Q
Quotes: Natural Order and Kingship - Act 1
A
- The merciless Macdonwald - / Worthy to be a rebel, for to that / The multiplying villanies of nature / Do swarm upon him. (Sergeant, 1:2)
- I have begun to plant thee, and will labour / To make thee full of growing. (Duncan to Macbeth and Banquo, 1:4)
- There if I grow, / The harvest is your own. (Banquo to Duncan, 1:4)
- This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air / Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself (Duncan, 1:6)
- The temple-haunting martlet, does approve. (Banquo, 1:6)
3
Q
Quotes: Natural Order and Kingship - Act 2, Scene 1 & 2
A
- Nature seems dead. (Macbeth, 2:1)
- There’s husbandry in heaven, / Their candles are all out. (Banquo, 2:1)
- Hark, peace; it was the owl that shrieked, / The fatal bellman. (Lady Macbeth, 2:2)
4
Q
Quotes: Natural Order and Kingship - Act 2, Scene 3
A
- The night has been unruly: where we lay / Ow chimneys were blown down, as they say, / Lamentings heard i t’air, strange screams. (Lennox, 2:3)
- The obscure bird / Clamour’d the livelong night. Some say, the earth / Was feverous and did shake. (Lennox, 2:3)
- Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! (Macduff, 2:3)
- His gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature (Macbeth, 2:3)
5
Q
Quotes: Natural Order and Kingship - Act 2, Scene 4
A
- By th’clock tis day, / And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. (Ross, 2:4)
- On Tuesday last / A falcon towering in her pride of place / Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed. (O man, 2:4)
- Duncan’s horses… Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls; flung out / Contending gainst obedience. (Ross, 2:4)
6
Q
Quotes: Natural Order and Kingship - Act 3
A
- Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown. (Macbeth, 3:1)
7
Q
Quotes: Natural Order and Kingship - Act 4
A
- This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, / Was once thought honest. (Macduff, 4:3)
8
Q
Explain the theme of Violence in Macbeth
A
- Macbeth’s violent streak is established from the start of the play: even when loyal to Duncan, he is ‘valour’s minion’ - easily enslaved to some other purpose, and capable of Biblically-epic acts of violence.
- Following the murder of Duncan, this ruthlessness manifests itself in Macbeth’s resolution to assert his kingship through tyrannical violence.
9
Q
Quotes: Violence - Act 1
A
- Bellona’s bridegroom, lapped in proof. (Ross, 1:2)
- Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds / Or memorise another Golgotha. (Captain, 1:2)
- When in swinish sleep / their drenched natures lie as in death, / What cannot you and I perform upon th’unguarded Duncan? (Lady Mac, 1:7)
10
Q
Quotes: Violence - Act 2
A
- Where we are / There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near in blood, / The nearer bloody. (Donalbain, 2:4)
11
Q
Quotes: Violence - Act 5
A
- I’ll fight, till from my bones the flesh be hacked. (Macbeth, 5:3)
- Why should I play the Roman fool, and die / On mine own sword? (Macbeth, 5:8)
12
Q
Explain the theme of Fate and the Supernatiral in Macbeth.
A
- Already torn by the conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the fabric of Jacobean religious belief was further rent by debate about predestination: was the ultimate fate of a person’s soul - heaven or to hell.
- This anxiety is reflected by the fluctuations in Macbeth’s confidence in the prophecies.
- Given the importance of the Witches, and contemporary attitudes towards them, it is interesting that they face no punishment at the end of the play.
13
Q
Quotes: Fate and The Supernatural - Act 1
A
- This supernatural soliciting / Cannot be ill; cannot be good. (Macbeth, 1:3)
- They have more in them than mortal knowledge. [Mac on witches, 1:4]
- Fate and metaphysical aid doth seem / To have thee crowned withal. (Lady Macbeth, 1:5)
- But in these cases, / We still have judgement here. (Macbeth, 1:7)
14
Q
Quotes: Fate and The Supernatural - Act 5
A
- What’s the boy Malcolm? / Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know / All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus. (Macbeth, 5:2)
- [I] begin / to doubt the equivocation of the fiend. (Macbeth, 5:5)
- Be these juggling fiends no more believed. (Macbeth, 5:7)
15
Q
Explain the theme of Ambition in Macbeth.
A
- Ambition is the quality that makes Macbeth (and Lady Macbeth) corruptible - it constitutes the protagonist’s hamartia: a fatal flaw that leads to their ultimate downfall.
- That Macbeth is conscious of this weakness - and seems to fight against it
- This lends his descent into tyranny considerable pathos: it allows the audience to sustain an empathetic connection with him despite his evil actions.
