Themes Flashcards
Ambition
Both Macbeths fail to see how their ambition makes them cross moral lines and will lead to their downfall.
The irony of guilt
Although they commit terrible crimes, they know, on some level, that what they’ve done is wrong. Their guilt prevents them from fully enjoying the power they craved.
The relationship between gender and power
Mainly explored through Lady M but also through the witches. Women, the play implies, can be as ambitious and cruel as men, yet social constraints deny them the means to pursue these ambitions on their own.
The supernatural
Shakespeare may have added this element to shock the Jacobean audience.Explored through the witches and apparitions.Seen as against Christianity and representative of evil.
What was shocking about the first scene
It was witches
What do you call the people during King James I’s reign?
Jacobean
What would raise suspicions of witchcraft
Unconventional lifestyles
Moral Battle
Explored through Macbeth mainly
What is Macbeth’s hamartia?
His ambition
Power
Battle of power. Arguably some of the most powerful characters are female:Lady Macbeth and the Witches.And the power of God is explored throughout.
How do Lady Macbeth and the witches have power.
Both are able to manipulate the plays protagonist Macbeth.
Appearance and reality
People’s outward appearances cannot be trusted
Chaos and Disorder
When the Dicine Right is challenged with the murder of King James the balance of The Great Chain of Being is offset and everything is chaotic. Order is only restored at the end of the play when the crown is restored to Malcom.It’s reflected in weather
