top 10 macbeth quotes Flashcards
macbeth - ‘I have no spur to prick the side of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other’
saying he has in intentions but they aren’t going to be enough, his intent is going to vault but when lands it’s going to fall, overreaching itself, jump is too big, only think helping him control the jump is spurs which are just his ambition.
to wear spurs it because there is a rider, so he’s saying he isn’t in control but instead the rider is, Lady Macbeth
supernatural - met the witches but still not enough to kill Duncan, still thinks it’s going to fail, his ambition is not enough, soliloquy (always tell truth), ambition is not his hermartia it’s his impulse. Lady Macbeth is his hermartia - his hermartia is the love in his life for his wife.
witches - ‘fair is foul and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air’
supernatural - witches describe weather, hit their power, introduces appearance and reality
cannot trust, links to Duncan, cannot read a man’s intentions from their face, first thane of Cawdor is a traitor, then appoints another thane of Cawdor Macbeth who kills him, links to fate suggesting Duncan’s murder is inevitable or Macbeth could have avoided his fate but he doesn’t wait, rushes his fate, opposite of greek tragedy
frigative - bear your teeth, aggressive, violence of witches desires, are they sinister or betrayal is much more childish - TROCHAIC TETRAMETER - tightrope between sinister and childish
witches are not enough to kill Duncan - only suggest the idea of being king, macbeth is completely to blame cannot blame the witches
Lady Macbeth - ‘out damned spot.. hell is murky. Fie my lord fie! A solider and a feard? What need fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?
out damned spot - realises she’s going to hell what’s to get rid of it - spot = blood which is her guilt - christian guilt
hell is murky - filthy air like the witches - why she carries a light with her - symbolises Christianity
she’s the brains of the operation - who cares if they find out - she thinks they will get away with the regicide as they cannot be be controlled if they do find out - she is wrong as soon as they find out, they turn on Macbeth - they think when he’s talking to banquo, they think he’s talking to Duncan as they don’t know he’s dead
shows how powerful lady Macbeth is in their marriage - logical or her argument which she regrets, she thinks the most persuasive argument is she thought she could get away with it, she doesn’t realise how vulnerable she would be didn’t understand what would happen to her mind
her ambition has been too great for her, asked for supernatural help - ‘unsex me here’
Lady Macbeth - ‘come you spirits that tend on my mortal thoughts, unsex me here. And fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty!’
rejection of patriarchy, in order to succeed in jackobean society, you have to be a man, who’s dearest quality is their cruelty - suggest what king James should be like, gunpowder plot but Shakespeare thinks it’s not an example of kingship, cruelty and kingship cannot coincide, one message of the play - macbeth fails because he is a cruel ruler, not killing Duncan.
Women are excluded from power only get power from relationships with men (fathers and husbands), encourages Lady Macbeth to try to manipulate Macbeth - she acts evil but shakespeare points out the way society treats women, women have to act in unfeminie ways if they are to achieve power - witches look ugly because what sort of women would gain power looking like them and have been excluded from jackobean society
LM just lost her child, failed mother and wife, hasn’t provided heir to Macbeth, patriarchal society - part of reason why she seeks power through murder - wants to become queen talks about ‘crown’ using head and actual crown
Lady Macbeth - ‘while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums and dash’d the brains out had I sworn to have done so’
intentionally horrific
- abandoned all sense of femininity and patriarchal roles
- how much her babies death has effected her - led to extreme level of violence, describing about a baby but actually wants Macbeth to do to Duncan - revenge killing due to taking the baby way - recent grief stricken mother
King is gods representative on earth - divine right of kings - she attacks the king and wants Duncan killed
‘dash’d the brains out had I sworn to have done so’ - manipulates husband as promise to him could never be broken, Constance of B’s and D’s - aggressive
only role is to reproduce however she can’t do this - sympathy for women in jackobean patriarchal society
