Violence Flashcards
Violence
TS1 – At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is presented as a violent but brave warrior.
TS2 – Lady Macbeth calls upon evil spirits to enable her to become a violent murderess.
TS3 – Macbeth realises that his violent act must lead to more violence.
TS4 – At the end of the play, Macbeth has resigned himself to a violent death and is denounced as a violent “butcher’.
[ Captain / Ross ]
‘Bellona’s bridegroom … unseamed him from the nave to the chaps’
L- Metaphor
Macbeth is compared to the husband of the Goddess of War. However, his brutal violence is seen as noble and brave because he is a loyal subject fighting for his king on the battlefield.
[ Lady Macbeth ]
‘come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers’
C - Lady Macbeth subverts Jacobean ideals of women as gentle and maternal.
R - Shocking to both Jacobean and modern audiences.
L - Alliteration
It emphasizes Lady Macbeth’s desire to replace her feminine, nurturing qualities with violent, murderous ones. She even tells Macbeth if she had a baby she would rather smash its brains than not go ahead with the murder.
[ Macbeth ]
‘I am in blood stepped in so far … returning were as tedious as go o’er’
L - Metaphor of a river of blood
Macbeth realises he cannot undo the murders he has committed, so he may as well continue to destroy his enemies and maintain his position on the throne.
[ Macbeth ]
‘give to the edge of the sword his wife, his babes’
R - The audience despise Macbeth for murdering innocents who do not threaten him.
L - Emotive language
Macbeth punishes Macduff’s family because Macduff has fled to England to raise an army with Malcolm.
[ Malcolm ]
‘our country sinks beneath the yoke … it weeps, it bleeds’
R - Audience realise Macbeth must be stopped as his reign is violently destroying the whole country.
L - Personification
Scotland is represented as a suffering slave or beast of burden under Macbeth’s violent dictatorship. People are regularly dying as Macbeth becomes more paranoid.
[ Macbeth ]
‘I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked’
C - Message of warning – violent murderers will be punished. (Gunpowder plot)
R - Creates pathos for the audience – pity as Macbeth was once a great man but catharsis – relief as we know he must die.
L - Violent verbs
Macbeth dies as he began the play – fighting.
