Macbeth - Themes

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  • Macbeth - Themes
    • Ambition
      • Motivates Macbeth to commit murders
        • "Valiant" soldier to "dead butcher"
      • Dangerous trait as can spiral out of control
        • Macbeth contemplates murdering Duncan but doesn't question murdering Banquo
      • Makes Macbeth ruthless and selfish
        • Once he starts killing, he can't stop as he tries to secure position
        • Lady Macbeth sees difference between being ambitious and acting on ambition
      • LM and M eventually destroyed by ambition
        • Play is a warning against immoral ambition
      • Macbeth's biggest weakness or "fatal flaw"
        • Actions show how ambition makes him act against morals
        • Macbeth knows ambition often "o'erleaps itself / And falls" - foreshadows downfall
      • Good and bad
        • positive - Macduff and Malcolm for country (not selfish)
          • Banquo for sons (doesn't act on prophecies
    • Loyalty + Betrayal
      • Characters show loyalty though actions
        • Loyalty to country = Malcom (would rather leave Scotland than it be ruled by a bad king) + Macduff (goes to England to ask Malcolm for defence)
        • Loyalty to king = thanes as Duncan is a "great" king + Macbeth gives Duncan "service and loyalty" by fighting for him
        • Loyalty to beliefs = Banquo keeps his "allegiance clear", won't let ambition or Witches' prophecies change him
      • Loyalty is rewarded + betrayal is punished
        • Duncan awards Macbeth "Thane of Glamis/Cawdor"
        • Duncan executes old Thane of Cawdor for betrayal
        • Play ends with Macbeth being killed for betraying Scotland + Malcolm being rewarded for loyalty
        • Power (titles) can be given/taken away depending on loyalty
        • Macduff's loyalty to Scotland = betrays his family
      • Macbeths fake loyalty
        • Macbeth = initially loyal to Duncan as "his kinsman/ subject"
        • Juxtaposition
        • Lady Macbeth = two faced nature = "your servants ever" + "Fair and noble hostess" to murder
    • Kingship
      • Malcolm describes good kings and bad kings
        • Duncan = "gracious" and "most sainted king" - rightful ruler
        • Macbeth = "tyrant", rules selfishly + violently - rarely referred to as "King"
        • Duncan's reign = ordered + peaceful / Macbeth's reign = overturned natural order (horses eat each other)
      • Good king is holy
        • Malcolm voices that King is appointed by God
        • King of England, Edward = "healing benediction" "holy prayers" "blessings" that "speak him full of grace"
        • Macbeth = "devilish", commits murder and talks to the supernatural
    • Good + Evil
      • Macbeth = good man, bad actions
      • Evil links to gender
        • Lady Macbeth "unsex me here" "direst cruelty"
        • Witches gender = ambiguous
      • Battle = conflict between good + evil
        • Shakespeare emphasises conflict through religious imagery - Macbeth = "cursed" "more hateful than the devil"
          • "abhorred tyrant" represents evil
    • Supenatural
      • The Witches
        • "strange intelligence" gives them power over humans
        • associated with chaos - "untie the winds" and make "castles topple"
        • drive the action of the play
        • motivated by "destruction" - represent struggle between natural and unnatural order
        • completely evil - feared by 1600 audience
        • adds to atmosphere making the play darker
      • Visions are supernatural signs of guilt
        • Macbeth's vision of dagger / Macbeth's vision of Banquo's ghost / Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking
          • visions are ambiguous
            • fill characters with fear - LM = blank verse to prose, childish language
    • Reality + Appearances
      • Appearances = deceptive
        • LM encourages M to "look like th'innocent flower but be the serpent under't"
          • Serpent links to Adam + Eve in the Garden of Eden
        • Macbeth knows he needs a "false face" to hide murders
          • But when he sees Banquo's ghost, his face is "the very painting" of fear and he betrays his feelings
        • At first, LM disguises evil behaviour - pretends to fake fainting at Duncan's death
          • Guilt overtakes in the end = sleepwalking and suicide
        • True colours always revealed
      • Meaning of words = unclear
        • "Fair is foul and foul is fair" = good appearance but evil thing
        • Paradoxes = uncertainty
      • Too trusting?
        • Duncan dies for it = "there's no art/ to find the mind's construction in the face"
        • Macbeth trusts Witches - dies too
        • Malcom = sceptical of Macbeth "To show an unfelt sorrow is an office/ which the false man does easy"
          • His awareness of "false" men saves his life - he flees
    • Fate + Free Will
      • The Witches control fate?
        • Or does Macbeth make his own choice?
          • Macbeth was doomed from the start due to his "fatal flaw"
          • Lady Macbeth thinks Macbeth is fated to be king "fate aid doth seem  to have thee crowned withal"
          • Macbeth believes in fate "chance may crown me / without my stir"
          • "we will proceed no further" = free will + Banquo chooses to ignore witches

Comments

JackKnight03

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very good!!!

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