Macbeth - Themes
- Created by: Sabrina Wellham
- Created on: 28-08-16 19:50
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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
- positive - Macduff and Malcolm for country (not selfish)
- Motivates Macbeth to commit murders
- 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
- Characters show loyalty though actions
- 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
- Malcolm describes good kings and bad kings
- 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
- Shakespeare emphasises conflict through religious imagery - Macbeth = "cursed" "more hateful than the devil"
- 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
- visions are ambiguous
- Macbeth's vision of dagger / Macbeth's vision of Banquo's ghost / Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking
- The Witches
- 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
- LM encourages M to "look like th'innocent flower but be the serpent under't"
- 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
- Appearances = deceptive
- 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
- Or does Macbeth make his own choice?
- The Witches control fate?
- Ambition
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