Macbeth - A gothic protagonist?

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  • Created by: eh_knight
  • Created on: 04-02-16 10:19

Act 1

  • War hero - desensitised to physical suffering and death - but finds it harder to murder when not in war, are some deaths more valiant than others? Macbeth makes this distinction between murder and killing in battle; “Brave Macbeth.” (1.2.16) and “Valour’s minion” (1.2.19).
  • “Disdaining fortune.” (1.2.17) - is Macbeth doomed from the start? Or does he turn away from his fate using his free will?
  • “Cannot be ill, cannot be good.” (1.3.130) - typically gothic contradictions. Good and evil forces battle with Macbeth thus he struggles to make decisions: conflict & opposites. 
  • Acknowledgement and awareness of his own desires and ambition; “Stars, hide your fires, let not the light see my black and deep desires.” (1.4.50-51) and he claims that he has “Vaulting ambition.” (1.7.28)
  • Dramatic irony in 1.4.22; “the service and loyalty I owe” (to Duncan), but then commits regicide.
  • ‘IF’ it were done. “IF th’assassination could trammel up the consequence.”(1.7.2-3) Use of ‘if’ shows internal conflict and questioning of mental state - dilemma. Aware of the consequences of his actions.
  • At the start, he attempts to keep evil thoughts in check, listing reasons why he shouldn’t murder the king as he is aware of his status and role; “As I am his kinsman and his subject.” (1.7.13)
  • Macbeth has no legitimate claim to the throne. 
  • “We will proceed no further in this business.” (1.7.31) At the start there is no ambiguity, Macbeth is certain. His ambition is awakened/driven on by Lady McB’s open ambition; his isn't inherent at the start of the play.
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Act 2

  • “Is this a dagger which I see before me?” (2.1.33) - Macbeth hasn't yet committed the unthinkable, but yet his conscience is already riddled with guilt. The dagger symbolizes what will be and the darkness that will follow. Hallucination suggests the fractured nature and conflict of his mind; “a dagger of the mind.” (2.1.38)
  • “The handle toward my hand?” (2.1.34) - Tempting him: a weapon to be used as apposed to a weapon against him; “fatal vision” (2.1.36) - foreshadows use of dagger.
  • “The curtained sleep.” (2.1.51) Hallucinations are his inner most thoughts. Gives way to terrible fantasies and allows them to become realities; descending madness.
  • Macbeth enters with two bloody daggers, and has become a destructive force. He doesn’t know what to do with daggers as his guilt has stupefied and numbed him.
  • “I could not say Amen.” (2.2.31) - He feels shut off from God as he cannot pray.
  • Duncan has eternal rest, whereas Macbeth experiences guilt in his sleep and will be mortally restless; “Sleep no more: Macbeth does murder sleep.” (2.2.38-39) - start of his descent. 
  • “Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hand?” (2.2.63-64) Foreshadows and parallels Lady Macbeth’s deteriorating mental state near the end of the play. He is struggling to come to terms with the crime that he has committed.
  • “Th’expedition of my violent love outran the pauser, reason.” (2.3.103-104) - Reason comes 2nd in the plot of Macbeth. Macbeth has a duality of character.
  • Macbeth is prepared to kill Fleance whereas Lady Macbeth’s infanticide is just a fantasy.
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Act 3

  • “Scorched the snake not killed it.” (3.2.13) Snake = representation of evil/something to be feared. It is not over,.
  • “These terrible dreams that shake us nightly” (3.2.18-19) - This terror drives him on as he is in two deep: liminal state. “Torture of the mind.” (3.2.21) - He envys Duncan, as he is at peace. 
  • “Our faces vizards to our hearts, disguising what they are.” (3.2.34-35) - Dual personality, appearance vs reality. 
  • “O, full of scorpions is my mind.” (3.2.36) Macbeth is still emotionally struggling - his mind is poisoned. Mad and restless. Scorpions connote pain and danger (e.g/ the sting of a scorpion).
  • “Be innocent of the knowledge.” (3.2.45) Macbeth is the dominant one in taking power and control over the situation - role reversal. Shift to him keeping her in the dark when she was originally the one encouraging him.
  • “Blood will have blood.” (3.4.122) Descent of Macbeth’s state of mind and foreshadows his death - karma.
  • Banquo’s ghost reminds him that he killed his former best friend; testing his conscience.
  • Macbeth’s own interpretation of the ghosts; he's being mocked from beyond the grave by Banquo.
  • His fears are externalised as hallucinations and visions.
  • Macbeth tries to remain emotionless in his bloody deeds but Banquo’s ghost highlights the internal conflict as his emotions try to take over.
  • His language reflects this change. The ghost, so hideous that it would "appall the devil,” (3.4.59) appears to have risen from a grave or a “charnel-house."
  • He has transgressed and broken mortal boundaries by killing others and is now amorally indifferent so thinks he may aswell keep going; “I am in blood stepped in so far.” (3.4.136-37) Gothic images of blood and colour red. Awareness of his crimes but he's in too deep - uncontrolled ambition.
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Act 4

  • Referred to by Malcolm as “Devilish Macbeth” (4.3.117) and by Macduff as an “untitled tyrant, bloody sceptred.” (4.3.104). ‘Untitled’ = he shouldn't have the crown, gothic image of not being pure or god-given. By the end of the play, Macbeth is being referred to as evil.
  • Stops becoming names as Macbeth, moreover referred to as words such as a ‘tyrant’ ‘usurper’ and a ‘butcher.’
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Act 5

  • XR to Act 1 Scene 2 with ‘Valour’s minion’, he is said to have impassioned, out of control “valiant fury.” (5.2.14) An aggressive leader, but still strong and brave.
  • Can’t buckle his “belt of rule” (5.2.16) - losing control of government and mental state.
  • “Like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief.” (5.2.21-22) He’s shrinking and no longer fits into his robe.
  • “Give me my armour.”(5.3.33) He is steadfast till the end and never surrenders to the forces coming his way - unlike Lady Macbeth. His mind is so distorted that he can no longer see rationally. Since start of play he is more narrow in his focus, more bloody minded and less moral.
  • Macbeth swinging from one state of mind to another, recalling the structure of the earlier dagger speech. 
  • To link Macbeth to the witches is to suggest that he is pure evil.
  • Apparitions seem not to affect Macbeth by this point as he is undisturbed and unafraid by the supernatural due to the correct prophesies of the witches; unafraid of anything; “Forgot the taste of fears.” (5.5.9)
  • Acknowledges his own evil by the end of the play; “slaughterous thoughts.” (5.5.14)
  • Last soliloquy, no meaning to life, “Out, out, brief candle” (5.5.22) - led to destructiveness of his mind - thinks that there is nothing more to life: without his wife he is lacking ambition and meaning. No meaning/purpose or heaven/hell, you are here for a while then you are gone. Bleak world view - uncomfortable for Jacobin audience. Repetition of Lady Macbeth’s need for light: light brings clarity and rationality.
  • Death of wife evokes inner sadness and grief; “she should have died hereafter.” (5.5.16).
  • “At least we’ll die with harness on our back.” (5.5.51) - Die in honour in battle. He is not frightened of the end or death - he has lost all emotional fight.
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A gothic protagonist?

  • Although he appears irrevocably evil, his weak/moral stature separates him from Shakespeare’s great villain e.g/ Richard III and Edmund in King Lear. 
  • Influence of past events - child dies, desensitised by war and killing, encounter with the witches.
  • Foreshadowed by doom - witches have spoken the inevitable and are a catalyst for his rise to power. The previous thane of Cawdor is also treacherous and also murdered, is the position cursed?
  • All consuming passion - to be king (power), to be regarded as a man, to fulfil the witches prophesies. 
  • Striking physical presence and high social ranking - brave and capable warrior, first account of him is in the battlefield with valour, and KING.
  • Contrasting qualities within character - consuming ambition & tendency to self -doubt. Being king gives him both inner turmoil and guilt as he is ill equipped for the psychic consequence of crime.
  • He flits between fevered action and guilt, these fluctuations reveal tragic tension within.
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