Macbeth

Characters that link to ambition and why:

Macbeth: His fatal flaw (character trait that leads to their downfall), is ambition. He constantly questions his ambition vs conscience- but almost always chooses to ignore his conscience e.g killing Duncan. He's initially a noble warrior who fights for the king but becomes a tyrant who is desperate for power. His ambition is fuelled by Lady Macbeth when she questions his manliness as Macbeth was indecisive on whether to kill Duncan or not. 

Lady Macbeth: After reading Macbeth's letter she wants to do anything to make Macbeth king and her the queen. She manipulates and emotionally blackmails her husband to commit regicide while she sedates his guards. She also wants to have more manly qualities and so goes against the patriarchy as she's not presented as a typical Jacobean woman.

Macduff:  He uses his ambition for good unlike Macbeth and Lady Macbeth when avenging his wife and children's death. He works alongside Malcolm to restore order in Scotland after its suffering and unnatural events e.g dark outside in the daytime and an owl killing a falcon.

Macbeth: "I have no spur to ***** the sides of my intent... only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself."- horse/rider imagery-->recognises that ambition can make people make mistakes-->could be pre-empting the disasters to come-->allows audience to feel sympathy for him-->interrupted by his wife entering- outcome could've been different?

Lady Macbeth: "yet i do fear thy nature; ... too full of the milk of human kindness."-thinks Macbeth is too kind to be king-->metaphor used to suggest he is brave AND compassionate-->milk=natural, motherly, white, pure-->contrasts to red blood-->she gives herself to evil.

Macduff: "Let me find him. Fortune, and more I beg not."-calls on fate to help him find Macbeth and kill him-->echoes theme of fate-->he has motivation other than solely ambition for power-->Macbeth vs Macduff final battle shows importance of not interferring with fate through use of the supernatural-->good always wins. 

Characters that link to the supernatural and why:

Witches: the source of the supernatural, tell Macbeth half truths which lead to his downfall- appear in the middle of a thunderstorm which sets the tone- predictions are correct-->more neutral evil than actively evil- they know where Macbeth will be and when-->suggests evil is a force that seeks out people- unnatural nature (use of full rhyme, choral speech)- but are the witches the most evil in the play?

Macbeth: The witches have power over him-easily manipulated into deception, violence and seeking out contact with evil sources-do the witches dictate his actions or does he act of his own free will/gives him an excuse to do what he wants?-later has hallucination of a dagger and sees Banquo's ghost at the banquet.

Lady Macbeth: after finding out about the witches she constantly refers to the supernatural and begs them for things e.g "come you spirits...unsex me here..."- could be more evil than the witches?-wants to be a witch herself- when she was diagnosed with her 'illness, was that actually supernatural acts being put upon her?-eventually spirals into madness and the quote "who would have thought...the old man to have so much blood in him?"- prose to express madness

The witches: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair"-->logical inconsistency-->weirdness of the supernatural-->one of many paradox they say-->witches are seen as evil but see themselves as good-->tells audience appearances can be deceiving- foreshadowing.

Macbeth: "So foul and fair a day I have not seen"-->echoes the witches-->referring to the battle- foulness of death but fairness of their victory-->foreshadows his murders to become/stay king of scotland?-audience knows he has some compassione but don't know all of it will be lost later.

Lady Macbeth: "Come you spirits...unsex me here..."-->she's willingly offering herself for possession to ensure the murder will be done-->believes her gender is the only thing stopping her-->Divine right of kings means Duncan is protected by God-->she pleads God's enemy, Satan-->Satan= Lady Macbeth and God=Duncan-conflict for power. "unsex" means she regrets being born a woman-->limited.

Characters that link to guilt/blood and why:

Macbeth: presented as a tragic hero because he's initially a noble character who we can empathize with since he knows his morals but ambition overpowers his conscience. His guilt from committing regicide results in; paranoia, loss of sleep and hallucinations. Blood is also used to symbolise guilt in the play. He spirals into insanity. After seeing Banquo's ghost, he believes killing someone used to be easy but now believes that even if you kill your enemy, they'll haunt you. 

Lady Macbeth: she doesn't show any/very little remorse or guilt for her actions until act 5 when she sleepwalks. Her guilt is coming to the surface as she sleeps and dreams- attempting to clean invisible blood off her hands. She knows they have the power to get away with murder but didn't expect the guilt or psychological affects of the murder. She's unable to come to her senses. She could also be regretful as she turned Macbeth into a monster. As a result of her guilt she commits suicide. 

Macduff: He feels guilty about leaving his family and is driven by a need for revenge by killing Macbeth. His guilt has no consequences like hallucinations or paranoia but instead feeds him ambition (for a good purpose)- he's the avenging hero--> brings Macbeth's head.

Macbeth: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?"- hyperbole- already disturbed by this awful deed-blood used as a motif for guilt- he'll forever be a changed man as a result- Neptune was the Roman God of seas and was recognized as a god of horses and horsemanship (also links to Macbeth's vaulting ambition quote.) 

Lady Macbeth: later hallucinates that she's got blood on her hands-->"all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." -Shakespeare's use of hyperbole emphasises her angiush and guilt after what she's done--> she'll never be clean of Duncan's murder--> perfume also referred to burning something to get a pleasant aroma (could mean she realises killing people won't make her more powerful?).

Macduff: "All my pretty ones?... all my pretty chickens and their dam?"- rhetorical Q-> didn't protect his "home" enough- guilt- family untimely ripped away from him->cyclical structure of life--> doomed?

A motif is a recurring idea or image that has a symbolic value. 

Blood: symbolises guilt and murder, changes the characters relationships--> eventually drives them insane-> macbeth and lady macbeth relive murders in fear as they constantly hallucinate blood on their clean hands. 

Sleep: symbolises innocence and peace--> Macbeth is haunted by nightmares and loses sleep--> lady Macbeth sleepwalks (written in prose- losing herself) this is her last on-stage appearance. Macbeth kills Duncan in his sleep. Universal sleeplessness symbolises Scotland's treacherous state that Macbeth creates. 

Prophecies: the driving force in Macbeth's ambition--> 1. Macbeth will be king 2.Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor 3. Banquo's sons will be kings--> act 3- Hecate scolds them for speaking to Macbeth without her permission, suggests their actions may have created unintended consequences? Act 5- more prophecies--> true but confusing--> last appearance.

Iambic pentameter- the rhythm that's used, like a heartbeat (unstressed syllable, and a stressed (emphasized) syllable repeated 5 times). e.g "So foul and fair a day I have not seen.", ends of lines aren't usually rhymed- maintains flow of speech, can have shared lines (5 is split up between characters)- quickens pace.

Prose and verse- Shakespeare writes in both throughout--> prose is a conversational way of speaking which doesn’t have a set rhythm or structure whereas verse always has a set rhythm and structure- prose often used by lower status or when characters are going insane.

Rhyming couplets- 2 lines written in iambic pentameter which end in the same sound or rhyme- often used to sum up the end of a character’s speech. e.g  "Away, and mock the time with fairest show: / False face must hide what the false heart doth know." (macbeth). 

Antithesis- conveys two opposing concepts in a sentence e.g "When the battle’s lost and won"--> light and dark, heaven and hell, and false and true, are used a lot in Macbeth.

Trochaic tetrameter-  different rhythm--> eight syllables in each line rather than ten that are used in iambic pentameter. e.g "Double, double, toil and trouble: / Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." (witches made to seem different and empahises their chanting).

Duncan: always referred to as a "king",respected by his people-->overly kind nature is a weakness-->his death symbolises the destruction of an order in Scotland-->'Divine Right of Kings'--> juxtaposes Macbeth as a king, even those who seek out to kill him admire his qualities--> presented as nurturing// a semantic field of agriculture 

Macbeth: referred to as a "Tyrant"--> doesn't trust anybody, knows how to hold onto power, ruthlessly kills anybody who gets in his way, selfish/ hubris--> ascension to throne is unrighteous--> power draws out people's violent natures. 

Duncan: "Signs of nobleness like stars shall shine..."--> willing to reward those who do good--> virtue and nobility are visible traits- distinguishing them from others--> ironic? too trusting in Macbeth--> the simile has connotations to divine power--> implying they'll be rewarded in the afterlife too. 

1. "Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness."-Lady Macbeth

feels macbeth is too kind by nature, his ambition isn't enough if he won't act on it-->personification, imagery of milk=views him as a child who needs to be guided, highlights her dominance-->women had lower social statusdiction as milk connects him with purity and kindness, symbolism=initially a blank slate. 

2. "Here lay Duncan...his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature for ruin's wasteful entrance."

Macbeth hyperbolises situation-->overstatements?, shows how corrupt he's become, Jacobean conception of nature was connected with order-->unnatural deed, breach=violation, vivid imagery, nature references detracts from his responsibility.

3. "Life's but a walking shadow...that frets his hour upon the stage then is heard no more..."

Macbeth-->extended metaphor, discovered life is futile and meaningless, leads audience to imagine people are a brief actor on life's stage- ironic-->nihilism, blames fate when in actuality he's the manipulator-->contrasts of light/dark, euphemism for death, 

Structure:

Chronological, five acts-->follows the model designed by Gustav Freytag, who suggested there were five stages in a tragic dramatic structure (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and catastrophe).

Literary devices (imagery):

Birds->believed different species had seperate characteristics e.g some brought bad luck,  Shakespeare uses this to link birds and their habits to the human characters and how they behave.

Wild animals->untameable and savage, help create images in the audience's mind.