Character and theme quotes in Macbeth

Created by: TillyF
Created on: 26-11-16 08:51

Character : Macbeth Theme : Gender roles Hint : *ABTNOD*

'All by the name of dogs' - post listing dog breeds/ mocking idea all men are brave - emphasising that you can not stereotype one gender and put it into a specific category

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Character : Macbeth Theme : Gender roles Hint : According to the gift which bounteous nature

'The house keeper, the hunter, everyone/ According to the gift of bounteous nature' Macbeth's ridicules this idea that only one gender can fulfil only one type of occupation

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Character : Macbeth Theme : Responsible for downfall / Ambitious character Hint : When 'tis done

'If it were done when 'tis done' premeditated murder of Duncan through adverb 'when'

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Character : Macbeth Theme : Responsible for downfall / tragic figure Hint : Kinsman/subject

'I am his kinsman and his subject/ Strong both against the deed' - understood it was wrong / ignored morals / fate perhaps greater than deserved due to overwhelming supernatural influence

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Character : Macbeth Theme : Responsible for downfall / Ambition Hint : vaulting ambition

'Only vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself? And falls on th'other'

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Character : Macbeth Theme : Tragic hero/ character Hint : *IWNY* *YWTTL*

'I will not yield' 'Yet will I try the last' - Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero - only weakness is pride - alternatively not a tragic hero - does not accept responsibility for actions (his own 'anagnorsis')

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Character : Witches Theme : Supernatural influence on Macbeth Hint : dry as hay / all hail / hurly-burly

'I'll drain him dry as hay' 'all hail Macbeth' 'when the hurly-burly's done' - represents witches supernatural influence over all aspects of Macbeth's life / catalysts of the deed

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Character : Lady Macbeth Theme : Ambitious character / Gender restrictions / Victim of self Hint : unsex me here

'Come you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts/ unsex me here' - commitment to deed / want for evil to posses her / feels as though her gender restricts her

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Character : Lady Macbeth Theme : Relationship with Macbeth / Responsible for Macbeth's downfall / power and authority Hint : Flaws / imposter / then you were a man

'Oh these flaws' 'Imposters to true fear' 'When you durst do it, then you were a man' - female overpowering male - subversion of gender roles / power over Macbeth / Questioning masculinity caused pressure for Macbeth and lead him to murder

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Character : Lady Macbeth Theme : Ambition / Supernatural influences / Victim of own downfall / Stereotypical gender types Hint : Thick blood / take milk for gall / dunnest smoke of hell

'Make thick my blood' 'come to my women's breasts, take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers' 'Pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell'

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Character : The witches Theme : Responsibility for Macbeth's downfall / influence over all characters in the play Hint : hurly-burly / hail Macbeth / dry as hay

'When the hurly-burly's done' 'i'll drain him dry as hay' 'all hail Macbeth'

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Character : Witches Theme : Responsibility for Macbeth's downfall / power over all characters Hint : fair and foul / thunder lightning or rain / tempest tossed

'Fair is foul and foul is fair' 'When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or rain' 'Yet it shall be tempest tossed'

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Character : Banquo Theme : More important when dead / foil character for Macbeth / relationship with Macbeth Hint : appals the devil / grain grow / table's full / beards forbid

'Which might appal the devil' - Banquo's new perception given by Macbeth worse than the devil / 'which grain will grow and which will not' - ambition grew in Macbeth not Banquo 'you should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret'

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Character : Banquo Theme : Banquo is a symbol of guilt for Macbeth / fear over supernatural

'It will have blood, they say blood will have blood' - Macbeth : Banquo syboll of guilt / force acknowledgement of responsibility 'My firm nerves shall never tremble again' - foreshadows Banquo's death / fear over power of supernatura;

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Other : Impact of porter scene Hint : too cold for hell / turn the key a lot

'This place is too cold for hell' - representation of Macbeth's cold nature / too evil for hell / pre-discovery of king's death 'if a man were a porter to the hell gate he would have to turn the key a lot' - changing character morals / consuming evil

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Theme : Lady Macduff representation of stereotypical gender roles

'To leave his wife, to leave his babes' - women considered unable to be independent 'what will you do now? How will you live' - without a man family cannot survive 'Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless'

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Theme : Macbeth as a Moral play / Justice served at the end of the play

'I am his kinsman, his subject' 'both strong against the deed' previous loyalties not stuck to - consequence must be faced 'unsex me here' 'fill me from the crown to the toe topful of direst cruelty' - evil intensions - bad outcomes

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Theme : Relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

'I have done the deed' - Macbeth seeks approval from wife - subverts gender roles - Lady Macbeth is the catalyst for all of his actions

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Theme : Violence within the play

'owls scream and crickets cry' animals and all things around are disrupted by the ongoings of the play - mother nature is in sync with the happenings in the play 'and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this' devotion to evil

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