William Shakespeare
Characters
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Macbeth
Lady Macbeth
The Witches
Banquo
Macduff
Duncan
Malcolm and Donalbain
Macbeth
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“Brave Macbeth”
“Black Macbeth”
Greed
Disloyalty
Murder
Tyranny
Morality
Malleability
Tragic Hero
Tragic Villain
Character of Macbeth
“brave Macbeth”
“worthy cousin”
“noble Macbeth”
Macbeth’s journey
Gullible and manipulated?
Macbeth
Macbeth the untouchable?
Macbeth the Murderer/ Tyrant
Weakness of character
Macbeth’s conscience
Quotes
• Sergeant: “brave Macbeth”
• Duncan: “O valiant cousin! Worthy
gentleman”
• Macbeth to the Witches: “why do you
dress me in borrow’d robes?”( clothing
imagery)
•Macbeth: “that is a step on which I
must fall down, or else o’erleap, for
in my way it lies. Stars, hide your
fires let not light see my dark and
deep desires.”
•“If chance will have me King,
why, chance may crown me,
without my stir.” (Fate/ Chance)
• “We will proceed no further in this business”
(conscience)
• Lady M: “Yet I do fear thy nature It is too full o’
the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest
way”- (M’s good nature, Lady m’s manipulative
nature)
• Macbeth’s conscience: “First, as I am his
kinsman and his subject, strong both against
the deed, then, as his host Who should against
the murderer shut the door Not bear the knife
myself.”
• Macduff: “Not in the legions of horrid hell
can come a devil more damned in evils to
top Macbeth.”
Macbeth the Murderer.
•“False face must hide what the false
heart doth know.”(appearances v reality)
•“Is this a dagger I see before me/ The
handle toward my hand”
•“Macbeth does murder sleep- the
innocent sleep” (conscience)
•“Macbeth shall sleep no more” (conscience)
•“To know my deed ‘twere best not know
myself.”
•“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor
player/ That struts and frets his hour upon
the stage/ And then is heard no more.”
Lady Macbeth
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Manipulator
Murderess
Greed
Femininity?
Hatred
Capacity for cruelty
Guilt
Self-destructive
I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
Macbeth, 1. 7
Screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail.
Macbeth, 1. 7
Lady Macbeth: Things without all remedy
Should be without regard; what's done is
done.
Macbeth: We have scotched the snake, not
killed it;
She'll close and be herself, while our poor
malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
Macbeth, 3. 2
Character of Lady Macbeth
Manipulator
Representative of evil.
Evil must die for good/order
To be restored
Appearance V Reality
Duping of Duncan
Lady Macbeth
Appears strong woman
Against stereotype
Growing guilt/suicide
Mirror of Macbeth’s journey
Journey to guilt
The Three Witches
What are these
So wither'd and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on 't?
Macbeth, 1. 3
Quotes from the Witches/
Apparitions
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“Fair is foul, and foul is fair”
“All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”
“beware Macduff”(Armed Head)
“none of woman born shall harm Macbeth”
(bloody child)
• “Great Birnan wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall
coma against him.” (Crowned child)
• “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be
none.” (to Banquo)
Macbeth and Banquo meet The
Weird Sisters
The Witches
Portents of Evil
Portrayal of females
In the text
(aligned with LM)
Manipulators
of Macbeth
Witches
Witces Illusions
“Armed head”
“A bloody child”
“A child crowned”
supernatural
Symbols of chaos
Breaching the
natural order
Themes
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Good v Evil
Appearances v Reality
Loyalty v Betrayal
Order v Chaos
Kingship/ Power
Violence
Action v Inaction
Fate v Chance
The supernatural
The struggle between Good and
Evil
“fair is foul,
and foul is fair”
“Chance may
Crown me without
My stir”
Restoration of
Good
(Order v Chaos)
Conscience
Effects on M &LM
Good V Evil
M’s journey
Good to evil
The Witches
Influence on M
Lady M
Manipulation
M’s good
Qualities
Contrast start and finish
Appearance and Reality
Appearances V Reality
Macbeth’s
“borrowed robes”
Lady M’s
Deception
Ghosts
Disguise in the
play
Appearances
V
Reality
M’s illusion of power
LM & Witches
Puppet masters
Macbeth as king
Driven by tyranny
The witches
Prophetic
or
Evil emissaries
Quotes
• “Let not light see my black and deep
desires.”
• “False face must hide what the false heart
doth know.”(Macbeth)
Kingship/ Power
Duncan’s illusion
Of power
Macbeth as king
Tyranny
Restoration
of Good
Kingship/ Power
Lady M’s
Power
(gender stereotype)
Order V Chaos
Witches bid
For power
Fate V Chance?
Witches
Restoration
Of order
Lady Macbeth
Fate or Chance
Prophecy
Or
Manipulation
Macbeth in
Control?
Power of humanity
V
Power of supernatural
Motifs/ Images
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Water
Manhood
Clothing
Animal imagery
Light and Darkness
Reversals in natural order
Heaven and Hell
Imagery/ Symbolism
• Bad weather signals entrance of evil in the play- Thunder
and lightning, fog for witches- storm on the night of
Duncan’s death- “’twas a rough night”
• Lennox; “ Lamentings heard i’ the air, strange screams of
death.”
• Lady M.: “Look like the innocent flower, but be the
serpent under’t.” (Animal/nature)
• “Let not light see my black and deep desires.”(light v
darkness, good v evil)
• “A little water clears us of this deed” ( Lady M)
• “Will al great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean
from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the
multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one
red.” ( reversal of nature- water will only turn red and not
cleanse him of his sins)
• “It is an accustomed action with her to be seen thus
washing her hands.”( water and innocence)
• “That darkness does the face of earth entomb When
living life should kiss it?”
• “a falcon towering in her pride of place was by a mousing
owl hawked at and killed.”( animal imagery/ reversals in
nature)
• “O full of scorpions is my mind”
• “Though you untie the winds and let them
fight against the churches” (turning Nature
against religion and humanity)
• Macduff’s wife: “for the poor wren, the
most diminutive of birds, will fight, her
young ones in her nest, against the owl.”