Remember context
Duncan is a true king, gracious and kindly; Macbeth is a usurping tyrant, false and
murderous.
Macbeths arrival is prefaced by a plethora of negative imagery
Ephemeral
FAIR IS FOUL AND FOUL IS FAIR
“Multiplying villainies of nature”- inherent evil of traitors-> fate
“noble Macbeth”, “brave macbeth”- build up of character worsens impact of later betrayal
Irony- one traitor replaced by another
“So FOUL AND FAIR a day I have not seen”- parallels witches; they have won but corruption of
witches begins, or successful fighting bad weather
“Why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair”- Natural trepidation towards the
witches
“Lesser than Macbeth and greater”-predicts his children’s dynasty, but also suggests that honour is
of more value than social status
“to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths”
“IF CHANCE WILL HAVE ME KING, WHY CHANCE MAY CROWN ME WITHOUT MY STIR”- action not
necessarily required to gain kingship
“He was a gentleman on whom I built absolute trust”- dramatic irony one traitor for another.
Trusting nature of Duncan makes betrayal worse
“let not light see my black and deep desires”- Macbeth may already be evil before lady macbeth’s
further corruption
“the raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements”already plans to kill Duncan; manipulative, raven= death, my=possessive; speaks to power balance
within her and Macbeths relationship
“unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty”- evil enhanced
through reversal of classical gender roles, crown= king; obsessed with titles and power
“greater than both by the all-hail hereafter”- lady Macbeths speech reflects that of the witches
(parallelism to “All hail Macbeth thane of Cawdor that shall be king hereafter”)- EVIL
“your face my thane is a book where men may read” + “there’s no art to find the minds construction
in the face”; Macbeth is readable but Duncan cannot read people; cautionary- must look for
treachery, evil- betrays a man who cannot do such a thing
“LOOK LIKE THE INNCOENT FLOWER, BUT BE THE SERPENT UNDER IT”
MACHIAVELLIAN LADY MACBETH
“hes here in double trust”- doubts the honour in killing Duncan; spread of multiplicative language
reinforces sense of corruption, p 18
“when you durst do it then you were a man”- emasculated by lady Macbeth, seems more manly,
persuades him to kill Duncan
Late night walk encounters banquo
“the moon is down”- pathetic fallacy; dark thoughts dark night
“I dreamd all night of the weird sisters”+ “I think not of them”- Macbeth begins to conceal his
feelings; erosion of honour
“It shall make honour for you”- Macbeth “I lose none in seeking to augment it”- Banquo Doesn’t
want to lose it all by reaching too far; contrast to Macbeth
“With Tarquin’s ravishing strides”- compares himself to roman tyrant from the rape of Lucrecia
“the bell invites”- fate; commanded to kill by bell, lady Macbeth it was arranged should ring the bell;
induced to murder Duncan by her
“Macbeth shall sleep no more”- after murder he becomes as the sailor in act 1 scene 3
“WILL ALL GREAT NEPTUNES OCEAN WASH THIS BLOOD”/ “A LITTLE WATER CLEARS US OF THIS
DEED”
“here’s an equivocator that… could not equivocate to heaven”- reference to the execution of Farther
Garnet for the 1606 gunpowder plot; it was said that he “could not equivocate to heaven”, despite
his arguments trying to get out of it. Macbeth cannot get away with this deed; treason will always be
punished LACONIC POLYPTOTON - equivocator, equivocate emphasises definite nature of this
“the night has been unruly”- pathetic fallacy
“The repetition in a woman’s ear would murder as it fell”- Macduff doesn’t want to tell lady
Macbeth what has happened- ironic given her complicity in the deed itself
Old man scene
“dark night strangles the travelling lamp”- evil triumphs over the light of good; reference to internal
conflict within Macbeth himself
“tis unnatural… a falcon towering… was by a mousing owl hawkd at and killed”- the order of the
world has been disrupted by treason, also potentially that Macbeth is inherently weaker-> some shit
guy has killed the king CONTEXT
Assassins for Banquo “solemn supper”- formal dinner and foreshadows sadness of Banquo’s death
“To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus”- never content; always wants more- Cawdor to king- to
more secure king
“in his royalty of nature reigns that which should be feared”- good and evil contrast, suggests
nobility of Banquo is danger to his plots; born noble to be king as his descendent James I is.
When persuading murders describes Banquo as “he”- reinforces sense of intimacy and collusion with
them; already know the topic of conversation- worse human now hes intimate with murderers.
“doubtful joy “oxymoron to represent unease
“Duncan is in his grave… he sleeps well”- no longer feels guilt surrounding the event
Semantic field of animals is strongly negative
Metaphor of snake used to refer to the royal dynasty as a threat to Macbeth- despite referring to
male heirs is personified as a she; Women are a threat to Macbeth-> lady Macbeth
“make our faces vizards to our hearts” more like lady Macbeth innocent flower; also foreshadows
conflict, as though arming for battle
“O FULL OF SCORPIONS IS MY MIND”
Third murderer- Macbeth cannot even trust his two murders- descent into paranoia
“I am cabined, cribbed, confined”- triadic structure, trapped; by others or fate
“You know your own degrees”- irony; Macbeth doesn’t know his
“are you a man”- constant question of Macbeth’s manliness; is it to say that traitors are no real men
In England
“suffering country under a hand accursed”- in the absence of a good king a country is like to struggle
“BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES”- Pre-empts Macbeth’s
arrival; Macbeth is now wicked
“though you… fight against the churches… answer me- blasphemy; God takes second place to his
quest for information.
“Infected be the air whereon they ride; And damn'd all those that trust them!”- Macbeth
acknowledges the corrupting nature of the witches and thus that of himself-> gradually accepts evil.
“He hath a heavenly gift for prophecy”- Edward confessor who harbours Malcolm-> Macbeth is
surrounded by evil witches and their prophecies; Malcom has Edward and his goodness and
prophecies
Lady Macbeth is on madness now
“She has light by her continually, ‘tis her command”- contrast to earlier shows her newfound sense
of guilt; “come thick night”
“IT IS AN ACCUSTOMED ACTION WITH HER, TO SEEM THUS WASHINGG HER HANDS”- irony,
reflecting “a little water will wash us of this deed”, weight of her actions, structural juxtaposition
“Thane of Fife had a wife… will [her] hands never be clean”- now linked to Macbeth; same feeling
contrasts to earlier possessive pronoun of “my battlements”
“ALL THE PREFUMES OF ARABIA WILL NOT SWEETEN THIS LITTLE HAND”- structural parallelism to
Macbeth
“UNNATURAL DEEDS TDO BREED UNNATURAL TROUBLES”- unnatural to kill a king and ruins
Scotland, links to earlier
Ready to skeng Macbeth down
“the good MacDuff”- structural parallelism; honourable and noble Macbeth
“those he commands move only in command, nothing in love”- because they are told to not because
they want to
“Mind-diseased”- Lady Macbeth’s evil has finally driven her to madness
“Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunisane, I cannot taint with fear”- still concerned with the witches
prophecies
Lady Macbeth pussies out
“I have almost forgotten the taste of fear”
“all of our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death”- after suicide confidence
disappears; shows reliance on lady Macbeth.
“begin to doubt the equivocation of the fiend”- fiend; evil, recognises their misleading nature and
lies”
“they have tied me to a stake, I cannot fly, but bear-like I must fight the course”- feels trapped in
destiny
CONTEXT
Christocentric society- would have been appalled at defiance of God
‘Original sin’- Lady Macbeth’s manipulation of Macbeth reflects the tale of Adam and Eve; serves to
make her appear more evil
Divine Right of Kings- idea that King is God’s representative on Earth
Male dominancy in Jacobean society
Fear of the supernatural
Daemonologie- book authored by James I; he would have believed in the witches found in Macbeth
Gunpowder plot of 1606- Links to Father Garnet
ALSO moralistic tale
Anne Hathaway was 8 years older than Shakespeare- reflected in relationship of Macbeth and his
wife
Tarquin from the Rape of Lucrece (from specific quote)- tyrannical king of Rome and rapist
Banquo is based off a character in the Hollinshed’s Chronicles (written by Rafael Hollinshed in 1587),
where he is an accomplice of Macbeth- departure from this enhances the evil of Macbeth