Themes and Motifs
 Themes are the fundamental and often
universal ideas explored in a literary work.
 One of the main themes of Macbeth is
 The destruction wrought when ambition goes
unchecked by moral constraints.
 What is a moral constraint?
 Macbeth/Lady Macbeth:
 This theme is directly apparent in two main
characters in the play.
 Macbeth: not naturally inclined to commit
crime, yet deeply desires power and
advancement. Kills Duncan against his better
judgment and suffers guilt and paranoia.
Deteriorates as play progresses.
 Lady Macbeth: more determined but less able
to deal with the consequences of her actions.
Her ambitions get the best of her and
 In each case ambition, (helped of course by
the witches prophesies) is what drives this
couple to commit these terrible atrocities.
 Once one decides to pursue ambition with
violence, the more out of control it becomes.
 The temptation to use violence to achieve the
throne presents itself over and over again
through the potential threats to the throne
(Fleance, Malcom, Banquo).
 Throughout Macbeth, fair appearances hide
foul realities.
 Examples:
 Macbeth sees the witches prophecies as fair, but to
attain them he must commit the foul.
 "There's no art/ To find the mind's construction in the
face." (Act 1, Scene 4, Lines 11-12) –King Duncan
speaking of the former Thane of Cawdor.
 Macbeth is a “fair host” as him and lady Macbeth plot
King Duncan’s murder
 Both a woman and a host, Lady Macbeth should be
the model of grace and femininity, however, her
thoughts are cold and evil
 Macbeth attempts to say “amen” after
murdering the king. Thinking of religion is foul
after such a heinous crime
 "look like the innocent flower, / But be the
serpent under't" (1.5.65-66). -Lady Macbeth to
macbeth about murdering Duncan.
 "Away, and mock the time with fairest show: /
False face must hide what the false heart doth
know" (1.7.81-82). –Macbeth. Speaking of
keeping a “nice” face while already planning to
murder Duncan.
 A tragic hero is a character that the audience
sympathizes with despite his/her actions that
would indicate the contrary.
 Macbeth, in spite of his horrible murders, is a
pitiable man.
 Macbeth internally suffers
 Plagued by fear, paranoia, sleeplessness and
exhaustion.
 Macbeth: is a pitiable man, despite his terrible
crimes. His saving grace is that he did not
want to commit the crime in the first place but
was coerced by Lady Macbeth.
 Macbeth suffers internally and is thus never
able to enjoy his royal status
 Began as courageous and daring (still evil)
 Courage deteriorated, broke down.
 Lady Macbeth: courage and daring nature
deteriorates into delusional, hapless
somnambulist.
 Breaks down mentally and physically because
of the strain of the crime.
 Macbeth and his wife are pitiable characters
because the reader is able to follow their
every thought and action. Thus, the reader
sees not only their gruesome effects on the
Scottish people but also on themselves.
 Macbeth indecisive
 Murder and course of action
 Macbeth was indecisive up until the night of
the murder about whether or not he should
kill Duncan.
 After he murders Duncan, he is unsure of his
course of action (what should he do next?)
 Rashly decides to kill Banquo.
 Always a presence (fair is foul and foul is fair)
 Lady Macbeth
 Witches and Hecate
 Macbeth
 Murder of king Duncan- forgivable? Influence?
 Banquo and his son
 Macduff’s Family
 Disorder- Morality and trust- opening of the
play?
 Order- Prophesies?
 Scotland under Duncan’s rule?
 Natural chain of events- What happens?
 Chain of being disrupted?
 Examples of disrupted order
 Macduff’s slaughtered family. Caused by what?
 “…look like the innocent flower, be the serpant
undr’t…”
 Human fronts- Playing a role
 Actions/trees
 Dagger/Banquo’s ghost
 War and destruction (opening of play)
 Killing… killing and more… killing.
 Guilt of crimes committed
 Lady Macbeth- sleepwalking, confessions,
eventual death.
 Macbeth- Inability to sleep, driving him to
madness. Banquo’s ghost
 Macbeth’s inner debate (killing Duncan)
 Masterminds behind much of the action in the
play.
 Witches and Hecate
 Drive action of the play.
 Shared Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
 Had to pay.
 Most of Macbeth takes place in the dark, and
both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth seem to
believe that the dark can hide their crimes,
perhaps even from themselves.
 When King Duncan announces that his eldest
son Malcolm is heir to the throne, he says that
Malcolm won't be the only one who receives
new honors. The King promises that
 "signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine / On
all deservers" (1.4.41-42
 Moments later Macbeth also uses starlight as
a metaphor for what is good and noble. As he
is thinking of murdering both the King and
Malcolm, he says to himself:
 Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to
see. (1.4.50-53)
 In short, his desires are so terrible, that he
can't stand to have the stars shine on
them; he doesn't even want to look at them
himself.
 At the end of a soliloquy in which Lady
Macbeth talks herself into a murderous state
of mind, she calls upon night to hide her deed
from heaven and from herself:
 Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the
dunnest smoke of hell, / That my keen knife
see not the wound it makes, / Nor heaven peep
through the blanket of the dark, / To cry "Hold,
hold!" (1.5.50-54).
 In both its ideas and imagery, this passage
is remarkably similar to Macbeth's speech in
the previous scene.
 After the moon has gone down on the night in
which Macbeth kills King Duncan, Banquo says
to Fleance,
 "There's husbandry in heaven; / Their candles
are all out" (2.1.4-5).
 He means that there's not a star to be seen in
the sky. If we think back, we may remember
that this is exactly the kind of night Macbeth
wanted, because he thought it might conceal
his own guilt from himself.
 It's strangely dark on the morning after the
night of King Duncan's murder, and Ross says
to an Old Man,
 "by the clock, 'tis day, / And yet dark night
strangles the travelling lamp" (2.4.6-7).
 The "travelling lamp" is the sun, which should
be lighting the new day. Ross goes on to
speculate that the night is stronger than the
day, or that the day is ashamed of itself. In
either case, the cause would be the murder of
King Duncan. The night would be strong
because in that night the good King was
murdered, and the day would be ashamed to
shed light on the bloody scene of the murder.
 When Macbeth goes to the witches to learn
his fate, he greets them as
 "you secret, black, and midnight hags!"
(4.1.48).

An earlier scene suggests that Macbeth's
visit actually occurs in the morning, but
Macbeth associates dark with evil.
 In Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene she
enters holding a candle, and the doctor asks
her gentlewoman how the lady happens to
have the candle. The gentlewoman replies,
 "Why, it stood by her: she has light by her
continually; 'tis her command" (5.1.22-23).
The doctor then points out,
 "You see, her eyes are open" (5.1.24), and the
gentlewoman replies,
 "Ay, but their sense is shut" (5.1.25).
 Thus we see that Lady Macbeth, who eagerly
awaited the dark hour of King Duncan's murder, is
now afraid of the dark. And though her eyes are
open, she can see only her own memories of
murder. As she sleepwalks, Lady Macbeth
imagines she sees a spot of King Duncan's blood
on her hand. She rubs her hands to try to wash it
away, but it won't disappear, and then she hears
the bell that she herself rang on the night of King
Duncan's murder:
 "Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why, then,
'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!" (5.1.35-36).
 Perhaps it is the darkness of the night of
Duncan's murder which reminds her of the
darkness of hell.[