“Brave macbeth”
- bloody, bold, and resolute
“valours minion, carved out his passage”
- foreshadows being the witches’ and apparition’s puppet for evil
“Unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps”
- visceral, horrible, but is admired in battle
“So foul and fair a day I have not seen”
- order of precedence
“Valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!”
- not rly
“all hail”… sequence
- first two are definite, “shalt” is less absolute. It implies that Macbeth has a choice, and that he can defy this “prophecy”
The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,
For in my way it lies. (Act 1, Sc.4, p12)
Object pronoun is dehumanising. Makes it easier to kill him if he doesn’t see him as a human/equal. Metaphor of a “step” - seeing him as an obstacle
Stars, hide your fires,
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
Same image of stars and light, but MB wants it to be hidden. “Light” is symbolic of anyone who is good - Duncan. Doesn’t want to expose his desire. “Black” - connotations of evil, “deep” - connotations of hell
(Act 1, Sc.7, p19) Soliloquy
Meaning of “done” keeps shifting, very ambiguous.
- “Taking off” - euphemism. Suggests that he can’t confront the idea of being a murderer. Not “his murder” or “my killing”. Gets rid of agency, makes KD seem vanished. Takes MB out of it completely.
Jux with “deep damnation” - plosives, association with hell/evil.
MACBETH
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none
(Act 1, Sc.7, p20)
- They are no longer a man if they kill Duncan
It’s lady MB, his wife - she is a woman - Not a man, you have broken the natural order. Unnatural and inhuman/monster to commit regicide
- becomes king
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.”
“fatal vision”
(Act 2, Sc.1, p24)
- Vision. Seeing it as fate, there and waiting for him. An opportunity to be taken.
- hallucinations
- euphemism “Fatal vision” - fatal for Duncan (kills him) fatal as a turning point in MB’s own fate.
MACBETH
Will all 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. (Act 2, Sc.2, p29)
- Classical allusion to a Roman god - he betrayed his God so now he resorts to another God.
- Metaphor/motif of blood - representative of guilt
2) Hyperbole - extreme guilt, breaking of the great chain of being
MACBETH
… who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make ‘s love known? (Act 2, Sc.3, p35)
Sounds desperately romantic.
MB is a hypocrite, tries to justify himself
Repetition of love, rhetorical question, makes himself seem relatable.
his royalty of nature
Act 3, Sc. 1, p43
“Royalty of nature” - metaphor of good, noble, loyal. A man better than/above all others. “Reigns” - link to ancestor of James. Loyalty to King James, James is loyal/good, flattery.
There the grown serpent lies; the worm that’s fled
Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
No teeth for the present.
(Act 3, Sc. 4, p51)
BQ = grown serpent
He believes BQ will betray you for what he has done
Biblical allusion - this shows the reversal of MB’s attitude. Link to “fair is foul, foul is fair” - MB is obviously evil but sees BQ who is good as evil.
MALCOLM
“Devilish Macbeth”
Juxtaposition
Contrast between MB who is “devilish” and DC who is described as “most sainted king”.
MACBETH
I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack’d.
Give me my armour.
MACBETH
I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack’d.
Give me my armour.
SIWARD
confident tyrant
(Act 5, Sc.4, p91)
YOUNG SIWARD
“abhorred tyrant”
- macbeth’s many names
it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. (Act 5, Sc.5, p92)
Life and your actions are ultimately meaningless.
- his wife, his life, either way, nothing in his life appears to matter.- uses his wifes death as a way to express his regret in life
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope
“Word of promise” links back to equivocation act 1 sc 3 “win us with honest trifles… to betray us in deepest consequence”
Ultimately there is a sense of finally coming back to realization that BQ was right.
