Macbeth quotations

Question 1

Act 1 Scene 3: Macbeth- ‘Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?’

Answer 1

-‘‘borrowed’’ implies a brief adoption of an alternative identity which implies that Macbeth will mirror the unscrupulousness of his predecessor thereby foreshadowing his demise
-‘‘robes’’ are connotative of the attire of religious figures such as priests which implies that his initial description preaches his well-meaning intentions whilst disguising the evil he harbours inside
-the inquisition ‘why’ incites conflict in the reader’s perception of Macbeth as this imbues a sort of reluctance for the path on which his ambition leads him

Question 2

Act 1 Scene 3: Macbeth- ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’

Answer 2

-repetition of The Witches’ incantations implies that Macbeth is embodying their evil through the way he almost manifests the fate they have dictated to him ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’
-‘I have not seen’ suggests that Macbeth has opened his eyes to the new life he has adopted which implies that, like a baby, he is relearning all of which came naturally, the difference between good and evil, under the influence of the Witches; he is an instrument, conduit, of their wrongdoing as exemplified through their inability to directly conjure evil
-they are his first words in the script suggesting his infantilization, like a child learning to speak, and evoking a sense of rebirth

Question 3

Act 1 Scene 1: ‘when shall we three meet again’

Answer 3

-internal rhyme accentuates ritualistic nature of The Witches’ speech implying that they acknowledge some higher power. This emphasises their inability to directly bring about death (or other circumstances) of their own accord which evokes ideas about Macbeth’s role in their disruptive intentions as an instrument who plays to their will
-trochaic tetrameter: emphasis is inverted foreshadowing the disruption The Witches’ through their rejection of the norm (iambic pentameter). This implies that laws against regicide aren’t considered by them and therefore, don’t apply.

Question 4

Act 1 Scene 1: ‘In thunder, lightning or in rain’- The Witches

Answer 4

-repetition of three evokes ideas relating to God and the Trinity. Through this, as evident through The Witches’ use of paradox and contradictions, we can infer that their use of biblical imagery intends to patronise and mock rather than to express reverence
-their defiant nature sets them apart from Jacobean social norms wherein women are compliant and subservient reflecting prevailing anxieties at the time
-the creation of such controversy around The Witches incites intrigue in the audience and causes us to similarly question other themes in the play

Question 5

Act 1 Scene 2: ‘unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops’- Captain

Answer 5

-immediately introduces theme of duality as his splitting of Macdonwald in two foreshadows Macbeth’s duplicitous, two-faced nature highlighted through his treasonous act whereby he murdered King Duncan

Question 6

Act 1 Scene 3: ‘Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires’

Answer 6

-‘fires’ are connotative of judgment- Hell was depicted as a place of burning in Jacobean art wherein sinners would be condemned to eternal suffering. In this way, we can interpret Macbeth as trying to avoid his inevitable fate through his attempt to escape consequence.
-rhyming couplets: mimics The Witches which further implies that Macbeth wants to subvert natural law; he believes he can defy God and circumvent fate

Question 7

Act 1 Scene 3: Macbeth’s soliloquy- ‘Make my seated heart knock at my ribs’

Answer 7

-knocking becomes a motif for the intervention of Macbeth’s conscience; his heart wants to be let in so that it might be used as an instrument of Macbeth’s moral betterment.

Question 8

Act 1 Scene 5: ‘unsex me here’

Answer 8

-acknowledgement of the origins of power that exist in anatomy
-imperative verb ‘unsex’ further embodies theme that not all is as it seems as Lady Macbeth is depicted as defying the preconceived standards for women as subservient figures who take orders rather than give them
-subverts femme fatale trope implying that Lady Macbeth percieves the female body as a hindrance and alludes to the extent of her ambition as exceding beyond the material realms associated with the femme fatale; she desires the same power a man may posess in an androcentric society

Question 9

Macbeth’s soliloquy: Act 1 Scene 3
‘make my seated heart knock at my ribs’

Answer 9

• interferance of conscience: knocking is used as a motif for the panging guilt Macbeth feels after commiting regicide
  -marks the descent of his character into evil as his conscience graually slips away until its ‘knock(ing)’ can’t be heard

Question 10

Act 1 Scene 4
‘Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires’

Answer 10

Fate:
.during the Jacobean era, stars were deemed responsible for earthly happening as were considered to be instruments of the universe that possessed the ability to predetermine fate
.this implies that Macbeth is trying to circumvent condemnation for his impure intentions

Biblical:
.

Question 11

Act 1 Scene 4
‘nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it’- referring to the previous Thane of Cawdor

Answer 11

.born to die- nihilism, sacrilegious as it opposes the idea that God’s plan for us is what makes life meaningful
.foreshadows Macbeth’s flippant approach to life as simply offering a means to achieving his ambition thereby highlighting his path as one that strays from God’s intention from the offset
.his hamartia is what ultimately seals his fate

Question 12

ACT 1 SCENE 4
‘stars hide your fires, let light not see my black and deep desires’

Answer 12

Fate:
-astrology was heavily influential in the Jacobean period as stars were considered to be celestial beings with the ability to predetermine fate
-in this way, we can infer that Macbeth is trying to circumvent condemnation for his impure intentions
-thus suggesting an inherent knowledge of both good and evil and illustrating his compliance in his own demise
-here, Shakespeare may be trying to further transgress social norms by demonstrating man and his duplicitous nature as more corruptive than the Witches’
-hence the cautionary nature of this tale

Question 13

‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ -
Act 1, Scene 1

Answer 13

-paradox which exemplifies their resemblance of an inverted trinity thereby insinuating an inability to differentiate right from wrong. This is partially due to their androgenous nature as The Witches live on the parameters of society and convention exemplified through their use of trochaic tetrameter as this is a feature that defines their misanthropy
-‘foul is fair’ links to Macbeth’s anagnorisis as his revelation occurs as Birnam Wood is moving to Dunsinane, after the death of lady Macbeth