1.1 Flashcards
(5 cards)
What happens in Act 1 Scene 1?
The three witches arrange to meet Macbeth when the fighting is over
“When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning or in rain?”
Trochaic Tetrameter
Ominous atmosphere is reflected through pathetic fallacy
Tricolon- triplets are used frequently throughout the play
Rhyming couplet
Semantic field of stormy weather links to King James I’s wariness of the witches (when he goes to collect his wife from Denmark he believes witches create storms when he is travelling)
“When the hurly burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost, and won.
That will be ere the set of sun.”
Rhyming couplet
Discord between lines 2 and 3 shows chaos that the witches ensue
Paradox shows equivocating language of the witches and establishes winning and losing as a key theme in the play
Setting sun- nighttime and malevolence
“Fair is foul and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
Equivocating language informs the Jacobean belief that witches cannot be trusted.
Paradoxical statement -recurs throughout play as a textual echo
The verb “hover” informs the supernatural theme
Rhyming couplet
The battlefield: thunder and lightning. Enter three witches.
What does this stage direction establish at the beginning of the play?
A sense of foreboding.
Jacobean audience members will remember that King James I experienced storms when he went to collect his wife from Denmark which he said witches caused. An uneasy and ominous atmosphere is created.
