Macbeth Quotes and Analysis Flashcards
what genre of play is Macbeth? What does this make the character Macbeth?
It is a tragedy, and this makes Macbeth the tragic hero
what is a tragic hero?
The Greek philosopher Aristotle in his work ‘Poetics’ defines the tragic hero as someone who is highly renowned but has a reversal of fortune from good to bad and whose misfortune is brought about by some personal error or frailty which we call a character’s hamartia.
how is Macbeth presented in the opening scenes of the play?
In the opening scenes of the play, even before the audience meets Macbeth, Shakespeare made sure to present him as “noble” and highly renowned. In Act 1 Scene 2, the sergeant describes how “brave Macbeth” killed McDonald on the battlefield, cutting him open from the “nave to th’ chops”. Act 1 Scene 2 ends with King Duncan referring to Macbeth as “noble”, a term which Banquo repeats in Act 1 Scene 3, referring to him as his “noble partner”. Therefore, in these opening three opening scenes, we see that Macbeth is indeed highly renowned, from the sergeant who witnessed his actions on the battlefield, the King he serves, and his close friend. This well-rounded trio of opinion leaves the audience with no doubt that Macbeth starts the play as a man well respected by others.
Macbeth is described as cutting open Donalbain from “the nave to th’ chops”. How is this reflective of the society that Macbeth is set in?
Whilst this imagery might seem unnecessarily gory and shocking to modern society, it’s a good indicator of the martial society in which the play is set: a society where people prove themselves worthy of honour by their actions on the battlefield. We see this echoed throughout the play: when Siward learns of his son’s death in battle, he is pleased to know that his son’s wounds were to his front not his back, meaning that he died not running away from his foe, but facing them head on. This is a violent play, with blood spilled from the start to the end, and it’s into this setting that Macbeth is placed.
compare Macbeth and Banquo
However, when Macbeth meets the witches who prophesise, among other things, that Macbeth will one day be King, we see what many thing of as Macbeth’s harmartia: his ambition. To understand the significance of Macbeth’s reaction to the witches, we can compare
Prove + suggest reasons for Macbeth’s lack of love for lady Macbeth.
- “She should have died hereafter” - afterwards he hardly speaks about her, only focuses on himself
- death happens off stage to symbolise his lack of love, even interest - he ignores her, doesn’t go to her
- their marriage has broken down - could be because of bitterness about the way Lady Macbeth emasculated him - “art thou a man”, “and live a coward in thine own esteem”, “i shame to wear a heart so white” (“white” has connotations of surrender, links to cowardliness)
- it is a patriarchal society - Lady Macbeth has embarrassed Macbeth in public when he saw Banquo’s ghost and humiliated him in private by calling him a “coward”. Shakespeare reminds the audience of her proper, subservient place in this patriarchal society by having her die off stage. She is punished for being unsexed and rejecting her gender, her feminine role - “unsex me here”, “come to my woman’s breasts… Take my milk for gall”
One interpretation of the quote “she should have died hereafter” is that Macbeth has no love for Lady Macbeth. Suggest an alternative interpretation.
- Macbeth is facing his own death, yet pities his wife for her guilt and mental anguish
- on the eve of battle, he stops his vital preparations to summon a doctor to “minister” to her, which is an extraordinary mark of his love. He realises he has tried to keep her “innocent of the knowledge” of his own descent into violence, but he has failed in this and must take the blame for her madness
- His comment perhaps means that he knows his death is imminent, but he had desperately hoped she would live a longer and perhaps a happier life.
- he exclaims “throw physic to the dogs”, suggesting that he is so angered by the doctor’s inability to cure Lady Macbeth that he wants to get rid of all medicine - suggests he is desperate to save Lady Macbeth but can’t - sign of him loving her
give two interpretations of the fact that Macbeth doesn’t tell Lady Macbeth about Banquo’s murder.
- Macbeth wants to protect Lady Macbeth from his descent into violence - realises he has become addicted to violence and doesn’t want her caught up in it
- He doesn’t care about her and no longer has need of her to carry out his plans. He is perhaps angry at Lady Macbeth for goading him into killing Duncan, and therefore leaves her out of his future plans
suggest a reason for Lady Macbeth’s death happening off stage
The off-stage tragedy of Lady Macbeth’s death is presented partly to explain what can happen when women are denied any equality or power in a patriarchal society. Shakespeare wants us to be shocked that Lady Macbeth is not present on stage when she dies (plenty of characters do die on stage in Shakespeare’s plays). He could be saying that its not Macbeth’s indifference that leads to her dying off stage: it’s society that has shoved her to one side because she’s seen as unimportant, especially as she has tried to “unsex” herself and behave like a man.
Shakespeare could be suggesting that It is her marginalisation that leads to her desire to become queen and her subsequent persuasion of her husband to commit regicide.
give a piece of context about Shakespeare to do with the quote “my dearest partner in greatness”
Shakespeare married a woman who was at least his equal - Anne Hathaway was 26 compared to his 18 years
give a (contextual) link between Lady Macbeth persuading her husband to commit regicide and the Witches
It could be said that it is Lady Macbeth’s marginalisation that leads to her desire to become queen and her subsequent persuasion of her husband to commit regicide: would she have had to fight to try and make her husband as powerful as possible if she had been allowed to gain power in her own right? You can look at the creation of the witches in the same way: women are denied power by the patriarchal society, so they are forced to go to extreme lengths to obtain it. Therefore, it could be said that play is an attack on the male abuse of power.
what is the significance of the witches being ugly?
In those days, a woman’s looks were her only real way of obtaining power due to the patriarchal society. One interpretation is that, without this beauty, the witches were forced to go to extreme lengths to gain some form of power - could be seen as an attack on the male abuse of power.
“I come Graymalkin”
Graymalkin = grey cat
Cat = common Witches’ familiar
“Malkin” is a diminutive of Mary - Mary is a common name, grey cat pretty nondescript - could be a warning of Witches + supernatural’s omnipresence
“What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won”
- Connection to “when the battle’s lost and won”? - perhaps reminding audience of omnipresence of Witches + supernatural.
- perhaps suggesting Macbeth also inherited his treachery - old thane of Cawdor dies in “a deep repentance” and “nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it” - perhaps suggesting that the position of Thane of Cawdor is somehow cursed, and that as soon as he was relieved of the position he realised what he’d done, repented, and stopped being a traitor. This could foreshadow Macbeth, the newly appointed Thane of Cawdor, falling into treachery himself
- “noble Macbeth” furthers this impression, as it highlights Macbeth’s nobility before his acquisition of the title of Thane of Cawdor and his descent into treachery.
Give two interpretations of the phrase “Aroynt thee” (said to the Wotch by the sailor’s wife). What does it show?
- ‘Rynt thee’ is an expression used by milkmaids to a cow after milking to get it out the way
- Relation to Scottish word ‘runt’, a term applied in contempt to an old woman
Either way, it shows the woman’s contempt and dismissal of the witch, perhaps conveying the idea that the Witches, in their ugliness, were outcast from society and forced to take extreme measures to obtain any power. This could be a comment by Shakespeare on the effects of the patriarchy, showing what happens when you deny women of any power.
suggest a reason why Shakespeare started Macbeth with the Witches
To please King James I - wrote “Demonologie” in 1603, just 2 years before Macbeth was written - in 1597 James I presided on witch trials, accusing witches of trying to sink his ship and kill him by controlling the weather and storms
what meter do the witches speak in? why?
trochaic tetrameter - it gives their speech the quality of a childlike rhyme - imagery of familiars adds to this (children often play with animals) - Shakespeare could be insinuating (although he can’t say it outright) that the belief in the supernatural is a childish belief
what is a trochaic foot/trochee?
a pair of syllables: a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable
what is trochaic tetrameter?
a line of 4 trochaic feet
DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da
what is an iambic foot/iamb?
a pair of syllables: an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
why does “fair is foul and foul is fair” seem sinister?
the fricatives (repetition of the “f” sound) cause the speaker to naturally bare their teeth, and this creates an impression of violence and suggests that the character has violent intentions - suggests right from start that witches have designs on Macbeth and that their designs will probably lead to violence
what is the word for a fatal flaw?
hamartia
what is a martial society?
a society that is driven by warfare and celebrates the warrior
Macbeth’s sword “smoked with bloody execution”. Analyse.
“smoked” - covered in steaming hot blood, connotes the speed of his attack
“execution” - he isn’t fighting - soldiers don’t have time to fight back before he “executes” them - shows his skill as a warrior
“till he unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps”
- macbeth had to be using a short sword - wouldn’t be possible with a longsword - had to be really close to Macdonald as he sliced him open “from the nave to the chaps” - suggests he kills because he enjoys it not because he wants to - bloodlust?
what message could Shakespeare be trying to convey to the audience (king James I and his nobles) by setting the play in a martial society?
One of the political aspects of the play could be viewed as a campaign for a peaceful society and one that is ruled by civil law: by showing the way that the martial society has allowed Macbeth, an incredibly violent and destructive individual, to rise to power and cause so much chaos in Scotland, Shakespeare could be warning the court to move away from conflict. A natural consequence of conflict is that you create men of power like Macbeth. This would have been very relevant in 1605 due to the recent events of the Gunpowder Plot
first witch: “here I have a pilot’s thumb, wrecked as homeward he did come”
How does this show a parallel to Macbeth?
“homeward” - coming home - should be the safest part of the journey. Macbeth coming home after battle - should be the safest part - but witches set in motion the events leading to his downfall
“all hail Maceth, thou shalt be King hereafter”
why might the witches use “thou” with Macbeth? How does this compare to the way Banquo addresses Macbeth?
“thou” was the informal form of ‘you’, and as such it was used almost exclusively for either those you loved or those who had a lower social status than you. By referring to Macbeth as “thou”, the witches are both treating Macbeth as an inferior and suggesting a common link between them, perhaps implying that they have seen in Macbeth the same evil that is within them.
what was the story of Macbeth based on?
Hollinshed’s chronicles - a large, comprehensive description of British history published in three volumes (England, Scotland and Ireland).
why might Banquo not be as innocent as he seems?
- “good sir, why do you start and seem to fear things that seem to sound so fair” - ostensibly sounds innocent (made Banquo seem good to flatter King, as Banquo is thought to be his ancestor), but sibilance suggests a hidden malice
- he has a vested interest in Macbeth becoming King - his sons will only become kings if Macbeth does
- he doesn’t take any of the many opportunities he has to prevent Macbeth killing Duncan
- In Hollinshed’s Chronicles (the publication that Macbeth was based on), Banquo and Macbeth work together to kill King Duncan
“if good, why do I yield to that suggestion that doth unfix my hair”
- “unfix” - everyone’s positions in society are fixed - Macbeth wants to “unfix” himself and change the Great Chain of Being
