Macbeth

Question 1

” Stars hide your fires let not light see my black and deep desires “ - soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 4.

Answer 1

“Stars hide your fires” is personification. The stars are being asked to give Macbeth darkness, so no one can see his “black and deep desires.” Calling his desires black and deep is a metaphor, because the thoughts are not literally dark, but he is saying they are dark because they are evil.

Alliteration - deep desires

Macbeth uses light and dark to symbolize the conflict between good and evil, and between Macbeth’s conscience and his ambition

Evil influence of witches - context
Jacobeans strongly believes witches should not be interacted with

Question 2

“Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself” 1,7

Answer 2

He uses the metaphor of a horse leaping over an obstacle to describe his ambition.
He recognizes that his ambition can lead to mistakes and disaster.

Macbeth’s intense ambition is revealed to be the only thing driving him to commit regicide. He desperately wants to be king and a leader.

Extended Metaphor

Question 3

“Art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation” Act 2, Scene 1

Answer 3

• first hallucination

not a real physical weapon, but rather a manifestation of his own troubled mind and guilty conscience, created by his thoughts about the impending murder of Duncan; it’s a psychological illusion, a “false creation” stemming from the “heat-oppressed brain” as he contemplates his evil deed.

Reveals Macbeth’s internal turmoil

Question 4

“Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake / Thy gory locks at me.” 3,4

Answer 4

he sees the ghost of Banquo at a banquet, revealing his intense guilt and paranoia over the murder of Banquo, where he tries to deny his involvement by claiming he didn’t directly kill Banquo himself, only ordered his assassination,

This phrase refers to the bloody hair of the ghost, a powerful visual image that emphasizes the brutality of the murder and further intensifies Macbeth’s terror and guilt.

desperate attempt to rationalize his actions

Question 5

“secret, black, and midnight hags” 4,1

Answer 5

Macbeth is confrontational and arrogant when he calls the witches these names. He’s only meeting them to learn his future, but he doesn’t like them.

Undermining authority

Macbeth’s use of the adjective “black” creates a dark image of the witches. He’s also using exclamation marks to show that he’s becoming louder and more assertive.

rule of 3

king James also distrusted the witches and he also was paranoid of the witches

Question 6

“Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow” 5,5

Answer 6

Macbeth, consumed by guilt and despair, compares life to a fleeting candle flame and a ghostly shadow, signifying the impermanence and meaningless nature of human existence.

Macbeth speaks these lines after learning of his wife’s death, a moment where he is deeply contemplating the futility of his actions and the inevitable end of life.