Macbeth Flashcards
(30 cards)
Vaulting ambition
Ambition
Macbeths only motivation to kill Duncan is his ambition. This is eventually his hamartia
Stars hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires
Ambition
Macbeth wishes to keep his dark ambitions hidden as he contemplates committing regicide
Seize upon Fife
Ambition
Macbeth wants to murder Macduff
His ambition has transformed into unchecked tyranny. He used to hesitate about killing, now he does it for fun
To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus
Now on the throne, Macbeth feels the need to secure his position by murdering his best friend Banquo and his son Fleance. He is now a tyrant fuelled by ambition and violence
Fruitless Crown
Ambition
This metaphor shows that Macbeths crown is worthless and barren due to his lack of heirs. ‘Fruitless’ links to the divine right of kings. His crown is empty as he has disrupted and distorted natural order as God should be the one who chooses the king
Fair is foul and foul is fair
Supernatural
Introduces the play with a paradox- good may actually be evil. This reflects the deceptive nature of the world in the play. The Witches speak unclearly and distort reality to twist the truth and manipulate Macbeth
All hail Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter
Supernatural
Witches prophecy plants the seed of ambition
Is this a dagger I see before me
Supernatural
Macbeth hallucinates before killing Duncan. This is the supernatural forces corrupting him and ultimately sparking the ambition to commit regicide. Here he is oscillating between valour and villainy
None of woman born shall harm Macbeth
Supernatural
Witches misleading prophecy gives Macbeth false confidence. As a result, this leads to his tragic downfall in battle against Macbeth
Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t
Appearance V Reality
Metaphor for deception and false appearance. Links to the story of original sin as Lady Macbeth is Eve manipulating Macbeth who is metaphorically Adam to kill Duncan
Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep
Guilt
Macbeth realises he has destroyed his own piece of mind. Foreshadows his downfall as ultimately his mind corrupted by unchecked ambition is his hamartia
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood from my hand
Guilt
Macbeth is overwhelmed with guilt after regicide. He is pleading the powers of the Roman God of the sea to cleanse his heinous deed
Out damned spot! Out I say
Lady Macbeths guilt manifests as hallucinations of blood on her hand evoking immense remorse and regret
What’s done can’t be undone
Guilt
Lady Macbeths moment of anagnorisis as she understand she can’t escape the consequences of her crimes
I am in blood stepped so far
Violence
Macbeth accepts that he is beyond redemption and there’s no re shifting his moral compass now
Give to the edge o the sword
Violence
Macbeths merciless order of the murder of Macduffs family portrays how violence has consumed him. Brutal and unjust
Macbeth is ripe for shaking
Kingship
The rebels see Macbeths downfall approaching. Comparing Macbeth to a ripe fruit symbolises that just like an overripe fruit about to fall from a tree, Macbeth is about to collapse
Are you a man?
Masculinity
Lady Macbeth taunts Macbeth at the banquet. His emotional vulnerability is ‘unmanly’
Unsex me here
Masculinity
Lady Macbeth wants to strip her feminine characteristics as she feels they are a weakness. This shows her challenging patriarchal norms of Jacobean era
Take my milk for gall
Masculinity
She wants to fully embrace evil by removing her nurturing feminine qualities to help Macbeth commit regicide to gain power
Pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums/And dashed the brains out
Graphic imagery representing her reject her femininity and morality. Willing to kill her child if she promised so- contracts to Macbeths reluctancy to kill Duncan
Supernatural soliciting
Temptation
Instruments of darkness
The Witches
So fair and foul a day I have not seen
