Macbeth Flashcards
“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”
Lady Macbeth goading Macbeth into murdering King Duncan. She entices him into looking pure and seeming as though to have good intentions to fool people, but to secretly be evil and sly. The noun “serpent” also holds religious connotations, representing the devil. This shows the extent of which Lady Macbeth wanted him to be purely sinister.
“False face must hide what the false heart doth know”
The end of the first act. Macbeth is finally giving in to Lady Macbeth’s manipulation. He now is accepting and in a state of anxiety after realising he’s going to do this. Immediately, he feels guilt and feels the need he’s not acting like himself through the use of “false face” and believes he’s had a change of heart that is wrong shown through “false heart”.
“Fair is foul and foul is fair”
This use of alliteration foreshadows a corruption of justice and a change in the works of hierarchy and fairness.
“To be king/stands not within the prospect of belief/no more than to be Cawdor” act 1 scene 3 Macbeth ambition
Macbeth at the beginning has lack of ambition or just hasn’t discovered them yet. He isn’t get controlled by his ambition. Sees being king and thane of Cawdor as impossible. The ideas of both are tied together so when he becomes thane of Cawdor he realises his potential and it feeds his ambition to become king
“My thought, whose murder is yet fantastical” act 1 scene 3 Macbeth ambition
Macbeth’s blossoming ambition is shown through him theorising about murder regardless of the fact the witches never mentioned murder. Shakespeare reveals here that his initial ambition is entirely of his own creation
“Fill me from the crown to the toe-top full of direst cruelty” Lady mc ambition
Lady Macbeth commanding spirits to remove any womanly qualities of innocence or kindness in order to achieve her full potential. She thinks she needs to be co plenteous cruel to get what she wants. The idea of subverted gender roles suggests she may be the more ambitious one. Referencing her head as the “crown” amplifies her desire to be queen
“I have no spur/to prick the sides of my intent, but only/vaulting ambition which oerleaps itself/and falls. Macbeth ambition
Spur to whip a horse and makes it go faster suggests he needs a push to act on ambition (Lady Macbeth). However, this is likened to the gentle touch of a prick, suggesting it’s easy to provoke him into acting on ambition. “Vaulting ambition” portrays image repeated throughout the play of him climbing places in the great chain of being . Verb “falls” shows he ps aware of his fatal flaw and if he pushes too far he will fail
“Worthy” “great” “good” Macbeth
“Black” Macbeth “bloody butcher” “hell kite”
Juxtaposing semantic fields portrays the food and evil in Macbeth (beginning and end)
Lady Macbeth “take my milk for gall” supernatural
The fact that she believes they can take away her feminine characteristics shows how powerful the supernatural were viewed in Elizabethan society
“O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!”Macbeth guilt
Rather face a wild animal than the ghost of Banquo - and in turn, his guilt. The metaphor emphasises the guilty conscience of Macbeth and that it has power over him so much that he is imagining a ghost. His sanity struggles due to guilt.
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash thus blood clean from my hand?” Macbeth- guilt
Rhetorical question, real blood but also representing the overwhelming guilt he feels after killing king Duncan. The dramatic language tells us he’s finding it hard to cope with and therefore may struggle to keep it a secret as he has a heavy conscience
“Out damned spot, out I say!”
! Shows how desperate she is to get rid of her guilt which is protruding through her dreams (which Elizabethan audience would believe is her truth coming out from God). Guilt causes her to loose grip with reality
“Yet I do fear thy nature; it is too full o’th’milk of human kindness” Lady Macbeth- power in gender
Suggests they are likened to opposing gender roles. Mac Beth is like a woman-weak. And she is like a man- powerful and brave. Shattering expectations of stereotypes of the time. She’s ashamed of her gender and feels you have to be male to be powerful. She’s do,infant over Macbeth and has the biggest influence over him
Power/gender context
Elizabethan women were known by their husband and could only obtain power through them. Women were seen as innocent and weak, men were seen as powerful and brave.
“Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here!”Lady Macbeth gender and power
Lady Macbeth is disliked as she is a woman in power, stepping out of her ordained place as a woman and also having contact with the supernatural(Elizabethans were very wary of supernatural)
