Macbeth Ambition Flashcards
“why do yield to that suggestion whose horrid image does unfix my hair”
L - adj. “horrid”
MB’s first thought is one of murder. It suggests that MB knows murdering D to achieve his ambition is morally wrong.
L - v. “unfix”
Suggests that the strength of his ambition terrifies him.
“too full o’th milk of human kindness”
L - met.
LMB feminizes MB, she knows he is ambitions but too kind to act upon achieving his ambitions off the battlefield. She realised that she will need to manipulate him into murdering D.
“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition”
L - met.
MB’s ambition battles with his conscience. He knows he has no motive for killing a morally good king.
C - DRK
MB knows killing a king is an act against God. The play was preformed after the Gunpowder Plot - Sh. Sends a warning to those who might seek to murder a morally good king, like James 1
“Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires”
L - adj. “black” and “deep”
Suggest MB knows his murderous ambition is morally wrong but also very strong. Stars symbolise the light of heaven - he does not want God to see what he is planning to do, but he is going to commit the murder anyway.
“It was said…that myself should be the root and father of many kings”
L= metaphor. Banquo hopes that his descendants will
become kings of Scotland. The metaphor creates an image of
a family tree of kings with Banquo as its root.
C= Shakespeare was deliberately faltering James I, for
whom the play was written, as he was a Scottish descendant
of Banquo.
‘a poor player that struts and
frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more’
L=extended metaphor of people as actors and life as a
stage. MB realises that, in the wider scheme of things, he is
just a ‘poor player’ with a limited amount of time on Earth
and once he is dead, he will be forgotten. All his ambition
has been for nothing and he has damned him soul to Hell.
TS1: The witches prediction that Macbeth will be king touches upon his hamartia; his ambition.
TS2: Lady Macbeth knows her husband is ambitious but too kind a man to act upon his desires.
TS3: Banquo is ambitious for his sons to be kings, but unlike Macbeth, he leaves it to fate.
TS4: Achieving his ambition does not bring Macbeth contentment, and he dies knowing he’ll be forgotten.
