Macbeth - Characters Flashcards
“Stars hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires”
Macbeth is showing themes of ambition, violence, supernatural and deception
Noun phrase - “Stars, hide your fires” shows that Macbeth wishes to remain in complete darkness and invisible, so that his “deep desires” can not be observed.
Metaphors of “light” and “dark” - “dark” stands for Macbeths moral unscrupulousness.
“Light” is personified to be an active agent that can “see” into desires; possibly a supernatural force that scrutunizes human actions.
“Look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”
Lady Macbeth is showing themes of violence and deception
Lady Macbeth says to Macbeth when he returns from war and she wants him to pretend to be nice but actually be deceitful towards Duncan
Simile
“Innocent flower” - pretty and likeable, natural
“serpent” - deceptive and backstabbing. Evil like the serpent in the Garden of Eden
Adam and Eve
“Brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name”
Captain to Duncan during the first fight
“Brave” - Adjective - shows Macbeth is a strong and mighty warrior because he defeated all of the Irish and Norweyans.
“Deserves” - Verb - he has earned it for his courage on the battlefield when he was outnumbered.
His sword “smoked with bloody execution”
Captain to Duncan during the first fight
Metaphor
“smoked” - verb - shows he was fighting hard and really fast, almost like a machine
“execution” - noun - Macbeth only kills criminals and traitors, which is why he is a hero
“too full of the milk of human kindness”
Lady Macbeth is afraid her husband is too caring and weak to murder his cousin, Duncan.
Metaphor
“milk” - means mother’s milk, so Macbeth is like a woman who is nurturing and warm hearted, not manly enough
“kindness” - noun - is a feminine trait
“Will all Great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hand? No.”
After killing Duncan, Macbeth asks Lady Macbeth.
Exaggeration/Rhetorical Question
“Neptune’s oceans” - all the water in the world can’t wash the blood off his hands because he will always feel guilty
*links to the idea of being caught “red handed” or in the Bible when Jesus was wrongly crucified.
“My dearest partner in greatness”
Macbeth writes this to his wife in a letter
“dearest” - adjective - shows he really treasures and values. He loves her.
“partner” - noun - they do everything together and are close and equal
“greatness” - noun - they both have ambition
“Unsex me here!”
Lady Macbeth wants the evil spirits to make her less womanly and more masculine so that she can help Macbeth
Metaphor - she doesn’t actually want to be a man, just to have male traits of violence, aggression and power
“Fair is foul and foul is fair”
The witches want us to know that good people could actually be bad people and people who seem bad could be good. Alliteration of F Meaning - things are not what they seem "Fair" means good "Foul" means bad/evil
“Full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife”
Macbeth is feeling paranoid and guilty after killing Banquo and Duncan. He wants to continue being evil though as he is fueled by ambition
Metaphor
“Scorpions” - evil thoughts, venomous ideas
“Tyrant”
Malcolm and Macduff both call Macbeth this because he is making Scotland bleed and constantly killing people who suspects will rebel or oppose him.
Tyrant is a leader who imposes their rules through violence and fear.
“When shall we three meet again, In thunder, lightning or in rain?”
There is always bad weather when the witches meet and when really evil things happen.
Bad weather and night time are used to hide evil deeds from God. The witches work for the Devil.
