Macbeth - The Supernatural Flashcards
(6 cards)
Act One Scene One:
WITCHES: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”
Interpretation: From the beginning of the play the audience see that what is right can be wrong, and what is wrong can be right. Boundaries between good and evil are blurred and confused.
Analysis: The alliteration of the “f’ sound creates a sinister, uneasy tone. The repetition of “fair” and “foul” suggests the two ideas are interchangeable, emphasised further by the definite “is”. “Foul” is more dominant and intimidating than “fair” is caring and pleasant - the evil element overpowers goodness. The King at the time, James I, wrote a book stating all magic was evil - this chant sounds almost like a magical spell, and the audience would fear it.
Act One Scene Five: LADY MACBETH: “Come, you spirits/ that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here!/ And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full”
Interpretation: Lady Macbeth believes she must reject her womanly nature l i if she is to help Macbeth - she also suggests the only way to gain power is through a commitment to evil rather than positive actions.
Analysis: The fact that Lady Macbeth invites the spirits with the phrase
“Come, you spirits” shows she has embraced the supernatural whereas Macbeth seems nervous of its power. The phrase “unsex me here” is an explicit rejection of traditionally female behaviour. Lady Macbeth is rejecting the typical patriarchal society of the time. Not only is Lady Macbeth prepared to be cruel, but the adjective “direst” highlights the extreme lengths she is willing to go to.
Act Three Scene Five:
HECATE: “This night I’ll spend/Unto a dismal and a fatal end.”
Interpretation: The most powerful witch of all, Hecate, is intent on making l & sure that the outcome of the action is both painful and deadly. It will be a truly tragic end. The audience may well have a strong belief in fate - they would fear that their own life is not necessarily in their control.
Analysis: The idea of Hecate saying she will “spend” a night on Macbeth’s fate suggests she is in full control of what happens to him - it has associations with careful planning and scheming to ensure his “fatal end”.
The use of “dismal” and “fatal” show that Macbeth’s fate is going to result in death, but “dismal” also implies an unheroic end for a once great soldier.
The fact Hecate states that she wants “a dismal and a fatal end”, rather than
‘dismal, fatal end’ lengthens the sentence and extends the pain Macbeth will feel.
Act Four Scene One:
WITCH: “Finger of birth-strangled babe, / Ditch-delivered by a drab.”
Interpretation: This is just one of the many horrific ingredients that go into a & the witches’ cauldron. The idea of including body parts from a dead baby shows just how evil the witches truly are, and that Macbeth was always going to be defeated by their horrific magic.
Analysis: This list of ingredients around the dark cauldron is at its most evil when the finger of a “babe” is added, a symbol of pure innocence being destroyed, linking to the destruction of the previously good Macbeth. The image of it being “birth-strangled” highlights the extreme cruelty of the witches. The alliteration bilabial plosive of the “b” and “d” sounds creates a chant-like tone to the list of ingredients, accentuating the supernatural feel.
Act Four Scene One:
MACBETH: “Though you untie the winds and let them fight/ Against the churches.”
Interpretation: The completely unnatural behaviour of the witches is so powerful that it has even turned the natural world against religion, causing conflict throughout the land.
Analysis: Here the churches are a personified symbol of morality and goodness - it would be distressing for the religious audience to see Christianity attacked in this way. The witches have deliberately turned the wind against it, with the word “fight” linking to the violent conflicts throughout the play. The fact they “untie” the winds has associations with a great power being unleashed against the moral goodness of the Church.
Because the wind is attacking “against the churches” it seems as if the Church is passive and vulnerable to evil’s power.
Act 1 Scene Four:
MACBETH: “Stars hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires”
Noun phrase - “Stars, hide your fires” shows that Macbeth wishes to remain? w in complete darkness and invisible, so that his “deep desires” can not be observed.
Metaphors of “light” and “dark” - “dark” stands for Macbeth’s moral unscrupulousness.
“Light” is personified to be an active agent that can “see” into desires; possibly a supernatural force that scrutunizes human actions.
Macbeth may believe in a God-like figure who will judge his actions. His concern does not lie with views of other human beings, just for the supernatural - showing his impending allegiance to the supernatural - shows his guilt complex.
