Mb plotpoints Flashcards
(23 cards)
What are the key moments of the play?
Rebellion against Scotland
Meeting w/ witches
Mb writes to LMb
Plan to kill Duncan
Reactions to the murder
Mb’s plan to kill Bq
Bq’s ghost shows up
(Second meeting w/ witches)
Decides to kill Md’s family
LMb’s sleepwalking
Reaction to the death of LMb
Fight w/ Md
Key events of Rebellion against Scotland
Mb’s killing of Macdonald is reported and praised
Analysis of Rebellion against Scotland
- “ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him”: efficient and fast.
- “unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps”: would have to be close, holding on, not using long sword. He intentionally chooses a brutal and gory way to kill him. BLOODLUST.
- “or memorise another Golgotha”: place where Jesus died, so he is likened to Jesus. This could foreshadow his downfall, but more importantly would have strongly resonated with the heavily religious Jacobean audience. Killing in a Christian sense. Also, memorise: meant both commemorate, but also to literally memorise – he wants to return to this moment because he enjoys it!
Key details from first meeting w/ witches
- DON’T TELL HIM TO DO ANYTHING!
- They tell him he will be Thane of Cawdor and that he will be king
o He becomes ToC shortly after, so logically he will become King without his input. Despite this, he turns to the idea of murder anyway.
Analysis of first meeting w/ witches
- “Why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair”: Shakespeare tells us the problem with Mb
- “If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me without my stir.”: He doesn’t have to do anything.
Quotations of Mb writing to LMb
- “my dearest partner of greatness”
- “what greatness is promised thee”
- “too full o’ th’milk of human kindness”
Analysis of Mb writing to LMb
- Mb arrives just after LMb has read the letter. He wants LMb to think through a plan! He understands and exploits her psychologically. He doesn’t have the drive to kill D, despite his ambition.
- “my dearest partner of greatness”, “what greatness is promised thee”: focusses more on the fact that LMb will become queen. LMb’s ambition is greater than his.
- LMb asks to be unsexed – why? She say he is “too full o’ th’milk of human kindness”. BUT WE KNOW HE LOVES KILLING! It makes no sense. Her assessment is wrong. She doesn’t exploit him, she doesn’t get him. Is this why LMb can’t kill Duncan because he looks like her father? She brings her guilt upon herself unexpectedly – she doesn’t understand Mb or herself
Key details of the plan to kill D
Mb doesn’t mention LMb in his soliloquy before he kills D
This suggests he wants to do it anyway
Analysis of the plan to kill D
- “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’other”: He wants to kill Duncan. He has the ambition, but says it’s not enough. His ambition is vaulting (he is going to make the leap), but he will fall! “spur”: part of boots on a horse rider. Who wears those spurs? LMb! He talks to her about it.
- She isn’t the one to come up w/ the plan to persuade him, she is the one delivering the plan he always wanted. She is being manipulated! “My dearest partner of greatness”: this is insane for the time! Women as property. He wipes away this notion by suggesting they are equals.
- Mb soliloquy before killing Duncan. He doesn’t mention LMb at all! He sees blood on the dagger – this actually convinces him! He has a plan – his wife has planned it.
What is Shakespeare’s political message regarding reactions to the regicide?
destroys the Great Chain of Being, it’s an attack on God (political message)
Mb’s hamartia - reactions to the murder
§ RIDICULOUS AO3: Tragedy derived from Greek theatre. Hero has a fatal flaw (hamartia – his bloodlust). He is a typical Greek tragic hero – except usually in Greek tragedy, the hero gets an idea of their future and does all they can to avoid it. THIS IS NOT WHAT Mb DOES! He actively tries to reach his fate. The contemporary audience stopped believing in fate within Shakespeare’s lifetime.
§ Bloodlust as hamartia: “silver skin lac’d with his golden blood”. Precious metals = royalty. Gold > silver. Mb cares more about his blood than his skin. Mb is obsessed with blood
Reactions to the murder - analysis
· “To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself”: the murder confirms to Mb the things he would rather not admit.
· Other: Mb can’t be the hero of his own life anymore (psychological message). He has given into his desires to kill. He is filled with bloodlust – he knows this is who he is and he has an attraction to spilling blood.
Mb’s plan to kill Bq - details
· Both support the plan BUT Mb doesn’t let LMb plan it.
Why does Mb plan to kill Bq?
Mb doesn’t have to kill him. He knows he will be on the throne a long time (Banquo won’t become king). This isn’t ambition! If he kills Bq and Fleance, it’s not ambition, it’s jealousy.
§ How does this jealousy turn into murder? BLOODLUST!
· Murderers emphasise blood “twenty trenched gashes on his head” to appease him
Why isn’t LMb involved with the murder of Bq?
He wants to protect her. She will struggle w guilt
o Why would LMb feel guilty? The murder is not in connection with ambition! Mb doesn’t have to kill him. He knows he will be on the throne a long time (Banquo won’t become king). This isn’t ambition! If he kills Bq and Fleance, it’s not ambition, it’s jealousy.
§ “barren sceptre”, “fruitless crown”: he can’t have any more children. We know he already had at least one child die (could tie into Winget’s Melancholy and Hysteria in Macbeth)
Quotation for Bq’s ghost
“Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake thy gory locks at me”
Why does Mb see Bq’s ghost?
GUILT LOL
Analysis of Bq’s ghost
· “Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake thy gory locks at me”: focus on the blood coming down his head
o He is fascinated by his blood. Is this a projection of Mb’s imagination (insanity?) or does the ghost actually appear? The blood draws him in.
o “canst not say I did it”: Everyone else thinks he’s confessing to kill Duncan! This is when all the nobles start to leave him. This is the turning point – this is the moment his hamartia ruins him
Analysis of killing of Md’s family
· He knows he can’t kill Md – he has fled, so he decides to go on a rampage and kill his wife, kids, and everyone in his castle! “give to the edge o’the sword His wide, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line”. He LOVES killing
o How does he justify it? “I am in blood stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er” He invents a metaphor of a river of blood – he is halfway through and may as well cross. He thinks it will be less “tedious” to continue: he will enjoy himself more. Points to BLOODLUST
Analysis of LMb sleepwalking
· Mb thinks he has “murder’d sleep” initially. “Macbeth shall sleep no more”. He sleeps fine! It’s LMb that struggles. He has a deep psychological understanding of his wife (he was right not to include her in further plans for murder after Duncan. She is very upset about the later killings.
· “Here’s the smell of blood still”: She feels responsible for his subsequent murders.
· “The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now?”: She realises her husband is killing indiscriminately
· They are sleeping separately – she feels betrayed because she thought Mb wasn’t like this. She doesn’t love him. BUT Mb loves her – when the English are invading, he gets a doctor to try to cure her psychological sickness, and asks after how it went!
· He also knows the Witches have lied to him: too many of his Lords have deserted him. He knows he will die, but wants his wife to live on and focusses on that.
o “Infected be the air whereon they ride; and damn’d all those that trust them!”. He is sure their prophecies are a lie.
Analysis of Mb’s reaction to death of LMb
· Could be seen as treating her life as insignificant: “Out, out, brief candle!”, “She should’ve died hereafter”.
· ALTERNATIVE: The candle as a religious symbol. The light from the candle used in Christian iconography to suggest the light of God. He has thrown out God by killing Duncan, but he has replaced this with “”worshipping”” LMb. This is why he takes so much care of her when he is going into battle.
o When she dies, he loses interest in his own life (becomes nihilistic): “a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing”, “a poor player”
§ His life was predetermined (“player”) by God. God is an “idiot”. He created Mb’s flaws, so is responsible for Mb’s fate. This turning against God condemns him to hell. He places the responsibility of his actions on God.
§ Nihlism: life is pointless. There is no point to life other than the meaning we give it. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day”. His future life seems pointless, he would rather end it now.
· ROMAN TRAGEDY: He would now kill himself lol (so he can stay a hero). BUT HE DOESN’T! “Why should I play the Roman fool, and die On mine own sword?”. He wants to fulfil his fate.
Analysis of fight w Md and Mb
· Mb says “thou loosest labour”. He thinks Md is wasting his time. Suggests Mb is winning, and he is confused who might kill him.
· “What’s he that was not born of woman?”. Md tells him. “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped”.
· They have a chat. Mb says “I’ll not fight with thee”. Md threatens to humiliate him if he surrenders: “live to be the show and gaze o’ th’time”, “as our rarer monsters are”.
· Mb decides to fight (“Lay on, Macduff”) so he can see himself as a warrior and a hero because he dies in battle. Ironic to the audience: Mb is an anti-hero.
Analysis of the very ending
- “dead butcher”. He just enjoyed killing.
- “fiend-like queen”. LMb has the ambtion. In Malcom’s opinion, Mb’s hamartia is his bloodlust, and his wife’s ambition.
o Is this misogynistic? What is Shakespeare’s perspective about the role of a King? Cautionary tale about killing the king for the nobles at court.
