Supernatural Flashcards
Ts1: the witches are the catalysts for the action, and they exploit Macbeth’s hamartia- his ambition.
‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’
Ts2: Banquo is less trusting of the witches and cautions Macbeth that they might have evil intentions.
‘Instruments of darkness’
Ts3: the supernatural also occurs in the appearance of Banquo’s ghost.
‘Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold’
‘They rise again… and push us from our stools’
Ts4: later in the play, the witches recognise Macbeth’s evil, and seek to deceive him.
‘By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes’
‘Artificial sprites… shall draw him on his confusion’
Ts5: at the end of the play, Macbeth realises that he has been deceived, and the witches have led him to damn his soul.
‘Juggling fiends’
Topic sentences:
Ts1: witches deceive MB and are catalyst for his hamartia.
Ts2: Banquo less trusting of witches and warns MB
Ts3: supernatural also occurs in the appearance of Banquo’s ghost.
Ts4: later in the play, the witches recognise Macbeth’s evil, and seek to deceive him.
Ts5: END- MB realises he has been deceived and witches have led him to damn his soul.
‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’
L= paradox/chiasmus. The witches predict MB will be king which is good but lead him to commit murder which is evil, in order to achieve his ambition to become king. Shows equivocation (use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth)of witches.
‘Instruments of darkness’
L= metaphor. Banquo realised the witches could be evil agents of the devil and tempt MB to commit sin.
C= reflects James 1’s belief in witches as evil agents, described in his book ‘Daemonologie’. Shakespeare flatters his patron the king by including a subject in which he was interested.
‘Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold’
D= the ghost is not just supernatural, it is a projection of his guilty conscience after murdering Banquo. R= ghost terrifies audience; also a warning of how murderers will be punished- dead will come back to haunt them. C= Gunpowder Plot (political message)
‘By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes’
L= rhyming couplet. They know MB has become as evil as they are. C= it was believed witches could sense the approach of evil.
‘Artificial sprites… shall draw him on in his confusion’
The witches decide to deceive Macbeth about his future to punish him.
R/I= Audience may feel MB deserved punishment for his evil or feel sympathy as he shouldn’t have trusted the witches.
‘Juggling fiends’
L= metaphor. MB realised he has been deceived by the witches as agents of the devil and that he has damned his soul to Hell for murdering a king. C= Divine Right of Kings. Punishment from God. C= James I warns of dangers of witchcraft in book ‘daemonologie’
Ts6: LMB develops theme of supernatural by calling upon evil spirits to help her become a violent murderess
‘Come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers’
‘Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here’
