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of these images are themes that run throughout the entire play at different
times. Five of these images are nature, paradoxes, manhood, masks and
Nature:
filled with thunder and lightning. The witches are surrounded by a shroud
of thunder and lightning. Also, the first witch asks in Line 2 about the
will also be filled with these disturbances. The witches are also
filthy air" (Line 11). The weather might personify the witches, meaning
that the witches themselves are disturbances, though not limited to nature.
The bad weather also might mean that the witches are bad or foul ("filthy
air") creatures.
down" (Line 2), and Banquo says, "Their (Heaven's) candles are all out
the one half-world / Nature seems dead" (Lines 49 - 50). This statement
might mean that everywhere he looks, the world seems dead (there is no
hope). It might also give him the idea that the murder he is about to
commit will have repercussions spreading far. The doctor says in Act V,
Scene i, Line 10, "A great perturbation in nature," while talking about
Humanistic philosophy).
The Paradox:
The witches' chorus on Act I, Scene i, Line 10: "Fair is foul, and
like another (the characters of the play), or about how things will change
through the story (again the characters). Being so early in the play, it
makes the reader think about the line to find some meaning for themselves.
again and again throughout the play, adding new lines, or analyzing
The first thing that Macbeth says when he enters Scene iii (Line
38) is, "So foul and fair a day I have not seen." It is not likely that
when the witches said "Fair is foul, and foul is fair," during Scene I,
they were just referring to the condition of the day when they meet Macbeth.
There is much more, that will be seen later throughout the play.
Manhood:
says Lady Macbeth (Act I, Scene v, Lines 41 - 42). She wishes to be like a
man. Why? What does Lady Macbeth envision a man as being like? "And fill
me, from the crown to the toe, top-full / Of direst cruelty! Make thick my
visitings of nature / Shake my fell purpose, not keep peace between / Th'
effect and it!" (Lines 43 - 48). She wants to be like this so that she
will be able to plan the murder of Duncan. She does not believe that
Macbeth will be able to do it because he is "too full o' the milk of human
To help convince Macbeth not to call the murder off, Lady Macbeth
questions his manhood. She says, "When you durst do it, then you were a
man; / And to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the
man" (Act I, Scene vii, Lines 49 - 51). Upon hearing this speech, Macbeth
finally decides that he will go along with the murder after all.
during Act IV, Scene iii. While Malcolm implores him to "dispute it like a
man ("it" being the loss of his wife and children)" (Line 220), Macduff
says that he must also "feel it as a man" (Line 221), which changes the
image of a man given above by Lady Macbeth. While she portrays men as
being cruel and cold-hearted, Macduff shows that a man is cruel and cold
Masks:
specific instructions:
- Lines 65 - 67.
(be foul though seem fair, as the witches put it in scene one). Throughout
the play, many characters put on metaphorical masks to hide their true
In Act I, Scene vi, Lady Macbeth puts on her mask. She says (Lines
14 - 20) that the service and hospitality are nothing "Against those honors
deep and broad wherewith / Your Majesty loads our house . . ." She easily
"look the innocent flower / But be the serpent under 't." (Act I,
Scene v, Lines 67-68) She is saying that Macbeth must hide his intention
she is the serpent under Macbeth, and that he is the mask, or screen, which
puts up his own masks. He is almost sure that Macbeth is the murderer, but
he hides his suspicions while he idly talks to him. The masks aren't
Much of this play is filled with the struggle between light and
Act I, and then darkness shrouds the night of the murder). The light in
the first two acts is King Duncan, but the struggle favored the darkness.
Also, in Act V, Scene vii, Macduff enters and says, "If thou
[Macbeth] be'st slain and with no stroke of mine,/My wife and children's
ghosts will haunt me still" (Lines 15 - 16). Macduff can't rest until he
gets revenge on the killer of his family, something Malcolm and Fleance
Macduff is the hero of the play. He is the light that will soon
come to a final climactic battle with the dark (Macbeth). There is also
religious meaning to this: God against the devil, Macbeth being the devil
(He couldn't say "Amen" in Act II). This theme has been used in many