Macbeth

Close study of a Text

Stratford Upon Avon - Today

Shakespeare - YouTube

Theme
s

Light versus Dark- Good versus Evil

Much of this play is filled with the struggle between light and darkness.
Macbeth starts off as good but soon has horrible imaginings (Act 1 Sc3
line 139) Macbeth knows that terrible to contemplate regicide and that
Duncan does not deserve it. This is evident in his soliloquy where he
imagines Duncans virtues/ Will plead like angles trumpet-tongud
against/ The deep damnation of his taking-off (Act 1 Sc7)Macbeth asks
for darkness to hide his desires in Act I, and then darkness shrouds the
night of the murder. The light in the first two acts is King Duncan, but the
struggle went in favour of darkness. This struggle occurs in every act of
the play.
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 (whose family
was also killed by Macbeth) didn't say.

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 (remember how he couldn't say
"Amen" in Act II?). This theme has been used in many
contemporary stories; it's an epic battle of good vs. evil.
Also look at a comparison between early descriptions of Macbeth, Lady
Macbeth and the witches.

Nature out of
order

"Thunder and lightning." This is the description of the scene before Act I,
Scene I, line 1. The thunder and lightning represent disturbances in nature.
Most people do not think of a great day being filled with thunder and
lightning. So the witches are surrounded by a shroud of thunder and
lightning. Also, the first witch asks in line 2 about the meeting with
Macbeth, "In thunder, lightning, or in rain?" The meeting will also be filled
with these disturbances. The witches are also surrounded by more
undesired parts of weather: "Hover through the fog and 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.
In Act II, Scene I, it is a dark night. Fleance says "The moon is down" (line
2), and Banquo says, "[Heaven's] candles are all out [there are no stars in
the sky]" (line 5). Darkness evokes feelings of evilness, of a disturbance in
nature on this accursed night. It creates a perfect scene for the baneful
murders.

Another disturbance in nature comes from Macbeth's mouth, "Now

o'er the one half-world / Nature seems dead" (lines 49 - 50). This
statement might mean that nowhere he looks, the world seems dead
(there is no hope, as the existentialist philosophy supports). It might
also give him conceited ideas 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
Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking. This is just another example of how
nature is disturbed by human doings, placing emphases on mankind
(following the Humanistic philosophy).

Ambition

Macbeth is a play about ambition run amok. The weird sisters

prophecies spur both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to try to fulfil their
ambitions, but the witches never make Macbeth or his wife do anything.
Macbeth and his wife act on their own to fulfil their deepest desires.
Macbeth, a good general and, by all accounts before the action of the
play, a good man, allows his ambition to overwhelm him and becomes a
murdering, paranoid maniac. Lady Macbeth, once she begins to put into
actions the once-hidden thoughts of her mind, is crushed by guilt.

Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want to be great and powerful, and
sacrifice their morals to achieve that goal. By contrasting these two
characters with others in the play, such as Banquo, Duncan, and
Macduff, who also want to be great leaders but refuse to allow ambition
to come before honour, Macbeth shows how naked ambition, freed from
any sort of moral or social conscience, ultimately takes over every other
characteristic of a person. Unchecked ambition, Macbeth suggests, can
never be fulfilled, and therefore quickly grows into a monster that will
destroy anyone who gives into it.

Fate

From the moment the weird sisters tell Macbeth and Banquo their
prophecies, both the characters and the audience are forced to wonder
about fate. Is it real? Is action necessary to make it come to pass, or will
the prophecy come true no matter what one does? Different characters
answer these questions in different ways at different times, and the final
answers are ambiguousas fate always is.
Unlike Banquo, Macbeth acts: he kills Duncan. Macbeth tries to master
fate, to make fate conform to exactly what he wants. But, of course, fate
doesnt work that way. By trying to master fate once, Macbeth puts
himself in the position of having to master fate always. At every instant,
he has to struggle against those parts of the witches prophecies that
dont favor him. Ultimately, Macbeth becomes so obsessed with his fate
that he becomes delusional: he becomes unable to see the half-truths
behind the witches prophecies. By trying to master fate, he brings
himself to ruin.

Violence
To call Macbeth a violent play is an understatement. It begins in battle,
contains the murder of men, women, and children, and ends not just with
a climactic siege but the suicide of Lady Macbeth and the beheading of
its main character, Macbeth. In the process of all this bloodshed,
Macbeth makes an important point about the nature of violence: every
violent act, even those done for selfless reasons, seems to lead
inevitably to the next. The violence through which Macbeth takes the
throne, as Macbeth himself realizes, opens the way for others to try to
take the throne for themselves through violence. So Macbeth must
commit more violence, and more violence, until violence is all he has left.
As Macbeth himself says after seeing Banquos ghost, blood will to
blood. Violence leads to violence, a vicious cycle.

Manhood- Gender Roles

Over and over again in Macbeth, characters discuss or debate

about manhood: Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeth when he
decides not to kill Duncan, Banquo refuses to join Macbeth in his
plot, Lady Macduff questions Macduffs decision to go to
England, and on and on.

Through these challenges, Macbeth questions and examines

manhood itself. Does a true man take what he wants no matter
what it is, as Lady Macbeth believes? Or does a real man have
the strength to restrain his desires, as Banquo believes? All of
Macbeth can be seen as a struggle to answer this question
about the nature and responsibilities of manhood.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can
help to develop and inform the texts major themes.

Hallucinations
Visions and hallucinations recur throughout the play and serve as
reminders of Macbeth and Lady Macbeths joint culpability for the growing
body count. When he is about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger
floating in the air. Covered with blood and pointed toward the kings
chamber, the dagger represents the bloody course on which Macbeth is
about to embark. Later, he sees Banquos ghost sitting in a chair at a
feast, pricking his conscience by mutely reminding him that he murdered
his former friend. The seemingly cold blooded Lady Macbeth also
eventually gives way to visions, as she sleepwalks and believes that her
hands are stained with blood that cannot be washed away by any amount
of water. In each case, it is ambiguous whether the vision is real or purely
hallucinatory; but, in both cases, the Macbeths read them uniformly as
supernatural signs of their guilt.

Violence
Macbeth is a famously violent play. Interestingly, most of the
killings take place offstage, but throughout the play the
characters provide the audience with gory descriptions of the
carnage, from the opening scene where the captain describes
Macbeth and Banquo wading in blood on the battlefield, to the
endless references to the bloodstained hands of Macbeth and his
wife. The action is bookended by a pair of bloody battles: in the
first, Macbeth defeats the invaders; in the second, he is slain and
beheaded by Macduff. In between is a series of murders: Duncan,
Duncans chamberlains, Banquo, Lady Macduff, and Macduffs
son all come to bloody ends. By the end of the action, blood
seems to be everywhere.

Prophecy
Prophecy sets Macbeths plot in motionnamely, the witches
prophecy that Macbeth will become first thane of Cawdor and then
king. The weird sisters make a number of other prophecies: they
tell us that Banquos heirs will be kings, that Macbeth should
beware Macduff, that Macbeth is safe till Birnam Wood comes to
Dunsinane, and that no man born of woman can harm Macbeth.
Save for the prophecy about Banquos heirs, all of these predictions
are fulfilled within the course of the play. Still, it is left deliberately
ambiguous whether some of them are self-fulfillingfor example,
whether Macbeth wills himself to be king or is fated to be king.
Additionally, as the Birnam Wood and born of woman prophecies
make clear, the prophecies must be interpreted as riddles, since
they do not always mean what they seem to mean.

Key Terms
Soliloquy
A soliloquy is a speech in a drama in which a character tells the
audience how he feels by talking to himself. (noun)
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that
can help to develop and inform the texts major themes.
Allusion
A reference to matters outside the text
Aside
This element is a dramatic convention that finds a character
speaking explicitly to the audience.

By careful study of the play decide , in committing Duncans murder how

far Macbeth is driven by his own ambition; how far he is dominated by his
wifes ; and how far he is influenced by the witches.
Introduction:
Answer the question, introduce the play and outline what you will
discuss in the essay.
Possible opening sentence:
The play Macbeth gives the audience plenty of opportunities to consider
the reasons for the main characters actions. After careful study it is quite
apparent that many factors influenced Macbeths disgraceful behaviour.
-Lady Macbeths influence
-Macbeths ambition
- The influence of the witches
Main Body
PARAGRAPH 1- Write about how Lady Macbeths influence drove
Macbeth.
PARAGRAPH 2 Write about how Macbeths own ambition influenced his
decisions.
PARAGRAPH 3- write about how the witches influenced Macbeth to do
unspeakable things.

Structure
Introduction
Answer the question by stating your opinion
in the first sentence.
Outline what you will discuss in the essay
Your 3 main points could be
-How far is Macbeth driven by his own
ambition?
-How far is he driven by his wife?
How far is he driven by the witches?

Structure
Body
This is where you extend on the main ideas that
you mentioned in the introduction.
Possible Opening Sentences for each paragraph
1. It is clear that at the beginning of the play
Macbeth is a brave war hero
2. Lady Macbeth is introduced to the audience as
a dominating woman intent on getting her own
way.
3. The supernatural is an important element in
the play.

What to include
Each paragraph needs to include a detailed
discussion of the play.
Include at least 1 technique and a
quotation. You must explain the effect of the
techniques.
It is okay to write more than one paragraph
for each point if you need to.

Structure
Conclusion
This is where you sum up the ideas that you
have discussed in your essay and make a
concluding statement.
Do not mention any new ideas in the
conclusion.
Examples are not necessary in the
conclusion.

Diary Entry from Lady Macbeths perspective

Review
This is where you get to tell me what you really think of the play..
Your review is to appear in a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald in the
fictional section Teen Voice. You can be honest with your opinion but you
must remain formal at all times. Try to make sure that you present at
balanced argument and that you try not to focus too much on how strange
the language is.

Review
A review is an opinion piece. The composer of a review seeks to convey
their personal response to a film, book, poem, play, television show etc.

Structure
The review needs to have a title. It can simply be the title of the text being
reviewed or it can be another catchy or humorous title.
Some reviews will write the name of the composer or director (if applicable)
and the year the text was released.
The composer then follows the structure below:
-First paragraph: Start by mentioning the title of the text, the actors that
are in the film, the characters that are in the book etc.
- Second and third paragraph: Discuss the content of the text. Dont give
away too much detail as you need to leave room for an audience to respond (
Dont give away the ending!)
- Fourth and possibly fifth paragraph: Give your opinion. Why would
you recommend / not recommend this text. Give evidence. You can give a
star rating.