William Shakespeare

Characters

• Macbeth

• Lady Macbeth

• The Witches

• Banquo

• Macduff

• Duncan

• Malcolm and Donalbain

Macbeth

• “Brave Macbeth”• “Black Macbeth”• Greed• Disloyalty• Murder• Tyranny• Morality• Malleability• Tragic Hero• Tragic Villain

Character of Macbeth

Macbeth’s journey

Macbeth the untouchable?

Macbeth the Murderer/ Tyrant Macbeth’s conscience

Weakness of character

Gullible and manipulated?

“brave Macbeth”“worthy cousin”“noble Macbeth”

Macbeth

Quotes• Sergeant: “brave Macbeth”

• Duncan: “O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman”

• Macbeth to the Witches: “why do you dress me in borrow’d robes?”( clothing imagery)

•Macbeth: “that is a step on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap, for in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires let not light see my dark and deep desires.”

•“If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.” (Fate/ Chance)

• “We will proceed no further in this business” (conscience)

• Lady M: “Yet I do fear thy nature It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way”- (M’s good nature, Lady m’s manipulative nature)

• Macbeth’s conscience: “First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed, then, as his host Who should against the murderer shut the door Not bear the knife myself.”

• Macduff: “Not in the legions of horrid hell can come a devil more damned in evils to top Macbeth.”

Macbeth the Murderer.

•“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”(appearances v reality)•“Is this a dagger I see before me/ The handle toward my hand”•“Macbeth does murder sleep- the innocent sleep” (conscience)•“Macbeth shall sleep no more” (conscience)

•“To know my deed ‘twere best not know myself.”•“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/ And then is heard no more.”

Lady Macbeth

• Manipulator• Murderess• Greed• Femininity?• Hatred• Capacity for cruelty• Guilt• Self-destructive

I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this.Macbeth, 1. 7

Screw your courage to the sticking-place,And we'll not fail. Macbeth, 1. 7

Lady Macbeth: Things without all remedyShould be without regard; what's done is done.Macbeth: We have scotched the snake, not killed it;She'll close and be herself, while our poor maliceRemains in danger of her former tooth.Macbeth, 3. 2

Character of Lady Macbeth

Representative of evil.Evil must die for good/order

To be restored

Growing guilt/suicide

Mirror of Macbeth’s journeyJourney to guilt

Appears strong womanAgainst stereotype

Appearance V RealityDuping of Duncan

Manipulator

Lady Macbeth

The Three Witches

What are theseSo wither'd and so wild in their attire,That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,And yet are on 't? Macbeth, 1. 3

Quotes from the Witches/ Apparitions

• “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”• “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”• “beware Macduff”(Armed Head)• “none of woman born shall harm Macbeth”

(bloody child)• “Great Birnan wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall

coma against him.” (Crowned child)

• “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.” (to Banquo)

Macbeth and Banquo meet The Weird Sisters

The Witches

Portrayal of femalesIn the text

(aligned with LM)

Witces Illusions“Armed head”

“A bloody child”“A child crowned”

Symbols of chaosBreaching the natural order

supernatural

Manipulators of Macbeth

Portents of Evil

Witches

Themes

• Good v Evil• Appearances v Reality• Loyalty v Betrayal• Order v Chaos• Kingship/ Power• Violence• Action v Inaction• Fate v Chance• The supernatural

The struggle between Good and Evil

Restoration ofGood

(Order v Chaos)

ConscienceEffects on M &LM

M’s journeyGood to evil

M’s good Qualities

Contrast start and finish

Lady MManipulation

The WitchesInfluence on M

“Chance mayCrown me without

My stir”

“fair is foul, and foul is fair”

Good V Evil

Appearance and Reality

Appearances V Reality

Ghosts

Disguise in theplay

M’s illusion of powerLM & Witches

Puppet masters

Macbeth as kingDriven by tyranny

The witchesProphetic

or Evil emissaries

Lady M’sDeception

Macbeth’s“borrowed robes”

AppearancesV

Reality

Quotes

• “Let not light see my black and deep desires.”

• “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”(Macbeth)

Kingship/ Power

Restoration of Good

Order V Chaos

Witches bid For power

Lady M’sPower

(gender stereotype)

Macbeth as kingTyranny

Duncan’s illusionOf power

Kingship/ Power

Fate V Chance?

RestorationOf order

Prophecy Or

Manipulation

Power of humanityV

Power of supernatural

Macbeth inControl?

Lady Macbeth

Witches

Fate or Chance

Motifs/ Images

• Water

• Manhood

• Clothing

• Animal imagery

• Light and Darkness

• Reversals in natural order

• Heaven and Hell

Imagery/ Symbolism

• Bad weather signals entrance of evil in the play- Thunder and lightning, fog for witches- storm on the night of Duncan’s death- “’twas a rough night”

• Lennox; “ Lamentings heard i’ the air, strange screams of death.”

• Lady M.: “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.” (Animal/nature)

• “Let not light see my black and deep desires.”(light v darkness, good v evil)

• “A little water clears us of this deed” ( Lady M)• “Will al great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean

from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red.” ( reversal of nature- water will only turn red and not cleanse him of his sins)

• “It is an accustomed action with her to be seen thus washing her hands.”( water and innocence)

• “That darkness does the face of earth entomb When living life should kiss it?”

• “a falcon towering in her pride of place was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.”( animal imagery/ reversals in nature)

• “O full of scorpions is my mind”

• “Though you untie the winds and let them fight against the churches” (turning Nature against religion and humanity)

• Macduff’s wife: “for the poor wren, the most diminutive of birds, will fight, her young ones in her nest, against the owl.”