Themes
Ambition
Loyalty and betrayal
Kingship
Good and evil
The supernatural
Reality and appearance
Fate and free will
Main theme in Macbeth
Ambition is Macbeth’s weakness
It can be good or bad
Motivates Macbeth to commit terrible deeds - trans formation from valiant soldier to dead butcher
Macbeth knows it is immoral to kill Duncan but he still does it
Ambition can cause people to become selfish and ruthless - Macbeth continues to kill people
Macduff and Malcolm are ambitious for the country
Banquo is ambitious but does not act violently
Macbeth’s “ fatal flaw” - ambition - Duncan calls him noble and lady Macbeth says wouldst not play false
Macbeth reluctant to kill Duncan but still ends up doing it
If you aim high and you fail and you lose everything which shows Macbeth’s tragic downfall
Character show loyalty through their action
Loyalty is rewarded betrayal is punished
Macbeth pretends to be loyal
Macduff is loyal to Scotland by saving them from Macbeth
All Thanes are loyal to Duncan except Macbeth
Banquo is loyal to his beliefs
MacDonald is executed at the start of the play for betraying Duncan which a structural as Macbeth is also killed for betrayal
Macbeth betrayed his conscience
Betrayal is linked to power which means that if you are loyal you will be rewarded and if you betray you will be punished
Macbeth is initially loyal to Duncan as his “kinsman and his subject which makes it even more shocking for him to kill Duncan
Also it shows how easy it is to pretend loyal
Juxtaposing lady Macbeth’s evil intention with her welcome to make the murder seem more dramatic
Malcolm describes good and bad ruler
Duncan is an example of a “gracious” king who is accepted by everyone whereas Macbeth is not accepted by everyone as he is a “tyrant” due to his violence
A king does not have to be the kings son
Good king should be holy
Duncan chooses Malcolm and donalbain as the next king and then Macbeth. However Macbeth becomes the king after Duncan
In act 4 scene 3 Malcolm describes both good and a bad king
King should be holy as they were appointed by God
King Edward has “healing benediction” and used holy prayers to cure sick people. He was given blessing in contrast to Macbeth who is Devilish as he talks to witches and commits murders and he is not the chosen one
Macbeth is a good man who does evil acts
Battles represent conflict between good and evil
evil is linked to danger
Macbeth at start was a noble character who had potential to cause greatness and is recognised by Duncan who makes him a thane of Cawdor
Once he is temped by ambition his goodness is taken over by his evil desire
Macbeth increasingly becomes evil and commits many crime the struggle of crown turns to good vs evil battle
Lady macbeth tells the witches to unsex her which shows that when she is a women she can not do anything
Masculine is linked to violence and bloodshed which means lady,Macbeth relies more than manipulation rather than action
Witches have an ambiguous gender but banquo says they are supposed to be women which explains why they believe more towards manipulation
Battles symbolises good and evil
The start battle shows this because the enemy side is lead by the traitor macdonald
The play also ends with a battle in which Macbeth dies and evil dies as well
The witches are supernatural force
Vision are supernatural signs of guilt
Act 2 scene 1 Macbeth sees a dagger that is a sign of warning from him to not murder king Duncan
Act 3 scene 4 - Macbeth sees banquo’s ghost which shows that Macbeth has a guilty conscience
In act 5 scene 1 lady Macbeth commits suicidal because of her guilty conscience
Witches can predict the future however they have limited power as they can only tempt the people who are weak shown in the quote “ cannot be lost “
They are not in many scenes but they drive the play forward as Macbeth would have not been likely to Ha e done those acts
Witches symbolise chaos and they try to impose unnatural order on good and natural thing
Shakespeare presents them as completely inhuman and without remorse
Appearance can be deceptive
Meaning of word are unclear
Some characters believe too much in appearance
In Macbeth most of the character hide their true feelings and pretend to be something else
Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to act like good person to hide his evil I tension
Lady Macbeth at start has no trouble hiding her true face but near the end she can’t handle the guilt and starts sleep walking
“Fair is foul and foul is fair” hints thwart you see might not necessarily be true. The witches use false language to manipulate macbeth
Characters speak in paradox which makes them unclear about what they are saying
Characters trust each other too much
First king Duncan trust disloyal macdonald and Macbeth which shows you can not tell what characters are thinking
Macbeth is aware that the reality does not always match appearance and completely trust witches and is betrayed
Malcolm was aware that the servants have not done the murder which saves his life
Fate is opposite of free will
Macbeth’s fate
Macbeth’s free will
Fate is the idea that everything has already been decided
Free will is when human choose what to do which results a future with the choices they have made
If it is fate then nothing is Macbeth’s fault as it was destined to already happen
If it’s free will then Macbeth leads his own downfall
Macbeth is happy to hear the prophecy and says that it is his fate
Lady Macbeth also thinks it is his fate however she still makes him take action
At the end Macbeth’s life is a “ poor player”
Macbeth makes a deliberate choice of killing Duncan
Later Macbeth acts on the witches prophecy which shows that he does not entirely believes his fate
Macbeth only acts which changes his future which shows that he only has a free will