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English Literature: Macbeth, Ambition, Lady Macbeth, Duncan, Reality and…
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Ambition
Ambition is the main theme in 'Macbeth':
- Ambition motivates Macbeth to commit terrible deeds. It changes him from a "valiant"soldier to a "dead butcher"
- The play shows that ambition is dangerous because it can quickly spiral out of control. Macbeth considers the morality of killing Duncan for a long time but doesn't hesitate about killing Banquo
- Once Macbeth starts killing, he has to kill more people to get what he wants and to try and make his position secure. It shows that ambition can make people ruthless and selfish
- Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are eventually destroyed by their ambition, so the play can be read as a warning against ambition that isn't balanced by reason or morals
Ambition is Macbeth's biggest weakness:
- Ambition is Macbeth's fatal flaw. He's a brave hero at the start - Duncan calls him "noble" and Lady Macbeth says he "wouldst not play false to get what he wants
- Macbeth's reluctance to kill Duncan shows that he's moral, but his actions emphasise how strong his ambition is - his ambition makes him act against his morals
- It also makes him act against his better judgement. He knows that ambition often "overlaps itself and falls" - can lead a person to aim too high so that they fail and loose everything. This foreshadows Macbeth's own tragic downfall. By the end of the play, Macbeth's lost everything and he dies an "abhorred tyrant"
- Lady Macbeth sees that there's a difference between being ambitious and acting on ambition. She says that Macbeth is "not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it". She thinks that Macbeth isn't ruthless enough ti take action to get what he wants
Ambition can be good or bad:
- Not all characters are corrupted by their ambition, as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are. Ambition can be a positive thing if it's motivated by a desire to help others rather than yourself
- Malcolm and Macduff are ambitious for their country. They want to take Macbeth's power away from him, not for their own selfish desires, but for the good of Scotland
- Banquo is ambitious for his sons - he hopes that "there come truth" from the Witches prophecy - but he doesn't act on the predictions in the violent war that Macbeth does
- "Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act, Of h'imperial theme" - Act 1, Scene 3
- Macbeth realises in this scene that the witches' prophecies have come true and immediately starts to wonder whether this means that their other prophecy to become king will also come true
- The eagerness with which he turns to this idea suggests that he finds the possibility of appealing, even though he also realises he would have to commit a terrible and violent act in order to achieve this
- This hints at Macbeth's ambition even early in the play and foreshadows his later actions persuaded by his ambition
- "To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus" - Act 3, Scene 2
- In the middle of the play once Macbeth has become king he speaks this line but continues to feel restless and insecure as he is afraid that he might lose the position in several ways and also has no heir which makes him think its meaningless to be king
- This highlights that him giving into his ambition and murdering Duncan has not brought him peace but rather left him paranoid and anxious which sets off a chain reaction of him continuing to commit violent actions throughout the play in order to maintain the power he has gained such as sending people to kill Banquo and Macduff's family
- "Life's but a walking shadow ... signifying nothing" - Act 5, Scene 5
- At the end of the play, Macbeth has achieved all he wanted but as shown by the quote he has nothing. His wife, Lady Macbeth has also committed suicide and so he has no hope of producing a prince and so Macbeth finally sees what his unchecked ambition has cost him: the loss of all he holds dear
- Macbeth by this point of the play has gone numb to the pain because of the extent of violence he has committed throughout the play. The "shadow" signifies that he will always be followed by the guilt and trauma and live in despair over the death of his wife as his own futility becoming a nihilistic human
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth is cruel and ruthless:
- Lady Macbeth is Macbeth's wife - she's an important character because she influences Macbeth, especially at the start of the play. She's ambitious and doesn't mind committing terrible crimes to get what she wants
- Lady Macbeth changes over the course of the play. At thee beginning, she's dominant and confident - she persuades Macbeth that killing Duncan is the best thing to do
- Once Macbeth has committed murder, Lady Macbeth is slowly driven mad by guilt. Macbeth distances himself from her and she kills herself because she can't live with what they've done
- Lady Macbeth:
- Cruel: "And fill me from the crown to the toe top full / Of direst cruelty"
- Cunning: "look like th'innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't"
- Disturbed: "she is troubles with thick coming fancies"
She is very ambitious:
- Lady Macbeth is just as ambitious as Macbeth - when she gets his letter, she immediately assumes that they need to kill Duncan. She's more ruthless than her husband. Lady Macbeth says that Macbeth is "too full o'th'milk of human kindness" - she thinks that his goodness makes him a "coward" and stops him from achieving his ambitions
- She thinks that no ordinary woman would plan this murder. That's why she appeals to the spirit world to "unsex" her and fill her with "direst cruelty"
- Lady Macbeth knows her husband's weak spots - she uses his ambition and fear of being seen as a coward to manipulate him into killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth links masculinity to strength and violence, but Shakespeare shows that women can be just as ruthless and cold-hearted as men
She's clever and quick-witted:
- Lady Macbeth is the one who comes up with the cunning plot to drug Duncan's servants and "smear" them "with blood" to Fram them for murder. This shows that she's clever as well as cruel and heartless
- When Duncan's murder is discovered, Lady Macbeth faints. This could be a pretence, which cleverly draws attention away from the unconvincing speech that Macbeth's making. Lady Macbeth also covers up Macbeth's strange behaviour when he thinks that he sees Banquo's ghost - she tells the lords that Macbeth's "fit is momentary" and a condition since his youth. She's the one in control of the situation
Duncan
Duncan's kind, but too trusting:
- Duncan's the king at the start of the play. He's a kind and generous man who rewards loyalty - he hands out honours to Macbeth and Malcolm
- Nobody has a bad word to say about Duncan - even Macbeth says that "his virtues / Will plead like angles"
- Duncan's flaw is that he's too trusting. He trusts Macbeth and doesn't suspect he's plotting to kill him, and he describes the treacherous Thane of Cawdor as "a gentleman on whom I built / An absolute trust". However, Duncan can be firm when needed - he executes the Thane of Cawdor when he betrays him
- Duncan:
- Kind: "let me enfold the / And hold thee to my heart"
- Trusting: "There's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face"
- A good king: " So clear in his great office"
He's an example of a good king:
- Shakespeare presents Duncan as a model king - he's kind, honest and fair. Duncan uses a lot of plant imagery - he says he will "plant" Macbeth and make sure he is "full of growing". This shows how he nurtures his subjects
- Macbeth says that one of the reasons that he shouldn't kill Duncan is because he's a good leader with many "virtues". Macduff also calls him "a most sainted king", reminding the audience that kings were thought to be chosen by God
- Duncan is kind, generous and trusting, and puts Scotland's needs ahead of his own. This contrasts with Macbeth, who is a bad king - he's a tyrant who's feared and hated. Macbeth puts his own selfish desires ahead of his country
Duncan isn't like the other men:
- Duncan isn't a soldier like Macbeth or Macduff - he's gentle and less aggressive. He doesn't fight himself, but sensibly sends his best soldiers to fight for him
- He's not afraid to be emotional - he shows "drops of sorrow" because he's so happy and talks about his "gentle senses" - this might have been seen as unmanly
Reality and Appearances
Appearances can be deceptive:
- In Macbeth, characters often hide their thoughts and pretend to be something that they're not
- Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to appear to be good so nobody suspects that he plans to kill Duncan - "look like th'innocent flower, but be the serpent under't". the serpent links Lady Macbeth to Satan who tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
- Macbeth knows that he needs a "false face" to hide his murderous acts. However, when Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost, his face is "the very painting" of his fear and betrays his feelings
- At first, Lady Macbeth has no trouble disguising her evil behaviour. She pretends to faint with shock when Duncan's death is discovered. However, her guilt becomes too great to hide and she starts sleepwalking. People can be deceptibe, but the play shows that their true natures come out in the end
Meanings of words are unclear:
- The witches chant "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" suggests things that appear good are actually evil
- They use language to trick Macbeth and convince him of a false reality - they tell him that "none of woman born" will harm him, which gives him the false confidence to fight to protect his reign
- Other characters speak using paradoxes e.g. Macbeth says "Nothing is But what is not". These paradoxes create uncertainty - they show that nobody can tell what's real
Some characters trust too much in appearances:
- In a world full of deception and lies, characters suffer when they trust in appearences too much
- Duncan trusts Macbeth and dies for it, even though he made the same mistake by trusting the disloyal Thane of Cawdor. When this happens, Duncan says, "There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face" - he thinks that there's no way of telling what someone's really like
- Macbeth knows that reality and appearances font always match up, but he completely trusts the Witches prophecies. This leads to his downfall. Apparitions seem real to the characters who see them, but they're a sign that the character can't tell reality from appearance
- In contrast, Malcolm is immediately sceptical that Duncan was murdered by his servants and suspects one of the thanes: "To show an unfelt sorrow is an office which the false man does easy". His awareness of what "false" men can do causes him to flee and probably saves his life
Kingship
A king didn't have to be the old king's son:
- In the play, Macbeth suddenly becomes King, even though he's not the heir to the throne. Duncan chooses his eldest son as his heir, but he makes Macbeth next in line after Malcolm and Donalbain
- Macbeth wins the throne by killing the King and framing Malcolm and Donalbain after they have "stolen away and fled". Gradually, other characters realise Macbeth is not a true king
Malcolm describes good rulers and bad rulers:
- Duncan is an example of an ideal king - he's described as "gracious" and inspires loyalty in his subjects, who see him as a "most sainted king" and therefore the rightful ruler of Scotland
- In contrast, Macbeth is described as a "tyrant" because he rules selfishly, using violence. He's rarely referred to as a "king" which shows that the other characters don't accept him as the true king
- Under Duncan's rightful reign, the country is ordered and peaceful. Macbeth's unlawful reign is reflected in the overturned natural order e.g. day turns into night and horses eat each other
- In Act 4, Scene 3 Malcolm describes good and bad kings:
- A bad king is "bloody, luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin that has a name". Malcolm's describing Macbeth's reign here - he's "avaricious" because he's motivated by selfish greed. His lies make him "false" and "deceitful", and he's "bloody" because he uses violence to keep control over his people
- A good king has "king-becoming graces, as justice, verity, temperance, stableness, bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, devotion, patience, courage, fortitude". Malcolm could be describing Duncan in this speech - Duncan shows "temperance" in his calm, peaceful manner, "lowliness" in his gratefulness for loyalty, "justice" when dealing with those who betray him and "Bounty" in his generosity
A good king should be holy:
- Malcolm also says that a good ruler is holy - at the time, people believed the King was appointed by God
- The King of England, Edward, has a "healing benediction" and uses "holy prayers" to cure sick people. He's surrounded by "blessings" that "speak him full of grave"
- In contrast, Macbeth is "Devilish" - he commits murder and talks to evil witches. He's not the chosen King
Fate and Free Will
Fate is the opposite of free will:
- Fate is the idea that everything has already been decided, so people can't change what happens to them
- free will means that humans choose their own course of action, so their future is made up of the results of their choices
- If it's fate that everything that happens was destined, then it's not Macbeth's fault that he murders Duncan. If free will exists, then Macbeth's own choices lead to his downfall
- The play raises a lot of questions, but Shakespeare doesn't make it clear whether the witches "strange intelligence" is real, and therefore whether Macbeth was truly fated to kill Duncan
You could say that Macbeth is doomed from the start:
- At times, Macbeth seems to believe in fate. After he hears the witches prophecy, he seems happy to let fate take its course - he believes that "chance may crown me without my stir" so he'll become King without doing anything to make it happen
- Lady Macbeth thinks that Macbeth is fated to be King - "fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crowned withal". Despite believing in fate, she decides Macbeth must act to make it happen
- By the end of the play, Macbeth says that life is "a poor prayer that struts and frets his hour upon the stage". He feels that people are no more than actors playing a part who aren't in control of their lives
- You could say that Macbeth is doomed because of his "fatal flaw". if he wasn't so ambitious he'd ignore the Witches and Lady Macbeth
Or that he acts out of his own free will:
- At first, Macbeth makes a deliberate choice not to kill Duncan after he's considered the options: "We will proceed no further". He carefully weighs up the pros and cons, which suggests that he's in control
- Later, Macbeth acts on the Witches prophecies despite Banquo's earlier warning that they're "instruments of darkness". Macbeth could do as Banquo does and accept the prophecies without acting
- Some of the prophecies are self-fulfilling - Macbeth only acts because he hears his future, so he causes it to happen. This suggests that he has free will
Guilt
"The multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red" - Act 2, Scene 2
- At the beginning of the play after Macbeth has murdered king Duncan, he speaks this line when encountering his wife. It refers to both the literal blood on his hand but also to his sense of guilt which has already formed so soon after the murder
- He uses grand and dramatic language to imply that the blood could stain all the worlds oceans red suggesting that the consequences of his actions will not be easily hidden physically or physicologically
- This links to later in the play when Lady Macbeth also hallucinated that she has blood on her hand and is unable to get them clean, symbolising her sense of guilt leading to her suicide
- "The bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold, Thou hast no speculation on those eyes" - Act 3, Scene 4
- This scene appears in the middle of the play when Banquo's ghost appears to Macbeth at the banquet. Macbeth's vision of the ghost reveals his guilt over ordering the murder of Banquo and his young son
- This sense of guilt has become so powerful by this point that he loses his sense of reality and cannot be sure whether he is having a vision or not revealing that his tormented consciousness is leading him to start losing his grip on sanity
- "what's done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed" - Act 5, Scene 1
- Juxtaposes "what's done is done" showing her guilt
- At the end of the play Lady Macbeths guilt has also developed to a critical level to the fact it has driven her into madness. The quote shows the final words which she says in the play which highlight how guilt has finally caught up with her as a "walking shadow" and has crushed her strong and assertive personality
- Lady Macbeth feels so overwhelmed by guilt that she commits suicide because she feels that no matter how much she repents, the violence and death cannot be undone so life is not worth living
- This strongly portrays guilt as a key theme in the play by showing how powerful it is being able to manipulate the minds and actions of the victims
The Witches
The witches have supernatural powers:
- The Three Witches ae also known as the Weird Sisters. By giving them beards, Shakespeare intended for them to appear unnatural, which links them with evil. The word "weird" comes from the Old English word "word", which means "fate". This suggests that the Witches are instruments of fate
- The Witches can see the future - all their predictions come true eventually. They seem to act out of malice - they don't gain anything from their actions, they just like causing trouble
- They speak in short lines that rhyme. This sets them apart from the other characters. Lines like "Eye of newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog" make them sound gruesome and evil
- Banquo isn't sure whether the Witches are real or imaginary - "Are ye fantastical, or that indeed which outwardly ye show?" He's suspicious that their appearance is misleading
- The witches line "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" shows that nothing is as it seems in the play
- The Witches:
- Evil: "instruments of darkness:
- Ambiguous: "This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good"
- Strange: "So withered and so wild"
They're evil, but they don't tell Macbeth to murder Duncan:
- The Witches are usually accompanied by "Thunder and lightning". This makes the atmosphere dark and frightening
- They make prophecies but they never explain how they'll happen. In this way, they take advantage of Macbeths weakness (his "Vaulting ambition") and use it to control him
- The Witches don't tell Macbeth to murder Duncan - but they do predict he'll be king, which pushes him to kill Duncan. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy - Macbeth makes it come true
- The Witches confuse Macbeth using paradoxes - for example, telling him that Banquo will be "Lesser than Macbeth, and greater". By not being clear about what the future holds, they keep control of Macbeth
- Hectate is the goddess of witchcraft. She's angry at Macbeth's behaviour, so she uses the apparitions to punish him. They trick him by making predictions that gave him a false sense of security, such as "none of woman born shall harm Macbeth. These predictions indirectly lead to his death
- Hectate says that "security is mortals chiefest enemy", suggesting that Macbeth's complacency is the cause of his demise. However, you could argue that it's his insecurity that begins his downfall - he kills Duncan to ensure he becomes King, and doesn't feel "safely" king while Banquo and Fleance are still alive
- Shakespeare doesn't make it clear whether the Witches are messengers of fate or whether Macbeth could change his future
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The witches make two prophecies:
- The three witches plan to meet Macbeth
- Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches, who tell Macbeth he'll be Thane of Cawdor, then king. They tell Banquo his descendants will be kings
- Duncan makes Macbeth Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth starts to wonder if the witches' prophecy about him being king will come true too
- Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth about the prophecies. She plans to persuade him to murder Duncan
- Duncan comes to stay with the Macbeths. Macbeth is reluctant to kill him, but Lady Macbeth convinces him that they can frame Duncan's servants for the murder. Macbeth agrees to the plan
Duncan and Banquo bite the dust:
- Macbeth murders Duncan and Lady Macbeth plants blood-stained daggers on Duncan's servants
- Macduff arrives and discovers the King's body. The King's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, leave Scotland because they fear for their lives - this makes them look guilty of Duncan's murder
- Rosse and an old man discuss the strange and unnatural things that have been happening since Duncan's murder. Macbeth is about to be crowned, but not all the other noblemen support him
- Macbeth is now king, but he's worried by the witches' prophecy about Banquo's descendants being kings. He orders some murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance
- The murderers kill Banquo, but Fleance escapes. Macbeth hosts a feast and sees Banquo's ghost. He decides to visit the witches again
- Lennox and a lord suspect Macbeth of murdering Duncan and Banquo. They say that Macduff is getting an army together to attack Macbeth and put Malcolm on the throne
The three apparitions:
- Macbeth visits the witches again and they summon three apparitions
- Each apparition makes a prophecy. The first warns Macbeth about Macduff, the second tells him that no one born from a woman can harm him and the third tells him that he can't be beaten until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane Hill
- When Macbeth demands to know if Banquo's children will ever rule Scotland the witches show him Banquo's ghost and a line of kings who seem to be Banquo's descendants
- Macduff has fled to England. Macbeth sends his murderers to kill Macduff's wife and children
- In England, Macduff proves his loyalty to Malcolm, and Malcolm reveals that the English King has given him ten thousand soldiers to fight Macbeth. Macduff learns that Macbeth has killed his family, and vows to avenge their deaths
Macbeth is overthrown:
- Lady Macbeth has gone mad. She sleepwalks and keeps washing invisible blood from her hands
- The Scottish lords plan to meet the English army at Birnam Wood and attack Macbeth
- Macbeth hears about the approaching English army. He isn't scared because of the witches predictions
- Malcolm tells the soldiers to cut down branches from Birnam Wood and hide behind them as they march towards Macbeth's castle
- Macbeth prepares for battle and finds out that Lady Macbeth has killed herself
- Macbeth and Macduff meet on the battlefield. Macbeth is sure that he'll win, until he finds out that Macduff was born by Caesarean, which would have been highly unusual at that time. That meant he was not "of woman born" because he wasn't born naturally. They fight and Macbeth is killed
- Malcolm is made king of Scotland
He struggles with his conscience:
- Macbeth has a strong sense of right and wrong. He worries about the consequences of his actions because there's "judgement" on earth and "deep damnation" after death. This makes his actions more shocking
- He's reluctant to kill Duncan, who has "honoured" him, and says, "We will proceed no further in this business". He sounds confident , as if he's made up his mind - Macbeth recognises that Duncan trusts him as "his kinsman" and that as Duncan's "host" he has a duty to protect him
- Later on, Macbeth swings between killing anyone who threatens his position as King and moments of despair when he struggles with terrible guilt. His guilty conscience makes him imagine things:
- Immediately after killing Duncan he hears a voice saying, "Macbeth does murder sleep"
- After arranging for Banquo to be murdered, he sees Banquo's ghost at the feast and almost gives himself away. Lady Macbeth thinks he's hallucinating
- By the end of the play. Macbeth seems world-weary and cynical - he no longer seems to feel guilty, because he thinks that a person's actions don't matter and that life means "nothing"
He's easily influenced:
- Lady Macbeth greatly influences Macbeth - he wouldn't kill Duncan if it wasn't for her. Macbeth acts because he doesn't want to be seen as unmanly or a "coward". Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan by suggesting that he'll be "more the man". Throughout the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth link masculinity with strength and courage
- Lady Macbeth's influence over Macbeth declines after Duncan's murder - once he's murdered Duncan, the other murders seem to come more easily to Macbeth, so he acts alone
- He's also influenced by the supernatural:
- The first time he meets the witches, he trusts them straightaway, saying "Two truths are told". However, Banquo is suspicious of them and thinks they want to "win us to our harm"
- He sees a dagger that leads him to Duncan's room
- As the witches prophecies start to come true, Macbeth's belief in them increases. He beings to rely more heavily on what they say, and panics when their prophecies are fulfilled unexpectedly
Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth to explore gender and power:
- Women were traditionally seen as kinder and weaker than men, but Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth to show that this isn't always true. She says she would kill her own baby if she'd sworn to do it. Shakespeare contrasts her with Lady Macduff, who's a caring mother
- Lady Macbeth thinks women are made weak by their maternal instincts - she tells the spirits to "Come to my woman's breasts / And take my milk for gall". She wants to lose her femininity
- Lady Macbeth does have a softer side. She says that she couldn't kill Duncan herself because he reminded her of her father. This shows that she's not as cold-hearted as she appears
- Macbeth is set in a male-dominated society, so Lady Macbeth can only achieve her ambitions through Macbeth. Lady Macbeth's power lies in manipulating people. This shows that non-violent female traits are just as powerful as violent male ones
- Lady Macbeth and the witches have androgynous (neither female nor masculine) features - the witches have "beards" and Lady Macbeth asks the spits to "unsex" her. As they all manipulate Macbeth, Shakespeare uses a rejection of gender norms as a symbol of power
You can trace Macbeth's character progression through his soliloquies. Across Acts 1 to 4, Macbeth progresses from being uncertain to decisive, despite having moments of doubt along the way. His soliloquies in Act 5 signal a return to pensiveness as he broods over his unhappy future in Scene 3, and on the futility of life in Scene 5
She goes mad with guilt and kills herself:
- At first, it's Macbeth who struggles with his guilty conscience. By the end of the play, Lady Macbeth is driven mad by guilt
- She starts sleepwalking. The doctor calls this "great perturbation in nature" because her mind Is so disturbed that it's affected her ability to sleep soundly
- In her sleep, she keeps washing her hands in the hope that she can wash away her feelings of guilt just as easily as the blood after Duncan's murder: "Out, damned spot"
- Guilt and isolation affect Lady Macbeth so much that she kills herself - she can't live with what she's done
- The way Lady Macbeth speaks reflects her state of mind - at the beginning, she speaks confidently in verse. By the end, her speech is made up of mad ramblings and repetitions - "come, come,come,come". It shows that she's lost all self-control
The Macbeth's marriage is intense:
- Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's relationship changes. At the beginning, their marriage seems loving and passionate - Macbeth calls Lady Macbeth "my dearest partner of greatness"
- As the play develops, it becomes clear that Lady Macbeth dominated Macbeth - she manipulates him into killing Duncan and covers up his strange behaviour when he sees Banquo's ghost
- As Macbeth reveals less about his plans to his wife, Lady Macbeth becomes increasingly anxious and alone. Even though she's domineering at the beginning, she can't cope, without her husband
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Light symbolises good, dark symbolises evil:
- Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both use images of darkness when they talk about evil deeds. They also use darkness to represent blindness and ignorance, and light to represent sight and knowledge
- Macbeth realises that his intentions are evil - he describes his thoughts as "black"
- The Macbeths want to "hide" their evil thoughts and deeds in darkness - the murder of Duncan takes place on a dark, starless night when the "candles are all out". The darkness highlights how evil Duncan's murder is - "stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires"
- This is further reflected by the "strange" and "unnatural" events that take place after his death - "by the clock, 'tis day, and yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp". This image shows that darkness and evil (Macbeth) have overcome the natural goodness and light (Duncan)
- Light is associated with goodness - here Duncan compares his loyal Lords to "stars" - "signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine"
Nature represents the correct order of the world:
- The way nature behaves shows the state of events - Duncan's murder disrupts the natural order. As well as "night's predominance", horses have "turned wild in nature" and eaten each other
- Duncan's murder us symbolised by the image: "A falcon, towering in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed". It's unnatural for an own to kill a falcon, so this emphasises the fact that Duncan's murder has disrupted the natural order of things
- Plant imagery is used throughout the play - Duncan compares Macbeth and Banquo to plants that he will harvest. The image is continued in Act 5, Scene 2, but now Macbeth is compared to the "weeds" and Malcolm is the "sovereign flower". This contrast shows how corrupt Macbeth has become
- At the end of the play, the natural order is restored when Duncan's descendant is crowned and Macbeth is killed. Malcolm says that his acts as King will be "planted newly", which is reminiscent of the natural imagery used by Duncan
Health and disease represent the state of Scotland:
- Shakespeare uses imagery of disease and injury to highlight what Scotland is like under Macbeth's rule
- Macbeth asks the Doctor to cure Scotland: "find her disease, and purge it to a sound and pristine health". This is ironic - he can't see that he is Scotland's disease, and the country will only recover when he's dead
- Macduff sees Macbeths reign as causing injury to Scotland - "bleed, bleed, poor country!"
- Malcolm is later described as the "med'cine" that will cure Scotland, which reinforces the belief that he is the rightful King
Images of blood and water symbolise guilt and innocence:
- Shakespeare uses imagery of blood to represent guilt - from the blood-stained daggers that Lady Macbeth plants on Duncan's guards, to the "damned spot" that she imagines on her hands
- The image of water is associated with washing away the guilt - Lady Macbeth claims that "A little water clears us of the deed", but Macbeth wonders whether "all great Neptune's ocean" would be enough to wash the blood and guilt away
- Lady Macbeth's madness shows that she can't get rid of her guilt - she asks, "will these hand ne'er be clean?". Cleanliness is linked to innocence here
Masculinity represents aggression and courage:
- Shakespeare links the idea of masculinity to violence. Lady Macbeth bullies her husband into killing Duncan by questioning his masculinity: "When you durst do it, then you were a man". Macbeth uses the same tactic to persuade the murderers to kill Banquo, saying "in the catalogue ye go for men"
- Lady Macbeth prays to the spirits to "unsex" her - she wants female qualities like kindness and compassion to be removed. She rejects her maternal instincts, saying "tale my milk for gall"
- We see another side of masculinity when Macduff learns of his family's murder. Malcolm tells him to "Dispute it like a man" (take revenge), but Macduff says he must "feel it as a man" - he believes men should show compassion too. This makes the audience question whether violence is what makes a man
Everyday life can be disrupted by guilt:
- Sleep symbolises a clear conscience - so lack of sleep suggests guilt. For a guilty mind, sleep brings "wicked dreams". After murdering Duncan, Macbeth worries that he'll never be able to sleep again - "Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep" (Act 2, Scene 2)
- Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking is Act 5 is a sign of her guilt - she can no longer sleep peacefully
- It is also suggested that Scotland can't eat or sleep - being unable to fulfil these basic needs shows how badly Macbeth's rule has affected the country - "give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives" (Act 3, Scene 6)
- Clothing is symbolic too - at first, Macbeth is reluctant to wear the "borrowed robes" of the Thane of Cawdor. Banquo reinforces this, saying that the "New honours" are like "strange garments"