Macbeth Figurative Language Essay
Macbeth
This essay will attempt to explore what the play ‘Macbeth’ suggests about the states of minds of both the titular character Macbeth, and his scheming wife Lady Macbeth, using extracts from Act 1, Scene 7. I will also examine how the language used emphasises the key themes and ideas within the play. The characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are revealed and developed through their dialogues with use of soliloquies and asides, helping to reveal their personalities, states of mind, emotions and motivation. Much figurative language and imagery is used by Shakespeare to emphasise the themes within the play, creating atmosphere and mood in order to achieve dramatic outcome (109). Initially eager to have the deed done, he would have it done sooner rather than later and hope for the murder to be the finish of it all:
Act 1, Scene 7 comes directly before the murder of Duncan, and sees Macbeth considering the deed. Macbeth exhibits telling signs of an unbalanced mind and of his impending madness very clearly in this scene. This opposed state of mind; his internal …show more content…
struggle between right and wrong, is suggested throughout his soliloquy in lines 1-28. Although earlier in the play he is in favour of the murder of Duncan, here his doubtful state of mind becomes evident. The used in the first lines emphasises the importance of this speech ‘If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it where done quickly’ (1-2)
...if the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here
(2-5).
Likening the carrying out of the murder to the act of gathering everything up in a net, he is prepared to suffer any consequences in the after-life, so as to forego any on earth, but recognises the impossibility of this.
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor: (8-12)
Here, Macbeth compares the assassination to a new life – but only if it were possible for it to be carried out quickly and eschew all negative consequences.
This reference to blood in ‘bloody instructions’ represents Macbeth’s guilt at even contemplating this terrible crime. He reminds himself that his skill for killing has indeed been learnt for the benefit of the king, and now he shall use this skill against the king, but there is always that possibility that the same talent may be used against him.
Macbeth assumes that justice makes us pay for our actions with the same fate in ‘commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice to our own lips’ . The theme of Regicide is given great prominence here and there is also a suggestion of the mutilation of a natural order of things – the king was believed to have been chosen by Divine Right, and so murdering a king would be an act of gross
iniquity.
The frailty of Macbeth’s mind becomes increasingly evident as his doubts escalate and, aware of the seriousness of the intended crime, he fears whether the deed should be done at all: ‘he’s here in double trust, first I am his kinsman…not bear the knife myself’ (12-16.) He considers reasons he should defend rather than threaten the life of Duncan as he is his King and guest, reminding himself of the loyalty expected of him: ‘this Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued’ of ‘(16-19) noting that Duncan is a virtuous but ‘meek’ King and how he would be lamented , as opposed to how Macbeth would be perceived. This could be said to reflect the theme of good, i.e. Duncan, versus evil, i.e. Macbeth. Pity is personified as ‘a naked newborn babe’ saying that this baby (Pity) will emit such a distressing cry telling the world that Macbeth murdered Duncan.
Macbeth sees his weakness as a lack of motivation and not a lack of moral values – he must conquer the resistance he unconsciously feels. Chastising himself: ‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent’, (25) and using equestrian imagery, he likens a riders spur to motivation, revealing this lack of drive and he seems able only to draw on his intense desire to be king, or as he refers to it, his ‘vaulting ambition’ (27). This ambition ‘which o’er leaps itself and falls on th’other’ (27-28) personifies his desire ‘vaulting’ like a horse, beyond its limits, landing somewhere beyond comprehension. Here is a resounding example of the main theme of the play, ambition. Perplexed and wavering between his ambition and his allegiance towards Duncan and plagued by worry, he intends to abort the impending crime. Macbeth informs his wife that he will not murder the King: ‘we will proceed no further in this business’. With his recent success in battle he now has peoples good opinions:
...and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
He wears these opinions as robes, basking in them, and wants to enjoy this new found glory rather than diverting attention away as it would if the king were to die.
Macbeth portrays indecisiveness, whereas Lady Macbeth portrays the opposite. On discovering Macbeth’s decision not to fulfil his promise to murder Duncan, Lady Macbeth’s forceful, manipulative character and ambition is strongly depicted as she berates him viciously. Here she establishes herself as the dominant partner in the relationship, which inverts typical 17th century gender and social roles and this conflict colours the whole play. She goes so far as to question his sobriety after the suggestion as the language moves from one metaphor to another:
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? ’
Personifying hope with the human element of drunkenness she asks ‘has it woken hungover to look with shame at what it did when intoxicated?’ Her comparison to drunkenness is stated because she believes her husband made promises he does not intend to keep, he must have been in a state of inebriety.
Lady Macbeth also insists that his actions will prove his love: ‘from this time such I account thy love’. She taunts him further, ‘Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire?’ - is Macbeth afraid that he will be as impotent in the act of killing the king as he is in the act of sex? Macbeth insists that he can "do all that may become a man," in an attempt to maintain his manhood in the face of her emasculating comments. ‘What beast was’t then, that made you break this enterprise to me ? When you durst do it, then you were a man.’ – her unswayed resolve and controlling nature has her aware that she can do no worse than emasculate a man and she declares herself more capable of committing the deed than he. Her determination is such that she is willing to assume a murderous maternal role to achieve this ambition:
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 pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
With vicious words she affirms that if it was she, a mere woman, who had vowed to commit a murder, would accomplish this. Her character depicts the theme of the battle between femininity and masculinity, as she suppresses her natural feminine characteristics and sentimentality that make her a woman, in favour of ambition and the pursuit of power. She becomes inhuman, something that does not fit into the natural world. With her vicious words, and steely sense of purpose, she persuades him not to yield to his doubts and propels him to carry out the heinous deed.
Even after this, Macbeth is still doubtful, ‘If we fail?’ Lady Macbeth demands he focus his attention on the murder ,'screw your courage’ physically attach it, ‘to the sticking place, And we’ll not fail' (60) referring to where the knife will pierce the King’s body, it also presents a metaphorical image of his courage needing to be physically fixed to be held in place. Here, Macbeth’s obvious wavering resolve can be linked to the theme of courage, as his lack of it features prominently in this scene. Unconvinced she has steered Macbeth back onto path of murder, she shares her murder plan with him ‘When Duncan is asleep …. Will I with wine and wassail so convince’………………………………………..,
This essay will attempt to explore what the play ‘Macbeth’ suggests about the states of minds of both the titular character Macbeth, and his scheming wife Lady Macbeth, using extracts from Act 1, Scene 7. I will also examine how the language used emphasises the key themes and ideas within the play. The characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are revealed and developed through their dialogues with use of soliloquies and asides, helping to reveal their personalities, states of mind, emotions and motivation. Much figurative language and imagery is used by Shakespeare to emphasise the themes within the play, creating atmosphere and mood in order to achieve dramatic outcome (109). Initially eager to have the deed done, he would have it done sooner rather than later and hope for the murder to be the finish of it all:
Act 1, Scene 7 comes directly before the murder of Duncan, and sees Macbeth considering the deed. Macbeth exhibits telling signs of an unbalanced mind and of his impending madness very clearly in this scene. This opposed state of mind; his internal …show more content…
struggle between right and wrong, is suggested throughout his soliloquy in lines 1-28. Although earlier in the play he is in favour of the murder of Duncan, here his doubtful state of mind becomes evident. The used in the first lines emphasises the importance of this speech ‘If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it where done quickly’ (1-2)
...if the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here
(2-5).
Likening the carrying out of the murder to the act of gathering everything up in a net, he is prepared to suffer any consequences in the after-life, so as to forego any on earth, but recognises the impossibility of this.
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor: (8-12)
Here, Macbeth compares the assassination to a new life – but only if it were possible for it to be carried out quickly and eschew all negative consequences.
This reference to blood in ‘bloody instructions’ represents Macbeth’s guilt at even contemplating this terrible crime. He reminds himself that his skill for killing has indeed been learnt for the benefit of the king, and now he shall use this skill against the king, but there is always that possibility that the same talent may be used against him.
Macbeth assumes that justice makes us pay for our actions with the same fate in ‘commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice to our own lips’ . The theme of Regicide is given great prominence here and there is also a suggestion of the mutilation of a natural order of things – the king was believed to have been chosen by Divine Right, and so murdering a king would be an act of gross
iniquity.
The frailty of Macbeth’s mind becomes increasingly evident as his doubts escalate and, aware of the seriousness of the intended crime, he fears whether the deed should be done at all: ‘he’s here in double trust, first I am his kinsman…not bear the knife myself’ (12-16.) He considers reasons he should defend rather than threaten the life of Duncan as he is his King and guest, reminding himself of the loyalty expected of him: ‘this Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued’ of ‘(16-19) noting that Duncan is a virtuous but ‘meek’ King and how he would be lamented , as opposed to how Macbeth would be perceived. This could be said to reflect the theme of good, i.e. Duncan, versus evil, i.e. Macbeth. Pity is personified as ‘a naked newborn babe’ saying that this baby (Pity) will emit such a distressing cry telling the world that Macbeth murdered Duncan.
Macbeth sees his weakness as a lack of motivation and not a lack of moral values – he must conquer the resistance he unconsciously feels. Chastising himself: ‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent’, (25) and using equestrian imagery, he likens a riders spur to motivation, revealing this lack of drive and he seems able only to draw on his intense desire to be king, or as he refers to it, his ‘vaulting ambition’ (27). This ambition ‘which o’er leaps itself and falls on th’other’ (27-28) personifies his desire ‘vaulting’ like a horse, beyond its limits, landing somewhere beyond comprehension. Here is a resounding example of the main theme of the play, ambition. Perplexed and wavering between his ambition and his allegiance towards Duncan and plagued by worry, he intends to abort the impending crime. Macbeth informs his wife that he will not murder the King: ‘we will proceed no further in this business’. With his recent success in battle he now has peoples good opinions:
...and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
He wears these opinions as robes, basking in them, and wants to enjoy this new found glory rather than diverting attention away as it would if the king were to die.
Macbeth portrays indecisiveness, whereas Lady Macbeth portrays the opposite. On discovering Macbeth’s decision not to fulfil his promise to murder Duncan, Lady Macbeth’s forceful, manipulative character and ambition is strongly depicted as she berates him viciously. Here she establishes herself as the dominant partner in the relationship, which inverts typical 17th century gender and social roles and this conflict colours the whole play. She goes so far as to question his sobriety after the suggestion as the language moves from one metaphor to another:
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? ’
Personifying hope with the human element of drunkenness she asks ‘has it woken hungover to look with shame at what it did when intoxicated?’ Her comparison to drunkenness is stated because she believes her husband made promises he does not intend to keep, he must have been in a state of inebriety.
Lady Macbeth also insists that his actions will prove his love: ‘from this time such I account thy love’. She taunts him further, ‘Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire?’ - is Macbeth afraid that he will be as impotent in the act of killing the king as he is in the act of sex? Macbeth insists that he can "do all that may become a man," in an attempt to maintain his manhood in the face of her emasculating comments. ‘What beast was’t then, that made you break this enterprise to me ? When you durst do it, then you were a man.’ – her unswayed resolve and controlling nature has her aware that she can do no worse than emasculate a man and she declares herself more capable of committing the deed than he. Her determination is such that she is willing to assume a murderous maternal role to achieve this ambition:
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 pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
With vicious words she affirms that if it was she, a mere woman, who had vowed to commit a murder, would accomplish this. Her character depicts the theme of the battle between femininity and masculinity, as she suppresses her natural feminine characteristics and sentimentality that make her a woman, in favour of ambition and the pursuit of power. She becomes inhuman, something that does not fit into the natural world. With her vicious words, and steely sense of purpose, she persuades him not to yield to his doubts and propels him to carry out the heinous deed.
Even after this, Macbeth is still doubtful, ‘If we fail?’ Lady Macbeth demands he focus his attention on the murder ,'screw your courage’ physically attach it, ‘to the sticking place, And we’ll not fail' (60) referring to where the knife will pierce the King’s body, it also presents a metaphorical image of his courage needing to be physically fixed to be held in place. Here, Macbeth’s obvious wavering resolve can be linked to the theme of courage, as his lack of it features prominently in this scene. Unconvinced she has steered Macbeth back onto path of murder, she shares her murder plan with him ‘When Duncan is asleep …. Will I with wine and wassail so convince’………………………………………..,