Macbeth Study Notes
Macbeth
Themes:
• Ambition causes ignorance to the reality of an appearance or the truth behind an equivocation. Evil deeds feed the destruction of societal order through extreme violence. Macbeth’s conscience overwhelms him with guilt, as he fights himself to behave as a ‘man’. Macbeth loses his free will by being over-confident in the witches’ supernatural soliciting, and is overcome by fate and retribution.
• Ambition and Desire: Macbeth ruthlessly seeks power, urged on by his wife. It is the tragic flaw that causes his downfall, “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition”.
o M and B are shown as ambitious from the beginning, but their reactions to the witches’ prophecies are very different. o “Naughts had, all’s spent / Where our desire is got without content” • Appearance and Reality: Deceit and hypocrisy mean that appearance cannot be trusted, for evil hides behind fair looks. o “Look like th’ innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t”. o “False face must hide what the false heart doth know” • Evil: Murderous intention and action that destroys whatever is good o “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (paradox) o “Things bad begun, make themselves strong by ill” o “from the crown to the toe, top full of direst cruelty” • Order and Disorder: The struggle to maintain or destroy social and natural bonds and the destruction of morality and mutual trust. Unnatural acts such as murder and witchcraft are always accompanied by unnatural events in nature. Eg, after Duncan’s murder we are told that darkness seemed to cover the earth and that his horses ate each other; and storms, lightning and thunder accompanied the witches’ meetings. o “unnatural deeds / Do bring unnatural troubles.” o “unsex me here” • Man: The violent cutthroat feudal society of hierarchical male power breed’s bloody stereotypes of what it is to be a man. “I dare do all
Themes:
• Ambition causes ignorance to the reality of an appearance or the truth behind an equivocation. Evil deeds feed the destruction of societal order through extreme violence. Macbeth’s conscience overwhelms him with guilt, as he fights himself to behave as a ‘man’. Macbeth loses his free will by being over-confident in the witches’ supernatural soliciting, and is overcome by fate and retribution.
• Ambition and Desire: Macbeth ruthlessly seeks power, urged on by his wife. It is the tragic flaw that causes his downfall, “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition”.
o M and B are shown as ambitious from the beginning, but their reactions to the witches’ prophecies are very different. o “Naughts had, all’s spent / Where our desire is got without content” • Appearance and Reality: Deceit and hypocrisy mean that appearance cannot be trusted, for evil hides behind fair looks. o “Look like th’ innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t”. o “False face must hide what the false heart doth know” • Evil: Murderous intention and action that destroys whatever is good o “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (paradox) o “Things bad begun, make themselves strong by ill” o “from the crown to the toe, top full of direst cruelty” • Order and Disorder: The struggle to maintain or destroy social and natural bonds and the destruction of morality and mutual trust. Unnatural acts such as murder and witchcraft are always accompanied by unnatural events in nature. Eg, after Duncan’s murder we are told that darkness seemed to cover the earth and that his horses ate each other; and storms, lightning and thunder accompanied the witches’ meetings. o “unnatural deeds / Do bring unnatural troubles.” o “unsex me here” • Man: The violent cutthroat feudal society of hierarchical male power breed’s bloody stereotypes of what it is to be a man. “I dare do all