Rhetorical Devices Used In Macbeth

ACT 3: * After his first confrontation with the witches, Macbeth worried that he would have to commit a crime to get the crown. He seems to have gotten used to the idea of killing because the body counts has risen drastically. * Since the first prophecy of the witches came true Macbeth feels that he must kill Banquo and Fleance so that the second part from becoming realized. * Fleance survives which suggests that there is no escape from the witches’ prophecies. * Macbeth and Lady Macbeth trade roles. * Macbeth adapts the same rhetoric that lady Macbeth used to convince Macbeth to murder in Act 1 Scene 7. * He questions their manhood in order to push them to kill Banquo and Fleance. * He says that they must make face visors to their hearts w she previously told him to act like
the innocent flower and be the serpent under it. * Lady Macbeth starts to convince Macbeth not to kill.
* Macbeth displays fearlessness but he is undeniably filled with guilt which he expresses in his reference to the “scorpions” in his mind and he declares that by killing banquo they have scorched the snake not killed it. * Macbeth becomes bold and does not tell lady Macbeth abou the murder of banquo while she despairs * He is very afraid of Banquo who does not let his ambition take over his conscience. * Both characters seem shocked and dismayed that getting the crown has not rid them of trouble or brought them happiness. * They use a language full of imaginary sentences which refers to paranoia or inner turmoil. * Every murder he commits, he thinks that it would bring him security and contentment but the deeper he sinks in blood, the more violent and more horrified he becomes. * The banquet is the high point of his reign and also the downfall. * He sees Banquo’s ghost sitting in his chair and he talks to it. * Lady Macbeth is surefooted and tells the others that he has some mental problems. * Macduff leaves to England to get the help from Malcolm and King
Edward. * Macbeth is a tyrant and they want to get rid of him.

Act 4: * Hecate the Queen of witchcrafts appears and compliments the witches on their work. * First apparition: soldier’s head tells Macbeth to beware Macduff. This apparition might symbolize protection to Macbeth and the force he needs to defeat Macduff. * Second apparition: a bloody child shows up which symbolize that no man born of a woman will defeat him. * Third apparition: Little crowned child with a tree in his hand. It symbolizes that Macbeth won’t be defeated until birnham wood moves to Dunsinane. Also Malcolm and Macduff. * Fourth apparition: 8 kings and a mirror being carried at the end accompanied by the ghost of Banquo. It implies that Banquo’s descendants, for eight generations will rule Scotland and England. * He is horrified , enraged, and confounded. * Macbeth leaves. * Speech between Lady Macduff and Her son to show sympathy. * They are killed.

Act 5: * Lady Macbeth starts to hallucinate. * She can’t wipe the blood of her hands while in the beginning she tells Macbeth that little water will wash the blood away. * She has paranoia * She commits suicide. * Macbeth is so numb and does not care about the death of his wife and he says that it was not a good time for her to day. * He realizes the game of life is almost up * Very important speech notes:
*reflect Macbeth’s Feelings of hopelessness.
*Full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Life is meaningless.
* Shakespeare puts his own perspective in the play in the despair of a murderer.
*Vaulting ambition causes one to have a meaningless life. * Macbeth at first wanted to be a sympathetic hero but he becomes a tyrant. * Ambition and bloodlust must be checked by virtue for order and form to be restored to the sound and fury of human existence.