Motifs
Similar to theme: an idea or object that reappears throughout a story that has some sort of meaning
5 motifs in Macbeth - know them and provide examples
1. Sleep - Witches curse (pg. 28), Macbeth has murdered "sleep" along with Duncan and destroyed that peace and tranquility "Macbeth shall sleep no more" (pg. 82), Lady Macbeth is sleep walking - the ultimate disturbed sleep - she is talking in her sleep with a candle by her. She's scared of the dark - evil (pg. 214)
2. Blood - Steaming blood off of sword (pg 22-26), Blood will have blood - murders are piling up to cover his tracks (pg. 146), We'll pour out every last drop of blood to purge our country of evil
3. Clothing - Dressed and Borrowed clothes (pg. 36), New titles not fitting right away like clothes (pg. 40), Golden respect should be worn while it is shiny and new just like clothes (pg. 60), Lest our old robes sit easier than our new... Means they're hoping the new roles will work as well as the old (pg. 104), Now does he feel his title hang loose upon him, like a giants robe upon a dwarfish theif (pg. 222)
4. Darkness - Stars hide your fires (pg. 46), Come thick night and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell - summoning the dark night (pg. 50), No night is so long that it doesn't end in day - nothing cannot be overcome (pg. 206)
5. Nature - Shakespeare's audience, bird making his house in Macbeth's castle (pg. 54), Owls scream and crickets cry when Duncan was killed (pg. 78), Weather of murder night was crazy and stormy which shows how awful the murder was (pg. 90), Owl kills a falcon (pg. 100), the poor wren will fight against an owl if her nest was attacked (pg. 178), Macbeth's way of life has withered like a yellow leaf (pg. 228)
Act I
Tone: creepy - thunder/lightning/rain
Theme: fair is foul and foul is fair - what appears to be foul is actually fair, and vice versatile - People/situations
Macbeth is introduced as brave by other people - Macbeth is in the military,