macbeth symbols
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macbeth Symbols. Created by Cameron Tromba. What is our Symbol?. Clothing!!. Examples of clothing from Macbeth. Clothing Quote. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
CLOTHING QUOTE
In `Macbeth,' the imagery of clothing portrays that Macbeth is seeking to hide his
"disgraceful self" from himself and others. Shakespeare wants to show the difference
between the pitiful human being that Macbeth really is and the disguises he uses to
hide who he truly is. Macbeth is constantly represented symbolically as the wearer of
robes not belonging to him, which is a point well made by the uses of clothing imagery.
The description of the purpose of clothing in Macbeth is the fact that these garments
are not his. Therefore, Macbeth is uncomfortable in them because he is continually
conscious of the fact that they do not belong to him. In the following passage, the idea
constantly reappears, Macbeth's new honors sit ill upon him, like loose and badly
fitting garments, belonging to someone else:
“Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold but with the aid of use (1.3.145-
146).”
CLOTHING QUOTES
“The Thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me in borrowed
robes (1.3.109)?”
When Macbeth first hears that he's been named the Thane of
Cawdor, he asks Angus why he is being dressed in "borrowed"
robes. Macbeth doesn't literally mean that he's going to wear
the old thane's hand-me-down clothing. Here, "robes" is a
metaphor for the title (Thane of Cawdor) that Macbeth doesn't
think belongs to him. (At this point in the play, Macbeth is
corrupt.)
CLOTHING QUOTES
“Now does he feel his title hang loose about him like a giant’s robe
upon a dwarfish thief (5.2.20-21).”
Toward the end of the play (when everybody hates Macbeth, who
has become a corrupt monarch), Angus says that Macbeth's kingly
"title" is ill-fitting and hangs on him rather loosely, "like a giant's robe/
Upon a dwarfish thief". Angus isn't accusing Macbeth of stealing and
wearing the old king's favorite jacket, he's accusing Macbeth of
stealing the king's power (by killing him) and then parading around
with the king's title, which doesn't seem to suit him at all.
CLOTHING QUOTES
“What are these so withered, and so wild in their
attire, that look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth,
and yet are on’t (1.3.39-42)?”
Here we see Banquo noticing the witches on the
road while talking to Macbeth. He comments on
their appearance and clothing stating that the three
witches don’t appear to be people born of this world
( as if they are extra terrestrials in a sense).