Macbeth

Themes, motifs, and symbolism.

Literary Devices – Character Traits

These are determined by what a character does or says:

- When Macbeth defeats Macdonwald (rebel leader fighting King Duncan). This shows that Macbeth is courageous, brave, and heroic.

- When Macbeth is thinking about the witches’ prophecies, this in turn makes him treasonous, disloyal, and wicked.

Literary Devices - Mood A feeling or emotional state.

– Example: Anxious, nervous, cool, calm, happy, and passionate.

– Subjunctive mood: Hypothetical state (i.e. a wish or desire). A character that is usually pensive and thoughtful in a doubtful way.

• Scene I.VII:

“If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly”Macbeth has not committed to the idea of killing Duncan. He is not sold on the idea.

Literary Devices - Mood

A feeling or emotional state. – Example: Anxious, nervous, cool, calm, happy, and passionate.

– Imperative mood: Commanding/imperial/request.

• Scene I.V:

“The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements.”

Lady Macbeth is convinced that King Duncan will die and she will have Macbeth be king.

Literary Devices - Mood– Imperative mood: Commanding/imperial/request.

• Scene I.V: “The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements.”

• The notion that the ‘Raven’, a harbinger of death has croaked himself hoarse suggests that Duncan’s death is foretold.

• The word ‘croak’ itself is also euphemism for death — therefore Duncan is going to be doubly dead…

Harbinger: One that presages or foreshadows what is to come

Euphemism: A mild or pleasant word or phrase that is used instead of one that is unpleasant or offensive

Literary Devices - ToneCreates a relationship or conveys an attitude or mood.

-The witches in the first act have the tone of the play, which is to create a tone of uncertainty.

-“Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air.” (Act I, Scene I)

-How can something good be bad, and something bad be good?

Literary Devices - ToneHow can something good be bad, and something bad be good?

- What the witches are really trying to convey is that things don’t always appear to be what they look like on the surface. Tone is uncertainty.

Literary Devices - ParadoxA statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

“when the battle’s lost and won” (referring to the loss of a battle from the perspective of one army but its victory from the perspective of another)

“fair is foul, and foul is fair”

Literary Devices - Paradox“fair is foul, and foul is fair”

It predicts that things that are good will become bad and things that are bad will become good—and suggests these opposites are interrelated.

The witches are referring, among other things, to themselves. They look ugly, but the predictions they eventually give to Macbeth seem awfully attractive to him.

Theme

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Appearance and Reality

Appearances often hide the reality.Theme: Fair appearances hide foul realities.

- Macbeth is a “fair host” as him and lady Macbeth plot King Duncan’s murder

- "look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't" (1.5.65-66). Lady Macbeth to Macbeth about murdering Duncan.

Theme – Appearance and Reality“Where we are, / There’s daggers in men’s smiles.”(2.2.120-121) Donalbain is speaking to Malcom. Both are King Duncan's sons.

- "Away, and mock the time with fairest show: / False face must hide what the false heart doth know" (1.7.81-82). Macbeth speaking of keeping a “nice” face while already planning to murder King Duncan.

Theme – Ambition leads to downfall

This theme is directly apparent in two main characters in the play.

Theme - Ambition leads to downfall

This theme is directly apparent in two main characters in the play. -Macbeth: not naturally inclined to commit crime, yet deeply desires power and advancement. Kills Duncan against his better judgment and suffers guilt and paranoia. -Lady Macbeth: more determined but less able to deal with the consequences of her actions.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Hallucinations:

Prophecy:

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Hallucinations: bloody floating dagger (foreshadowing of what will soon happen, Banquo’s ghost sitting on the chair (reminder of what he has done)

Prophecy: witches’ prophecies (thane of Cawdor, becoming king, Birnam Wood comes to Dunsiane, no man born of a woman). Are they self-fulfilling or not?

Witches

The word weird descends etymologically from the Anglo-Saxon word wyrd, which means “fate” or “doom,” and the three witches bear a striking resemblance to the Fates, female characters in both Norse and Greek mythology.

Perhaps their prophecies are constructed to wreak havoc in the minds of the hearers, so that they become self-fulfilling. It is doubtful, for instance, that Macbeth would have killed Duncan if not for his meeting with the witches. On the other hand, the sisters’ prophecies may be accurate readings of the future. 

Witches

The word weird descends etymologically from the Anglo-Saxon word wyrd, which means “fate” or “doom,” and the three witches bear a striking resemblance to the Fates, female characters in both Norse and Greek mythology.

Perhaps their prophecies are constructed to wreak havoc in the minds of the hearers, so that they become self-fulfilling. It is doubtful, for instance, that Macbeth would have killed Duncan if not for his meeting with the witches. On the other hand, the sisters’ prophecies may be accurate readings of the future. 

Symbols

Blood: opening battle, blood on Macbeth’s hands after he has killed the king.-Blood comes to symbolize their guilt. Blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth-“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” -Macbeth cries after he has killed Duncan, even as his wife scolds him and says that a little water will do the job (Act 2. Scene 2.58–59)

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Weather:

• thunder and lightning that accompany the witches appearances• storm after Duncan’s murder (these violations of the natural

order reflect corruption in the moral and political orders).