Themes and Motifs

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

One of the main themes of Macbeth is The destruction wrought when ambition goes

unchecked by moral constraints. What is a moral constraint?

Macbeth/Lady Macbeth:

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. Deteriorates as play progresses.

Lady Macbeth: more determined but less able to deal with the consequences of her actions. Her ambitions get the best of her and

In each case ambition, (helped of course by the witches prophesies) is what drives this couple to commit these terrible atrocities.

Once one decides to pursue ambition with violence, the more out of control it becomes.

The temptation to use violence to achieve the throne presents itself over and over again through the potential threats to the throne (Fleance, Malcom, Banquo).

Throughout Macbeth, fair appearances hide foul realities.Examples:

Macbeth sees the witches prophecies as fair, but to attain them he must commit the foul.

"There's no art/ To find the mind's construction in the face." (Act 1, Scene 4, Lines 11-12) –King Duncan speaking of the former Thane of Cawdor.

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

Both a woman and a host, Lady Macbeth should be the model of grace and femininity, however, her thoughts are cold and evil

Macbeth attempts to say “amen” after murdering the king. Thinking of religion is foul after such a heinous crime

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

"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 Duncan.

A tragic hero is a character that the audience sympathizes with despite his/her actions that would indicate the contrary.

Macbeth, in spite of his horrible murders, is a pitiable man.

Macbeth internally suffers

Plagued by fear, paranoia, sleeplessness and exhaustion.

Macbeth: is a pitiable man, despite his terrible crimes. His saving grace is that he did not want to commit the crime in the first place but was coerced by Lady Macbeth.

Macbeth suffers internally and is thus never able to enjoy his royal status

Began as courageous and daring (still evil)

Courage deteriorated, broke down.

Lady Macbeth: courage and daring nature deteriorates into delusional, hapless somnambulist.

Breaks down mentally and physically because of the strain of the crime.

Macbeth and his wife are pitiable characters because the reader is able to follow their every thought and action.  Thus, the reader sees not only their gruesome effects on the Scottish people but also on themselves.

Macbeth indecisiveMurder and course of action

Macbeth was indecisive up until the night of the murder about whether or not he should kill Duncan.

After he murders Duncan, he is unsure of his course of action (what should he do next?)

Rashly decides to kill Banquo.

Always a presence (fair is foul and foul is fair)Lady Macbeth Witches and HecateMacbeth

Murder of king Duncan- forgivable? Influence?Banquo and his sonMacduff’s Family

Disorder- Morality and trust- opening of the play?

Order- Prophesies?Scotland under Duncan’s rule?

Natural chain of events- What happens?Chain of being disrupted?

Examples of disrupted orderMacduff’s slaughtered family. Caused by what?

“…look like the innocent flower, be the serpant undr’t…”

Human fronts- Playing a roleActions/treesDagger/Banquo’s ghost

War and destruction (opening of play)Killing… killing and more… killing.

Guilt of crimes committedLady Macbeth- sleepwalking, confessions,

eventual death.Macbeth- Inability to sleep, driving him to

madness. Banquo’s ghost

Macbeth’s inner debate (killing Duncan)

Masterminds behind much of the action in the play.

Witches and HecateDrive action of the play.

Shared- Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

Had to pay.

Most of Macbeth takes place in the dark, and both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth seem to believe that the dark can hide their crimes, perhaps even from themselves.

When King Duncan announces that his eldest son Malcolm is heir to the throne, he says that Malcolm won't be the only one who receives new honors. The King promises that

"signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine / On all deservers" (1.4.41-42

Moments later Macbeth also uses starlight as a metaphor for what is good and noble. As he is thinking of murdering both the King and Malcolm, he says to himself: Stars, hide your fires;

Let not light see my black and deep desires:The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.  (1.4.50-53)

In short, his desires are so terrible, that he can't stand to have the stars shine on them; he doesn't even want to look at them himself.

At the end of a soliloquy in which Lady Macbeth talks herself into a murderous state of mind, she calls upon night to hide her deed from heaven and from herself:

Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, / That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, / Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, / To cry "Hold, hold!" (1.5.50-54).

In both its ideas and imagery, this passage

is remarkably similar to Macbeth's speech in the previous scene.

After the moon has gone down on the night in which Macbeth kills King Duncan, Banquo says to Fleance, "There's husbandry in heaven; / Their candles

are all out" (2.1.4-5). He means that there's not a star to be seen in

the sky. If we think back, we may remember that this is exactly the kind of night Macbeth wanted, because he thought it might conceal his own guilt from himself.

It's strangely dark on the morning after the night of King Duncan's murder, and Ross says to an Old Man, "by the clock, 'tis day, / And yet dark night

strangles the travelling lamp" (2.4.6-7).

The "travelling lamp" is the sun, which should be lighting the new day. Ross goes on to speculate that the night is stronger than the day, or that the day is ashamed of itself. In either case, the cause would be the murder of King Duncan. The night would be strong because in that night the good King was murdered, and the day would be ashamed to shed light on the bloody scene of the murder.

When Macbeth goes to the witches to learn his fate, he greets them as "you secret, black, and midnight hags!"

(4.1.48).

An earlier scene suggests that Macbeth's visit actually occurs in the morning, but Macbeth associates dark with evil.

In Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene she enters holding a candle, and the doctor asks her gentlewoman how the lady happens to have the candle. The gentlewoman replies,"Why, it stood by her: she has light by her

continually; 'tis her command" (5.1.22-23). The doctor then points out,

"You see, her eyes are open" (5.1.24), and the gentlewoman replies,

"Ay, but their sense is shut" (5.1.25).

Thus we see that Lady Macbeth, who eagerly awaited the dark hour of King Duncan's murder, is now afraid of the dark. And though her eyes are open, she can see only her own memories of murder. As she sleepwalks, Lady Macbeth imagines she sees a spot of King Duncan's blood on her hand. She rubs her hands to try to wash it away, but it won't disappear, and then she hears the bell that she herself rang on the night of King Duncan's murder: "Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why, then,

'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!" (5.1.35-36).

Perhaps it is the darkness of the night of Duncan's murder which reminds her of the darkness of hell.[