Transcript Macbeth

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
• His career was at its highest
during the reins of Elizabeth I
(1558-1603) and James I
(1603-1625)
• Wrote Macbeth in 1606
during the rein of James I
• Macbeth in a Tragic Play
• This was one of
Shakespeare’s shortest
and bloodiest plays.
CHARACTER OF MACBETH
• Tragic Hero
- ambition contributed to his own destruction
- was a “good” servant to the crown until meeting
the three Witches
• Tragic Flaw
- becomes obsessed with the power of being king
& maintaining that power
CHARACTER OF LADY MACBETH
• Is obsessed about gaining the power.
• She the dominant one in the relationship.
- manipulates Macbeth
- questions Macbeths MANHOOD
- wants to be unemotional towards to deeds that
she has planned
PASSAGE I: READING THE LETTER
o Defining the scene
 In this scene, Lady Macbeth receives a letter from
Macbeth stating the occurrences with the three
witches. He tells of how he will become the new king
and that King Duncan will be arriving to his home. Here
is where Lady Macbeth is critically analyzing how
Macbeth would be more of a feminine King. As well as
she expresses her worries about Hamlet’s lack of
ambition of getting the title as king.
STANZA I
LINE 1-4
“Glamis thou art, and
Cawdor; and shalt be
/ What thou art
promised: yet do I fear
thy nature; / It is too
full o’ the milk of
human kindness / To
catch the nearest way:
thou wouldst be
great;…”
A N A LY S I S
• In these lines Shakespeare’s
diction such as “I fear thy
nature” and “milk of human
kindness” is used to illustrate
Lady Macbeth’s worry about
Macbeth being a weak person,
comparing it to milk. Milk
symbolizes a feminine trait
and leads in how women at
that time period were seen as
weak individuals.
STANZA I
LINE 6-9
“The illness should
attend it: what thou
wouldst highly, /
That wouldst thou
holily; wouldst not
play false, / And yet
wouldst wrongly win:
thou’ldst have, great
Glamis,…”
A N A LY S I S
• There is a paradox in the lines “
that wouldst thou holily; wouldst
not play false” meaning if Macbeth
wants to be crowned king he must
play fair. At the same time Lady
Macbeth contradicts herself when
she says “and yet wouldst wrongly
win: thou’ldst have, great Glamis”
meaning she is making an
acceptation in this case by
cheating to get the title of king.
STANZA III
LINE 1-3
A N A LY S I S
“The raven himself is
hoarse / That croaks
the fatal entrance of
Duncan / Under my
battlements…”
• The atmosphere I
perceived at the end
of act 1, scene 5 gave
STANZA III
LINE 3-7
A N A LY S I S
“Come, you spirits / That • We can see diction being used in these
lines, “unsex me here” and “fill me from
tend on mortal
the crown to the toe top-full” clearly Lady
thoughts, unsex me
Macbeth wishes to be more like a man,
here, / And fill me
who are seen as barbaric, cold people.
from the crown to the
Here she show her weakness and
toe top-full / Of direst
uncertainty about herself as a woman
cruelty! make thick my
since they are seen to lean more on their
blood; / Stop up the
conscious of what is right and wrong. She
access and passage
knows if she does lets her conscious take
to remorse,…”
over her as she kills King Duncan she
wont accomplish her goal in obtaining the
king’s title.
STANZA III
LINE 10-13
“Come to my woman’s
breasts, / And take my
milk for gall, you
murdering ministers, /
Wherever in your
sightless substances/
You wait on nature’s
mischief!...”
A N A LY S I S
• The tone of ambitious comes
through the lines, “take my milk for
gall,” offering her milk in exchange
for mischief or insolence. As well as,
“wherever in your sightless
substances/ you wait on nature’s
mischief,” the allusion of a sightless
substance that is ready for mischief,
like Lady Macbeth is attracting this
substance towards her since she
wants and is ready to kill King
Duncan.
PASSAGE II: THE DAGGER SCENE
o Defining the passage
 This part of the scene takes place right before Macbeth
is about to kill the King. Macbeth’s soliloquy in
demonstrating a role of self motivation in order to
commit the murder of King Duncan.
THE DAGGER SCENE
Line 4-8
“I have thee not, and yet I
see thee still. / Art thou
not, fatal vision, sensible /
To feeling as to sight? Or
art thou but / A dagger of
the mind, a false creation,
/ Proceeding from the
heat-oppressed brain?”
A N A LY S I S
• The speaker’s attitude seems
confused and skeptical of the
hallucinations because he is going
through a state of hysteria. This
tone emphasizes how Macbeth’s
reaches a point where he can’t
reason with what is real and what
is abstract because he is
overwhelmed by the situation he is
currently in.
THE DAGGER SCENE
Line 7-8
Hallucinations
A N A LY S I S
• Motif: Throughout the scene in
which Macbeth will commit the act
of murder upon King Duncan, he
experience visions. These visions
distinguish them part. This is due to
the fact that Macbeth is
subconsciously feeling a sense of
remorse because he is knowingly
blamed for the King’s death.
THE DAGGER SCENE
Line 20-22
• “Witchcraft celebrates /
Pale Hecate’s offerings,
and withered murder, /
Alarumed by his
sentinel, the wolf /
Whose howl’s his watch,
thus with his stealthy
pace, / With Tarquin’s
ravishing strides,
towards his design /
Moves like a ghost.”
A N A LY S I S
• Allusion is placed in this scene
to emphasize how Macbeth
attempted to connect his
torturous act to those of Tarquin
and Pale Hecate. He uses this a
way to convince himself that if
the Roman prince went against
his own principles by raping a
Roman wife, then it shouldn’t be
so hard for Macbeth to do the
same.
THE DAGGER SCENE
Line 25-29
A N A LY S I S
• “Thou sure and firm-set • This quote taken from the passage
demonstrates a great example of how
earth, / Hear not my
the passage created an overall
steps, which way they
nightmarish and tense feeling, all at
walk, for fear / They very
the same time. The mood generally
stones prate of my
sets in due to the event of the murder
whereabout, / And take
being committed. Moreover, the
the present horror from
contemplation with Macbeth and his
the time, / Which now
conscious, highlights the emotions of
suits with it.”
suspense leading up to King Duncan’s
murder.
THE DAGGER SCENE
Line 31-33
• “I go, and it is done.
The bell invites me. /
Hear it not, Duncan,
it is a knell / That
summons thee to
heaven or to hell.”
A N A LY S I S
• This quote taken from the passage
reveals the speaker’s attitude to
have given in and ready to move
forward. Furthermore, the speaker’s
tone portrays Macbeth as a man
who has braced himself and is
prepared to continue with the plot
of the play. The importance of
Macbeth’s soliloquy is to portray
Macbeth’s protagonist behavior as
he handles his inner conflicts.