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“Stars hide your fires, /Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
→ Alliteration as in "let light" and "deep desires." In this instance, the technique is used to accentuate the
profundity of Macbeth's passion in committing a most heinous act—regicide. Macbeth's "vaulting ambition" is to
kill King Duncan and usurp the Scottish throne. In the process, he will override all the rules required for natural
ascension.
→ Macbeth is implying in effect, that his plans regarding Malcom and Donalbain are made but that they will
remain completely hidden until he has disposed of their father.
→ The juxtaposition of images of starlight and the cancellation of starlight emphasizes the great opposition
between the king and Macbeth and between good and evil, an opposition that is ironically reinforced by the king's
final lines to Banquo, once more praising Macbeth. The phrase "peerless kinsman" gives added poignancy: The
historical Macbeth was the cousin of Duncan, and his crime will not simply be regicide, but the willful destruction
of the head of a family.
→ The quote also implies that Macbeth does not want to think about killing a couple of young boys. This is
perhaps Shakespeare’s way of dealing with an extremely complex matter by “shelving it,” so to speak, “by putting
it in the closet” with the intention of dealing with it later.
→ Macbeth is clearly worried by the strength of his own ambition which he refers to as “black and deep desires.”
He knows there will be obstacles in his way but is determined to get round them. He just hopes that nobody will
see what he is up to which is why he wants the “stars” to stop shining.
→ A king in Shakespeare's time was thought to rule by 'divine right'. This meant that God had chosen that person
directly to rule over others. The killing of a king, regicide, was therefore considered to be worst crime that anyone
could commit. That is why Macbeth's decision to murder Duncan seemed so horrific to an audience of the time
and why the murderer has such a guilty conscience. The new King on the throne of England, James I was paranoid
about assassination attempts, since the infamous Gunpowder Plot to blow up the King and Parliament had taken
place just months before Macbeth was first performed.
“Out damned spot! Out, I say! …Will these hands ne’er be clean?”
→ Exclamatives highlights her being completely undone by guilt and descending into madness
→ Contrasts to earlier in the play when Lady Macbeth displayed no signs of guilt or remorse towards the murder
of their King, which was seen as not only the betrayal of the country and the King, but also the ultimate betrayal
of God; the Chain of being, King representing God on earth.
→ Macbeth also thought his hand was irreversibly bloodstained earlier in the play, Lady Macbeth told him: ‘A
little water clears us from this deed’
→ As the guilt-stricken Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, she remembers all the evil things she and her husband have
done and tries to wash imaginary blood from her hands.
→ Portrays her true womanly feelings and emotions which she was earlier pleading the supernatural for them to
be taken away as she thought this made her weak
→ Shakespeare could be suggesting that women should conform to societal standards and remain not heard,
indeed Lady -Macbeth could be established by Shakespeare to perhaps highlight the fate for a woman who
behaves in atypical way to that which was expected of women at this time
→ Her delusional hand-washing suggests some combination of intense anxiety (prompted by guilt) and
dissociation from reality.
→ The repetition of “out” resonates with Macbeth’s “Out, out, brief candle!” in Act 5, Scene 5. Lady Macbeth is
trying to exorcise her demons, rid herself of a psychological “stain,” while Macbeth in the later speech seems to
be decrying the brevity of life. But we could also read his “Out, out” as a wish to be rid of life, a wish that its
candle would burn out and its demons leave him.
, GUILT
“O’ full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!”
→ Dark imagery- Metaphor: Just as scorpions bring death, so does the tormented Macbeth. He no longer shares
his thought with his wife, and so she feels isolated. Their roles are now beginning to reverse. He has been
personified to be a wild creature.
→ Scorpions are known for their immense claws which cut through prey easily; similarly his mind is a savage
creature that craves death
→ His mind is tainted by poisonous thoughts where scorpions are a motif for evil. Like a scorpion, Macbeth is
ready to attack when necessary; can be quite deadly. Highlights the fact that Macbeth’s mind has been overtaken
by his hubris. His mind is evidently out of control where it is not controlled by something as natural as the brain,
but has been replaced by scorpions.
→ Juxtaposition of ‘scorpions’ and ‘dear’: They are both used in the same sentence which implies that Macbeth
does not know the difference between good and evil. The exclamatory exemplifies his desperation for his wife to
help him. The emphasis on his wife highlights that only love and comfort of her will save him; she can make the
‘Scorpions’ disappear.
→ The idea of Lady Macbeth comforting Macbeth goes against the gender roles during the Jacobean Era where
Lady Macbeth is evidently taking on the role of a man not only by comforting Macbeth but by persuading him to
commit such deeds.
→ Christians believed that life was sacred where the bible states that “all life is sacred.” They believed that
anyone who defied this sacred belief is banished from God and would walk along an unknown path away from
God.
→ Macbeth’s inability to control his own mind implies that he’s already drifting away from God where his
character I receiving no moral guidance.
“Ha he not resembled /My father as he slept, I had done’t”
→ Emotive language -For the first time in the whole story, so far, she seems weak and fragile. She felt incapable
of committing the murder herself. This is where karma comes back to get her. She had made Macbeth feel weak
and powerless and now she feels the same thing.
→ She does have some sense of humanity because the image of her father lying in the bed stopped her from
killing Duncan. She at least felt some sort of compassion towards somebody, even though her father is not even
mentioned in the story yet.
→This is a stop sign from her conscience that begins to reveal her human instincts. Her power devotion becomes
weaker, and continues to do so after they kill Duncan. With her conscience rattled after the murder, Lady Macbeth
begins to experience mild paranoia, which could result in bad outcomes of the "who done it" search.
→ In another of Shakespeare’s plays, a conflicted Hamlet reflects in one of his soliloquy, “Thus doth conscience
make cowards of us all.” Lady Macbeth also struggles with her conscience, which controls some of her actions
and even later causes her demise.
→ While she has called upon the spirits to “unsex” her in act 1, scene 5 so that she can become bolder, Lady
Macbeth is not rid of her conscience after her invocation of these evil spirits. Her conscience has made her a
“coward”
→ The quote indicates that Lady Macbeth has some knowledge of right and wrong because she demonstrates
compassion towards King Duncan by relating the appearance of the sleeping Duncan with memories of her own
father; the fact that she could not kill the king as he helplessly lay there resembling her father implies that Lady
Macbeth is not purely evil.
→ The plays Shakespeare wrote during the reign of Queen Elizabeth are often seen to embody the generally
happy, confident and optimistic mood of the Elizabethans. However, those he wrote during James's reign, such as
Macbeth and Hamlet, are darker and more cynical, reflecting the insecurities of the Jacobean period. Macbeth was
written the year after the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
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