Themes

__**Themes **__ (Class notes give the details on these themes) Macbeth’s ambition to become King when he knows that Duncan has been good to him, honoured him with titles. Duncan has been a wise King and good for the Kingdom. His ambition is strong because Macbeth enjoys status, popularity and power. He also commits the murder to please his wife and show that he is a man and does want to live up to his own expectations/ capabilities. Notes in class will give you the details.
 * __Ambition v Loyalty __**

The witches are evil embodied (the devil dressed up). They are interfering with human society to bring chaos and distress into people’s lives. They are the interface between the supernatural and real world. They can manipulate people, so they are enticed to believe in the ‘honest trifles to betray us in deepest consequence.” Notes in class will give you the details The blood symbolises the evil of the murder. Macbeth is called a tyrant and devil and a hell-hound; all names which symbolize his evil actions.
 * __Evil __**

Macbeth assesses the murder beforehand and reasons that it is wrong. Therefore when he has committed the murder, he keenly feels guilt. Macbeth instantly has a guilty conscience, sees blood on his hands, is shocked and won’t go back to the murder scene to return the daggers. Later, he doesn’t want to be found out, so kills Banquo to ‘scotch the snake’. He sees Banquo’s ghost at the banquet, a sign of his guilt. He ‘lacks the season of all natures, sleep.” He knows he has stepped in a river of blood so far now that he cannot go back. He sees the witches and prophesies in Act Four, but Lennox cannot and he takes him out of the cave to take him out of harms way.  Lady Macbeth really doesn’t feel much until she goes insane. It’s then we realise she knows about Banquo and the MacDuff family murders. ‘The Fane of Thife had a wife. Where is she now?’ She washes her hands trying to get rid of the blood. Her conscience gets the better of her as in her insanity she cannot stop thinking of the murders – and her final act of suicide is really like giving in to her conscience. Notes in class will give you the details.
 * __Guilt and conscience __**

The plan is they will be hypocrites after the murder and act as if they know nothing. They will deceive people with their innocent display, so they can get on with their exciting new lives as the King and Queen of Scotland. In order to do this they have to hide the murder – planting the daggers on the guards, then Macbeth kills them in fury when he finds out about King Duncan’s murder, so they cannot convey their innocence. Luckily, Malcolm and Donalbain flee, which gives their plan a chance to work. Even while he is King, he arranges Banquo’s murder. But this is his undoing – as he doesn’t hide his guilt well at the banquet. Lady Macbeth’s explanation is plausible (that he is sick and has been for some time). But this creates and element of doubt in people’s minds. Notes in class will give you the details.
 * __Appearance v Reality __**

This theme shows the relationship between a King and his country. Rosse talks to an old man outside the castle who tells him a mouse has killed a hawk and Duncans horses ‘turned wild in their nature, broke their stalls’, ‘’Tis said they eat each other.’ This shows there is disorder in the natural world and Kingdom.  There are also references in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s conversations which refer to nature. Before Duncan’s murder he says ‘Now o’er the one half world, nature seems dead’ showing that nature is only part of a human world – a good world. He does link some animals to the evil intent of the supernatural – the wolf Hecate’s sentinel (guard), and in a later scene he says ‘Light thickens and the crow makes wing to the rooky wood.’- Macbeth says this when he plans Banquo’s murder. Disorder in nature shows how the supernatural has affected the human world. It’s a reflection of the evil world intervening to create disorder.  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">
 * __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Order v Disorder __**