IMAGERY

DARKNESS – Let light not see

NATURE
1. Banquo and Duncan value birds that bring gentleness to Macbeth’s castles (feast scene)
2. Macbeth has deep and dark desires (full of scorpions).
He has dangerous thoughts in his mind.
3. Duncan has ‘begun to plant’ Macbeth and will labour him to make him full of growing
4. To show chaos: disruption of nature/the chain of being
Bird eating bird
WEATHER
1. Pathetic fallacy (mimics the mood)
2. Whenever witches are around, weather is gloomy and there is thunder every time
(something terrible is bound to happen)
DISEASE – ‘fog and filthy air in Witches’ scene
CLOTHES
1. Used to represent change in power/people
2. Different clothes are worn to show something
3. Macbeth – ‘badly fitting garment’ shows that it is not suitable for him. Foreshadows that
the power will be used for evil.
SLEEP
1. Connected to the idea of innocence
2. Mind is at rest
3. Themes (not able to sleep)
- Guilt
- Insanity (Lady Macbeth)
- Fearful

PARADOX, AMBIGUITIES, ANTITHESIS

1. Fair is foul, foul is fair
- Whatever that seems is not the real
- Whatever is said does not mean what the words imply
2. Trees coming to Dunsinane
- False sense of protection to protect Macbeth
 3. You will not be killed by man born by woman
- Double meaning behind Witches’ prophecy

BLOODY DAGGERS AND HANDS

- Symbolizes guilt and murder
- Blood stain that Lady Macbeth could not wipe off from her hands (leading to
insanity)

LISTS
Shakespeare uses lists (body parts in cauldron)
Effect: creates vivid images for the reader
Example besides cauldron scene:
2.3 Porter describing alcohol and its effect on humans
Effect: Reader can get the full idea of what alcohol does to a person

REPETITION
Repeating a word/phrase: brings attention to it
Example:
2.2 Repetition of the word ‘sleep’ in just 10 lines
- Macbeth’s guilt gnawing at him/his sleep
- Suffers. Shows that he is a tormented soul (Reader will feel pity for Macbeth)

VERSE AND PROSE

1. Enjambment (run on)
- One line flows into another with no pause
- Effect: makes it more conversational
2. Prose (10% of the play)
IRONY
1. Situational irony
- Macbeth and Lady Macbeth believed that killing Duncan would be good, but they
are cursed by their own guilt.
2. Dramatic irony
- Lady Macbeth considers herself ‘strong’ and Macbeth ‘weak’. The opposite is true.
3. Verbal irony
- “He that’s coming must be provided for”
- To Duncan: warm welcome
- To Lady Macbeth and Macbeth: have means to kill him

FOIL
SOLILOQUIES
COMIC RELIEF