Macbeth - Study Notes
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adrianneramoray.officialMACBETH
STUDY NOTES
📚 Macbeth — Critical Analysis Notes
1. Context
Author: William Shakespeare (1606; Jacobean era).
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Genre: Tragedy.
Historical background:
o Written during King James I’s reign.
o Reflects James’s interest in witchcraft (Daemonologie, 1597) and
the divine right of kings.
o The Gunpowder Plot (1605) had shaken England; themes of
treason and regicide resonated strongly.
2. Plot Overview (Brief)
Exposition: Witches predict Macbeth’s rise.
Rising action: Macbeth, spurred by ambition and Lady Macbeth,
murders Duncan.
Climax: Banquo’s ghost at the banquet; Macbeth’s authority begins to
fracture.
Falling action: Macbeth seeks out witches, becomes overconfident
due to misleading prophecies.
Resolution: Macbeth is killed by Macduff; Malcolm becomes king.
3. Major Themes
⚔️Ambition & Power
Driving force of the tragedy.
Macbeth’s ambition transforms from hesitant curiosity → obsessive
compulsion → destructive overconfidence.
Lady Macbeth initially embodies ruthless ambition, but collapses under
its weight.
👁️The Supernatural & Psychological Disturbance
Witches as catalysts, not controllers.
Hallucinations (dagger, Banquo’s ghost, bloodstains) externalize inner
turmoil.
Blurring of reality vs imagination highlights psychological collapse.
😔 Guilt & Conscience
Blood imagery = permanent stain of guilt (“Will all great Neptune’s
ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?”).
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Lady Macbeth’s “damned spot” shows how suppressed guilt
resurfaces.
👑 Kingship & Tyranny
Duncan = ideal king (benevolent, just).
Macbeth = tyrant (violent, paranoid, illegitimate).
Malcolm = restorative figure of order.
🎭 Fate vs Free Will
Witches predict but do not dictate.
Macbeth chooses to act on prophecy → moral responsibility.
Banquo’s different response highlights agency.
4. Character Analysis
Macbeth
Initially brave, loyal warrior (“valour’s minion”).
Conflict between ambition and morality.
Hallucinations reveal fractured mind.
Arc = from hesitation → bloodthirsty tyranny → fatalistic resignation
(“Life’s but a walking shadow…”).
Lady Macbeth
Instigator of Duncan’s murder; manipulates Macbeth’s masculinity.
Strong, commanding early in play.
Declines into guilt-ridden fragility → sleepwalking, suicide.
Irony: she who claimed “a little water clears us” cannot cleanse herself
of guilt.
Banquo
Macbeth’s foil: cautious, morally steady, skeptical of witches.
His ghost = symbol of Macbeth’s guilt + reminder of lost integrity.
Lineage prophecy destabilizes Macbeth’s sense of legacy.
The Witches (Weird Sisters)
Ambiguous agents of fate.
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Speak in riddles and paradoxes (“fair is foul, and foul is fair”).
Represent chaos, temptation, and destabilization of natural order.
Macduff
Embodiment of justice and loyalty.
Motivated by personal and political revenge after family’s slaughter.
His birth (“from his mother’s womb untimely ripped”) fulfills the
witches’ twisted prophecy.
5. Key Symbols & Motifs
Blood: Guilt, violence, permanent corruption.
Hallucinations/Visions: Conscience externalized (dagger, ghost,
bloodstains).
Darkness/Night: Cover for evil deeds, concealment of truth.
Clothing imagery: Ill-fitting garments symbolize stolen kingship
(“borrowed robes”).
Sleep: Innocence and peace; murder of Duncan = murder of sleep.
6. Structure & Language
Blank verse (iambic pentameter) dominates, but Macbeth’s rhythm
breaks down as his mind fractures.
Soliloquies: Intimate access to Macbeth’s thought process (dagger
soliloquy, “Tomorrow and tomorrow…”).
Dramatic irony: Audience knows prophecies’ double meanings before
Macbeth realizes.
Paradox & equivocation: “Fair is foul” → language of deception
mirrors moral confusion.
7. Critical Perspectives
Psychological reading: Visions reflect Macbeth’s subconscious guilt
and desire.
Political reading: Play is a warning against regicide, reinforcing
divine right.
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Feminist lens: Lady Macbeth challenges gender norms, manipulating
Macbeth by questioning his masculinity, but is ultimately punished by
patriarchal order.
Postcolonial lens: Scotland as a land destabilized by ambition and
tyranny; issues of legitimacy and power resonate with colonial
anxieties.
8. Important Quotes (with significance)
“Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself” (1.7) → Ambition as
self-destructive force.
“Is this a dagger which I see before me” (2.1) → Vision = fusion
of imagination and action.
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my
hand?” (2.2) → Guilt = permanent stain.
“Thou canst not say I did it: never shake / Thy gory locks at
me.” (3.4) → Banquo’s ghost = guilt made visible.
“Out, damned spot! out, I say!” (5.1) → Lady Macbeth undone by
guilt.
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…” (5.5) → Macbeth’s
nihilism; futility of ambition.
9. Conclusion (for critical analysis)
Macbeth is not simply a tale of ambition and murder but a study of how
the supernatural magnifies the psychological cost of unchecked desire.
Shakespeare explores the interplay of fate, free will, and conscience,
showing that ambition not only corrupts political order but destabilizes
the human mind itself.
Ultimately, the play’s supernatural elements are inseparable from its
psychological realism—ghosts and visions are as much about inner
guilt as outer forces.
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