Macbeth Notes

Simple Play

-        Plot is a quick rise and fall (King by Act III)

-        Not plot driven, character driven

Macbeth

-        Doesn’t share his thoughts like Hamlet does.

-        Tragic Flaw: Ambition

-        His loss came about by his own decisions

§  Coping mechanisms are self destructive

-        Shows promise in the first couple acts

§  By the end he is alone, despised, disappointed and isolated

-         

-        His Appeal: Moral sense

§  Makes him relatable and human

§  Can be seen in his attempt to make things right

§  Doesn’t want to go against all he believes by killing Duncan

Why does he kill Duncan?

-        Wants to badly fulfill the prophecy

-        Isn’t content with what he has and wants more

-        “punished for sins”

-        Could have seen the prophecy as an “OK” to do sinful things

-        Danger perversely pulls him toward it

-        He put himself in that situation, almost forcing him to kill

§  Embraces evil, with slight hesitation

§  Tricks himself into killing

-        After becoming king

§  Slippery slope of logic

§  Acts like an addict

§  Paranoid and fearful that people will find out he is the murderer

§  Mind drives him to kill

§  Soliloquy states his refusal to accept the life he has created

There is a strong suggestion that Macbeth and Lady M. talked about the killing before the play started.

Lady Macbeth

-        Animus: masculine

-        Pure evil

-        Taunts Macbeth, saying scruples are like being unmanly

-        She wants Macbeth to be more like her

-        Fickle

§  Can’t take the inner torment and falls apart

-        Sleepwalking

§  Surreal sense of not completely being there towards the end

§  Washes hands to rid herself of the blood on them

§  Almost feel sorry for her by the end because she succumbs to a guilt she won’t accept

Lady M. and Macbeth are on the same at the beginning but then Macbeth stops telling her his plans after killing the king. It’s almost as though he’s saying he doesn’t need her masculinity anymore, he’s a man now.

Witches

-        Tempt M. in a way he can’t control

-        Malicious intent and prophetic power are important

-        Questionable whether they really pushed him to kill

-        Can be seen as heroines