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Macbeth
As with any film, the director must make a final decision as to which human being will portray a fictional character. Thus Polanski chose the thin, pale, almost waiflike actress Francesca Annis to...
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Macbeth
The theme of betrayal arises early in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Act 1, scene 2 opens in King Duncan's camp. A wounded sergeant is brought in who reports on the rebel uprising being led by Macdonwald,...
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Macbeth
Shakespeare uses extended metaphor in Macbeth's dialogue with the murderers in Macbeth. In Act 3, Scene 1, when Macbeth interviews his murderers for hire, the murderers affirm that they are men....
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Macbeth
In act three, scene four, the ghost of the murdered Banquo appears to Macbeth at a banquet. Macbeth has recently had Banquo murdered, and he tried unsuccessfully to have Banquo's young son murdered...
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Macbeth
The theme of disorder is conveyed, in William Shakespeare's Macbeth, in a few different ways. The opening of the play depicts storms ("thunder and lightening"), as the witches introduce the main...
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Macbeth
Let's look at the context of this line. In Act One, Scene Five, Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband, telling her of the events we witnessed in the previous scenes: Macbeth met three...
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Macbeth
The seven deadly sins are: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. In Macbeth, these are all present to a greater or lesser degree. One could argue that lust is present in the form of...
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Macbeth
In Macbeth’s speech, “to be thus is nothing,” he uses anaphora and repetition. Anaphora is the process of referring back to something, and using a word to refer to another. In this case, the word...
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Macbeth
Kingship, as Malcolm tells Macduff in Act 4, Scene 3, entails the possession of a number of very important qualities. Malcolm lists these qualities as justice, verity, temperance, stableness,...
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Macbeth
In his discussion with Macduff in Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm gives an extensive list of the "graces" or qualities that a good king should have. According to him, a king should embody the qualities of...
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Macbeth
Lady Macbeth tries to defy gender stereotypes to persuade her husband to murder Duncan. She calls on evil spirits to harden her heart and dry the nurturing milk in her female breasts. She doesn't...
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Macbeth
Macbeth is struck with fear and guilt when he sees Banquo's ghost. This is a crucial turning point in the play, as it is when we see Macbeth expressing his internal guilt for the first time. It...
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Macbeth
In the sense of the true Elizabethan 5 Act play format, the point of conflict in act III is the point when the central character has a significant shift in power. Since Macbeth is our central...
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Macbeth
In act five, scene one, the doctor and a gentlewoman watch on as Lady Macbeth sleepwalks. In her sleep, Lady Macbeth seem to relive the events of the murder which she and her husband committed...
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Macbeth
Shakespeare portrays Macbeth and his wife's relationship as dynamic and unique in his classic play Macbeth. Towards the beginning of the play, Macbeth and his wife are extremely close and...
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Macbeth
When Macbeth says that he's "filed his mind" what he means is that he's defiled or corrupted his mind by murdering Duncan. Macbeth was always uneasy about this foul, bloody act of treachery, but as...
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Macbeth
In this play, there is evil because there is ambition. When Macbeth considers killing the king because he was told that he would, one day, become king himself, he realizes that there are several...
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Macbeth
A tragic hero should only have one flaw. Lady Macbeth has too many flaws to be considered a tragic hero (or heroine). She is not only ambitious but unscrupulous, dishonest, deceitful, and...
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Macbeth
Macbeth is a drama about usurpation, and the degree to which that act of betrayal shatters the political order, resulting in tyranny. From this perspective, Macbeth himself should be understood as...
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Macbeth
At the beginning of the play, Macbeth and Banquo are both soldiers in Duncan’s army. Both are noblemen, and they are friends and colleagues. By the third act, each suspects the other of standing...
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Macbeth
In Act 1, Scene 4 of Macbeth, King Duncan meets Macbeth for the first time since the great battle. Duncan expresses his boundless gratitude for Macbeth's indispensable help against the enemy and...
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Macbeth
In Macbeth, it is a matter of continuing debate whether Macbeth exercises his own free will, driven by his "vaulting ambition"(I.vii.27) and Lady Macbeth, his "Partner of Greatness"(I.v.9) or...
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Macbeth
To answer this question, look first at Act IV, Scene II, and the conversation between Ross and Lady Macduff. As Ross defends Macduff's sudden departure, for instance, he says to Lady Macduff: But...
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Macbeth
When Macbeth returns after the murder of Duncan he is distraught and regrets the murder he has committed. Macbeth feels so guilty for the act that his mind projects voices that condemn him. He will...
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Macbeth
This speech is surely one of the most quoted in Shakespeare. Life, in Macbeth's tortured view, is described through a series of metaphors, one quickly following another. Life is a candle which, in...
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Macbeth
The general setting for Act I of "Macbeth," by William Shakespeare is a battlefield in Scotland. The play begins with three witches prophesying about the battle that is being fought on that field...
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Macbeth
What this is telling us is that Macbeth does not really trust anyone. He is telling his wife that he has paid spies in the homes of every lord in Scotland, presumably. This comes up because...
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Macbeth
Initially, the relationship between the two men is perfectly amicable. They are friends and fellow nobleman, loyal servants of their king, Duncan. Yet as the play progresses, things turn sour, with...
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Macbeth
This quote from Macbeth is an example of PARADOX. A paradox is a contradictory statement that places two opposite ideas next to one another. The effect is often to draw the audience's attention to...
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Macbeth
Macbeth destroys Scotland, first, by killing the country's compassionate and noble king, Duncan. Under Duncan's rule, people were rewarded for their good services, and the country seemed to...
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Macbeth
If we are talking about a literal act of doing this, such as that which occurs in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus or Goethe's Faust, I would say there is no evidence of it at all. As a metaphor, however,...
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Macbeth
Macduff first appears in Shakespeare's Macbeth in act 1, scene 6, when King Duncan arrives at Macbeth's castle at Inverness with his entourage, including his sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, and...
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Macbeth
Shakespeare uses various devices to portray crime and violence in act 1, scene 7 of Macbeth. The bard utilizes personification and simile during Macbeth’s soliloquy in which he worries about karma....
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Macbeth
Masculinity in Macbeth is strongly related to being a strong, courageous, and competent warrior. Closely connected with this is the idea that men protect and avenge their families. Macduff shows...
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Macbeth
At the end of act 1 of Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth has decided to follow Lady Macbeth's advice, screw his courage to the sticking-place, and do what needs to be done to fulfill the Witch's...
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Macbeth
In act 1, scene 2 of Macbeth, Shakespeare lets the audience hear about Macbeth's bravery in not one but in two military encounters. To emphasize Macbeth's bravery, Shakespeare has the brave,...
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Macbeth
In act 4, scene 3, Ross brings news to Macduff that his castle has been ambushed while he has been away, and the murderers have killed everyone they could find--including his wife and all of his...
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Macbeth
At the end of act 1 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have resolved to kill King Duncan so that Macbeth can fulfill the Witch's prophecy, "All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be...
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Macbeth
It is thought that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606. King James had just come to the throne, and there are elements in Macbeth which seem to suggest an attempt by Shakespeare to win James's...
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Macbeth
Act I, Scene 2 of Macbeth is written in verse and ends with a rhyming couplet (done/won). It follows Shakespeare's usual verse style of iambic pentameter: five feet of two iambs (an iamb is...
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Macbeth
By the time Malcolm and Macduff meet in act 4, scene 3, the political situation in Scotland has deteriorated into near chaos and Macduff is ready to exact vengeance. Macbeth, after hearing the...
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Macbeth
Lady Macbeth maintains control of the situation (and her husband) in many ways in Act 2, Scene 2. First, she instructs Macbeth on how to think about the act he has just committed; when he claims,...
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Macbeth
This scene begins with Lady Macbeth reading the letter written by her husband, a letter which acquaints her with the Weird Sisters' prophecies and the fact that he's recently been named Thane of...
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Macbeth
One recurring technique during the conversation between Macduff and Malcolm in act IV, scene iii is the personification of Scotland as a victim, abused and calling out for salvation. MacDuff...
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Macbeth
At the beginning of Act One Scene 7, the audience witnesses an extended soliloquy by Macbeth in which he expresses deep doubts about carrying out the murder of Duncan. Fundamentally, he realizes...
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Macbeth
William Shakespeare's Macbeth presents two of drama's all-time villains: Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth becomes obsessed with the desire for power when she learns that witches...
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Macbeth
The ghost is the manifestation of Macbeth's guilt and highlights Macbeth's moral downfall. He planned this murder on his own, unlike Duncan's murder. We feel disgust over this act; like Duncan,...
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Macbeth
Macbeth is something of a tragic hero because at times he seems a victim of preordained fate. Though he is definitely guilty of pride and greed, there is a certain doom implied in the witches'...
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Macbeth
In plays asides are statements delivered by an actor to the audience in such a way that it appears that the other actors are unaware of what is being said. Thus, an aside is an important device for...
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Macbeth
In act 1, scene 3, the first witch describes a woman who would not share her chestnuts with the witch. The witch, therefore, vows to follow the woman's husband to Aleppo and keep him from sleeping...
