Themes and Motifs

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• Themes and Motifs

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Theme

• Themes are the fundamental and often universal
  ideas explored in a literary work.

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The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition

• One of the main themes of Macbeth is
• The destruction wrought when ambition goes
  unchecked by moral constraints.
• What is a moral constraint?

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Theme of Ambition

• Macbeth/Lady Macbeth
• This theme is directly apparent in two main
  characters in the play.

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Theme of ambition

• Macbeth not naturally inclined to commit crime,
  yet deeply desires power and advancement. Kills
  Duncan against his better judgment and suffers
  guilt and paranoia. Deteriorates as play
  progresses.
• Lady Macbeth more determined but less able to
  deal with the consequences of her actions. Her
  ambitions get the best of her and

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Theme of Ambition

• In each case ambition, (helped of course by the
  witches prophesies) is what drives this couple to
  commit these terrible atrocities.
• Once one decides to pursue ambition with
  violence, the more out of control it becomes.

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Theme of Ambition

• The temptation to use violence to achieve the
  throne presents itself over and over again
  through the potential threats to the throne
  (Fleance, Malcom, Banquo).

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'Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair'

• Throughout Macbeth, fair appearances hide foul
  realities.
• Examples
• Macbeth sees the witches prophecies as fair, but
  to attain them he must commit the foul.
• "There's no art/ To find the mind's construction
  in the face." (Act 1, Scene 4, Lines 11-12) King
  Duncan speaking of the former Thane of Cawdor.
• Macbeth is a fair host as him and lady Macbeth
  plot King Duncans murder
• Both a woman and a host, Lady Macbeth should be
  the model of grace and femininity, however, her
  thoughts are cold and evil

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Theme of 'Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair'

• Macbeth attempts to say amen after murdering
  the king. Thinking of religion is foul after
  such a heinous crime
• "look like the innocent flower, / But be the
  serpent under't" (1.5.65-66). -Lady Macbeth to
  macbeth about murdering Duncan.
• "Away, and mock the time with fairest show /
  False face must hide what the false heart doth
  know" (1.7.81-82). Macbeth. Speaking of keeping
  a nice face while already planning to murder
  Duncan.

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Tragic Hero

• A tragic hero is a character that the audience
  sympathizes with despite his/her actions that
  would indicate the contrary.

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Tragic Hero

• Macbeth, in spite of his horrible murders, is a
  pitiable man.
• Macbeth internally suffers
• Plagued by fear, paranoia, sleeplessness and
  exhaustion.

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Tragic Hero

• Macbeth is a pitiable man, despite his terrible
  crimes. His saving grace is that he did not want
  to commit the crime in the first place but was
  coerced by Lady Macbeth.
• Macbeth suffers internally and is thus never able
  to enjoy his royal status

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Lady Macbeth

• Began as courageous and daring (still evil)
• Courage deteriorated, broke down.

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Lady Macbeth

• Lady Macbeth courage and daring nature
  deteriorates into delusional, hapless
  somnambulist.
• Breaks down mentally and physically because of
  the strain of the crime.

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Macbeth/Lady Macbeth

• Macbeth and his wife are pitiable characters
  because the reader is able to follow their every
  thought and action.  Thus, the reader sees not
  only their gruesome effects on the Scottish
  people but also on themselves.

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Theme of Indecision and Internal Conflict

• Macbeth indecisive
• Murder and course of action

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Indecision and internal conflict

• Macbeth was indecisive up until the night of the
  murder about whether or not he should kill
  Duncan.
• After he murders Duncan, he is unsure of his
  course of action (what should he do next?)
• Rashly decides to kill Banquo.

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Evil

• Always a presence (fair is foul and foul is fair)
• Lady Macbeth
• Witches and Hecate
• Macbeth
• Murder of king Duncan- forgivable? Influence?
• Banquo and his son
• Macduffs Family

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Order and Disorder

• Disorder- Morality and trust- opening of the
  play?
• Order- Prophesies?
• Scotland under Duncans rule?
• Natural chain of events- What happens?
• Chain of being disrupted?
• Examples of disrupted order
• Macduffs slaughtered family. Caused by what?

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Appearance vs. Reality

• look like the innocent flower, be the serpant
  undrt
• Human fronts- Playing a role
• Actions/trees
• Dagger/Banquos ghost

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Violence and Tyranny

• War and destruction (opening of play)
• Killing killing and more killing.

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Guilt and concience

• Guilt of crimes committed
• Lady Macbeth- sleepwalking, confessions, eventual
  death.
• Macbeth- Inability to sleep, driving him to
  madness. Banquos ghost
• Macbeths inner debate (killing Duncan)

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Supernatural

• Masterminds behind much of the action in the
  play.
• Witches and Hecate
• Drive action of the play.

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Retribution

• Shared-
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
• Had to pay.

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Theme of light and darkness

• Most of Macbeth takes place in the dark, and both
  Macbeth and Lady Macbeth seem to believe that the
  dark can hide their crimes, perhaps even from
  themselves.

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King Duncan

• When King Duncan announces that his eldest son
  Malcolm is heir to the throne, he says that
  Malcolm won't be the only one who receives new
  honors. The King promises that
• "signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine / On
  all deservers" (1.4.41-42

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Macbeth

• Moments later Macbeth also uses starlight as a
  metaphor for what is good and noble. As he is
  thinking of murdering both the King and Malcolm,
  he says to himself
• Stars, hide your firesLet not light see my
  black and deep desiresThe eye wink at the hand
  yet let that be,Which the eye fears, when it is
  done, to see.  (1.4.50-53)
• In short, his desires are so terrible, that he
  can't stand to have the stars shine on them he
  doesn't even want to look at them himself.

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Lady Macbeth

• At the end of a soliloquy in which Lady Macbeth
  talks herself into a murderous state of mind, she
  calls upon night to hide her deed from heaven and
  from herself

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Lady Macbeth

• Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest
  smoke of hell, / That my keen knife see not the
  wound it makes, / Nor heaven peep through the
  blanket of the dark, / To cry "Hold, hold!"
  (1.5.50-54).
• In both its ideas and imagery, this passage is
  remarkably similar to Macbeth's speech in the
  previous scene.

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Banquo

• After the moon has gone down on the night in
  which Macbeth kills King Duncan, Banquo says to
  Fleance,
• "There's husbandry in heaven / Their candles are
  all out" (2.1.4-5).
• He means that there's not a star to be seen in
  the sky. If we think back, we may remember that
  this is exactly the kind of night Macbeth wanted,
  because he thought it might conceal his own guilt
  from himself.

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Ross

• It's strangely dark on the morning after the
  night of King Duncan's murder, and Ross says to
  an Old Man,
• "by the clock, 'tis day, / And yet dark night
  strangles the travelling lamp" (2.4.6-7).

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Ross

• The "travelling lamp" is the sun, which should be
  lighting the new day. Ross goes on to speculate
  that the night is stronger than the day, or that
  the day is ashamed of itself. In either case, the
  cause would be the murder of King Duncan. The
  night would be strong because in that night the
  good King was murdered, and the day would be
  ashamed to shed light on the bloody scene of the
  murder.

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Macbeth

• When Macbeth goes to the witches to learn his
  fate, he greets them as
• "you secret, black, and midnight hags!" (4.1.48).
• An earlier scene suggests that Macbeth's visit
  actually occurs in the morning, but Macbeth
  associates dark with evil.

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Lady Macbeth

• In Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene she enters
  holding a candle, and the doctor asks her
  gentlewoman how the lady happens to have the
  candle. The gentlewoman replies,
• "Why, it stood by her she has light by her
  continually 'tis her command" (5.1.22-23). The
  doctor then points out,
• "You see, her eyes are open" (5.1.24), and the
  gentlewoman replies,
• "Ay, but their sense is shut" (5.1.25).

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• Thus we see that Lady Macbeth, who eagerly
  awaited the dark hour of King Duncan's murder, is
  now afraid of the dark. And though her eyes are
  open, she can see only her own memories of
  murder. As she sleepwalks, Lady Macbeth imagines
  she sees a spot of King Duncan's blood on her
  hand. She rubs her hands to try to wash it away,
  but it won't disappear, and then she hears the
  bell that she herself rang on the night of King
  Duncan's murder
• "Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One two why,
  then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!"
  (5.1.35-36).
• Perhaps it is the darkness of the night of
  Duncan's murder which reminds her of the darkness
  of hell.