Summary GCSE: Shakespeare's Macbeth full notes and quotes.
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English
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GCSE
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Oxford School Shakespeare
This is an in depth summary of the Play Macbeth which includes a deep analysis of all the characters in the play and which themes are explored. There are many quotes which are backed with analysis and context. This is a full summary for everything you need to get that A* or grade 9 instead of havin...
Grade 9: The character of Macbeth essay quotes analysis
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Macbeth notes and quotes
Macbeth- At the start the captain is talking about MacBeth, ‘Frightening’.
Before he comes on the play he is connected with violence and death.
“Smocked with bloody execution” this implies how he slaughtered his enemies
with relentless speed and violence. “He unseamed from the nave to the chops
and fixed his head upon our battlements” Macbeth is flaunting his imate
savagery. He is proud of the violence. Highlights his brutality. Shows that he is
brave but foreshadows his ability to kill and foreshadows his ending. Macbeth
opens the play flaunting a head, but his head is flaunted his head at the end.
Shakespeare is showing that anybody who commits regicide will have fate that
will re fall them. The captain also predicts “the ways Macbeth fought was like
he memorised another Golgotha” the fact he said this shows Macbeth is
capable of killing god's son. Macbeth is foreshadowing that this will happen to
him. The form of violence Macbeth is displaying is seen as positive as the
captain uses words like “brave Macbeth” and “Valour's minion” emphasising
seen as brave and courageous. We see this as the encounter with the witches
he says “so foul and fair a day I have not seen” he is speaking in the
paradoxical language of the witches. Foreshadowing the disturbances that we
are going to see further on in the play. The witches lavishing him in prays. “All
hail” repeated 3 times, giving him respect. Shows a weakness in his character
because this is what he falls for. When they get the title Banquo says “new
honours come upon us like strange garments” the imagery of clothing is
repeated several times in the play to show Macbeth is not noble enough for his
title. When Macbeth is told is going to be the king of Cawdor he says “Why do
you dress is borrowed robes?” angus is saying that the power is too much for
him to maintain "hang loose about him, like a giant robe upon a dwarfish thief”
when he gets the thought of regicide the witches have an influence on him by
“Cannot be ill, if ill why had it given me earnest success” he says that what the
witches are saying cannot be bad. Macbeth believes everything they say. We
See him reluctant to kill king Duncan, as he calls it an “horrid image” he also
says “it unfits my hair and makes my heart knock at my ribs” he feels physical
pain at this thought. It causes horror within him. Duncan says “signs of
nobleness like stars shall shine” linking nobility with light. But Macbeth says
“stars, hide your fire, let not light see my black and deep desires” Macbeth is
calling on darkness to assist him in concealing his dark thoughts. What he is
doing is immoral and have severe circumstances. Calling on darkness riding
, himself of light. It is illuding his hamartia, his fatal flaw. Will result in his
downfall. Desire is leading to the ultimate sin, the killing of the king. Destroying
the divine right of the king. The greatest sins. When he writes a letter to lady
Macbeth “dearest partner of greatness” which he sees he as an equal to
himself. He is elevating her position because woman was not significant at the
time. She can manipulate that in her after actions and command his trust. She
says “he is too full of the milk of human kindness” the metaphor showing that
first she doubts his masculinity. To be full of milk is feminine because they are
full of milk. Kindness shows his compassion and weak nature. She wants him to
become more ruthless. We can also see at the end of this scene he still has
control over her because he says “we shall speak no further in this business”
pronoun ‘we’ shows how he is speaking for her, and modal verb ‘shall’ show
his authority. He has a soliloquy on how he will kill the king. The king is like the
messenger of God. He has an extended soliloquy while allows us to enter his
mind he says “if it were done when it's done its well it done quickly” however
he is trying to justify how to do the killing. The pronoun ‘it’ shows how he is
not able to say it. He tries to convince himself on how to do it. He calls himself
the “subject” because he sees it as his duty to serve the king. He praises
Duncan as he says, “he is meek and has been so clear in his great office” he
sees him as “his virtues will plead like angels.” he knows that Duncan will go to
heaven. But lady Macbeth interrupts this soliloquy because he was not going
to go ahead with it, she says “what news?” she calls him a “coward” and a
“beast” she is attacking his masculinity but he says “I dare do all that may
become a man who dares do more is not a man” she says “screw your courage
to the sticking place” she wants him to be fearless but then we see lady
Macbeth has won because Macbeth says “false face must hide what false heart
doesn’t know” this echos lady Macbeths earlier metaphor. He is now mirroring
her words, which shows her dominance is clear. She calls the king “the
ornament of life” the ornament is to beautify a place. They do not have kids so
for them it is like their marriage is a failure they have not achieved what
society expects from them. The ornament of life shows that it will give their
marriage power. We see him speaking to the imaginary dagger he says “is this
dagger which I see before me, come let me clutch before me” shows he is
hallucinating shows his mental weakness foreshadowing his later weakness in
his character. The structure of the soliloquy in the first line is in iambic
pentameter but as it goes on it loses iambic pentameter so this shows a loss of
control in Macbeth. When he returned from killing king, they use short
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