Macbeth Notes

Macbeth Notes 

Act 1, Scene 1:

Character- three witches, Duncan (king), Malcom, Donalbain, Lennox(works for king)

Importance: 

• the king is the king because of 'Divine Right of King'\
• Macbeth= brave warrior 

Setting: thunder/lightening crashing above a Scottish moor

Act 1, Scene 2:

Setting: at a military camp near his palace at Forres

Act 1, Scene 3:

Setting: near the battlefield, thunder rolls and three witches appear

Act 1, Scene 4:

Setting: at the king's palace 

ALL FOUR SCENES: 

add a very dramatic view to the beginning of the play 

Notes:

• Macbeth is a brave warrior
• Macbeth is cousins with the king meaning if the others die he's in line to be king.
• Macbeth wishes he was/could be the king

(Soliloquy #1: 'two truths are told')

Moral Relativism: is the view that moral judgement are two or false only relative to some particular standpoint and that no standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others.  

Tragic Hero: hero that starts at the top everyone wants to be with him but then there is a switch and he is the lowest. 

Hupris- sin of pride

• Lady Macbeth's job is to look after Macbeth (she's an ad, too make him look good)

(Soliloquy #2: Lady Macbeth's soliloquy)

• Guest host relationship

 Juxtaposition: the placement of contrasting elements into adjacency in order to make some kind of effects 

(Soliloquy #3: 'if it were done' act one scene seven)

Act One, Scene 7:

• all about inversion 'from this time...such I account thy love'

• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth had a kid but lost it
• Lady Macbeth being a witch because; taking baby off the breast, smashing its brains out, all the potions 

Stoic: a person who can endure pain or hardship without complaining or showing their feelings 

(Soliloquy #4: Dagger soliloquy - most important soliloquy yet - thee to heaven or to hell) 

• 'It was the owl that shrieked' (symbolic)

Conscious- voice in your head saying don't do something

• Macbeth and MacDuff -mirror images; MacDuff acts differently though, going to be a good king

(Soliloquy #4: 'To be this is nothing' )

Act two, scene three: important scene

"full of scorpions" could mean Macbeth is having sharp/stinging pain or something seriously wrong.

Why is there a third murder? 

• three witches
• third murder seem seems to know a lot of things

Fit: 'freak out', could mean angry, seizures were once called fits 

Lennox Speech(act 2 scene 6)

• Macbeth pitied Duncan after Duncan died (Lennox knows that Macbeth killed the kings)
• very sarcastic piece

(Soliloquy #5: 'tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow' -act 5 scene 5)