Macbeth

Macbeth ACT I - SCENE III :

The play : an hero who turns into a villain.In that one scene it seems like you have the whole play.

An historical play with supranatural notions (not very common)

--->The first time you get to see Macbeth (first appearance of the eponymous hero on stage) HIS FIRST APPEARANCE : a hero loyal to the king, a successful military general.

-3 witches : predicition as trigger to the action  -> tells him that he would become Thane of Cawdor-->traitor to the king (bc he would become King)-->dramatic irony

The witches : enigmatic ---> speak in riddles. Their mystery is expressed through the content of their speech. Repetition (of the beginning of the sentence : «anaphore») --> as if they’re doing some kind of incantation/spell chanting.

«Withered» are they alive or dead ?

«You should be women, yet you have beards» -> are they women or men?

«Fantastical»

«Not like the inhabitants of the earth»->Real or not ?

Their physical appareance matches their speech : they embody the notion of paradox.

Banquo is a trigger to the action (when the witch announces that he would be the father of the future Kings). ---> later on Macbeth will try to kill them.

Macbeth : his first words in the place : «So foul and fair a day I have not seen» --> an oxymoron+an alliteration. The alliteration reinforces the paradox.

Clash between contradictory ideas = characterization of Macbeth.

Already when he tells the witches «speak!!!» his authority is shown

Banquo : tries to determite, to understand, he is less confused then Macbeth. To Banquo things needs to be cleared. His function is to be a mediator. Banquo is the only one who talks to everybody in the play. He clarifies to the audience who he is talking to.

Commentary : (ne pas faire une biographie de l’auteur, se résumer à un commentaire du texte)

INTRO : situate the passage : first appearence of Macbeth on stage, he and Banquo are returning victorious from the war and meet the witches who opened the scene. How are the predictions of the witches a trigger for the following actions ? or How do the predictions seal Macbeth’s fate ?

  PART 1 : The supranatural

1. The supranatural : the witches

1. men and women : «you should be women and yet your beards...» paradox/contradiction
2. Living and dead : «look not like the inhabitants of the earth», «withered», «choppy fingers», «skinny lips»
3. Real or unreal : «look not like the inhabitants of the earth», «are you fantastical» + stage directions ‘witches vanish’

The supranatural atmosphere provides the context for the witches’ predictions

1. Enigmatic language

1. Repetitions : «hail»anaphore -> reciting spells
2. Paradox : «lesser/greater», «not happy/much happier» -> speak in riddles

1. The 3 fates -> symbolic meaning

  PART 2 : The predictions

1. Duncan’s murder

«All hail Macbeth that shalt be King here after» : the first trigger to the first murder

1. Banquo’s murder
2. Dramatic irony (the Thane of Cawdor) ->Macbeth and Banquo don’t know that he is dead (reinforces the supranatural of the witches)

  PART 3 : Macbeth  (the embodiment of a paradox)

1. First appearance on stage but very few lines (it looks like Banquo is the main character)
2. 1st lines of Macbeth : an oxymoron « so foul and fair» + emphasize by the alliteration
3. Hero -> traitor (doesn’t believe the witches at first)

ACT II - SCENE II

The scene about the murder of the King but the murder happens off stage in order to materialize the murder the scene uses the murder weapon that Macbeth carries. In adition to that Macbeth has blood on his hands. : «Whay did you bring these daggers from the place?»

The end of Act I is the King arriving at the castle and the Act II starts with the king going to bed.

The plan : the first step -> Lady Macb has drugged the servants/grooms : «I have drugged their possets.»

        The second step -> Macb kills the King with the dagger

        The third step -> did not go according to plan because he was not supposed to bring back the dagger, in order to incriminate the grooms for the murder.

The psychology of Macbeth’s character : is in a panic/hear voices, but not yet a cold heart murderer. In this scene the fact that he hear voices is a sign of a paranoïa : he fears that someone will find him with the dagger in his hands and so discovered as the murderer.

The dagger materialize paranoïa

The hand materialize guilt

Importance of the dagger in this scene

Lady Macb at first asks Macb to follow the plan : «Go, carry them, and swear the sleepy grooms with blood.»

Macb refuses because he’s afraid of what he has done : «I am afraid to think what I have d..»

Lady Macb takes things in hands and goes to finish the job herself : «Give me the dagger».-->imperative form

Dynamic between the 2 characters, gender reversal/ contrast : Macbeth’s panic VS Lady Macbeth’s pragmatism, she wants to carry out the plan, she is the one in power. She insults him by infantilzing him. She calls him a coward : «a heart so white»

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