MacbethThemes

Agree or Disagree? Explain

Behind every great man there is a woman.

– Every great man is supported, guided, helped and even pushed by a great woman

Write!

THEME 1: MASCULINITY

• What does it mean to be a man?– Aggression, power, uninhibited violence – Lady Macbeth challenges her husband about this concept:

• “Unsex me here,” “Screw your courage to the sticking place.”

• How do women come in?– Women who “act like men”

• Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s main examples of this gender reversal.

Example?

Success is worth any price you may have to pay.

Sometimes it is necessary to do something wrong to get your way.

Human beings are easily tempted by things they want, even if it is wrong.

Humans will always end up giving into morality.

Write!

THEME 2: AMBITION

• It can be a positive or negative. – Unchecked ambition, ambition without morals,

especially in the quest for power (King).

– As you will read, once many of the characters embark down this road it is hard to stop.

– Example so far?

Your astrological forecast (your horoscope), the lines on your palms, or getting your fortune told are good indicators of how

your day or life will end up.

Your future is determined by fate.Your future is determined by choice.

-Action/Inaction, Fate/Agency

What goes around comes around. (karma)

Write!

THEME 3: Fate vs. Agency

• Macbeth vs. Banquo– Both Banquo and Macbeth are shown to be

ambitious at the beginning of the play.

– Yet when they are both given prophecies from the Witches, only one commits murder to fulfill their own “vaulting ambition”.

Write!

THEME 4: THE FALLEN HEROOnce loyal and courageous, Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s greatest examples of the hero’s fall from greatness.

• “Tragic Flaw”- the character defect that causes the downfall of the protagonist of a tragedy

• Can you think of any examples in our society of fallen heroes? What were their tragic flaws?

Some people purposely make themselves seem different than how they really are.

Why?Examples?

Write!

THEME 5: APPEARANCES VS. REALITY

• Equivocation - the use of words in one sense while meaning the opposite in order to deliberately mislead or confuse.

– The Witches deliberately try to mislead Macbeth when they tell him “that none of woman born” shall harm him.

– Lady Macbeth urges her husband to “look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it”• Duncan is deceived by appearances many times (Thane of Cawdor,

Macbeth, Lady Macbeth)

Other symbols to look for…

• BLOOD• DARKNESS• SUPERNATURAL• WEATHER – unnatural acts are accompanied by unnatural

events in nature: (Duncan’s murder, the presence of the witches)• Think how this happens in some movies