THEME: •A COMMON THREAD OR REPEATED IDEA THAT IS INCORPORATED THROUGHOUT A LITERARY WORK

* A THOUGHT OR IDEA THE AUTHOR PRESENTS TO THE READER THAT MAY BE DEEP, DIFFICULT

TO UNDERSTAND, OR EVEN MORALISTIC

GENERALLY, A THEME HAS TO BE EXTRACTED AS THE READER EXPLORES THE PASSAGES OF A

WORK

Themes and Motifs in Macbeth

Fate and Free Will

Fate and Free Will and the extent to which we control our own destinies.

Act I, iiiAct II, iAct VI, i

Ambition and Blind Ambition (Power Corrupts)

Ambition and the devastation which follows when ambition oversteps moral boundaries.

Act I, vAct I, viiAct III, i

Superstition and Affects on Human Behavior

EVERYWHERE! Give a few examples citing the Act and scene.

Appearance and Reality (Things are not always as they seem)

Appearance and Reality and how people and events are often not as they seem.

Act I, i and iiAct I, ivAct I, vi

Motifs

Motifs (recurring elements and patters of imagery which support the play’s themes)

Nature/The Natural World

Nature/The Natural World and its disruption when the bounds of morality are broken.

Act I, iiiAct III, iAct III, ivAct IV, iii

Light and Darkness

Light and darkness representing innocence and evil.

Act I, ivAct IV, iiAct III, ii

Children

Children representing the future and highlighting evil when they are abused.

Act I, iiiAct I, viiAct I, vii Act IV, iii

Blood

Blood representing evil plans and consequences of overreaching ambition.

Act I, vAct II, iAct II, iAct V, i

Sleep

Sleep, a natural process and its disruption as caused by the fracture of the moral order.

Act II, iAct II, iiAct II, iiAct III, viAct V, i

Visions

Visions, representing the extensions of a guilty conscience.

Act II, iAct III, ivAct V, iAct V, vii