Macbeth Links to themes in Macbeth

Ambition  The ruthless seeking of power by Macbeth, urged on by his equally ambitious wife. It can be thought of as a tragic flaw that causes his downfall.  Devastation occurs when ambition oversteps moral boundaries.  Some related scenes:  Act 1 Scene 5: Lady Macbeth receives Macbeth's letter, analyses his character, and invokes the forces of evil.  Act 1 Scene 7: Macbeth reflects on what is needed to achieve his ambition and Lady Macbeth taunts him to 'screw your courage to the sticking place.'  Act 3 Scene 1: Macbeth determines to kill Banquo in order to prevent his children succeeding to Scotland's throne.

Appearance and Reality  A theme that occurs throughout the play and it introduced in the first scene with the Witches.  Evil lurks behind fair looks. Deceit and hypocrisy mean that appearances cannot be trusted.  Act 1 Scenes 1 and 2: The witches invoke confusion ('Fair is foul, and foul is fair').  Act 1 Scene 4: Macbeth wishing for the stars to hide his desires to become King.  Act 1 Scene 5: Lady Macbeth encouraging her husband to appear welcoming to King Duncan.  Act 1 Scene 6: King Duncan states how welcoming and pleasant Macbeth’s castle feels, unaware his death will occur there.  Act 1 Scene 7: Macbeth is convinced by his wife to kill Duncan, and states his face must hide what his heart knows.

Fate and free will  The extent to which we control our own destiny.  Act 1 Scene 3: Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches on the heath.Macbeth reflects on their prophecies.  Act 2 Scene 1: Macbeth talks with Banquo about their encounter with the witches, sees a visionary dagger and makes his decision to kill Duncan.  Act 6 Scene 1: Macbeth visits the witches who offer him further prophecies.

Equivocation  Using deceptive language intentionally or telling half-truths with the intention to mislead.  Equivocal language is capable of more than one meaning and is therefore ambiguous.  Equivocation comes from the witches in their prophecies to Macbeth, that no man born from a woman can harm him or when the woods move.  Banquo also warns Macbeth that the witches could lure him into evil by telling him small truths. Banquo doesn’t use the word “equivocation” but it is what he is referring to.  The porter also refers to equivocation in his short and humorous scene.

Masculinity  A prominent theme throughout the play, where we are lead to question what is it to be a man?  Lady Macbeth associates violent characteristics with masculinity and pleads for spirits to “unsex” her so she won’t be bothered by a women’s kindness or remorse.  Lady Macbeth uses questioning of Macbeth’s manhood to convince him to kill Duncan, and also questions him when he sees the ghost of Banquo.  In what other ways are masculinity portrayed in Macbeth?

Good vs Evil  The heavy presence of murderous intention, destroying whatever is good.  Macbeth is set up to be a heroic soldier at the start of the play, but his evil ways result in a loss of respect from all of Scotland.  Macbeth’s conscience troubles him, but he commits evil, and finds others to carry out his malign orders.  Macbeth’s conscience plays on his mind, and we gain insight of this through his soliloquy’s, in particular before he murders Duncan.