Macbeth Cheat Sheet
Act 1 Scene 1
“In thunder, lightening, or in rain”
Pathetic fallacy
Sets the tone of supernatural
List of three
These weathers are dangerous
“When the hurly burly’s done, when the battle is lost and won”
Sets tone of confusion and chaos
Rhyming couplet
Separates them from other characters who talk in blank verse
Lost, won
Antithesis
Rhyme, witches chant, pells, magical
Heath
All this takes place on a heath
Isolation
Foreshadows Macbeth’s isolation
There to meet with Macbeth
Is Macbeth linked to the witches?
Evil?
“Graymalkin , paddock”
These are grey cat and toad relatively
Familiars
Shakespeare uses context of witches always having animals with them
“Fair is foul and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air”
Fricatives , alliteration
Shows the violence depicted through the tone of the witches
Semantic field of confusion
Antithesis
Context - people in the Jacobean Era believed that witches were a sign of evil and they
expected them to follow thunder
, Theme of good vs evil
Tragedy is the change of fortune
Act 1 Scene 2
Duncan gets the news of Thane of Cawdor betraying him by helping the norwegian
army
Duncan order him to be executed
And his title to be given to Macbeth
“What bloody man is this?”
King Duncan’s first words in the play
Foreshadows the future
Blood major motif in the play
“Brave macbeth”
Captain describes Macbeth as brave and reveals that he is worthy of that praise
This sets Macbeth to be the tragic hero of the play
Brave is an adjective with connotations of fearless
This suggests that macbeth is a noble man
“Smoked with bloody execution”
Violent imagery
Suggest that macbeth knows how to kill a man with brutality
Emphasises that the captain was in awe of macbeth’s fighting skills and that he was
very fast that his sword, “smoked
The connotations of the verb, “smoked” are burning
This suggest that violence is a destructive force like fire
Shakespeare combines smoke and blood, two motifs that recur throughout the play
and are linked to Macbeth's guilt.
The imagery could be an allusion to the flaming swords featured in the Bible.
“Like valour’s minion carved out his passage”
Simile
Macbeth is a servant of bravery
This highly contradicts the future when macbeth’s ambition takes over him
The connotations of the verb, “carved” are engraved to form an object
This suggests that Macbeth did not stop until he faced Macdonwald.
Act 1 Scene 1
“In thunder, lightening, or in rain”
Pathetic fallacy
Sets the tone of supernatural
List of three
These weathers are dangerous
“When the hurly burly’s done, when the battle is lost and won”
Sets tone of confusion and chaos
Rhyming couplet
Separates them from other characters who talk in blank verse
Lost, won
Antithesis
Rhyme, witches chant, pells, magical
Heath
All this takes place on a heath
Isolation
Foreshadows Macbeth’s isolation
There to meet with Macbeth
Is Macbeth linked to the witches?
Evil?
“Graymalkin , paddock”
These are grey cat and toad relatively
Familiars
Shakespeare uses context of witches always having animals with them
“Fair is foul and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air”
Fricatives , alliteration
Shows the violence depicted through the tone of the witches
Semantic field of confusion
Antithesis
Context - people in the Jacobean Era believed that witches were a sign of evil and they
expected them to follow thunder
, Theme of good vs evil
Tragedy is the change of fortune
Act 1 Scene 2
Duncan gets the news of Thane of Cawdor betraying him by helping the norwegian
army
Duncan order him to be executed
And his title to be given to Macbeth
“What bloody man is this?”
King Duncan’s first words in the play
Foreshadows the future
Blood major motif in the play
“Brave macbeth”
Captain describes Macbeth as brave and reveals that he is worthy of that praise
This sets Macbeth to be the tragic hero of the play
Brave is an adjective with connotations of fearless
This suggests that macbeth is a noble man
“Smoked with bloody execution”
Violent imagery
Suggest that macbeth knows how to kill a man with brutality
Emphasises that the captain was in awe of macbeth’s fighting skills and that he was
very fast that his sword, “smoked
The connotations of the verb, “smoked” are burning
This suggest that violence is a destructive force like fire
Shakespeare combines smoke and blood, two motifs that recur throughout the play
and are linked to Macbeth's guilt.
The imagery could be an allusion to the flaming swords featured in the Bible.
“Like valour’s minion carved out his passage”
Simile
Macbeth is a servant of bravery
This highly contradicts the future when macbeth’s ambition takes over him
The connotations of the verb, “carved” are engraved to form an object
This suggests that Macbeth did not stop until he faced Macdonwald.
