‘Macbeth’ Character Revision
Macbeth
An exceptional brave and noble hero
“For brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name”
“He unseam’d him … and fix’d his head upon our battlements”
“O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman”
Descent from a hero to a tyrant
“Why do I yield to that suggestion”
“dead butcher”
Vulnerable, easily influenced
“Milk of human kindness”
“Are you a man?”
Guilt & Paranoia
“A dagger of the mind”
The blood on his hands is a “sorry sight”
Self-Realisation & Nihilism
“signifying nothing”
“tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace”
Lady Macbeth
Subverting the Jacobean ideas – gender stereotypes
“Unsex me here”
“take my milk for gall”
Dominates the relationship with Macbeth
“Leave all the rest to me”
“live a coward in thine own esteem”
Lady Macbeth is humanised – not as strong as she appears
“Help me hence, ho!”
“Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t”
Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s relationship
“my dearest partner of greatness”
“Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor”
Macbeth
An exceptional brave and noble hero
“For brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name”
“He unseam’d him … and fix’d his head upon our battlements”
“O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman”
Descent from a hero to a tyrant
“Why do I yield to that suggestion”
“dead butcher”
Vulnerable, easily influenced
“Milk of human kindness”
“Are you a man?”
Guilt & Paranoia
“A dagger of the mind”
The blood on his hands is a “sorry sight”
Self-Realisation & Nihilism
“signifying nothing”
“tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace”
Lady Macbeth
Subverting the Jacobean ideas – gender stereotypes
“Unsex me here”
“take my milk for gall”
Dominates the relationship with Macbeth
“Leave all the rest to me”
“live a coward in thine own esteem”
Lady Macbeth is humanised – not as strong as she appears
“Help me hence, ho!”
“Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t”
Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s relationship
“my dearest partner of greatness”
“Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor”