Macbeth - Symbolism And Imager

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

relationship to the witches in Act 1 Scene 3 and his wife in Act 1 Scene 7 especially resonate with his inner psychic state. Both relations reveal important currents of Macbeth's diseased mind.
The witches in Act 1 Scene 3 create a dynamic which flatters Macbeth in an attempt to convince him to kill Duncan. They flatter him in two ways. First, the witches greet Macbeth as a superior, "all hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee Thane of Glamis." (1.3.46). This honorific salutation, "hail," is reserved for the great leaders of men, not subordinates like Macbeth; who at this point in the play is only a vassal of King Duncan. The only other instance in which one of the characters in the play is greeted by "hail" is when Malcolm takes power at the end of the play after Macbeth's head is chopped off (5.8.78). Never outside of Act 1 Scene 3 is it used to refer to Macbeth. The witches greeting to Macbeth also flatters him by differentiating him from his peer Banquo. While Banquo at this ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

his word to kill Duncan. To Lady Macbeth, the inability to keep one's word is an affront. She tells Macbeth that she in contrast would keep her word. In order to illustrate this point she says that even if she said she would take a baby and, "have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums / and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn / As you have done to this." (1.3.57-59). Loyalty to one's word, thus, becomes contrasted to loyalty to one's king. By splitting his loyalty, Lady Macbeth exacerbates Macbeth's fears about his relationship to Duncan and to his words that already exist as seeds in his mind. Thus Lady Macbeth's insulting Macbeth reveals the same dysfunctional trends in ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: