 Hello and welcome back to another lesson. Now, within this lesson, what I wanted to do was to offer you five top quotes to memorize when it comes to the character of Macbeth. In other words, what I want to offer are if you forget everything else was in the play when writing about Macbeth's character, these are the five quotations and the accompanying themes as well as context points you can make when analyzing and writing about these quotations from Macbeth, considering how he goes from at the beginning of the play being very loyal to King Duncan, he lets his wife and the witches corrupt him and then by the end, he's a shadow of his former self. He is a tragic hero. Let's start with the first quotation, which I believe is a really powerful quotation, which illustrates his initial innocence, his initial loyalty to King Duncan, but equally how the seeds of ambition had already been planted by the witches in Act one, scene four, he says, starts hydrofires, let not light see my black and deep desires. He says this once he learns that he's Thane of Caudill. So once the first prophecy of the witches comes true, that he's going to be promoted from Thane of Glombs to Thane of Caudill. And we can see that he's really testing. He's having this inner conflict and this inner conflict when you're now doing some word level analysis, this inner conflict is emphasized through the use of personification here where Macbeth is begging the stars to hide this ambition. He's embarrassed, he's ashamed to want to have more power and to ultimately maybe be a king. Equally when he uses the juxtaposition, it's not oxymoron. The opposite words, these are not direct opposites, but they are fairly contrasting. He juxtaposes the idea of light, the idea of truth, the idea that King Duncan is the rightful king with the notion that he has these black desires. And the use of the juxtaposition of these two terms is really powerful once more in showing that Macbeth at this stage is not corrupted completely by ambition, but he's having this inner conflict. He wants to become, to explore the possibility of not only becoming Thane of Caudill, but especially King Hereafter, right? And the final thing to consider is when he talks about his deep desires and the alliteration here emphasizes once more this ongoing conflict. And of course remember that this inner conflict and this inner turmoil resolves itself when he finally decides to follow what his wife says and he takes the evil decision to kill King Duncan. Now, this quotation is really powerful because firstly, you can use it to talk about how Macbeth was a good guy and he felt some guilt. In terms of the themes that you can relate it to, firstly, it, this quotation directly falls under the theme of ambition. The reason why it falls under the theme of ambition is we can see that Macbeth is starting to grow increasingly ambitious. He's starting to wonder what it's like to be king, what it's like to amass more power, what it's like to rise in the great chain of being and to rise from being a knight, a servant of King Duncan, to actually becoming a powerful man. And of course, this is something, especially through personification, which he really, really struggles with. He almost wants to hide even this independent thought. Of course also, this ties into the theme of the supernatural because it is the witches who initially plant these seeds of ambition, okay? So the supernatural and ambition are essentially two themes that are very interrelated because it is the witches and of course Nadia Macbeth, who was seen as the fourth witch, who trigger Macbeth to have his downfall. They trigger him to upset the great chain of being in the divine order by killing King Duncan. So of course, these two themes go directly with this quotation. And of course, in terms of context, what you can tie contextually to this quote when writing a discussion about this is we want to always remember that these quotations illustrate the evil influence of the witches. Remember that a lot of Jacobians at this time contextually believed that the witches were really terrible. They gave you terrible ideas once and once you acted on them, this inevitably corrupted you and it was a path of no return. Jacobians strongly believed that the witches should not be listened to. And of course, Macbeth is already making his first fatal error by even starting to consider his ambition. The second quotation, which I would suggest remembering and memorizing when it comes to the character of Macbeth is when he considers his vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself and falls on the other. And this is taken from act one, scene seven. Of course, here we can see that Macbeth has just spoken to his wife. He is kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. He wants to impress his wife by showing that he has lots of ambition and that he does want to be king. Otherwise, she's not gonna see him as a man. But equally, he wants to stay faithful to his king. He knows that he might not have the qualities of a good leader. He might not be able to handle the power and the influence that comes with being a king. Hence why he calls it having vaulting ambition. This hyperbole illustrates that he himself recognizes that he doesn't necessarily feel like he can even fit into the shoes of a true ruler. Equally, the use of personification here is this idea that Macbeth's ambition is far too great. It's almost something that's too heavy to handle. And of course, it ties to the idiom that heavies the head that wears the crown. In other words, that he realizes that this idea of becoming king, of this idea of having kingship is actually something that he might not be able to handle. And of course, in this dramatic monologue, he actually decides that he's not going to go ahead with killing King Duncan, okay? Now, in terms of the themes that you want to tie it to once more, you want to tie it to the theme of ambition, because of course, it directly ties into his ambition. He realizes that his ambition might be too great for him to handle. Equally, this illustrates or rather you can tie it into the theme of the supernatural. It is the witches and of course, also his wife, the fourth witch, who influences him to develop this ambition. They influence him to think of himself as more than just a thing. Now, in terms of context, of course, what you want to remember is this relates to the divine right of kings. In other words, Macbeth realizes that if he were to fulfill this vaulting ambition, he would have to get King Duncan out of the way. And to get King Duncan out of the way, he would have to kill him. And hence, he realizes also another aspect of his vaulting ambition is he has to do something really cruel and terrible. In other words, kill the king, get God angry because God chose the king. He gave him the divine right to rule. But equally, he's going to now upset the natural order and he's going to upset the great chain of command. The third quotation, which is really, really important to memorize when it comes to Macbeth's character, if you're writing about him, is when he has his first hallucination. This is when he sees a floating dagger. So his wife, once Macbeth at first says, we'll proceed no further in this business. Then his wife, Lady Macbeth, then says, well, if you don't do it, you're basically a coward. And when he does do it, then you were a man. And Macbeth feels very compelled to prove his masculinity. So he decides to go ahead and kill King Duncan. However, before he kills King Duncan, he sees a dagger and he asks, are thou a dagger of the mind of false creation? And this quotation is taken from Act two, scene one, when he sees this floating dagger, which leads him to King Duncan's room, before he ultimately kills King Duncan. It foreshadows the murder of King Duncan, because it can see gaps of blood on this dagger. Now, in terms of the language analysis you want to do, of course, remember that him talking about the dagger being a dagger of the mind, this hallucination, this is metaphorical language illustrating that Macbeth is so stressed out with what he's about to do. He cannot believe that he's about to kill his king. And he's wondering whether this vision, this dagger that he sees is something that actually is real, or if it's something that's false, and maybe he can still have a way out. But of course, he ultimately goes through with the killing. Now, in terms of quotes, in terms of the themes, the first is the theme of supernatural. Okay, remember hallucinations also tie into the theme of the supernatural. In other words, the they illustrate it's how the characters feel a strong sense of guilt and paranoia as a result of letting themselves be influenced by supernatural characters who go against God. Okay, so this obviously ties in again to the corrupting influence of the supernatural, but equally, it ties into the theme of guilt. We can see here that Macbeth is experiencing extreme guilt. And as a result of experiencing the stress of this guilt, the stress of what he's about to do, upset the great chain of being upset divine right of kings, he is now seeing things he's hallucinating. Contextually, what you want to talk about is how this ties into the corrupting influence of witches of supernatural figures. Once more, remember that Jacobians believe that witches, if you ever listen to them, there were fiends, there were devils, and they would ultimately corrupt you, make you do really horrible, unspeakable things like killing the king. Okay, and this obviously would lead you to feel a strong sense of paranoia because you will be plagued by the terrible actions that you've done. The fourth quotation to remember when it comes to the character of Macbeth is his second hallucination. This is after he betrays Banquo because he knows that Banquo, according to the witch's prophecies, his children will be kings. So he sends murderous to call Banquo and Flayans, but Flayans escapes. However, once he learns that Banquo has died, but his son has escaped, he then becomes paranoid and he sees the floating ghost of Banquo at his own coronation when he's been crowned king. And he tells the ghost, that can't not say I did it. Semicolon, never shake thy gory locks at me. And this is taken from Act three, scene four. Okay, so this is when he sees the floating ghost of Banquo, and he is horrified. He's horrified at what he sees, but also he's now becoming a bit of a coward because he's trying to say, no, no, no, you can't prove, you can't prove I did it, right? As opposed to the valiant Macbeth that we saw in Act one, scene two, according to the captain's report, he never cared about, you know, fighting. He was really brave. He was able to own own up to all that he did, right? However, we can see here that actually he's quite cowardly. And this is emphasized through the use of Cesura, which is a structural point, but equally it's emphasized through this imperative sentence. He is so terrified. He's speaking in commands to this ghost. He wants to try and cover up his terrible actions. In terms of the themes, once more, this hallucination, this is his second hallucination represents his guilt. He realizes he's starting to feel paranoid, but he's also feeling guilty about killing Banquo equally. This ties in, of course, this theme of the supernatural because he's seeing things and ghosts that are not really there, okay? And in terms of context, you can argue that contextually the appearance of Banquo, the man who he betrayed for power represents, and rather his vision of Banquo, this hallucination represents punishment from God. God has sent this hallucination, this ongoing kind of scary ghost that appears and then disappears and then reappears. It's been sent to Macbeth as a punishment directly from God who is angry that he violated the divine right of kings. The fifth and final quotation to remember is when we meet Macbeth once more in that four scene one, and now he's completely corrupted by ambition, completely corrupt, and he literally believes that he can control his fate. He approaches the witches and calls them secret black and midnight hags. This is in that four scene one. Here we can see a complete change in Macbeth's character. When he first met the witches in that one scene three, he was very terrified. He was not used to seeing these creatures. He was a good person who worked with other people who respected the divine right of beings, the great chain of being and so on. However, by this stage we can see that Macbeth has completely become corrupted by power. He wants to make sure that he can control the outcome of what happens in Scotland, and rather than focusing on being a good king, he just focuses on killing any potential rival. And the rule of three here where he describes the witch as a secret black and midnight, so the rule of three of these adjectives is powerful in illustrating that Macbeth is quite bold, but also he's very silly because he doesn't realise that the witches are just playing around with him and ultimately they're going to cast him aside and have him killed. Now in terms of themes, the first of course is the theme of ambition, which you can tie this quotation into. In other words, what this quote relates to is how Macbeth's ambition has become so great. He wants to control the future. He wants to control his outcomes and he wants to ultimately control what happens in the future because he wants to maintain his power and his dominance as well as his reign. The other theme you can tie this to is the theme of the supernatural, when of course he's talking to the witches, he's consulting the witches, he thinks that they are on his side. Again here we can see Macbeth's folly. He's making a mistake in his trust in the supernatural and ultimately by the end of the play when he is murdered by Macbeth, we realise that you can never trust witches. Contextually what you want to tie this to is how King James, the first of England and the sixth of Scotland also distrusted the witches. He distrusted them to the extent that he wrote a book called Demonology, where he wrote how you can spot these witches and he also argued and he was extremely paranoid of the influence of witches and of course what this how Macbeth has shifted shows the way the witches can really corrupt you and make you a very depraved individual and a very terrible person and of course Macbeth is literally a shadow of his former self by the stage in the play when he is approaching the witches. So as I mentioned these are the five quotations which I would suggest memorising when it comes to Macbeth. I would suggest that you also need to memorise the themes and the context points that go with them. I think when it comes to Macbeth's character the main themes that you have to be really clear on are his ambition of course his reliance in the supernatural his constant feelings of guilt he's constantly plagued by guilt okay remember that once he sets off the series of events where he kills the king he then constantly has something that comes back to haunt him and he tries to control this feeling of guilt and paranoia by killing more but this ultimately and eventually catches up with him. So that's really it when it comes to how to do detailed analysis on these quotations and of course what to remember for Macbeth's character.