The rhetorical devices are parallelism, oxymoron, metaphor, metanoia, hyperbole, enumeratio.
The mood of the speaker, who is Macbeth, is that he feels ambitious. The tone/style of the quote is that, he talks as if he has darkness in his heart, when he said “ thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee.” He has a manner like he is going to do something to become king, instead of being ignorant about it. The imageries in this quote are when Macbeth in his letter wrote: “I burned in desire to question them further”, this shows how desperate he is to know about his prophecy from the witches. “ They made themselves air”, like as they could turn themselves into wind and be floating around without appearance. And “ my dearest
The symbol here would be “greatness”, he uses it to express his feelings and know what is important to him, such as, Lady Macbeth and his prophecy. The recurring motif would also be “greatness” because he mentions it twice here about Lady Macbeth and his prophecy. Another would be “ambition”- which, “greatness”, leads to ambition- because Macbeth kills King Duncan and succeeds and becomes king. It touches on his matter for ambition by him saying “ thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee.” Ambition means “intention” and this says that he will not be ignorant of what chances he has to be come king. In other words, he’s going to do something about it. We can find out that Macbeth would kill king Duncan later on as he said “thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee.” He said he won’t be ignoring the chance of being king and he would do something about it , as later on, he kills king Duncan, not on his free will, but by Lady Macbeth questioning his manhood. We also find out that he is ambitious and a
It shows how much Duncan appreciates Macbeth, even when he is secretly planning on murdering the king. Duncan compares Macbeth’s honor and pride to a dinner. He describes how all of the honorable deeds Macbeth has done fills him, just like the banquet he is going to later that night will fill his stomach. A final metaphor included in the play to enhance the reading is expressed by Donalbain. He
This anger exposes how Macbeth will do anything to maintain his power. Macbeth continues to think about how he wont have anyone to pass his crown onto while thinking about Banquo’s sons he states, “ Only for them; and mine eternal jewel/ Given to the common enemy of man,/ To make them kings” (3.2.67-69). Macbeth uses a metaphor to compare his soul to a jewel. Jewels are seen as one of the purest things in the world he says that he gave his away to evil, meaning that he gave his purity away by killing and only for Banquo’s sons. As he begins to regret killing Duncan he also shows anger towards Banquo and his sons as he fears that they can derail his power. The last line of the soliloquy is “Rather than so, come fate into the list,/ and champion me to th’utterance” (3.2.70-71). The quote foreshadows the future the words “champion” and “th’utterance” put together means fighting till death. Through saying this Macbeth is explaining that he will fight for his power until he dies. Macbeth also personifies fate by saying it will come into the list. This could mean that Macbeth wants to alter his fate and change what the witches told him. This quote shows how Macbeth desperately wants power and will fight till death to keep it. The use of foreshadowing and metaphors showing Macbeth's anger helps show Macbeth's dedication to his power, and his resentfulness towards someone he once called a
This prevalent mood is further alluded to when Macbeth begins to discuss how he contemplates on murdering King Duncan “Why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature? Present fears are less than horrible imaginings, my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man” (138-143). Moreover, within the speech, Macbeth is deciding whether the Weird sisters prophecies were a good thing or a bad thing. Macbeth argues that if it were bad then why did he get the promotion that was promised but on the other hand, if it were a good thing than why would he be thinking about murdering the king. Macbeth’s speech shows us that he is fighting an internal struggle during this scene and also demonstrates that no matter what goes on during the rest of the play, Macbeth's decisions will be made on the basis of ambition even though he knows murder would be wrong and foul. At the end of Macbeth's speech he states “And nothing is but what is not.” (145) This vivid example of juxtaposition contrast what isn't and what is, adding to the mood of desire and ambition as it demonstrates that Macbeth seeks that which he does not
The use of imagery of animals such as A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed. helps the reader get a better understanding of the disruption to order and power that has occurred due to King Duncan’s murder. Shakespeare uses this analogy to show that Macbeth is lower in the food chain like the owl meaning he is weaker, yet he manages to kill the king who holds the most power like the falcon. Through this, the audience can see the chaos this creates as the events that have occurred have gone against nature. Imagery of blood is used abundantly in the play as it is frequently repeated to reinforce the guilt Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel after the murder like What hands are here! Ha! They pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood, Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather, The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the
The passage shows that Macbeth does not know whether getting the kingship is good or bad. He says it is neither, but Macbeth also hints that he desires the kingship. The violence of murder against the king, Duncan, in his mind is what hints his desire. Macbeth’s desire will lead him to violence. To prove the desire, Macbeth wrote a letter to Lady Macbeth, and in it said, “When...
This passage shows Lady Macbeth asking the gods to fill her with all ruthlessness and hate to commit the killing of King Duncan but to have outer deceptive qualities to perceive other people like Macbeth himself.
Macbeth learns that the first prophecy has come true. He thinks deeply about being king as he has a huge craving for power and status. Macbeth was persuaded into this evil act. This is evident when we read 'When you durst to do it, then you were a man, ' (Act 1 Scene 7) . This suggests Lady Macbeth is saying Macbeth is no longer a man. And then, trying to persuade him, she says that to be king "more than what you were" would be to be much more of a man. Lady Macbeth 's constant aggravation pushed Macbeth and made him commit all this
The witches are giving Macbeth his fate. The entire time he is not interested in his fate but only in his downfall. Another thing that was displayed throughout this scene is the fact that even know the vision only appeared once the vision is reoccuring within Macbeth’s mind. Macbeth’s mind is so clouded with the fact that he is “ Invincible” it almost makes him into a ghost, who only sees power and killing. This quote could play both ways as a ghost or a vision is a literal or physical
There are many symbols used in Macbeth that help us to better understand the play. In the following paragraphs I will explain them in depth. There are four symbols that I will discuss below, they are light and darkness it represents the good and bad things that take place throughout the play. The second symbolism is blood. The blood represents murder and guilt like the blood on the dagger and the blood on Lady Macbeth's hand. The weather represents the different tragedies that take place and another symbolism is the dead children.
'Roman fool' but he was not about to follow her path. At the time of
William Shakespeare utilizes simplistic language to emphasize the themes in "Fear no more" however, he exercises complex metaphors to depict the struggles one undergoes during a lifetime and as a result urges the reader to overcome all melancholic sentiments that lead one to oppose a peaceful death. The diction applied in "Fear no more" efficiently creates emphasis on specific sections of the poem. In addition, the euphonic flow used by Shakespeare illustrates the author's serenity and resignation towards the subject at hand. In essence, Shakespeare's "Fear no more" employs rhetorical devices such as repetition, appeal to the audience, and imagery to reveal the desired theme.
Shakespeare uses equivocation not to confuse but to either get across multiple meanings or to leave dialogue and events in the play open ended. Equivocation can be seen with the witches and whenever they talk. The witches are themselves a vague set of characters who talk in a puzzling riddle-like manner. For instance when Macbeth goes to see them for the second time they are very vague about predicting his future, intentionally confusing him and making him overly confident. An example of this riddled dialogue goes like this:
...le Macbeth tells them that ‘every man be master of his time’ so that he can ‘keep alone’. By choosing to isolate himself and not inform Lady Macbeth of his plans to murder Banquo we see how Macbeth feels as if he can’t even trust his closest companions. After turning his back on Lady Macbeth, Macbeth becomes fixated not only on the prophecies of the witches but when he hints to Lady Macbeth that ‘a deed of dreadful note’ will fall upon Banquo and his son he talks like the witches. This shows how Macbeth has turned his back on seeking council from his lords and advisors and begins to act as a king who instead of rationally thinking things out, he chooses to justify his reasons on prophetic predictions from a world of sorcery.
This again shows how eager Macbeth is despite how sinastrous these three witches are. This quote can also show the readers that if the witches had not told them the prophecy...
In Macbeth, Shakespeare confronts audiences with universal and powerful themes of ambition and evil along with its consequences. Shakespeare explores the powerful theme of the human mind’s decent into madness, audiences find this theme most confronting because of its universal relevance. His use of dramatic devices includes soliloquies, animal imagery, clear characterisation and dramatic language. Themes of ambition and mental instability are evident in Lady Macbeth’s reaction to Macbeth’s letter detailing the prophecies, Macbeth’s hallucinations of Banquo’s ghost and finally in the scene where Lady Macbeth is found sleep walking, tortured by her involvement.