Style

Language

• the witches‘ language
  
  • speak in trochaic tetrameters which remind the reader of simple nursery rhymes
  • extensive use of antithetical phrases such as "Lesser than Macbeth, and greater" (Act I, Scene 3, 65)
  • the fact that Macbeth also uses antitheses to express himself hints towards his close connection to the witches
  • full of paradoxical riddles which make their prophecy hard for Macbeth to use in order to actually predict the future
  • this confusion is made obvious by the way how Macbeth understands their claim that "none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth" (Act IV, Scene 1)
  • he believes that every being is born by a woman and is therefore oblivious to the fact that Macduff for instance "was from his mother‘s womb / Untimely ripped" (Act V, Scene 8); hence, Macbeth misunderstood the prophecy and is, as a consequence, killed by Macduff
• Macbeth was written in iambic pentameter and in blank verse
  
  • this results in a vivid, down-to-earth language as well as a rhetorically elaborated language
  • for some parts, Shakespeare uses distiches in order to mark the end of a scene, a new decision or extended knowledge
  • Macbeth himself uses those distiches sometimes, which links him more closely to the only other figures who talk in rhymes - the witches
• 7% of the whole text are written in prose (not a lot in comparison to other Shakespearean tragedies)
  
  • letters are written in prose (the letter that Lady Macbeth reveices from her husband)
  • characters who are members of the lower class also use prose
  • the porter uses prose - he is simple-minded and additionally, he is drunk; prose facilitates an unstoppable flow of humorous as well as suggestive remarks
  • the shift from prose to verse fulfills a specific purpose: when Lady Macduff switches to prose when talking to her little son, she implicitly establishes a certain intimacy
  • Lady Macbeth indulges in prose in her state of mental derangement as verse would appear inauthentic considering her circumstances
  • however, her doctor uses verse since his remarks are significant on a human level as well as on a governmental level
• blood as metaphor
  
  • the term used more than 40 times
  • the play begins with a bloody battle and the reader learns about how Macbeth dissected a victim; also, it ends with Macbeth‘s bloody beheading
  • Macbeth predicts his own verdict with the proverb "It will have blood they say: blood will have blood" (Act III, Scene 4, 121), meaning that a murderer will always be detected and punished
  • blood equals guilt: an entire ocean will not be capable of washing off the guilt of Macbeth‘s hands after Duncan‘s murder; instead, the blood on his hands will color the oceans red
  • when Lady Macbeth spots some bloody streaks on her hands, she obsessively tries to wash them off and is even able to smell the blood on her hands
  • Macbeth compares himself to a criminal wading through blood with no option to return - this is an expression of Macbeth‘s entanglement in a cycle of violence and bloodshed that he started himself
  • references to blood stress the full horror of what is happening
• night as keyword
  
  • the nighttime is traditionally associated with evil - in Macbeth, most of the violent and horrifying scenes take place at night
  • characters use the image of the nighttime in order to show the gloominess of their feelings and the evil of what they are doing
• time as keyword
  
  • as time passes in the play, events become more intense and consequences more significant
  • Macbeth feels a sense of power because he is able to see into the future through the witches‘ prophecies
• enumerations have a specific purpose in Macbeth
  • grotesque example of enumeration: the witches list the animals and bodyparts that go into the cauldron
  • the porter uses antithetical lists in order to illustrate the effects of alcohol
  • by listing the various dog breeds and comparing them to male characteristics, Macbeth attempts to challenge the murderers he engaged for killing Banquo and his son into securing themselves a special position as male beings

Genre

• Macbeth is a classic tragedy since its protagonist follows a dark path of treason and violence that ultimately leads to his downfall
• Macbeth as protagonist is politically noteworthy
• also, he is still essentially good at the beginning of the play: he is victorious in a battle and therefore earns a new title (Thane of Cawdor)
• only through the witches‘ prophecy and Macbeth‘s lust for power does he drift away from the righteous path
• Macbeth is the hero as well as the villain at the same time
• in order to cover up his first crime and keeping a hold on his regency, Macbeth continues his killing spree
• however, Macbeth enters a downward spiral of violence that involves his growing detachment from reality and that requires Macbeth‘s death in the end
• Macbeth is an unusual tragic protagonist as he willingly embraces evil although he knows that this might cost him his life