Macbeth Act 3 scene 3 and scene 4 analysis and revision
Summary
TLDRIn this analysis of Macbeth's Act 3, scenes 3 and 4, Matt Burch delves into the dramatic significance of the first on-stage murder, Banquo's betrayal, and the psychological unraveling of Macbeth. The scene exposes Macbeth's guilt and his desperate attempts to maintain a facade of innocence. Burch highlights the use of language, such as antithetical parallelism and dysphemism, to convey Macbeth's horror and paranoia. The ghost of Banquo's appearance at the banquet triggers Macbeth's loss of control, leading to a deeper exploration of his fear and the consequences of his actions. The summary also touches on the motif of sleep and its connection to guilt and madness, foreshadowing Lady Macbeth's tragic end.
Takeaways
- đȘ The script discusses the dramatic significance of the first murder scene in Macbeth, where the audience witnesses the betrayal and horror of Macbeth's actions.
- đ The representation of Banquo and the mention of James I's lineage to flatter the king is highlighted, showing the political undertones of the play.
- đœ The banquet scene reveals Macbeth's facade as a gracious host, which contrasts with his true nature and the shocking events that unfold.
- đŁïž The use of language, including antithetical parallelism and wordplay, is analyzed to show Macbeth's pleasure in Banquo's murder and the subsequent fear.
- đ The motif of snakes is reintroduced, symbolizing the threat of Fleance, the young snake, who will grow to seek revenge.
- đ» Macbeth's encounter with Banquo's ghost reveals his paranoia and guilt, as well as his deteriorating mental state.
- đ€Ż Lady Macbeth's attempts to regain control and reassure the guests highlight her role in managing Macbeth's outbursts and maintaining appearances.
- đ The script explores the theme of illusion versus reality, with Lady Macbeth mocking Macbeth's fears and comparing them to a woman's story.
- đ° The imagery of graves and monuments being desecrated by birds of prey symbolizes Macbeth's fear of the dead not staying dead and the consequences of his actions.
- đŹ Macbeth's soliloquy questions his own bravery and the nature of the supernatural, reflecting on the irreversible steps he has taken in his quest for power.
- đ The motif of sleep is foreshadowed, indicating the psychological toll of Macbeth's actions and the impending madness that will result from his guilt.
Q & A
What is the significance of the first murder scene in Macbeth that takes place on stage?
-The first murder scene is significant as it is the first act of violence the audience witnesses directly, revealing the full horror of Macbeth's betrayal of Banquo, his best friend, and marking a turning point in the play's dramatic tension.
How does the safety of Fleance relate to James I's vanity?
-Banquo's shout to 'fly good Fleance' is a dramatic moment that potentially flattered James I's vanity, as James I traced his lineage back to Banquo, thus connecting the king's personal history with the play's events.
What is the role of the banquet scene in revealing Macbeth's guilt?
-The banquet scene is crucial as it exposes Macbeth's guilt publicly. Until this point, Macbeth had managed to disguise his actions, but here he loses control, indicating his guilt to the audience and the other characters.
How does Macbeth attempt to appear humble and gracious in the banquet scene?
-Macbeth presents himself as a 'humble host', inviting the guests to seat themselves without waiting for him and suggesting he will serve them, which implies a sense of humility and an attempt to win the lords' favor.
What is the significance of the word 'welcome' being used three times in the first eight lines of the banquet scene?
-The repetition of 'welcome' emphasizes Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's efforts to ensure the lords feel welcomed and on their side, as they are aware of the suspicion that rests upon them.
What is the antithetical parallelism used by Macbeth when discussing Banquo's blood?
-Macbeth uses antithetical parallelism, stating 'better the blood upon the murderer's face than in Banquo's body', which is a conspicuous play on words that suggests Macbeth takes a twisted pleasure in the news of Banquo's murder.
How does Macbeth's reaction to Fleance's escape reflect his mental state?
-Macbeth's reaction to Fleance's escape, saying 'then comes my fit again', indicates his growing instability and fear, as he believes Fleance will grow up to seek revenge and threaten his kingship.
What is the connection between Macbeth's description of the times of the past and Banquo's murder?
-Macbeth's description of the past when 'brains were out, a man would die and there an end' contrasts with the present, where Banquo's ghost rises again, showing Macbeth's horror at the unnatural and the supernatural implications of his actions.
How does Lady Macbeth attempt to regain control after Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost?
-Lady Macbeth tries to regain control by blaming Macbeth's outburst on a childhood mental illness to reassure the lords, and then she mocks Macbeth's fears, comparing his reaction to a woman's story, attempting to belittle his fears and regain his composure.
What does Macbeth's statement 'I dare do all that may become a man' echo from earlier in the play?
-This statement echoes Macbeth's earlier declaration in Act 1, Scene 7, where he said the same, signifying his bravery and determination to commit to his dark ambitions.
How does Macbeth's fear of the supernatural manifest in his reaction to Banquo's ghost?
-Macbeth's fear is evident in his reaction to the ghost, where he contemplates the impossibility of fighting an 'unreal form' and the horror of death, showing his vulnerability and the psychological impact of his actions.
What does Macbeth's final statement about sleep signify about his mental state?
-Macbeth's reference to sleep as 'the season of all nature's sleep' and his own denial of it signifies his growing madness and the internal turmoil caused by his guilt and the consequences of his actions.
Outlines
đ Macbeth's First On-Stage Murder and Banquet Scene
This paragraph discusses the dramatic significance of the first murder in Macbeth, witnessed by the audience, contrasting with the off-stage murder of Duncan. It highlights the role of Banquo and the potential flattery of James I through the character's lineage. The paragraph also delves into Macbeth's loss of control during the banquet, his and Lady Macbeth's attempts to appear gracious to the gathered lords, and the shocking revelation of Macbeth's guilt. The use of antithetical parallelism and wordplay is noted, along with Macbeth's fear and the implications of Banquo's murder, including the threat posed by Fleance, Banquo's son.
đ» Macbeth's Encounter with Banquo's Ghost and Lady Macbeth's Response
The second paragraph explores Macbeth's reaction to Banquo's ghost appearing at the banquet, reflecting his guilt and fear. Lady Macbeth's attempt to downplay the situation by comparing the ghost to an illusory painting and mocking Macbeth's fear is detailed. The paragraph also examines Macbeth's horror at the supernatural event, his concern about the dead not staying dead, and his struggle to convince himself of his bravery. The intertextual link to the air-drawn dagger and the motif of sleep are also discussed, concluding with Lady Macbeth taking control of the situation to mitigate the damage caused by Macbeth's outburst.
đȘ Macbeth's Descent into Paranoia and Impulsive Action
In this paragraph, Macbeth's paranoia is evident as he fears that even nature might reveal his secrets. His decision to seek out the witches indicates a reversal from his previous actions. The paragraph discusses Macbeth's realization that his actions are driving him further into bloodshed with no turning back, and his acceptance of this fate. The loss of rationality and the shift to impulsive actions are highlighted, along with the foreshadowing of sleep's significance and its connection to guilt and madness. Macbeth's self-delusion about the ghost's nature and his attempt to rationalize his fear are also covered.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄMacbeth
đĄBanquo
đĄFleance
đĄSupernatural
đĄGuilt
đĄAmbition
đĄTreachery
đĄParanoia
đĄHonor
đĄMadness
đĄBlood
Highlights
The first murder occurs on stage, contrasting with Duncan's off-stage murder, emphasizing the horror of the act.
Banquo's concern for his son's safety before his death potentially flatters King James I's lineage.
Macbeth's public loss of control during the banquet scene reveals his guilt.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth use the word 'welcome' to ingratiate themselves with the guests.
Macbeth's attempt to appear humble by playing the host backfires as his guilt becomes apparent.
Antithetical parallelism in the dialogue hints at Macbeth's twisted pleasure in Banquo's death.
Macbeth's desire for 'perfection' in his reign is connected to the murder of Banquo and Fleance.
The imagery of snakes foreshadows the threat of Fleance's future revenge.
Macbeth's initial reaction to Banquo's ghost reveals his suspicious and deceitful nature.
Lady Macbeth tries to control the situation by attributing Macbeth's outburst to a childhood illness.
Macbeth's fear is mocked by Lady Macbeth, who compares it to a woman's story.
Macbeth's horror at the ghost's appearance is expressed through vivid and visceral language.
Macbeth's bravery is questioned by both Lady Macbeth and himself in the face of the supernatural.
The motif of sleep is introduced, foreshadowing its significance in the play's later stages.
Macbeth's paranoia grows as he fears the disclosure of his secrets by the natural world.
Macbeth's decision to act impulsively without rationality marks a departure from his earlier hesitation.
Macbeth's recognition that the ghost was a product of his fear shows his capacity for self-delusion.
Transcripts
hi this is Matt Burch and this is a
quick revision of Macbeth at free scenes
three and four scene freeze a really
short scene but it's really crucial
dramatically as this is the first murder
that takes place on stage
unlike the murder of Duncan the audience
witnesses this betrayal of my best best
friend and the full horror of what he's
initiated is evident to the audience
it's also typical of the representation
of Banquo with the term his first force
upon recognizing the treachery is the
safety of his son he shouts fly good
Fleance once again this would
potentially flatter the vanity of James
the first given that James the first
trace his lineage back to Banquo soon
Falls the banquet scene and until this
seemed at best been able to disguise his
actions attempting to look like the
innocent flower and adopt a false face
but at this point he loses control and
he loses it very publicly exposing his
guilt but Beth presents himself as a
generous and a genial host telling the
guests not to stand upon ceremony but to
seat themselves you know rather than
waiting for him to sit down before they
could take their own seats he says that
he will play the humble host which might
imply that he's going to go round and
charged the glasses of the lords that
are assembled essentially giving the
sense through all of this that he's
humble it's worth noting that Beth and
Lady Macbeth use the word welcome three
times in the first eight lines of the
scene really trying to ensure that
they're getting the Lords onside they
know they've got a battle to face
because suspicion rests on their
shoulders but it's this kind of attempt
at graciousness that makes what happens
subsequently even more shocking when
talking to one of the returning
murderers an antithetical parallelism is
used to joke that bancos blood is better
the without than he within so therefore
better on the murderers face tan in
Banquo's body it's the fact that there
is this wordplay
there's such a conspicuous play on words
through the antithesis that suggests
that there's a pleasure that my Beth
receives upon hearing this kind of news
upon hearing Polly once's escaped
Macbeth says then comes my fit again I
had else been put
which could be a reference to actually
seen one when he talks about Banquo
making him sickly in his life which in
his death were perfect
so the repetition of that key lexical
term perfect connect creates that
connection he said he would have been
whole as the marble founded as the rock
as broad and general as the casing air
if both Fleance and Banquo were killed
and those similes provide a sense of how
securement best position and mental
state would have been in that situation
there would have been a freedom because
he wouldn't have been troubled by the
potential threats to his kingship that
the witches had proposed through
Banquo's lineage in contrast to the
freedom that he would have experienced
if Fleance and Banquo were dead he now
feels confined by the knowledge of
Leonsis freedom words from the semantic
field of imprisonment who employed and
you have this harsh alliteration coupled
with the consonants of plosive sounds
that complements that sense of an
horrific state of fear that Macbeth now
finds himself in the nature of Banquo's
murder is recalled and the horror of it
is evident in the murderous claim that
the gashes in Banquo's head was deepest
trenches with each one sufficient to
kill him
we then return once again to the motif
of snakes thanks for that there the
grown serpent lies the worm that's fled
half nature that in song will venom
breed no tea for the present so we have
Banquo represented as the fully grown
snake with Fleance the young snake or
worm that will in time grow its venomous
teeth so but best referring to the
danger posed by the young Fleance in
time he will grow and he will seek
revenge
this is looting back to a tree scene to
weave scotch the snake not kill'd it
it's one of the threats that Macbeth was
alluding to in a tree scene to remove
ever sees the ghost his initial response
is which of you have done this
interestingly symptomatic of my best
suspicious nature and familiarity with
deceit because his immediate belief is
that one of the Lords is playing a trick
on him trying to deceive him but the
horror of the ghosts appearance is
clearly evident in the adjective all
choice
Gouri the gory locks with Macbeth's loss
of control Lady Macbeth tries to step up
and regain control blaming that Bess
outburst on a mental illness from
childhood in order to reassure the
Lord's when she addresses Macbeth once
again she tries to control him through
the same method that she used in act 1
scene 7 questioning his manhood the
echoes of act 1 scene 7 are maintained
with him at best response I in a bold
one that dare look on that which might
appall the devil in act 1 scene 7 he
said I dare do all that may become a man
so once again it's the same response to
the same kind of accusation Lady Macbeth
mocks Macbeth's visions saying this is
the very painting of your fear the
representation of painting is something
illusory something unreal it's a
representation of something and it seems
to be a link to act 2 scene 2 where we
have the sleeping and the dead are put
as pictures she makes a comparison to
the air-drawn dagger the very fact that
she suggests that this is similar to the
air-drawn dagger could actually give
credence to the idea that the dagger was
previously something that was born out
of the supernatural rather than the
heat-oppressed brain because we now as
an audience likely to have seen the
ghost of Banquo also she said that this
would well become a woman's story at a
winter's fire authorized by her Grand Am
so again she's mocking his bravery
claiming that his fears are as pathetic
as those found in a woman's story that a
grandmother's found suitable in other
words really childish and not likely to
disturb anyone mocking the best manhood
and bravery with the tools that she used
to persuade my Beth to kill Duncan but
now they're not working my Beth doesn't
pay attention to his wife instead
focusing his attention on the ghost as
you would but he uses this conditional
to express his horror at death if
Charnel houses and our graves must send
those that we bury back our monuments
shall be the Moors of kites it's a
concern that if graves and buildings
that would be used to store bones send
the bodies back
as appears to have happened with Banquo
then he postulates that the monuments
for the dead will be nothing more than
the stomach's of those birds that feed
off the dead he's haunted by the idea
that the dead are not staying dead hence
why they end up in the stomach's of
birds of prey
this points reinforced by his
description of the times of the past
when when the brains were out a man
would die and there an end but now they
rise again with 20 mortal murders on
their crowns a reference to those 20
trench like gashes that are supposed to
be in the head of Banquo this is showing
his horror of what he's witnessing that
dysphemism of when the brains were out
really capturing the visceral nature of
what he's witnessing and the horror of
it the bravery that defined Macbeth in
act 1 scene 2 brave Macbeth well he
deserves that name has been questioned
by Lady Macbeth earlier in the play and
yet now he seems to be trying to
convince himself of his own bravery in
the face of this threat by a
supernatural force he says that no enemy
would make him afraid no physical enemy
a bear I know a tiger a living man but
you cannot fight this unreal form and
therefore that's why the fear exists he
justifies it as a rational fear this
particular aspect of the speech begins
with what man dare I dare echoing again
that line from act 1 scene 7 I dare do
all that may become a man once again
reassuring himself of his bravery the
lines a form of parallelism and the
effect of it is to ensure that the
generality of man is also transferred
across to the singularity of I in other
words anything that any man would do he
would dare to do with the departure of
the ghosts Macbeth begins to doubt the
nature of their existence with the
question can such things be and this
might remind us of act 1 scene free when
Banquo with the departure of the witches
questioned were such things here as we
do speak about the simile like her
summers cloud could convey the
strangeness and the brevity of the
ghostly vision
one wouldn't expect to see a cloud on a
summer's day just as one wouldn't expect
to see Banquo's ghost and also it comes
and goes very quickly just as Banquo's
ghost has come and gone very quickly but
Beth draws a contrast between the
response of Lady Macbeth and his own
response to witnessing the ghost having
believed that Lady Macbeth had also
witnessed the ghosts appearance he
questions his own bravery really
believing that she can have seen the
ghost and yet kept the Ruby of her
cheeks in of words stayed red in the
face rather than being blanched by fear
and turned white as he was with him at
Beth's loss of power Lady Macbeth once
again has to take control
ordering the lords to leave at once and
it's interesting that when she does so
she says stand not upon the order of
your going but go at once it's
interesting structurally that the scene
began with Macbeth words saying you know
your own degrees sit down a recognition
that there would be a clear hierarchy
and people would sit according to that
hierarchy now Lady Macbeth doesn't give
a damn about the hierarchy stand not
upon the order of your going just get
out she's trying to engage in damage
limitation and there's a sense of
desperation here another intertextual
link can be seen in my best phrase it
will have blood they say blood will have
blood it seems to be reminiscent of my
best concerns in act 1 scene 7 we but
teach bloody instructions which being
taught return to plague the inventor in
other words what we do is going to come
back to haunt us and here that's
happening very literally in the return
of Bank row after Macbeth had him
murdered
Macbeth paranoia is evident in him
worrying that his secrets going to be
disclosed by aspects of nature the
Magpies rooks even the stones that have
been known to move and trees to speak
and once again this could be enough of
intertextual link because just before
Macbeth committed the murder he was
worried that the very stones prate of my
whereabouts
rather than being sought out by the
witches Macbeth now states that he's
going to seek them out this reversal
echo
as well the way in which all of the
concerns that Macbeth exhibited earlier
in the play all of the goodness seems to
have disappeared and now he's acting
purely on self interest for my own good
all causes shall give way
he also says I'm in blood stepped in so
far that should I wait no more returning
were as tedious as go over this metaphor
illustrating that there's no turning
back
he's gone so far he's killed so many his
instit in blood so deeply that it would
be as bad to go back as it is to go on
so he may as well go on he may as well
see this through in Act one Scene seven
but Beth really thought about what he
was intending to do there was an awful
lot of procrastination to the point
where he convinced himself of the error
of killing Duncan that's all again
disappeared he says here strange things
I have in head that will to hand which
must be acted ere they can be scanned
this seems to be a declaration of acting
without thinking this is as soon as he
thinks he's gonna do something is gonna
act impulsively there will be no checks
of conscience no checks of guilt there
will be no rationality applied to it
he's just gonna do whatever he wants to
do and the scene almost concludes with
reference to the motif of sleep we have
this ironic foreshadowing because we
know that sleeps going to become
significant in terms of Lady Macbeth you
lack the season of all nature's sleep
and at the end of the play she lacks
that as well as disturbed mind forces
her to sleepwalk
it's also worth recognizing that this
links back again to act 2 scene 2 sleep
was discussed by Macbeth as the balm of
hurt Minds great nature's second course
chief nourisher in life's feast and he's
denied this there's a sense of him being
driven to madness because of his lack of
sleep and that sleep is a result of the
guilt that's been produced by the
regicide and finally Macbeth says my
stranger themself abuses the inner ship
fear that once hard use this seems to be
a recognition on his part that the ghost
of Banquo was an illusion brought about
by his fear
something that the audience would likely
find difficult to accept given that
they'd also witnessed it but Beth seems
to be engaging in a capacity for
self-delusion it seems to support slayed
him at best claimed that it was just
like the air-drawn dagger that Mar Beth
previously considered to come from the
heat-oppressed brain okay tah
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