Monday, April 23, 2012

Please give some quotes from Macbeth in relation to guilt, betrayal and ambition.

This is rather an extensive question, as you have
highlighted three major themes of the play that of course can be discussed at great
length through reference to a number of different quotes. I then will offer one example
for each of the three themes you have specified.


Clearly,
one of the most famous examples of guilt comes in Act II scene 1, following Macbeth's
murder of Duncan. Note how Macbeth is tormented by what he has
done:



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 green one
red.



The way that Macbeth
feels his hands are irrevocably stained with the blood of Duncan acts as an important
symbol of his guilt.


As regards the theme of betrayal, you
might like to consider how Macbeth's betrayal of his liege and then of his country is
portrayed. In Act IV scene 3, the presentation of Scotland by Macduff clearly shows how
Macbeth has betrayed his position and responsibilities, and how Scotland suffers as a
result:



Each
new morn,


New widows howl, new orphans cry; new
sorrows


Strike heaven on the face, that it
resounds


As if it felt with Scotland, and yell'd
out


Like syllable of
dolour.



Macbeth's betrayal of
his king is shown to have had cataclysmic effects on the entire
nation.


Lastly, the theme of ambition is of course best
captured in Macbeth's soliloquy in Act I scene 7, when Macbeth discusess the prophecy he
has been given and what his response to it should be. Note how he concludes this
important soliloquy:


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I have no spur


To
prick the sides of my intent, but only


Vaulting ambition,
which o'erleaps itself


And falls on
th'other--



Macbeth here uses
a metaphor to describe the way that ambition can be a "spur" that can lead to tragedy,
as in the case of a horseman who leaps onto a horse so strongly that he actually goes
straight over the horse and lands on the other side.

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