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Themes, Motifs and Symbols in Macbeth

Main Themes:
The Corrupting Power of Uncheck Ambition - Macbeths fatal flaw of ambition is what makes him rise to greatness and become king. But it is also the single thing that drives him insane with the blood on his hands and eventually ends in his death. The relationship between Feminity and Masculinity - Macbeth explores the strong seeded gender roles of this time. Demonstrating at the start of the play with Lady Macbeth taking the role of the man in the relationship between herself and Macbeth. Demonstrating Lady Macbeths urge to have power and be more like a man with the famous line, unsex me here. Then this strange gender role swap is reversed when Lady Macbeth becomes weak and Macbeth gains strong masculine qualities that come with being a tyrant. Kingship and Tyranny - Modeling the qualities of a good king we see King Duncan; a very friendly and loving man. Then we see the Tyrant Macbeth, modeling the qualities of a tyrant; overlord, consumed with power, murderous nature. The Natural Order of Being - The Natural Order of being is disturbed throughout the play, firstly when Macbeth caves to his wifes demands and kills the king. This both in Macbeth is claimed as to be in a higher role than his wife; in both gender and the fact he is a nobleman. Then killing the king (who is seen as Gods representative on earth) which from that point onwards he is dammed to hell as he has disrupted the order in the worst way possible.

Motifs
Hallucinations - The hallucinations throughout the play serve as a reminder to both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth of their growing body count that is on their hands. The Hallucinations also show course of the guilt they are feeling. At the end of the play we see Lady Macbeth go crazy because of this guilt and she receives hallucinations in the form of sleepwalking and talking and the belief that her hands are stained with blood, with her attempts to wash the blood off her hands that is simply unwashable. Violence - Macbeth starts and ends with violence. The violence at the start is the cause of Macbeth became Thane of Cawdor. And the violence at the end of the play cause of his fatal flaw, ambition. Which is the ultimate cause of his death. Prophecy - In Macbeth everything relates back to the witches prophecy and it continually creates chaos. Macbeths strong belief in the prophecy is what feeds his ambition and this in turn gets him killed in the end.

Symbols

Blood Blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, one that hounds them to their graves. Out, damned spot; out, I say . . . who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? The Weather In Macbeth the weather is what sets the feeling for the scene. the thunder and lightning that accompany the witches appearances to the terrible storms that rage on the night of Duncans murder, these violations of the natural order reflect corruption in the moral and political orders