3. Theme: “Fair is Foul”
“Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires!”
(I, iv, 50-51)
“look like the innocent flower
But be the serpent under’t”
(I, v, 64-65)
4. Learning Objective
To understand the concept of ‘hamartia’ and how it
applies to Macbeth’s character.
5. Hamartia
The term hamartia is a Greek term which means “to miss the mark” or
“to err” and is most often associated with Greek tragedy.
Hamartia, as it pertains to dramatic literature, was first used by
Aristotle in his Poetics.
In tragedy, hamartia is commonly understood to refer to the
protagonist’s error or flaw that leads to a chain of plot actions
culminating in a reversal from their good fortune to bad.
What qualifies as the error or flaw can include an error resulting from
ignorance, an error of judgement, a flaw in character, or sin.
6. Act I scene iv
“(Aside) The Prince of Cumberland! – That is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,
For in my way it lies! Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires!”
(I, iv, 48-51)
7. Activity
“Yet do I fear thy nature.
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way...
...wouldst not play false,
And yet would wrongly win.” (I, v, 15-21)
How do Lady Macbeth’s words in this quotation add to the
audience’s understanding of Macbeth’s character?
8. Activity
Read Lady Macbeth’s Soliloquies (I, v, 14-29 & I, v, 37-53)
1. Which phrases in these soliloquies suggest that that she has
decided that they have to kill Duncan?
2. In lines 37-53, find examples of language to do with darkness
and night.
3. In what ways are they involving the natural world in their
plots?
9. Macbeth’s Soliloquy
Act I, scene vii, lines 1-27
Macbeth’s reasons for not killing
Duncan
Macbeth’s reasons for killing
Duncan
10. What does this soliloquy reveal about Macbeth’s attitude
to killing Duncan?
Macbeth’s Soliloquy
Act I, scene vii, lines 1-27
11. Lady Macbeth’s Soliloquy
Act III, scene ii, lines 4-7
“Nought’s had, all’s spent,
Where our desire is got without content.
‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.”
12. Macbeth: Act III, scene ii, line 36
“O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!”
13. Macbeth: Act III, scene ii, lines 45-47
“Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling Night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, ...”
14. Act III, scene iv, lines 23-24
Macbeth’s reaction to Fleance’s escape:
“...But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears.”
15. Act III, scene iv, lines 130-131
Macbeth’s paranoia:
“There’s not a one of them, but in his house
I keep a servant fee’d.”
16. Act III, scene iv, lines 136-138
The extent of Macbeth’s guilt...
“I am in blood
Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”
