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Quotation
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Character
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Theme
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Explanation
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Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other.
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Macbeth
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Ambition
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Metaphor - uses a horse to show how too much ambition leads to failure.
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Is this a dagger which I see before me.
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Macbeth
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Ambition
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Metaphor - for macbeths ambition guiding him towards killing duncan
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With Tarquins ravishing strides
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Macbeth
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Ambition
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Metaphor - for how his ambition compels him to murder the king just like a roman person was compelled to rape someones wife
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Plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
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Lady Macbeth
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Ambition
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This is demonstrative of LMs desire for Macbeth to be king and also her cruelty
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Murder is yet fantastical
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Macbeth
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Ambition
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This shows how the first thing macbeth thinks about after hearing he will be king is murdering the current one
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The milk of human kindness.
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Lady Macbeth (referring to Macbeth)
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Bravery (being a man)
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Metaphor - milk comes from mother so LM is saying macbeth is like a woman because he is so kind.
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Be so much more the man
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Lady Macbeth (referring to Macbeth)
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Bravery (being a man)
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Alliteration - Emphasises the word man which is what LM says macbeth isn’t
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My hands are of your colour but I shame to wear a heart so white
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Lady Macbeth (referring to Macbeth)
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Bravery (being a man)
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Metaphor with white heart meaning kind, Contrast between the red and white colours.
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Screw your courage to the sticking place
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Lady Macbeth (referring to Macbeth)
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Bravery (being a man)
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LM is telling macbeth to be braver. (Hint: begins with screw)
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Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t
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Lady Macbeth
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Bravery (being a man)
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First sign of weakness in LM
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My battlements
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Lady Macbeth
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Bravery (being a man)
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It was unusual for women to own property in 11th century Scotland or Jacobean England so it is strange that Lady macbeth refers to the castle as hers.
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Unsex me here
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Lady Macbeth
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Bravery (being a man)
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Lady Macbeth wants to be like a man who is able to do unkind things
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I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked.
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Macbeth
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Bravery (being a man)
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Demonstrates how macbeth even at the end of the play when he knows he is doomed is till brave
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From the nave to the chaps
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The captain (referring to Macbeth)
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Bravery (being a man) + Good and evil
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Contrast - between doing something violent however he does it for the king which is good
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But wherefore could I not pronounce amen
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Macbeth
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Consequences of actions
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Macbeth can not say amen which is a word used at the end of prayers. However now macbeth has done something so evil that he can not even say a word that associates him with god
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I am stepped in blood so far
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Macbeth
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Consequences of actions
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Macbeth knows that he has murdered so many people that there is no point to stopping as he is already going to hell so the punishment won’t get worse.
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[Cry of women within] (stage direction.)
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Lady Macbeth (heard by Macbeth)
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Consequences of actions
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The fact that LM isn’t introduced until act 1 scene 5 and leaves during act 5 scene 5 shows how she isn’t the key character - Macbeth is. (stage direction)
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Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
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Macbeth
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Consequences of actions
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Simile - Macbeth describes life as meaningless which shows he is not afraid of the consequences of his actions
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Fair is foul and foul is fair
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Witches
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False appearances
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Contrast and foreshadowing - shows how things aren’t what they seem to be
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We rest your hermits (meaning we will pray for you)
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Lady Macbeth (referring to Duncan)
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False appearances
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Dramatic Irony - The audience knows LM wants Duncan dead however he she wants to pray for him.
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Not in our house
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Lady Macbeth
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False appearances
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Lady Macbeth slips up and is not worried about the king being dead but worried about it happening in her castle
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Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t
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Lady Macbeth (referring to Macbeth)
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False appearances
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Simile - demonstrates false appearances. The serpent is deceiving as it is the animal that tricked Adam and Eve
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So fair and foul a day I have not seen.
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Macbeth
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False appearances
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Macbeth’s language mirrors the witches language. This is a subtle suggest that Macbeth is not as good as he seems
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False face must hide what false heart doth know.
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Macbeth
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False appearances
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This is because faces are what you use to greet people and how people judge your emotions however your heart is where emotions are perceived to really happen
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There’s daggers in mens smiles (said by Donaldbain before going to Ireland)
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Donaldbain
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False appearances
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Metaphor - for how people are putting up false appearances when secretly they’d like people to be murdered
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No man of woman born shall ever have power upon thee.
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Witches
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False appearances
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The witches trick Macbeth into a false sense of security leading to his ultimate demise
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Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires
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Macbeth
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False Appearances + Ambition
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Contrast - Macbeth doesn’t want anyone to shed light on his plans, contrast between black and light emphasises how evil his thoughts are. Stars may also link to the heavens - Macbeth doesn’t want God to know what he is doing.
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This castle hath a pleasant seat
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Duncan
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False appearances + kingship
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Dramatic Irony - This shows how Duncan is not a good king as he misjudges the castle.
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Pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell
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Lady Macbeth
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Good and Evil
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This is so God won’t judge LM and see what she is doing. Through the medieval period people were devout christians so they would be very scared of being judged by God
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Come to my women’s breasts and take my milk for gall you murdering ministers
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Lady Macbeth
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Good and Evil
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Metaphor - the poison is a metaphor for cruelty. Previously milk was compared to kindness and it gives life to babies when they are born. Gall is the opposite so it represents cruelty.
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Come you spirits
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Lady Macbeth
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Good and Evil
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LM invokes the supernatural, witchcraft is punishable by hanging. Defies social conventions of the time.
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Double double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble.
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Witches
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Good and Evil
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Trochees - The opposite of iambs which are used in natural speech, therefore makes the listener feel uncomfortable just like witches would. (the first line the witches say in act 4)
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O full of scorpions is my mind dear wife
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Macbeth
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Guilt
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Macbeth is starting to break apart from everything he has done. The guilt is consuming him
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Will all great Neptune's oceans wash this blood clean from my hand
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Macbeth
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Guilt
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Metaphor - the blood will never wash away as it represents guilt which is there for ever.
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Don’t shake your gory locks at me
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Macbeth referring to Banquo’s ghost
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Guilt
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Describes how Macbeth is scared of what he has done contrasting Macbeth’s evil actions with Banquo's good actions
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Out, out damned spot
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Lady Macbeth
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Guilt
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Metaphor describing how the guilt will never go away no matter how much LM wants it to
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All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
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Lady Macbeth
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Guilt
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Metaphor - the blood will never go away as it represents guilt which is there for ever.
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Out, out brief candle
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Macbeth
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Guilt
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Metaphor - describing how Human life is like a flame, easily snuffed out. Echoes out damned spot showing it was the guilt that killed LM as it made her life fragile.
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You shall get kings
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Witches (referring to Banquo)
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Kingship
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Banquo is the embodiment of a good king as he is kind and shuns the supernatural. Unlike macbeth.
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Let's make us medicines of our great revenge
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Malcolm
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Kingship
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Metaphor - describes how Malcolm will heal his broken country like medicine heals people
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In thunder, lightning or in rain
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Witches
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Order and disorder
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Pathetic fallacy - gives a sense of chaos due to weather rapidly changing. This also shows how the witches can control the weather.
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The raven himself is hoarse
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Lady Macbeth
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Order and disorder
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Metaphor - the raven represents death
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Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed
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Old man
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Order and disorder
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Metaphor - describes how macbeth is wrong to kill the king and should be subservient to him just like an owl is to a hawk
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Tis said they eat each other.
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Old man
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Order and disorder
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Metaphor - describes how the world has gone mad. Horses re also animals that belong to kings.
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Be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck
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Macbeth referring to Lady Macbeth
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Power
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Dearest chuck is putting LM down. Macbeth has begun to be stronger than LM. He has not told LM something.
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He has killed me mother
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Macduff’s son
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Power and abuse of power
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Contrast - Mother contrasted with death demonstrates macbeths tyranny and ruthlessness as he has needlessly killed a boy
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Dead butcher and his fiend like queen.
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Malcolm
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Power and abuse of power
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This demonstrates how tyrannical Macbeth was and how evil LM was
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Help me hence ho
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Lady Macbeth
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Power and Abuse of power
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Lady Macbeth says this to distract the characters from macbeth’s unnecessary killing of the guards
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If I had so sworn
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Lady Macbeth (referring to Macbeth)
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Trust and Betrayal
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Macbeth never has promised to kill Duncan but LM is manipulative so says this
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Why do you dress me in borrowed robes
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Macbeth
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Trust and Betrayal
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Metaphor - of clothes not fitting to describe how macbeth is saying how he doesn’t deserve the title
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False appearances
It also shows how Macbeth is being friendly to Duncan to cover up the fact hes about to kill him