deceit macbeth essay

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How is deceit presented in Macbeth?

Deceit in Macbeth: Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are prepared to lie to people in order to seize power, however they are punished for it in the end. Shakespeare wanted to show that people who lie and deceive should not be given power. Duncan is a kind king, but he is killed because he is too trusting. Malcolm is less trusting, as shown when he escapes to England to get away from whoever killed his father.

During the opening of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth suggests that her husband is not someone who is capable of deceit. His presentation at the beginning suggests that he is a good man, and someone who “woulds’t not play false.” However, during the first act she encourages him to lie in order to seize power. During the middle of the play, Macbeth becomes an accomplished liar: He lies to his friend, Banquo, to find out where the murderers can find him; and he lies to the murderers to make sure they hate Banquo enough to see the deed through. However, at the end of the play, Macbeth is tricked by the witches who make him think he’s immortal and cannot be hurt. This makes him overconfident and he is eventually killed.

Quotes about Deceit in Macbeth:

This theme of deceit is established in the opening scene with the witches famous incantation: “ Fair is foul and foul is fair .” As a phrase this shows how things will be reversed in the play: fair things will be bad and bad things good. This is also in part because the witches will invert the natural order when they make Macbeth commit regicide; also things like gender are inverted in the play which means no-one is who they seem. Also, contradictory language is used throughout the play to suggest that things are never what they seem.

Equally, A1S2 the captain talks about Macbeth as being “ brave ” and honourable though he turns out to be neither. Duncan even calls him “ worthy ” which shows the extent to which Macbeth has deceived them all into thinking he is trustworthy.

In A1S3, when Banquo and Macbeth first meet the witches, Banquo’s says that they “ look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth and yet are on it ,” and he says that “ they should be women and yet their beard forbid me to interpret them so .” These contradictions show just how untrustworthy the witches are – how deceitful. They are not what they seem and should not be trusted as a result. Also, just after seeing the witches there is a clear breakdown in communication between Macbeth and Banquo. Banquo calls Macbeth “ rapt ” – meaning gripped by a kind of passion or confusion – but Macbeth is never really honest with Banquo as to why. Here, he suggests that they should speak later but they never speak – he does this in A2S1 as well. This breakdown in communication leads Macbeth to become isolated and an easy victim to the scheming witches and his wife.

In A1S4, Duncan is talking about the former Thane of Cawdor, a man who betrayed him and fought against him. Duncan says that: “ there’s no art/ To find the mind’s construction in the face:/ He was a gentleman on whom I built/ An absolute trust. ” This shows Duncan’s trusting nature – he wanted to trust the Thane and he did, but it cost him dearly; this is exactly the same thing that happens with Macbeth: he trusts him and it costs him. It shows the damage that comes when a leader cannot trust their subjects. Also, this phrase neatly summarises a key issue with deceit in Macbeth: the fact that we cannot see “the mind’s construction” – the way that the mind is made-up – in someone’s face. It makes it clear that deceit is possible, because it is impossible to really see what’s on someone’s mind.

A1S5 is Lady Macbeth’s big evil-scene where she calls on the spirits. In this scene she is angry with Macbeth because he’s too nice – she “ fears ” his nature. Here she also says that he “ would’st not play false ,” which is a clear statement that he doesn’t want to lie – or is incapable of lying. Also, once she tells Macbeth her plan to kill Duncan she says that his “ face is a book where men may read strange matters. ” She says this because his response to the plan is obviously to look really guilty and shocked. This supports the idea that Macbeth is not naturally very good at being deceitful.

This scene also has the most famous line in the play about deceit: “ Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t .” This is Lady Macbeth instructing her husband on how to lie. The first half of the image highlights just how perfect he should look: the adjective innocent is associated with purity and perfection; while flowers are symbols of happiness and joy. Flowers are also natural which suggests she is reminding him to keep looking like the natural order will be retained. The serpent, however, is a clear reference to Satan, who appeared as a serpent in Genesis. While his position “ under’t ” reminds us of Hell, where Satan lives. Lady Macbeth is basically telling her husband to look absolutely perfect, but continue to be perfectly evil.

In A1S6, Lady Macbeth welcomes Duncan to her castle – it is interesting that Macbeth is not there. Duncan calls the castle a “ pleasant seat ” and says that the “ air sweetly recommends itself unto our gentle senses .” This shows just how deceived Duncan has been – he thinks that the Macbeths are lovely and welcoming and “ pleasant ” – an adjective that is really quite soft and harmless. Also, the way he talks about himself as having “ gentle senses ” makes Duncan out to be innocent and, perhaps even, naïve. He’s not being a strong leader here, he’s talking about fresh air and wonder. Lady Macbeth welcomes him warmly, saying that he deserves “ honours deep and broad. ” However, in an example of dramatic irony (which is when the audience knows something the characters don’t), we know that she is being deceitful.

In A3S3 – the scene in which they find Duncan’s dead body – deceit is everywhere! Macbeth acts as though nothing has happened. At first he says that he’ll go and get Duncan from his bed, though he allows Macduff to go instead. Lennox asks when the king is leaving and Macbeth says that he’s leaving later in the afternoon. It seems Macbeth is now a more capable liar than before. When Macduff returns and says that king has been slain, Macbeth screams “ Woe! Alas! ” in mock grief. He also cleverly kills the guard so that no-one can question them. Lady Macbeth is the same, she pretends to feint in shock. In this scene, the two of them are perfect little liars.

Although everyone seems to buy the Macbeths lies, Malcom and Donaldbain seem convinced that something is not right and decide to flee. They don’t mention Macbeth directly, but say that “ there’s daggers in men’s smiles ” where they are – showing that they are not as trusting or naïve as their father – they don’t trust people, even if they smile or look like “ innocent flowers .”

In A3S1, Macbeth is preparing to murder Banquo. He speaks to him about his day, where he will ride to, and what he will do. He is clearly trying to get information from him so that he can send his murderers in pursuit, but Banquo won’t give any information away. This shows that by this stage in the play, Banquo and Macbeth’s relationship has broken down and they are no longer friends, and don’t trust each other anymore – the deceit has won. After this, Macbeth talks to the hired murderers and lies to them, quite comfortably, about Banquo; he tells them that Banquo was the source of much of their misery and suffering. Although you need to be careful with this, I think it is worth saying that this is a mighty big character change we’ve witnessed from Macbeth here. When his wife spoke about him in A1S5 she said that he “ woulds’t not play false ” – which suggests that he didn’t like lying – she also said that he wanted things “ holily ” and was too full of the “ milk of human kindness .” And yet now, just a few days of real time later, Macbeth is suddenly lying to murderers to arrange for them to kill his best friend. This is no longer a man who “ woulds’t not play false ,” in fact he seems quite comfortable with it. I think the accepted wisdom would argue that Macbeth has changed since the witches’ prophecy, though I think it’s also worth mentioning that this is a… massive personality shift from him that is – whisper it – unbelievable? Did he really change from being someone who “woulds’t not play false” to a comfortable liar in that space of time, and if so what drove him to do that?

In A3S2, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are preparing for the banquet. At the opening of this scene Lady Macbeth talks about how she now believes that “ ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy / Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy .” By this, she means that she’s starting to feel that she would rather be dead than keep living in fear. This is another significant shift for her, and it’s also the only time she ever expresses any doubts about what they did before she kills herself. But what’s important for deceit is the fact that she expresses this fear, and then, later in the scene, Macbeth expresses the same fear when he says it is “ better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy .” When she hears this, she tells him not to worry about it and to be “ bright and jovial ” amongst their guests. She, basically, tells him to lie again. However, she had just privately expressed exactly the same fear: the desire to be dead rather than live on as they are doing. So in this scene, they both feel the same way but haven’t actually admitted it to each other. This shows the beginnings of deceit in their relationship.

In A3S5, Hecate comes to visit the witches, and instructs them to make Macbeth feel overconfident, saying “ security is mortal’s chiefest enemy .” The witches tell Macbeth a series of prophecies that make it sound like he’s immortal – that he’s safe until Birnham Woods come to his castle walls, and that no man of woman born can hurt him. However, they are being deceitful. They’re only saying this to make Macbeth feel arrogant so he’ll make a mistake.

And so, although the Macbeth’s tried to use lies and deceit to seize power, in the end they were lied to themselves and lost power as a result of it.

Context & Shakespeare’s intention: Why did Shakespeare present deceit in this way?

Shakespeare wrote the play for King James I of England. James had taken over a kingdom that had been torn apart by violence for many years. Jacobean England was a place where it was difficult to know who to trust.

There were two main reasons for this:

Firstly, it was because James’s grandfather, Henry VIII, had wanted to divorce his wife and so he made England Protestant rather than Catholic. For a while being Catholic was a crime that was punishable by death, and often people turn in their neighbours or friends.

And secondly, it was a time when people believed in, and burnt, witches. As a result, women had to be constantly aware of how they behaved because a man they wronged could accuse them of a crime that would see them burnt at the stake.

As a result, people were constantly aware of secrets and the damage they could do. Shakespeare wrote a play in which deception was punished: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the witches are all clearly shown to be evil for lying and are punished accordingly. This would have made the play very appealing for James I.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Macbeth — Analysis Of Shakespeares Macbeth

Analysis of Shakespeares Macbeth

• Categories: Ambition Macbeth

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Published: Mar 19, 2024

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At its core, macbeth tells the story of a noble and valiant warrior who is seduced by the prophecy of three witches and driven to commit regicide in order to fulfill his ambition of becoming king., one of the most striking aspects of macbeth is its complex and multi-dimensional characters., shakespeare's masterful use of language and imagery further enhances the impact of macbeth., one of the central themes of macbeth is the corrupting influence of unchecked ambition., another theme that resonates throughout macbeth is the nature of masculinity and femininity..

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Appearances & Deception

Macbeth's deception.

Macbeth gets better and better at deceiving people as the play goes on. He persistently struggles to hide his inner emotions though.

Start - bad at deception

• In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth he must ‘Bear welcome in your eye, / Your hand, your tongue; look like th’ innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’ t.’
• This simile tells Macbeth that he must put on a welcoming face for King Duncan. She's worried that he can't trick people. She tells him, ‘Your face, my thane, is as a book where men / May read strange matters.’
• This suggests that it is easy to read his emotions by looking at him. She says he needs to control his emotions if they're to gain Duncan's trust.

Progression

• Macbeth seems to be much better at tricking people by the time Macduff finds King Duncan’s body. He says: ‘Had I but died an hour before this chance, / I had liv’d a blessed time, for from this instant, / There’s nothing serious in mortality’ (2,3).
• This suggests that life has nothing left to offer now the king is dead. Macbeth seems like a loyal subject (someone under the King’s rule) who is very upset by King Duncan’s death, rather than a murderer who is responsible for it.

Further progression

• Macbeth continues to trick people. He misleads the men he employs to murder Banquo. He makes them think that Banquo was responsible for their misfortune, not him, ‘Know, that it was he in the times past which held you so under fortune, which you thought was our innocent self’ (3,1).

Struggle - inner feelings

• Macbeth still struggles to hide how torn he feels within.
• Lady Macbeth tells him to, ‘Sleek o’er your rugged looks, be bright and jovial / Among your guests tonight’ (3,2).
• Macbeth agrees. He says they must, ‘make our faces vizards to our hearts, / Disguising what they are.’
• A vizard is part of a helmet that covers the face. This metaphor means they must make their faces like masks to hide their true selves from everyone else.

Appearances and Deception

Appearances are shown to be deceiving throughout the play.

• Before meeting with Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 4, King Duncan says ‘There’s no art / To find the mind’s construction in the face.’
• This suggests that it is difficult to read true intentions by looking at someone. King Duncan regrets that he trusted those around him, like the Thane of Cawdor, who betrayed him.
• He does not learn from this though. He is murdered because he trusts the Macbeths just a few scenes later.

• After the murder of their father, Donalbain tells Malcolm ‘There’s daggers in men’s smiles’ (2,3).
• This suggests that they are surrounded by people who pretend to be friends by smiling, but in fact have murderous plans. He knows that appearances can trick people.

• In Act 3, Scene 5, Hecate chants about how she will mislead Macbeth with fake spirits.
• She wants to continue pushing him towards his downfall: ‘And that distill’d by magic sleights, / Shall raise such artificial sprites / As by the strength of their illusion / Shall draw him on to his confusion’.

1 Literary & Cultural Context

1.1 Context

1.1.1 Tragedy

1.1.2 The Supernatural & Gender

1.1.3 Politics & Monarchy

1.1.4 End of Topic Test - Context

2 Plot Summary

2.1.1 Scenes 1 & 2

2.1.2 Scene 3

2.1.3 Scenes 4-5

2.1.4 Scenes 6-7

2.1.5 End of Topic Test - Act 1

2.2 Acts 2-4

2.2.1 Act 2

2.2.2 Act 3

2.2.3 Act 4

2.3.1 Scenes 1-3

2.3.2 Scenes 4-9

2.3.3 End of Topic Test - Acts 2-5

3 Characters

3.1 Macbeth

3.1.1 Hero vs Villain

3.1.2 Ambition & Fate

3.1.3 Relationship

3.1.4 Unstable

3.1.5 End of Topic Test - Macbeth

3.2 Lady Macbeth

3.2.1 Masculine & Ruthless

3.2.2 Manipulative & Disturbed

3.3 Other Characters

3.3.1 Banquo

3.3.2 The Witches

3.3.3 Exam-Style Questions - The Witches

3.3.4 King Duncan

3.3.5 Macduff

3.3.6 End of Topic Test - Lady Macbeth & Banquo

3.3.7 End of Topic Test - Witches, Duncan & Macduff

3.4 Grade 9 - Key Characters

3.4.1 Grade 9 - Lady Macbeth Questions

4.1.1 Power & Ambition

4.1.2 Power & Ambition HyperLearning

4.1.3 Violence

4.1.4 The Supernatural

4.1.5 Masculinity

4.1.6 Armour, Kingship & The Natural Order

4.1.7 Appearances & Deception

4.1.8 Madness & Blood

4.1.9 Women, Children & Sleep

4.1.10 End of Topic Test - Themes

4.1.11 End of Topic Test - Themes 2

4.2 Grade 9 - Themes

4.2.1 Grade 9 - Themes

4.2.2 Extract Analysis

5 Writer's Techniques

5.1 Structure, Meter & Other Literary Techniques

5.1.1 Structure, Meter & Dramatic Irony

5.1.2 Pathetic Fallacy & Symbolism

5.1.3 End of Topic Test - Writer's Techniques

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Armour, Kingship & The Natural Order

Madness & Blood

Macbeth : A Dramaturgy of Deceit

• First Online: 14 July 2018

Cite this chapter

• Ulla Kallenbach 2  

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This chapter analyzes the representation and the theatrical practice of imagination in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (c. 1606). Imagination is explicitly a key topic of the play, both internally (in the psychology of Macbeth) and externally (with references to the contemporary, political context). And it is implicitly an essential part of the dramaturgy of spectatorship employed in the play. Kallenbach argues that the imagination of the spectator is intrinsically connected to the imagination of the title character; a relation which is also reflected in the physicalization of the play, that which is staged for the audience. The representation and practice of imagination in Macbeth thus involve an interweaving of many forms of imagination, from the physiological and epistemological to the aesthetic and political.

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See Raphael Holinshed, “The Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Ireland,” in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth , ed. Alexander Leggatt (Abingdon, Oxford New York: Routledge, 2006).

See Chapter 11 “Macbeth and the Antic Round” Stephen Orgel, The Authentic Shakespeare, and Other Problems of the Early Modern Stage (New York: Routledge, 2002), 159ff.

See Garry Wills, Witches and Jesuits (New York, Oxford: The New York Public Library, Oxford University Press, 1995). or Arthur F. Kinney, Lies Like Truth: Shakespeare, Macbeth, and the Cultural Moment (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001), for a topical analysis.

This material, theatrical reading strategy has been employed by a number of scholars, including J. L. Styan and John Russell Brown. Both do mention imagination in their works, but neither appears to consider the early modern theories of imagination. Brown, for example, in Shakespeare and the Theatrical Event (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 30ff., rather refers to Coleridge’s nineteenth-century definition of imagination (see Chap. 5 ).

Forman’s account of a performance of Macbeth in 1610 or 1611, albeit largely concerned with the narrative play (even supplementing from Holinshed’s chronicles), does provide an eyewitness report of the staging of the play. Simon Forman, “The Book of Plays and Notes thereof per Forman for Common Policy,” in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth , ed. Alexander Leggatt (Abingdon, Oxford New York: Routledge, 2006), 95.

Steven Mullaney, The Place of the Stage: License, Play, and Power in Renaissance England (Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press, 1988), ix.

See, e.g., Barish or Mullaney.

All quotations from the play refer to William Shakespeare, Macbeth , The New Cambridge Shakespeare (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

“So withered and so wild in their attire,” as Banquo will later describe them, I.iii, 38.

Note the “foul and fair” link to George Puttenham (1589) and Fulke Greville (1633), see Chap. 3 , 53f.

See Peter Szondi, Theorie des Modernen Dramas , Edition Suhrkamp 27 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1981). Szondi here discusses the relations between the form and content of drama and the thematization of its absolute constituents, e.g., the unity and linearity of time, which modern drama entailed.

Brockett and Hildy estimate that “as much as 80 percent of the scenes in Shakespeare’s plays can be done on a bare stage, suggesting that the stage was most often treated as a neutral space” ( History of the Theatre , 9th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003), 129).

Robert Weimann has analyzed the spatial medieval conventions of locus and platea in relation to the Shakespearean stage in several studies. Locus signifies a “more or less fixed and focused scenic unit” serving symbolic purposes, and platea , a neutral space which was “an entirely nonrepresentational and unlocalized setting,” Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theater: Studies in the Social Dimension of Dramatic Form and Function (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), 79. These spatial principles, which may also permeate each other, were “conventions by which the audience’s world is made part of the play, and the play is brought into the world of the audience,” ibid., 83. See further Chap. 7: “Space (in)dividable: locus and platea revisited” in Robert Weimann, Author’s Pen and Actor’s Voice , Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), in which the concepts of locus and platea are also analyzed with particular reference to Macbeth .

Although the blood is described in dialogue, there could be some uncertainty as to whether blood was actually utilized in performance.

Further, his account of the displaying of the rebel Macdonald’s severed head will also parallel Macbeth’s own end.

The battle is probably an amalgamation of three historically distinct incidents, the rebellion of Macdonald, and the invasions by Sweno and Canute. Although these were all real historical incidents (which were geographically distinct and took place at different times), Shakespeare makes no attempt to treat them as such.

The time of day is further defined in the stage direction as evening/night, since the scene requires torches on stage, denoting imagined darkness. If one accepts this stage direction, the light itself is also deceptive. Thomson ( Shakespeare’s Theatre , Theatre Production Studies (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983), 145) argues for the contrary.

Jerome Mandel, “Dream and Imagination in Shakespeare,” Shakespeare Quarterly 24, no. 1 (1973): 66–67.

See e.g. Caroline Spurgeon, Shakespeare’s Imagery and What It Tells Us , Reprinted ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971), for an analysis of metaphors in Shakespeare’s plays.

Thus, e.g., Coleridge the authenticity of “the disgusting passage of the Porter,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Coleridge’s Criticism of Shakespeare: A Selection (London: Athlone, 1989).

See Glynne Wickham, “Hell-Castle and Its Door-Keeper,” Shakespeare Survey 19 (1966).

For discussions of Macbeth and its relation to the Gunpowder Plot, see, e.g., Wills; Kinney, esp. 116ff. and 230ff; William Shakespeare and William C. Carroll, Macbeth: Texts and Contexts (Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999), 231ff. and 63ff.

As suggested by editor Kenneth Muir in William Shakespeare, Macbeth , Arden Shakespeare (London: Arden Shakespeare, 2005), 51.

This is not explained in the play, neither is the fact that the historical Macbeth ruled successfully for several years.

V.2 demands four named characters plus soldiers, V.4 seven named characters and soldiers marching, and V.6 three named characters, the three most significant characters, Malcolm, Macduff and the Anglo-Scottish general Siward, plus “their army, with boughs.” The scenes showing Macbeth at Dunsinane, in contrast, decrease the number of present characters until he finally enters the stage alone at the beginning of V.7.

Some editions of the play, including the New Cambridge Shakespeare, also split V.7 into two further scenes to comply with the convention that marks new scenes when the all actors leave the stage.

I therefore agree with the view of the Oxford editor Nicholas Brooke (who keeps the scene as one), who states: “The Folio arrangement is therefore entirely rational, and any other forgets the reality of the theatre for an impossible series of mini-scenes designated ‘Another part of the field.’” William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth , The Oxford Shakespeare (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 206.

See Mullaney.

James I, His majesty’s speech in the last session of Parliament, concerning the Gunpowder-plot (1605), cited in Nathan Johnstone, The Devil and Demonism in Early Modern England , Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 189.

“Kings are justly called gods, for that they exercise a manner of resemblance of divine power upon earth. For if you will consider the attributes to God, you shall see how they agree in the person of a king,” King James VI of Scotland and I of England, “From A Speech to the Lords and Commons of the Parliament at Whitehall ,” in Macbeth: Texts and Contexts , ed. William C. Carroll (Boston, Basingstoke: Bedford/St. Martin’s; Macmillan (dist.), 1999), 217.

Malcolm Gaskill, Crime and Mentalities in Early Modern England , Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History (Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 210.

For example, in the Book of Samuel, David categorically refuses to kill Saul: “The LORD forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’S anointed,” Samuel 26:11 I, King James Bible, http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org .

“From an Homily against Disobedience and Willful Rebellion ,” in Macbeth: Texts and Contexts , ed. William C. Carroll (Boston, Basingstoke: Bedford/St. Martin’s; Macmillan (dist.), 1999), 239.

Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology (Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1957).

Quoted in ibid., 223.

The themes of sickness and healing are predominant throughout the play, represented, for instance, via the presence of both a Scottish and an English doctor as well as the healing king, Edward the Confessor.

In a wider historical perspective, the idea of the sin of one individual extending to his people is also seen in the ancient Greek theatre. We can compare with, e.g., Sophocles’s Oedipus the King (c. 429 bc ), in which Oedipus, in unknowingly murdering his father, the king, has caused the plague to come down on the entire city of Thebes. Sophocles, Oedipus the King , trans. Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay, Greek Tragedy in New Translations (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).

Bob Scribner, “Reformation and Desacralisation: From Sacramental World to Moralised Universe,” in Problems in the Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Europe , ed. R. Po-Chia Hsia and R. W. Scribner (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997), 79.

Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980), 81.

Scribner, 80.

First published 1577, revised 1587.

Holinshed, 17.

Ibid., 17f.

Scribner, 82.

Whereas Oedipus is merely exiled from his city, since he committed his sin unknowingly.

The tradition of touching for scrofula, the “King’s Evil,” was practiced by English and French kings from the Middle Ages until the eighteenth century, including Elizabeth I and James I. In England, the tradition was particularly connected to Edward the Confessor. See Marc Bloch, The Royal Touch. Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France [Les rois thaumaturges], trans. J. E. Anderson (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973).

Here, the spatial practice of locus and platea is continued, see further Michael David Fox, “Like a Poor Player: Audience Emotional Response, Nonrepresentational Performance, and the Staging of Suffering in Macbeth ,” in Macbeth: New Critical Essays , ed. Nicholas Rand Moschovakis, Shakespeare Criticism (New York: Routledge, 2008).

Lady Macbeth (played by a boy actor) in her soliloquies similarly emphasizes the body, with repeated mentions of milk, blood, breasts, tongue etc.

Iain Wright speculates that it might have been present via optical tricks, see ““Come Like Shadows, So Depart”: The Ghostly Kings in Macbeth ,” The Shakespearean International Yearbook 6 (2006).

Clark, 204.

Thomas, 590ff.

Clark, 47. For an analysis of how the pagan figures of ghosts and spirits persisted via the modes of “folklorization,” “fictionalization” and “demonization,” see Aleida Assmann, “Spirits, Ghosts, Demons in Shakespeare and Milton,” in Renaissance Go-Betweens: Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe , ed. Andreas Höfele and Werner von Koppenfels (Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2005).

As suggested by Arthur F. Kinney, “Imagination and Ideology in Macbeth ,” in The Witness of Times: Manifestations of Ideology in Seventeenth Century England , ed. Katherine Z. Keller and Gerald J. Schiffhorst, Duquesne Studies. Language and Literature Series V. 15 (Pittsburgh, Pa.: Duquesne University Press, 1993), 158.

See Wright.

Puttenham, 109.

Sleepwalking was also believed to be caused by imagination overtaking the faculty of reason: “This we see verified in sleepers, which by reason and humours and concourse of vapours troubling the phantasy, imagine many times absurd and prodigious things, […] This is likewise evident in such as walk in the night in their sleep, and do strange feats: these vapours move the phantasy, the phantasy the appetite, which moving the animal spirits causeth the body to walk up and down as if they were awake.” Burton, 253.

See above, further “From an Homily against Disobedience and Willful Rebellion ,” 240.

Pico della Mirandola, 45.

See Huston Diehl, “Horrid Image, Sorry Sight, Fatal Vision: The Visual Rhetoric of Macbeth,” Shakespeare Studies 16 (1983); Clark; and Kinney, “Imagination and Ideology in Macbeth .”

See A. A. M. Duncan, The Kingship of the Scots, 842–1292 Succession and Independence (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002), 53ff.

As, e.g., “From an Homily against Disobedience and Willful Rebellion ” set forth.

Stephen Booth, King Lear, Macbeth, Indefinition, and Tragedy (Christchurch, NZ: Cybereditions, 2001), 109, my emphasis.

See, e.g., Mullaney, for an analysis of the play’s use of equivocation and amphibology, Chap. 5, 116ff.

Diehl, 193.

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Kallenbach, U. (2018). Macbeth : A Dramaturgy of Deceit. In: The Theatre of Imagining. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76303-3_4

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Deception in Macbeth

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Deception In Shakespeare

Deception is essential to Shakespeare’s dramatic works in that it governs the relationships  between the characters and drives the plots . It is the many acts of deception, both unintended  and intended, through the comedies , histories and tragedies , that provide the dramatic devices  that inform the action.

The world in which Shakespeare lived was a dangerous one. If you held political or religious  views that differed from the authorised ones your life would be in danger. The Elizabethans  were used to that and so deception was a way of life. If you were a Catholic you would have  to conceal it. You would have to pretend to support the Protestant religion and attend church  regularly. But you could attend mass in private houses, conducted by priests who were  disguised as someone else. Pedlars, travelling around with their bag of goods for sale, were  sometimes priests in disguise. Buried in their bags would be all the items they needed to  deliver mass. Catholic villagers were delighted when a pedlar turned out to be a priest, and  would then gather at someone’s house for mass.

A convention of Elizabethan theatre was the use of men to play the female roles as women  were prohibited from appearing on the stage. That was itself a deception but in addition, in  many of Shakespeare’s plays a man or a boy would play a woman who would then disguise  herself as a man, so we would have the double deception of a man playing a woman playing a  man. Wearing masks was another strong convention. The audience knew that if someone had  a mask over his or her eyes, although they would know who the character was, the other  characters would not recognise him/her. That led to many, mainly comic, situations which  would have an effect on the development of the plot.

Deception in Shakespeare’s plays has many different faces. It could be accidental, as in The Comedy of Errors  or it could take the form of well-planned tactics in the hands of evil  characters, as in  Othello and Julius Caesar . In taking two plays, for example, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream – one a tragedy and one a comedy – one can easily list many  instances of deception in both forms – an unhappy or happy ending, seriousness and  mockery, lightness and momentousness.

A quick survey of some of the plays indicates the widespread use of deception in  Shakespeare’s works:

In Hamlet, the prince’s father is murdered in a secret plot by his uncle to seize the throne;  Hamlet pretends to be unbalanced to avert his uncle’s suspicions while he gathers evidence of  his crime; Hamlet employs a group of actors to stage a play depicting Claudius killing his  father to confirm Claudius’ guilt. All of those deceptions drive the plot and have the  consequences of the deaths of most of the play’s characters.

In Romeo and Juliet the two young people fall in love and court each other against the wishes  of their families; Juliet secretly marries Romeo; Juliet fakes her death to avoid marrying  Paris. The consequences of those deceptions are that Romeo arrives at Juliet’s tomb, sees her  apparently dead and, unaware of her deception, kills himself; Juliet wakes up, sees Romeo’s  dead body and kills herself; the two families end their feud. (Read about more Romeo and Juliet themes .)

In Macbeth we mainly have Macbeth deceiving himself. He convinces himself that he can  control fate when he is told by the witches that he will become king; he deludes himself that  no man could harm him; he deludes himself into believing that the witches are on his side and  not agents of his destruction . The results of the self deception are that everyone in McDuff’s  family is killed and that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth die.

In Othello Iago deceives Othello into believing that Desdemona is having an affair with  Cassio; Iago plants a handkerchief on Cassio to frame him; Iago tricks Roderigo into killing  Cassio. The results of the deception are that Othello kills Desdemona and later commits  suicide. over that act; Roderigo, Cassio, and Emilia all die and Iago is imprisoned.

One could examine every play to see how deception acts as its main building block. But  taking just one, Julius Caesar, a play that depicting the worst aspects of Ancient Rome, with  its conspiracies, treacheries and bloody battles, has deception as its main building block. The  device that moves the plot forward, is deception – the power of deception and manipulation is  crucial to the development of the narrative.  Brutus joins the conspiracy as a result of the anonymous letters Cassius sends him. They are a  big step towards the assassination of Caesar. Moreover, without the use of deception Cassius  would not have gained power over Brutus and induced him to kill Caesar.

In the second act, when Caesar has decided not to attend the Senate that day Decius, playing  on Caesar’s vanity, deceives him into believing that his wife’s dream has been  misinterpreted. If he had not done that Caesar would not have proceeded to the place where  the conspirators had the opportunity to kill him.  Using powerful rhetoric, Antony lies to the people about Caesar’s accomplishments and  attitude towards them, and using irony, paints Brutus as a traitor, turning them away from  their initial perception of Caesar’s death, thereby manipulating them into rampaging through  the streets of Rome, which leads to the conspirators fleeing Rome and preparing for a war  that will bring about their deaths.

The above examples should serve to demonstrate the central role of deception in  Shakespeare’s and other Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights’ dramas.

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Macbeth Essays

There are loads of ways you can approach writing an essay, but the two i favour are detailed below., the key thing to remember is that an essay should focus on the three aos:, ao1: plot and character development; ao2: language and technique; ao3: context, strategy 1 : extract / rest of play, the first strategy basically splits the essay into 3 paragraphs., the first paragraph focuses on the extract, the second focuses on the rest of the play, the third focuses on context. essentially, it's one ao per paragraph, for a really neatly organised essay., strategy 2 : a structured essay with an argument, this strategy allows you to get a much higher marks as it's structured to form an argument about the whole text. although you might think that's harder - and it's probably going to score more highly - i'd argue that it's actually easier to master. mainly because you do most of the work before the day of the exam., to see some examples of these, click on the links below:, lady macbeth as a powerful woman, macbeth as a heroic character, the key to this style is remembering this: you're going to get a question about a theme, and the extract will definitely relate to the theme., the strategy here is planning out your essays before the exam, knowing that the extract will fit into them somehow., below are some structured essays i've put together., macbeth and gender.

Macbeth: Key Quotations ( WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature )

Revision note.

English Senior Content Creator

Key Quotations

The best way to revise quotations is to group them by character or theme. Below you will find definitions and analysis of the best quotations, arranged by the following themes:

Ambition and Power

The supernatural, appearance versus reality, corruption of nature.

Principally, Macbeth is a play about ambition and its consequences . It can also be seen as a warning against those who seek to undermine or overthrow the rule of a rightful king.

“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, only vaulting ambition” Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII

Meaning and context

Macbeth is saying that it is his own ambition that is his only motivation to murder King Duncan

This soliloquy  comes as Macbeth is deciding whether to kill King Duncan or not

Shakespeare has his protagonist, Macbeth, clearly state his hamartia  (“ambition”) to the audience

It is implied that there is no other motivation for Macbeth (“no spur”)

Shakespeare could be suggesting that Macbeth’s fatal flaw (“ambition”) overcomes all of his other, positive character traits

Later in the same soliloquy, Macbeth says this ambition “overleaps itself” (trips itself up), suggesting Macbeth is aware on some level that he is doomed if he commits regicide

“When you durst do it, then you were a man” Lady Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII

Lady Macbeth is suggesting that only if Macbeth commits the murder of King Duncan that he could be considered a real man

This comes after Macbeth has expressed doubts about the plan to commit regicide

Lady Macbeth is attacking Macbeth’s masculinity

It would hurt Macbeth’s pride; in the Jacobean  era, manliness would have been equated with strength, so here Lady Macbeth is calling Macbeth weak

It is an example of role reversal:  Lady Macbeth, unusually for a woman, is manipulating and dominating a man

As a woman, Lady Macbeth’s power is in her skills of deception and manipulation

“Life [...] is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” Macbeth, Act V, Scene V

Macbeth is suggesting that although in life lots seem to happen, ultimately, it is meaningless and without purpose

This powerful soliloquy comes after Macbeth is told of the death of Lady Macbeth

This is an example of nihilism:  a belief that life is pointless (“signifying nothing”)

For a largely Christian Jacobean audience, this rejection of God’s plan and the suggestion of a rejection of Heaven and Hell, would have been shocking

However, it is also a moment of pathos: the audience, despite his blasphemous  words, would still feel sympathy for a once noble general who has lost his wife

It perhaps also represents a moment of anagnorisis: a tragic hero’s realisation that all his actions were for “nothing” and that he will be defeated 

The vast majority of people in Jacobean England were Christian and believed in the literal word of the Bible. Supernatural events or characters, therefore, would have been seen as evil and the work of the devil.

Paired Quotations:

“Stars hide your fires; let not light see my dark and deep desires” Macbeth, Act I, Scene IV

“Come, thick night and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of Hell [...] nor Heaven peep through” Lady Macbeth, Act I, Scene V

Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are asking for their evil desires to be hidden from God

Both quotations come as they are plotting the murder of King Duncan

Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are both on their own on stage when they speak these lines, suggesting that they reveal the characters’ true feelings

The fact that Macbeth echoes Lady Macbeth’s words shows that they still have a close relationship based on shared ideas (unlike later in the play)

However, it is also significant that Macbeth speaks these lines after Lady Macbeth; Shakespeare could be suggesting that Macbeth is led, or controlled, by Lady Macbeth’s thinking

The religious symbolism  (“stars”, “light”, "Heaven”) suggests that both characters are aware of the significance and consequences (“Hell”) of committing regicide

Both characters use imperative verbs (“hide”, “come”) to command the natural world (“stars”, “night”). This could be seen as blasphemous and an attempt to disrupt the Great Chain of Being or God’s plan

“The dead butcher and his fiend-like queen” - Malcolm, Act V, Scene IX

Malcolm is describing the now-dead Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

This comes as part of the final soliloquy of the play after Macduff has killed Macbeth and Malcolm is restored to the throne

A “butcher” is someone who kills without feeling or remorse. Shakespeare is suggesting that, because of his ambition, Macbeth turned from noble general to common murderer

Malcolm doesn’t refer to either character by name: this omission shows their immediate fall in status

Lady Macbeth is described as a “fiend”: a demon. She is being compared to the evil forces present in the play – the witches – who aim to bring chaos to the kingdom of Scotland

Shakespeare plays with the concept of perception throughout Macbeth: are we seeing what’s really there? And are characters who they seem to be? 

“Come you spirits [...] Unsex me here” Lady Macbeth, Act I, Scene V

Lady Macbeth is calling on evil spirits to take away her feminine traits

This is part of a long soliloquy after Macbeth has written her a letter outlining the witches’ prophecies

Shakespeare has Lady Macbeth use imperative verbs (“Come”; “unsex”) when commanding evil spirits:

This shows her power at this point in the play (or at least the power she believes she commands)

The fact that she is commanding evil spirits shows her hubris : it is arrogant for humans to believe they can control evil forces

She wants to remove her feminine traits (being nurturing , dutiful , powerless) and become “unsexed”:

She wants to subvert  the characteristics of a typical woman

Shakespeare could be suggesting that only by adopting male characteristics can women gain power

This would have been seen as disturbing to a Jacobean audience and very unnatural, perhaps akin to the actions of a witch

“Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent underneath it” Lady Macbeth, Act I, Scene V

Lady Macbeth is suggesting that Macbeth hide his true, treasonous self from King Duncan

This comes as the couple are first plotting the murder of Duncan

This quotation is reflective of Lady Macbeth’s duplicitous  nature

Her use of the imperative verb  “look” also shows her power over Macbeth 

She has no trouble acting like “an innocent flower” in the very next scene when greeting King Duncan

The “serpent” has religious connotations: it is a reference from the Christian Bible to the snake (a representation of the Devil), who tempts Eve in the Garden of Eden: 

Lady Macbeth is also a woman who is tempted by evil and, in turn, tempts a man (Macbeth)

In the Bible, this temptation causes the fall of man. In Macbeth, it causes the downfall of Lady Macbeth and her husband

This could be Shakespeare suggesting that committing blasphemous acts will always lead to ruin

Paired Quotation:

“Out, damned spot: out, I say!” Lady Macbeth, Act V, Scene I

“Out, out, brief candle” Macbeth, Act V, Scene V

Lady Macbeth is desperately pleading for the hallucination of blood on her hands to disappear

It comes as she is losing her mind and just before her suicide

Macbeth is commenting on the brief nature of life

It is part of a long soliloquy after he is told about the death of Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth’s desperation is apparent in her ramblings: to show this, Shakespeare: 

uses lots of punctuation to reflect her disjointed mind

uses repetition (“out”) to show her increasing desperation

The use of imperative verbs (“out”) is ironic: whereas earlier in the play she used commanding language with evil spirits, she has now completely lost power. Commands have turned into pleas of desperation

Macbeth echoes the language of Lady Macbeth (“out, out”)

However, unlike other times when Macbeth echoes the language of Lady Macbeth or the witches, this quotation doesn’t imply he is being led by them

Lady Macbeth’s desperation has turned into a reflection of Macbeth:

It is a realisation that what he – and Lady Macbeth – have done was worthless

It creates a sense of pathos  for the audience

Macbeth using Lady Macbeth’s words brings the couple closer again

“A little water clears us of this deed” Lady Macbeth, Act II, Scene II

“All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” Lady Macbeth, Act V, Scene I

Lady Macbeth at first suggests that it won’t take much for their consciences to be cleared after Duncan’s murder; later, she realises that nothing could remove the feelings of guilt

These quotations come before the murder of King Duncan, and then after Lady Macbeth has lost her mind, right before her suicide

Lady Macbeth displays hubris  when she confidently asserts that she and her husband will not be troubled by feelings of guilt or remorse

Her confidence contrasts with Macbeth’s belief that all the water in “Neptune’s ocean” couldn’t wash the blood (symbolising guilt) from his hand

“Hands” here represent responsibility

It is ironic that later in the play, Lady Macbeth sees blood on her hands (guilt and responsibility for the murder of Duncan)

However, it also becomes clear that her original confidence was misplaced: her “little hand” is dirtied by blood, and seemingly nothing (even “all the perfumes of Arabia”) can cleanse it of her guilt and responsibility

Shakespeare could be suggesting that once Lady Macbeth accepted responsibility for the murder, the guilt was overwhelming

Jacobean audiences believed in a set structure in the world: the world according to God’s plan. Any disruption to the world was, therefore, disruption to God’s ordained order.

Paired quotation:

“Fair is foul and foul is fair” Three Witches, Act I, Scene I

“So foul and fair a day I have not seen” Macbeth, Act I, Scene III

The witches are warning the audience that what may be seen as good might well be bad, and vice versa

It comes from the very first scene of the play

Macbeth is commenting on the very strange weather that comes after his victory in battle

His lines come just before his first encounter with the witches

The witches are presenting the audience with a paradox:  a contradictory statement that suggests that the play will involve the themes of deception and appearance versus reality

It is also a suggestion from Shakespeare of the disruption and chaos to come, of a kingdom turned upside down

The paradox suggests that the words of the witches might be in the form of riddles: confusing, or misleading, just as their prophecies are to Macbeth

Macbeth, without having met the witches, echoes their language:

This suggests he is already being led by them, or under their spell

This suggests to the audience that perhaps his “fair” character will be corrupted and become most “foul”

“Macbeth does murder sleep!” Macbeth, Act II, Scene II

Macbeth is quoting a voice he can hear that tells him that he has murdered sleep

It comes immediately after the murder of King Duncan when Macbeth returns to Lady Macbeth

Macbeth returns from murdering Duncan in a panicked state and is hallucinating

He hears a voice telling him he will no longer be able to sleep

“Sleep” symbolises peace or calm, so this is a suggestion that Macbeth will no longer be at peace because he committed regicide

Shakespeare could be suggesting that in the act of murdering a king, he has murdered his own chance at peace – and perhaps eternal peace: Heaven

The voice he can hear might be interpreted as his own conscience

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Author: Nick Redgrove

Nick is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and King’s College London. He started his career in journalism and publishing, working as an editor on a political magazine and a number of books, before training as an English teacher. After nearly 10 years working in London schools, where he held leadership positions in English departments and within a Sixth Form, he moved on to become an examiner and education consultant. With more than a decade of experience as a tutor, Nick specialises in English, but has also taught Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.