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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Act 1, scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—(Un)natural Happenings:
Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of the unnatural to emphasize the connection between politics and the environment.
Shakespeare first introduces this motif in Act 1, Scene 3, in which he establishes the Weird Sisters as supernatural beings. After encountering the witches, Banquo and Macbeth remark that the states of matter seem to have become confused, with earth behaving like water and solid appearing to convert to gas:
Banquo: The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?Macbeth: Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted,
As breath into the wind.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Strange Garments:
At multiple points throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of clothing to explore themes of power and masculinity.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Ross and Angus address Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth, disturbed that the Weird Sisters' prophecy seems to have been fulfilled, insists that the title does not belong to him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Seeds and Roots:
Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of seeds and roots to illustrate themes of kingship and lineage. Duncan's use of imagery in Act 1, Scene 4, for example, suggests that he views Scotland as a kind of vast garden, with himself as the caretaker:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: I have begun to plant thee and will labor
To make thee full of growing.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Sleep(lessness):
In Act 1, Scene 3, the Weird Sisters discuss their plan to curse a sailor with sleeplessness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+First Witch: Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid.
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary sev’nnights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Muddled Senses:
In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses a wide variety of sensory imagery, and there are numerous references to eyes, ears, tongues, and hands. But Macbeth focuses mainly on the idea that human senses can, obscured by "fog and filthy air," become unreliable. Throughout the play, senses variously become divorced from one another or are combined in strange ways, and a recurring motif is the inability of the senses to truly distinguish between reality and illusion.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Explanation and Analysis—Prophecies:
Macbeth is a play that explores the nature of free will and fate, so it should come as no surprise that prophecies appear frequently in the text. Although the play leaves it ambiguous as to whether these prophecies merely predict the future or actually shape it, they always foreshadow what is to come.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Act 1, scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Seeds and Roots:
Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of seeds and roots to illustrate themes of kingship and lineage. Duncan's use of imagery in Act 1, Scene 4, for example, suggests that he views Scotland as a kind of vast garden, with himself as the caretaker:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: I have begun to plant thee and will labor
To make thee full of growing.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Light and Dark:
The motif of light and dark appears frequently throughout Macbeth, reinforcing the play's grim mood and highlighting themes of guilt, religion, and the supernatural. In Act 1, Scene 4, for instance, Macbeth resolves to hide his treacherous ambitions. He associates these desires with darkness and characterizes light as a supernatural "seeing" force that threatens to scrutinize his thoughts and intentions:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Muddled Senses:
In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses a wide variety of sensory imagery, and there are numerous references to eyes, ears, tongues, and hands. But Macbeth focuses mainly on the idea that human senses can, obscured by "fog and filthy air," become unreliable. Throughout the play, senses variously become divorced from one another or are combined in strange ways, and a recurring motif is the inability of the senses to truly distinguish between reality and illusion.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Act 1, scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Light and Dark:
The motif of light and dark appears frequently throughout Macbeth, reinforcing the play's grim mood and highlighting themes of guilt, religion, and the supernatural. In Act 1, Scene 4, for instance, Macbeth resolves to hide his treacherous ambitions. He associates these desires with darkness and characterizes light as a supernatural "seeing" force that threatens to scrutinize his thoughts and intentions:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—False Appearances:
When the Weird Sisters speak their famous line—"Fair is foul and foul is fair"—in Act 1, Scene 1, they introduce the idea that not everything in Scotland is as it seems. This motif of false and deceptive appearances persists throughout Macbeth, and the tension between how things appear and how they really are means that the play is often deeply ironic.
In Act 2, Scene 4, Duncan laments the fact that one cannot divine a person's intentions just by looking at them:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
Explanation and Analysis—Serpents:
Images of serpents appear several times throughout Macbeth. In some instances, this motif seems to represent the theme of treachery, but Shakespeare also uses it to symbolize the concept of lineage.
In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to play the part of the gracious host when Duncan arrives at Inverness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Lady Macbeth: Look like th’ innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under ’t
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Birds:
Birds are mentioned multiple times throughout Macbeth and serve several different purposes. The presence of different types of birds is often used to set the mood of a scene, characters are compared to birds to emphasize certain character traits, and birds function as a motif to represent the theme of the unnatural.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Muddled Senses:
In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses a wide variety of sensory imagery, and there are numerous references to eyes, ears, tongues, and hands. But Macbeth focuses mainly on the idea that human senses can, obscured by "fog and filthy air," become unreliable. Throughout the play, senses variously become divorced from one another or are combined in strange ways, and a recurring motif is the inability of the senses to truly distinguish between reality and illusion.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Explanation and Analysis—Milk and Blood:
In Macbeth, milk and blood are both motifs that combine to represent the upholding and sundering of kinship bonds. At one point, Malcolm refers to the "sweet milk of concord," and when milk is mentioned, it is often associated with motherhood and used to symbolize compassion, family, and unity. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth will be unable to commit an act as ruthless as murder because he is "too full o' th' milk of human kindness," metaphorically linking milk to feelings of care and compassion for others. Lady Macbeth again refers to milk when she calls on supernatural forces to purge her of her femininity:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Lady Macbeth: Come to my woman's breasts
And take my milk for gall
Related Themes:
Act 1, scene 6
Explanation and Analysis—Birds:
Birds are mentioned multiple times throughout Macbeth and serve several different purposes. The presence of different types of birds is often used to set the mood of a scene, characters are compared to birds to emphasize certain character traits, and birds function as a motif to represent the theme of the unnatural.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Muddled Senses:
In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses a wide variety of sensory imagery, and there are numerous references to eyes, ears, tongues, and hands. But Macbeth focuses mainly on the idea that human senses can, obscured by "fog and filthy air," become unreliable. Throughout the play, senses variously become divorced from one another or are combined in strange ways, and a recurring motif is the inability of the senses to truly distinguish between reality and illusion.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Act 1, scene 7
Explanation and Analysis—Strange Garments:
At multiple points throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of clothing to explore themes of power and masculinity.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Ross and Angus address Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth, disturbed that the Weird Sisters' prophecy seems to have been fulfilled, insists that the title does not belong to him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—False Appearances:
When the Weird Sisters speak their famous line—"Fair is foul and foul is fair"—in Act 1, Scene 1, they introduce the idea that not everything in Scotland is as it seems. This motif of false and deceptive appearances persists throughout Macbeth, and the tension between how things appear and how they really are means that the play is often deeply ironic.
In Act 2, Scene 4, Duncan laments the fact that one cannot divine a person's intentions just by looking at them:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
Explanation and Analysis—Disease and Medicine:
Macbeth is filled with references to both physical and psychological illness. The motif of disease often represents the inner turmoil of characters warped by ambition, while the motif of medicine is associated with political order.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Milk and Blood:
In Macbeth, milk and blood are both motifs that combine to represent the upholding and sundering of kinship bonds. At one point, Malcolm refers to the "sweet milk of concord," and when milk is mentioned, it is often associated with motherhood and used to symbolize compassion, family, and unity. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth will be unable to commit an act as ruthless as murder because he is "too full o' th' milk of human kindness," metaphorically linking milk to feelings of care and compassion for others. Lady Macbeth again refers to milk when she calls on supernatural forces to purge her of her femininity:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Lady Macbeth: Come to my woman's breasts
And take my milk for gall
Related Themes:
Act 2, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Light and Dark:
The motif of light and dark appears frequently throughout Macbeth, reinforcing the play's grim mood and highlighting themes of guilt, religion, and the supernatural. In Act 1, Scene 4, for instance, Macbeth resolves to hide his treacherous ambitions. He associates these desires with darkness and characterizes light as a supernatural "seeing" force that threatens to scrutinize his thoughts and intentions:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Sleep(lessness):
In Act 1, Scene 3, the Weird Sisters discuss their plan to curse a sailor with sleeplessness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+First Witch: Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid.
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary sev’nnights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Muddled Senses:
In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses a wide variety of sensory imagery, and there are numerous references to eyes, ears, tongues, and hands. But Macbeth focuses mainly on the idea that human senses can, obscured by "fog and filthy air," become unreliable. Throughout the play, senses variously become divorced from one another or are combined in strange ways, and a recurring motif is the inability of the senses to truly distinguish between reality and illusion.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Explanation and Analysis—Disease and Medicine:
Macbeth is filled with references to both physical and psychological illness. The motif of disease often represents the inner turmoil of characters warped by ambition, while the motif of medicine is associated with political order.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Act 2, scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Sleep(lessness):
In Act 1, Scene 3, the Weird Sisters discuss their plan to curse a sailor with sleeplessness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+First Witch: Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid.
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary sev’nnights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Birds:
Birds are mentioned multiple times throughout Macbeth and serve several different purposes. The presence of different types of birds is often used to set the mood of a scene, characters are compared to birds to emphasize certain character traits, and birds function as a motif to represent the theme of the unnatural.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Muddled Senses:
In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses a wide variety of sensory imagery, and there are numerous references to eyes, ears, tongues, and hands. But Macbeth focuses mainly on the idea that human senses can, obscured by "fog and filthy air," become unreliable. Throughout the play, senses variously become divorced from one another or are combined in strange ways, and a recurring motif is the inability of the senses to truly distinguish between reality and illusion.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Explanation and Analysis—Water:
Water is mentioned frequently in Macbeth, often in relation to blood, and it's used as a motif that represents the permanence of guilt.
In Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth ponders whether an entire ocean would be capable of washing Duncan's blood off his hands:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: Will all great Neptune's ocean wash the blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
Act 2, scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—(Un)natural Happenings:
Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of the unnatural to emphasize the connection between politics and the environment.
Shakespeare first introduces this motif in Act 1, Scene 3, in which he establishes the Weird Sisters as supernatural beings. After encountering the witches, Banquo and Macbeth remark that the states of matter seem to have become confused, with earth behaving like water and solid appearing to convert to gas:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Banquo: The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?Macbeth: Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted,
As breath into the wind.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Strange Garments:
At multiple points throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of clothing to explore themes of power and masculinity.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Ross and Angus address Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth, disturbed that the Weird Sisters' prophecy seems to have been fulfilled, insists that the title does not belong to him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—False Appearances:
When the Weird Sisters speak their famous line—"Fair is foul and foul is fair"—in Act 1, Scene 1, they introduce the idea that not everything in Scotland is as it seems. This motif of false and deceptive appearances persists throughout Macbeth, and the tension between how things appear and how they really are means that the play is often deeply ironic.
In Act 2, Scene 4, Duncan laments the fact that one cannot divine a person's intentions just by looking at them:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
Explanation and Analysis—Milk and Blood:
In Macbeth, milk and blood are both motifs that combine to represent the upholding and sundering of kinship bonds. At one point, Malcolm refers to the "sweet milk of concord," and when milk is mentioned, it is often associated with motherhood and used to symbolize compassion, family, and unity. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth will be unable to commit an act as ruthless as murder because he is "too full o' th' milk of human kindness," metaphorically linking milk to feelings of care and compassion for others. Lady Macbeth again refers to milk when she calls on supernatural forces to purge her of her femininity:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Lady Macbeth: Come to my woman's breasts
And take my milk for gall
Related Themes:
Act 2, scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—(Un)natural Happenings:
Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of the unnatural to emphasize the connection between politics and the environment.
Shakespeare first introduces this motif in Act 1, Scene 3, in which he establishes the Weird Sisters as supernatural beings. After encountering the witches, Banquo and Macbeth remark that the states of matter seem to have become confused, with earth behaving like water and solid appearing to convert to gas:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Banquo: The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?Macbeth: Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted,
As breath into the wind.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Strange Garments:
At multiple points throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of clothing to explore themes of power and masculinity.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Ross and Angus address Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth, disturbed that the Weird Sisters' prophecy seems to have been fulfilled, insists that the title does not belong to him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Light and Dark:
The motif of light and dark appears frequently throughout Macbeth, reinforcing the play's grim mood and highlighting themes of guilt, religion, and the supernatural. In Act 1, Scene 4, for instance, Macbeth resolves to hide his treacherous ambitions. He associates these desires with darkness and characterizes light as a supernatural "seeing" force that threatens to scrutinize his thoughts and intentions:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Birds:
Birds are mentioned multiple times throughout Macbeth and serve several different purposes. The presence of different types of birds is often used to set the mood of a scene, characters are compared to birds to emphasize certain character traits, and birds function as a motif to represent the theme of the unnatural.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Act 3, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Seeds and Roots:
Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of seeds and roots to illustrate themes of kingship and lineage. Duncan's use of imagery in Act 1, Scene 4, for example, suggests that he views Scotland as a kind of vast garden, with himself as the caretaker:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: I have begun to plant thee and will labor
To make thee full of growing.
Related Themes:
Act 3, scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Light and Dark:
The motif of light and dark appears frequently throughout Macbeth, reinforcing the play's grim mood and highlighting themes of guilt, religion, and the supernatural. In Act 1, Scene 4, for instance, Macbeth resolves to hide his treacherous ambitions. He associates these desires with darkness and characterizes light as a supernatural "seeing" force that threatens to scrutinize his thoughts and intentions:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—False Appearances:
When the Weird Sisters speak their famous line—"Fair is foul and foul is fair"—in Act 1, Scene 1, they introduce the idea that not everything in Scotland is as it seems. This motif of false and deceptive appearances persists throughout Macbeth, and the tension between how things appear and how they really are means that the play is often deeply ironic.
In Act 2, Scene 4, Duncan laments the fact that one cannot divine a person's intentions just by looking at them:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
Explanation and Analysis—Serpents:
Images of serpents appear several times throughout Macbeth. In some instances, this motif seems to represent the theme of treachery, but Shakespeare also uses it to symbolize the concept of lineage.
In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to play the part of the gracious host when Duncan arrives at Inverness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Lady Macbeth: Look like th’ innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under ’t
Related Themes:
Act 3, scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Serpents:
Images of serpents appear several times throughout Macbeth. In some instances, this motif seems to represent the theme of treachery, but Shakespeare also uses it to symbolize the concept of lineage.
In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to play the part of the gracious host when Duncan arrives at Inverness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Lady Macbeth: Look like th’ innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under ’t
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Birds:
Birds are mentioned multiple times throughout Macbeth and serve several different purposes. The presence of different types of birds is often used to set the mood of a scene, characters are compared to birds to emphasize certain character traits, and birds function as a motif to represent the theme of the unnatural.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Muddled Senses:
In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses a wide variety of sensory imagery, and there are numerous references to eyes, ears, tongues, and hands. But Macbeth focuses mainly on the idea that human senses can, obscured by "fog and filthy air," become unreliable. Throughout the play, senses variously become divorced from one another or are combined in strange ways, and a recurring motif is the inability of the senses to truly distinguish between reality and illusion.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Act 3, scene 6
Explanation and Analysis—Sleep(lessness):
In Act 1, Scene 3, the Weird Sisters discuss their plan to curse a sailor with sleeplessness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+First Witch: Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid.
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary sev’nnights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
Related Themes:
Act 4, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—(Un)natural Happenings:
Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of the unnatural to emphasize the connection between politics and the environment.
Shakespeare first introduces this motif in Act 1, Scene 3, in which he establishes the Weird Sisters as supernatural beings. After encountering the witches, Banquo and Macbeth remark that the states of matter seem to have become confused, with earth behaving like water and solid appearing to convert to gas:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Banquo: The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?Macbeth: Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted,
As breath into the wind.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Milk and Blood:
In Macbeth, milk and blood are both motifs that combine to represent the upholding and sundering of kinship bonds. At one point, Malcolm refers to the "sweet milk of concord," and when milk is mentioned, it is often associated with motherhood and used to symbolize compassion, family, and unity. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth will be unable to commit an act as ruthless as murder because he is "too full o' th' milk of human kindness," metaphorically linking milk to feelings of care and compassion for others. Lady Macbeth again refers to milk when she calls on supernatural forces to purge her of her femininity:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Lady Macbeth: Come to my woman's breasts
And take my milk for gall
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Prophecies:
Macbeth is a play that explores the nature of free will and fate, so it should come as no surprise that prophecies appear frequently in the text. Although the play leaves it ambiguous as to whether these prophecies merely predict the future or actually shape it, they always foreshadow what is to come.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Act 4, scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Birds:
Birds are mentioned multiple times throughout Macbeth and serve several different purposes. The presence of different types of birds is often used to set the mood of a scene, characters are compared to birds to emphasize certain character traits, and birds function as a motif to represent the theme of the unnatural.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Act 4, scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Seeds and Roots:
Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of seeds and roots to illustrate themes of kingship and lineage. Duncan's use of imagery in Act 1, Scene 4, for example, suggests that he views Scotland as a kind of vast garden, with himself as the caretaker:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: I have begun to plant thee and will labor
To make thee full of growing.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Birds:
Birds are mentioned multiple times throughout Macbeth and serve several different purposes. The presence of different types of birds is often used to set the mood of a scene, characters are compared to birds to emphasize certain character traits, and birds function as a motif to represent the theme of the unnatural.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Act 5, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Muddled Senses:
In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses a wide variety of sensory imagery, and there are numerous references to eyes, ears, tongues, and hands. But Macbeth focuses mainly on the idea that human senses can, obscured by "fog and filthy air," become unreliable. Throughout the play, senses variously become divorced from one another or are combined in strange ways, and a recurring motif is the inability of the senses to truly distinguish between reality and illusion.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Explanation and Analysis—Disease and Medicine:
Macbeth is filled with references to both physical and psychological illness. The motif of disease often represents the inner turmoil of characters warped by ambition, while the motif of medicine is associated with political order.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Water:
Water is mentioned frequently in Macbeth, often in relation to blood, and it's used as a motif that represents the permanence of guilt.
In Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth ponders whether an entire ocean would be capable of washing Duncan's blood off his hands:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: Will all great Neptune's ocean wash the blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
Act 5, scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Strange Garments:
At multiple points throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of clothing to explore themes of power and masculinity.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Ross and Angus address Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth, disturbed that the Weird Sisters' prophecy seems to have been fulfilled, insists that the title does not belong to him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Seeds and Roots:
Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of seeds and roots to illustrate themes of kingship and lineage. Duncan's use of imagery in Act 1, Scene 4, for example, suggests that he views Scotland as a kind of vast garden, with himself as the caretaker:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: I have begun to plant thee and will labor
To make thee full of growing.
Related Themes:
Act 5, scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Strange Garments:
At multiple points throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of clothing to explore themes of power and masculinity.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Ross and Angus address Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth, disturbed that the Weird Sisters' prophecy seems to have been fulfilled, insists that the title does not belong to him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Disease and Medicine:
Macbeth is filled with references to both physical and psychological illness. The motif of disease often represents the inner turmoil of characters warped by ambition, while the motif of medicine is associated with political order.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Act 5, scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Disease and Medicine:
Macbeth is filled with references to both physical and psychological illness. The motif of disease often represents the inner turmoil of characters warped by ambition, while the motif of medicine is associated with political order.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Act 5, scene 10
Explanation and Analysis—Milk and Blood:
In Macbeth, milk and blood are both motifs that combine to represent the upholding and sundering of kinship bonds. At one point, Malcolm refers to the "sweet milk of concord," and when milk is mentioned, it is often associated with motherhood and used to symbolize compassion, family, and unity. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth will be unable to commit an act as ruthless as murder because he is "too full o' th' milk of human kindness," metaphorically linking milk to feelings of care and compassion for others. Lady Macbeth again refers to milk when she calls on supernatural forces to purge her of her femininity:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Lady Macbeth: Come to my woman's breasts
And take my milk for gall
Related Themes:
Act 5, scene 11
Explanation and Analysis—Seeds and Roots:
Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of seeds and roots to illustrate themes of kingship and lineage. Duncan's use of imagery in Act 1, Scene 4, for example, suggests that he views Scotland as a kind of vast garden, with himself as the caretaker:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: I have begun to plant thee and will labor
To make thee full of growing.
Related Themes:
