🩸 Macbeth – The Corrupting Power of Ambition & Evil

💭 Act 2, Scene 1 – "Heat-oppressed brain"

• "Oppressed" suggests Macbeth’s mind is controlled, weighed down by dark forces — the witches and Lady Macbeth manipulate and direct his thoughts.
• Freudian reading: Macbeth becomes a slave to his id – his primal desires dominate his morality and reason.
• Theme of Kingship: His obsession with power leads to his internal collapse. His mental breakdown foreshadows the destruction of the rightful order.
• Ambition is portrayed as dangerous and uncontrollable – once awakened, it consumes him.

🧙‍♀️ Act 4, Scene 1 – "Something wicked this way comes."

• The witches, the embodiment of evil, refer to Macbeth as "something wicked" – showing how far he has fallen.
• This dehumanises him → use of chremamorphism: he is reduced to a "thing", stripped of humanity and moral identity.
• Juxtaposition: A King, supposedly God’s chosen, seeks help from agents of the Devil.
• → Highlights the complete corruption of kingship and Macbeth’s spiritual damnation.
• Irony: The witches respect Macbeth’s evil – an unsettling compliment that signals his full transformation.
• Links to Lady Macbeth – the architect of his downfall. Her influence helped create this “wicked” man.
• Macbeth’s descent: from brave warrior → evil tyrant.

🔮 Act 1, Scene 3 – "The instruments of darkness tell us truths… only to betray us."

• Banquo’s warning – the witches are mere tools, or "instruments", of darkness.
• Though they speak truths, their purpose is deception and ruin.
• Can also reflect on Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself — used by evil forces and by each other.
• Highlights the theme of appearance vs reality – not all that sounds true leads to good.

🧼 Guilt and Madness – "Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?"

• Macbeth is haunted by guilt immediately after killing Duncan.
• Blood becomes a symbol of permanent guilt – no amount of water, not even a whole ocean, can cleanse him.
• Shows how murder has spiritually and psychologically tainted him.
• Foreshadows Lady Macbeth’s later obsession with imaginary blood.