MACBETH

NOTES FOR UNIT TEST:

LITERARY DEVICES AND EXAMPLES
 ALLITERATION
• The repetition of initial consonant sounds

• Ex. Act I: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair; / Hover

through the fog and filthy air.”

• Ex. Act III: “But now I am cabined, cribbed,

confined, bound in / To saucy doubts and fears.”

• Ex. Act IV: “Double, double toil and trouble,

• Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”
 ALLUSION
• Reference to something the author expects readers to
know (history, science, literature, religion, geography,
etc.)

• Ex. Act I--a battle scene is called “another Golgotha”

(the place where Christ was crucified)
• Ex. Act II: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this
blood / Clean from my hand?” (Roman god of the sea)
• Ex. Act III: “There is none but [Banquo] / Whose
being I do fear, and under him / My genius is rebuked,
as it is said / Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.”
 ASIDE
• a remark by a character in a play that is
intended to be heard by the audience but
unheard by the other characters.

• Ex. Act II: Malcolm: “Why do we hold our

tongues?” Donalbain: “What should be
spoken here, where our fate…may rush and
seize us?”
 ASSONANCE
• The repetition of vowel sounds

• Ex. Act I: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair;

• Ex. Act IV: “Double, double toil and trouble,

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”
 CLIMAX
• The most exciting and/or intense point of the
story; in a Shakespeare play, the point of no
return

• Ex. Act II: Macbeth kills Duncan.

 COUPLETS (RHYMED)
• 2 consecutive rhyming lines that may summarize
a speech or emphasize an important idea

• Ex. Act I: “Away, and mock the time with fairest

show / False face must hide what the false heart
doth know.”

• Ex. Act II: “Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell /

That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.”
 DRAMATIC IRONY
• occurs when the audience and some
characters know something that other
characters in a narrative do not

• Ex. Act I: The witches, the king, and some of

his men know that Macbeth is now thane of
Cawdor before he finds out himself.
• Ex. Act III: When Macbeth tells his guests
that he wishes Banquo could be at the feast,
he knows that Banquo is already dead.
 FOIL
• Character who stands in sharp contrast to
another character in order to highlight that
character’s traits

• Ex. Act I: Duncan’s mild and gracious

manner vs. Macbeth’s deadly ambition

• Ex. Act II: Banquo’s willingness to leave his

fate to heaven vs. Macbeth’s determination
to fulfill some prophecies at all costs
 FORESHADOWING
• Clues or hints of what will happen in the
future of a story

• Ex. Act I: The witches’ predictions

• Ex. Act II: The owl killing the falcon
• Ex. Act IV: The ghosts’ prophecies
 HYPERBOLE
• The use of exaggeration in order to emphasize an
important point

• Ex. Act II: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this
blood / Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will
rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine /
Making the green one red.”
• Ex. Act IV: “Not in the legions / Of horrid hell can
come a devil more damned / In evils to top
Macbeth.”
• Ex. Act V: “All the perfumes of Arabia will not
sweeten this little hand.”
 IMAGERY
• The use of one or more of the 5 senses to help the
reader imagine an aspect of the story

• Ex. Act I: [Macbeth] unseamed [Macdonwald] from

the nave to th' chops, / And fixed his head upon our
battlements.
• Ex. Act II: “My hands are of your color, but I shame /
“To wear a heart so white.”
• Ex. Act II: “Here lay Duncan,
• His silver skin laced with his golden blood… there, the
murderers, / Steeped in the colors of their trade, their
daggers / …breeched with gore.”
 IRONY
• The opposite of what is expected

• Ex. Act IV: Lady Macduff: “I have done no

harm. But I remember now / I am in this
earthly world, where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime /
Accounted dangerous folly.”
 METAPHOR
• Implied comparison of 2 unlike things to emphasize their similar
traits

• Ex. Act I: “Yet I do fear thy nature; / It is too full o' th' milk of
human kindness / To catch the nearest way

• Ex. Act III: ”O proper stuff! / This is the very painting of your
fear. / This is the air-drawn dagger which you said / Led you to
Duncan.”

• Ex. Act V: Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player / That

struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no
more. It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, /
Signifying nothing.”
 MONOLOGUE
• Extended uninterrupted speech given by one person to
others present

• Ex. Act II: “Is this a dagger that I see before me…”
• Ex. Act III: “Prithee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo! How
say you? Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak
too…”
• Ex. Act IV: “I conjure you by that which you profess—
Howe'er you come to know it—answer me…”
• Ex. ActV: “She should have died hereafter. There would
have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and
tomorrow, and tomorrow…”
 ONOMATOPOEIA
• Words whose sound suggest their meaning

• Ex. Act II: “Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there?”

• Ex. Act IV: “Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.”

Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whined.”
 OXYMORON
• The joining of 2 opposite words to create a
paradoxical effect.

• Ex. Act I: “When the battle’s lost and won…”

• Ex. Act I: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair: 
Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
• Ex. Act II: “ 'Tis safer to be that which we
destroy / Than by destruction dwell in doubtful
joy.”
 PARADOX
• A contradictory statement that contains a
(sometimes hidden) truth.

• Ex. Act I: The witches’ prophecies to Banquo:

“Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. Not so happy,
yet much happier…”
• Ex. Act II: Macbeth’s reaction to killing Duncan:
“To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself.”
• Ex. Act IV: Lady Macduff about her son:
“Fathered he is, and yet he’s fatherless.”
 PERSONIFICATION
• Attributing human traits to objects

• Ex. Act I: “If chance will have me king, why, chance may
crown me / Without my stir.”
• Ex. Act I: “Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my
black and deep desires.”
• Ex. Act II: “Is ’t night’s predominance or the day’s shame /
That darkness does the face of Earth entomb / When living
light should kiss it?”
• Ex. Act III: “And you all know, security / Is mortals' chiefest
enemy.”
• Ex. Act IV: “Give sorrow words. The grief that does not
speak / Whispers the o'erfraught heart and bids it break.”
 SIMILE
• Direct comparison of 2 unlike things using like or as
or than to show their similar traits

• Ex. Act III: Macbeth’s reaction to the murderers’

failure to kill Fleance: “I had else been perfect, /
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, / As
broad and general as the…air.”

• Ex. Act V: “Now does [Macbeth] feel his title /

Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe / Upon a
dwarfish thief.”
 SYMBOL
• Object that represents both itself and
another concept.

• Ex. Blood—represents the guilty consciences

of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth