MACBETH NOTES FOR UNIT TEST LITERARY DEVICES AND

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. Act. V: “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! 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