Chaos vs. Order Theme
Act I
Ross: "Norway himself, with terrible
numbers, assisted by that most disloyal traitor, the Thane of
Cawdor, began a dismal conflict," (I, II, 59-61)
Comment: The King of Norway started a
fight with Duncan's army, assisted by the Thane of Cawdor.
King Duncan: "No more that Thane of Cawdor
shall deceive our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present
death," (I, II, 73-75)
Comment: The punishment of the Thane of
Cawdor, which is death, restores some order to the kingdom by
ridding it of a traitor.
Macbeth: "[King Duncan's] here in double
trust: . . . I am his kinsman . . . [and] his host, . . . who
should against his murder shut the door," (I, VII, 12-14)
Comment: If Macbeth kills the king he
will disrupt the great chain of being and cause more chaos.
Act II
Macbeth:
"Methought I heard a voice cry ' Sleep no more! / Macbeth
does murder sleep" (II, II, 47-48)
"Macbeth shall sleep no more." (II, II, 57)
Comment: At this point Macbeth is already being
bothered by his conscience. He is hearing a voice that torments
him because of the murder he has just committed. Because Macbeth
murdered Duncan when he was asleep and defenseless he says that
he will never be able to sleep in at all. His peace has been
slashed with Duncan's death.
Macbeth: "... for from this instant / There's
nothing serious in mortality. / All is but toys. Reown and grace
is dead." ( II, III, 108-110)
Comment: Macbeth is saying that the death of Duncan
has made the world meaningless or in other words, the world finds
itself in the position that ants would find themselves without
their queen - helpless and without a purpose.
Lennox: "The night has been unruly. Where we lay,
/ Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say, / Lamentings
heard i' th'air, strage screams of death, / And prophesying, with
accents terrible, / Of dire combustion and combustion and
confused events / New hatched to th' woeful time. The obscure
bird / Clamored the livelong night. Some say the earth / was
feverous and did shake." (II, III, 61-69)
Comment: Nature is showing the chaos caused by
Duncan's death. The winds of the night of Duncan's death are
personified as they are screaming death. The night is also
personified as it clamored. There was confusion. This is similar
to the time when Jesus Christ finally died after being tortured
on a wodden column. There was great thunder and chaos in the
skies and on earth. The earth even shacked by an earthquake.
Ross: "Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with
man's act, ...... And yet dark night strangles the traveling
lamp. / Is't night's predominance or the day's shame / That
darkness does the face of earth entomb / When living should light
kiss it ?" (II, IV, 7 , 9-12)
Comment: Although the discovery of Duncan's corpse
happened at three a.m. it is still dark An eclipse has darkened
the world because Duncan is dead and will not kindly rule the it
again.
Old Man: "A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of
place, / Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed." (II,
IV, 15-16)
Comments: This is an example of how things were
disturbed because of Duncan's death. Owls usually eat mice that
run around the earth but yet the owl in this line flew up high
and ate the falcon. Macbeth resembles the owl and Duncan the
falcon that got killed by the owl.
Ross: "Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls,
flung out, / Contending 'gainst obedience as they would / Make
war with mankind." (II, IV, 20-22)
Comment: The best breed of Duncan's horses started
eating each other and were not obedient. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth
were Duncan's favorites as he showered them with honors and gifts
yet they turned wild like the horses and made war on their
master.
Old Man: "Tis said they eat, each / other."
(II, IV, 23-24)
Comment: The horses were eating each other and
Macbeth will be eaten up from inside; he will go into despair.
Lady Macbeth will also be affected by Duncan's death as she will
go mad from thinking of Duncan's blood.
Act III
Macbeth: "O. full of
scorpions is my mind, dear wife!" (III, II, 41)
Comment: Macbeth is starting to feel
guilty about what is about to happen to Banquo. His conscience is
beginning to get to Macbeth concerning the murder of Duncan and
the murder of Banquo. In his mind are evil thoughts that prick at
his conscience, driving him ever more insane.
Ross: "Gentlemen, rise: his
highness is not well." (III, IV, 63)
Comment: From the perspective
of the other people in the room, Macbeth seems reluctant to sit
down, all they see him do is look at his seat as if somebody's
there and is saying all of these things about he didn't do it or
anything. From the people's in the room point of view, Macbeth is
acting very peculiar.
Macbeth:
"When now I think you can behold such
sights and keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,"/"When
mine is balanced with fear." (III, IV, 139-141)
Comment: Macbeth is talking
to himself out loud about the ghost that he has scene. Of course
nobody else at the banquet has seen it so they all look at him,
and wonder what's wrong with him. Macbeth is also confused, his
entire reality is being turned upside down.
Act IV
Second Apparition: "Be bloody, bold, and
resolute! Laugh to scorn / The power of man," (IV, I, 90-91)
Comment: Basically, this apparition
tells Macbeth to be very evil because no one can hurt him.
Lady Macduff: "I am in this earthly world,
where to do harm / Is often laudable, to do good sometime /
Accounted dangerous folly." (IV, II, 83-85)
Comment: Lady Macduff says it is
acceptable to be evil, and if you do good you are considered a
traitor, if there was order this would not be happening.
Macduff: "Each new morn / New widows howl,
new orphans cry, new sorrows / Strike heaven on the face"
(IV, III, 5-7)
Comment: This shows that every day
Scotland's condition worsens and more people die.
Doctor: "There are a crew of wretched souls
/ That stay his cure. Their malady convinces / the great assay of
art, but at his touch / (Such sanctity hath heaven given his
hand) / They presently amend" (IV, III, 161-165)
Comment: The king of England is so holy
and virtuous that his touch can heal the sick and in Scotland
anyone who opposes the king dies.
Ross: "Alas, poor country . . . where
nothing / But who knows nothing is once seen to smile; / Where
sighs and groans and shrieks that rent the air / Are made, not
marked; where violent sorrow seems / A modern ecstasy." (IV,
III, 190-195)
Comment: Sadness in Scotland is a very
common emotion and only those who know nothing are happy.
Act V
Gentlewoman: "... I / have seen her rise
from her bed, throw her night / gown upon her, unlock her closet,
take forth paper, / fold it, write upon't, read it, afterwards
seal it, and / again return to bed; yet all this while in a most
fast sleep." (V., I, 4-9)
Doctor: "A great perturbation in nature, to
receive at / once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of /
watching." (V, I, 10-12)
Comment: Lady Macbeth's guilty
conscience is torturing her to the extent that she is sleep
walking. Her thoughts and memories disturb the sleep of a
troubled mind just like Macbeth had foreshadowed earlier.
Lady Macbeth: "Out damned spot, out I say!
One, two. / Why then, tis' time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my /
lord, fie, a soldier and afeared ? What need we fear / who knows
it, when none can call our power to / account ?" (V, I,
37-41)
"The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is / she now ? What,
will these hands ne'er be clean ? / No more o' that, my lord, no
more o' that. You mar all / with this starting." (V, I,
44-47)
"Here's the smell of the blood still. All / the perfumes of
Arabia will not sweeten this little / hand. O, O, O!" (V, I,
53-55)
"Wash your hands. Put on your night- / gown. Look not so
pale. I tell you yet again, Ban- / quo's buried; he cannot come
out on's grave." (V, I, 65-67)
"To bed, to bed. There's knocking at the / gate. Come, come,
come, come. Give me your / hand. What's done cannot be undone. To
bed, to / bed, to bed." (V, I, 69-72)
Comment: These series of quotes
highlight how Lady Macbeth is being molested by her conscience.
She is remembering the night when Duncan was killed. Back the she
told Macbeth not to fear because no human had witnessed the
murder but now her knowledgeable conscience is making her go
insane. Lady Macduff also recalls that Macduff's wife and
children will always cause guilt to Macbeth and her. She is
traumatized and smells blood - disturbance to her mind. The
anxiety she felt when telling Macbeth to forget about Banquo's
death has followed her. It seems that when she says " What's
done cannot be undone. To bed, to / bed, to bed" she is foreshadowing her path to the tomb bed because of her past
cruelty.
Doctor: "... Infected minds / To their deaf
pillows will discharge their secrets. / More needs she the divine
that the physician. " (V, I, 76-78)
Comment: Man's medicine is not strong
enough to cure Lady Macbeth. She needs God's forgiveness to be
absolved, yet her death might be her only purification of sin.
Caithness: "Some say he's mad; others
that lesser hate him / Do call it valiant fury." (V, II,
15-16) Angus: Now minutely revolts upbraid his
faith - breach. / Those he commands move only in command, /
Nothing in love." (V, II, 21-23)
Comment: These comments further explain
one of Macbeth's previous quotes where he said " To be thus
is nothing, / But to be safely thus." (III, I, 51-52)
Macbeth's position as king has resulted inadequate. His own
people are revolting against him and saying that he is crazy. His
kingship is being neglected. This foreshadows how, when in war,
part of his army will turn against him and join the English army
to kill him.
Doctor: "As she is troubled with
thick-coming fancies / That keep her from her rest." (V,
III, 47-48)
Comment: Lady Macbeth's memories of the
murders that Macbeth and she committed are clogging her brain. She
is not able to rest or peacefully sleep alive which foreshadows her sudden death.
Malcolm: "Both more and less have given him
the revolt / And none serve with him but constrained things /
Whose hearts are absent too."(V, IV, 16-18)
Comment: Malcolm states that even the
people are revolting against Macbeth, saying that the only reason
Macbeth has troops is because he controls them through fear. The
people are revolting because Macbeth isn't the rightful King of
Scotland and as a result the people don't have to follow Macbeth,
their supposed to follow Malcolm.
Macbeth: "As life were in't: I have supp'd
full with horrors / Direness, familiar to my slaughterous
thoughts" (V, V, 15-17)
Comment: Macbeth is starting to loose
his sanity, his thoughts have begun to turn evil and as a result
he no longer fears anything. Macbeth feels invincible, in that
he has become so evil that he has started to become less than
human. As a result, his thoughts are very erratic and can
sometimes be hard to understand.