Appearances

are misleading

Appearances can include:

Visuals, experiences, statements,
actions, objects

Misleading: the act of making

someone believe something that is
not ENTIRELY true

Through Shakespeares Macbeth,

characters, witchcraft and
prophecies, hallucinations, and the
symbol of eyes develops the theme
that appearances are misleading.

Consequences of mislead apperances

can CHANGE motivations, actions,
relationships, conflict

Two DIFFERENT perspectives can be

taken from a small detail such as tone,
facial expression, word order, symbol

Characters

People hide their true intentions

Can come from positive or negative intentions
Goal is to mislead everyone

Lady Macbeth

Duncan

Theres no art to find the

minds construction in the
face
Duncan

Thought she would be weak

and feminine
Wants to replace her
compassion and feminine
qualities and wants to be
unsexed
Took the leadership role
Ended up full of guilt,
isolation and paranoia

Look like the innocent

flower, but be the serpent
under it
Lady Macbeth

Macbeth
What he appeared to be
Confident
Hero
Loyal
Fought for his country

And make our faces

vizards to our hearts,
disguising what they
are
Macbeth

What he actually was

Weak
Ambition over powered him
Liar
Not confident

Relationship
between Macbeth
and Lady Macbeth

Malcolm
Wanted to mislead
Macduff
Intentions were pure
complained how he
would be a terrible king
to gain trust
was thought to be evil,
murdered his father

I grant him bloody,

luxurious better
Macbeth than such an
one to reign.
Malcolm

Be innocent of the
knowledge, dearest
chuck.
Macbeth

seemed like a
supportive happy
couple
lots of conflict
seemed to have
equal power
ended up having
secrets

The relationship between Duncan

and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
Middle

Beginning

Both were fond of

eachother
espected

Macbeth had a
hard time
making his
decision
Duncan was
clueless to
Macbeths plan

End

Macbeth
murdered
Duncan
Duncan was
still unaware

Witchcraft
A witches ambiguity can affect actions, motivations and beliefs
Paradoxical statements and language of contradiction can alter meanings
Witchcraft symbols have more than one meaning to different people

Witches Ambiguity

What are these, So withered

That look not like th inhabitants o
th earth- Banquo I.III.41

He shall live in a man forbid

Yet it shall be tempest-tossed..
Posters of the sea and land Witch 1 I.III.22-36

Witches represent chaos and

disorder in nature
They are known to embody
illusion of changing fate
Difficult to decipher man or
women; unpredictable

False Relationships

Building Trust
Witches Intentions

Greeting of Macbeth

All Hail Macbeth,

Thane of Glanis
Thane of Cawdor be
King hereafter

Stars hide your fires,

Let not light see my
black and deep desires

Hath been but a

wayward son He
shall spurn fate, scorn
death and bear

The Three Prophecies

The Prophecy:
None of woman born, shall harm
Macbeth IV.I.80

Interpretation:

The Prophecy:
Macbeth shall never
vanquished be, until
Great Birnam wood
to Dunsinane hill,IV.I.
92

The Prophecy:
Beware Macduff Be lion
mettled, proud and take no
care IV.I.71-90

Interpretation:

Interpretation:

Difficult to uproot and move forest

Self assurance and

trustworthy

Invincibility and Fearlessness

Mislead:
Possibility of
multiple ways to
die : instrument,
accident, play on
words, animal.

Mislead:
False sense of security: unlikely
that a forest could ever move.

Mislead:
No explanation of warning
and fills with pride and
previous accuracy of
predictions.

Double, Double
toil and trouble;
Fire burn and
Cauldron bubble
IV.I.20.

m=
wor eadly s
nde
Bli l but d tiny ey
l
sma e with
snak

Symbolic Ingredients

Slips
of
beautif yew =
ul
poisono tree with
us blos
sums

Root o
f
= stron hemlock
g
with vio looking
lently s
harp
roots

Suggestion of TWO meanings: literal vs

figurative
Demonstrates things can seem good but lead
to downfall or tragic events

Paradoxical and
Contradictory Language

Nice for one character, may prove difficult

for another

Hallucinations

Is this a dagger which I

see before me

What you may see before

you may not really be
there but be in your
unconscious mind

Under so much pressure

that he is being mislead
into seeing a dagger in
front of him

Causing Macbeth
to questions his
desires

Prithee, see there!

behold! look! How say
you?

once again, Macbeth is

seeing something that isnt
even visually there and is just
an illusion caused by all his
paranoia and emotions.

his subconscious feelings

are misleading him into
thinking he sees Banquos
ghost

these appearances are

starting to bring
Macbeth to his
downfall.

Yet who would have thought the

old man to have had so much
blood in him.

She is trying so hard to

remove the blood by
washing her hands
which is really just her
way expressing
subconsciously how
she wants to go back
and be innocent and
undo her sins.

whats done is done

Vs
whats done cannot be
undone.

All of Lady Macbeths

newly expressed
emotions are misleading
her into seeing her hands
as bloody

EYES
True Intentions can
be hidden from the
eye

Eyes can easily be

clouded by ambition

Eventually your eyes

will lead you to the
truth

What do you see?

You cant
see true
intentions

Its easy
to deceive
the eyes

The eye wink at the hand! Yet let that be,

Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see

The eyes
are
blind

Sight is
surfacedeep

Deception
of eyes
furthers
the plot

Ambition
clouds
your sight

Mine eyes are made the fools o

the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest

The
misleading
from eyes
develops
Macbeth

t
u
ally see
n
e
v
e
l
l
i
the
w
s
e
y
tru
e
e
th
h
T
You see,
her eyes are
open

Blow the horrid

deed in every
eye

Which the eye

fears, when it is
done, to see
This is a sorry
sight