Lute 1 Jordan Lute Mrs. Gardner English 10 period 1 22 August 2013 Macbeth Literary Terms Glossary 1. a.

Alliteration: The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. b. Example: Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair, / Hover through the fog and filthy air. (Macbeth I.i.1213) c. Function: The reoccurring repetition of the F sound alludes Macbeths inevitable fate. The use of this alliteration in this powerful paradox and heroic couplet leaves the images ringing throughout the readers mind. This foreshadows a heavy paradox throughout the play that sings of the downfall of Macbeth. 2. a. Allusion: an expression meant to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference. b. Example: With all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood / Clean my hand? (Macbeth II.ii.78-79) c. Function: Macbeth summons the power of the mighty ocean in this allusion, hoping that it will clean his blood-red hands from the atrocity he committed. The brief mention of the mighty god Neptune foreshadows Macbeths downfall, seeing as though Neptune is a god who is obsessed with vengeance. Instead of cleaning his hand by calling upon Neptune, he has sealed in his own fate without yet realizing it. 3. a. Apostrophe: The act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present. b. Example: Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. / I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. (Macbeth II.i.46-45) c. Function: This abstract apostrophe displays Macbeths mental unraveling. The apparition of the dagger is a personification of his enslavement to his own greed, which drives him to murder Duncan. Despite his doubts, he allows himself to lose his sanity to complete a dark deed that is too sinister to have done with a sound state of mind. 4. a. Assonance: The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in neighboring words. b. Example: A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, / And yet I would not sleep. (Macbeth II.i.8) c. Function: This small, seemingly insignificant assonance foreshadows a terrible fate that will befall upon Banquo. The use of the sound I when talking about Banquo losing sleep parallels

Lute 2 with the word life, which Banquo loses as well. Shakespeare cleverly hides this foreshadowing, so that only an attentive reader will understand its meaning.

5. a. Caesura: A pause in a line of verse dictated by sense of natural speech rhythm rather than b metrics. b. Example: I cannot tell- / But I am faint . My gashes cry for help. (Macbeth I.ii.45-46) c. Function: This caesura is used to break the rhythmic pattern of Shakespeares writing. It quickly pulls the readers attention into what he is about to say next, emphasizing its importance. This statement is of the upmost importance, because it is the first injury in the play, and Shakespeare tries to emphasis that the entire play consists of gory details such as these. 6. a. Connotation: An idea or feeling that a word evokes in addition to its literal meaning. b. Example: There the grown serpent lies. The worm thats fled / Hath nature in time will venom breed. (Macbeth III.iv.32-33) c. Function: The word venom carries a chilling emotion of helplessness. As Macbeth refers to Banquo of a snake, and his son as a worm, or a young snake, he refers to how Fleance will soon use venom against him. In a way, the three witches have already poisoned him with this venom, and it is slowly taking its effect as it brings out the true madness in Macbeth. Venom has the literal ability to disintegrate flesh and muscle, and the emotional ability to eat through the sanity of the victim. 7. a. End-Stopped Line: ending at the end of a syntactic unit that is usually followed by a pause in speaking, and punctuation mark in writing. b. Example: The gracious Duncan / Was pitied by Macbeth; marry, he was dead. / And the right valiant Banquo walked to late, (Macbeth III.vi.5-6) c. Function: This obvious end-stopped line was deliberately placed here by Shakespeare to expose the true emotional meaning of King Duncans murder. This can be confirmed by the very next word and which would normally not follow a period, but it shows how important the insignificantly-seeming period really is. The death of the gracious King Duncan has had physical and emotional effects of everyone in the play, even causing people to pause mid-sentence to interpret the true meaning of the king is dead. 8. a. Enjambment: The running one of the thought from one line, couplet, or stanza to the next without a syntactical break. b. Example: What cannot you and I perform upon / Th unguarded Duncan? What not put upon / His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt / of our great quell. (Macbeth I.vii.79-82) c. Function: This series of enjambments is used periodically when Lady Macbeth addresses Macbeth about dark deeds that she is plotting to execute. It adds a sense to her cold, calculating personality, because she doesnt pause to think about what she is saying. In one sentence, she unfolds an entire plot to assassinate the king, without even doubting what she has said.

Lute 3

9. a. Symbol: Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention. b. Example: This diamond he greets your wife withal, / By the name of most kind hostess, (Macbeth II.i.45-46) c. Function: This small gesture of kindness by the great King Duncan has displays and foreshadows many things. The beauty and solidity of diamond represents Duncans true kindness and friendship. Another interpretation of this is the fact that a diamond reflects and refracts light in many directions symbolizes the tricky wordplay that the witches use, such as when they tell him that he will live as long as the forest doesnt go up the hill to his castle, and that ends up happening when the army sent to kill him uses tree boughs to disguise themselves. As diamond alters light, wordplay alters the truth. 10. a. Theme: A unifying or dominant idea. b. Example: Prithee, see there. Behold, look! To the Ghost Lo, / how say you? (Macbeth III.iv. 82-83) c. Function: This is the theme of the supernatural, which personifies Macbeths deteriorating sanity. For example, when he sees the dagger appear, it coaxes him to murder his king, and after he has Banquo murdered, he observes in horror as his ghost sits at his spot at the dinner table. These reoccurring supernatural occurrences outline guilt and regret that Macbeth and his wife have about the bloodshed theyve caused.

11. a. Imagery: Visually descriptive or figurative language. b. Example: Ay, my good lord. Safe in a ditch he bides, / With twenty trenchd gashes on his head. (Macbeth III.iv.28-29) c. Function: This ghastly imagery displays Macbeths overkill of mayhem and bloodshed. These completely unnecessary gashes foreshadow the murder of Macduffs family, as it is also an act of completely unnecessary violence. Almost all of the violence in this book is unnecessary, and it can be observed through the gory imagery that Shakespeare has written. 12. a. Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. b. Example: Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player / that struts and frets his hour upon the stage / and then is heard no more. (Macbeth V.v.27-29) c. Function: By using this melancholy metaphor, Macbeth is asserting his fear that his life will go un-remembered. He uses the metaphor of an actor who worries about his part in a play, when in reality; he is going to be forgotten not long afterwards. He directly connects this with his own life, for he is worried that he will be forgotten. 13. a. Personification: The attribution of a personal nature of human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

Lute 4 b. Example: Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires. (Macbeth I.iv.57-58) c. Function: These two personifications symbolize Macbeths fears of his own dark thoughts. He doesnt want anyone to find out that he is eve considering this sinister deed, as seen in Let not light see my black and deep desires. He fears that someone will find out his idea to assassinate the king. 14. a. Rhyme: Correspondence of sound between words and ending of words, especially when these are used at the end of lines of poetry. b. Example: Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill (Macbeth IV.i.105-106) c. Function: This rhyming couplet, that is similar to others in the play, displays a certain importance to the plot and theme of this play. It contributes to the theme of deception in this play, because Macbeth is being fooled by clever wordplay, and it leads to his downfall. This rhyme cleverly displays the truth, yet is believed to be something else, effectively fooling Macbeth. 15. a. Simile: A figure of speech that compares one thing with another different thing. b. Example: And pity, like a newborn babe. (Macbeth I.vii.21) c. Function: As the play progresses, Macbeths blood lusting wrath increases, and is foreshadowed in this seemingly insignificant simile. Macbeths perception of pity being as useless as a newborn child provides insight to the dark side of his mind. This sort of mindset is what allowed him to kill Banquo, but feel no guilt. 16. a. Onomatopoeia: The formation of a word by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its reference. b. Example: Knock, knock! / Never at quiet.What are you? But this place is / too cold for hell. (Macbeth II.iii.15-17) c. Function: The porter uses this onomatopoeia to accent the jokes he is making about how he is the porter to hell, and in turn, compares Macbeths castle to hell. This can be supported with the fact that one of the most beloved men in Scotland had been murdered in that very castle the night before. 17. a. Trochaic Tetrameter: Referring to a line of four trochaic feet in poetry. b. Example: Fair is foul and foul is fair, / Hover through the fog and filthy air. (Macbeth I.i.1213) c. Function: The trochaic tetrameter is cleverly used to express complex thoughts in a compact way. In this couplet alone, the three Weird Sisters sum up the entire play with a simple paradox: Fair is foul and foul is fair. This is the backbone to the heavy story of Macbeth, and the trochaic tetrameter allows it to stand out and thus project its importance to the audience. 18. a. Iambi Pentameter: A commonly used metrical in traditional verse and verse drama.

Lute 5 b. Example: I have almost forgot the taste of fears. / the time has been my senses would have cooled. (Macbeth V.v.11-12) c. Function: The use of iambic pentameter provides a sharp contrast to what Macbeth is saying. Moments after his wife dies, he talks about how he cant feel emotion, yet he is saying this in iambic pentameter, which follows the rhythm of a beating heart. The heart is a symbol for love, so the fact that it mingles with emotional desensitization creates a melancholy moment in the play. Key Simple sentence: ----Compound sentence: ---Complex sentence: ---Compound-complex sentence: ---Loose sentence: ---Periodic sentence: ----