Macbeth: Notes For Unit Test: Literary Devices and Examples

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

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What are some examples of literary devices used in Macbeth and what do they do?

What are some examples of literary devices used in Macbeth and what do they do?

How does Shakespeare use dramatic irony in Macbeth?

How does Shakespeare use dramatic irony in Macbeth?

MACBETH

NOTES FOR UNIT TEST:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Ex. Act II: Macbeth kills Duncan.

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

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

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

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

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

• Ex. Act I: The witches’ predictions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Ex. Blood—represents the guilty consciences

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