SYMBOLS VS. MOTIFS

1.   A symbol is an object, a picture, a written word, or a sound that is used to represent something. A motif is an image, spoken or written word, sound, act, or another visual or structural device that is used to develop a theme.

2. A symbol can be repeated once or twice, while a motif is constantly repeated.

3. A symbol can help in the understanding of an idea or thing, while a motif can help indicate what the literary work or piece is all about.

4. The meaning of a symbol depends on its history and purpose while the meaning of a motif depends on how it is being used in a certain literary work.

Macbeth : Study Categories

Instructions : Each team will be given one or two categories to work on together per Act. One person in the team acts as the “typer” and posts the answers to the class blog.

Your task is to find examples and quotes from the Act that support the theme or the motif. Please do your job properly as the entire class is depending on you!

DON’T forget to post the answer to the class blog by the due date.

THEMES:

1.Ambition and the devastation which follows when ambition oversteps moral boundaries

2. Appearances vs. Reality and how people and events are often not as they seem

3. Fate and Free Will, and the extent to which we control our own destinies

4.Violence, and how every violent act, even those done for selfless reasons, seems to lead inevitably to the next

5. Nature and the Unnatural, and the connection between the political and natural world

MOTIFS:

1.  Blood, representing evil plans and consequences of overarching ambition

2. Sleep, a natural process and its disruption as caused by the facture of the moral order

3. Visions, representing the extensions of a guilty conscience

4.  Light and darkness, representing innocence and evil