AMBITION

1. The Murder of King Duncan
   1. To Macbeth's surprise Malcom is named Prince of Cumberland
      1. that is a step I must fall down on, or eels o'erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the, yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
   2. INTERNAL CONFLICT
      1. THE NATURE: become king, fulfill prophecy and show manhood
         1. The murder is as good as done. The bell is telling me to do it....Hear it not Duncan
         2. Art not without ambition...What thou wouldst highly,/ That thou holily; wouldst not play false/And yet would wrongly win
         3. "I am in blood, stepped in so far that should I wade no more"
      2. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion. Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
      3. Macbeth finds many things worng with killing Duncan: the consequnces he could face, that Duncan is a good kings and that Macbeth is his kinsman and subject. He says " I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself/ And falls on th'other.
2. Lady Macbeth fuels the road to the throne and the fire within Macbeth
   1. Lady Macbeth calls upon the instruments of darkness to make Macbeth and her rulers of Scotland

      Annotations:

      • spirits make me less a woman and more a man
      1. You spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts , unsex me here/And fill me from the crown...of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood/Stop up the access of remorse...Sake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between...Come to my woman's breasts,/And take my milk for gal.
      2. She changes her nature because Macbeth is "too o'th' mile of human kindness to catch the nearest way (murder)"
      3. Had he not resembled/My father as he slept, I had done't.
   2. THE PLAN TO KILL THE KING
      1. Lady M: appearance of an innocent flower when really a serpent
         1. Kniving and foold Duncan into thinking she is most gracious to have him as he will bestow honorus upon them
      2. Convinces Macbeth to commit the crime
         1. Plans the murder and gets the two chamberlians so drunk that their memory goes up in smoke, so they will fall asleep. Then Macbeth smears Duncan's blood will be on the gaurds after Macbeth uses their daggers to kill the king
         2. Lady Macbeth insults Macbeth
            1. She says that you don't love me. Even as the baby was smiling at me, I would have plucked my nipple out of its mouth and smashed its brain out against a wall if I had sworn to-willing to give up her babe to get what she wants
            2. chastising of manhood finalizes the deed
               1. calls Macbeth a coward-afraid to act the way you desire why not take the crown (a drunken man once full of hope and now sick with fear)
               2. you were a man when you dared to do it, if you go one step further what you dared to do before, you'll be much more a man. If not a man-what beast were you when you dared to do it

1. fueled from the prophecies
   1. Macbeth finds the Weird Sisters for answers, as he wants to know if he will remain king and this will ease his tension
   2. The Weird Sister's appear before Macbeth and tell him that he will also be Thane of Cawdor and then King
      1. At Macbeths first encounter with the weird sisters he questions their abilities, yet he burns with desire to learn more
         1. stay you imperfect speakers
         2. But ’tis strange. And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s In deepest consequence.
            1. After he hears of his bright future, the ambition inside him is awakened and he is driven to think of dark and immoral thoughts of how to gain power." I am thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion/Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair." Act 1, scene 3, page 6
               1. The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. (1.4.4)
2. There is a defiance of God by hastening the chain of being of Heaven, Earth and Hell in which the world was founded on.
   1. "What are these / So wither'd and so wild in their attire, / That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, / And yet are on't?" (1.3.39-42). He seeks the future and council from immoral characters (witches) who believe in the reverse of the Chain of Being.
      1. fair is foul and foul is fair
         1. He becomes too confident in his fate portrayed by the witches and becomes obsessed with the prophecy
      2. Acts in impuilsivness
         1. The greatest crime: Macbeth orders the murder of Macduff's innocent and helpless wife and children and all relations. They are butchered though they do not thwart his reign as king-Macbeth's moral character has plummeted he is a brutal and merciless
            1. Macduff is determined to kill Macbeth.

               Annotations:

               • link to forces of balacne
   2. Nature becomes a symbol of political struggle and defiance
      1. The first witch states, "When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(1.1.1). The harsh weather resembles the chaos that will be unleashed because of the broken Chain of Being.
   3. Hell; Lady Macbeth like Satan tempts Macbeth(man) to turn from God.
      1. Lady Macbeth does the supernatural and sleep walks while speaking the twisted truth of Duncan's murder and visualizes and smells the blood of Duncan on her hands.
         1. Lady Macbeth commits suicide.
      2. Macbeth does not have a divine right because he is not anointed by God due to the fact that he murdered Duncan to get the golden round.
      3. Lady Macbeth calls upon dark forces and wants to feel unnatural, "Stop up the access and passage to remorse, / That no compunctious visiting's of nature / Shake my fell purpose" (1.5.44-46).
3. tainted by
   1. Macduff and Malcom: the forces of balance
      1. Macduff goes to London to forge and alliance with Lord Siward and Northumberland
         1. Macduff, Malcom and other thanes and lords including civilians lead an attack against Macbeth
            1. Macbeth is killed and Malcom becomes king

Annotations:

• link between ghost of Banqou and "around him my guardian angel is rebuked"

1. Macbeth is distraught and feels guilty after murdering Duncan
   1. 'Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore...Macbeth shall sleep no more."
   2. Macbeth is shocked that he could not utter the name of God, as a fallen man has the most need of blessing. He is tormented with the thoughts of two servants who are frightened at he sight of his hangman's hands. Yet, he could not reply Amen
   3. Macbeth would rather be unconscience and wishes that Duncan could come back to life . He grows frightened
   4. "What hands are here? They pluck out mine eyes...my hand will.../the multitude of seas incarnadine,/Making the green one red." (II.II.59-64)
2. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth drift apart
   1. Lady M is not involved in the murders, as Macbeth says that its best if she's innocent of the knowledge. Also, she must ask permission before she speaks to Macbeth.
      1. "Why do you keep alone, Of sorriest fancies your companions making, Using those thoughts should have indeed died/ With them they think on?
   2. Macbeth and Lady M have fulfilled the first prophecy, yet they are troubled
      1. A Lonely Lady M states that "Naught's had, all spent,/ Where our desire is got without content/ 'Tis safter to be that which we destroy/ Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy
      2. Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, her mind his anguished with grief. She speaks what is in her mind ands most of what she told Macbeth from the beginning of the first murder to off late. Lady Macbeth now pays the price for the deed, as she end of commiting suicide. This is no sickness, only guilt, she who once planned the murder of the king and called upon the darkness is afraid of it and attempts to light her path with candle in hand.
         1. Life is brief, it is an empty existence devoid of meaning "Out, out, brief candle"
            1. The days creep slowly until the end of time. And everyday takes fools closer to their deaths. Life is an illusion-a poor actor who worries for his hour on stage and then in never hear from. Life is a story told by an idiot, full of emotional disturbance.
               1. My way od life/ Is fallen into the sere, the yellow leaf,/ And that which should accompany old age,/As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have, but, in their stead,/ Curses, not loud but deep. (V.iii.24-29)
         2. Macbeth is drained of emotion , he says "She should have died hereafter"
3. Upon me they placed a fruitless crown/ And put a barren sceptor in my grip.../No son of mine succeeding.../Put rancors in the vessel of my peace/...and mine eternal jewel/Given to the common enemy of man,/ To make...the seed of Banquo kings!"
4. Macbeths constant need to express his rage or protect his reign
   1. The nobles become suspicious of Macbeth due to the scene he created at the banquet. He is haunted by Banquo's ghost and speaks to the abstraction stating "Thou canst not say I did it. /Never shake/ Thy gory locks at me.
   2. "O, full of scorpions is my mind"

1. Macbeth orders men to kill Baqou and Fleance
   1. Macbeth is scared of Banqou he has a wisdom that guides him to act bravely and safely, Around him Macbeths guardian angel is rebuked. The prophecies state that Banquo's sons will be kings, so Macbeth wants to kill both Banqou and Fleance
      1. "To be thus is nothing,/ But to be safely thus"
2. Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyranny. It hath been The untimely emptying of the happy throne And fall of many kings.Act 4, scene 3, pg 3
   1. Forces from England lead by Malcolm and Macduff march to Dunsinane to overthrow Macbeth and free Scotland of his rule.
      1. Even after one prophecy of the end of Macbeth's rule has been fulfilled (Burnam Wood marches towards Dunsinane), he is still determined to fight his fate. "Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield." -Act 5,scene 8, pg.2
         1. The witches prophecies is fulfilled; a man not born of women(Macduff) kills Macbeth.