Macbeth-Act 5

Macbeth-Act 5

1. Key events

   • Lady Macbeth has gone mad. She sleepwalks and keeps washing invisible blood from her hands. The Scottish Lords plan to meet the English army at Birnam Wood and attack Macbeth. Macbeth hears about the approaching English army but is not scared because of the predictions from the witches.
   • Malcom tells the soldiers to cut down branches from Birnam Wood and hide behind them as they march towards Macbeth's castle. Macbeth prepares for battle and finds out that Lady Macbeth killed herself.
   • Macbeth and Macduff meet on the battlefield. Macbeth is sure that he will win, until he finds out that Macduff was born in Caesarean, so he is not born from a woman. They fight and Macbeth is killed. Malcom is made king of Scotland.

2. Characters and how they are presented

   • Lady Macbeth: She is shown to sleepwalk and is presented as mad. She has been overcome by the darkness. She has a guilty conscience.
   • Macbeth: His soliloquy suggests that he is beginning to despair even though he thinks he is invincible. However, he is also presented as over confident when speaking to other characters. Macbeth alternates between arrogance and despair. He in the end dies.
   • Doctor and gentleman: The doctor highlights unnatural things. The gentleman speaks truthfully to the doctor about Lady macbeth.
   • Seyton: He is Macbeth's servant and his name suggests he is hellish.
   • Malcom: He shows concern towards his low number of soldiers which shows that he is a kind ruler.
   • Old Siward and his son: Siward is only seen to care that his son died bravely.
   • Macduff: defeats Macbeth and walks in at the end with Macbeth's head, giving the play a circular structure as it starts and ends in a battle.

3. Shakespeare's intentions of the plot/themes

   • Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth sleepwalking to show that the darkness is no longer comfortable for her and she can not just wash the blood off of her hands anymore. He uses language to reveal her guilty conscience as her speech changes from blank verse to disjointed prose. Shakespeare also uses imagery of health, nature and clothing to extend the hidden metaphors. Shakespeare has also given the name Seyton to Macbeth's servant because of the similarity in sound to Satan. This adds to the hellish image of Macbeth's castle. In this act, Shakespeare made Macbeth's language sad and reflective to show that he is not a monster and that there is still human inside of him. In scene 7, Shakespeare used lots of stage entrances and exits to create confusion around the battle and cause tension. He also highlighted the theme of fate and free will through the way in which the prophecies from the witches all come true.
   • Finally, Shakespeare ends the play highlighting the theme of kingship through the which natural order was maintained.

4. Key quotations

   • "has light by her continually"
     • "Out! Damned spot!"
       • "The thane of Fife had a wife-where is she now?"
         • "unatural breeds/do breed unatural troubles"
           • "My soul is too much charged/with blood of thine already"
             • "Be these juggling fiends no more believed"