Macbeth

Macbeth

1. Act 1

   • Key events
     • The meeting of the three witches. These three witches meet in Scotland and vow to meet with Macbeth "when the battle's lost and won". This means that the witches want to meet with each other once the battle is over with and that there is a winner and a loser. They also want to meet with Macbeth so they can give him his prophecies.
     • Banquo and Macbeth come across the three witches on way back from the battle. Here the witches make three prophecies to Banquo and Macbeth. The first prophecy is directed at Macbeth and it is that he will become the Thane of Cawdor which is a high place in rankings to be appointed in Scotland. The second prophecy was also directed at Macbeth and it is that he will become King of Scotland. However the third prophecy is directed at Banquo that he will hold the line of kings meaning his children will become king.
     • Lady Macbeth receives a letter from Macbeth about the witches' prophecies and his new title of Thane of Cawdor. She fears that he is too weak and "full o'th' milk of human kindness" to get the crown quickly and thinks that she will have to do it. She calls on the spirits and "murdering ministers" to giver her strength.
     • Macbeth then arrives home to his "dearest love" , Lady Macbeth. She tells him that they should murder King Duncan that night so that the prophecy can be fulfilled and Macbeth can become king.
     • King Duncan arrives at the castle. Macbeth worries about whether he should go through with the "horrid deed" but Lady Macbeth convinces him to "screw" his courage "to the sticking place" and murder Duncan.
   • Charcters
     • Duncan
       • Duncan is the King of Scotland, an old, gracious, pious and gentle man, who resembles Lady Macbeth’s father in his sleep. He is somewhat too trusting, and will be betrayed twice by Thanes of Cawdor he trusted in the space of a very few days. He does not fight on the front line himself, but leaves this duty to others. He is nevertheless quite prepared to pronounce sentence of death on traitors. He promises to improve the fortunes of his victorious generals Banquo and Macbeth just before announcing Malcolm as his heir. He is stabbed to death in his sleep by Macbeth.
     • Macbeth
       • Macbeth in act 1 is presented as a brave and courageous warrior who leads the Scottish to victory over the Irish and the Norwegians. Other characters cheer for Macbeth as all the murders he has committed at the moment have been for Scotland whereas later on people are against him as his murders have been against Scotland.
     • Lady Macbeth
       • When Lady Macbeth finds out about her husband's prophecy of becoming king she is presented as becoming ambitious and willing to become Queen. By this she is depicted as being a cruel and malicious woman who plans king Duncan's assassination. She is also shown as having no sign of remorse or sympathy within act 1.
     • The witches
       • The witches are presented by being ominous as they are shown to be plotting to meet with Macbeth. They are also shown as being mysterious as they have links to animals which have associations with witches.
   • Quotes
     • "Fair is foul and foul is fair"
     • "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me"
     • "Come, you spirits that tend on moral thoughts! Unsex me here"
     • "Screw your courage to the sticking-place"

2. Act 2

   • Key events
     • On the way to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a vision of a dagger with the handle pointing towards him. He dismisses it as an illusion caused by the "bloody business" he is about to do and goes on to murder King Duncan in his bed.
     • After the murder, Macbeth returns to Lady Macbeth with his hands covered in blood and still holding the daggers. He was meant to leave them with the guards but won’t go back. Lady Macbeth takes them from him saying ‘give me the daggers’ and she goes back and plants them by Duncan’s sleeping guards to make it look like they murdered the king.
     • Macduff and Lennox arrive at the castle to meet Duncan. They discover the murdered king and Macbeth explains that he killed Duncan’s guards out of ‘fury’. Macduff questions his actions, so Lady Macbeth pretends to faint to distract them.
     • Malcolm and Donalbain, Duncan’s sons, decide to flee Scotland for their safety and, because they are ‘stol’n away and fled’, they are suspected of murdering the king. It is announced that Macbeth will be the new king.
   • Characters
     • Macbeth
       • Macbeth is presented as beginning to regret his decision of killing the king and starts to have visions of a dagger. He starts to worry about the chamberlains so kills them and states that it was a fit of rage.
     • Banquo
       • Banquo is presented as being unsettled and has trouble sleeping. He is presented as potentially suspecting that Macbeth wants to kill the king so he can fulfil his prophecy given to him by the witches.
     • Lady Macbeth
       • Lady Macbeth is presented as being the opposite of how she acted in act 1. She seemed confident in act 1 where she now seems to be shaken as she says that Duncan reminded her of her father.
     • Macduff
       • Macduff is presented as being confused as he is the first person to discover Duncan's body. Macduff begins to suspect treason from Macbeth and wakes him from his sleep.
   • Quotes
     • "Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?"
     • "There's daggers in men's smiles"

3. Act 3

   • Key events
     • Banquo reflects on how the second prophecy has come true and suspects Macbeth ‘played’st most foully’ and killed Duncan for the crown.
     • Macbeth is afraid that the witches’ other prophecy, about Banquo’s future children being kings, will come true as well. He sends two murderers to kill Banquo and Banquo’s son, Fleance. As the murderers kill Banquo he shouts to his son ‘fly, good Fleance, fly’ and the boy escapes.
     • Macbeth and Lady Macbeth hold a banquet for all the thanes. Macbeth is haunted by visions of Banquo’s ghost and seems terrified. Lady Macbeth tells the thanes that Macbeth is ill and that they should leave as it ‘grows worse and worse’. Macbeth is still fearful that ‘blood will have blood’ and begins to worry about Macduff’s loyalty. He decides to visit the witches again.
   • Quotes
     • "I am in blood steepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er"
   • Characters
     • Macbeth
       • Macbeth becomes the controller of the relationship between him and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth schemes the death of Banquo as he fears that he knows he has killed Duncan.
     • Lady Macbeth
       • Whereas with Lady Macbeth she is now the total opposite to how she was in act 1 as she now feels remorse over the killing of Duncan.

4. Act 4

   • Key events
     • Macbeth visits the witches a second time and they make three more prophecies: Macbeth should fear Macduff; Macbeth cannot be harmed by anyone born of a woman; and Macbeth will not be defeated until Birnam Wood? moves to Dunsinane? Macbeth is reassured by this, thinking he is unbeatable and saying ‘then live Macduff, what need I fear of thee?’ However, he decides to listen to the first warning and have Macduff and his family murdered to be completely safe.
     • Murderers arrive at Macduff’s castle in Fife and find Macduff has gone away. They kill Macduff’s wife and children.
     • Macduff has gone to England to convince Duncan’s son Malcolm to return to Scotland to fight against Macbeth. News reaches Macduff that Macbeth has ‘savagely slaughter’d’ his wife and children and Macduff vows to avenge them.
   • Quotes
     • "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble"
     • "When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors"
   • Characters
     • Macbeth
       • He has become cold, mean, heartless and selfish. His sheer level of selfishness is disturbing. He went from worry and fear about killing Duncan to needlessly killing and murdering people to get his own way.
     • Lady Macduff
       • Lady Macduff is shown to be frightened for her own safety as her husband, Macduff, has fled to England for fear over Macbeth and his life.

5. Act 5

   • Key events
     • Lady Macbeth has been walking and talking in her sleep. Her servant and the Doctor watch her talking about how she cannot wash the blood clean from her hands, saying ‘out, out, damned spot!’ and ‘who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him’. They realise she must be guilty of the murder but ‘dare not speak’.
     • Malcolm and Macduff’s army grows, but Macbeth is fixated on the witches’ prophecies believing he can't be beaten until ‘Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane’. Malcolm’s army cut down branches from Birnam Wood to use as camouflage and start to march towards the castle.
     • Macbeth is told that Lady Macbeth is dead and he remarks that life is only ‘a brief candle’. He is confronted with news that Birnam Wood is moving towards the castle.
     • Macduff confronts Macbeth. Macbeth holds on to the witches’ prophecy that he cannot be killed by a man born of a woman. Macduff reveals that he was ‘untimely ripped’ from his mother and not born naturally. Macbeth realises that all the prophecies have come true and he is going to die but decides to die fighting, saying ‘Yet I will try the last. Before my body / I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,’ and is killed by Macduff.
     • Macduff presents Macbeth’s severed head to Malcolm as proof that he has killed the tyrant. He hails Malcolm as the new King of Scotland.
   • Quotes
     • "Out, damned spot! out, I say!"
     • "Those he commands move only in command, Nothing in love"
   • Characters
     • Macbeth
       • He is annoyed about how many nobles have defected but he feels complacent that he can't be killed due to the witches prophecies.
     • Lady Macbeth
       • Lady Macbeth is shown to have gone completely mad as she begins to sleepwalk and imitates washing her hands as if she is trying to get the bloodstains of her.