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Macbeth (1611)

• PLOT:
• - set in medieval Scotland (11th century).
• - Macbeth is one of the bravest generals in King Duncan's army.
• - He is coming back from a battle in Ireland with his friend Banquo, and on the way back they meet the three witches who make a PROPHECY: Macbeth will be king of Scotland but the future kings of Scotland will descend from Banquo's family.
• - Macbeth sends a message to his wife about the prophecy and LADY MACBETH convinces him he must kill King Duncan in order to get the throne. That same night, Macbeth murders KIng Duncan with the help pf his wife and they accuse two guards and kill them too.
• - Macbeth becomes king because Malcom, Duncan's son , runs away to England.
• - Macbeth is afflicted by doubts and guilt, but he knows that according to the prophecy he has to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. Banquo dies but his son Fleance manages to escape.
• - Banquo's ghosts appears at Macbeth's banquet and Macbeth, very scared, goes to see the three witches. He gets 3 PROPHECIES: they warn him against his friend Macduff but they he cannot be killed by someone who is born from a woman, they say he will fall when Birnam Woods will move towards Dunsinane Castle.
• - Macbeth wants to kill Macduff but he is gone to England to join Malcolm, so he has his wife and children killed.
• - Lady Macbeth, tormented by guilt, goes mad and starts sleepwalking trying to get King Duncan's blood off her hands. She commits suicide.
• - Macduff and Malcolm approches Dunsinane moving from Birnam Woods where they had formed an army (the third prophecy is happening).
• -Macbeth learns that his wife has died but he goes into battle to Dunsinane. Macduff (born with a caesarean section) kills him and the second prophecy takes place. Malcolm, Banquo's son becomes king of Scotland and all the prophecies have happened.
• 

MAIN THEMES

• AMBITION: Macbeth is not naturally inclined to committ crimes. The prophecies of the three witches act as a catalyst for his and Lady Macbeth's ambition. At the beginnng he is a good and loyal man, but ambition currupts him and turns him into a monster. Shakespeare's message is that once you start being evil, it is very hard to chage your path. Uncontrolled ambition corrupts the soul of men and women and drives them mad.
• FATE AND WITCHCRAFT: the witches' prophecies set action in motion because Macbeth acts following them. He desperately tries to control his fate and this leads him to his downfall. Banquo, instead, does nothing to change the order of things. The prophecies are also an element of deception.
• BLOOD: Macbeth is a bloodbath. Each act of violence leads inevitably to another. Blood is also a potent symbol of guilt in the play (see Lady Macbeth who tries to wash it off her hands and conscience in her madness) .
• REGICIDE: in the universal order the health of a nation is related to its King. At that time, kings were believed to rule because of Divine Right, therefore the murder of a good and legitimate king is a break in the order. Macbeth commits regicide and disrupts the order. Unnatural events happen only because of that and they reflect what is happening in the social world.

MAIN CHARACTERS

• MACBETH: he is brave, ambitious and doubtful. His downfall begins with the prophecies that ignite his ambition. He is a TRAGIC HERO: his ambition blinds him and leads him to his death, but at he same time he is self-aware and knows what he is doing. He is an example of the destruction of a good soul caused by uncontrolled ambition and desire of power.
• LADY MACBETH: she is very dangerous, a strong and masculine woman, probably one of the causes of Macbeth's downfall. Macbeth thinks she has the soul of a man into a woman body Initially, she can control her feelings and passions very well, but by the end of the play she succumbs to guilty and madness and she kills herself. Shakespeare wants to show that women could be as cruel as men, if only society would allow them. Lady Macbeth is manipulative and she questions her husband's masculinity until she convinces him to murder King Duncan.
• - THE THREE WITCHES: they are often called the "weird sisters". They play with Macbeth, they talk in rhyming couplets (all the characters talk in blank verse). They are very powerful because their prophecies determine the course of action in the play.