What You Should
Know: Macbeth, Act I
Feraco
Search for Human Potential
6 January 2009
A Word from the Wise
• Glinda: “And Goodness knows/The Wicked's lives
are lonely;
Goodness knows/The Wicked die alone;
It just shows when you're Wicked,/You're left
only/On your own…”
• Ozians: “Yes, Goodness knows/The Wicked's lives
are lonely;
Goodness knows/The Wicked cry alone;
Nothing grows for the Wicked,/They reap
only/What they've sown…”
Wicked
Act I, Scene One
• Who’s speaking here, and when?
– The witches come together and establish that they’ll
meet with Macbeth
– They’re speaking before the Scots’ battle with the
rebels (and Norwegians!) has finished, sometime during
the 11th century
• What are the larger implications of “Fair is foul,
and foul is fair”?
– The larger implications of “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”
– Shakespeare uses the witches’ chant to foreshadow
his play’s blurring of moral lines (Macbeth is a good
man who’s swallowed by darkness, Malcolm’s
responsible decision to flee ends up costing lives,
Duncan’s trust turns out to be an awful thing instead of
an impressive one, etc.). Good becomes hard to
distinguish from evil, as even the best can turn wicked.
Act I, Scene Two
• Where do we meet Duncan, and why is this
important?
– We meet Duncan in Forres, a Scottish town near (but
not at) the scene of the battle; the battle is being
fought at Fife, another Scottish town
– Macbeth is doing the fighting, not Duncan
• Who are the Scots fighting?
– Rebel forces led by Macdonwald
• What terms are used to describe Macbeth when
he’s introduced?
– “Brave Macbeth” is said to be deserving of the
adjective
Act I, Scene Two
• What happens when Macbeth finds the rebel
leader, and why is this important?
– Macbeth hacks his way forward, heedless of danger,
until he reaches Macdonwald (who he kills in
spectacularly bloody fashion)
– Macdonwald’s head – the rebel’s head – is placed on a
pike (a giant pointed stick) after Macbeth kills him –
this is foreshadowing
• What happens once the rebels are defeated? How
do Macbeth and Banquo respond?
– The Norwegians then attack the Scots, but Macbeth
and Banquo don’t lose heart – they fight twice as hard
Act I, Scene Two
• Who’s helping the Norwegians, and how does the battle
against them go?
– The Norwegians are being helped by a Scottish traitor, the Thane
of Cawdor (a nobleman), but Macbeth and Banquo lead a
successful counterattack
• How do the Scots respond to King Sweno’s request?
– King Sweno of Norway wants to surrender after Macbeth defeats
him, but the Scottish won’t let him bury his dead until he pays a
huge sum of money – contrast this behavior with the kings in
Beowulf
• What becomes of Cawdor, and what impact will it have
on Macbeth?
– Cawdor is to be executed as soon as possible, and his title (since
he’s a nobleman) will go to Macbeth (who is also a nobleman –
the Thane of Glamis – because his father’s title was passed down
to him after the elder man’s death)
Act I, Scene Three
• Why should we care about the punishment one witch
wreaks on a sailor?
– The first witch’s punishment for the sailor sounds eerily like what
will happen to Macbeth – unable to sleep, dwindling away – after
he kills Duncan in Act II (Shakespeare is a master of foreshadowing
and thematic reinforcement)
• Why is foreshadowing particularly important in Macbeth?
(Think about structure and themes…)
– Foreshadowing is particularly important in a play like this because
the story is partly about the ways that foreknowledge – whether
real or simply believed – can affect us
– If we “know” the future, can we change it?
– If the play’s about a march into a future, the foreshadowing forces
us to look toward that future – as with Siddhartha and Beowulf,
the play’s format reinforces its function
– The Weïrd Sisters are not “weird” (notice the presence of two
dots above the “i”) – the word means that they’re able to see the
future
Act I, Scene Three
• What’s significant about Macbeth’s
comment that “so foul and fair a day [he
has] not seen”?
– We soon see that Macbeth himself is both fair
and foul
– Not only does this remind us of the witches’
chant from earlier, but it underscores that one
of the witches can essentially control the
uncontrollable – the weather (and they can see
the “uncontrollable” – the future)
Act I, Scene Three
• What does the weather symbolize Macbeth?
– The weather is consistently disordered – lots of storms
that symbolize the chaos and passion fueling the play
– The disordered weather also symbolizes the rebellion
of the natural world against Macbeth’s unnatural
actions
• Why is the inhuman description of the witches
important?
– The witches seem inhuman, yet Macbeth listens to
them despite his initial resistance – he does the same
thing with Lady Macbeth
– This is what happens when you listen to something
inhuman, something evil – and forget what makes you
good or human
Act I, Scene Three
• How do Banquo and Macbeth react to the witches’
words, and what do their reactions show about them?
– Banquo isn’t nearly as impressed by the witches’ words as
Macbeth, but his reason is blinded just enough to qualify as a fatal
flaw; he underestimates Macbeth’s newfound capacity for
ruthlessness
– Macbeth disbelieves (rationally), but is tempted by the witches’
words; this reveals itself in his pleading demands for follow-up
information, truths that the witches never provide
• What do the witches mean when they tell Banquo that
he’s “Lesser than Macbeth, and greater/ Not so happy, yet
much happier/Thou shalt get kings, though thou be
none”?
– Banquo will retain his humanity and “win” in the end when
Fleance earns the throne (implying that Malcolm will die before
producing an heir) despite never ruling himself
Act I, Scene Three
• When Ross and Angus arrive and deliver their
burden of good news, how do Banquo’s and
Macbeth’s new reactions further improve our
understanding of both men?
– When Ross and Angus arrive, Banquo is still wondering
whether the two men have simply gone crazy after
fighting for so long
– When the two newcomers deliver information that
verify one of the claims the witches made regarding
Macbeth, Banquo reacts with astonishment – belief, but
skeptical belief
– Macbeth, on the other hand, immediately jumps a step
ahead, picturing a crown upon his own head
Act I, Scene Three
• What’s Banquo talking about when he cautions
Macbeth that “to win us our harm,/Th’
instruments of darkness tell us truths,/Win us with
honest trifles, to betray ‘s/In deepest
consequence”?
– The devil may give you a couple of mild truths in order
to win your trust, and then hang you with that trust
• Why are Banquo’s words ultimately futile?
– While Banquo tries to keep his friend from staring into
the abyss, it’s already too late – and even when
Macbeth tries to back away, the voice of darkness and
heartless ambition (in the form of Lady Macbeth)
pushes him back to the edge
Act I, Scene Three
• What is Macbeth’s “internal debate” soliloquy
about?
– Macbeth wonders whether he should trust the witches,
and argues well for either side; in the end, he merely
chooses what he wants to believe, and that choice
starts him down a very dark path
– Notice, however, that he’s wavering a bit, even here
• Do we really know why Macbeth wants to be
king?
– Not really; Susan Snyder points out that the absence of
Macbeth’s burning desire to rule resonates in this scene
– we see that Macbeth seems excited, but we don’t
really understand why he would want to be king
Act I, Scene Four
• Where is Duncan when Cawdor dies, and why is this
important?
– Cawdor dies by another’s hand – it seems that King Duncan (and
later, King Macbeth) always kills by proxy
• What does Duncan say after Cawdor’s execution, and
why is this one of the most important lines of the play?
– Duncan mentions that you can’t tell what a man is thinking, and
that he trusted the Thane of Cawdor completely – then goes and
does the same thing to Macbeth
– It’s incredibly naïve – but his words about not being able to trust
your own judgment end up hanging over the entire play, both in
the way that they describe Duncan’s ultimate downfall and the
different ways in which other characters essentially repeat his
assertion
Act I, Scene Four
• What does Macbeth tell Duncan in response to
the king’s expression of thanks?
– “The service and loyalty I owe,/In doing it, pays itself.”
• What does Duncan announce shortly afterward,
and why does this alarm Macbeth?
– Duncan’s sudden announcement that Malcolm will be
the Prince of Cumberland reminds Macbeth – harshly –
that he stands outside of the usual line of succession,
and that he’ll need to get rid of more than Duncan if
he wants to reach the throne
• What does Macbeth say at the end of Scene Four
that parallels Duncan’s important earlier line?
– “Let not light see my black and deep desires” – an
immediate parallel to Duncan’s earlier point about not
being able to trust the world as you see it
Act I, Scene Five
• What does Lady Macbeth conclude after reading
Macbeth’s letter, and what does she vow to do?
– Lady Macbeth reads her husband’s letter, and
immediately concludes that while he has enough
ambition to want power, he lacks the ruthlessness he
needs to take power
– His nature is too full of “human kindness” for him to
do what is necessary
– She vows to herself that she’ll say whatever it takes to
get her husband to change his mind
• How does Lady Macbeth react to the news that
Duncan is coming to her home?
 When Lady Macbeth hears that Duncan is arriving at
the castle, she, like Macbeth, reacts with disbelief and
guarded optimism that the prophecy may come true
Act I, Scene Five
• What does Lady Macbeth ask for from the gods, and what does the
request mean?
– She then asks for the gods to “unsex” her – i.e., to remove the “milk of
human kindness” that supposedly makes women weak and
compassionate, and to fill her up with the steely resolve she’ll need to
steer her husband down the “correct” path
• What is her final prayer, and how is it similar to Macbeth’s words
from Scene Four?
– She, like her husband (who cries out “Stars, hide your fires!”), prays for
darkness to fall and cover her deeds – showing that perhaps she and her
husband are not as dissimilar as we’d first expect
• Why is Lady Macbeth’s advice to her husband – “look like the
innocent flower,/But be the serpent under’t” – particularly significant?
(Think of Duncan’s earlier words…)
– Also, she tells Macbeth to “look like the innocent flower,/But be the
serpent under’t” – yet another reflection of Duncan’s almost-unconscious
realization that our eyes can betray us, and that we can see what we
want to see and hear what we want to hear
Act I, Scene Six
• What does the nesting behavior of the birds on
Macbeth’s castle symbolize?
– Banquo mentions that the birds use Macbeth’s castle as
a nesting ground after they leave the churches where
they usually live, providing an ironic juxtaposition
between the castle as place-of-virtuous-life and the
castle as the place-of-treacherous-death it will soon
become
• Why is the repetition of “two” or “double” in this
scene’s dialogue symbolically significant?
– There’s lots of “doubling” occurring in the dialogue – a
subtle reference to the double face that Macbeth must
wear (look like the flower, strike like the serpent)
Act I, Scene Seven
• What is Macbeth’s “internal debate” soliloquy
about here, and what does he ultimately
conclude at the end of it?
– Macbeth agonizes alone about whether to go through
with his/Lady Macbeth’s plot, and resolves – again,
alone – to abandon the entire venture
– Macbeth is painfully aware here of something he later
forgets – that things are never as simple as “kill the
king, take the throne”
– Consequences lead to further consequences, not dead
ends – and Macbeth suspects that those consequences
would force him to face an appropriate fate if he did
end up killing Duncan
Act I, Scene Seven
• Why does Macbeth feel that killing Duncan is
morally wrong?
– Not only is it wrong for Macbeth to strike at Duncan as
his subject, but it’s wrong to do so as his host
– Also, Duncan hasn’t done anything wrong, or at least
anything that would justify his slaughter
– This isn’t a matter of replacing a harmful or tyrannical
ruler with someone better-suited to rule
– This is what happens when you begin basing your
actions on “nouns without verbs,” as Snyder puts it;
the Sisters tell Macbeth what he’ll be, but not how he’ll
be it
Act I, Scene Seven
• What argument does Macbeth first use on Lady
Macbeth when she arrives?
 When Lady Macbeth arrives, Macbeth essentially tells
her to be patient – that he’s barely lived a day as the
Thane of Cawdor, and that they might as well enjoy
their new honors instead of rapidly casting them aside
• Describe Lady Macbeth’s counterargument.
– Lady Macbeth fights back with an almost animalistic
fury, mocking everything about Macbeth – questioning
his love, his manhood, his honor, his courage
– It’s a blitzkrieg offensive, and Macbeth is completely
overwhelmed by her; his denials and refusals sound
defeated even as they leave his lips
Act I, Scene Seven
• How does Macbeth respond to Lady
Macbeth, and what’s her rebuttal?
– Macbeth states that he’s willing to do whatever
men do, but that he won’t turn himself into a
monster for power’s sake
– Lady Macbeth rebuts that real men wouldn’t
crumble in the face of fear, and that real men
follow through on what they say they’ll do
– She states that she’d be willing to kill her own
child as it nursed from her if she had pledged
to do so, and dares her husband to meet her
level of commitment to one’s word
Act I, Scene Seven
• Why does Macbeth tell his wife that she
only deserves to have sons?
– Macbeth tells her she’s only fit to have male
children, as her fighting soul couldn’t produce a
“soft” female child
• What do Macbeth’s words subconsciously
remind us about Lady Macbeth?
– This serves as a reminder that her heartlessness
exposes her own relative powerlessness; her
soul is trapped within a female body that
allows a society she could conquer to cage her
Act I, Scene Seven
• What is the Macbeths’ final resolution?
– The two resolve to get Duncan’s men drunk
enough to be blamed for the crime; Macbeth
will stab Duncan with their own daggers, thus
implicating them in their king’s slaughter
– Macbeth provides a final reminder of Duncan’s
fateful words about trusting one’s sight: “False
face must hide what the false heart doth
know.”