Macbeth
Guided Reading Notes
Act I
Tragedy: begins with “peace” and ends in destruction.
Tragic Hero- Protagonist. Experiences a “tragic fall” due to a “tragic flaw.”
 Tragic flaw: A quality that can be positive, but it overtakes the person. 
Setting: a Civil War. In Scotland.
The rebel = Macdonwald (he is attacking Scotland and trying to take over).
Defender of the Crown = Macbeth.
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I.i
*This act establishes the supernatural as a force within the play. The 3 witches
(weird sisters) meet.
- The Three Witches hear the battle in the background and speak about when they will meet again.
“When the hurlyburly’s done,/When the battle’s lost and won.”
The witches will meet again when the (hurlyburly = chaos) battle is over and one side has lost and the other side
has won. They will meet upon the heath (a hill with straw-like grass).
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”  Central idea of the play. Fair= good; Foul = bad (Appearance vs. Realitywhat is good is actually bad; what is bad is actually good)
I.ii
- King Duncan is at his castle asking for a report on the battle. King Duncan and Malcolm greet a
wounded Captain who praises Macbeth and Banquo for their valor in battle. His son, Malcolm,
performed poorly in the battle- he was almost captured.
- We learn that the Thane of Cawdor is a traitor (he will be killed). King Duncan decides to put him to
death.
- King makes Macbeth the new Thane of Cawdor. “No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive/Our
bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,/And with his former title greet Macbeth.” (Macbeth is
unaware of this).
“And Fortune, one his damned quarrel smiling,/Showed like a rebel’s whore…” (Fortune = fate).
- Macbeth and Macdonwald meet in battle. Macbeth salutes him with honor, and Macdonwald insults
him. Macbeth takes his sword and cuts him from belly button to jaw, “Till he unseamed him from nave
to th’ chops,/And fixed his head upon our battlements.”
****************************** How is the fight going? ******************************
 It looked like they were going to lose for a while, because Macdonwald is fierce and merciless.
 Macbeth is so fierce, he has steam coming off his sword from the blood in the morning air.
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- Just as Duncan’s Army begins to win, Norway shows up and begins to attack.
- Macbeth is so tough that watching him kill the Norwegians, was like watching a blood bath.
“…to conclude,/The victory fell on us.” – Macbeth and his army won.
What did Macbeth win?  He is now going to be greeted with the title Thane of Cawdor.
I.iii
- The witches tell Macbeth and Banquo their futures. They tell Macbeth that he will be King. They tell
Banquo that he will not be King, but his sons will. (“Lesser than Macbeth, but greater”).
- “Why do you dress me in borrowed clothes?”
- The Thane of Cawdor was caught as a traitor, he is waiting to be executed. Ross arrives to tell Macbeth
that he has been bestowed this new title. (“Why do you dress me in borrowed clothes?”- Macbeth
questions how he can have this title, if the Thane of Cawdor still lives. The Thane is waiting to be
executed.). Traitors = executed, not murdered.
*VOCABULARY- Aside- story telling began with one person telling a story. The first recorded plays had
one person on stage. A single actor would narrate the story (using different voices, etc.).
I.iv
“There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.”
MEANING- King Duncan thought he knew what kind of guy the Thane of Cawdor was, he trusted him
completely. King Duncan was unable to know what the Thane of Cawdor was thinking and doing. His
face mislead and fooled the King.
I.v
- Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth describing the witches’ prophecy.
- A messenger tells her of King Duncan’s visit.
- Lady Macbeth decides she will have to help Macbeth kill Duncan that night.
I.vi
Duncan arrives at Iverness and Lady Macbeth extends her welcome to him.
- Lady Macbeth welcomes Duncan and invites him to feel comfortable at Inverness (their castle).
I.vii
Opens with Macbeth (soliloquy- lines spoken by one person, on stage, alone. This allows the audience to
know the thoughts of the character).
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If we murder Duncan, it should be done quickly.
Macbeth knows he will be damned for this murder.
Killing King is wrong because Macbeth is a kinsman/subject and his host.
King is much loved  everyone will be angered against murder.
Decides he has no reason to kill Duncan except “vaulting ambition” (Macbeth’s tragic flaw)
- Macbeth doesn’t want to kill Duncan because he has been good to him.
- Lady Macbeth bullies him into agreeing to kill the King. She questions his manhood and this is enough
to sway Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth that she would kill her own child for him; yet
Macbeth is backing away and being a coward toward something they had agreed upon.
- Plan- she will get the guards drunk, kill Duncan, and blame his guards.
- Macbeth agrees and says he will do it.
Act 2
II.i
At Macbeth’s Castle. Even though there is a party, everyone is still so tense. The party has lasted days.
- Banquo has been dreaming about the witches. Macbeth lies and says he hasn’t thought about them.
Macbeth says let’s discuss these witches when we have time.
- Macbeth tells the servant to go to sleep. He tells the servant that Lady Macbeth will ring a bell when
his nightcap is ready (he is setting up his alibi).
“Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.”
- Macbeth sees a dagger before him. He is hallucinating:
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”
ANALYSIS: He believes this dagger is leading him up to Duncan’s room. It is fated that he is doing this.
Everything in his life is leading him to do this. He thinks what he is seeing is real.
- Lady Macbeth cannot screw this up. I would have killed Duncan myself, except he looked like my father
when he slept.
“Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done’t.”
ANALYSIS: Hypothetically- what if Duncan is Lady Macbeth’s uncle? Then her father and Duncan
would have been brothers. Brothers look alike. She could have been in the room, ready to kill him,
and it is very probable that he looked just like her brother, so she couldn’t have done this. This
explains the relationships during this time.
-The guards wake in their sleep and say “Amen”, which Macbeth cannot say back (he’s paranoid because
he can’t say it back). Lady Macbeth is trying to get him to focus and move on. Macbeth goes off the deep
end.
“Why did you bring these daggers from the place?”
ANALYSIS: Macbeth screwed up. He brought the daggers back with him, instead of leaving the murder
weapon at the scene of the crime. The plan always has to be screwed up somehow. Shakespeare did
this so that the audience thinks that Macbeth might get caught. Shakespeare is twisting out
expectations of how the people will be caught.
Symbolism/Imagery- Water for cleansing and absolution.
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather/ The
multitudinous seas incarnadine,/Making the green one red.”
ANALYSIS: All of the water in the ocean will not make my hands clean!
- King Duncan is murdered.
- Lady Macbeth is unable to commit the murder because the King looks like her father sleeping.
Macbeth actually commits the murder and returns to Lady Macbeth with the murder weapons. Lady
Macbeth tells her husband to go back into the room and put the murder weapons back on the guards;
Macbeth cannot do this.
- Lady Macbeth returns the daggers to the room, smears the guards with blood. Lady Macbeth is framing
the guards.
*This act unites Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the deed. They both share the blame/blood.
Directions: Write the reactions to the murder. Contrast how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel about
the murder.
MACBETH
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
from my hand, No…” (II.ii).
Meaning  even all the water in the ocean isn’t
enough to pardon our deed.
*Macbeth feels more remorse than his wife*
LADY MACBETH
“A little water clears us of this deed” (II.ii).
meaning with a little water we can wash
away our actions…forget about the murder.
II.iii
Comic relief The Porter (he takes all of the horror incorporated in this play and
twists it to comedic relief to ease the horror of the last scene). This is the only way
to balance the act of murder.
The Porter  The Gatekeeper (the doorman). He imagines he is in hell. For the
last few days, the castle ambience has been heaven; now, with someone at the
door, this is hell for him.
Macduff-the hero of the story. Masterstroke of this play is that we are being
introduced to the hero (he will suffer immensely). As he fights Macbeth in the
end, we will not root for the hero. Shakespeare leaves the reader in a position
where the we cannot root/connect for the hero (we are stuck in the middle). As
the witches stated: “What’s fair is foul; what’s foul is fair.”
Lennox- Nobleman/Messenger.
“Who could refrain,/That had a heart to love, and in that heart/Courage to make’s
love known?” ANALYSIS- Macbeth walks into Duncan’s room and sees Duncan’s
silver skin and golden blood everywhere. Macbeth states that in his rage at that
moment, he killed the guards to show his love for Duncan and his desire for
vengeance.
FAIR IS FOUL AND FOUL IS FAIR:
Donalbain and Malcolm are feeling real emotions. These emotions are taking a
long time to kick in, therefore they look guilty.
“Why do we hold our tongues,/That most may claim this argument for
ours?/What should be spoken here,/Where our fate, hid in an auger-hole,/May
rush, and seize us? Let’s away;/Our tears are not yet brewed.”
“What will you do? Let’s not consort with them./To show an unfelt sorrow is an
office/Which the false man does easy. I’ll go to England.”
“To Ireland,I,: our separated fortune/ Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are/
There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near in blood,”
ANALYSIS: Let’s get out of here because it is dangerous. We are going to be
murdered next.
END OF ACT II
- Malcolm is in England; Donalbain is in Ireland- this creates suspicion.
- Macbeth is King.