MACBETH STUDY GUIDE
Act 5 Scene 1
Back at Macbeth's castle a Doctor and a Gentlewoman discuss Lady Macbeth's illness.
She is acting strangely:
'unnatural deeds/ Do breed unnatural troubles.' (5, 1, 73-74).
Questions:
1.
What are Lady Macbeth's symptoms?
2.
Why is she acting this way?
Scene 2
The battle against Macbeth is about to begin. The English force, with Malcolm, his uncle
Siward, and Macduff will meet with the rebel Scottish lords to fight against Macbeth.
Macbeth has made his castle Dunsinane strong to withstand the attack but many Scottish
people think he is mad. Only those who are afraid of him still support him.
The others can see that he is not the right man to be king:
Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief. (5, 2, 20-22)
Scene 3
Question:
1. What mood is Macbeth in at the beginning of this scene?
Macbeth can see that what he expected to have as king and as an older man:
'honour, love, obedience, troops of friends' (5, 3, 25)
he cannot have. He has 'Curses (not loud, but deep), mouth-honour,' (5, 3, 27) instead.
Questions:
1.
Does Macbeth deserve friends or honour?
2.
Does the audience feel any sympathy for Macbeth?
Macbeth intends to battle on, saying 'I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hackt' (5, 3,
32). He asks the Doctor how Lady Macbeth is and tells him to cure her. The Doctor
replies that Lady Macbeth must cure herself, she has a guilty conscience and medicine
can do no good.
Questions:
1.
How concerned is Macbeth about his wife?
2.
What does this reveal about their relationship now?
Scene 4
Malcolm orders the soldiers to disguise themselves by cutting down a branch from
Birnam Wood to carry in front of themselves as they approach Macbeth's castle.
Scene 5
Macbeth is ready for the oncoming battle. He hears a noise, 'the cry of women' (5, 5, 8)
and is surprised that it does not worry him. This shows how much Macbeth has changed
from the beginning of the play when after the murder of Duncan any noise appalled him
(2, 2, 62). During the course of the play Macbeth has 'supt full with
horrors' (5, 5, 13). He hears another cry and is told that Lady Macbeth is dead.
Questions:
1.
How does Macbeth react to her death?
2.
What philosophy or idea about the value of life does Macbeth espouse (put
forward) in his speech:
A.
3.
'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...Signifying nothing.' (5, 5, 1928)
Does the audience feel anything for Macbeth at this point in the play?
There is another change of pace as a messenger brings word that Birnam Wood seems to
be moving toward Dunsinane. Macbeth will fight on but he begins 'to be a-weary of the
sun,/ And wish th' estate o' th' world were now undone.'(5, 5, 49-50). But he will die as a
soldier.
Scene 6
The forces against Macbeth have arrived at the castle.
Scene 7
Macbeth taunts the soldiers with the witches' second prophecy, that
'none of woman born/ Shall harm Macbeth' (4,1, 79-80).
Young Siward fights Macbeth but is killed. Macduff finds Macbeth and in dramatic
moment destroys Macbeth's confidence as he reveals that he was 'from his mother's
womb/ Untimely ript.' (5, 7, 45-6) Macduff was born, probably, by Caesarean section.
Macbeth now understands that the witches tricked him. They led him to believe that he
was invincible, their prophecies were fulfilled but not in the way Macbeth expected.
Macbeth knows that he will be defeated but he will 'try the last' and will die a warrior.
Macbeth is killed by Macduff and his head carried around as a trophy.
Malcolm becomes the next king of Scotland. Order is restored.
Questions:
1.
Does Macbeth get what he deserves?
2.
What about Lady Macbeth?