St. Francis Prep
Giknis
English 10
Macbeth 5.4-5.8 Notes
1. 5.4: Country near Birnam Wood. Enter Malcolm, Siward and his son, Macduff,
etc.
a. Birnam Wood moves
i. “Let every soldier hew him down a bough, and bear ’t before him”
(5.4.4).
2. 5.5: Dunsinane. Within the castle. Enter Macbeth, Seyton and Soldiers
a. Macbeth’s strategy
i. “Laugh a siege to scorn” (5.5.3).
b. Death of Lady Macbeth and “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”
i. “She should have died hereafter…” (5.5.17-28)
1. Macbeth’s reaction to wife’s death
2. His personal feelings on life
c. News of Birnam Wood
i. New strategy
1. Motivations and fear
a. “At least we’ll die with harness on our back!” (5.5.52).
3. 5.6: Outside Dunsinane.
a. Malcolm commands Siward to lead attack
4. 5.7: Another part of the field. Alarms. Enter Macbeth
a. Unwilling to concede
i. “…bearlike I must fight the course” (5.7.2).
b. Kills young Siward
i. Still confident in the prophecies
1. “Thou wast born of woman” (5.7.12).
c. Enter Macduff
i. Must find and kill Macbeth
5. 5.8: Another part of the field. Enter Macbeth.
a. Still refusing to back down
i. “Why should I play the Roman fool and die on mine own sword?”
(5.8.1).
b. Macduff reveals truth of birth
St. Francis Prep
Giknis
English 10
i. “Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped” (5.8.14)
ii. Fight offstage
c. Macduff defeats Macbeth
i. “Behold where stands the usurper’s cursed head” (5.8.55).
d. Play ends with Malcolm restoring order to Scotland
i. “…his fiendlike Queen, who as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands
took off her life” (5.8.72).
ii. Final scene has the natural order of world returned
e. How does Banquo’s prophecy come to truth?
i. Understand historical background of play.