Macbeth
Act V
 Lady
Macbeth has
been driven mad
by her sins (her
guilt).
 She stays in her
bed, rising only to
sleepwalk and
sleepwash, as it
were.
 In
her sleep, she
washes her hands over
and over, crying “Out,
damned spot! Out, I
say!” (5.1.36).
 She talks to herself,
and within earshot of
her maid and a doctor,
she reveals her
complicity in the
murders.

Macduff and Malcolm, with the English army, gather
at Birnam Wood.
 Other Scottish lords join them to fight Macbeth’s
tyranny.

Inside his castle,
Macbeth prepares for
battle, “sick at heart,”
but nonetheless
vowing to fight until
his “flesh is hacked”
from his bones.
 Those who stay with
Macbeth do so only
because of Macbeth’s
command, not out of
love for the tyrannical,
murderous king.
 Macbeth
disregards
the news of the
opposing army.
 He learns that his
wife is dead, too,
probably driven to
take her own life (but
we are never clearly
told this).
Macbeth delivers the famous soliloquy:
 “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and
tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to
day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted
fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out,
brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor
player,
That struts and frets his hour upon
the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a
tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and
fury,
Signifying nothing.”



Nonetheless, Macbeth is resolute.
He is confident that the forest cannot move, and that
every man must be born of woman, so he thinks that he
has nothing to worry about.


Malcolm orders his soldiers to cut boughs from the forest
to camouflage themselves and obscure their numbers.
Carrying the boughs before them, they march toward
Macbeth’s army, which sits on Dunsinane Hill.

A messenger tells
Macbeth something
that seems
unbelievable: “…I
looked toward
Birnam, and anon,
methought, The
wood began to
move.”
 Malcolm’s soldiers
are using tree
boughs as
camouflage.
 The
scouts report
this to Macbeth, who
immediately sees
how this affects the
prophecy.
 Birnam Wood is
coming to Dunsinane
Hill.

Macbeth raises the alarm and prepares to fight a
battle that he now knows he will lose.
 One prophecy remains unfulfilled: Macbeth cannot
die except at the hands of one who was not born of
woman.

On the battle field, Macbeth kills Young Siward.
 Old Siward tells Malcolm that Macbeth will be forced
to surrender without much fight since his men have
defected to the other side.
 In
the field, Macbeth
confronts and
challenges Macduff.
 Macbeth warns
Macduff that Macduff
is wasting time
fighting because
Macbeth leads “a
charmed life” and
cannot be defeated
by “one of woman
born.”
 He
remains confident
until he faces Macduff,
who reveals he was
not born normally, but
was “Untimely ripped
from his mother’s
womb” (5.8.15-16) – a
Caesarian delivery
when such procedures
were uncommon and
considered unnatural.

Despite the fact that
the conditions of his
defeat as foretold in
the prophecies have
arrived, Macbeth
vows to fight to the
end.
 Placing his shield
before him, Macbeth
challenges Macduff,
“lay on, Macduff; And
damned be him that
first cries, ‘Hold,
enough!’”

Macbeth
valiently
tries to
defy the
prophecy,
but he
cannot
and
Macduff
kills him.

Malcolm, Old Siward, Ross, and their army enter Macbeth’s
castle victoriously.
Macduff enters carrying Macbeth’s head.
 Macduff hails Malcolm as king, points to Macbeth’s
head, and announces that “the time is free.”


Giving thanks to all and inviting them to his
coronation, Malcolm ends the play.
 Order has been restored.
 And
so,
Macbeth’s
destiny is
fulfilled.
 The witches
are never
wrong.
 In
the play Banquo’s son doesn’t become
king, but we have every reason to believe
that this would happen in the future. This
would please James I, for whom ‘Macbeth’
was written, because it implies that he is
the descendant of such a good man.