Macbeth Introduction Notes
Plot Summary:
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Brief introduction of the witch trio to introduce the supernatural element of the play.
Move to a military camp Where Duncan hears that his generals, Macbeth and Banquo, have
defeated two separate invading armies – one from Ireland, and one from Norway.
Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches as they cross the moor.
Prophesy that Macbeth with be made Thane of Cawdor (he is already Thane of Gamis), and will
eventually become King of Scotland. This plants a seed of ambition in his mind.
o Thane - A man who held land granted by the king or by a military nobleman,
ranking between an ordinary freeman and a hereditary noble.
o Moor – an area of uncultivated (wild) upland (hilly); noun. a tract of open, rolling
wasteland, usually covered with heather and often marshy or peaty; heath; a
tract of land with game preserves
Thane of Cawdor comes true as Macdonwald loses his title for becoming a traitor by fighting for
the Norwegians. He was condemned to death.
Macbeth visits with Duncan, and they plan to dine together at Inverness, Macbeth’s castle, that
night. Macbeth writes ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her all that has happened.
Background, Date and Sources
The real Macbeth’s reign spanned the period between 1040-1057 (17 years).
According to history he was a good king who passed many progressive laws.
***Shakespeare paints a different of Macbeth
o Shakespeare uses little more than the names of the characters and some very basic
element of plot.
The play, as it has come to us, may have involved more than one author. It is generally believed
that the witches’ scenes were added to the original play by Thomas Middleton (including
Hecate)
Written in 1606
Setting: Scotland
The curse of the play – Supposedly, Shakespeare too the spells in Macbeth from an authentic
black-magic ritual and that their public display did not please the folks for whom these
incantations were sacred. Many mishaps occurred from the ‘curse’.
Performed Macbeth for King James the first
o “There can be little doubt that aspects of the play were intended to please James I, who
was by this time the patron of Shakespeare’s theatre group. For example, the character
of Banqo, the legendary root of the Stuart family tree, is depicted very favourably,
perhaps to please the king (also a Stuart).
The story of Macbeth contains many fabrications, including the entire character of Banquo, who
was invented by a 16th century Scottish historian in order to validate the Stuart family line.
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*Shakespeare took many liberties with the original story, including manipulating the characters
of Macbeth and Duncan to suit his purposes. In Holinshed’s account, Macbeth is a ruthless and
valiant leader who, after killing Duncan, rules competently and fairly for many years, while
Duncan is a young and soft-willed man, not a particularly good ruler.
o Shakespeare heightens certain aspects of these characters in order to create a polarity
between them, making Duncan out to be a venerable, kindly older king and changing
Macbeth into a younger, indecisive, troubled man who could not possibly rule well.
The truth of history
o Shakespeare’s Macbeth bears little resemblance to historical events.
o Up to the end of the 11th century, other than their accession dates (often because kings
won their crowns by killing other kings) and their deaths (particularly if these were
sudden and violent).
o Macbeth’s father was a High Scottish Steward
o NOT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE
 *In the play, Mabeth and his wife murder the aged King Duncan when he comes
to visit them in their castle. IN REALITY, Macbeth killed Duncan, who was about
39 years old, in battle, and MADE himself king instead
 *Macbeth’s reign was for the most part peaceful, and he was known for his
generosity to the Church.
 *The real Macbeth was killed in 1057 by Duncan’s eldest son, Malcolm
Canmore.
The Appeal of Macbeth
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It is a tragedy
o Tragedy, not a history because it doesn’t hold true to historical fact
o Tragedy, not a history because it’s focus is on its universality. Rather than illustrating
drama of ambition, desire, and guilt.
o In a history a pattern of the past is presented, in a tragedy the focus is on the individual
 Shows Macbeth losing his soul.
Shakespeare’s shortest and most violent tragedy
o There are over 100 references to bloodshed in this play
Supernatural elements – the instruments of darkness
o Witches
o Ghosts
Shakespeare’s Verse and Prose
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Shakespeare writes using a poetic form known as blank verse(verse without rhyme, written in
iambic pentameter). This produces an elevated style, which would have been very different
from everyday speech during the Elizabethan period.
The blank verse is written in a rhythm pattern known as iambic pentameter
Approximately 150 lines of prose in this play. Prose contrasts strongly with the elevated style of
blank verse. Persons of noble birth speak in verse and servants and members of the lower
classes usually speak in prose.
Introduction to Macbeth’s Character
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Macbeth the man is a study in self-damnation
Macbeth as Wheel
o The play opens with a restoration of order – the defeat of the rebel Thane of Cawdor,
along with his Scandinavian and Irish allies, by King Duncan’s forces.
o Yet it will be he who plunges Scotland again into disorder by Duncan’s murder
o Order is restored as Macduff kills the usurper and Malcolm, the rightful king, comes to
rule. Therefore it is a return to peace and harmony.
o Macbeth is not a modern play; it does not condemn society, Instead, it sees the disorder
in society as stemming from disorderly individuals. The solution lies not in the rethinking
of the political structure, but in the removal of evil humors from the social body. In the
play we move from old, to disorder, to reassertion of old order.
o Macbeth as rider of the wheel
 Shakespeare’s era had a metaphor for the role luck plays in life – the wheel of
fortune. Fortune did not follow Divine Law – fortune was a lawless process – but
had its own whims. The man who rose through luck, who stayed on the wheel
and rode it to the top of its arc, would also fall through bad luck and remain on
the wheel as it proceeded downward
 As the play proceeds, we see its protagonist as a compulsive gambler, increasing
the stakes as he chances all on successive turns of fortune’s wheel.