Macbeth
Basic Information
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Dramatis Personae
Duncan: King of Scotland
Macbeth: Decorated General
Lady Macbeth: Macbeth’s wife
Banquo: Macbeth’s best friend; general in army
Macduff: Friend of Macbeth; Nobleman
Fleance: Banquo’s son
Malcolm: Duncan’s son
Donalbain: Duncan’s son
Witches: Foreseers of future
Basic Information
• First play written under King James I
• Shakespeare added a lot of things that
James would identify with:
– Male rule
– Heirs
– An innocent Banquo
– Drive:
• Determination and predestination
• An unnatural force
Basic Information
• Really a history/tragedy
• Holinshed wrote a similar work
• If the name of the main character is in the title, it
is a history or tragedy
• Moving from the Elizabethan to Jacobean rule in
England
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1603 Queen Elizabeth dies (in power 45 years)
1604 James I takes the throne (James is Scottish)
1616-Shakespeare dies
1624-James I dies
Act I Scene 1
• Play opens in an “open place”
– No specific setting noted
• Three witches:
– Read I.1-1045
– Announce their intentions to meet with
Macbeth
– War between Duncan and Thane of Cawdor
– Play witches scene
Act I Scene 2
• At the king’s camp:
– Officer tells Duncan and Malcolm about
heroism of Macbeth and Banquo
– They won the battle
– They captured the current Thane of Cawdor
– Duncan transfers the title to Macbeth
Act I Scene 3
• Read I.3-1046-1047
• The witches meet again:
– Brag about their deeds
– Wait for Macbeth and Banquo to appear
• Macbeth: “Foul and fair”:
– Foreshadows the future
• Witches predict:
– Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor
– Macbeth will become King of Scotland
– Banquo will never rule but his kids will
• Macbeth hears that he has become Thane of Cawdor
and suspects that the witches were right
• Watch movie scene
Act I Scene 4
• Read I.4-1048
• Duncan and his sons greet Macbeth and
Banquo:
– Duncan greets Macbeth as Thane
– Duncan invites himself and company to
Macbeths new castle
– Duncan then names his son, Malcolm, as his
successor
Act I Scene 5
• Read: I.5-1048-1049
• Lady Macbeth reads letter from her husband:
– Named Thane
– Predictions of witches
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Figures that she needs to provoke his ambition
Perfect opportunity to kill the king
Macbeth appears and they discuss a plan
Play movie scene: Letter reading/MB’s return
Act I Scene 6
• The guests arrive:
– Duncan
– Malcolm
– Donalbain
– Banquo
• Lady Macbeth welcomes them and is
perfectly sweet to their faces although she
plans to kill Duncan
Theme: Equivocation
• Definition:
– Open to two or more interpretations and often
intended to mislead; ambiguous.
– The use of words or expressions susceptible
to double signification
• The use of equivocation is the most
important theme in the play
Theme: Equivocation of the
Witches
• Prophecies are ambiguous
• Full of paradox and confusion
– “Fair is foul and foul is fair”
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They speak with alliteration in rhymed couplets
They add elements of confusion to their words
They are able to confuse Macbeth easily
They speak of the future but are unable to affect
it directly
• Banquo foreshadows on 1047:
– These witches will push Macbeth
Theme: Interpretation of Witches
• Weird comes from Old English Wyrd meaning
fate
• Macbeth’s Interpretation:
– Suggest future not affect it
– Must act on predictions to gain truth
• Banquo’s Interpretation:
– Affect the future
– Must not act on their musings
• The witches add:
– Mirroring
– Doubling
Mirroring: Macbeth and Lady
• Mirroring heightens the differences between the
characters
• Macbeth is the double for Duncan:
– Macbeth is violent and cruel
– Duncan is peaceable and rewarding
• Lady Macbeth is the double of Lady Macduff:
– Lady Macbeth casts off her femininity and has no
problem killing even her own child
– Lady Macduff is the model of a good mother and
would die to save her child
Being vs. Seeming
• Fundamental definition of equivocation
• Complex differences between the inner and
outer world:
– Macbeth is told to:
• “Look like th’ innocent flower/But be the serpant under’t”
– Lady Macbeth calls:
• “Unsex me here”
• Nightmares and guilt will eat at both characters
Act II: Scene 1
• Read II.1.1050
– Macbeth’s famous soliloquy
– Sees a dagger in mind reminiscent of his dagger
– “a false creation”: messing this murder up could
destroy the coup
– “fools”: victims
– “eyes worth all the rest”: must rely on his eyes, not his
heart or mind to become king
– “gouts of blood”: the blood on the dagger signals that
the action must be done
– “Tarquin” a character in a Shakespearean poem, an
allusion to himself, very rare
– “I go and it is done”: Duncan is as good as dead
Act II: Scene 1
• Read 2.1-1052
– Lady Macbeth announces that she drugged Duncan’s
guards
– Macbeth comes back and says that he has done the
“foul deed”
– Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to forget “brain sickly
things” like praying and God’s wrath
– Macbeth’s mistake is bringing the daggers back with
him
– Lady Macbeth must take them back to plant by the
guards
• Play Movie: Lady Macbeth poisoning the guards,
Macbeth’s Dagger soliloquy, Duncan’s murder scene,
Lady taking daggers back
Act II Scene 1
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Read II.1.1052-1053
The clown, Porter, answers the knocking
Lets Macduff and Lenox into the castle
Macduff discovers the king’s body
The real murderers blame the guards
Malcolm and Donalbain make plans to flee
Scotland
Act II Scene 2
• An old man is discussing the omens of the
night with Rosse
• Macduff enters with news that the king is
dead
• Macduff announces that Macbeth is the
new King of Scotland
Theme: Visions and Hallucinations
of Guilt
• “Dagger of the mind”
• The dagger is a physical manifestation of
the guilt Macbeth feels about killing
Duncan
• All of the ghostly occurrences are
psychological
• Macbeth cannot pray or sleep
Metaphor: Macbeth’s lack of sleep
• “Macbeth shall sleep no more”
– Freud said (centuries later) that:
• Dreams are the gateways to the waking world
• By not sleeping or dreaming, Macbeth will not have
any further connection to the waking world
• He is now the king of a country, in a world, he is
not part of
Pathetic Fallacy
• Two of Duncan’s horse eating each other
• Owl eating a falcon:
– Many birds of prey symbols
• Duncan sees martlets nesting on Macbeth’s castle walls
– Martlets are lucky birds
• Lady Macbeth hears ravens when she cries to be unsexed
– Ravens are birds of prey like she is
– While Lady waits for Macbeth to kill Duncan she hears an owl
hooting
» Owl is a metaphor for Macbeth who also hunts Duncan at
night
– This owl could be the bell Macbeth hears
• These echo the slaughter of one nobleman by
another
• The murder plunges the country into turmoil
Act III: Scene 1
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Read 3.1-1055-1056
Banquo puts it all together in soliloquy
Banquo recalls the prophesy of his son ruling
When Banquo leaves, Macbeth plans to have
two murderers kill Banquo and his son to
prevent the witches prophesy from coming true
• Watch movie: Banquo puts it together, Macbeth talks to
Banquo, Macbeth plans the murder and talks to the murderers
Act III: Scene 2
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth discuss the
threat of Banquo and Fleance
• Macbeth hints at his plan to kill them but
does not tell her directly
• Many think that the lack of involvement of
Lady leads to this act failing and Fleance
(hence his name Flee (run) (L)ance
(leaving) getting away
Act III: Scene 3
• Two murderers are joined by a third and
they wait for Banquo and Fleance
• Banquo is killed and Fleeance gets away
• Play movie scene: Banquo and Fleance
vs. 3 murderers
Act III: Scene 4
• Banquet in Macbeth’s honor
• He is informed of the news of the evening and
sees Banquo’s ghost at the table
• This highly upsets Macbeth, but recovers
• The ghost of Banquo returns
• Lady Macbeth excuses her husband and says
that he periodically suffers from seizures
• Macbeth plans to seek out the itches and learn
more about the threats against them
• Play Movie Scene: Banquet with Banquo’s ghost
Act III: Scene 5
• Read III.5-1059
• We meet the demon goddess Hecate
• She scolds the witches because they did
not invite her to participate in their scheme
for Macbeth
• She tells them that they should make up
some potent spells to share with Macbeth
Act III: Scene 6
• Lenox talks to another Lord about the
deaths of Duncan and Banquo
• Malcolm is in England gathering an army
to overthrow Macbeth
• Macduff and the King of England are also
in the army
Theme: Stains
• The Macbeths are obsessed with stains:
– Lady Macbeth’s “out damn spot speech”
– As early as Act II we see them struggling with stains:
• “All great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from his
hand…”
• “A little water clears us of this deed” (II.2-77-87)
– The stain of blood seems to follow them:
• Banquo’s blood even comes back to the castle on the
murderer’s face
– “There’s blood upon thy face” (III.4 13-14)
– Blood stains are also used by Lady Macbeth to setup
the guards for Duncan’s murder
Theme: Be a man
• When Macbeth asks the murders if they had the courage
to kill Banquo they reply:
– “We are men my liege” (III.1.102)
• This answer is less than acceptable to Macbeth
• Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have opposing viewpoints
on this issue:
– Lady says a man:
• Uses whatever means necessary (I.7 55-60)
• Must cast away kindness, tenderness and affection (I.5 45-60)
• Even Duncan rewards tasks like Macbeth’s slaying from
“stern to chops” in Act 1
• Macbeth is therefore confronted with a paradox:
– As his ability to shed more blood grows to please his wife, his
men desert him
Theme: Light vs. Dark
• The murder observes that the sun is
setting as Banquo and Fleance approach
– Banquo is a bright and noble light in contrast
to Macbeth’s darkness
– It is highly symbolic that the last light of day
goes out as he dies
The Problem of the 3rd Murderer
• Who is this 3rd murderer that appears?
• Many critics have hypothesized that it is:
– Macbeth himself
• Recall that Macbeth did not trust the murderer’s “we are men” reply
– Lady Macbeth
• Recall that she had great interest in what Macbeth was planning
next
– A thane or servant
– The three witches in disguise
• The 3rd murderer means one of two things:
– If Macbeth knew about this it would back up the fact that he does
not trust anyone
– Also it rounds out the next theme, the power of 3’s
Theme: The Power of 3’s
• Throughout this course you will see the
significance of this theme:
– Applied to Macbeth:
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There are three witches
Three murderer’s
Three murders by Macbeth
Three apparitions appear in castle
– There is power in the number three dating
back to Grimm’s Fairy Tales where characters
received three wishes
Act IV: Scene 1
• Read IV.1-1061-1062
• The three witches conjure three spirits to answer
Macbeth’s questions:
– An Armed Head: warns Macbeth against Macduff
– Blood-stained Child: tells Macbeth that no man born
of a woman can stop him
– Child wearing a crown: tells Macbeth that he will rule
Scotland until Birnam Wood matches on Dunsinane
• Macbeth asks if Banquo’s children will rule and
Banquo appears heading a table of eight kings
• The apparitions and witches disappear and
Macbeth vows to slay Macduff and his family
Act IV: Scene 2
• Lady Macduff cries over her husband’s
departure
• She tells her son that his father is dead (women
did that back then just in case) but the boy
doesn’t believe it
• Macbeth’s murderers arrive and slay Macduff’s
young son and chase his wife off stage to her
death
• Play movie scene: Lady Macduff and son death scene
Act IV: Scene 3
• Read IV.3-1065
• In England Malcolm tests Macduff’s loyalty
– He says that he has committed a crime
– Macduff is saddened that a criminal will rule
Scotland
– Malcolm knows that Macduff is for real
• Macduff finds out that his family was killed
• He is sad and vows vengeance on
Macbeth
Theme: Doubling
• The witches prepare for Macbeth’s visit:
– “double, double, toil and trouble” (IV.1-10)
• Through equivocation we know that Macbeth will
only listen to, or comprehend half of their message
• When he hears the apparitions muses, he realizes
that “stones have been known to move and trees
to speak” (III.4-154) but he never considers the
possibility that he may be defeated
Theme: Doubling
• The “show of kings”
– Doubling to the extreme
– Each king is a descendant of Banquo
– The 8th king is actually James I (who was an
actual ruler and watched the play)
– This king holds up a mirror and at one time or
another reflected the real James I face in it
– This carries the effect of doubling into the
audience as well
Theme: Doubling
• There are also doubled characters in the
play:
– Banquo is the mirror image of Macbeth in
reverse
– Lady Macbeth is the foil of Macbeth
– Malcolm’s leadership style is contrasted to
Macbeth’s
– Macduff is a double for Macbeth
Theme: Doubling
• Plot points and scenes also double:
– The two scenes where the witches talk with
Macbeth
– Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have
troubled sleep
– Two murders committed on stage and two
committed offstage
– Two scenes of mother and child
Act V: Scene 1
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Read V.1-1066
Lady Macbeth is ill
She mumbles and walks in her sleep
She confesses of crimes against Banquo,
Duncan, and Lady Macduff
• Play movie scene: Lady Macbeth
Act V: Scene 2
• Military Discussion of:
– Macduff and Malcolm have made progress
against Macbeth’s troops
– They plan to meet with the Scottish rebels in
Birnam Wood and march on Dunsinane to
overthrow Macbeth
Act V: Scene 3
• Read V.3-1067
• Macbeth and Doctor talk:
– Macbeth does not fear the invasion
– He relates that he cannot be killed by a man born of a woman
– He also mentions that the woods must march on him in order to
defeat him
– Ironic that Seyton (pronounced Satan) should appear here as a
servant to Macbeth
– Macbeth will begin to see his death through Seyton
– Seyton will live on, but not Macbeth
– Seyton will also report death, very ironic
• Watch movie scene
Act V: Scene 4
• Read V.4-1068
• Macduff and Malcolm meet the Scottish
rebels at Birnam
• Malcolm has the idea to camouflage
themselves with branches before they
march on Macbeth’s castle
Act V: Scene 5
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Read: V.5-1068
Macbeth told that his wife is dead
Macbeth’s famous soliloquy comes
Macbeth is informed that Birnam Wood is
marching towards his castle
• Macbeth realizes what this means but still
fights on believing that no man born of a
woman can stop him
• Watch movie scene
Allusion to Cain and Abel
• Lady Macbeth’s washing of her hands is
an attempt to wash the blood off her
– This alludes to Cane and Abel and the mark
that God placed on Cane after he killed his
brother
– The difference is that Cane’s mark prevents
revenge and Lady Macbeth will die a few
scenes later
Allusion to future psychological
thought
• The doctor in Act V plays an important role:
– He observes that Lady Macbeth’s dreams are used to
infer the cause of her distress
– He declares that it is the result of an “infected mind”
(V.1-76)
– Freud said, centuries later, that the dreams are the
gateways to the waking world, Macbeth cannot
dream, and Lady Macbeth has nightmares
– According to Freud’s assumptions, then, both have
lost their link to the real world and must be removed
from it
Macbeth soliloquy
Act V: Scene 6
• Malcolm and Macduff prepare to assualt
the castle walls
Act V: Scene 7
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Read V.7-1069
Macbeth is now in armor
He kills some noblemen
He meets Macduff and the two duel
throughout the remainder of the scene
• Watch duel
Act V: Scene 8
• Read V.8-1069-1070
• Macduff says that he is not naturally born of a
woman
• “Lay on Macduff”
– Macbeth taunts Macduff to keep fighting
• Macduff kills Macbeth and appears to the
warriors with his severed head
• Malcolm is the new king of Scotland
• Watch Macbeth death scene
The Problem of the Witches
• Are they real, or like the dagger, are the
figments of Macbeth’s mind
• They only voice ambitions that Macbeth
already has
• The problem with the witches not being
real is that Banquo sees them too
• They appear to Macbeth because he is a
hollow man devoid of the ambition needed
Audience Relations
• The audience relates to Macbeth
– Macbeth’s dying is less of a release than Romeo’s or
Brutus’s
– Audiences identify with Macbeth’s imagination
– We are Macbeth:
• People who know that they are doing wrong but sometimes
do it anyway
– The play works because audiences have all thought
about committing a crime and becoming him- This
frightens and grips the attention
Problem of the Secondary
Characters
• Macbeth dominate the play that is why the audience
relates to him
– Lady Macbeth leaves in III.4 except for a short return in madness
in V.1
– Duncan, Banquo, Macduff, and Malcolm are not individualized to
the audience does not relate to them
– Porter, Macduff’s son, and Lady Macduff are vivid yet only
appear briefly
• Shakespeare does this a lot to ensure that the audience
relates to the character he desires:
– Mercutio is killed before he can eclipse Romeo
– Falstaff’s death takes place offstage so as to keep the focus on
Hal
Theme: Marriage
• In each play, Shakespeare deals with the
concept of marriage, though differently in
comedy, tragedy, and history
– Comedy: resolution of problems
– Tragedy: cause for concern or trouble
– History: Based upon faith and nobility
• Through irony, the Macbeths are presented as a
very happy couple at the play’s start
• They are in love, happy, and share the good
news (through a letter) of Macbeth’s assent to
Thane of Cawdor
The Problem of the Post-Christian
Setting
• The setting is medieval Catholic
• Seems less set in Scotland and more of a kenoma, a
cosmological emptiness described by heretics
• We have been thrown into a post-Christian world with
very little reference to Christian revelation
• Although Macbeth’s crimes are not specifically antiChristian, the tragedy is so universal it could reach many
audiences
• There is no spiritual comfort to gain here:
– God did not defeat Macbeth
– There is no guarantee that this will not happen again
Characterization of Macbeth
• Very ambiguous
• Unlike any other Shakespearean character
• Knows his acts are wrong but swears to do them
anyway
• He is not entirely committed to evil
• He lacks motivation to carry out his deeds
• Unlike Hamlet or other characters, Macbeth
does not have a good reason to kill
• The audience still sympathizes with him because
of his soliloquies of agony
Characterization of Macbeth
• When Macbeth kills Duncan he:
– Eliminates the only sane nurturer left in his life
– He cuts the very root that feeds him
– He disrupts the natural course of history
– Macbeth even states later:
• If it were done when, then well it were done quickly
• He wants to hurry time along
The Problem of “The Child”
• Shakespeare never clarified the childlessness of the
Macbeths
• Lady speaks of having nursed a child, now dead, even
hints to having killed the child herself
• We are not told that Macbeth is her second husband, but
this can be assumed
• They seem to expect no heirs, nor do the witches, even
though Macbeth boasts, “bring forth men children only”
• Lady seems to be Macbeth’s mother as much as his wife
• It is difficult to imagine Macbeth as a father
• Freud even commented that their childlessness could be
the reason Macbeth kills
Theme: Time
• Time dominates this play
• It is devouring time, only death is regarded
as the finality
• Death, time, and nature are fused together
• We see Macbeth pushing time forward
• Lady also helps him with this by not
allowing any possible opportunity to slip by
Theme: Murder
• The play is a night piece in a Northland of
cosmos
• The setting is darker than the origin of any
audience member
• Every person in the play, including the
audience, is a target for Macbeth
• Each is susceptible to Macbeth’s
contamination and able to surmise a
murder
The need for Porter the Clown
• Read II.3-1052:
• Keeper of the gates of hell admits Macduff and
Lennox
• Cheerful
• Meant to contrast Porter with Macbeth
• Porter sends out the idea of equivocation within
the play
• Macbeth remembers his lines “To doubt th’
equivocation of the fiend/That lies like truth” in Act
V
• All of the witched predictions were lies that
sounded true, yet the Porter’s lines are truth that
sound like lies
Irony
• Macbeth is an ironic masterpiece
– Macbeth constantly says more than he knows
in soliloquy
– He imagines more than he says, sometimes
through soliloquy
– This raises a gap between consciousness and
imaginative powers
Characterization of Lady Macbeth
• Lady Macbeth provides all of the drive that
Macbeth lacks
• She casts off her femininity to help
– I.5-1049
– Remorse and peace are weak and feminine to
her
– She even calls Macbeth womanish
– Not a man, she is devoid of all sentimentality
– She no longer fits into natural world
Characterization of Lady Macbeth
• Reread I.6.1049 “All our service…”
– Metaphor: “Duncan’s honor is deep and broad”
– Metonymy: “he honors our house” (the Macbeths
themselves)
– Hyperbole: “in every point twice done, then done
double”
– Her syntax is complex
– Her rhythm is smooth
– She uses the iambic pentameter of Shakespearean
nobility
Characterization of Lady Macbeth
• Reread V.1-1066
– This speech is in direct contrast to the
previous one
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Choppy
Shows a deranged and fragmented state of mind
Short and unpolished sentences
Reflects a mind too disturbed to speak eloquently
Now speaks in prose, denoting that she has lost
her noble ranking