William Shakespeare
What if you met three strange
women who predict your future
…and those predictions started coming true?
What if the women predicted you would be the
most powerful and richest ruler in your country?
Would you WAIT to see if it came true, OR
would you try to MAKE the “promise” come true?
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Generals Macbeth and Banquo and the whole
Scottish army defeats the invading Norwegian army.
King Duncan orders the former Thane of Cawdor
executed and rewards valiant Macbeth with all the
traitor’s lands and title.
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After the bloody battle,
Macbeth and Banquo
encounter the three
weird sisters.
They greet Macbeth as
Thane of Glamis, Thane
of Cawdor, and KING
hereafter.
They tell Banquo he will
father kings.
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King Duncan announces
his own elder son Malcolm
heir to the throne and names
him Prince of Cumberland.
Later Malcolm is accused of
hiring the bodyguards to kill
his father, so flees to England.
England’s King Edward
provides protection.
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Plans King Duncan’s murder,
drugs King Duncan’s guards,
and urges reluctant Macbeth
to kill the sleeping man.
Later, sleepwalks and talks in
her sleep about not being able
to wash the blood from her
hands, “Out, damn’d spot, out!”
Commits suicide mumbling
“Hell is murky.”
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A character knows less than the audience, and we wait
in anticipation for the character to find out the truth.
King Duncan observes, "This castle hath a pleasant seat,“
but we know his host and hostess are plotting his murder
within the walls of Inverness.
Duncan's complete unawareness of danger builds suspense.
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King Duncan is an old,
kind, and generous ruler.
He is Macbeth’s kin.
As guest in Macbeth’s
castle, he is entitled to
Macbeth’s protection.
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Before killing his king, Macbeth “sees”
a floating dagger. As thick drops of blood
appear on the blade and hilt, he speaks
to his vision, “I see thee still, And on thy
blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before.”
(2.1.45-47)
What would you do about a nightmare
or vision of horror?
Have you ever felt guilty about a wrong
action even though you got away with it?
The porter provides comic relief from the previous
tense murder scene. As the porter laughs, we
know the visiting noblemen are about to discover a
grisly murder. The drunken gatekeeper acts and
speaks jokingly as if he has awaken in hell.
Other examples:
 “Fair is foul and foul is fair.”
 “When the battle is lost and won.”
 “Nothing is but what is not.”
 “Nought’s had, all’s spent.”
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Macbeth orders the
murder of Banquo
and son Fleance, but
Fleance escapes.
A third, hired murderer
kills the first two
murderers.
Macbeth “sees” the
bloody ghost of Banquo
at a feast on the same
night as the murders.
“Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?”
(2.2.57-60)
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Helmeted head warns, “Beware Macduff.”
A bloody child cries, “None of woman born shall
harm Macbeth.”
A child king holding a small tree asserts, “Macbeth
shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam Wood to
high Dunsinane Hill/Shall come against him.”
Eight kings in procession walk by with the
last, carrying a mirror that reveals an
unending line of kings born of Banquo.
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Macduff, Thane of Fife,
flees to England to convince
Malcolm to return and claim
the throne.
Macbeth orders the
slaughter of Macduff’s wife
and children, and anyone
left in Macduff’s castle.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
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.
(5.5)
“Shakespeare's tragic hero is a man of noble birth
who falls from a position of honor and respect due to
a flaw in his character. He freely chooses a course of
action which ultimately causes him suffering and
brings him to a fatal end” (Campbell 129) .
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Advancing English army
lead by Duncan’s returning
son Malcolm disguises
their numbers using the
branches from Burnam
Wood as camouflage.
In a fierce battle, Macbeth
learns that Macduff was
from his mother “untimely
ripp’d” (C-section).
Macduff beheads Macbeth
and holding the severed
head proclaims Malcolm
the new King of Scotland.
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Are our lives already mapped out for us, OR do we
have a hand in what happens to us? At the end of
the play the audience is forced to consider the
extent to which the characters have control over
their own lives.
Ambition and Manliness
Supernatural and Darkness
Guilt and Blood
Clothing and Deception
Outward vs. Inward
Pun=wordplay, a stylistic device
used to create ambiguity:
“If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms
withal, For it must seem their guilt” (2.2.71-73).
 Metaphor=implied comparison:
“I have no spur/To prick the sides of my intent, but
only/Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself”
(1.7.25-27).
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5.
Pick a favorite quote from the play.
Identify the speaker.
Give its meaning/modern translation.
Explain its important in the play.
Provide its location: act.scene.line(s).
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Fair is foul and foul is fair.
If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which
grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me.
The Thane of Cawdor lives, why do you dress me in
borrowed robes?
Look like th’ innocent flower, But be the serpent
under ‘t.
Fair and noble hostess, We are your guest tonight.
He’s here in double trust: First as I am his kinsman
and his subject, Strong both against the deed.
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Had he not resembled my father as he slept,
I had done ‘t.
Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor
shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more.
A little water clears us of this deed: how easy is it then!
Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!
There’s daggers in men’s smiles.
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What’s done is done.
I am in blood Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade
no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As
the weird women promised, and I fear Thou
play'dst most foully for 't.
O, full of scorpions is my mind!
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Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and
cauldron bubble.
All my pretty ones? Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
Not in the legions Of horrid hell can come a devil
more damned In evils to top Macbeth.
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All the perfumes of Arabia will
not sweeten this little hand.
Yet who would have thought the old
man to have had so much blood in him?
I bear a charm’d life.
I have liv'd long enough: my way of life
Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf.
She should have died hereafter.
Lay on, Macduff, And damn'd be him
that first cries, "Hold, enough!"
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Why do we continue to study Shakespeare?
What relevance does Shakespeare have to our life?