MACBETH
ACT I
THE SETTING
• SCOTLAND
• 1100 A.D.
• SCOTLAND IS DIVIDED INTO SECTIONS OF
LAND
Characters
– Duncan is the king
– EACH SECTION “OWNED” BY A THANE
– Map of Macbeth's Scotland
Characters…cont.
• Characters are called “Thane of Glamis” or “Glamis” as well as
their names (Macbeth)
• Banquo (Macbeth’s friend)
• Ross and Angus (just guys)
• Malcolm and Donalbain (sons of Duncan – princes)
• WITCHES!
The PLOT
• Witches! Plan to meet with Macbeth
• Battlefield
– Soldier tells of the battle
• Macbeth was brave!
• Cawdor was a traitor!
– King decides to have Cawdor executed and give
“Thane of Cawdor” to Macbeth
The PLOT
• Before Macbeth gets word of his new title
– MEETS THE WITCHES!
• Prophecies for Macbeth
– Thane of Glamis!
– Thane of Cawdor!
– King hereafter!
• Prophecies for Banquo
– Lesser than Macbeth and greater
– Not so happy, yet much happier
– Shall beget kings, though not be king
The PLOT – cont.
• Witches vanish!
• Banquo and Macbeth laugh it off
• King’s men announce:
– Macbeth is the new Thane of Cawdor!
• Macbeth starts to think he might also become
king!
Wednesday – April 29
ACT I, scene iv-v
• Scene iv opens at Forres, King Duncan’s castle.
• Duncan and Malcolm discuss the execution of
the Thane of Cawdor.
• Macbeth and Banquo enter
– Duncan tells Macbeth he has plans for him!
– Duncan announces that Malcolm (Prince of
Cumberland) will be next in line to be king
– Duncan says he will now visit Macbeth at
Inverness
Act I, scene v
• Scene v opens at Inverness, Macbeth’s castle
• Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth
Lady Macbeth reads the letter:
• It tells of the witches!
• Lady thinks:
• Macbeth is Glamis!
• Macbeth is Cawdor!
• He’s going to be KING!
– But I’m afraid he is not MAN enough to make it happen!
• Lady decides she will persuade Macbeth to
take action!
A messenger arrives!
• And says “The king will stay here tonight”
• Lady Macbeth can hardly believe her ears!
• She then delivers a soliloquy
–
–
–
–
–
–
Come, Spirits!
Take away my womanliness
Fill me with cruelty!
Come, Thick Night!
Cover my dark deeds!
Don’t let the heavens see what we are about to do!
Enters Macbeth!
• Lady Macbeth greets him by calling him:
– Glamis! Cawdor! King hereafter!
• They talk of Duncan’s plans to spend the night.
• Lady says
– “Let’s kill him!”
– “Look innocent!”
– “Leave it all to me!”
Thursday – April 30
Scene vi: Front of Macbeth’s Castle
• King Duncan (and others) arrive
• Lady greets him
• Macbeth is not around…(off feeling guilty)
Scene vii: A room in Macbeth’s castle
• Macbeth’s soliloquy
– I wish we could get this over with quickly!
– But what if one bad deed (killing Duncan) leads to
more?
– Duncan is my guest and my king! I mustn’t do this!
– I don’t have the guts to do this!
– Only “vaulting ambition”
Lady Macbeth comes in and says:
• Where have you BEEN!?
• Macbeth says he doesn’t want to go through
with the plan:
– I’ve just been honored!
• Lady taunts him:
– You have the desire to be king but no guts to make
it happen!
– You are not a REAL MAN!
Macbeth defends himself!
• I am too a man!
• Lady:
– But you would be MORE the man if you killed
Duncan!
– You are “killing” this “baby” (killing the plan
before it grows to result)
• Macbeth:
– But what if we FAIL?
Lady lays out the murder plan:
•
•
•
•
•
When King Duncan is asleep
I’ll get the guards drunk
Then you can sneak in and kill Duncan!
Then we’ll blame the killing on the guards!
Macbeth says:
– You should only have sons, never daughters
– Because you are made of such nasty, tough stuff!
– All right; let’s do it.
ACT II
• Scene: Macbeth’s castle
• Banquo and his son Fleance
– Talk of how dark the night is
Macbeth enters…
• Banquo says:
– I dreamed about the Weird Sisters (witches)
• Macbeth says:
– I don’t think about them
– But now that you mentioned it…
– It will benefit you to be loyal to me…
Banquo and Fleance exit…
• Macbeth sees a bloody dagger!
• Macbeth’s soliloquy!
– Is this a dagger?
– I can see you…but not touch you!
– This is just like the dagger I’m going to use to kill
Duncan!
– It’s leading me to his bedchamber!
– Oh dark world…hear not what is about to
happen…
Macbeth is still talking…
• Too many words cools off my courage to do
the deed!
• A bell sounds! It’s the signal from Lady that
everything is ready!
• Macbeth says it is Duncan’s funeral knell.
Scene ii: Still in the castle
• Lady Macbeth:
– The liquor has made her feel bold!
• A hoot from an owl!
• A cry from Macbeth!
• Lady:
– Has he messed up the plan?
– I had everything ready for him!
– In fact, I would have done it myself if he hadn’t
looked like my father!
Enters Macbeth—looking dazed and
bloody
• Macbeth:
– I did it.
– Oh look at the mess on my hands
– The guards cried out in their sleep!
– I thought I heard a voice “Sleep no more!
Macbeth has murdered the innocence of sleep!”
• Lady:
– Knock it off!
• Lady:
– You’re talking crazy…
– Go wash your hands…
– WAIT! WHY DO YOU STILL HAVE THE DAGGERS?
– You were supposed to leave them with the
guards!
• Macbeth:
– I can’t go back in there again!
– I won’t!
• Lady:
– Then I’LL do it! (You sissy!)
While Lady is taking the daggers into
the guards’ chambers…
• Macbeth:
– Wonders if he’ll ever be able to wash the blood off
his hands
• Lady returns:
– Look! My hands are red like yours
– But I’d be ashamed to have a white heart (fear)
like yours!
Knocking at the gate…
• Lady:
– Quickly! Wash our hands!
– Get into your nightclothes!
MORE KNOCKING!
• Macbeth:
– I wish the knocking could wake up Duncan!
Act II, Scene iii - Porter
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•
•
•
•
Porter answers the gate
Macduff and Lenox arrive
Lennox: “The night has been unruly…”
Macbeth: “’Twas a rough night.”
Macduff: “O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor
heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee!”
Murder discovery…
• Macduff says to Lady Macbeth:
• O gentle lady,
'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:
The repetition, in a woman's ear,
Would murder as it fell.
Macbeth says to Donalbain and
Malcolm:
• The spring, the head, the fountain of your
blood
Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd.
When Macbeth says he killed the
guards (in fury)…
• Macduff asks: “Wherefore did
you so?”
• Macbeth replies: “Who can be
wise, amazed, temperate and
furious, Loyal and neutral, in a
moment?”
The thanes plan to meet in the hall
to decide what to do!
• But Malcolm says to Donalbain:
• “What will you do? Let's not consort with
them: To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy. I'll to England.”
Malcolm and Donalbain decide to
leave:
Donalbain says: To Ireland, I; our separated
fortune
Shall keep us both the safer: where we are,
There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in
blood,
The nearer bloody.
Act II, Scene iv: outside Macbeth’s
castle
• Ross and Old Man: Strange things have been
happening!
• Here comes Macduff!
• Ross: Who killed the king?
• Macduff: They say the chamberlains did it.
• Ross: Why?
Macduff is suspicious:
• “They were suborn'd:
Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons,
Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them
Suspicion of the deed.”
Macbeth shall be king!
• Ross: “Then 'tis most like
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.”
• Macduff: “He is already named, and gone to
Scone To be invested.”
• Ross: “Will you to Scone?”
• Macduff: “No, cousin. I’ll to Fife.”
• Ross says he’s going to Scone to see Macbeth
crowned.
• Macduff says: “may you see things well done
there: adieu!
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
---END OF ACT II---
ACT III
Secne i
• Banquo begins to suspect Macbeth!
• “Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the weird women promised, and, I fear,
Thou play'dst most foully for't.”
Macbeth talks to Banquo
• Macbeth: Here’s our chief guest!...Supper
tonight?
• M: Ride you this afternoon?
• M: Is’t far you ride?
– We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd
In England and in Ireland, not confessing
Their cruel parricide
• M: Goes Fleance with you?
Macbeth hires murderers
• M: “To be thus is nothing; But to be safely
thus.
• M:Our fears in Banquo stick deep
• M: (talking about Banquo) He bade them
speak to him: then prophet-like
They hail'd him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe
Macbeth is still thinking:
• M: For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd
Macbeth talks to the murderers
• Remember how we talked yesterday?
• Remember how I explained that your suffering
and low position are BANQUO’s fault?
• “We are men, my liege.”
• Yes, you are “men” just as curs and mongrels
are also called “dogs.” (In other words, you
are a miserable excuse for men.)
Murders agree to kill Banquo
• Murderers say that their lives are miserable
and worth risking to make better
• Macbeth: I could just have him killed myself,
but he and I have mutual friends who
wouldn’t understand…
• Macbeth: “Within this hour at most
• I will advise you where to plant yourselves”
And Fleance, too…
• To leave no blotches in the work, kill Fleance
too.
• Macbeth: “It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul's
flight, If it find heaven, must find it out tonight.”
Act III, Scene ii
• Lady Macbeth is also unsettled:
– “Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got
without content”
• Macbeth enters. Lady says:
– “Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done”
• Macbeth says: “We have scotch'd the snake,
not kill'd it”
Macbeth is unhappy…
• “better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to
peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy.
Macbeth tells Lady to be a good
hostess…
• “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance,
lives.”
• ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight…there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.
Act III, scene iii
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•
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Murderers await Banquo and Fleance
Banquo: “There will be rain tonight.”
Murderers: “Let it come down!”
Banquo: “Fly, Fleance, Fly!”
Act III, scene iv: THE BANQUET!
• At the beginning of the scene, the murderer
tells Macbeth of killing Banquo (“twenty
trenched gashes on his head”)
• When Macbeth learns that Fleance got away,
he says: “There the grown serpent lies. The
worm that's fled Hath nature that in time will
venom breed; No teeth for th' present
Banquet continues…
• Macbeth tells everyone to sit down…
• “Here had we now our country's honor
roofed,
Were the graced person of our Banquo present,
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
Than pity for mischance.”
Banquet…
• Macbeth can’t find a place to sit down
because he sees someone sitting in his chair—
• Everyone at the banquet sees an empty chair,
but Macbeth sees…
Banquo’s bloody ghost!
Macbeth says incriminating things!
• “Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake
Thy gory locks at me.”
• Lady tries to calm everyone:
Lady tries to calm the guests:
• “Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus
And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep
seat.
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
He will again be well. If much you note him,
You shall offend him and extend his passion.
Feed and regard him not.
Lady to Macbeth (aside):
• “ARE YOU A MAN?!”
• Macbeth says: “Ay, and a bold one, that dare
look on that
Which might appall the devil.”
• Lady: “This is the very painting of your fear.
This is the air-drawn dagger which you said
Led you to Duncan
Listen to Lady chastise Macbeth!
• “These flaws and starts,
Impostors to true fear, would well become
A woman's story at a winter's fire,
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
You look but on a stool.”
Macbeth says to Lady…
• The time has been
That, when the brains were out, the man would
die,
And there an end. But now they rise again
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns
And push us from our stools.”
They return to the banquet-• Macbeth to his guests:
• “Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends.
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
To those that know me. Come, love and health
to all.
Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine. Fill full.
Macbeth offers a toast to Banquo
(whom we miss)
• Macbeth sees Banquo again!
• Screams: “Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the
earth hide thee.
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold.”
Lady tries one more time to calm
everyone down-• “Think of this, good peers,
But as a thing of custom. 'Tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.”
Macbeth says (to the ghost):
• I am as brave as any other man. Come at me
in the form of a rugged Russian bear, an
armor-plated rhinoceros, or a tiger from Iran.
Take any shape other than the one you have
now and I will never tremble in fear. Or come
back to life again and challenge me to a duel
in some deserted place. If I tremble then, you
can call me a little girl. Get out of here, you
horrible ghost, you hallucination. Get out!
The ghost leaves…
• Macbeth says: “Why so, being gone,
I am a man again. Pray you sit still.”
• But Macbeth’s strange behavior has ruined
the party.
• Lady says: “You have displaced the mirth,
broke the good meeting,
With most admired disorder.”
Macbeth asks the guests how they
can stay calm while looking at such
things?
• They ask: What things?
• Lady interrupts: Don’t ask him questions!
• Leave! Party’s over!
• “Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once.”
Miserable Macbeth talks to Lady
• “It will have blood, they say. Blood will have
blood.” (dead will get revenge)
• Why do you think Macduff doesn’t come to
my parties?
• Macbeth “keeps a servant fed” in each of his
thanes’ houses
• Macbeth says he will go see the weird sisters
in the morning.
Macbeth’s most famous line:
•“I am in blood
Stepped in so far that,
should I wade no more,
Returning were as
tedious as go o'er.”
Lady says:
• “You lack the season of all natures, sleep.”
Act III, scene iii
• SKIP THIS SCENE OF HECATE –
Act III, scene iv (not on tape)
• Lennox and lord talk of suspicions of Macbeth:
• We’ve said that Duncan’s sons must have
killed him…if we’re going to use that standard,
it must be that Fleance killed Banquo…
• I heard that Macduff is on Macbeth’s bad side
for not attending the banquet– Do you know
where he is?
• To England to join up with Malcolm!
ACT IV, scene I
WITCHES!
• Brew! (read together)
• By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
1st Apparition (Armored Head)
• #1 Beware Macduff! Beware the Thane of
Fife!
• M: Hmmm…I was already worried about
Macduff.
2nd Apparition (Bloody child)
• “none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth”
• Ha! Then I don’t need to worry about
Macduff…still, I’ll make extra sure and have
him killed.
3rd Apparition (Crowned child
holding a tree)
• Macbeth will not be defeated until
• Birnam Wood comes to
Dunsinane Hill
• Great! That will never happen! – But tell me
one more thing: “Shall Banquo's issue ever
Reign in this kingdom?”
Witches warn Macbeth: Seek to
know no more!
• M: Answer me!
SHOW OF KINGS
• 8 kings, all looking like Banquo…the last is
holding a mirror.
• When he holds up the mirror, it reflects more,
more, more kings…
• Banquo “smiles upon [Macbeth]
And points at them for his.”
Witches vanish; Lennox enters
• Macbeth wonders if anyone else saw the
weird sisters
• Lennox: Nope. We just came to tell you that
Macduff has fled to England!
Macbeth reacts to this news
• The very firstlings of my heart shall be
The firstlings of my hand.
• The castle of Macduff I will surprise,
• Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge o' th' sword
• His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
• That trace him in his line.
Act IV, scene ii – Macduff’s castle
• Ross tells Lady Macduff that her husband has
gone to England
• Lady Macduff is distressed—
– Why did he leave us here?
– Even the small wren will fight against the owl if
her babies are in peril…
Lady Macduff talks to her child
• Note bird imagery
• Boy says clever things
Messenger runs in:
Don’t be found here!
• Murderers come in and ask where Macduff is.
• Lady Macduff says:
• “I hope, in no place so unsanctified
Where such as thou mayst find him.
Act IV, scene iii
• England – Malcolm and Macduff discuss the
condition of Scotland.
• Malcolm tries to determine if Macduff is
honestly trying to help Scotland or just spying
for Macbeth.
Ross arrives with heavy news…
• Ross tells Macduff that his family has been
killed.
• Macduff will avenge his family’s deaths, but
first he must “feel it as a man.”
• The men are incited for battle.
ACT V, scene i
• Lady Macbeth sleepwalks!
• Doctor and Gentlewoman talk
• DOCTOR
I have two nights watched with you but can
perceive no
truth in your report. When was it she last
walked?
• Gentlewoman:
Since his majesty went into the field, I have
seen her rise
from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her,
unlock her
closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon 't,
read it,
afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet
all this while
in a most fast sleep.
Doctor asks:
•
•
•
•
What, at any time, have you heard her say?
Gentlewoman (nurse) answers:
That, sir, which I will not report after her…
having no witness to confirm my speech.
Lady walks in with a candle.
• Doctor: How came she by that light?
• Gentlewoman: She has light by her
continually. 'Tis her command.
• DOCTOR
– You see her eyes are open.
• GENTLEWOMAN
– Ay, but their sense is shut.
• DOCTOR
– What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her
hands.
• GENTLEWOMAN
– It is an accustomed action with her to seem thus
washing her hands. I have
known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.
Lady Speaks!
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•
•
•
•
Yet here's a spot.
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!
—One, two. Why, then, 'tis time to do 't.
Hell is murky!
—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard?
• What need we fear who knows
it, when none can call our power to account?
—Yet who would have thought the
old man to have had so much blood in him.
The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?—
What, will these hands ne'er be clean?
—No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that.
You mar all with this starting.
DOCTOR AND GENTLEWOMAN
• YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE HEARD THIS!
• SHE SHOULDN’T HAVE SAID IT!
LADY CONTINUES…
• Here's the smell of the blood still.
• All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten
this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!
• DOCTOR
What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely
charged.
DOCTOR:
• This disease is beyond my practice. Yet I have
known those which have walked in
their sleep who have died holily in their beds.
Lady deepens her guilt!
• Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look
not so
pale.--I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he
cannot come out on's grave.
And this…
• To bed, to bed! there's knocking at the gate:
come, come, come, come, give me your hand.
What's
done cannot be undone.--To bed, to bed, to
bed!
ACT V, scene ii
• Soldiers gathering to attack Macbeth!
• MENTEITH
What does the tyrant?
• CAITHNESS
Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies:
Some say he's mad; others that lesser hate him
Do call it valiant fury
Angus comments on Macbeth:
Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands;
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
ACT V, scene iii
Dunsinane--A room in the castle.
• Read together –
– Macbeth hears reports of the battle
– Macbeth regrets that he has nothing to grow old
for
– The doctor tells Macbeth that Lady is not well
mentally
– Macbeth asks if he can cure her
– Doctor: She must cure herself.
ACT V, scene iv
Country near Birnam wood
• Malcolm:
• Let every soldier hew him down a bough
And bear't before him: thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host and make discovery
Err in report of us.
ACT V, scene v
Dunsinane - Within the castle.
• Macbeth hears a woman cry and says:
I have almost forgot the taste of fear
• MACBETH
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
Day after day keeps creeping on…forever.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Our pasts just guide us fools towards the end.
Out, out, brief candle!
I’m ready to be dead.
…Life's but a walking shadow,
Life is meaningless and empty
a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the
stage
And then is heard no more:
We are like actors, briefly on a stage (life)
it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. Life is meaningless.
Messenger arrives to say…
• As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
The wood began to move.
BIRNAM WOOD IS COMING TO DUNSINANE!
Macbeth responds:
Arm, arm, and out!
…
Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!
At least we'll die with harness on our back.
???
ACT V, Scene vi
Soldiers have reached Dunsinane!
• Malcolm says to Seward (English general)
• MALCOLM
Now near enough: your leafy screens throw
down.
And show like those you are. You (Seward)…
Lead our first battle: worthy Macduff and we
Shall take upon 's what else remains to do.
ACT V, scene vii
Outside Macbeth’s castle – Battle!
Macbeth:
They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,
But, bear-like, I must fight the course.
What's he
That was not born of woman? Such a one
Am I to fear, or none.
• Young Seward (son of the general) fights
Macbeth and dies.
• Macbeth says:
Thou wast born of woman
But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,
Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born.
Macduff runs across the stage just
long enough to say:
Tyrant, show thy face!
If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike (kill people who are merely hired
to fight for Macbeth)
Or else my sword with an unbatter'd edge
I sheathe again undeeded.
Seward and Malcolm
Seward: the castle's gently render'd:
The tyrant's people on both sides do fight;
Malcolm: We have met with foes
That strike beside us.
Act V, scene viii
Macbeth vs. Macduff
• Macbeth (to self) decides not to “play the
Roman fool and die on mine own sword”
• Macduff: Turn, Hellhound, turn!
• Macbeth: Of all men else I have avoided thee:
But get thee back; my soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.
Macduff:
I have no words: My voice is in my sword
Macbeth:
You’ll be wasting your waste effort. “I bear a
charmed life, which must not yield,
To one of woman born.”
The last prophecy comes true!
• Macduff says:
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.
• Macbeth:
–The witches were lying double-talkers!
–I'll not fight with thee.
• Macduff:
–Then give up and we’ll tour you around
the countryside like a freakshow
Macbeth’s last words:
I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's
feet…Though Birnam wood be come to
Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'
Ross tells Seward his son was killed
in battle.
• Ross: your cause of sorrow
Must not be measured by his worth, for then
It hath no end.
Seward: Had he his hurts before?
Ross: Ay, on the front.
Macduff enters…with Macbeth’s
HEAD!
• Macduff hails Malcolm as new King of
Scotland
• Malcolm thanks everyone and ends with this
couplet:
So, thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.