Macbeth
Basic Information
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
– 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
• 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”
• 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
• 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
• 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:
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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 anti-
Christian, 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
• 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