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MACBETH
PLOT SUMMERY
Macbeth has remained one of William Shakespeare's most intense and often
performed plays
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However, power comes at a price and by the end of the play, Macbeth's world falls
apart around him, he is defeated and a new king, Malcolm, is declared
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The early 17th
century was a time of political upheaval, suspicion and superstition
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Shakespeare's play reflects these changes
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While returning from a battle victory, Macbeth, a powerful lord, meets three
Witches who predict that he will become King of Scotland
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Macbeth tells his wife of the Witches' predictions and she encourages him to
murder the current king, Duncan, who is staying with them as a guest
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After Macduff discovers the murder, Duncan's sons flee the country, leaving the
way clear for Macbeth to become king
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Banquo, Macbeth's best friend, becomes suspicious of what his friend has done
so Macbeth has him murdered too
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Macbeth pays a second visit to the Witches and receives more predictions
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In England, Malcolm (Duncan's elder son) and his chief supporter, Macduff, plan
to invade Scotland to win back the throne
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Malcolm becomes
the new King of Scotland and the country counts the cost of Macbeth's short but
bloody reign
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A fateful meeting
The three Witches, huddled around a cauldron
Macbeth, the powerful Thane of Glamis, has led the Scottish army of King Duncan
to victory against an invading force and has personally fought bravely
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They predict
that Macbeth will be made Thane of Cawdor (a more powerful position than that he
currently holds) and eventually become King of Scotland
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Almost immediately, Macbeth receives the news that in gratitude for leading his
troops to victory Duncan is making him Thane of Cawdor
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Murder
Lady Macbeth offers her husband some encouragement
Duncan is due to stay with the Macbeths as a house guest
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Macbeth and his wife plan and carry out Duncan's murder
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They try to
cover up their deed by making it seem as if the King's servants are responsible
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In the
confusion that follows, Macbeth kills Duncan's innocent guards so that they cannot
talk
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A guilty conscience
Macbeth's guilty conscienceDespite being King, Macbeth does not feel secure,
especially when he thinks about the Witches' prediction that Banquo's descendants
and not his own will be kings in the future
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They murder Banquo but Fleance escapes
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Later, at a banquet, Banquo's blood-stained ghost appears to
Macbeth
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More predictions
Macbeth decides to consult the Witches again
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However, he learns that Macduff has gone to join
Malcolm in England
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A
devastated Macduff swears revenge on Macbeth and vows to support Malcolm in
regaining the Scottish throne
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She has taken to sleepwalking and tries to wash her hands clean of imaginary
blood
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Macbeth goes into battle against Macduff
Malcolm and Macduff's invasion begins; Macbeth still thinks he is protected by the
Witches' predictions but he is wrong
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Macduff comes face-to-face with Macbeth in battle
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The two men fight and Macduff kills and then beheads
Macbeth
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Character overview
The cast of characters in Macbeth is not particularly large but each has an
important part to play in the unfolding drama
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Other characters are servants or soldiers and even
supernatural beings
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And they in their turn, are influenced by the
words and actions of others
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He
is clearly a brave warrior and leader at the start of the drama but he falls victim to
the Witches' predictions
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In a series of
soliloquies he repeatedly questions himself about his motives for killing the King but
is eventually persuaded to continue by his forceful wife
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His actions become less heroic and more cowardly as he
continues to murder and terrorise others in order to hold on to his power
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Social and historical context
A king in Shakespeare's time was thought to rule by 'divine right'
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The killing of a king (known
as regicide) was therefore considered to be just about the worst crime that anyone
could commit
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The
new King on the throne of England, James I (also known as James VI of Scotland),
was paranoid about assassination attempts
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Analysing the evidence
Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me
clutch thee: I have thee not, and yet I see thee still
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(Act 2 Scene 1)

Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth is even more ambitious and ruthless than her husband
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She uses her
influence to persuade Macbeth that they are taking the right course of action and
even takes part in the crime herself
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She becomes unable to sleep, and
mentally unstable, eventually dying in tragic circumstances
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Wives were little more than the
property of their husbands and had no legal rights
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Lady Macbeth appears to be a much more feisty

character with ambitions and desires of her own; these are characteristics that
could imply a lack of femininity
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Analysing the evidence
Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here And fill me from the
crown to the toe topfull Of direst cruelty: make thick my blood, Stop up th'access
and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell
purpose, nor keep peace between Th'effect and it
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(Act 1 Scene 5)

Banquo
Banquo is another general in King Duncan's army and Macbeth's best friend
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Banquo is aware that the Witches' predictions may be tricking Macbeth into evil
actions and is the first to suspect Macbeth of murder
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Macduff
Macduff, the Thane of Fife, is Macbeth's deadly enemy
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When he learns of the murders of his wife
and family, Macduff feels guilty about leaving them and driven by a need for
revenge
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The two men meet face-to-face on the battlefield and Macduff kills
Macbeth
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Their predictions drive matters forward though they never actually suggest direct
action
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Many of their predictions are ambiguous
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By analysing them you
can better understand the writer's intentions
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In Macbeth there are many themes which could be analysed
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Scotland is shown as a wild and savage
place ruled over by a weak king (Duncan) who relies on his warrior thanes to keep
control
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By the end
of the play Malcolm has become King and it seems likely that he will be much fairer
and treat his people justly
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Some of the key aspects are:

• the fatal flaw
• leadership
• greed
Evil and the supernatural
Witches and witchcraft were thought to be real in Shakespeare's timeWitches and
witchcraft were thought to be real in Shakespeare's time
In Shakespeare's time, the powers of evil were thought to be absolutely real; to
most people Hell was an actual place and the Devil a constant threat to their souls
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Hundreds of
innocent people (mostly women) were executed as suspected witches
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When Shakespeare came to write his play, he knew

that his audience would find the theme of evil and the supernatural very interesting
indeed
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Some of the key aspects are:

• wicked thoughts and actions
• the activities of the Witches
• the disruption of nature
Appearances and reality
Banquo's ghost appearing in front of MacbethBanquo's ghost appearing in front of
Macbeth
In Macbeth, things are never quite what they seem
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Wicked and violent acts
such as murder are covered up or the blame is shifted onto someone else
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Ghosts, visions and apparitions occur regularly
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How is this shown in the play?
In Macbeth, Shakespeare examines how appearances can be deceptive and that
the reality behind them is often unpleasant
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The form of
Macbeth is a dramatic play
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The simplest definition
of a tragedy would be "a play with an unhappy ending"
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Tragic plays can be traced back all the way to the beginnings of drama in Ancient
Greece
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He stated that tragic plays would involve a protagonist (the
leading central figure) who is usually of royal or noble birth
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Tragedy set out to stir up feelings of fear and
pity in the audience – this is known as catharsis
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The protagonist is clearly
Macbeth himself, a thane of the Scottish nobility
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Macbeth is basically a good man who goes wrong
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His wife shares this fatal flaw with him
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He feels he needs to murder, lie and behave brutally to others in
order to keep his power
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This causes Macduff to take up a position as the play's antagonist –
Macbeth's opposite
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While
exciting to watch, all of this should cause feelings of horror and regret in the
audience
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In the case of Macbeth, the structure is strictly chronological
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Sometimes events are described rather than shown (eg Macbeth
becoming king)
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The events of this play are organised into five acts, each containing a number of
scenes
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The idea of the five-act structure is a useful one, though, as it follows the model
designed by Gustav Freytag, a German author from the 19th-century
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He named these stages: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and
catastrophe
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As you will have observed, the majority of the writing in
Macbeth is in poetic form, though sometimes prose is used
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It is often called blank verse or iambic
pentameter
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The ends of lines are not generally rhymed which helps to maintain the flow
of the speech and carry through the meaning of what the character is saying
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This is called a half line
(even if it is less or more than half the five beats)
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This tends to quicken the pace of the speeches as characters overlap their
words
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Generally this structure tends to speed up the rhythm in which the
words are spoken and gives the whole thing a more "sing-song" quality – this is, of
course, very appropriate for the Witches' chanting
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When Lady Macbeth is
sleepwalking and she is starting to lose her mind, Shakespeare does not use blank
verse as he would normally do for a noble character but uses straightforward prose
instead:
eg
Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this
little hand
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Use of language in Macbeth
Language refers to the choices of style and vocabulary made by the author
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It is estimated that he had a vocabulary of
17,000 words (four times that of the average educated person of the time)
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For instance, 'be all and end all', 'at one fell swoop' and 'crack of doom' all
first appeared in Macbeth
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This repetition reinforces their importance in the mind of the audience or reader and
adds strongly to the overall atmosphere of the play
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Blood
What relevance does the word 'blood' have in the play?
Blood splattered on a surfaceThe word 'blood' appears numerous times in the play
Blood appears as a real substance all through the play
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Blood is evident when
Duncan, Banquo and Lady Macduff are murdered and the Witches use animal
blood as part of their potions
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The word 'blood' also appears a number of times as a symbol of the guilt that runs
through the play
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Why does Shakespeare use the word 'blood' so often in the play?
The word 'blood' appears over 40 times in Macbeth – not to mention appearances
by related words such as 'bloody', 'bleeding' and so on
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This was especially true for the play's original audiences
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It was not only a crime but also a deadly sin
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This is further reinforced by the images of blood which are
used throughout the character's speeches and makes what they are saying all the
more frightening or horrific
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Many of the
most horrifying scenes of the play take place at night and under the cover of
darkness
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The image
of night time is also used by the characters to show the darkness of their feelings
and the evil of what they are doing
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It had another particularly practical
use in Shakespeare's day
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Therefore it was important to keep reminding the audience that some of
the play's most important scenes were actually meant to be taking place in the dark
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Being able
to see into the future, as Macbeth believes the Witches are able to do, gives a
sense of power to his actions
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Why does Shakespeare use the word 'time' so often in the play?

As with the other key words, the main effect of repetition is to make sure that the
audience or reader knows that this aspect is important
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The language used often relates to one or more of our five
senses
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Images of many different mammals, birds and insects appear throughout the play
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Different species of bird were thought to have specific characteristics - some, for
instance, were specifically thought to bring bad luck
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Why does Shakespeare use bird imagery in the play?
Shakespeare would have known that his audience would make the necessary
connections between the birds he mentions and the actions and thoughts of his
characters
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Wild animals
What is the significance of wild animal imagery in the play?

Nature has often been described as 'red in tooth and claw' and it is this idea that
Shakespeare uses in his references to wild animals
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Why does Shakespeare use wild animal imagery in the play?
Most of Shakespeare's original audience would never actually have seen these
creatures (possibly not even pictures of them) but their characteristics would have
been understood
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In addition to the above, the famous scene (Act 4 Scene 1) where the Witches
create their magic potion features virtually a whole zoo of animals
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All of
these had associations with evil and/or witchcraft

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