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 29ACT 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 30Scene 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

• 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 heartCannot 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 officeWhich 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 themSuspicion of the deed.”

Macbeth shall be king!

• Ross: “Then 'tis most likeThe 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 IIISecne 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'dIn England and in Ireland, not confessingTheir 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 to-night.”

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 remedyShould 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 lieIn 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 flownHis cloister'd flight…there shall be doneA deed of dreadful note.

Act III, scene iii

• 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 unkindnessThan 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 shakeThy gory locks at me.”

• Lady tries to calm everyone:

Lady tries to calm the guests:

• “Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thusAnd hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep

seat.The fit is momentary; upon a thoughtHe 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 thatWhich might appall the devil.”

• Lady: “This is the very painting of your fear.This is the air-drawn dagger which you saidLed you to Duncan

Listen to Lady chastise Macbeth!

• “These flaws and starts,Impostors to true fear, would well becomeA 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 beenThat, when the brains were out, the man would

die,And there an end. But now they rise againWith twenty mortal murders on their crownsAnd 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 nothingTo 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 bloodStepped 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 IWITCHES!

• 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 bornShall 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 toDunsinane 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.