Utopia

Macbeth

Summary

Act I, Scene 1 The witches plan to meet after the battle, which we find is a rebellion in Scotland. They are summoned by their familiars and end with the theme of the play.

Act I, Scene 2 The king and his thanes are at a camp and hear word of the battle from the bleeding sergeant. The sergeant had saved Malcolm earlier. He says that the battle was doubtful, with the rebel Macdonwald receiving reinforcements and luck. However, Macbeth man aged to fight well, and killed the slave Macdonwald. A second attack by the Norweyan lord angered Macbeth and he met their attacks so the Norwegians got their butts kicked. The sergeant goes to get some medical attention, and then Ross tells the rest of the story. Norway and the rebel Thane of Cawdor were met by Macbeth and were defeated. The Norwegian king Sweno was forced to pay ten thousand dollars. Macbeth is given the rebel Cawdor's title.

Act I, Scene 3 The witches meet again, as planned. One has been killing pigs. Another witch is getting revenge on the captain of the Tiger, who's wife has not given her a chestnut. Winds summoned by her will blow in every direction, making the sailor throw up and nev er sleep, though the ship will never be lost. The witch has the pilot's thumb. Then Macbeth comes. The witches sing a little song. Macbeth comments on the good and bad day, then Banquo sees the witches. They look human in some ways, but don't in others. The witches hail Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, his current title, as well as Cawdor, which he doesn't know he is to receive, and King, which is a complete shock. Banquo is suprised that Macbeth isn't ecstatic at the prophecy, and asks the witches why they have no prophecy for him. The witches make important predictions to Banquo, as lesser but greater, less happy but happier than Macbeth. They also say his children will become Kings. Macbeth wants to know more. The witches vanish, and the two puzzle over the disapperance. Ross and Angus come. Ross tells them the kind heard of his victory in battle. They tell him the King will honor him in person, but that he has also received the t itle of Cawdor. Macbeth asks why he is given someone else's title and is told of the treason. Now Macbeth starts thinking the prophecy might come true. Banquo is still worried. Macbeth is scared as he considers killing the king to complete the prophecy. Banquo says he is getting used to his new title. Macbeth comes out of his thinking and thanks the men. He tells Banquo they will talk later.

Act I, Scene 4 The king asks if Cawdor is executed yet and if the people who did it are back yet. Malcolm says the aren't back but someone who saw it said Cawdor confessed and apologized, at peace with himself so that death was not a problem, and the way he left was be tter than the way he lived. Duncan makes a comment important to theme, saying he trusted Cawdor, because he was deceptive in the way he acted. When Macbeth arrives, Duncan thanks him for what he did, saying he can never repay him. Macbeth says he was just doing his duty. Duncan says Macbeth will grow, and Banquo will be close to his heart. Banquo also expresses his loyalty, saying the benefit would be for Duncan. Duncan says he is happy despite troubles, and declares his son Malcolm his successor, making Malcolm a problem in Macbeth's getting the throne. Duncan decides to go to Macbeth's castle, and Macbeth goes to tell his wife. Macbeth talks of how he is having dark thoughts about trying to become king. Duncan comments on how great Banquo is and then follows him.

Act I, Scene 5 Lady Macbeth is reading a letter from Macbeth, which tells about the witches prophecy. Lady Macbeth says that her husband is too nice to get the greatness he is promised. She decides to help him gain the crown. A messenger tells her the King is coming. Lady Macbeth decides that Duncan will be killed while staying there. She tries to get rid of all kind thoughts so that she can do the deed. She tells her husband to appear normal, even while he plans to kill the King.

Act I, Scene 6 Duncan talks about how pleasant the castle is. Banquo notes how the birds are abundant, marking it for a nice place. Duncan greets Lady Macbeth, who returns the formality and assures her loyalty. She leads them into the castle.

Act I, Scene 7 Macbeth contemplates the crime and says he should do it soon if he does it. If this was all there was to it, and all he had to worry about was the afterlife, he would do it. But he is also judged here, and murdering may lead to his own death. He is supposed to be loyal to Duncan as a relative and subject and host. And Duncan is such a nice, great leader that whoever kills him will be damned. Everyone will be sad. There is nothing to make him do it except ambition, which is like a spur but also like a rider who jumps on a horse but falls off the other side. Lady Macbeth says Duncan almost finished dinner. Macbeth doesn't want to kill someone who has done him so well. Lady Macbeth asks what happened to his hope that he had so much. She will not love him if he doesn't do this, what he wants. Macbeth doesn't want to do it, and Lady Macbeth asks what happened since he was so willing to do it before. She says that if she had sworn to, she would kill a baby suckling at her breast. Lady Macbeth says they won't fail because they will get the King's attendants drunk and make it look like they did it. Macbeth comments on his wife's mannly mettle, and starts to believe his wife. She says it will look like the servants did it, so Macbeth agrees to do it, while hiding what he did from his face, a refernce to the theme.

Act II, Scene 1 Banquo and Fleance are walking around and wondering at the time. Baquo is worried about the dark thoughts in his head. Macbeth comes up and Banquo asks why he isn't sleeping when Duncan went to bed happy and sent them gifts. Macbeth responds that he wasn't as good a host because he was unprepared. Banquo dreamt of the witches and Macbeth says they should talk about that later. Banquo wants to maintain his loyalty to the king. Macbeth dismisses his servant and then imagines a dagger before him, but he isn't sure if it is real. He says it encourages to do the deed, showing him how. In the night, he dreams of Hecate and the witches, of a wolf howling the time for murder, and compares his stealthy approach to that of Tarquin. In horror, he resolves to do the deed.

Act II, Scene 2 Lady Macbeth says that the alcohol that made the attendants drunk has given her courage. Omens of death wish the king good night, and Macbeth is going to kill him as the drunk attendants are unconscious. When Macbeth shows up she is afraid they woke up and it didn't work. She would have done it if Duncan didn't look like her fathe. But he did it, after some trouble. One attendant woke up and said "Murder" but then they went ack to sleep. Donalbain either said "God bless us" or "Amen" in response to Duncan saying it. Macbeth is troubled because he could not say "Amen". Lady Macbeth says not to think that way. Macbeth says he heard a voice saying he murdered sleep, which is described as such a sweet and pleasant thing. She tells him not to think of such sickly things and to wash his hands. She then agrees to put the daggers back, because Macbeth doesn't want to. She says only kids fear death and sleep. She will get some blood on the attendants to make them look guilty. Macbeth is troubled by knocking and says that nothing can wash his hands clean, and the blood will make the seas red. Lady Macbeth feels bad to have red hands but to be innocent of the crime itself. She tells him to wash his hands and retire and put on his nightgown so that they will not be suspicious to the watchers. Macbeth wishes he did not know what he had done.

Act II, Scene 3 The porter hears knocking and says that a porter at hell would have a busy job. He pretends to be the porter of hell, and imagines the sort of people who would come, such as a farmer who didn't get the high prices wanted, a traitor, and a tailor who tried to overprice his garments. Finally he lets Macduff and Lennox in, and they have a discussion about drinking. The porter tells how drink causes red noses, sleep, and urine. He also says it causes lechery, though it takes away the performance. Macbeth comes and greets Lennox and Macduff. Macbeth leads Macduff to the king. Lennox comments on weird things that happened during the night. Macduff returns, having discovered the murder. He is in hysterics, telling them of the horror of horrors and calling for an alarm. He compares the events transpiring to Judgement Day, when the dead rise up to a trumpet. Lady Macbeth comes and asks what is going on. And Macduff tells Banquo when he enters. Macbeth reenters commenting on how awful life is with the death of his king. Malcolm and Donalbain are then informed what happened. Lennox says it looked like the chamber attendants had done it. Macbeth says that in his fury, he killed the attendants. Malcolm and Donalbain are afraid and agree to leave. Banquo says they should reassemble to investigate the matter. Malcolm, in a comment relevant to the theme, says it is easy to show a false sorrow. They both agree it is not safe there and depart.

Act II, Scene 4 The old man says this is the worst night he has ever seen. Ross speaks metaphorically of the battle between light and dark. The old man compares it to an owl killing a great falcon. Ross then talks of the mysterious event with the horses of Duncan getting loose and eating each other. Macduff says it is thought the attendants did the murder. He thinks they were paid by Malcolm and Donalbain. Macbeth is said to have gone to Scone to get the crown. Duncan's body is said to be buried. Macduff and Ross bid each other farewell. The old man bids them farewell with a comment alluding again to the theme.

Act III, Scene 1 Banquo comments on how Macbeth has everything he was promised, but he thinks Macbeth gained it through evil. But Banquo hopes now that his prophecies will come true and his kids will be kings. Macbeth invites Banquo, his chief guest, to a feast. Banquo and Fleance are riding that afternoon, but can be back by supper. Macbeth says that Malcolm and Donalbain, their cousins whom guilt rests upon, are in England and Ireland but don't admit to the crime. Macbeth bids them farewell then tells the servant to fetch the murderers. While waiting, he deliver a soliloquy about how it is insufficient to be king, unless he is secure. He fears Banquo, with his wisdom and temper, will try to unseat him, as the prophecies said his children would be kings. Macbeth fears he has given up his soul and committed an evil act, just to put Banquo's descendants on the throne. He tells fate to fight him to the death. Macbeth has been convincing the murderers that Banquo is a bad person over the course of two earlier meetings. Macbeth tells the murderers they have a special role as men, and the murderers say they have had a rough life and would do anything. Macbeth tells them to kill Banquo, their mutual enemy. He compares is battle with Banquo to fencing, but says he can't kill him himself. He tells them to do it carefully, and to kill Banquo's son Fleance as well.

Act III, Scene 2 Lady Macbeth sends a servant for Macbeth, then says something that reminds of Macbeth's earlier soliloquy. It is no good to be insecure in what you have, and you might as well be destroyed. She asks Macbeth why he is keeping to himself and acting worried when he can't change what he has done. Macbeth says there is still a threat, and he wishes he were one of the dead who are in peace, than have such constant worries. Lady Macbeth tells him to act happy. Macbeth says his wife needs to remember that, too, and that they need to flatter Banquo to cover up for their dark plans. Lady Macbeth says not to kill Banquo and that they won't live forever. Macbeth says they can be happy after Banquo and Fleance are dead, which will happen that night. Macbeth doesn't want to tell his wife of his plans so that she can be innocent. He says this evil deed will help what was badly begun.

Act III, Scene 3 A new murderer appears, claiming to be sent by Macbeth. Banquo approaches and they kill him, but Fleance escapes. They go to tell Macbeth.

Act III, Scene 4 At the banquet, they seat themselves according to rank. Lady Macbeth goes to play hostess, while Macbeth meets with the Murderer. He learns Fleance escaped and says he is now surrounded by fears instead of being calm and safe. Macbeth is grateful that at least the snake is gone, thought the worm Fleance will likely return. He tells the murderer they will meet again. Lady Macbeth tells him to be a good host, otherwise the guests might as well be eating at home or paying for the meal. Macbeth then sees a ghost of Banquo sit in his chair, but Ross and Lennox tell him to sit since they don't see the ghost. Lady Macbeth tells the guests to wait, that this is just a temporary fit. She tells Macbeth that it is just his imagining from fear. Macbeth says he is just ill and drinks wine to Banquo. He tells the ghost to go away, that it is not real. Lady Macbeth tells the lords to leave after Macbeth continues to act strangely. He wonders then where Macduff is. He says he will go to see the witches again.

Act III, Scene 5 Hecate is angry because the witches have been dealing with Macbeth without consulting her. She says he will be told his destiny at the cave the next day. The various spells she contrives will lure him into a false sense of security. The witches prepare for her return.

Act III, Scene 6 Lennox thinks it is suspicious how Macbeth has been acting and how two people killed their fathers. Macduff is reported to be in the English court, rallying forces to remove Macbeth.

Act IV, Scene 1 The witches meet again and cook up a spell in their cauldron with all sorts of interesting ingredients. Macbeth approaches them to answer his question, regardless of any havoc it might wreak. Macbeth opts to hear it from the witches' masters and is greeted by an apparition that can read his mind and answer his question. The armed head represents Macbeth, telling him to beware of Macduff. The bloody child represents Macduff, who we later find out was not of woman born. Macbeth wonder why, then, he should fear Macduff but just to be safe he will kill him anyway. The crowned child is Malcolm, with the tree representing Burnham Wood, and says not to fear until Great Burnham wood moves against him. Macbeth feels safe since a wood can never move and he knows no people not of woman born. He thinks the prophecy is a good and insures him a safe life. Then a line of kings is seen, thought to represent the descendents of Banquo that eventually lead to King James. The last king holds a mirror to make the line seem endless. So Macbeth gets his question answered about Macbeth's descendents and the witches try to cheer him up by dancing. Then they disappear. Lennox tells Macbeth than Lennox has gone to England. Macbeth comments in his aside about how he was overtaken by time because he failed to act on his plan. He decides to kill Macduff's children.

Act IV, Scene 2 Lady Macduff is wondering why her husband left. She thinks he was mad, looking like a traitor, loveless and cowardly to leave his family and possessions. Ross tries to comfort her, telling her he knows what is wrong at the moment. People don't know they are traitors, when they know fear. Ross leaves and says he will be back. Lady Macduff has an interesting conversation with her son Sirrah about what they will do without a father. The messenger tells her to leave, that she is in danger. But Lady Macduff doesn't know where to go, and she has done no wrong. As she realizes that doing good is sometimes a bad thing, the murderers arrive. The murderers kill the Son, but Lady Macduff escapes.

Act IV, Scene 3 Malcolm says they should find some place to cry, while Macduff says they should defend their native country the way they would a fallen comrade. Scotland is full of cries. Malcolm says this could be true, but he fears that Macduff could betray him to Macbeth for a reward. Malcolm says that even is Macduff isn't treacherous, he good give in to the royal command the way a cannon recoils after it is fired. He says bad things can look good while good things still look good. Malcolm asks why Macduff left his family. Macduff says he is not a bad person, that the tyrant Macbeth hurts Scotland as legal ruler. Malcolm says he does want to retake Scotland, but then to check still if Macduff is a spy, he lies, saying how he is a man of vices who would be an even worse ruler. At first, Macduff says the vices won't be a problem, that Scotland can deal with them and that Macbeth is worse. When Malcolm persists, Macduff says that Malcolm truly unfit to rule and fears for his country. Malcolm then says his fears are allayed, and that he really is virtuous person. Macduff says this is hard to deal with all of a sudden. The doctor then talks about how the king is healing people with the evil. Malcolm does not recognize Ross since he's been in England for a while. Ross tells how awful things are in Scotland, but assures Macduff his family is fine. He encourages them to return and save Scotland. Ross then tells Macduff that his family is actually dead. He encourages revenge. Macduff thinks Macbeth wouldn't have killed his kid if he had any of his own. They plan to go to Scotland.

Act V, Scene 1 The gentlewoman who cares for Lady Macbeth has summoned a doctor, but in two nights the reported symptoms of waking up and writing something have not occurred. The doctor says it is a disturbance of nature for her to do such things while appearing to sleep. The gentlewoman will not repeat anything Lady Macbeth has said for she is unsure, but then Lady Macbeth appears, carrying a light. Lady Macbeth acts as if washing her hands, seeing a spot of blood. She questions why her husband should be scared, but complains still of the blood that was shed. She is wracked with guilt that troubles her as the two observe. The doctor says she needs the help of god, not a doctor for her troubles

Act V, Scene 2 The English forces with the Scottish thanes are near, Menteith reports. The revenge they seek is a strong enough cause to raise the dead and wounded. Angus says they will met at Burnham wood, and Caithness asks if Donalbain is coming. Lennox explains he has a list of everyone, including boys ready to show their manhood in their first battle, and Donalbain is not on the list. Caithness explains that Macbeth is strengthening his castle, and is acting crazy, unable to rule. Angus explains these are the consequences of the murder; people don't willingly follow him and his title means little. Menteith explains Macbeth is afraid of himself, and Caithness compares Malcolm to doctor, and by working with him they will cure their country by shedding their blood.

Act V, Scene 3 Macbeth is wondering how the prophecy will come true, and tries to remain confident. Macbeth upraids his servant for seeming afraid, but is told of the English forces. Mcabeth tells Seyton this revolt will either remove or leave him happy, as right now he has none of things due a man of old age. Macbeth asks for his armor, planning to defend himself to the end. Macbeth asks the doctor to cure his wife. The doctor wishes he weren't there.

Act V, Scene 4 Malcolm hopes to regain the safety they once had. Menteith is sure it will happen. Malcolm tells each soldier to cut down a large tree branch and put it in front of him, thereby camouflaging himself. The scouts will think there are less of them. Macbeth waits in his castle, his only hope of defense. Though they have hopes of what they want to accomplish, now is the time for actual blows and battle to win.

Act V, Scene 5 Macbeth says let them come to the castle, he can hold them off. If they didn't have his soldiers, then he could have met them on the field and beat them back. Macbeth has forgotten what it is like to be afraid, having as much fear as a man can bear. Macbeth wishes his wife had died later, at a better time. He comments on how life passes at this little speed, with people dying after a futile life. Macbeth says the messenger comes to speak, he should give his report quickly. The messenger, unsure of how to report what he saw, says Birnham wood appeared to move (remember that the soldiers are carrying boughs to hide themselves as they move), thus the prophecy is fulfilled. Macbeth starts wishing this were just all over and prepares for death fighting.

Act V, Scene 6 Macolm and Macduff split off from Siward, and they throw down their boughs, preparing to fight.

Act V, Scene 7 Macbeth knows he is stuck fighting, and he wonders who was not born of woman. Macbeth tells Young Siward who he is, and Macbeth says he should be not just hateful but fearful to Young Siward's ears. Macbeth says he doesn't fear any not of woman born and kills Young Siward. Macduff says he must kill Macbeth to avenge his family, and only Macbeth. By the noise of Macbeth's armor, he locates him. Siward explains the battle is easy. Malcolm enters the castle.

Act V, Scene 8 Macbeth asks why he should kill himself when the wounds he might inflict upon himself would look better upon his living enemies. Macbeth says he has avoided Macduff and does not want to kill him after killing his family. Macduff says he will speak with his sword instead of words. Macbeth says the Macduff will not hurt him. Macduff then reveals that he was ripped from his mother's womb while she died. Macbeth is angry to discover that the prophecy will come true and only provided him false hope. Macduff tells him to give up and explains he will be put on a pole and displayed as a tyrant. Macbeth says he will try despite the prophecy rather than yield to Malcolm.

Act V, Scene 9 Malcolm wishes no one had to die, but Siward says it is necessary and the cost wasn't that high for such a good day. Ross tells Siward that Young Siward, who just became a man in fighting, died. He tells him not to have sorrow, though. Siward says he died well then. Macduff hails Malcolm as king holding Macbeth's head.

Full text and Glossary

Character List

Macbeth

Because we first hear of Macbeth in the wounded captain’s account of his battlefield valor, our initial impression is of a brave and capable warrior. This perspective is complicated, however, once we see Macbeth interact with the three witches. We realize that his physical courage is joined by a consuming ambition and a tendency to self-doubt—the prediction that he will be king brings him joy, but it also creates inner turmoil. These three attributes—bravery, ambition, and self-doubt—struggle for mastery of Macbeth throughout the play. Shakespeare uses Macbeth to show the terrible effects that ambition and guilt can have on a man who lacks strength of character. We may classify Macbeth as irrevocably evil, but his weak character separates him from Shakespeare’s great villains—Iago in Othello, Richard III in Richard III, Edmund in King Lear—who are all strong enough to conquer guilt and self-doubt. Macbeth, great warrior though he is, is ill equipped for the psychic consequences of crime.

Before he kills Duncan, Macbeth is plagued by worry and almost aborts the crime. It takes Lady Macbeth’s steely sense of purpose to push him into the deed. After the murder, however, her powerful personality begins to disintegrate, leaving Macbeth increasingly alone. He fluctuates between fits of fevered action, in which he plots a series of murders to secure his throne, and moments of terrible guilt (as when Banquo’s ghost appears) and absolute pessimism (after his wife’s death, when he seems to succumb to despair). These fluctuations reflect the tragic tension within Macbeth: he is at once too ambitious to allow his conscience to stop him from murdering his way to the top and too conscientious to be happy with himself as a murderer. As things fall apart for him at the end of the play, he seems almost relieved—with the English army at his gates, he can finally return to life as a warrior, and he displays a kind of reckless bravado as his enemies surround him and drag him down. In part, this stems from his fatal confidence in the witches’ prophecies, but it also seems to derive from the fact that he has returned to the arena where he has been most successful and where his internal turmoil need not affect him—namely, the battlefield. Unlike many of Shakespeare’s other tragic heroes, Macbeth never seems to contemplate suicide: “Why should I play the Roman fool,” he asks, “and die / On mine own sword?” (V.x.1–2). Instead, he goes down fighting, bringing the play full circle: it begins with Macbeth winning on the battlefield and ends with him dying in combat.

Lady Macbeth

 Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. When we first see her, she is already plotting Duncan’s murder, and she is stronger, more ruthless, and more ambitious than her husband. She seems fully aware of this and knows that she will have to push Macbeth into committing murder. At one point, she wishes that she were not a woman so that she could do it herself. This theme of the relationship between gender and power is key to Lady Macbeth’s character: her husband implies that she is a masculine soul inhabiting a female body, which seems to link masculinity to ambition and violence. Shakespeare, however, seems to use her, and the witches, to undercut Macbeth’s idea that “undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males” (I.vii.73–74). These crafty women use female methods of achieving power—that is, manipulation—to further their supposedly male ambitions. Women, the play implies, can be as ambitious and cruel as men, yet social constraints deny them the means to pursue these ambitions on their own.

 Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband with remarkable effectiveness, overriding all his objections; when he hesitates to murder, she repeatedly questions his manhood until he feels that he must commit murder to prove himself. Lady Macbeth’s remarkable strength of will persists through the murder of the king—it is she who steadies her husband’s nerves immediately after the crime has been perpetrated. Afterward, however, she begins a slow slide into madness—just as ambition affects her more strongly than Macbeth before the crime, so does guilt plague her more strongly afterward. By the close of the play, she has been reduced to sleepwalking through the castle, desperately trying to wash away an invisible bloodstain. Once the sense of guilt comes home to roost, Lady Macbeth’s sensitivity becomes a weakness, and she is unable to cope. Significantly, she (apparently) kills herself, signaling her total inability to deal with the legacy of their crimes.

The Three Witches

 Throughout the play, the witches—referred to as the “weird sisters” by many of the characters—lurk like dark thoughts and unconscious temptations to evil. In part, the mischief they cause stems from their supernatural powers, but mainly it is the result of their understanding of the weaknesses of their specific interlocutors—they play upon Macbeth’s ambition like puppeteers.

 The witches’ beards, bizarre potions, and rhymed speech make them seem slightly ridiculous, like caricatures of the supernatural. Shakespeare has them speak in rhyming couplets throughout (their most famous line is probably “Double, double, toil and trouble, / Fire burn and cauldron bubble” in IV.i.10–11), which separates them from the other characters, who mostly speak in blank verse. The witches’ words seem almost comical, like malevolent nursery rhymes. Despite the absurdity of their “eye of newt and toe of frog” recipes, however, they are clearly the most dangerous characters in the play, being both tremendously powerful and utterly wicked (IV.i.14).

 The audience is left to ask whether the witches are independent agents toying with human lives, or agents of fate, whose prophecies are only reports of the inevitable. The witches bear a striking and obviously intentional resemblance to the Fates, female characters in both Norse and Greek mythology who weave the fabric of human lives and then cut the threads to end them. Some of their prophecies seem self-fulfilling. For example, it is doubtful that Macbeth would have murdered his king without the push given by the witches’ predictions. In other cases, though, their prophecies are just remarkably accurate readings of the future—it is hard to see Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane as being self-fulfilling in any way. The play offers no easy answers. Instead, Shakespeare keeps the witches well outside the limits of human comprehension. They embody an unreasoning, instinctive evil.

Banquo -  The brave, noble general whose children, according to the witches’ prophecy, will inherit the Scottish throne. Like Macbeth, Banquo thinks ambitious thoughts, but he does not translate those thoughts into action. In a sense, Banquo’s character stands as a rebuke to Macbeth, since he represents the path Macbeth chose not to take: a path in which ambition need not lead to betrayal and murder. Appropriately, then, it is Banquo’s ghost—and not Duncan’s—that haunts Macbeth. In addition to embodying Macbeth’s guilt for killing Banquo, the ghost also reminds Macbeth that he did not emulate Banquo’s reaction to the witches’ prophecy.

King Duncan -  The good king of Scotland whom Macbeth, in his ambition for the crown, murders. Duncan is the model of a virtuous, benevolent, and farsighted ruler. His death symbolizes the destruction of an order in Scotland that can be restored only when Duncan’s line, in the person of Malcolm, once more occupies the throne.

Macduff -  A Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeth’s kingship from the start. He eventually becomes a leader of the crusade to unseat Macbeth. The crusade’s mission is to place the rightful king, Malcolm, on the throne, but Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s wife and young son.

Malcolm -  The son of Duncan, whose restoration to the throne signals Scotland’s return to order following Macbeth’s reign of terror. Malcolm becomes a serious challenge to Macbeth with Macduff’s aid (and the support of England). Prior to this, he appears weak and uncertain of his own power, as when he and Donalbain flee Scotland after their father’s murder.

Hecate -  The goddess of witchcraft, who helps the three witches work their mischief on Macbeth.

Fleance -  Banquo’s son, who survives Macbeth’s attempt to murder him. At the end of the play, Fleance’s whereabouts are unknown. Presumably, he may come to rule Scotland, fulfilling the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s sons will sit on the Scottish throne.

Lennox -  A Scottish nobleman.

Ross -  A Scottish nobleman.

The Murderers -  A group of ruffians conscripted by Macbeth to murder Banquo, Fleance (whom they fail to kill), and Macduff’s wife and children.

Porter -  The drunken doorman of Macbeth’s castle.

Lady Macduff -  Macduff’s wife. The scene in her castle provides our only glimpse of a domestic realm other than that of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. She and her home serve as contrasts to Lady Macbeth and the hellish world of Inverness.

Donalbain -  Duncan’s son and Malcolm’s younger brother.

 Themes, Motifs & Symbols

 Themes

 Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition

 The main theme of Macbeth—the destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints—finds its most powerful expression in the play’s two main characters. Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his better judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the play he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts. One of Shakespeare’s most forcefully drawn female characters, she spurs her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murder’s aftermath, but she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of Macbeth’s repeated bloodshed on her conscience. In each case, ambition—helped, of course, by the malign prophecies of the witches—is what drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities. The problem, the play suggests, is that once one decides to use violence to further one’s quest for power, it is difficult to stop. There are always potential threats to the throne—Banquo, Fleance, Macduff—and it is always tempting to use violent means to dispose of them.

The Relationship between Cruelty and Masculinity

Characters in Macbeth frequently dwell on issues of gender. Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood, wishes that she herself could be “unsexed,” and does not contradict Macbeth when he says that a woman like her should give birth only to boys. In the same manner that Lady Macbeth goads her husband on to murder, Macbeth provokes the murderers he hires to kill Banquo by questioning their manhood. Such acts show that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth equate masculinity with naked aggression, and whenever they converse about manhood, violence soon follows. Their understanding of manhood allows the political order depicted in the play to descend into chaos.

 At the same time, however, the audience cannot help noticing that women are also sources of violence and evil. The witches’ prophecies spark Macbeth’s ambitions and then encourage his violent behavior; Lady Macbeth provides the brains and the will behind her husband’s plotting; and the only divine being to appear is Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. Arguably, Macbeth traces the root of chaos and evil to women, which has led some critics to argue that this is Shakespeare’s most misogynistic play. While the male characters are just as violent and prone to evil as the women, the aggression of the female characters is more striking because it goes against prevailing expectations of how women ought to behave. Lady Macbeth’s behavior certainly shows that women can be as ambitious and cruel as men. Whether because of the constraints of her society or because she is not fearless enough to kill, Lady Macbeth relies on deception and manipulation rather than violence to achieve her ends.

 Ultimately, the play does put forth a revised and less destructive definition of manhood. In the scene where Macduff learns of the murders of his wife and child, Malcolm consoles him by encouraging him to take the news in “manly” fashion, by seeking revenge upon Macbeth. Macduff shows the young heir apparent that he has a mistaken understanding of masculinity. To Malcolm’s suggestion, “Dispute it like a man,” Macduff replies, “I shall do so. But I must also feel it as a man” (IV.iii.221–223). At the end of the play, Siward receives news of his son’s death rather complacently. Malcolm responds: “He’s worth more sorrow [than you have expressed] / And that I’ll spend for him” (V.xi.16–17). Malcolm’s comment shows that he has learned the lesson Macduff gave him on the sentient nature of true masculinity. It also suggests that, with Malcolm’s coronation, order will be restored to the Kingdom of Scotland.

The Difference between Kingship and Tyranny

 In the play, Duncan is always referred to as a “king,” while Macbeth soon becomes known as the “tyrant.” The difference between the two types of rulers seems to be expressed in a conversation that occurs in Act IV, scene iii, when Macduff meets Malcolm in England. In order to test Macduff’s loyalty to Scotland, Malcolm pretends that he would make an even worse king than Macbeth. He tells Macduff of his reproachable qualities—among them a thirst for personal power and a violent temperament, both of which seem to characterize Macbeth perfectly. On the other hand, Malcolm says, “The king-becoming graces / [are] justice, verity, temp’rance, stableness, / Bounty, perseverance, mercy, [and] lowliness” (IV.iii.92–93). The model king, then, offers the kingdom an embodiment of order and justice, but also comfort and affection. Under him, subjects are rewarded according to their merits, as when Duncan makes Macbeth thane of Cawdor after Macbeth’s victory over the invaders. Most important, the king must be loyal to Scotland above his own interests. Macbeth, by contrast, brings only chaos to Scotland—symbolized in the bad weather and bizarre supernatural events—and offers no real justice, only a habit of capriciously murdering those he sees as a threat. As the embodiment of tyranny, he must be overcome by Malcolm so that Scotland can have a true king once more.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Hallucinations

 Visions and hallucinations recur throughout the play and serve as reminders of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s joint culpability for the growing body count. When he is about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air. Covered with blood and pointed toward the king’s chamber, the dagger represents the bloody course on which Macbeth is about to embark. Later, he sees Banquo’s ghost sitting in a chair at a feast, pricking his conscience by mutely reminding him that he murdered his former friend. The seemingly hardheaded Lady Macbeth also eventually gives way to visions, as she sleepwalks and believes that her hands are stained with blood that cannot be washed away by any amount of water. In each case, it is ambiguous whether the vision is real or purely hallucinatory; but, in both cases, the Macbeths read them uniformly as supernatural signs of their guilt.

Violence

Macbeth is a famously violent play. Interestingly, most of the killings take place offstage, but throughout the play the characters provide the audience with gory descriptions of the carnage, from the opening scene where the captain describes Macbeth and Banquo wading in blood on the battlefield, to the endless references to the bloodstained hands of Macbeth and his wife. The action is bookended by a pair of bloody battles: in the first, Macbeth defeats the invaders; in the second, he is slain and beheaded by Macduff. In between is a series of murders: Duncan, Duncan’s chamberlains, Banquo, Lady Macduff, and Macduff’s son all come to bloody ends. By the end of the action, blood seems to be everywhere.

Prophecy

Prophecy sets Macbeth’s plot in motion—namely, the witches’ prophecy that Macbeth will become first thane of Cawdor and then king. The weird sisters make a number of other prophecies: they tell us that Banquo’s heirs will be kings, that Macbeth should beware Macduff, that Macbeth is safe till Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane, and that no man born of woman can harm Macbeth. Save for the prophecy about Banquo’s heirs, all of these predictions are fulfilled within the course of the play. Still, it is left deliberately ambiguous whether some of them are self-fulfilling—for example, whether Macbeth wills himself to be king or is fated to be king. Additionally, as the Birnam Wood and “born of woman” prophecies make clear, the prophecies must be interpreted as riddles, since they do not always mean what they seem to mean. 

Symbols

 Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Blood

 Blood is everywhere in Macbeth, beginning with the opening battle between the Scots and the Norwegian invaders, which is described in harrowing terms by the wounded captain in Act I, scene ii. Once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth embark upon their murderous journey, blood comes to symbolize their guilt, and they begin to feel that their crimes have stained them in a way that cannot be washed clean. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” Macbeth cries after he has killed Duncan, even as his wife scolds him and says that a little water will do the job (II.ii.58–59). Later, though, she comes to share his horrified sense of being stained: “Out, damned spot; out, I say . . . who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” she asks as she wanders through the halls of their castle near the close of the play (V.i.30–34). Blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, one that hounds them to their graves.

 The Weather

 As in other Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeth’s grotesque murder spree is accompanied by a number of unnatural occurrences in the natural realm. From the thunder and lightning that accompany the witches’ appearances to the terrible storms that rage on the night of Duncan’s murder, these violations of the natural order reflect corruption in the moral and political orders.

Important Quotations

1. The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
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. Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry ‘Hold, hold!’

Lady Macbeth speaks these words in Act I, scene v, lines 36–52, as she awaits the arrival of King Duncan at her castle. We have previously seen Macbeth’s uncertainty about whether he should take the crown by killing Duncan. In this speech, there is no such confusion, as Lady Macbeth is clearly willing to do whatever is necessary to seize the throne. Her strength of purpose is contrasted with her husband’s tendency to waver. This speech shows the audience that Lady Macbeth is the real steel behind Macbeth and that her ambition will be strong enough to drive her husband forward. At the same time, the language of this speech touches on the theme of masculinity— “unsex me here / . . . / . . . Come to my woman’s breasts, / And take my milk for gall,” Lady Macbeth says as she prepares herself to commit murder. The language suggests that her womanhood, represented by breasts and milk, usually symbols of nurture, impedes her from performing acts of violence and cruelty, which she associates with manliness. Later, this sense of the relationship between masculinity and violence will be deepened when Macbeth is unwilling to go through with the murders and his wife tells him, in effect, that he needs to “be a man” and get on with it.

2. If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly. If th’assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all, here,
But here upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgement here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions which, being taught, return
To plague th’inventor. This even-handed justice
Commends th’ingredience of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against
The deep damnation of his taking-off,
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself
And falls on th’other.

In this soliloquy, which is found in Act I, scene vii, lines 1–28, Macbeth debates whether he should kill Duncan. When he lists Duncan’s noble qualities (he “[h]ath borne his faculties so meek”) and the loyalty that he feels toward his king (“I am his kinsman and his subject”), we are reminded of just how grave an outrage it is for the couple to slaughter their ruler while he is a guest in their house. At the same time, Macbeth’s fear that “[w]e still have judgement here, that we but teach / Bloody instructions which, being taught, return / To plague th’inventor,” foreshadows the way that his deeds will eventually come back to haunt him. The imagery in this speech is dark—we hear of “bloody instructions,” “deep damnation,” and a “poisoned chalice”—and suggests that Macbeth is aware of how the murder would open the door to a dark and sinful world. At the same time, he admits that his only reason for committing murder, “ambition,” suddenly seems an insufficient justification for the act. The destruction that comes from unchecked ambition will continue to be explored as one of the play’s themes. As the soliloquy ends, Macbeth seems to resolve not to kill Duncan, but this resolve will only last until his wife returns and once again convinces him, by the strength of her will, to go ahead with their plot.

3. Whence is that knocking?—
How is’t with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here! Ha, they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.

Macbeth says this in Act II, scene ii, lines 55–61. He has just murdered Duncan, and the crime was accompanied by supernatural portents. Now he hears a mysterious knocking on his gate, which seems to promise doom. (In fact, the person knocking is Macduff, who will indeed eventually destroy Macbeth.) The enormity of Macbeth’s crime has awakened in him a powerful sense of guilt that will hound him throughout the play. Blood, specifically Duncan’s blood, serves as the symbol of that guilt, and Macbeth’s sense that “all great Neptune’s ocean” cannot cleanse him—that there is enough blood on his hands to turn the entire sea red—will stay with him until his death. Lady Macbeth’s response to this speech will be her prosaic remark, “A little water clears us of this deed” (II.ii.65). By the end of the play, however, she will share Macbeth’s sense that Duncan’s murder has irreparably stained them with blood.

4. 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?

These words are spoken by Lady Macbeth in Act V, scene i, lines 30–34, as she sleepwalks through Macbeth’s castle on the eve of his battle against Macduff and Malcolm. Earlier in the play, she possessed a stronger resolve and sense of purpose than her husband and was the driving force behind their plot to kill Duncan. When Macbeth believed his hand was irreversibly bloodstained earlier in the play, Lady Macbeth had told him, “A little water clears us of this deed” (II.ii.65). Now, however, she too sees blood. She is completely undone by guilt and descends into madness. It may be a reflection of her mental and emotional state that she is not speaking in verse; this is one of the few moments in the play when a major character—save for the witches, who speak in fou-foot couplets—strays from iambic pentameter. Her inability to sleep was foreshadowed in the voice that her husband thought he heard while killing the king—a voice crying out that Macbeth was murdering sleep. And her delusion that there is a bloodstain on her hand furthers the play’s use of blood as a symbol of guilt. “What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account?” she asks, asserting that as long as her and her husband’s power is secure, the murders they committed cannot harm them. But her guilt-wracked state and her mounting madness show how hollow her words are. So, too, does the army outside her castle. “Hell is murky,” she says, implying that she already knows that darkness intimately. The pair, in their destructive power, have created their own hell, where they are tormented by guilt and insanity.

5. She should have died hereafter.
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
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.

These words are uttered by Macbeth after he hears of Lady Macbeth’s death, in Act V, scene v, lines 16–27. Given the great love between them, his response is oddly muted, but it segues quickly into a speech of such pessimism and despair—one of the most famous speeches in all of Shakespeare—that the audience realizes how completely his wife’s passing and the ruin of his power have undone Macbeth. His speech insists that there is no meaning or purpose in life. Rather, life “is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.” One can easily understand how, with his wife dead and armies marching against him, Macbeth succumbs to such pessimism. Yet, there is also a defensive and self-justifying quality to his words. If everything is meaningless, then Macbeth’s awful crimes are somehow made less awful, because, like everything else, they too “signify nothing.”

Macbeth’s statement that “[l]ife’s but a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage” can be read as Shakespeare’s somewhat deflating reminder of the illusionary nature of the theater. After all, Macbeth is only a “player” himself, strutting on an Elizabethan stage. In any play, there is a conspiracy of sorts between the audience and the actors, as both pretend to accept the play’s reality. Macbeth’s comment calls attention to this conspiracy and partially explodes it—his nihilism embraces not only his own life but the entire play. If we take his words to heart, the play, too, can be seen as an event “full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.” 

Irony in Macbeth

In Shakespeare's "Macbeth," there was a lot of irony, and Shakespeare intended the irony of the play to build and maintain suspense, while creating a vague sense of fear.

For example, the irony in the play started out early, with the witches' prophecies to Macbeth and Banquo. The prophecies to Macbeth were all ironic paradoxes. In Act I, Scene iii, the witches told Macbeth, "All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter." This prophecy was ironic because even though it was true, it did not turn out how Macbeth expected it to. Macbeth probably thought that being the king would be great. He would be rich, everyone would respect him, he'd have all the power in Scotland, and he thought that that would make him happy. Of course, since the witches' prophecies were cleverly designed to manipulate his weak mind, Macbeth murdered Duncan to satisfy his ambition. In Act III, Scene ii, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth were discussing their feelings about being king and queen of Scotland after the murder. Said Lady Macbeth, "Nought's had, all's spent. Where our desire is got without content: 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy." In Act III, Scene i Macbeth said of the witches and the murder, "For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered; put rancours in the vessel of my peace only for them; and mine eternal jewel given to the common enemy of man." In those sentences, we can see the irony in the witches' prophecies. The implied meaning of the witches' prophecies was that Macbeth would be king. Macbeth took this to mean that he would be a happy king, and so dreams of him on the throne appeared. He thought that becoming king would be easy, he just had to get Duncan out of the way. Everything turned out as Macbeth had imagined, except that he was not happy as the king. The guilt from Duncan's murder, not to mention that of Banquo's, made being the king a horrible experience for Macbeth, all because of the witches. This irony would make the audience mistrust the witches in the back of their minds, and therefore also put a vague fear over the whole play, because of the realisation of the witches' relentless sinister determination to disrupt peace and order in Scotland.

Another excellent example of irony in the play starts in Act II, Scene ii, shortly after the murder of Duncan. Macbeth had just committed the malicious act to satisfy his unchecked ambition, and he was quite shocked. In his words, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" The emotional effects of the murder hadn't quite gotten through to Lady Macbeth yet, and so she nonchalantly replied, "A little water clears us of this deed." Eventually though, Lady Macbeth's conscience affected her mind adversely, giving her a deep emotional disturbance. In Act V, Scene i, Lady Macbeth had a fear of the dark and she had started sleep walking and talking to herself. As she was wandering the castle one night, she was obsessed with trying to wash the blood that she still felt and smelt from her hands, a huge change from Act II, Scene ii. She said, "Out, damned stop! out I say!" and continued with, "What, will these hands ne'er be clean?" This is definitely very ironic, since early in the play Lady Macbeth dismissed Macbeth's concerns with little thought, and one would expect her not to ever think of them again. As we can see in the play though, what was once a trifle to Lady Macbeth soon became a major issue when the realisation of what she had done in Duncan's murder finally set in. As far as the audience is concerned, they would probably be shocked after the murder of Duncan, and find Lady Macbeth's responses to Macbeth's hysteria discomforting, thinking that Lady Macbeth must be a very evil person indeed. Later on though, when Lady Macbeth broke down mentally, the audience would feel a bit more of a vague sense of fear when they were reminded by Lady Macbeth of how terrible Duncan's murder really was. She was very composed at first, but soon she realised that she had done something horrendous and because of that realisation she died soon afterward.

Another prime example of the play's irony can be found in Act I, Scene vii, shortly before Duncan's murder. The irony in this scene is called dramatic irony, meaning that the audience is aware of what is about to happen but the actors are not. For example, before this scene the audience has heard Macbeth's soliloquies about murdering the king, and has been exposed to the mood-setting opening scenes. By now the audience would probably be on the edge of their seats, waiting for Macbeth to slip a dagger out of his pocket and run towards Duncan. To the part of the audience that would be expecting this, the next scene would be much different than they would have imagined. Act I, Scene vii is set outside of Macbeth's castle, in broad daylight (unlike most of the scenes in the play). When Duncan arrives, he comments, "This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself unto our gentle senses." Banquo is quick to agree, and he comments on the nice birds in the sky. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, has taken to graciously welcoming the guests. The scene ends with Duncan taking Lady Macbeth's hand, and allowing her to lead him into the castle of death to his murderer. This scene is a prime example of irony because its real meaning is much different that it appears. Looking at the scene alone, one would conclude that Duncan and the Macbeths are good friends, and this is just another pleasant visit. In its context though, this scene is the beginning of Macbeth's murder spree, and so the sunlight, birds, and nice weather make the scene all the more ironic. Apart from giving the audience a sense of brooding violence and veiled threats, this scene would also built a lot of suspense. When people saw Duncan walk into the palace, many would (rightly) suspect that he was walking obliviously to his doom. In short, this scene's dramatic irony was a key factor in moulding the play's suspense.

Another excellent example of irony occurs in Act IV, Scene ii shortly before the Macduffs are murdered. In the scene Lady Macduff was angry at her husband for fleeing to England, leaving her defenceless. Her son is talking to her, telling her how he'll live without his father. He says that he'll live like birds do, meaning living with what they get. The implied meaning in the beginning of this scene is that Lady Macbeth's son will do just what he said he would, he'll live with what he'll get, and keep on living. His words are a paradox though, since the literal meaning of his words is much different than the implied meaning. Once he finishes his speech, some of Macbeth's hit men run in and stab him. The literal meaning of what he said, that he'd live "with what [he'd] get" is so much different than his implied meaning because he definitely got what he got, but he definitely didn't keep on living. The irony of this would reinforce what Macbeth was saying at the time, that life is pointless, and would help to add to the malicious atmosphere of the play by making the audience feel as if what they did in life didn't really matter.

In conclusion, Macbeth is full of irony. The irony in Macbeth is there to add to the suspense and the malicious mood of the play. Without the irony in Macbeth, the play would have been much different. For example, if Duncan's visit to the castle took place at night, in the middle of a thunderstorm, with the Macbeths being hostile to him and the witches egging Macbeth on, the play would have lacked a good deal of suspense, and the audience might begin to get bored of the play, since it would not change much and it would be easy to predict what would happen. If the witches hadn't made their paradoxical prophecies to Macbeth, the play would be missing a lot of irony and the audience wouldn't get much fear from watching the play, since they would just reason that Macbeth was insane to begin with. In short, the play, "Macbeth," wouldn't have been such an interesting, suspenseful, or terrifying play without irony. Clearly, Shakespeare intended the irony of the play to build and maintain suspense, while creating a vague sense of fear.

 Symbolism- "Out, damn spot!" cries Lady Macbeth in her sleep. The spots of blood Lady Macbeth dreamed she saw on her hands were symbolic of her guilt, showing that even though she tried to rid herself of her emotions and feelings of compassion ("Unsex me here"), the crime she helped to commit (The murder of Duncan) truly did effect her. In fact, it drove her to insanity.

Irony- The previous Thane of Cawdor betrayed him (The battle in the first seem of Macdonalwald and the king of Norway), so he gave the title to a man he thought to be most noble and worthy, Macbeth. Only a short time later, Macbeth murders him when he is a guest in his castle. Another example is when Lady Macbeth says to Macbeth after he has murdered Duncan, "A little water will clear us of this deed"*. However, she later as hallucinations of a spot of blood that cannot be washed from her hand with any amount of water.

*may not be her exact words, you may want to double check that quote

Foil- Banquo is used as a foil to Macbeth to contrast and highlight their character differences. Banquo is put in the same situation as Macbeth; the witches have predicted a great future for him, telling him he will "father a line of kings, though he will be none himself". Banquo is more valiant and worthy than Macbeth, for he is content to wait for this fate to take place, while Macbeth continues to hurt those he thinks stand in his way. This includes killing Banquo.

Pathetic Fallacy: The weather in the play often mirrors the goings-on. This is because in Elizabethan times, people believed that the state of the universe could be disturbed but a horrible act of treason, such as the murder of a good king. On the night of Duncan's murder, a thunder and lightening storm raged outside. Ross and an old man conversed about strange goings-on they had noticed. The use of pathetic fallacy has the effect of making the scenes of fear or violence more intense. The audience realizes the severity of the situation. In the first battle scene, the witches discribe "fog and filthy air", which is representative of mystery, and of how things are not how they should be (the natural order is reversed, as suggested by the line "fair is foul and foul is fair")

Mood: The mood in Macbeth is created mostly through the weather (afore mentioned), but also through the use of the supernatural. The world of Macbeth is one of malicious witches, hallucinations, ghosts, and visions. This creates a sense of fear and uncertainty in the audience.

Metaphor- Many examples of metaphors are present in Macbeth. Lady Macbeth says "Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it" to Macbeth when requesting that he act normally in front of Duncan and his court so as not to reveal their true intentions.

Symbolism, Imagery, and Allegory

Light and darkness dominate Macbeth, in the form of weather, candles, and the passage of time through day and night. From the first, the cover of night is invoked whenever anything naughty is going to happen. Lady Macbeth asks thick night to come with the smoke of hell, so her knife might not see the wound it makes in the peacefully sleeping King. There’s also a notion that with light comes protection. Heaven would "peep through the blanket of the dark to cry ‘Hold, Hold!’" if only it could. When Lady Macbeth begins her descent to madness, the gentlewoman points out she insists on always having a candle about her.

Macbeth also uses darkness to cover his evil – once he’s planned to murder Banquo, he says all men are masters of their destiny until seven. Seven is death time for Banquo, who brings a torch light (a bit of warmth) that’s quickly snuffed out by the murderers. The power of light isn’t lost on Macbeth, either, though it usually works against him. When Lady Macbeth dies, he merely pronounces "out, out brief candle." Finally, we know Macbeth is resigned to his death when he says he grows weary of the sun.

Blood

Blood shows up a lot in this play. Blood as a result of actual wounds is almost omnipresent, from the bleeding sergeant in the beginning to Macbeth’s bleeding head at the end. But it’s the imagined blood that arguably has the biggest impact as a symbol. When Macbeth considers murdering Duncan, the dagger he sees is covered in Duncan’s blood, representing the change between a murky thought and a done deed. Seeing it so done, Macbeth can shore up the courage to go through with murdering the man. In his mind’s eye, it’s already happened. Banquo’s ghost at the banquet has the peculiar quality of still bleeding from his dead wounds, which weirds out Macbeth, understandably.

Eventually imagined blood comes to symbolize guilt for both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. After he murders Duncan, Macbeth supposes that even the sea could not wash away his stain of guilt. Similarly, Lady Macbeth famously curses the invisible spot she washes while sleepwalking. Macbeth announces that blood will beget blood, and his image of wading in a river of blood sums up the lesson: once you’ve gone far enough in spilling it, you might just as well keep on going.

Dead Children

The prevalence of murdered or dead children in the play can be interpreted a few ways. It could be that they represent the loss of innocence, or what happens when the natural birth order to the throne is disturbed, or something else entirely. One particularly gruesome image is Lady Macbeth’s implication that she has had a child before, and that she’d be willing to pluck it from her breast and dash its brains out. Of course, many living children are also murdered or attacked in the play: Fleance watches his father, Banquo, get killed before nearly being snuffed himself; Macbeth kills Young Siward for no good reason; and Macduff’s young son, his "pretty chicken," is called an egg before being murdered himself.

The most notable dead child of the play is probably the gruesome, blood-covered baby that rises out of the witches’ cauldron. The child seems unnatural enough, and then declares Macbeth is safe in the presence of any man born of woman. Of course, the evidence that some men are unnaturally born is staring him in the face, but Macbeth is too distracted to notice that the child signifies one who was untimely ripped from his mother’s womb.

Clothing

Clothing shows up an awful lot in the play as a metaphor for power. Shakespeare might be suggesting that titles (the royal kind, not the book kind), like clothing, can be borrowed, ill-fitting, and easily shed. When Macbeth suggests he should not kill Duncan, he implores Lady Macbeth to enjoy the titles that should be worn in their newest gloss. When first Macbeth hears that he’s to be Thane of Cawdor, he asks why he is to be dressed in borrowed robes. Banquo, ever helpful, points out that new clothes need to be broken in before they’ll fit.

Nightgowns also figure prominently. It is believed that in Shakespeare’s day, all that covered you in bed was the sheets themselves. When Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth to get over murdering Duncan, she orders him back to bed so they can take off their clothes. You know, to look like everyone else just coming out of bed. Further, after discovering Duncan’s murder, the men agree to get dressed and then meet up again.

Commentary

Macbeth is a study of the human potential for evil; it illustrates—though not in a religious context—the Judeo-Christian concept of the Fall, humanity's loss of God's grace. We see the triumph of evil in a man with many good qualities. We are made aware that the potential for evil is frighteningly present in all of us and needs only the wrong circumstances and a relaxation of our desire for good. The good in Macbeth cries out poignantly through his feverish imagination, but his worldly ambition, the influence of Lady Macbeth (though she too has an inarticulate angel struggling against her own evil), and the instigation of a supernatural power all combine to crush his better nature.By the end of the play Macbeth has collapsed beneath the weight of his evil, and the desperate tyrant has so isolated himself from society—and from his own moral sensibility—that for him life seems "a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing' (5.5.26-28).

Macbeth's despair strikes a responsive chord in modern audiences and readers partly because it resembles an existentialist response to the uncertainties of modern life. However, Shakespeare was not a philosopher, and in the 17th century existentialism did not exist. Nevertheless, he understood the potential for social and emotional collapse in the absence of morality. Macbeth and his lady chill us with their monstrous perversion of principles so obviously pertinent to people in all periods.

Shakespeare's depiction of evil in Macbeth has two aspects, natural and supernatural. The former is the portrait of the man, Macbeth; the latter is the representation of the supernatural world. Evil exists outside the protagonist in the world of black magic, represented most strikingly by the Witches. The appearance of these embodiments of the devil in 1.1 establishes the play's tone of mysterious evil. The Witches cause Macbeth to respond in ways that are 'Against the use of nature' (1.3.137), and his mind 'is smother'd in surmise, / And nothing is, but what is not' (1.3.141-142). When Macbeth finally recognizes that their predictions were not what they seemed, he denounces 'th'equivocation of the fiend, / That lies like truth' (5.5.43-44). He thus touches on their most important quality: the Witches deform the lives they interfere with because they disturb a necessary element of human society: its dependence on mutual trust. 

Other emblems of the supernatural in Macbeth are the omens associated with the murder of Duncan. As he approaches the deed, Macbeth remarks on the ominous night: 'Nature seems dead, . . . Witchcraft celebrates . . .' (2.1.50-51). Moments later. Lady Macbeth hears an owl's hoot and the sound of crickets, both traditional omens of death. Lenox' account of the night's terrifying storm is full of ancient superstition told in explicit detail, with 'strange screams of death' (2.3.55), earthquakes, and dire prophesies by owls. In 2.4 the Old Man and Rosse intensify the motif when they discuss the day's strange darkness, the killing of a hawk by an owl, and the deadly combat among Duncan's horses. These are gross disruptions of nature that signify the presence of active evil. 

The supernatural world is the most extreme example of power that is beyond human control, and it is therefore an apt symbol for the unpredictable forces of human motivation. This larger aspect of evil influences our impression of its more particular manifestation in the man Macbeth. Thus, the pervasive magic in the world of Macbeth supports our awareness that the behavior of the protagonist is, in human terms, unnatural. The portrayal of the evildoer, while convincing, is not psychological in intent; instead, it emphasizes the mystery of human behavior. The play presents possibilities and influences—Macbeth's political ambition, Lady Macbeth's urging, the Witches' bald temptation—but we still wonder why Macbeth does what he does. Macbeth is revolted by himself and his self-awareness makes his descent even more appalling; it also maintains our consciousness of the power of evil. He succumbs to temptation in an almost ritualistic way. He acknowledges each evil and then proceeds, prepared to accept 'deep damnation' (1.7.-20) from the time he first recognizes temptation until he is left with no alternative but death.   

Macbeth's relation to evil is symbolic. Lady Macbeth, too, though she rejects her husband's scruples, is entirely aware that the proposed murder is evil.  She avoids mentioning it too explicitly, and she cannot bring herself to do the deed herself. Finally, her anguished madness—presented in 5.1 and confirmed by her suicide—demonstrates her inability to absorb what she has helped unleash. Thus, she too presents the weakness of humanity in the face of evil. We recognize that they are susceptible to the mental ravages of guilt, and this keeps us from seeing either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth as simply a monstrous sociopath. In fact, much of the play's tension is created because neither of them can simply accept their evil callously. Thus, Macbeth is as much a victim of evil as its instrument, and he is doubly symbolic as a negator of the good in humanity. 

Macbeth clearly sees that his evil is a perversion of human values, and the fact that he persists in the face of this awareness demonstrates a profound moral disorder. Indeed, disorder permeates his world. Disrupted sleep—commonly considered a symptom of guilt in Shakespeare's day and in our own—plagues both Macbeth and his wife. He hears a voice predict 'Macbeth shall sleep no more!' (2.2.42) as he commits the murder, and later he speaks of 'these terrible dreams that shake us nightly' (3.2.18-19). Lady Macbeth demonstrates the disorder physically in the sleep-walking scene (5.1). Macbeth even envies the murdered Duncan, for 'After life's fitful fever he sleeps well' (3.2.23).    

***

تراژدی مکبث شرح زندگی پر حادثهٔ سرداری دلیر و لایق به نام مکبث است. دنکن، پادشاه شریف و مهربان اسکاتلند، او را از میان هواخواهان خود برمی‌کشد و به وی لقب و منصب می‌بخشد اما مکبث بر اثر تلقین جادوگران و وسوسهٔ نفس و به اغوای زن جاه‌طلب خویش در شبی که پادشاه مهمان اوست او را در خواب به‌ قتل می‌رساند و با این کشتن جهنمی برای خویش به‌وجود می‌آورد. مکبث از آن پس گرفتار عذاب وجدان می‌شود چندانکه هر آهنگی و هر در کوفتنی او را هراسان می‌کند.

سردار مکبث Macbeth و سردار بانکو Banquo پس از شکست سپاهیان نروژی و در راه بازگشت به اسکاتلند با جادوگران و ساحران روبرو می‌شوند که از آینده خبر می‌دهند و در حالیکه امیر کاودور Cawdor زنده‌است او را سالار کاودور می‌خوانند و به او می‌گویند که شاه خواهد شد. ساحران در پاسخ سؤال بانکو می‌گویند که: فرزندان تو به پادشاهی می‌رسند. دو سردار غرق در تعجب و شگفتی از ساحران جدا می‌شوند. مکبث در راه بازگشت توسط پیک دانکن Duncan پادشاه اسکاتلند با خبر می‌شود که امیر کاودور به جرم عدم لیاقت به اعدام محکوم شده و ولایت کاودور نصیب او شده‌است و این پیام تکان دهنده درستی پیشگوئی ساحران را بر او ثابت می‌کند. دانکن برای تقدیر از سردار پیروز(مکبث)، به قصر او وارد می‌شود تا شب را نیز در کاخ او سر کند. غافل از آنکه مکبث با وسوسه‌ای همسرش لیدی مکبث فرجامین شب زندگی او را تدارک دیده‌اند. دانکن در خوابگاه به قتل می‌رسد و دستان مکبث و روان لیدی مکبث به خون ولی نعمتشان که به فروتنی و تواضع مشهور است آلوده می‌شود اما این پایان ماجرا نیست و مکبث برای آنکه پیشگوئی ساحران محقق نشود قاتلینی برای کشتن فرزندان بانکو مأمور می‌کند. بانکو که بو برده‌است فرزندش فلیناس Fleance ممکن است کشته شود او را فراری می‌دهد ولی خود بدست همان قاتلین کشنه می‌شود. مالکو Malcom فرزند دانکن نیز می‌گریزد تا مبادا به قتل برسد و این اقدام بر خشم و میزان خونخواری مکبث می‌افزاید. هدف بعدی مکداف Macduff سالار فایف Fiffe است که او نیز از اسکاتلند فرار کرده، به جمع مخالفان مکبث پیوسته‌است، اما مکبث کاخ مکداف را به آتش می‌کشد و زن و فرزاندان سالار فایف را با قساوت به دیار مرگ روانه می‌کند. اکنون مکبث و لیدی مکبث را چاپلوسان و بزدلان دوره کرده‌اند و هر آنکس که اندکی شجاعت و غیرت دارد دو را پیش رو دارد: گریختن از اسکاتلند یا پذیرش مرگ. پس جوّ هولناکی بر اسکاتلند حاکم شده و حتی مردان بزرگ نیز غالباً از ترس جان به جنگل پناه می‌برند. لیدی مکبث که در آرزوی رسیدن به تاج و نخت گرفتار جنون شده و دستان آلوده اش را می‌شوید تا خون ریخته ی دانکن و دیگران را از آن بزداید اما هر بار بیش از پیش گرفتار عذاب وجدان شده و در سرسرای کاخ راه می‌رود و اقشای راز می‌کند و ندیمه و دیگران بر خود می‌لرزند که چگونه بانو مکبث و مکبث دستشان را به خون دیگران آلوده کرده‌اند. پس نه مکبث و نه همسرش شادمان نیستند و از این رو مکبث به ساحران متوسل می‌شود تا از آنها بشنود که آینده چگونه خواهد بود. ساحران در بار دوم دیدار، او را امیدوار می‌کنند که حکومتش و جانش پا برجاست و مادامی که جنگل بیرنام به حرکت در نیاید و تا زمانی که فردی از مادر زائیده نشده باشد که او را به قتل برساند نباید نگران باشد. اما در این اثناء مخالفان مکبث به سرکردگی مکداف دردمند و مالکوم در صدد حمله به اسکاتلند هستند و لیدی مکبث نیز در اوج جنون بسر می‌برد و سرانجام جان می‌سپارد. سربازان تحت امر فرماندهان مخالف مکبث درختان جنگل بیرنام را قطع کرده و با استتار خود در پس آنها بسوی مقر حکومت مکبث حمله می‌برند و او حرکت جنگل بیرنام را زنگ خطر تحقق پیشگوئی ساحران به حساب می‌آورد اما هنوز امیدوار است که زنده بماند اما هنگامی که از زبان مکداف می‌شنود که او از مادر زاده نشده بلکه با جراحی شکم مادر، وی را بدنیا آورده‌اند مرگ را پیش روی خود می‌بیند و چنین نیز می‌شود: مکداف، مکبث جنایتکار را می‌کشد و سپاهیان وارد کاخ شده و مالکوم را به عنوان شاه اسکاتلند بر می‌گزینند.