Mondeling Engels:
Macbeth
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/macbeth/
http://www.sparknotes.com/sparknotes/video/macbeth
Key facts
Full title: The Tragedy of Macbeth
Author: William Shakespeare
Type of work: Play
Genre: Tragedy
Language: English
Time and place written: 1606, England
Date of first publication: First Folio edition, 1623
Publisher: John Heminges and Henry Condell, two senior members of Shakespeare’s theatrical
company
Tone: Dark and ominous, suggestive of a world turned topsy-turvy by foul and unnatural crimes
Tense: Not applicable (drama)
Setting (time): The Middle Ages, specifically the eleventh century
Setting (place): Various locations in Scotland; also England, briefly
Protagonist: Macbeth
Major conflicts: The struggle within Macbeth between his ambition and his sense of right and wrong;
the struggle between the murderous evil represented by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and the best
interests of the nation, represented by Malcolm and Macduff
Rising action: Macbeth and Banquo’s encounter with the witches initiates both conflicts; Lady
Macbeth’s speeches goad Macbeth into murdering Duncan and seizing the crown.
Climax: Macbeth’s murder of Duncan in Act 2 represents the point of no return, after which Macbeth
is forced to continue butchering his subjects to avoid the consequences of his crime.
Falling action: Macbeth’s increasingly brutal murders (of Duncan’s servants, Banquo, Lady Macduff
and her son); Macbeth’s second meeting with the witches; Macbeth’s final confrontation with
Macduff and the opposing armies
Themes: The corrupting nature of unchecked ambition; the relationship between cruelty and
masculinity; the difference between kingship and tyranny
Motifs: The supernatural, hallucinations, violence, prophecy
Symbols: Blood; the dagger that Macbeth sees just before he kills Duncan in Act 2; the weather
Foreshadowing: The bloody battle in Act 1 foreshadows the bloody murders later on; when Macbeth
thinks he hears a voice while killing Duncan, it foreshadows the insomnia that plagues Macbeth and
his wife; Macduff’s suspicions of Macbeth after Duncan’s murder foreshadow his later opposition to
Macbeth; all of the witches’ prophecies foreshadow later events.
Summary
The play begins with the brief appearance of a trio of witches and then moves to a military camp,
where the Scottish King Duncan hears the news that his generals, Macbeth and Banquo, have
defeated two separate invading armies—one from Ireland, led by the rebel Macdonwald, and one
from Norway. Following their pitched battle with these enemy forces, Macbeth and Banquo
encounter the witches as they cross a moor. The witches prophesy that Macbeth will be made thane
(a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland. They also prophesy that
Macbeth’s companion, Banquo, will beget a line of Scottish kings, although Banquo will never be king
himself. The witches vanish, and Macbeth and Banquo treat their prophecies skeptically until some
of King Duncan’s men come to thank the two generals for their victories in battle and to tell Macbeth
,that he has indeed been named thane of Cawdor. The previous thane betrayed Scotland by fighting
for the Norwegians and Duncan has condemned him to death. Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility
that the remainder of the witches’ prophecy—that he will be crowned king—might be true, but he is
uncertain what to expect. He visits with King Duncan, and they plan to dine together at Inverness,
Macbeth’s castle, that night. Macbeth writes ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her all that has
happened.
Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husband’s uncertainty. She desires the kingship for him
and wants him to murder Duncan in order to obtain it. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she
overrides all of her husband’s objections and persuades him to kill the king that very night. He and
Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncan’s two chamberlains drunk so they will black out; the next morning
they will blame the murder on the chamberlains, who will be defenseless, as they will remember
nothing. While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and a number of
supernatural portents, including a vision of a bloody dagger. When Duncan’s death is discovered the
next morning, Macbeth kills the chamberlains—ostensibly out of rage at their crime—and easily
assumes the kingship. Duncan’s sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to England and Ireland,
respectively, fearing that whoever killed Duncan desires their demise as well.
Fearful of the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs will seize the throne, Macbeth hires a
group of murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. They ambush Banquo on his way to a royal
feast, but they fail to kill Fleance, who escapes into the night. Macbeth becomes furious: as long as
Fleance is alive, he fears that his power remains insecure. At the feast that night, Banquo’s ghost
visits Macbeth. When he sees the ghost, Macbeth raves fearfully, startling his guests, who include
most of the great Scottish nobility. Lady Macbeth tries to neutralize the damage, but Macbeth’s
kingship incites increasing resistance from his nobles and subjects. Frightened, Macbeth goes to visit
the witches in their cavern. There, they show him a sequence of demons and spirits who present him
with further prophecies: he must beware of Macduff, a Scottish nobleman who opposed Macbeth’s
accession to the throne; he is incapable of being harmed by any man born of woman; and he will be
safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth is relieved and feels secure, because he
knows that all men are born of women and that forests cannot move. When he learns that Macduff
has fled to England to join Malcolm, Macbeth orders that Macduff’s castle be seized and, most
cruelly, that Lady Macduff and her children be murdered.
When news of his family’s execution reaches Macduff in England, he is stricken with grief and
vows revenge. Prince Malcolm, Duncan’s son, has succeeded in raising an army in England, and
Macduff joins him as he rides to Scotland to challenge Macbeth’s forces. The invasion has the
support of the Scottish nobles, who are appalled and frightened by Macbeth’s tyrannical and
murderous behavior. Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, becomes plagued with fits of sleepwalking in which
she bemoans what she believes to be bloodstains on her hands. Before Macbeth’s opponents arrive,
Macbeth receives news that she has killed herself, causing him to sink into a deep and pessimistic
despair. Nevertheless, he awaits the English and fortifies Dunsinane, to which he seems to have
withdrawn in order to defend himself, certain that the witches’ prophecies guarantee his invincibility.
He is struck numb with fear, however, when he learns that the English army is advancing on
Dunsinane shielded with boughs cut from Birnam Wood. Birnam Wood is indeed coming to
Dunsinane, fulfilling half of the witches’ prophecy.
In the battle, Macbeth hews violently, but the English forces gradually overwhelm his army
and castle. On the battlefield, Macbeth encounters the vengeful Macduff, who declares that he was
not “of woman born” but was instead “untimely ripped” from his mother’s womb (what we now call
birth by cesarean section). Though he realizes that he is doomed, Macbeth continues to fight until
Macduff kills and beheads him. Malcolm, now the King of Scotland, declares his benevolent
intentions for the country and invites all to see him crowned at Scone.
,Characters
Macbeth: A Scottish general and the thane of Glamis. (“Thane” is a Scottish title of nobility,
and Glamis is a village in eastern Scotland.) Macbeth is led to wicked thoughts by the prophecies of
three witches, especially after their prophecy that he will be made thane of Cawdor comes true.
Macbeth is a brave soldier and a powerful man, but he is not virtuous. He is easily tempted into
murder to fulfill his ambitions to the throne, and once he commits his first crime and is crowned king
of Scotland, he embarks on further atrocities with increasing ease. Macbeth cannot maintain his
power because his increasingly brutal actions make him hated as a tyrant. Unlike Shakespeare’s
other great villains, such as Iago in Othello and Richard III in Richard III, who revel in their villainy,
Macbeth is never comfortable in his role as a criminal. He shows at the beginning of the play that he
knows right from wrong, and chooses to do wrong without being able to justify it to himself.
Ultimately, he is unable to bear the psychic consequences of his atrocities.
Lady Macbeth: Macbeth’s wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and position.
Early in the play she seems to be the stronger and more ruthless of the two, as she urges her
husband to kill Duncan and seize the crown. After the bloodshed begins, however, Lady Macbeth falls
victim to guilt and madness to an even greater degree than her husband. Her conscience affects her
to such an extent that she eventually commits suicide. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth apparently feel quite passionately for one another, and Lady Macbeth exploits her
sexual hold over Macbeth as a means to persuade him to commit murder. However, their shared
alienation from the world, occasioned by their partnership in crime, does not bring them closer
together, but instead seems to numb their feelings for one another.
The Three Witches: Three mysterious hags who plot mischief against Macbeth using charms,
spells, and prophecies. Their predictions prompt him to murder Duncan, to order the deaths of
Banquo and his son, and to blindly believe in his own immortality. The play leaves the witches' true
nature unclear we don’t really know whether they make their own prophecies come true, or where
they get their knowledge from. In some ways they resemble the mythological Fates, who
impersonally wove the threads of human destiny. They clearly take a perverse delight in using their
knowledge of the future to toy with and destroy human beings.
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, ambitious for the crown, murders.
Duncan is the model of a virtuous, benevolent 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 family life
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.
Theme
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.
Motifs
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
