Macbeth
1. First act: the play opens with the news that an attempted invasion of Scotland
by the Norwegians, helped by a traitor, the Thane of Cawdor, has failed thanks
to Macbeth’s courage. While Macbeth and his friend Banquo are returning
home, they meet three witches who say that Macbeth will become king of
Scotland, and Banquo will father a line of kings. So Macbeth invites the King of
Scotland, Duncan, to his castle and writes a letter to his wife to inform her. She
carries out a plan to kill Duncan.
2. Second act: Macbeth kills Duncan. Duncan’s sons, Malcom and Donalbain, leave
Scotland fearing for their lives. Macbeth is now king
3. Third act: Macbeth doesn’t feel safe because the prophecy is that the throne
falls to the heirs of Banquo. He decides to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. But
Fleance escapes and Banquo’s ghost haunts Macbeth
4. Fourth act: the three witches warn Macbeth to beware of Macduff. So Macbeth
kills Macduff’s wife and children
5. Fifth act: Lady Macbeth tries to wash away Duncan’s blood from her hand, but
she decides to kill herself. Meanwhile Malcom is marching into Scotland with an
army. Macduff kills Macbeth. The play ends with Macduff holding up Macbeth’s
head and proclaiming Malcom King of Scotland
SETTING
The play is set in Scotland in the 11th century (connected with the fact that King James
of Scotland was crowned King of England). At the beginning of the play, the action
takes place at Macbeth’s castle in Inverness and later at the palace in Dunsinane. By
using the moors (lande) and the castles as contrasting settings, Shakespeare
emphasises some of the themes of the play: contrast between natural and unnatural,
fairness and foulness, security and danger. Even if the moors are the meeting place for
the witches and evil, they are safe. The castles are described as pleasant and safe, but
they’re dangerous. Also fairness and foulness are reversed in these places: the witches
on the moor only deliver true prophecies, while fairness turns into foulness inside the
castles, where murders are committed.
CHARACTERS
The three witches are supernatural creatures. They have malicious intentions and
prophetic powers and they exist as constant reminders of the potential for evil in the
human imagination.
Macbeth is a tragic hero: at the beginning he is a highly respected soldier, at the end
he is totally alone because of his ambition. Nothing that he does in the play is forced
upon him, his death is the inevitable consequence of his own decisions. We witness a
gradual de-humanisation: his loss of physical relationships is accompanied by the loss
of any power to feel emotions.
Lady Macbeth is a devoted wife and her ambitious plans are for her husband. At the
beginning she shows great strength of will, in the second part she loses her confidence
and she becomes obsessed with the blood she sees on her hand. She is finally
overcome by madness and dies.
THEMES
Macbeth is the shortest Shakespearean tragedy. It is complex in its psychological
analysis of what takes place in the mind of a criminal. In this tragedy there’s no villain
