Macbeth

Summary

Macbeth opens on a Scottish heath where three witches plan to meet Macbeth. Returning from victory over rebels and Norwegian invaders, Macbeth and his fellow general Banquo meet the witches, who hail Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and future king, and tell Banquo that his descendants will be kings. Almost at once messengers bring news that King Duncan has made Macbeth Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth writes to his wife, and Lady Macbeth, fearing his nature is too full of the milk of human kindness, calls on spirits to unsex her and fill her with cruelty. When Duncan stays at their castle at Inverness, she overcomes Macbeth's hesitation by taunting his manhood. Macbeth, after a vision of a dagger, murders the sleeping king; Lady Macbeth drugs the grooms, returns the daggers and smears the grooms with blood. A drunken porter imagines himself the gatekeeper of hell as Macduff knocks; the murder is discovered, Macbeth kills the grooms, and Duncan's sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee. Macbeth is crowned. Haunted by the prophecy to Banquo, he hires murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance; Fleance escapes. At a banquet Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost in his place and raves, and Lady Macbeth dismisses the guests. Macbeth returns to the witches, who show him apparitions telling him to beware Macduff, that no man of woman born can harm him, and that he will not be vanquished until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane, and a show of Banquo's royal descendants. Learning that Macduff has fled to England, Macbeth has Macduff's wife and children slaughtered. In England, Malcolm tests Macduff's loyalty, an English doctor describes King Edward's healing touch, and Macduff learns of his family's murder. In Scotland, a doctor and gentlewoman watch Lady Macbeth sleepwalk, trying to wash imagined blood from her hands. Malcolm's army, camouflaged with boughs from Birnam Wood, advances on Dunsinane. Macbeth learns of his wife's death, apparently by her own hand, and reflects that life signifies nothing. In battle Macduff reveals he was 'from his mother's womb untimely ripped', kills Macbeth and brings his head to Malcolm, who is hailed as king.

Plot or Argument

• Act 1: Prophecy and temptation

  The witches' prophecies, Macbeth made Thane of Cawdor, Lady Macbeth's invocation, and the plot to kill Duncan.

• Act 2: The murder

  The dagger vision, Duncan's murder, the Porter, the discovery and the flight of Duncan's sons.

• Act 3: Banquo

  Macbeth's fears, Banquo's murder, Fleance's escape and the ghost at the banquet.

• Act 4: Apparitions and atrocity

  The witches' apparitions, the murder of Macduff's family, and the scene in England with Malcolm and Macduff.

• Act 5: Downfall

  Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking, Macbeth's despair, her death, Birnam Wood and Macbeth's death at Macduff's hands.

Characters

• Macbeth, protagonist

  Scottish general who murders his king and becomes a tyrant.

• Lady Macbeth, Macbeth's wife

  Ambitious wife who drives the murder and is broken by guilt.

• The Weird Sisters, witches

  Prophetic figures whose equivocal predictions tempt Macbeth.

• Banquo, Macbeth's fellow general

  Loyal thane whose descendants are promised the crown; murdered by Macbeth's agents.

• Duncan, King of Scotland

  Gracious king murdered in his sleep at Macbeth's castle.

• Macduff, Thane of Fife

  Nobleman whose family is slaughtered and who kills Macbeth.

• Malcolm, Duncan's son

  Heir who returns with an English army to reclaim the throne.

• The Doctor, physician

  Scottish doctor who observes Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking and admits the limits of his art.

• The Porter, gatekeeper

  Drunken servant whose comic speech imagines hell's gate.

Lessons

• Ambition unchecked by conscience

  Macbeth knows the murder is wrong and does it anyway, then must keep killing to stay safe. The play traces how one crime leads to a cascade of others.

  • Do the witches cause Macbeth's crimes or reveal his desires?
  • At what point is Macbeth beyond turning back?

• Guilt lives in the body

  Sleeplessness, hallucinations and compulsive hand-washing show guilt expressing itself physically. The play anticipates the idea that the mind can make the body ill.

  • Why does Lady Macbeth break down when Macbeth hardens?
  • What does the Doctor mean by 'More needs she the divine than the physician'?
  • How does the play treat sleep?

• Equivocation

  The witches' prophecies are true in ways that mislead. The play warns against trusting promises that tell us what we want to hear.

  • How does the Porter's speech about the equivocator connect to the plot?
  • Which prophecy deceives Macbeth most?

Context

Macbeth was written for the court of James I, who claimed descent from Banquo, had written Daemonologie on witchcraft, and survived the Gunpowder Plot of 1605; the Porter's reference to an 'equivocator' is often linked to the Jesuit Henry Garnet's trial. Shakespeare adapted his material from Holinshed's Chronicles. The scene of Edward the Confessor curing 'the evil' flatters the royal practice of touching for scrofula, which James continued.

Composition

Probably written around 1606. It survives only in the First Folio (1623), in a text that appears to have been revised, possibly by Thomas Middleton, whose songs for the witches are cited.

Reception

One of Shakespeare's most performed tragedies, with a theatrical superstition that its name brings bad luck. Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene has been a touchstone for actresses and for psychiatrists discussing guilt and somnambulism.

Comparisons

• the-twelve-caesars

  Suetonius's emperors, haunted by omens and murdering rivals, show the same pattern of tyranny breeding fear that consumes Macbeth.

• death-of-a-salesman

  Both protagonists are lured by voices promising greatness and destroyed by the pursuit.

• the-iliad

  Both explore the warrior's code and violence, but Macbeth turns heroic killing into criminal murder.

• the-nibelungenlied

  Kriemhild's relentless vengeance and Lady Macbeth's ambition both portray a woman driving cycles of bloodshed in a warrior society.

• the-arthashastra

  Kautilya's handbook of ruthless statecraft offers a calculating view of seizing and keeping power that contrasts with Macbeth's guilt-ridden tyranny.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The witches' greeting on the heath in Act 1, Scene 3, and the news moments later that Macbeth is Thane of Cawdor. Watch Macbeth's aside immediately afterward: the thought of murder arrives before anyone has suggested it.
• Lady Macbeth's invocation of the spirits to unsex her in Act 1, Scene 5, and her taunting of Macbeth's manhood in Act 1, Scene 7 when he decides not to proceed.
• Images of sleep and blood throughout the play: the dagger vision, the voice crying that Macbeth has murdered sleep, the hands that all Neptune's ocean cannot wash, and Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking in Act 5, Scene 1.
• The Porter's scene in Act 2, Scene 3, where a drunken servant pretends to keep the gate of hell. Notice that comedy arrives at the precise moment Duncan's body lies undiscovered.
• The witches' apparitions in Act 4, Scene 1, and how each prophecy turns out to be true in a way Macbeth did not expect, from Birnam Wood to Macduff's birth.

Key terms and names

The Weird Sisters

The three witches who greet Macbeth with prophecies on the heath. Weird here means fate-bearing; their words tempt Macbeth without forcing him, leaving open how much is fate and how much choice.

Thane of Cawdor

The title Duncan gives Macbeth after the previous holder is executed as a traitor. Its arrival so soon after the witches' greeting makes the rest of their prophecy seem certain.

Equivocation

Speaking in deliberately double senses to deceive while technically telling the truth. The Porter jokes about an equivocator at hell's gate, and the witches' final prophecies equivocate with Macbeth until he is destroyed.

Banquo

Macbeth's fellow general, who hears the same prophecies but does not act on them. His ghost appears at Macbeth's banquet, and his descendants, shown in the witches' procession of kings, were claimed by James I as ancestors.

Birnam Wood

The forest that, according to the witches' apparition, must come to Dunsinane before Macbeth can be defeated. Malcolm's soldiers carry its boughs as camouflage, fulfilling the prophecy literally.

The king's evil

Scrofula, which an English doctor in Act 4, Scene 3 says King Edward heals by touch. The scene sets a holy, healing king in England against the tyrant who has made Scotland sick.

Macduff

The Thane of Fife, whose wife and children Macbeth has murdered. He reveals that he was from his mother's womb untimely ripped and so kills Macbeth, undoing the last prophecy.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What do the witches prophesy for Macbeth and for Banquo in Act 1, Scene 3, and which part of the prophecy comes true almost immediately?
2. Comprehension What arguments does Macbeth give himself against killing Duncan in Act 1, Scene 7, and how does Lady Macbeth overcome them?
3. Comprehension What three apparitions do the witches show Macbeth in Act 4, Scene 1, and what does each one tell him?
4. Interpretation The witches never tell Macbeth to kill Duncan. Who is responsible for the murder: the witches, Lady Macbeth, or Macbeth himself? Use his asides in Act 1 to support your answer.
5. Interpretation In Act 3, Scene 4 Macbeth says he is stepped so far in blood that returning would be as tedious as going on. How has his attitude toward killing changed since the dagger speech in Act 2, Scene 1?
6. Interpretation Lady Macbeth is the stronger partner in Act 1, yet she breaks down in Act 5 while Macbeth hardens. Why does Shakespeare reverse their positions?
7. Interpretation The Doctor watching Lady Macbeth sleepwalk says she needs the divine more than the physician. What does the play suggest about the relationship between guilt, the body, and the soul?
8. Big Question In Act 5, Scene 5 Macbeth concludes that life is a tale signifying nothing. Is this the truth about life that the play reveals, or the verdict of a man whose sins have emptied his own life of meaning?

Faith Connections

• James 1:13-15 (Scripture)

  James teaches that each person is tempted when drawn away by his own desire, and that desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin to death. Macbeth's first aside after the witches' greeting shows desire already conceiving murder, exactly as James describes, before any outside pressure is applied.

• Genesis 3 (Scripture)

  The serpent's half-truths and Eve's offering the fruit to Adam stand behind the witches' equivocating prophecies and Lady Macbeth's persuasion of her husband. As in Eden, the promise to be raised higher ends in exile from peace, sleep, and fellowship.

• Augustine, City of God XIV.28 (Church Fathers)

  Augustine says two loves made two cities, love of self to the contempt of God making the earthly city, and that the earthly city is ruled by the lust for domination. Macbeth's Scotland, where every murder requires another to secure the crown, is a small portrait of that city.

• Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy IV (Great Conversation)

  Lady Philosophy argues that the wicked, however powerful they appear, are truly weak and wretched because they cannot reach the good they seek. Macbeth on the throne, unable to sleep, envying the murdered Duncan, and finding life meaningless, is a dramatic proof of her claim.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Macbeth knows that Duncan is his king, his kinsman, and his guest, and that the murder will bring judgement even in this life. Yet ambition, quickened by the witches' prophecy and his wife's taunts, overrides his conscience. Once he commits the murder, he must commit more to keep the crown, and each crime deadens him further, while guilt destroys Lady Macbeth from within. The natural order he violated rises against him, and the prophecies in which he trusted turn out to be equivocations. Therefore the play argues that a crime against the order of loyalty and hospitality destroys the criminal's peace before it destroys his life.

Rhetorical device: paradox (antithesis). The witches announce in Act 1, Scene 1 that fair is foul and foul is fair, and the play's language keeps doubling back on itself: the prophecies are true and false at once, and Macbeth's first words echo the witches by calling the day both foul and fair. The paradox sets up a world where appearance and reality cannot be trusted.

Debate: Resolved: Lady Macbeth bears more guilt for Duncan's murder than Macbeth.

Memory Work

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

I am in blood Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er

Writing Prompts

Essay: Sleep is one of the play's central images, from the murder of Duncan in his sleep to Macbeth's claim that he has murdered sleep and Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking. Trace the image through the play and argue what Shakespeare means by making sleeplessness the punishment of the Macbeths.

Comparison with The Prince: Machiavelli advises that cruelty used once and quickly to secure power can be justified, while cruelty that grows over time destroys a prince. Using Macbeth's path from Duncan's murder to the slaughter of Macduff's family, argue whether Macbeth fails because he ignores Machiavelli's advice or because the play rejects Machiavelli's premises altogether.

Medical Lens

A cornerstone text for medicine and literature. Macbeth's 'mind diseased' speech (5.3) is perhaps the most quoted literary request for a psychiatric drug, and the Doctor's reply that 'the patient must minister to himself' frames an early-modern view of the limits of physic for disorders of conscience. Lady Macbeth's somnambulism and compulsive hand-washing (5.1) are a classic literary depiction of sleepwalking and guilt-driven behaviour, often discussed in relation to obsessive-compulsive phenomena and dissociation, though such readings are interpretive. Macbeth's hallucinated dagger and Banquo's ghost, his insomnia ('Macbeth does murder sleep'), and the drugged 'possets' given to Duncan's grooms add further strands. The Porter's account of drink's effects is a well-known passage on alcohol. Act 4 Scene 3 describes Edward the Confessor curing scrofula ('the king's evil') by touch, reflecting royal healing rituals of James I's reign. Lady Macbeth's death is reported as apparently self-inflicted, and Macduff's birth 'untimely ripped' from his mother refers to caesarean delivery.

• Act 2, Scene 1–2

  The hallucinated dagger; the voice crying 'Sleep no more'; the drugged possets given to the grooms.

  Madness PsychosisSleep InsomniaPharmacology Poisons
• Act 2, Scene 3

  The drunken Porter on the three things drink provokes.

  Alcohol
• Act 3, Scene 4

  Banquo's ghost at the banquet, seen only by Macbeth.

  Madness Psychosis
• Act 4, Scene 3

  An English doctor describes King Edward curing 'the evil' (scrofula) by touch.

  Physicians DoctorsAncient Medicine
• Act 5, Scene 1

  Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking and hand-washing observed by the Doctor and Gentlewoman.

  Sleep InsomniaObsession MonomaniaPhysicians DoctorsMind Body
• Act 5, Scene 3

  Macbeth asks the Doctor to minister to a mind diseased; 'Throw physic to the dogs'.

  Physicians DoctorsPharmacology PoisonsMelancholia Depression
• Act 5, Scene 5 and 5, Scene 9 (Folio 5.7)

  Lady Macbeth's death, later said to be by her own hand.

  Suicide
• Act 5, Scene 8

  Macduff reveals he was untimely ripped from his mother's womb.

  Childbirth Maternal

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Read Act 5, Scene 1 as a case conference. What does the Doctor observe, conclude and decline to treat?

• Fiction

  Write the Doctor's private notes after his nights watching Lady Macbeth.

• Classroom

  Trace references to sleep through the play. How does Shakespeare connect guilt and insomnia?

Further Reading

• Daemonologie, James VI and I

• Shakespearean Tragedy, A. C. Bradley

• The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton

• Throne of Blood, Akira Kurosawa (director)