William Shakespeares MACBETH Shakespeares 1.

CHARACTERS IN MACBETH *Those marked with an asterisk are a combination of minor characters, in the 2012 an characters, the Madrid Players production directed by Vctor Huertas THE THREE WITCHES (or Weird Sisters). In the opening scene, the Three Witches set Macbeth upon his murderous path by telling him that he will be named Thane (Lord) of Cawdor and then become King. After the first prophecy comes true just minutes later, it whets Macbeths appetite for more power. Later, they foretell his doom. MACBETH: The tragic focus of the play. He starts out as an admired war hero, Great Glamis (his title being Thane of Glamis, pronounced Glahms), but soon descends into betrayal, murder, and madness. Driven by his wifes and his own "vaulting ambition," he kills King Duncan and orders other murders to secure the stolen throne. His soliloquies (solo speeches) show us how he breaks down over the course of the play. LADY MACBETH, Macbeth's wife. Her ambition for her husband is a major force in the plot; she urges him to kill King Duncan when Macbeth hesitates. As Queen, she tries to keep up appearances with increasing desperation, as she and her husband go mad from guilt. She becomes increasingly obsessed with the blood on her hands which no one else can see, and commits suicide. DUNCAN, King of Scotland. Presented as a good man and a good, fatherly king (Lady Macbeth admits she could not bring herself to kill him because he looked like her own father), his murder by Macbeth represents the destruction of order in Scotland that can be restored only when Duncans line, in the person of Malcolm, is crowned. MALCOM his son, Prince of Cumberland. Macduffs loyalty, testing his own ability to lead men in order to regain his rightful throne. BANQUO Thane of Lochaber. His brave and noble character stands as a rebuke to his friend Macbeth (who orders his death) because Banquo represents the path Macbeth chose not to take: a path in which ambition need not lead to betrayal and murder. Appropriately, then, it is Banquos ghostand not Duncansthat haunts Macbeth. FLEANCE Banquos son, who survives Macbeths attempt to murder him. If the Witches are correct, he will one day become King, fulfilling their prophecy that Banquos sons, and not Macbeths, will wear the crown of Scotland. Flees into exile upon his fathers His mistrust of everyone forces him to test MACDUFF, Thane of Fife Suspicious of Macbeth and hostile to his kingship, he eventually becomes a leader of the army, sponsored by England, sent to overthrow England, Macbeth. Beside his loyalty to Malcom, whom he considers the rightful king, Macduff is also moved by vengeance for Macbeths murder of his wife and young children.

LADY MACDUFF, his wife murdered on Macbeths orders. YOUNG MACDUFF, his son murdered along with his mother. SEYTON , a knight attending Macbeth At the beginning of the play, he stumbles onstage, bleeding, to describe Macbeths heroics in battle to King Duncan. ROSS*, a Thane (nobleman) of Scotland. After King Duncan is found dead, he is very disturbed by the unnatural things happening at Macbeths castle, from the Kings murder to his horses devouring each other. LENNOX a thane of Scotland ANGUS, a thane of Scotland Macbeths PORTER, the doorman to Macbeths castle, whose famous drunken soliloquy provides some much-needed comic relief. A SCOTTISH DOCTOR, who tries to treat Lady Macbeth as she goes mad from guilt GENTLEWOMAN attending Lady Macbeth MURDERER/ MURDERER, FIRST MURDERER/SECOND MURDERER hired by Macbeth. 2. PLOT SUMMARY OF MACBETH As the play begins, a battle is in progress, and a trio of witches briefly enter and agree to see each other again once the fight is over, in order to meet with Macbeth. The Scottish King Duncan enters with his retinue and hears the news that his generals, Macbeth and Banquo, have defeated an invading army from Norway. Following their battle with these enemy forces, they encounter the witches, who prophesy that Macbeth will be made Thane (a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland, and that Banquos descendents will be Scottish kings, although Banquo will never be king himself. The witches vanish, and the two men treat these prophecies skeptically until the noblemen Ross and Angus come to tell Macbeth that he has indeed been named Thane of Cawdor by King Duncan as a reward for his success on the battlefield. Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility that the rest of the witches prophecythat he will be crowned kingmight be true. He invites Duncan to dine that night at Inverness, Macbeths castle, and writes ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her all that has happened. Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husbands uncertainty. She desires the kingship for him and wants him to murder Duncan to get it. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, he convinces him to kill the king that very night. He and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncans two grooms (personal servant/bodyguards) drunk so they will black out. While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs the king after overcoming his doubts, made

deeper by a number of supernatural signs, including a vision of a bloody dagger. When Duncans death is discovered the next morning, Macbeth kills the grooms supposedly out of rage at their crimeand easily assumes the kingship. Duncans young son Malcolm, flees to England, convinced that whoever killed Duncan also wants him dead. Fearful of the witches prophecy that Banquos 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, Banquos ghost visits Macbeth. When he sees the ghost, Macbeth raves fearfully, startling his guests, who include most of the great Scottish nobility. Lady Macbeth desperately tries to cover up for him, but Macbeths kingship incites increasing resistance from his nobles and subjects. Frightened, Macbeth goes to visit the witches, who present him with further prophecies: Macbeth must beware of Macduff, Thane of Fife, who opposed his accession to the throne; Macbeth cannot be harmed by any man born of woman; and he will be safe till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane, a castle high on a hill. 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 Macduffs castle be seized and, most cruelly, that Lady Macduff and her children be murdered. When news of his familys slaughter reaches Macduff in England, he is stricken with grief and vows revenge. Prince Malcolm, Duncans son, has succeeded in raising an army in England, and Macduff joins him as he rides to Scotland to challenge Macbeths forces. The invasion has the support of the Scottish nobles, who are appalled by Macbeths tyrannical and murderous behavior. Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, is going mad, sleepwalking through nightmares of murder and terrified of the bloodstains she thinks she see on her hands. Before Macbeths opponents arrive, he receives news that his wife has killed herself, sinking him into a deep and fatalistic despair. Nevertheless, he awaits the English and fortifies Dunsinane, certain that the witches prophecies guarantee his invincibility. He is struck numb with fear, guarantee however, when he learns that the English army is advancing on the castle shielded with boughs cut from Birnam Wood which is indeed coming to Dunsinane. In the battle, Macbeth fights desperately, but the English forces gradually overwhelm desperately,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 mothers womb (what we now call birth by cesarean section). Macbeth realizes that he is doomed, and 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. 3. MACBETH: The Scottish Play Theatre folk tend to be superstitiousnot surprising, given their often uncertain livelihoodsand many actors consider Macbeth to be unlucky; so much so, that many will avoid even saying the title, preferring to call it The Scottish Play. Legend has it that if someone makes the mistake of pronouncing the title, the bad luck thus produced can be warded off by instantly quoting from Shakespeares comedy A Midsummer Nights Dream.

Where did this idea of misfortune come from? Accidents are, unfortunately, quite common in the theatre. It is easy to get hurt going on or off stage; fake swordfights can go wrong, actors can trip and fall. Of course, Macbeth has a violent, supernaturally driven plot, so whenever one of these accidents occur, actors might seize on them as reinforcement of the plays unlucky reputation. For example, Laurence Olivier injured his ankle during a production of Macbeth but even though he also got hurt doing other plays, that particular accident just added to the legend. Macbeth was the favourite play of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, who liked to quote soliloquies from it to entertain guests to the White House. He was assassinated by the famous actor John Wilkes Booth known for playing the title role to packed audiences. But the alternate title of The Scottish Play also comes from the fact that it is indeed a very Scottish play; almost all of the work takes place there, and many other themes in the play were dear to the heart of Scottish-born King James I. This is not surprising, since Shakespeare obviously wrote it expressly tailored to interests of the King, who had ascended to the throne a few years before. James loved the theatre and was very generous to actors, playwrights, and other performers of the day. He was especially captivated by Shakespeare's acting troupe, the Chamberlain's Men, placing them under his own patronage and renaming them The Kings Men. Two of Jamess other fascinations were Holy Scripture (he commissioned a translation of the Bible, known as the King James Version, still widely in use today) and witchcraft. Accordingly, Macbeth, more so than any of Shakespeare's works, is overflowing with Biblical imagery. James was also fascinated by witchcraft, and woven into Macbeth are portions of James's own book on the subject, Daemonologie. 4. THEMES IN MACBETH Ambition - Macbeth is the character that embodies ambition in its purest sense, as this feeling seems to have in him no other purpose except to satisfy ambition itself. Being exposed to the temptation of the Crown, the hero-villain feels his heart knocking against his ribs, reason is smothered, and nothing exists for him from now on but that which is not yet there. This inexplicable and painful drive goes back and forth, and it is only time and urgency that push Macbeth to carry out the damned deed, (with a little help from his wife, who seems to know Macbeth's thirst for satisfaction very well). The consequences fall upon him before he is even able to reflect on the deed. Equivocation This means saying one thing while meaning something different; using ambiguous language so as to conceal the truth without outright lying. The word was, at the time that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, associated with the Jesuits, and their supposed involvement in an assassination attempt against King James known as the Gunpowder Plot. Besides the fact that the drunken Porter uses the word in his famous soliloquy, the witches are also equivocators, because although they speak the truth to Macbeth, they

mislead him; for example, they say that he cannot be harmed by one of woman born, but he is killed by Macduff, who was born by caesarean section, not in the usual way. Kingship During the medieval period in which Macbeth was set, and during Shakespeares own time, most people believed an idea called the divine right of kings; in other words, God had ordained that certain persons and their descendents should rule. The person of the king was therefore considered sacred, so Macbeths murder of Duncan is not only criminal, but sacrilegious. Nature All of Shakespeares works contain compelling images taken from nature. In Macbeth, these can be sinister omens, as when Lady Macbeth says the raven himself is hoarse/that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan, an image taken right out of a haunted house. On other occasions, the emphasis on what is unnatural, as when Macbeth muses that nature seems dead when he is about to murder Duncan, or that stones have been known to move and trees to speak. Duncans horses eat each other after the kings death because regicide has upset the natural order. Animals associated with witchcraft are also mentioned frequently: besides the raven noted above, there are cats, serpents, toads, sows, baboons, scorpions Witchcraft - No other Shakespeare play puts such emphasis on witchcraft, which is sure because the author wanted to appeal to what he knew was a principal interest of his new patron, King James. The Weird Sisters, of course, figure prominently in the plot, but they are not the only ones to use witchcraft in the play. Lady Macbeth calls on evil spirits to fill her with direst cruelty and suckle at her breasts, as if she is trying to become a witch, as well, in order to achieve Duncans death. Afterwards, Macbeth himself becomes a kind of warlock when he goes to the Three Witches a second time, asking them to conjure for him and tell his future. In Shakespeares time, most peopleincluding the King, as we have seenbelieved in witchcraft (which was illegal and for which suspects, mostly women, were often punished and even executed), and his audience would have recognized many of things the Weird Sisters say and do as being considered standard for witches: the ingredients in their potions, the formulas for their spells and curses, or their relationship with spirits taking the form of animals, known as familiars. 5. WHILE WATCHING THE PLAY What do the Three Witches represent? Are they real, orlike the dagger Macbeth sees before murdering Duncan, or the spots of blood Lady Macbeth sees on her hands after going mada projection of Macbeths imagination and desires? Note that they tell him what he wants to hear, all of which comes true, although not in the way he would like. What makes Macbeth a tragic character, rather than simply a villain? What admirable qualities does he have at the beginning of the play, and which does he keep to the end? How do his soliloquies (speeches he makes to himself) reflect his inner feelings to us? How would you describe the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth? What signs do we have of how long theyve been married, of their love for each other, of who seems to be the dominant member of their partnership?

Why does Prince Malcolm lie about himself to Macduff, during the scene in which he tests Macduffs motives for following him? And just as importantly, when is Malcolm lying, and when is he telling the truth? Listen for the more than 40 uses of the word blood or bleed in the play. Some obviously refer to bloodshed in battle, or in murder, but blood is also used metaphorically. What does Macbeth mean when he says, It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood? 6. FAMOUS QUOTES Stars, hide your fires / Let not light see my black and deep desires . Being one of Shakespeares later works, Macbeth has few rhyming lines, so these are all the more striking. The title character says this when he hears that King Duncan is to give his oldest son, Malcolm, the title Prince of Cumberland (i.e. the Crown Prince, or heir to the throne). He realizes that to become King himself, he will not only have to get rid of Duncan, but of Malcolm, as well. Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it. Lady Macbeths advice to her husband is a malevolent paraphrase of Jesus Christs words to the twelve Apostles: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Lechery, sir, [drunkenness] provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes [drunkenness] unkenness away the performance. The Porter, who has certainly had a lot to drink himself, is making a ribald joke, here in what is arguably the only funny scene in a very dark play. This is what is known as comic relief: letting the audience relax after the early scenes of witchcraft and murder, before plunging them into more scenes of witchcraft and murder. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife. This vivid metaphor shows us how Macbeths full murderous deeds are driving him to madness. It echoes his earlier reference to a dagger of the mind, the hallucination of a dagger that he sees just before murdering Duncan. Out, damnd spot! Lady Macbeths cry of terror at the imaginary bloodstains on her hands has become one of the most famous lines in all of Shakespeare. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow/creeps in this petty pace from day to day day Macbeths meditation on the futility of life comes near the end of the play, after he learns of his wifes suicide, and realizes that he has gained the kingship at the loss of everything that was important to him: honour, friendship, love, or any chance at happiness. 7. GLOSSARY augur to foresee or predict the future; something that does this. bodements omens; signs of misfortune.

cousin not, as today, the son or daughter of ones uncle or aunt; in Shakespeares time,it meant any relative, and was used by nobles in addressing each other, regardless of their family ties. dudgeon hilt of a dagger foison strength or power; resource(s). Golgotha the site outside Jerusalem at which Jesus Christ was crucified. groom here, a personal servant. husbandry - thriftiness of the conservation of resources. Also the cultivation and breeding of crops and animals. Hyrcan from Hyrcania, an ancient provice of Asia southeast of the Caspian Sea. incarnadine crimson or pinkish minion in modern English, an underling; in Shakespeares time, it still had the original French meaning of mignon, or darling. multitudinous very numerous. parricide someone who murders his or her father rancour bitter, especially longstanding resentfulness. recompense reward for efforts or work performed. shoal - a shallow area in a body of water, often posing a navigational hazard. sundry of various kinds, not important enough to be enumerated. warder a guard; usually a prison guard. yoke a piece of wood that joins two animals in farming; often used as a symbol of oppression.