without supernatural powers could have known that Macbeth would only be defeated when Birnam Wood moved to Dunsinane? The witches have other supernatural powers. They can cause storms, and they appear and disappear at will. But their powers are limited. Look at Act I, Scene iii. The First Witch has been insulted by a sailor’s wife. When the witch asked the woman for a chestnut, the woman says, “Aroint thee, witch!” In other words, “Get lost!” The witch doesn’t seem to be able to harm the woman directly. Instead, she sends a storm to disturb the sailor’s ship. Even at that, her powers are limited: “…his bark cannot be lost…”, the witch says. These hags lead Macbeth on to destroy himself. Their predictions are temptations. They never lie, they never tell Macbeth he has to do anything, they just give the trick answers. In that sense they are agents of the devil, out for his soul; they trick him into damning himself. But it is clear that the responsibility for the crimes is Macbeth’s. Nothing the witches did forced him to commit them. He was wrong to hear their words as an invitation to murder the King. Still, you wonder if Macbeth would have murdered anybody if he had not met the witches. And you can argue that either way. – MALCOLM Malcolm represents the rightful order that Macbeth disturbs. Duncan, who is a good and wise king, names his son the Prince of Cumberland and heir to the throne. Will Malcolm make a good king? Clearly, Shakespeare wants us to believe he will. Though Malcolm is young, he is already wise. He and his brother Donalbain are smart enough to get away from Macbeth’s castle as soon as possible after their father’s murder. After safely reaching England, Malcolm does not rashly try to reclaim the throne. Instead, he waits until the time is right. In his scene with Macduff, Malcolm displays cleverness and verbal skill. He manipulates Macduff, testing his loyalty, but he does it only for the good of his people and his country. In the final speech of the play, Malcolm demonstrates his fitness for kingship. Macbeth has been killed, and Malcolm is about to be crowned. Like his father, in Act I, Malcolm’s first concern is to reward those who have helped him. The speech is full of images of divine grace and natural order. – DUNCAN The King makes his final exit before the end of Act I, and he is murdered offstage early in Act II. Not having a lot of time to develop Duncan’s character, Shakespeare works in broad, clear strokes. Duncan is “a most sainted king” (Act IV, Scene iii, line 109), as Macduff calls him. His murder is a crime that has no justification. Even Macbeth calls him “the gracious Duncan” (Act III, Scene i, line 66). We know that Duncan is old- otherwise he would be in combat with his army. Owing to his age, he has to anxiously await word from the field. His generosity is clearly demonstrated by the way he treats Macbeth. He rewards the noble Macbeth immediately after hearing about his bravery. Duncan is also gracious to Lady Macbeth. Even though he is actually honoring Macbeth and his wife by spending the night at their castle, he behaves as if they were doing him a favor. The person who best sums up Duncan’s nature is his murderer- Macbeth: “…this Duncan / Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been / So clear in his great office, that his virtues / Will plead like angels…” (Act I, Scene vii, lines 16-19). – MACDUFF Macduff is Macbeth’s major adversary. Malcolm is the rightful king and leads the forces to overthrow the tyrant, but Macduff is a thorn in Macbeth’s side from the beginning. In the end, he kills Macbeth. Until the murder of his wife and children, Macduff has not been hurt personally by Macbeth. He opposes Macbeth because he knows right from wrong. He never wants the crown for himself. His desire is to see the rightful king on the throne. He refuses to play games. He will not attend Macbeth’s crowning or put in an appearance at the tyrant’s feast just to keep up appearances. Macduff is not clever with words. He voices his disapproval of Macbeth not by statements but by his absence. Macduff’s simple honesty is revealed when he is tested by Malcolm in Act IV, Scene iii. In a play like Macbeth, in which many people and things are not what they appear to be, Macduff is like a breath of fresh air. Maturity is another trait of Macduff’s. He takes the news of his wife and children’s murder like a blow squarely on the chin. By having the courage to feel his grief, he is able to convert his pain into a burning desire for righteous revenge. SETTING OTHER ELEMENTS – SETTING (SMACSETT) – The settings of Shakespeare’s plays generally come more from the dramatic needs of the story than from any literal sense of the place. Macbeth is no exception. Most of the action takes place in Scotland. There are at least two reasons: 1. Shakespeare invented the plot of Macbeth by combining several stories out of Scottish history he found in Holinshed’s Chronicles; and 2. James I, who was King of England when the play was written, was a Scot. But reading books about the Scottish landscape will not help you understand the setting of Macbeth. Instead, read the play. The Scotland of Macbeth seems rough and somewhat primitive. Each thane has his castle, and in between there are woods and fields. None of the action takes place in anything like a city. The play has a murky feeling, which is reflected in the setting. The action starts in the open fields, but the air is clouded by the smoke of battle. Lightning and thunder fill the sky. Most of the scenes in Macbeth’s castle take place at night. Torches are needed to see anything at all. THEMES THEMES (SMACTHEM) – Here are some of the major themes in Macbeth. Notice that each is expressed through some combination of plot, character, and language. – 1. AN ANATOMY OF EVIL A powerful sense of evil hangs over every scene in the play. Each character has to either fight or give in to it. The play makes several points about the nature of evil. The first point is that evil is contrary to human nature. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have to contort their natures to murder Duncan. First, Lady Macbeth has to beg evil spirits to tear all human feeling from her, and then she has to make her husband ignore his own conscience. But the play also says that human nature cannot be avoided indefinitely. By the end of the play, both characters have been destroyed from within. Fear and guilt drive Lady Macbeth mad; Macbeth sees life as an empty, meaningless charade. The second point is that it is evil to disrupt the natural order of the world. In nature, everything happens in its own time. A flower blooms when the laws of nature say it should, neither sooner nor later. When Macbeth takes the crown by murder, he upsets the natural order of his life- and the order of Scotland. Without the rightful, God-given king on the throne all society is disordered; under a usurper there can only be evil and chaos. Even nature becomes upset: it’s dark during the day; horses eat each other; owls kill falcons. Nearly every scene has references to unnatural deeds or occurrences. When Macbeth is killed and Malcolm takes the throne, the natural order is restored. The third point is that evil is a disease. Like a disease, evil infects its victims and makes them sicken until they die. Once Macbeth kills Duncan, he is committed to a course of lying and killing. His sense of right and wrong is eaten away. Even before he is killed, Macbeth is dying of a diseased spirit. Scotland is also infected, and Macbeth is its disease. The longer he is king, the worse things get. When Macbeth is overthrown, the country is healed. – 2. AMBITION Many readers feel that Macbeth’s downfall is caused by his ambition. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth seems to be a brave, noble, and loyal thane. For his desire to become king, he is willing to turn his back on what he knows to be right. Lady Macbeth, because of her ambition for her husband, uses all her strength and intelligence for evil purposes. They are very unlike Banquo, who will not compromise his honor for anything. – 3. APPEARANCE VERSUS REALITY Practically nothing in the play is what it appears to be. The witches’ predictions sound like good news; actually, they lead to death and destruction. Macbeth and his wife seem like gracious hosts; actually, they are plotting murder. The Macbeths appear to achieve their heart’s desires; in reality, they only gain torment and death. In reading the play, examine each scene to compare what appears to be happening with what is really happening. – 4. HONOR AND LOYALTY In a feudal society such as the one in Macbeth, peace and order are maintained largely through honor and loyalty. Men of honor obey certain rules. Macbeth throws all ideas of honor out the window. Once he has done that, the country is in turmoil. Nobody knows whom he can trust. Look at what Macduff has to go through to win Malcolm’s trust in Act IV. In Act V, it is made very clear that the few followers Macbeth has left have been forced to stay with him. They feel no sense of loyalty toward him. When it comes time to fight, they just give up. – 5. FATE AND DESTINY The play suggests that a person should trust his destiny to a higher power. After encountering the three witches, Macbeth tries to take fate into his own hands, and that action brings him nothing but grief. Malcolm, on the other hand, trusts that all things will work out “…by the grace of Grace [in other words, heaven]” (Act V, Scene viii, line 72). “Be what you’re meant to be,” the play seems to be saying. SOURCES SOURCES (SMACSOUR) – The story of Macbeth is a combination of two stories found in Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Shakespeare developed many of the plots and characters for his plays from this book of history and legend. Holinshed tells one story about a man named Macbeth who killed a king named Duncan, but this story is different from the play in several important ways. The Duncan of the story was a bad king. He did not care about his people, and Banquo helped Macbeth overthrow him. Shakespeare combined that story with another Holinshed story about someone named Donwald who killed a king named Duff. Duff was a good and pious king, and was Donwald’s guest when he was murdered. Also, Donwald killed Duff because his wife urged him to. For the supernatural elements of the play, Shakespeare might have consulted a book called Demonology, written by none other than King James I himself. (Remember that Macbeth was first presented at James’ court.) In his book, James states that witches can predict the future. POINT_OF_VIEW POINT OF VIEW (SMACVIEW) – Shakespeare takes a clear moral stance in telling the story of Macbeth. He portrays humans as creatures capable of good but in danger of giving in to the temptations of evil. Evil is introduced through supernatural beings- the witches. You could say Macbeth is as much a victim of their deception and his own ambition as he is a victimizer of others. All evildoers are punished. The numerous mentions of heaven and hell remind us that good people who are killed will find eternal happiness, while those who do evil will suffer eternal damnation. It is important not to confuse the point of view that Shakespeare gives to a character with the playwright’s own point of view. For example, Macbeth’s “tomorrow and tomorrow” speech says that life is meaningless, but the play as a whole says just the opposite. Macbeth’s utter despair at that moment is a result of his evil deeds. The very fact that he and Lady Macbeth are punished for their wickedness is proof of a higher good which gives meaning to life. FORM FORM AND STRUCTURE (SMACFORM) – Like all of Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth is divided into five acts. Each act is broken down further into scenes. Editors disagree about the proper division of scenes in Act V. Some divide it into six scenes. Others make eight scenes from the same text, as we have in the scene-by-scene analysis, and still others make it into nine scenes. All these versions have the same text; only the divisions are different. Let’s look at the form of the play in terms of storytelling. At each moment in the play, there is a question that keeps our interest. That is called dramatic tension. From the point when Macbeth hears the witches’ prophesies, he is obviously enticed by the idea of becoming king. We wonder what he will do about it. Will he kill Duncan? Once the murder has been committed, we wonder what the consequences will be. Macbeth becomes king, but some are suspicious. What will happen to Banquo and Macduff? In the next section of the play, Macbeth tries to make his position secure through murder. We can see that things are only getting worse for him, and we wonder how long he can hold on. In Act IV, the end of the play is set up. Macbeth visits the witches, who give him new prophesies. Anybody who is following the story should suspect that they are deceiving him somehow, but we do not know how. In the same act, Malcolm and Macduff join together to defeat Macbeth. Now we wait for the final battle. Notice how skillfully Shakespeare maintains suspense up to the end. Macbeth’s followers have deserted him; Birnam Wood has come to Dunsinane. He seems doomed, but we know that he cannot be defeated by any man born of woman. Who can beat him, then? Finally, Macduff reveals his secret, and Macbeth is killed. All that remains is to cheer the new and rightful king, Malcolm. ELIZABETHAN_ENGLISH ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH (SMACELIZ) – All languages change. Differences in pronunciation and word choice are apparent even between parents and their children. If language differences can appear in one generation, it is only to be expected that the English used by Shakespeare four hundred years ago will diverge markedly from the English that is used today. The following information on Shakespeare’s language will help you to a fuller understanding of Macbeth. – CHANGES IN WORD CLASSES Adjectives, nouns, and verbs were less rigidly confined to particular classes in Shakespeare’s day. For example, verbs were often used as nouns. In Act I, Scene vii, line 5, Macbeth uses be as a noun: – …that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all… – And nouns could be used as verbs, as when incarnadine, which was a color, was used to mean “redden”: – Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarndine (II, ii, 59-61) – Adjectives could also be used as adverbs. In the above quotation clean is used in a position where contemporary usage would require a form like entirely, and easy is used for “easily” in: – Let’s not consort with them. To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy. (II, iii, 137-38) – They could also be used as nouns, as in: – If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the key. (II, iii, 1-2) – In this instance, old is the equivalent of “frequent opportunity.” – CHANGES IN MEANING OF WORDS The meanings of words undergo changes, a process that can be illustrated by the fact that chip extended its meaning from a small piece of wood to a small piece of silicon. Many of the words in Shakespeare’s plays still exist today but their meanings have changed. The “astonishment” in: – and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight, His wonders and his praises do contend. (I, iii, 90-92) – Or, more fundamental, earnest meant “token of an agreement” (I, iii, 104), line meant “strengthen” (I, iii, 112), missives meant “messengers” (I, v, 6), illness meant “wickedness” (I, v, 20), and sightless meant “invisible”: – Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature’s mischief. (I, v, 50-51) – VOCABULARY LOSS Words not only change their meanings, but are frequently discarded from the language. In the past leman meant “sweetheart” and sooth meant “truth.” The following words used in Macbeth are no longer current in English but their meaning can usually be gauged from the context in which they occur. – PADDOCK (I, i, 9): toad MASTERDOM (I, v, 70): mastery FAVOUR (I, v, 72): countenance, face JUTTY (I, vi, 6): part of a building IN COMPT (I, vi, 26): subject to account TRAMMEL UP (I, vii, 3): entangle AFEARD (I, vii, 39): afraid LIMBECK (I, vii, 68): skull, container of the brain DUDGEON (II, i, 46): handle SLEAVE (II, ii, 36): silk thread, silk GOOSE (II, iii, 15): smoothing iron AVOUCH (III, i, 119): justify ECSTASY (III, ii, 22): fit SEELING (III, ii, 46): blinding LATED (III, iii, 6): belated TRENCHED (III, iv,, 26): cut FLAWS (III, iv, 62): sudden gusts OWE (III, iv, 112): own DRAB (IV, i, 31): prostitute SWEATEN (IV, i, 65): irregularly formed GIN (IV, ii, 35): snare FOISONS (IV, iii, 88): abundant harvests TEEMS (IV, iii, 176): brings forth MATED (V, i, 75): confused – VERBS Shakespearean verb forms differ from modern usage in these three main ways. – 1. Questions and negatives could be formed without using do/did, as when Lady Macbeth asks “Know you not, he has?” (I, vii, 30). Today we would say, “Do you not know that he has?” Another instance occurs when Macbeth tells Banquo “I think not of them” (II, i, 21); modern usage demands, “I do not think of them.” Shakespeare had the option of using the following two forms, whereas contemporary usage permits only the a forms: – a b Is the king going? Goes the king? Did the king go? Went the king? You do not look well You look not well You did not look well You looked not well – 2. A number of past participles and past-tense forms are used that would be ungrammatical today. Among these are: forbid for “forbidden,” as in: “He shall live a man forbid” (I, iii, 21); holp for “helped,” as in: “And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him” (I, v, 23); eat for “ate,” as in: – ‘Tis said they eat each other. They did so, to th’ amazement of mine eyes” (II, iv, 18) – 3. Archaic verb forms sometimes occur with thou and with he/she/it: – As thou art in desire? Would’st thou have that Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life (I, vii, 41-42) – Hath he asked for me? (I, vii, 30) – PRONOUNS Shakespeare and his contemporaries had one extra pronoun- thou- which could be used in addressing a person who was one’s equal or social inferior. You was obligatory if more than one person was addressed: “Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more” (I, iii, 70), but it could also be used to indicate respect, as when Lady Macbeth told Duncan: – Your servants ever Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt. To make their audit at your Highness’ pleasure, Still to return your own. (I, vi, 25-28) – Frequently, a person in power used thou to a child or a subordinate but was addressed you in return, as when Lady Macduff spoke to her son: – Lady Macduff: Now, God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father? Son: If he were dead, you’d weep for him. If you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father. (IV, ii, 57-61) – But if thou was used inappropriately, it might be offensive. One of the witches uses thou in addressing Macbeth to underline the fact that Macbeth has, by his murders, reduced himself to their level: – Say if th’ hadst rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters? (IV, i, 62-63) – One further pronominal reference warrants a comment. Duncan uses the royal plural we to stress the honor he is bestowing on Lady Macbeth by staying with her: – Fair and noble hostess, We are your guest tonight. (I, vi, 24-25) – But he uses I to stress his debt to Macbeth for winning the battle: -