Macbeth Act 1 Summary (En orden de Scene 1 pa arriba) (includes minor details q sanders siempre le

gusta poner)

 Theres a war going on at the moment

 The witches say “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” , meaning that things aren’t how they look like
(THEME ALERT)
 Theres a Rebel invasion from the western isles, The leader of the rebel is called Macdonwald,
Macbeth killed him.
 Another invasion happened in the East of Scotland, The king of Norway (Sweno) tried to invade
Scotland but quickly Macbeth and the Scottish army defeated them (Two heroic acts made by
Macbeth)
 Two different messengers told these news to King Duncan, one of them was injured since he
arrived from battlefield.
 If we could describe Macbeth he is Brave, a skilled warrior, and loyal to king Duncan
 Macbeth full title is Macbeth Thane of Glamis, Thane means general and Glamis is a place in
scotland
 Banquo is a thane also and is a buddy of Macbeth, they were on their way to the king, on their
way, they met 3 witches
 These witches tell Macbeth and Banquo THREE Prophecies that will happen in the future
1. Macbeth is the Thane or Cawdor
2. Macbeth will become the King of Scotland
3. Banquo will have children that will become kings (BANQUO WILL NOT BE A KING)

 After the witches tell macbeth and banquo the prophecies, they dissapear and suddenly one of
the kings messenger (Ross) said that The king was so grateful he wanted to give Macbeth the
title of Thanes of Cawdor (One prophecy proven right here)
 There was a king of Cawdor which macbeth knew, but he betrayed the king by helping the King
of Norway invade Scotland
 The old thane of cawdor was sentenced to death (el que estaba guindando en la pelicula)
 Macbeths starts thinking if the prophecies are good or bad, he starts having thoughts about
killing the King so he could become king
 King Duncan names his son Malcom the next King of Scotland (Macbeth was hoping he would be
named)
 King Duncan plans to go to Macbeth’s castle
 Macbeth sends a letter to his wife talking about the witches he met and how they told him 3
prophecies and that one has already become true.
 The Macbeth’s are loving to each other, they share their secrets and are AMBITIOUS
 Lady Macbeth thinks that his husband is too kind of a human to do something so he could be
king faster (She wants to get rid of that kindness, she wants her husband to become king
 Lady Macbeth sends a prayer to evil spirits so she could be full of cruelty so she becomes a part
of King Duncans murder and never regret it
 Macbeth arrives and the castle and his wife tells him her plan of killing King Duncan
 He was worried but she told him to wear a fake face (in Act One Scene 5 line 64-65 she says
“look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”)
 King Duncan arrives at the castle and is greeted by Lady Macbeth
 Macbeth doesn’t want to kill Duncan, according to him he has 2 reasons not to:
 1. Macbeth is the king’s relative and subject.
2. Macbeth is the king’s host and he should PROTECT not kill
 He doesn’t have a reason to kill the king, only his AMBITION to become king is a “reason” for
him to do it
 He compares his situation to riding a horse, if you want a horse to go faster, you put a spur in
your boot and to make the horse faster you prick it using the spur (harming it to make it go
faster). Macbeths wants a mental spur, meaning a good reason to kill the king but there aren’t
any. We could also compare this situation as in harming the king so he could become king faster
(you get the idea)
 Remember that his only reason for killing the king is his AMBITION. He WANTS to be king. In the
story he also assimilates the horse as in trying to get on it but OVERLEAPING (meaning his
ambition is so big he’s willing to do anything to be king) (This is said in Act One Scene 7 line 25-
28 “Vaulting ambition, which o’er-leaps itself and falls on the other”)
 He ends up telling Lady Macbeth that he will NOT kill the king
 She tells macbeth if he doesn’t do it, he is not a man
 He then agrees to the murder after the crazy example Lady Macbeth gave him about killing a
newborn baby
 Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth his plans about killing the king (Getting his servants drunk and
framing them for the murder)

Act 2
 Banquo talks with his teenage son, his son Fleance says there is no moon and stars tonight,
making the setting dark (actual setting of the night) and lifeless (my own opinion).
 Macbeth joins them and Banquo said he dreamed about the witches, which Macbeth then tells
him that he doesn’t think about them (LIAR)
 Now that banquo and his son are gone, his plan to kill the king starts
 Out of nowhere a bloody dagger appears before Macbeth, the dagger leads the way to his room
and murders King Duncan
 Macbeths goes to his wife upset and starts hearing voices saying “sleep no more! Macbeth does
murder sleep” (Act 2 Scene 2 line 35-36)
 Lady Macbeth sees the bloody dagger and she tells her to bring it back but he refuses, he says “I
am afraid to think what I have done” (Act 2 Scene 2 Line 51)
 Lady Macbeth grabs the dagger and puts it back in the murder scene
 Her hands were bloody, she thinks that after washing her hands, all problems would be gone
and they would become kings
 Macbeth feels sorry for his actions already for killing the king
 Someone knocks on the door, Porter answers the door, Macduffs and Lennox arrive to
accompany the king to his journey and finds the king dead, he quickly wakes everyone up
including the kings son and they quickly want to get out and secretly leave
 Macbeth also kills the two drunk servants
 People start discussing about the death of the king, the nature is now in chaos and there are
two quotes on the story resembling this: “by th’ clock ‘tis day And yet dark night strangles the
traveling lamp” (Ross said this in Act 2 Scene 4 Line 6-7)
 Duncan’s horses “turn’d wild in nature” “they ate each other” (Act 2 Scene 4 lines 16,18)
 People think Malcolm and Donalbain hired the servants to kill their father
 Macbeth is crowned king of Scotland

Act 3
 Banquo says everything came true for Macbeth, banquo is suspicious about Macbeth
 Macbeth fears Banquo suspects him
 Macbeth is mad he had to kill the king
 Macbeth meets some murders and plans to kill Banquo, he also asks the murders to kill his son
because he doesn’t want his sons to become kings
 Macbeth is paranoid about the people around him thinking he did something
 Banquo is murdered but his son managed to escape
 After that, he goes to the table and one of his guests invites him to sit on the table next to him,
he says no because he says theres someone there, in that moment he sees Banquos ghost
shaking his head, Macbeth freaks out at tells the ghost to never shake his head full of bloody
hair at him
 He calms down and returns, after raising a toast to Banquo, he sees his ghost again and freaks
out, rapidly his wife orders all the guest to leave before he says something he shouldn’t say
 Macbeth starts thinking about Macduff and suspects that he isn’t loyal
 Macbeth compares his situation into walking in a river of blood “I am im blood Stepp’d in so far
that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’ver” (Act 3 Scene 4 Line 135-
138)
 Act 3 Scene 5 wasn’t written by shakespeare
 Hecate is mad because they gave Macbeth the prophecies and led him to what he did
 People think that everything is weird and talk a lot about the strange scenes
 Malcolm (Duncan’s oldest son) is now living in the English Court
 Macduff traveled to england to get a army to defeat Macduff

Act 4
 The witches and Hecate (Leader of the witches) are around a big ass cauldron putting
ingredients like a wolfs tooth and a Dragons scale
 The witches chant “Double, Double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble” (toil
means hard work) (Act 4 Scene One lines 10-11)
 Whoever drinks from the cauldron will experience double hard work and double trouble
 One of the witches gets a sudden pain the thumb (sign of someone evil arriving)
 Macbeth arrives and demands to speak with the witches, he is desperate, suspicious to
everyone
 The witches give him 3 apparitions
1. Mans head wearing armor (Beware Macduff says the head)
2. Bloody child (Macbeth will not be threatened by anyone born from a woman)
3. Child wearing a crown holding a tree (He will never be defeated until the forest moves
to his castle walls) (Forest is called Great Birnam Wood)
 Macbeths castle is located in Dunsinane Hill
 Macbeth says he wont think twice and act fast
 He plans to kill Macduffs whole family
 Lady Macduff visit with the royal visitor (Ross)
 She is mad that her husband left and left her family unprotected
 A strange messenger tells Lady Madcuff that she should run
 Murderes kill Lady Madcuffs son and her
 Madcuff and Malcolm (Prince of Cumberland) team up to get rid of macbeth
 They really want to kill him now lol

Act 5 (ultimo gloria a Dios)

 Two new characters, a doctor and a gentle woman (Lady Macbeths assistant)
 Lady Macbeth es una sleepwalker, she stood up and wrote a card all while she was sleeping
 The assistant overheard something she shouldn’t (the card)
 Lady macbeth is then seen sleepwalking and starts washing her hands and says “Out, damn’d
spot! Out I say!” (Act 5 Scene 1 Line 35) (Remember she’s sleeping while doing this)
 There is no blood in her hands but the acts like she cant clean her hands from the blood
 She then says “who thought the old man had so much blood in him” (Act 5 Scene 1 Line 39-40)
(She technically just snitched herself si la escucho el doctor y her assistant) (Old man is referred
as Duncan)
 She says that she still smells the blood in her hands and that no perfume is able to change that
smell “Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand.” (Act 5 Scene 1 Line 50-51)
 She says that “whats done cannot be undone” in Act 5 Scene 1 Line 68
 The doctor says she needs God more than medicine, her problems are not physical help but
spiritual and moral because she is involved in a murder
 A group of Scottish soldiers march to Macbeths castle, they wonder who is coming from England
to attack the castle
 Macduff, Malcolm, Malcoms Uncle Sidward and his son Sidward planned to meet in a forest
called Birnam Wood (the forest that the little kid with a crown holding a tree was) (This is a sign
that the forest is moving to the castle walls, meaning the defeat of Macbeth)
 Soldiers call Macbeth Tyrant (cruel leader)
 Macbeths servant is called Seyton
 Many of Macbeths soldiers are deserting him, Macbeth doesn’t care because he believes what
the witch told him that he will never be defeated until the Birman trees cover the walls of his
castle (he doesn’t know the trees are technically a big ass army), (he thinks that nature will take
over the castle and he will be forced to defeat, personal opinion pero es tecnicamente lo que el
piensa si lees la historia) “Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane, I cannot taint with fear” (Act
5 Scene 3 Line 2-3)
 10,000 english soldiers are on their way to his castle
 Macbeth wears his armor, then Macbeth says “Ill fight till from my bones my flesh be hack’d”
(Act 5 Scene 3 Line 32)
 Macbeth acts the doctor on a update of her wife and he says that she’s suffering from
hallucinations, Macbeth tells him to cure his wife but the doctor leaves and never comes back
(he doesn’t wanna be there since he knows how fucked up they truly are)
 Every soldier is reunited in the forest, they start cutting up tree branch, hold them so they cant
clearly know the number of attacking scottish and english soldiers
 Macbeths says the walls are strong and attackers can’t get it
 Macbeth and Seyton suddenly hear women gasps, while Seyton checks what’s happening,
Macbeth is reminded that he has gone through so many horrible events that nothing startled
him anymore “I have supp’ed full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterious thoughts,
cannot once start me” (Act 5 Scene 5 Line 12-14)
 He then is told that his wife is dead (it doesn’t say how she dies but they say she jumped)
 Macbeth compares life to 4 things (Act 5 Scene 5 Lines 18-27)
1. A candle that is lit for a short time and then is blown out “Out, Out brief candle!”
2. A walking shadow “Life’s but a walking shadow”
3. A poor player (actor) “A poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And
then is heard no more”
4. A tale “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing”
 A messenger says he saw the Birman wood forest moving to the castle
 Macbeth orders his soldier to fight outside the castle
 Malcolm, both Sidwards and Macduff lead the army to the castle and tells soldiers to drop the
trees since theyre close to the castle
 While fighting, Macbeth kills Young Sidward
 Macduff and Macbeth fight, Macbeth isnt worried since Macduff is born from a woman (the
apparition) but Macduff tells him that he was ripped from her moms stomach (cut open, gorey)
 Macduffs ends up killing Macbeth
 Old Sidward is told that his son died but isn’t that sad since he died in battle
 Malcolm becomes King Of Scotland
 Everyone who fought will become Earl

The End