MACBETH RECAP

ACT 1 SCENE 2
What kind of king does Duncan seem to be? How is he treated by those
around him?

• The king of Scotland should be a figurehead of order and

orderliness, and Duncan is the epitome, or supreme example, of
this. His language is formal and his speeches full of grace and
graciousness, whether on the battlefield in Act I, Scene 2, where his
talk concerns matters of honor, or when greeting his kind hostess
Lady Macbeth in Act I, Scene 6.
• Duncan also expresses humility (a feature that Macbeth lacks) when
he admits his failure in spotting the previous Thane of Cawdor's
treachery: "There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face" (I:
4,11).
• Most importantly, Duncan is the representative of God on earth, ruling
by divine right (ordained by God), a feature of kingship strongly
endorsed by King James I, for whom the play was performed in 1606.
WHAT DOES MALCOLM SAY ABOUT
THE CAPTAIN?
• Malcolm is praising the Captain for his brave acts in the battle. The Captain
did something heroic to save Malcolm from being captured and is now
invited to tell his tale to the King himself
• WHAT WAS THE BATTLE LIKE? WHAT METAPHOR DOES HE USE?
• The battle was very close for a very long time, and the side that would
eventually turn up victorious was hard to predict.
• Men fought like tired swimmers who cling together and wind up making it
harder for both to swim. If two swimmers were to cling together they would
not be able to swim. If they can’t swim their art is ‘choked’ or halted.

The swimmers clinging together is likely more an overall metaphor for the
battle, not a direct representation of the individual soldiers.
AND FORTUNE ON HIS DAMNED
QUARREL……… WHORE.
• When reading this sentence, imagine an increasing crowd little
“villains” above Macdownald’s head but it’s constantly
multiplying. HE HAS S MANY VILLANIOUS QUALITIES THAT
HE IS A NATURAL REBEL. MACBETH DEFIED LADY LUCK
WITH HIS SWORD WHICH SMOKED WITH BLOOD AND HE
SPLIT HIM FROM BELLY TO JAW.
• This implies that his evil is infectious and supernatural
(supernatural is a recurring theme in this play).
• PERSONIFICATION:
• The “fortune” is referring to Macdonwald’s luck during his rebellion, as it “smiled” upon
Macdonwald’s “damned quarrel” (the fortune is personified).
• His “quarrel” represents his heated argument for committing treason and rebelling, whilst
to be “damned” is to be condemned by God to suffer eternal punishment in Hell.
• HOW COULD IT BE LINKED to THE societal concept of the Jacobean period, the Great
Chain of Being:
• IT presents the king as just below or in the same position as God, we can see that his
argument for committing treason (his “quarrel”) is “damned” because it goes against the
monarch, meaning that it goes against God.
• Yes: he had fortune, as it “smiled” by his side , but because his “quarrel” is “damned”, he is
destined to be “too weak” in the end, and to be “unseamed” brutally by the blood-soaked
Macbeth.
WHAT IS THE IRONY IN THIS
DESCRIPTION?
• It emphasises Macbeth’s strength because it’s making it seem
like Macbeth was on the battlefield alone with just his sword and
his bravery and he was able to cause all of this destruction in
the name of his king.
• It’s also ironic because is getting all this praise from the
sergeant and the king when at the end of the play the roles will
be reversed. Macbeth will be the traitor and Macduff will be the
hero
FORESHADOWING
• Macbeth deserves to be called brave, given the way he’s just
fought. With his destruction, he was basically laughing at the
luck (“Disdaining Fortune”) that Macdonwald had on his side.
He easily killed him. Additionally, this foreshadows the future
murders he commits in which he is also “disdaining fortune”
whether one interprets “fortune” to be fate or luck.
• The reference to Macbeth’s sword, “which smoked with bloody
execution,”: foreshadows the “executions” Macbeth will commit
later in the play.
The Captain gives us our first conflicted
characterization of Macbeth
• Macdonwald didn’t even have time to say good-bye or shake Macbeth’s
hand, because Macbeth had already cut him open from navel to jaw
(“nave to th' chops”).

Macbeth then cut his head off and fixed it atop the castle walls
(battlements) as a trophy.

The Captain gives us our first conflicted characterization of Macbeth: a

brave warrior, from his fellow soldiers' perspective, but maybe a little too
“VIOLENT” even for the battle standards of the time. The gruesome
description is deliberately unsettling: Shakespeare introduces our “hero”
as a blood-soaked killer. FORESHADOWS OF THE BRUTAL ACTS THAT
HE WILL COMMIT
DOUBLES
• Doubles are also one of Shakespeare’s favorite motifs (“double,
double, toil and trouble”), and the idea of doubly redoubling is a
way not only of emphasizing Macbeth and Banquo’s efforts, but
also doubling the word “double.”
AS SAPRROWS….. LION
• SPARROWS AND HARES ARE LOWER THAN EAGLES AND LIONS IN THE
FOOD CHAIN SO THEY ARE TAKEN OUT ROUTINELY BY THEIR
PREDATORS.
• ABOUT AS MUCH AS SPARROWS TROUBLE EAGLES, OR RABBITS
SCARE A LION.
WHAT RELIGIOUS IMAGERY CAN YOU
FIND HERE?
• They seemed to want to spill so much of their opponents' blood
they could bathe in it, or make the site of the battle as
memorable as Golgotha, the place where Jesus was crucified.
• The reference to the place of the death of Christ would not only
highly resonate with a deeply religious audience but also that
Macbeth is being likened to Christ, suggesting again his good
character. Moreover, leading to sympathy at his death because
he was once a noble respectable man who succumbed to evil.
The captain is claiming that Macbeth fought so valiantly
it seemed like he wanted to be martyred
The purpose of the captains speech is to
• set Macbeth up to become the ‘tragic hero’ of the play, once
being a brave and loyal subject, to one who falls from grace into
treachery and deception.
• His fatal flaw is debatable, on one hand it could be his belief in
the supernatural yet it could also be his determined ambition to
gain power and become King.
FORESHADOWING AGAIN:
• THROUGH THE SPEECH OF ROSS. ’DISLOYAL TRAITOR, THE THANE OF
CAWDOR’. THIS TITLE WILL BE BESTOWED UPON MACBETH. AND
MUCH LIKE THE CURRENT THANE HE TOO WILL BECOME A TRAITOR
TO THE KING.
BELLONA’S BRIDEGROOM/ALLUSION
• MACBETH WAS COVERED IN ARMOR JUST LIKE BELLONA’S(ANCIENT
ROMAN GODDESS OF WAR) HUSBAND.
IRONY
• WHEN MACBETH BECOMES THANE OF CAWDOR HE DEVEIVES THE
KING BY KILLING HIM.
• MACBETH IS SPOKEN ABOUT BEFORE HE IS SEEN.
• A TYPICAL WAY OF INTRODUCING A TRAGIC HERO.
DONE
• THE WITCHES USED IT, NOW THE KING. THE WORD AND ITS VARIANTS
(UNDONE) APPEAR 34 TIMES IN THE PLAY. OFTEN AT CRUCIAL POINTS.
• THERE IS ALSO AN ECHO OF DONE IN DUNCAN AND DUNSINANE (THE
FOREST)
• THESE REPETITIONS REINFORCE OUR IMPRESSION OF A SERIES OF
FATED AND IRREVERSABLE ACTS:
LADY MACBETH: WHAT IS DONE CANNOT BE UNDONE
• HERE IS THE FIRST OF THOSE ACTS: THE PROMOTION F MACBETH,
WHICH SETS THE WHOLE PLOT IN ACION.
WHAT HE HATH LOST….
• FORESHADOWS HOW THE WITCHES PROPHESY DIRECTLY LINKS TO
MACBETH AND HOW THEY WILL BE ABLE TO CONTINUALLY PREDICT
MACBETH’S FUTURE ACTIONS.
• WHEN THE BATTLE IS LOST AND WON.
SISTER…
• PEOPLE IN THE JACOBEAN AUDIENCE STRONGLY BELIEVED IN THE
WITCHES AND THE SUPERNATURAL. THEY ALSO BELIEVED WOMEN
WERE INFERIOR. REMEMBER THE WITCH TRIALS. MEN WOULD PLAY
THE ROLES OF WOMEN IN PLAYS AS WOMEN WERE CONSIDERED NOT
CAPABLE OF OTHER JOBS THAN CLEANING, ETC.
REMEMBER THE RULE OF
THREE/TRIPLETS
• THE WITCH SPEAKS WITH A REPEATING PATERN, SAYING THE SAME
THING THREE TIMES. MUNCH, …/UNLUCKY NUMBER
• THIS REPETITION REINFORCES THE ODD AND SUPERNATURAL
PERSONALITY OF THE WITCHES, AND CARRIES SUSPENSE
THROUGHOUT THE SCENE. THIS SPEECH PATTERN WILL BE USED IN:
• I’LL DO, I’LL DO…
ANOTHER FORESHADOWING
• HOW MACBETH WILL BE MADE SLEEPLESS WITH GUILT AND WORRY
• THE IMAGE OF THE SLEEPLESS SAILOR: THE IMAGES AND DEPICTIONS
OF INSOMNIA THAT RECUR THROUGHOUT THE PLAY
• HOW DO WE UNDERSTAND THAT THE WITCHES HAVE SOME DEGREE
OF INFLUENCE OVER EVENTS, BUT MAY NOT BE ABLE TO CHANGE THE
BIG PICTURE OF FATE. THEY ARE NOT ALL POWERFUL.
WEIRD
• WEIRD= WAS A SYNONYM FOR MYSTICAL. SO BY CALLING THEM
WEIRD SHAKESPEARE IS NOT ONLY DESCRIBES THEIR ODD
APPEARANCE BUT ALSO HOW THEY ARE ABLE TO SEE THE FUTURE
AND WORK WITH SUPERNATURAL POWERS.
ACT 1, SCENE 3
Shakespeare’s intention + context:
• Witches used to attract King James, who firmly
believed in their existence and hunted them down
• The play focuses on the consequences of breaking the
chain of being/the divine right of Kings
• Macbeth and Banquo have just come out of a
successful battle and encounter two witches
DRUM….
• The stage direction “Drum within” signals the arrival
of Macbeth, the effect is not only to build suspense
but is also a symbol within the play – the
reverberating/resonating sound of guilt.
• The third witch declare’s “a drum, a drum: Macbeth
doth come”, the alliteration (Alliteration of “d” gives
a rhythm, supernatural power of the witches)
• increases the power and the supernatural power
of the Witches it heightens their position as evil
characters,
• “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” is macbeth’s
first line – which echoes “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”
in Act 1 Scene 1
• Foul and fair = paradoxical speech
• Establishes Macbeth’s innate connection with the
witches
• Things don’t appear as what they seem
ACT 1, SCENE 3
• So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
• This is equivocation because foul and fair are antonyms, but this is ambiguous because it refers to how
Macbeth and Banquo have just won a battle but have also lost friends. However, the equivocation also is a
paradox as a day cannot be foul and fair at the same time, mirroring the words of the witches in Act 1 Scene
1 (foul is fair and fair is foul). This emphasises the supernatural aspect of the witches (appealing to KJ) but
also hints at how Macbeth is becoming/OR is like the witches
So foul and fair a day I have not
seen”
• There is a lexical link between Macbeth and the Witches “So
foul and fair a day I have not seen” (I.iii line 38).
• What it could display is that one hand it could show that
Macbeth has already been influenced by the witches but on
the other hand it could show that Macbeth himself is equally
evil to the witches thus suggesting that he has the ability to
commit evil upon his own without the help of the witches.
• Another reason to suggest that Macbeth becomes under the
influence of the Witches is the way his speeches can
sometimes contain rhyming couplets and can also end with a
rhyming couplet, a technique preserved for supernatural and
evil characters.
How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these

• “these,” - The use of a demonstrative pronoun as part of diction shows how Banquo dehumanises the
witches due to their appearance as ‘these’ is used to describe objects rather than living beings. This shows
how these witches are living but appear to not be living, this emphasises how supernatural they are,
appeasing KJ, who was interested in witchcraft.
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,

• “not like the inhibitants o’ the earth,” – simile that indicates that the witches are polar opposites of the living
things found on Erath. By definition, if something is not of earth, it is otherworldly in nature. Hence this
simile continues the work of the alliteration in the previous line, accentuating the supernatural
characteristics of the witches and keeping KJ entertained in the process
MACBETH vs. BANQUO
• A juxtaposition is created between Macbeth and Banquo,
displaying the difference in the two men. Banquo is more
tentative and sceptical, “you should be women, yet your
beards forbid me to interpret”(I.iii line 46) additionally “or
have we eaten the insane root” (I.iii 84) suggestive that
Banquo does not have full faith in the prophesy just as Macbeth
does.
• It further presents Banquo as a more brave and noble character,
as he does not murder to become King and thus his death is not
justified. Moreover Banquo’s description describes the liminal
nature of the witches revealing how they are human and
supernatural, moreover the line about the “beards” could just
be a pun or a sensationalism of witches.
Act 1 Scene 3, “All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of
Glamis, All hail Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of Cawdor, All
hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter”(I.iii, line 48-50),

• ALL HAIL: used to express greeting, welcome, or

acclamation, APPROVAL, PRAISE.
• the witches greet Macbeth like a king with the
verb “hail” suggesting that Macbeth is
praiseworthy, a feeling that is shared with King
Duncan who bestows the title of Thane of Cawdor upon
Macbeth suggesting that the title of King is that of
deserved by Macbeth.
BANQUO. Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear

 “seem to fear,”: this observation of M’s reaction to the witches indicate that they have accurately predicted
M’s ambitions, hence he has fallen silent and appears scared. This is when M’s hamartia is revealed
• This revelation is emphasised with the equivocation formed with the word, “fair,” in the subsequent line. The
equivocation is used to express B’s initial shock at M’s fear, as this all sounds like good news, but M is scared
now because his ambitions have been revealed to B.
That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.

• “rapt withal,”: expresses how M is intrigued and is contemplating the words of

the witches, confirming that he does indeed wish to become King and Thane of
Cawdor.
If you can look into the seeds of time,

 “If,”: Preposition. This shows how B has little belief in the witches, indicating that
he is a noble man who refuses to become involved with witchcraft. This was
done to please KJ, as B was his real ancestor, therefore in this line, S was pleasing
KJ by exhibiting his family as people who did not become involved in witchcraft.
 This also spoken in a sarcastic tone, showing how B takes a comedic approach to
this situation
“Lesser than Macbeth, and greater”

 Equivocation
• They speak in language of contradiction which adds to the notion of moral
confusion in the play ⇒ nothing is as straightforward as it seems
Difference in reactions of M&B to
the witches’ prophecies
• Macbeth “seem to fear” what “sound so fair” (from
Banquo’s convo)
• Macbeth actually believes his fate
• “Rapt withal” ⇒ entranced by the witches, Macbeth
does not want Banquo to know that he wants to be King
⇒ he has mixed emotions
A MOMENT OF DIVISION…
• A crack definitely appears btw B and M’s relationship.They have responded to the
witches in fundamentally different ways.
• M: is shocked with new possibilities in his brain, not believing the witches’ words
seems no to have accured to him
• B: the witches are instruments of darkness, creatures of hell, doing the Devil’s
work. The devil deceives you with trivial truths, gains your confidence. He believes
M should resist believing the prophecies although they have been correct in their
prophecies so far:
• Depics his worlview: humans can act freely from the influence of supernatural
forces-choosing to believe them, or not.
• M: Represent the position that direct adherence to their prophecies will allow him
to thwart his fate.
THE ROLE OF SUPERNATURAL
POWERS???
• Are the witches dictating these men’s destinies? Or;
• Do men maintain the ability to avoid the prophecies being presented?
• Witches speak really ambiguously → a deliberate
ploy to deceive and confuse on the part of the
speaker. Witches tell Macbeth he will be “Thane of
Cawdor” and “King hereafter”.. Their first prophecy
comes true very quickly which makes Macbeth
cling misguidedly to the notion that he can
become King just as easily. Their aim is to lure
Macbeth into their web of lies and deceit by feeding on
his “ambition” for the “golden round”. They are
described as “imperfect speakers” or equivocators
and liars.
ASIDE
• Shakespeare uses the stage direction “aside” to
enable Macbeth to share his thoughts and feeling with
the audience. “Two truths are told” (I.iii, line 130)
Macbeth is recognising his belief in the
supernatural, the prophecies have come true and so
Macbeth is now considering the murder of Duncan.
• The effect of using the aside helps the audience to
understand the psyche of the character and as a result
understand their position better. Moreover it allows us
to see the evil inside Macbeth,
Cannot be ill, cannot be good
• Antithesis: powerfully expresses conflict through its use of
opposites, and conflict is the essence of all drama.
“If good, why do I yield to that
suggestion whose horrid image doth
unfix my hair” (I.iii, line 135-136),

• revealing that Macbeth is considering the murder of

Duncan, but moreover it reveals that he understands
the horrid thought of the deed yet he goes through with
the act, it could display the dualism of Macbeth as a
character.
• Horrid: his disgust with the image of his hairs
• Doth unfix my hair: standing on end
• Make my seated heart… : his heart beating hard and fast inside his
chest
• The thought of murder is causing him considerable anxiety:It is such
an UNNATURAL thing to want to do. Represents an important
CONFLICT in M’s life. His inner sense of ambition tells him to kill King
Duncan and take the thgrone but his body is not reconciled with such
an idea.
• Murdering someone for his own self benefit, murdering a King
(unholy) shakes his manhood.
• And nothing is but what is not: What could be, but what is not yet. He
can only think on things that are not yet true, or real. And so, to his
brain, the only thing that ‘is’ is what ‘is not’ in reality.
• All that matters to möe are things that don’t exist.
Foreshadow Macbeth’s descent
• “Why do I yield to that suggestion / Whose horrid
image doth unfix my hair”
• Horrid image of him murdering Duncan
• He’s already thought about it
• Intense power of imagination
• Two portrayals: he already feels guilty vs he really
wants the throne
• “Two truths are told”
• Starts to believe the supernatural, prophecies
• We can confirm that he truly believes this prophecy
because in his letter to Lady Macbeth in Scene 5, he
says “thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing” ⇒
which suggests that he is joyous about becoming King
The Earth hath bubbles…
• An image of earth which is bubbling, unstabşle, threatening: It makes
everything uncertain
• Bubbles appear and disappear instantly, here today, gone tomorrow:
The wtches appear before mortal eyes for mere moments
Can the devil speak true?

• Allusion to the proverb: The evil sometimes speaks the truth.

• Sometimes what Stan says is true, to make us ready to believe his lies
• Do not belive everything at face value. Be aware that liars can use he
truth to trick us.