Macbeth Act I Summary & Analysis: Ambition and Prophecies Unfold in 11th Century Scotland

1. MACBETH ACT I

2. THE SETTING • SCOTLAND • 1100 A.D. • SCOTLAND IS DIVIDED INTO SECTIONS OF LAND

3. Characters • Duncan is the king • EACH SECTION “OWNED” BY A THANE • Map of Macbeth's Scotland

4. Characters…cont. • Characters are called “Thane of Glamis” or “Glamis” as well as their names (Macbeth) • Banquo (Macbeth’s friend) • Ross and Angus (just guys) • Malcolm and Donalbain (sons of Duncan – princes) • WITCHES!

5. The PLOT • Witches! Plan to meet with Macbeth • Battlefield • Soldier tells of the battle • Macbeth was brave! • Cawdor was a traitor! • King decides to have Cawdor executed and give “Thane of Cawdor” to Macbeth

6. The PLOT • Before Macbeth gets word of his new title • MEETS THE WITCHES! • Prophecies for Macbeth • Thane of Glamis! • Thane of Cawdor! • King hereafter! • Prophecies for Banquo • Lesser than Macbeth and greater • Not so happy, yet much happier • Shall beget kings, though not be king

7. The PLOT – cont. • Witches vanish! • Banquo and Macbeth laugh it off • King’s men announce: • Macbeth is the new Thane of Cawdor! • Macbeth starts to think he might also become king!

8. Wednesday – April 29ACT I, scene iv-v • Scene iv opens at Forres, King Duncan’s castle. • Duncan and Malcolm discuss the execution of the Thane of Cawdor. • Macbeth and Banquo enter • Duncan tells Macbeth he has plans for him! • Duncan announces that Malcolm (Prince of Cumberland) will be next in line to be king • Duncan says he will now visit Macbeth at Inverness

9. Act I, scene v • Scene v opens at Inverness, Macbeth’s castle • Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth

10. Lady Macbeth reads the letter: • It tells of the witches! • Lady thinks: • Macbeth is Glamis! • Macbeth is Cawdor! • He’s going to be KING! • But I’m afraid he is not MAN enough to make it happen! • Lady decides she will persuade Macbeth to take action!

11. A messenger arrives! • And says “The king will stay here tonight” • Lady Macbeth can hardly believe her ears! • She then delivers a soliloquy • Come, Spirits! • Take away my womanliness • Fill me with cruelty! • Come, Thick Night! • Cover my dark deeds! • Don’t let the heavens see what we are about to do!

12. Enters Macbeth! • Lady Macbeth greets him by calling him: • Glamis! Cawdor! King hereafter! • They talk of Duncan’s plans to spend the night. • Lady says • “Let’s kill him!” • “Look innocent!” • “Leave it all to me!”

13. Thursday – April 30Scene vi: Front of Macbeth’s Castle • King Duncan (and others) arrive • Lady greets him • Macbeth is not around…(off feeling guilty)

14. Scene vii: A room in Macbeth’s castle • Macbeth’s soliloquy • I wish we could get this over with quickly! • But what if one bad deed (killing Duncan) leads to more? • Duncan is my guest and my king! I mustn’t do this! • I don’t have the guts to do this! • Only “vaulting ambition”

15. Lady Macbeth comes in and says: • Where have you BEEN!? • Macbeth says he doesn’t want to go through with the plan: • I’ve just been honored! • Lady taunts him: • You have the desire to be king but no guts to make it happen! • You are not a REAL MAN!

16. Macbeth defends himself! • I am too a man! • Lady: • But you would be MORE the man if you killed Duncan! • You are “killing” this “baby” (killing the plan before it grows to result) • Macbeth: • But what if we FAIL?

17. Lady lays out the murder plan: • When King Duncan is asleep • I’ll get the guards drunk • Then you can sneak in and kill Duncan! • Then we’ll blame the killing on the guards! • Macbeth says: • You should only have sons, never daughters • Because you are made of such nasty, tough stuff! • All right; let’s do it.

18. ACT II • Scene: Macbeth’s castle • Banquo and his son Fleance • Talk of how dark the night is

19. Macbeth enters… • Banquo says: • I dreamed about the Weird Sisters (witches) • Macbeth says: • I don’t think about them • But now that you mentioned it… • It will benefit you to be loyal to me…

20. Banquo and Fleance exit… • Macbeth sees a bloody dagger! • Macbeth’s soliloquy! • Is this a dagger? • I can see you…but not touch you! • This is just like the dagger I’m going to use to kill Duncan! • It’s leading me to his bedchamber! • Oh dark world…hear not what is about to happen…

21. Macbeth is still talking… • Too many words cools off my courage to do the deed! • A bell sounds! It’s the signal from Lady that everything is ready! • Macbeth says it is Duncan’s funeral knell.

22. Scene ii: Still in the castle • Lady Macbeth: • The liquor has made her feel bold! • A hoot from an owl! • A cry from Macbeth! • Lady: • Has he messed up the plan? • I had everything ready for him! • In fact, I would have done it myself if he hadn’t looked like my father!

23. Enters Macbeth—looking dazed and bloody • Macbeth: • I did it. • Oh look at the mess on my hands • The guards cried out in their sleep! • I thought I heard a voice “Sleep no more! Macbeth has murdered the innocence of sleep!” • Lady: • Knock it off!

24. Lady: • You’re talking crazy… • Go wash your hands… • WAIT! WHY DO YOU STILL HAVE THE DAGGERS? • You were supposed to leave them with the guards! • Macbeth: • I can’t go back in there again! • I won’t! • Lady: • Then I’LL do it! (You sissy!)

25. While Lady is taking the daggers into the guards’ chambers… • Macbeth: • Wonders if he’ll ever be able to wash the blood off his hands • Lady returns: • Look! My hands are red like yours • But I’d be ashamed to have a white heart (fear) like yours!

26. Knocking at the gate… • Lady: • Quickly! Wash our hands! • Get into your nightclothes! MORE KNOCKING! • Macbeth: • I wish the knocking could wake up Duncan!

27. Act II, Scene iii - Porter • Porter answers the gate • Macduff and Lenox arrive • Lennox: “The night has been unruly…” • Macbeth: “’Twas a rough night.” • Macduff: “O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive nor name thee!”

28. Murder discovery… • Macduff says to Lady Macbeth: • O gentle lady, 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition, in a woman's ear, Would murder as it fell.

29. Macbeth says to Donalbain and Malcolm: • The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd.

30. When Macbeth says he killed the guards (in fury)… • Macduff asks: “Wherefore did you so?” • Macbeth replies: “Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment?”

31. The thanes plan to meet in the hall to decide what to do! • But Malcolm says to Donalbain: • “What will you do? Let's not consort with them: To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy. I'll to England.”

32. Malcolm and Donalbain decide to leave: Donalbain says: To Ireland, I; our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer: where we are, There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood, The nearer bloody.

33. Act II, Scene iv: outside Macbeth’s castle • Ross and Old Man: Strange things have been happening! • Here comes Macduff! • Ross: Who killed the king? • Macduff: They say the chamberlains did it. • Ross: Why?

34. Macduff is suspicious: • “They were suborn'd: Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed.”

35. Macbeth shall be king! • Ross: “Then 'tis most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.” • Macduff: “He is already named, and gone to Scone To be invested.”

36. Ross: “Will you to Scone?” • Macduff: “No, cousin. I’ll to Fife.” • Ross says he’s going to Scone to see Macbeth crowned. • Macduff says: “may you see things well done there: adieu! Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! ---END OF ACT II---

37. ACT IIISecne i • Banquo begins to suspect Macbeth! • “Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weird women promised, and, I fear, Thou play'dst most foully for't.”

38. Macbeth talks to Banquo • Macbeth: Here’s our chief guest!...Supper tonight? • M: Ride you this afternoon? • M: Is’t far you ride? • We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd In England and in Ireland, not confessing Their cruel parricide • M: Goes Fleance with you?

39. Macbeth hires murderers • M: “To be thus is nothing; But to be safely thus. • M:Our fears in Banquo stick deep • M: (talking about Banquo) He bade them speak to him: then prophet-like They hail'd him father to a line of kings: Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, And put a barren sceptre in my gripe

40. Macbeth is still thinking: • M: For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind; For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd

41. Macbeth talks to the murderers • Remember how we talked yesterday? • Remember how I explained that your suffering and low position are BANQUO’s fault? • “We are men, my liege.” • Yes, you are “men” just as curs and mongrels are also called “dogs.” (In other words, you are a miserable excuse for men.)

42. Murders agree to kill Banquo • Murderers say that their lives are miserable and worth risking to make better • Macbeth: I could just have him killed myself, but he and I have mutual friends who wouldn’t understand… • Macbeth: “Within this hour at most • I will advise you where to plant yourselves”

43. And Fleance, too… • To leave no blotches in the work, kill Fleance too. • Macbeth: “It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul's flight, If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.”

44. Act III, Scene ii • Lady Macbeth is also unsettled: • “Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content” • Macbeth enters. Lady says: • “Things without all remedy Should be without regard: what's done is done” • Macbeth says: “We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it”

45. Macbeth is unhappy… • “better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy.

46. Macbeth tells Lady to be a good hostess… • “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.” • ere the bat hath flown His cloister'd flight…there shall be done A deed of dreadful note.

47. Act III, scene iii • Murderers await Banquo and Fleance • Banquo: “There will be rain tonight.” • Murderers: “Let it come down!” • Banquo: “Fly, Fleance, Fly!”

48. Act III, scene iv: THE BANQUET! • At the beginning of the scene, the murderer tells Macbeth of killing Banquo (“twenty trenched gashes on his head”) • When Macbeth learns that Fleance got away, he says: “There the grown serpent lies. The worm that's fled Hath nature that in time will venom breed; No teeth for th' present

49. Banquet continues… • Macbeth tells everyone to sit down… • “Here had we now our country's honor roofed, Were the graced person of our Banquo present, Who may I rather challenge for unkindness Than pity for mischance.”

50. Banquet… • Macbeth can’t find a place to sit down because he sees someone sitting in his chair— • Everyone at the banquet sees an empty chair, but Macbeth sees…