Characters

1. Characters

2. Duncan • King of Scotland • Good guy • Liked by his people • Too trusting – has blind faith

3. Macbeth • Thane of Glamis • Thane of Cawdor • King of Scotland • Basically good, loyal, moral • Blindly ambitious • Too much influenced by his wife

4. Lady Macbeth • Ambitious • Immoral • Rids herself of every hint of kindness or traditional femininity • Eventually smothered by her resurfacing conscience

5. Banquo • Thane of Lochaber • General in the King’s Army • Foil to Macbeth • Retains his morals and loyalty • Hears the witches’ prophecy as well, but reacts differently.

6. Macduff • Thane of Fife • Nobleman of Scotland • Mistrusts Macbeth immediately • Plays the avenger

7. Malcolm • Elder son of Duncan • Good king • Uses deception only to insure the safety of Scotland • 17-18 years old

8. Donalbain • Younger son of Duncan • Runs to Ireland after Duncan’s murder

9. Lennox • Nobleman of Scotland • One of Duncan’s nobles. • Provides sarcastic replies for Macbeth’s playacting of innocence.

10. Ross • Macduff’s cousin • Acts as a messenger

11. Siward • Earl of Northumberland • General of the English forces • Ally of Malcolm and Macduff

12. Young Siward • Son of Siward • Slain by Macbeth in hand to hand combat

13. Seyton • Macbeth’s lieutenant

14. Hecate • Queen of Witches • Directs all the supernatural happenings in the play

15. The Three Witches • Add the elements of supernatural and prophecy to the play. • They each have “familiars” – animals that are the embodiments of their demonic consorts

16. The Porter • Keeper of Macbeth’s Castle • He is a DRUNK • He imagines he is the keeper of Hell’s Gate

17. Lady Macduff • Very good wife and mother • Murdered by assassins sent by Macbeth

18. Fleance • Banquo’s son • Tries to fight the assassins when they murder his father • Escapes to father a line of Kings of England and Scotland.

19. Menteith, Angus, Caithness • Noblemen of Scotland

20. Literary Devices

21. A reference to another work or belief system within a literary work The sergeant compares the bloody battlefield to Golgotha – the place of Christ’s death in the New Testament Macduff compares Duncan’s corpse to a Gorgon because it is so terrible that it petrifies people who look at it. Allusion

22. Similes compare two unlike things using the words like or as, or such, etc. “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.” Lady Macbeth (I, v) “Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters.” – Lady Macbeth (I, v) Figurative LanguageSimiles

23. Metaphors compare two unlike things without using the words like or as, or such, etc. “ I have begun to plant thee and will labor to make thee full of growing.” – Duncan (I, iv) “Why do you dress me in borrowed clothes?” Macbeth (I, iii) Figurative LanguageMetaphors

24. Personification is when the writer gives human qualities to non-human things. “If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me without my stir.” - Macbeth (I, iii) “Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?” – Lady Macbeth (I, vii, 35) Figurative LanguagePersonification

25. Alliteration is the use of repeating consonant sounds. “But now am I cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears.” Macbeth (III, iv, 24) Alliteration

26. A person, place, thing, or event that stands both for itself and something else. A ring, a flag, a flower are all used as symbols today. The nesting martlets Banquo notes are supposed to be a good omen, but they are a foul omen for Duncan if he spends the night, or “nests” at Macbeth’s castle. (I, vi, 3) Symbol

27. Foreshadowing is the use of clues to hint at what is going to happen later in the plot. Fair is foul, and foul is fair Foreshadowing

28. Dramatic Irony • Dramatic irony occurs when the reader or audience knows something important that a character in a work does not. • Obi-wan saying to the teenage Anakin, “You’re going to be the death of me one day.”

29. Language

30. Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. An iamb is a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Five iambs make a line of iambic pentameter. “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts. Lady Macbeth (I, v, 39) Lady Macbeth’s speech uses iambic pentameter more than Macbeth’s does. In this way, Shakespeare reinforces the erratic nature of Macbeth’s thought. Blank Verse

31. Is used to let the Elizabethan audience know that a scene was over. Keep in mind that there were no lights to fade or curtains to draw. “Away, and mock the time with fairest show: False face must hide what false heart doth know.” Macbeth (I, vii, 82) Rhymed Couplet

32. A writer’s or a speaker’s choice of words “Out damned spot! Out I say!! One:Two: why, then ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Lady Macbeth (V, I, 31) “ The Thane of Fife had a wife, Where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that! You mar all this with starting.” Lady Macbeth (V, I, 36) Diction

33. Act I Three witches meet Macbeth and Banquo on the heath as the men return from battle. They predict that Macbeth will be named Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland and that Banquo will be the father of kings. The witches vanish.

34. Act I Ross enters to greet Macbeth with the title of Cawdor, the traitor whom King Duncan has determined must be executed and whose title and lands will be given to Macbeth.

35. Act I This immediate "earnest of success commencing in a truth" causes Macbeth to consider the extent of his ambition and Banquo to warn that predictions are often harmful as well as beneficial. (iii.)

36. Act I Announcing that his eldest son, Malcolm, is to be his heir, Duncan states his intention to visit Macbeth's castle, Glamis. (iv.)

37. Act I When Lady Macbeth reads the letter Macbeth has sent ahead, she determines her husband must take advantage of the opportunity Duncan's forthcoming visit offers as a way of fulfilling the prophecy.

38. Act I However, she fears that though Macbeth is "not without ambition," he is "too full o' th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way." (v.)

39. Act I Macbeth is not as determined as his lady about the need for murder. He considers reasons he should defend rather than threaten the life of his king.

40. Act I Lady Macbeth remains adamant and pressures him with attacks on his manhood as well as reminders of their feelings for each other. She convinces Macbeth to proceed by presenting her plan to drug Duncan's guards and leave evidence that will implicate them in the crime. (vii.)

41. Act II Macbeth sees a "dagger of the mind" leading him towards Duncan's chamber. (1.) Lady Macbeth has drugged the guards, noting that Duncan's resemblance to her father has stayed her from doing the deed herself.

42. Act II After the murder, Macbeth carries the bloody daggers from the chamber causing Lady Macbeth to reprimand him for his great show of emotion. After she returns the daggers and smears the guards with blood, she tells Macbeth, "a little water clears us of this deed." (ii.)

43. Act II The porter pretends he is keeping Hell’s gate, creating a comic relief scene with his imaginings. He answers each knock as if it from a soul sent to Hell. “Faith! Here’s an English tailor, come hither for stealing out of a French hose: Come in, tailor! Here you may roast your goose!”

44. Act II Macduff discovers the body, and Macbeth kills the guards, explaining the act as his overwrought response to their unjust offense. Duncan G

45. Act II Duncan's sons realize their danger and decide that Malcolm will go to England and Donalbain will go to Ireland. (iii.) Their flight makes them suspect, and Macbeth is crowned King of Scotland. (iv.)

46. Act III Macbeth plans to overturn the witches' prophecy that Banquo's sons will become kings by sending two murderers to kill both Banquo and his son, Fleance. (i.) Macbeth no longer needs Lady Macbeth's involvement and bids her be "innocent of the knowledge" of his decisions. (ii.)

47. Act III A third murderer, obviously not known by the other two, joins them, and although Banquo is slain, Fleance escapes. (iii.)

48. Act III At the banquet, Macbeth is terrified by the bloody ghost of Banquo. Since no one else sees the apparition, Lady Macbeth attempts to excuse his behavior and eventually has to end the banquet. Macbeth determines to visit the witches again. (iv.)

49. Act III Suspicion of Macbeth is mounting, and Macduff joins Malcolm in England. (vi.)

50. Act IV The witches show Macbeth three apparitions which warn him to beware Macduff, promise him that "none of woman born shall harm Macbeth," and assure him he will remain safe until Birnam Wood moves.