Last Minute notes on - Macbeth

Emu McEmuerson · 05-06-2007 6:55pm #1

Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Plot Summary

The play is set in Scotland. When the play opens Scotland is at war with Norway. Duncan is King of Scotland and has two sons Malcolm and Donalbain. Macbeth is leading the Scottish army against Norway. Scotland is victorious. Macbeth meets three witches on the way home from the battle. Both he and Banquo another general greet the witches and hear certain prophecies from them. Macbeth is greeted by them as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and King. Banquo is told that his children will be kings. It is clear from Macbeth’s reaction to the witch’s prophecies that he fosters ambitions of being King of Scotland.

When Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s wife hears about this meeting with the witches she prays for evil spirits to dominate her body and soul. She then convinces Macbeth that in order to be worthy of kingship he must kill for it. Duncan pays a visit to Inverness Macbeth’s castle and is murdered that night by Macbeth. After the murder Malcolm escapes to England and Donalbain goes to Ireland to hide.

Macbeth is crowned King of Scotland in Scone.Banquo is killed shortly after this by two murderers hired by Macbeth. Macduff a general in the Scottish army also goes to England to get help from Edward the confessor who is King there. When Macbeth hears about the flight of Macduff he proceeds to slaughter the whole family of Macduff.

Macbeth pays a visit to the witches who show him three different apparitions all of which turn out to be misleading. They prophesy that he will not be killed by any man born of a woman. Macduff mobilizes an army in England together with Malcolm and they return to Scotland to defeat Macbeth. Macbeth is killed by Macduff who tells him that he was ‘from his mother’s womb untimely ripped.’ Lady Macbeth becomes a victim of sleepwalking and bad dreams and finally commits suicide.

Malcolm is invested King of Scotland at the conclusion.

Genre

This is a tragedy in five acts.

1. Language and imagery are used in the play as an avenue of understanding. Imagery gives concrete expression to some of the main themes in the play.
Certain unnatural happenings such as the appearance of Banquo’s ghost, the witches, the strange portents in nature on the night of Duncan’s murder highlight the corruption in the moral world of Scotland.

1. Clothing metaphors: These are used to underscore the fact that Macbeth is a usurper. Banquo refers to Macbeth’s new titles as ‘new honours come upon him. Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould but with the aid of use.’ New honours sit on him like a loose and badly fitted garment belonging to someone else,’ At the conclusion Caithness sees Macbeth as a man vainly trying to buckle a garment on him with too small a belt,’ he cannot buckle his distempered cause within the belt of rule.’

2. Images of disease/health are symbolically related to moral good and evil. Under Edward’s hands in England diseased souls are cured. Under Macbeth’s reign good mens lives expire before the flowers wilt in their caps.

3. Images of darkness/ light A lot of the scenes occur at night, which shows the predominance of evil. Light or daytime shows goodness or grace. Duncan arrives in the castle in the middle of the day, thus showing his close association with certain values such as grace, virtue, truth and goodness.

4. Blood Imagery: this is a striking visual image. There is the horrifying image of Macbeth wading in a river of blood. Lady Macbeth prays for her blood to be made thick, the Banquet room shows us the blood bolstered Banquo.

Themes/ Issues

Kingship

The king was a sacred figure and therefore his murder took the form of a sacrilege. Duncan was Scotland’s lawful king. No earthly individual had the right to put an end to his rule. This was for God to do. Shakespeare obviously intended us to see Duncan as embodying an ideal of kingship, as one who possesses those ‘king-becoming graces’ listed out by Malcolm. Duncan’s importance les in his representative function, which is that of kingship. He is a symbol of order, harmony and goodness. He is not a fully rounded character.

After Macbeth’s encounter with the witches his latent ambition for kingship is spurred on. This is further consolidated by his wife Lady Macbeth. Greatness for her is the attainment of the ‘golden round’, which she believes will bring fulfilment for both of them. She finally convinces her husband in a series of impassioned speeches that to be worthy of kingship he must kill for it. Murder is the price to be paid for kinship. The murder has cosmic repercussions. A mousing owl devours a falcon. Duncan’s horses devour one another. Darkness covers the face of the earth.

When Macbeth becomes king he reigns like a tyrant. It is only with the victory of Malcolm that order and harmony are restored to the country of Scotland. The leafy branches disguising the troops are symbolic of the new life and hope for Scotland.

Evil

This play deals with evil inherent in humankind and also with supernatural evil. We see the hell-on-earth, which ensues when humankind surrenders to the seductive power of evil in this play. Evil is portrayed in the action particularly in the murder of Duncan and Macduff’s family. We also see the profound and absolute evil in the witches.
The witches are intended to represent the metaphysical world of evil spirits. Their meetings take place in conditions suggestive of cosmic disorder. Their function on a symbolic level is to mirror the spirit of evil roaming around Scotland. All their actions are a perversion of the natural order. It is Banquo who recognizes the satanic quality of the witches in his question,’ can the devil speak thus?’ He also recognizes their manner of working ‘ the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray’s in deepest consequence.’

Evil works in the play through deception. The witches as instruments of evil operate in terms of false appearance. As agents of the devil they seek to reverse the normal order of things and by so doing obscure reality. The essence of their intention is embodied in the line,’ air is foul and foul is fair.’ However, the crime to which they incite Macbeth is committed by him and the responsibility for succumbing to the temptation is Macbeth’s alone. Macbeth is his own betrayer. The witches are merely catalysts who bring to the surface the latent evil, which lies buried in his subconscious mind.

Loyalty and Betrayal

Both Loyalty and Betrayal dominate this play. From the opening of the play we witness how Cawdor has betrayed his own country by informing Norway about their intentions in the war. As a result of this Cawdor is punished and Macbeth gains his title. It is Duncan’s tragedy that he is naïve and fails to see through character. His immediate appointment of Macbeth to replace Cawdor will eventually mean his own death.
The witches too betray Macbeth by tempting him with prophecies, which turn out to be false. It is only at the conclusion of the play when Macbeth has been defeated that he realizes how the witches have operated,’ these juggling fiends…that palter with us in a double sense.’

Macduff demonstrates a deep sense of loyalty by fleeing to England and organizing an army to defeat Macbeth. As a result of his act of heroic loyalty to his country his family are brutally slaughtered.
Lady Macbeth manifests a misguided loyalty to her husband. Lady Macbeth loves her husband with a genuine if perverted fervour. In her obsession with the achievement of earthly power she calls on the powers of darkness to take her over body and soul. She believes that by doing this both of them will come to have ‘solely sovereign sway and masterdom.’ At the Banquet scene she makes a prodigious effort to remain loyal to her husband and shield his reputation before the lords of Scotland. It is also loyalty, which causes her to faint when the murdered body of Duncan is found in order to prevent Macbeth from exposing his fear before the others.

Both these characters have betrayed their own humanity by falling victims of evil, and both end up the ‘prey of wicked dreams.’ They are truly tragic figures who show in their lives how evil is totally self-destructive.