Macbeth

In Act 4 Scene 1 of the Shakespearean play, Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] met with the three witches a second time. He wanted to know how secure his kingship would be. The witches let Macbeth know that he had nothing to fear as long as Birnam Wood didn't move to Dunsinane and as long as he didn't meet up with a man who hadn't been born of a woman. Both predictions seemed unlikely to Macbeth. He didn't consider the possible practical implementations of either prediction. For example, he didn't think of cutting off and carrying tree parts while marching. Neither did he think of the man who had to be delivered, not born, by Caesarian section from a dead mother.

The murderers sent to kill Banquo succeed in killing him, but fail to kill his son, Fleance. Fleance escapes, which means that the witches' prophecy, that Banquo would be the father of kings, will come true.

He was over come by wrath at the murderers

In Act 2 Scene 2, Macbeth killed King Duncan I. His weapon of choice was a pair of daggers with which he murdered his sovereign and the two royal guards. In the precedng scene, he imagined a dagger just beyond his reach.

In Act 5 Scene 6, a Messenger arrived at Dunsinane, the royal castle of Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057]. He brought the news that Birnam Wood appeared to be moving towards Dunsinane. He said that the forest appeared already to have moved within three miles of the royal castle.

The contrast was between the Doctor's inaction and the King's action. In Act 5 Scene 1, the Doctor let the Gentlewoman attendant persuade him to witness the odd behavior of Lady Macbeth [b. c. 1015]. He traced the cause of the Lady's hand rubbing, sleepwalking, and talking to herself to emotional and mental problems within herself. Then in Scene 3, he discussed these problems with her husband, Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057]. In both scenes, his conclusions were his inability to solve the problems and the patient's need to cure herself. This reaction directly contrasted with the reactions of King Edward the Confessor [c. 1003-January 5, 1066] of England. In Act 2 Scene 2, the future King Malcolm III [d. November 13, 1093] fled Scotland for the English court. In Act 4 Scene 3, he was joined by Macduff near one of the English King's palaces. At first, Malcolm and Macduff talked about the suffering of Scotland under Macbeth's rule. Then they switched to the English people's suffering from scrofula. As with Macbeth's Lady, the English sufferers were blamed for inner causes of outward suffering. But unlike the Lady's Doctor, King Edward was proactive and made healing interventions. Likewise was the English King proactive in regard to the suffering of Scotland. In fact, Malcolm told Macduff that his Uncle Siward, Earl of Northumberland and General of the English Army, was being allowed to get together a 10,000 soldier strong force against Macbeth. In Act 5 Scene 2, the combined forces of invading Englishmen and discontented Scotsmen already were near Macbeth's royal castle of Dunsinane and even nearer to Birnam Wood. The scene showed the English King's proactiveness in seeing a problem and stepping in to solve it. The proactiveness provided especially effective contrast by being sandwiched between Scenes 1 and 3, in which the Doctor saw his royal patient's problem and did nothing.

In Act 4 Scene 1 of the Shakespearean play, Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] sought out the three witches of Act 1 Scene 3. He wanted specific information on the challenges to the consolidation of his reign in Scotland. They showed him three apparitions. But he wanted to know one thing in particular that not one of the apparitions told him. Macbeth wanted to know if the witches' earlier prediction of a long line of royal descent from Banquo would come true. That answer came in the way of eight kings followed by Banquo's ghost and carrying a mirror. The mirror showed even more kings of the same line. So, yes, Banquo's line indeed would take over the throne of Scotland.

In Act 1 Scene 7, Lady Macbeth [b. c. 1015] was trying to keep her husband on course with their plan to kill King Duncan I [d. August 14, 1040]. But Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] kept trying to back out. Lady Macbeth criticized him for his lack of persistence, perseverance, constancy, and consistency. She said that if she followed his example, she could stop nursing her child on a dime. She could throw him away from his feeding and let him bash his brains out from the impact [Lines 56-59].

Yes, the Shakespearean play 'Macbeth' is relevant to contemporary students. The play deals with a brave, nobleman who's on the 'A' list. But he's ambitious, impatient, and vulnerable to persuasive influences from the supernatural and from his ambitious, passionate, ruthless, scheming wife. His fatal, tragic flaws are understandable - but still unacceptable - against the wild, uncertain backdrop of home-grown rebels and foreign enemies. He has it all, he wants more, and he can't wait what with the uncertainty of the times.

In Act 3 Scene 2 Lines 45-46, Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] said, 'Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,/Till thou applaud the deed'. He made this statement to his wife [b. c. 1015] in reference to the murderous fate in store for Banquo and Banquo's son Fleance. The significance of the statement was Macbeth's planning something heinous on his own, without his usual collaboration from start to finish with Lady Macbeth.

In the Shakespearean play 'Macbeth', the murder of King Duncan I [d. August 14, 1040] was supposed to take place in the Macbeths' home at Inverness Castle. Macbeth and his wife planned to murder their sovereign when he and his two royal guards would be most defenseless and vulnerable. He had made the journey from his palace at Forres, to Inverness. He had to get up early the next day to leave with Macduff and Lennox. He was tired, had just eaten his dinner, and was getting ready for bed in the rooms that the Macbeths had fixed up for him. Lady Macbeth had given his two royal chamberlains drugged drinks. The killing went as planned. The King and the guards were stabbed to death. When the bloodied corpses were discovered the next morning, the crime scene looked exactly the way that the Macbeths intended it to. It looked as though the guards had killed their sovereign and then each other in a fit of crazed drinking and drugging.

In the Shakespearean play 'Macbeth', the three witches filled the cauldron with ingredients. The fixings were meant to conjure up apparitions to give Macbeth [d. August 15, 1057] a false sense of security. Macbeth thereby was warned to beware of Macduff, the movement of Birnam Wood to Dunsinane Castle, and no man born of woman. Two out of three seemed impossibilities to him. He never sought practical meanings for these outlandish warnings other than to have Macduff's entire family and household killed. From the cauldron, a fourth apparition was conjured. That apparition confirmed Macbeth's fear that Banquo's family line indeed would take over the throne of Scotland. It led him to ever more bloodied, oppressive, repressive, suppressive rule against the arising of any opposition.

In Act 1 Scene 7 of the Shakespearean play, Lady Macbeth [b. c. 1015] played an important role in the course of events. Her husband, Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057], didn't want to proceed in the killing of King Duncan I [d. August 14, 1040]. Lady Macbeth succeeded in getting her husband back on course, on the same page with her. Macbeth tried to get what he wanted or what was his due by going by the book. But his wife managed to convince him that they couldn't wait for the throne of Scotland to fall into their laps. They needed to take action even if it meant heinous deeds. In essence, Lady Macbeth persuaded her husband that the ends justified the means.

Hecate supervised the supernatural beings in the Shakespearean play 'Macbeth'. But in Act 1 Scene 3, without Hecate's knowledge or consent, the three witches made their presence known to friends and fellow Generals Macbeth [c.1014-August 15, 1057] and Banquo. They even went so far as to advise Banquo and Macbeth of their future career moves. But Hecate caught up with her witchly employees by Act 3 Scene 5. She let them know that she knew what they'd been up to, and how she felt about that. So Hecate was the source of the since famous quotation, 'How did you dare/To trade and traffic with Macbeth/In riddles and affairs of death' [Lines 3-5].

In Act 2 Scene 3 of the Shakespearean play 'Macbeth', the noblemen Lennox and Macduff came to get King Duncan I [d. August 14, 1040] started on his way home or to the next stop on his trip. Macduff went on to the room where the King had spent the night in Inverness Castle. While he was waiting, Lennox began talking to Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] about the previous night's weather. Lennox said that there were sounds of death and sorrow, and strong winds. The significance was the affront to the earth by rough weather and by the heinous killings of the sovereign and his two royal guards.

THE OPPOSITE is true: it is one of the shortest (and it's the shortest of all the tragedies). The two plays that are shorter are both comedies: A Comedy Of Errors is the shortest and The Tempest is the next shortest. Macbeth is the third shortest of all the plays.

The clue of the bloodied daggers was left behind in the crime scene. In Act 2 Scene 2 of the Shakespearean play, Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] was unhinged by stabbing to death King Duncan I [d. August 14, 1040] and the two royal guards. He walked away with the bloodied murder weapon in his hands. He didn't want to see the bloodied corpses or go back into the bloodied crime scene. His Lady [b. c. 1015] had to take the daggers from her husband and plant them on the bodies of the royal guards. The weapons were left to point the blame to the guards as the perpetrators of the heinous act.

In Act 5 Scene 7 of the Shakespearean play, Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] was on the battlefield outside of his royal residence at Dunsinane Castle. Young Siward, who was the son of the Earl of Northumberland and General of the English forces, suddenly showed up calling names and swinging his sword. Macbeth ended up fighting Siward's son. He wasn't worried one bit about the outcome because of the witches' predictions. The three witches had told Macbeth to fear only the movement of Birnam Wood to Dunsinane, the man not born of woman, and Macduff. Young Siward didn't fit into any one of the three warning categories. So Macbeth was confident of victory.

In Act 5 Scene 5 of the Shakespearean play, a Messenger gained entrance into the royal castle at Dunsinane. The bearer of bad news usually suffered at the hands of the recipient of the bad news. So the messenger understandably was worried exactly how to tell Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] of the latest unfavorable developments. The news was not only bad, but weird. The messenger was in the uncomfortable position of telling Macbeth that Birnam Wood was moving towards Dunsinane. Macbeth didn't like the news. One of the predictions that the three witches had shared with him about his future career moves was the threat of Birnam Wood moving to Dunsinane. What neither the Messenger nor Macbeth knew at the time was the plucking and carrying of forest boughs by the 10,000 soldiers under Siward, Earl of Northumberland and General of the English forces. The boughs were intended to camouflage and protect the soldiers as they marched to their chosen battlegrounds outside Macbeth's royal residence.

what the hell ? ?

In the Shakespearan play 'Macbeth', there was a reference to milk in Act 1 Scene 7. The reference was made by Lady Macbeth [b. c. 1015]. She was talking to her husband about his lack of persistence, perseverance, fidelity, constancy, and consistency in carrying out the murder of their sovereign, King Duncan I [d. August 14, 1040]. She likened the impact of her husband's lack of commitment to the consequences of her suddenly deciding to stop nursing her contented child. That image recalled Lady Macbeth's earlier use of the word in Scene 5 Lines 15-16. She described Macbeth as 'too full o' th' milk of human kindness/To catch the nearest way'. In both references therefore, the image of milk represented kindness.

In the Shakespearean play, Macbeth had a hard time dealing with his criminal act against King Duncan I [d. August 14, 1040]. One reason was his reluctance, his lack of total commitment to carrying it out. He felt there were many reasons for not killing his sovereign; and only one reason, which wasn't a good one, for going through with it. Also, the heinous act went against his beliefs, everything that Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] had built his career upon: defense of king and country. Additionally, Macbeth wasn't convinced of his having to do something in order for the kingship to fall into his lap. Before meeting up with the three witches, his wildest ambitions undoubtedly had had limits. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been shocked and fearful of the witches' predictions of his career moves into the thaneship of Cawdor and then the kingship of Scotland. Once the thaneship unexpectedly fell into his lap, he asked if the kingship too wouldn't be his also because of destiny, due, and right.

Leonard Malcolm Saville [1901-1962] was the author of a number of series for the children and young adult reading public. Perhaps the series for which he is most widely known is the Lone Pine series. Among the most endearing and enduring of the series' characters is the children's dog Macbeth, whose tragic name often is shortened to Mackie. The dog is so named, because he is a Scottie. And in another way the name is appropriate. For Mackie is as courageous and ferocious in a fight with minor rogues, as was the historic Macbeth. And as was the case of Macbeth, Mackie quickly is cowed by the more ruthless of scoundrels and villains. And yet unlike Macbeth, Mackie is 'not so happy, yet much happier'. For he never sinks below a certain level of canine conduct, and therefore is allowed to age, slowly but surely and gracefully.

In Act 1 Scene 3, the first witch told the second witch about a sailor's wife who wouldn't share her chestnuts. She planned to punish the wife through the husband, who was headed for Aleppo, Syria. She was going to brew up a horrible storm, a tempest, to keep the sailor's ship from sailing into port.