Macbeth

Macduff

The "greatness" is only predicted; it has not yet happened. Yet Macbeth is certain that it will happen, that he will be crowned without his stir.

Readers and viewers of the Shakespearean play were able to compare the different reactions of fellow Generals and friends Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] and Banquo in two instances. One was regarding the witches' predictions. Macbeth's initial reaction was fear [Act 1 Scene 3 Lines 51-52] and then complete disbelief [Line 74]. Banquo's initial reaction was aggressive, competitive, and skeptical [Lines 57-61]. He complained that the witches hadn't shared any predictions with him. He then told them to tell him what they knew. And he let the witches know that he wasn't impressed easily and couldn't be intimidated. The second instance was regarding the murder of King Duncan I [d. August 14, 1040]. Macduff discovered the bloodied corpses and the bloodied crime scene. Once again, Macbeth's reaction to the news was disbelief, in Act 2 Scene 3 Line 62. The ever-skeptical Banquo refused to believe Macduff, in Lines 82-83.

Has sex with moose

Macbeth's severed head.

He will get kings though he be none.

The question is about Act 3 Scene 6. It's a curious scene because the conversation is very guarded and non-specific. However, there can be no doubt that Lennox has correctly deduced that Macbeth is guilty of the murders of Duncan and Banquo and the suspicion on their sons is a smokescreen. The other Lord calls Macbeth a "tyrant" which is considerably more plain.

Duncan, about the first Thane of Cawdor. Of course, his next choice for Thane of Cawdor is someone else in whom he builds an absolute trust, namely Macbeth. Truly, Duncan is useless at finding the mind's construction in the face, which might make him a saint or an idiot, but in any event a man unequipped to be an effective king.

Well, if by this you mean how do we know that Macbeth killed Duncan, his line in Act 2 Scene 2 "I have done the deed" is pretty clear. If you mean does he feel guilty about doing it, how about "This is a sorry sight" which he says while looking at his bloody hand shortly after.

It's difficult to say. One possibility is that the ghost was fulfilling Banquo's promise to "fail not the feast" and so he sits in the only available place. Or possibly, he wants to sit in the place which will be sure to get Macbeth's attention. Or he is trying to twist Macbeth's tail by reminding him of the witches' prophecy by sitting in the king's seat, except that the prophecy said his children would be kings not him.

Shakespearean tragedies do have recurring themes and subject matter, although not all of them are present in every play. Likewise, the classification of plays as tragedies or histories (or comedies) is somewhat artificial. The play of Shakespeare's which has the most in common with Macbeth is Richard III, which is usually thought of as a history. Calling Richard a history because it is drawn from English history, and Macbeth a tragedy because it is drawn from Scottish history is a pretty arbitrary distinction.

Some common themes that turn up sometimes in tragedy:

1. The main man is a king or leader or royalty or something. True of Hamlet, Lear, Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and also Marlowe's Tamburlaine, but not Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Timon, Marlowe's Faust, The Yorkshire Tragedy or the Spanish Tragedy really.

2. The supernatural, as in the witches. Yes in Hamlet, Caesar, Richard III, Dr. Faustus. Not Lear or Othello or Romeo and Juliet, or Antony and Cleopatra or quite a lot of them.

3. Pathetic fallacy, when Duncan's horses eat each other. Also in Caesar but not that common.

4. Madness, as in Lady Macbeth. Also Lear, Hamlet, the Spanish Tragedy, Othello, Titus Andronicus. Also The Two Noble Kinsmen but that's a comedy, or maybe a tragicomedy. Not the Roman plays.

5. Suicide, allegedly what happened to Lady Macbeth. Nowhere near as significant as it is in Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Timon, or even Lear.

6. Rise and Fall: Macbeth becomes king after much scheming then loses it. This is the same as what happens to Richard III. It doesn't really happen in any of the other tragedies. They do tend to have a story arc involving things going ok for someone and then turning bad eventually, but not usually with a rise to fortune at the start. Timon starts rich, Hamlet starts a Prince, Lear starts a king, Othello starts a happily married man, and Antony starts out as one of the triple pillars of the world

7. Gruesomeness: The usurper's head at the end. But this play is much less gruesome than the revenge tragedies.

8. Right to the bitter end: once Macbeth is dead, the play is dead too. Tragedies do not drag on after the main man dies. Comedies sometimes do, as in A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is all wrapped up by the end of Act 4 and then has a joke play for Act 5. This can also happen in histories like Henry V, who has won the battle by the end of Act 4 and spends Act 5 wooing the princess. A play like Cymbeline or the Winter's Tale or even the Merry Wives of Windsor can have a lot of palaver at the end explaining how everything came about. But once Hamlet, Othello, Lear, Macbeth, Timon, Coriolanus, Brutus, Cleopatra, Juliet and Titus are dead, the curtain we know is close at hand. There's not much more to say.

On Macbeth's chair.

In the highly artificial schema from which the term 'rising action' is drawn, Act II of the play is always the rising action.

"There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face. He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust."

In the Shakespearean play, the witches made two sets of promises to Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057]. The first set was an implied promise of glorious job changes. In Act 1 Scene 3, the witches implied that Macbeth would become the Thane of Cawdor and the King of Scotland. These were implied promises, because they greeted him with these two titles. There was an implicit promise that he would occupy each of those positions. The second set of promises was made in Act 4 Scene 1. Macbeth sought the witches to get an exact idea of what he needed to consolidate his kingship in the aftermath of killing King Duncan I [d. August 14, 1040] and becoming the King of Scotland. In this second visit, the witches in essence promised Macbeth security in his reign. They promised him that he only had to beware of Macduff. Likewise did they promise him that he needed to worry only about Birnam Wood moving to Dunsinane Castle and to fear only a man not born of woman. But the witches didn't connect the three baleful events. Specifically, they didn't identify Macduff as the man not born of woman. Macbeth was left trying to sort out fantastical interpretations of the dangerous mystery man. He wasn't told, or helped to find, the answer in Macduff's being delivered, not born, by Caesarian section from a dead mother who therefore was no longer a living, breathing woman but a corpse.

He doesn't say that, actually. He does say "This is a sorry sight" when he is looking at his bloody hands.

Macbeth, after being told that he's to be made Thane of Cawdor, says "Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme." Remember that the witches in 1,3 hailed him as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland hereafter. He already knew at the time that he was Thane of Glamis and now he finds that he was Cawdor as well! Two true statements! and leading up to the most interesting, most important theme or topic of all, the one having to do with kingship. OK, "monarchic theme" would have been more accurate strictly speaking, since there is nothing about his being an emperor (imperial means having to do with empires and emperors), but accuracy was not W. Shakespeare's middle name.

She tries to wipe imaginary blood off her hands and she relives killing Duncan and Banquo.

"From this moment, the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand." In other words, the first thing he thinks of doing will be the first thing he does. Or in different other words, he will act solely on impulse, without any consideration.

Macbeth has been appointed Thane of Cawdor.

The Thane of Cawdor

Macbeth gets the title because it was stripped away from the former Thane of Cawdor who had rebelled traitorously against King Duncan. This foreshadows that Macbeth will also betray King Duncan.

From our perspective, of course it does, since we know that Macbeth has in fact crossed the line and committed a heinous crime.

Cumberland, which is not really a separate country, but rather a district in England. Presumably we are to assume that at the time these events take place, it is part of Scotland. Otherwise it is kind of a cheap appointment.

"Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe", in other words they fought on harder. Act 1, scene 2