Macbeth

Lady Macbeth wants to use their daggers to stab Duncan and then smear them with Duncan's blood. When Macbeth fails to do this, she does it herself.

Strangely enough, he doesn't. In fact he says explicitly that his desire to be king is not worth the cost of murdering Duncan. "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent save vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself." Therefore he tells his wife "we will proceed no further in this business." He is just not that ambitious. But she is and she knows just what buttons to push to get him to agree to the murder. Please note that she does not play on his ambition, which is insignificant, but rather on his sense of manliness. In order to understand this play you need to read or watch Act I Scene 7 over and over and over.

He means that when he shed blood that blood will come around and expose him as a murderer. He goes on to say that stones, trees and black birds all give signs which point the finger at "the secretest man of blood", the best-concealed murderer. He is talking about Banquo's ghost which has frightened him so much that he has given away his guilt.

This must be Act I scene 4 that we are talking about. The king has just announced that the party is at Macbeth's place, and so everyone is headed to Inverness.

An army consisting of a lot of English troops, and some disaffected Scotsmen, including Macduff and Malcolm.

I am having trouble understanding what "date power" means. Possibly you tried to type "fate, power" instead. Anyway, Act I Scene 7, which is the key to understanding this play, shows that power is not something that Macbeth values particularly highly. He sneers at ambition, calling it "vaulting". However, he does put a high value on fearlessness, because his wife is able to motivate him by calling him a coward. Yet ironically, after he commits the murder he is driven by fear; by playing on his self-image as fearless, Lady M has made a coward of him. As for fate, he is wishy-washy. At one point, why if fate would have him king fate would crown him, yet at another he tries to thwart the prophecy that Banquo's issue will be kings.

he sees them as a bad sign

I guess he couldn't believe that even Macbeth would do anything so vicious and insane. And perhaps he felt he did not have any options. There was no place for his wife and kids in England. He had no warning that Macbeth might kill his family and so he thought it worth the risk. That would explain his horrific feelings of guilt when he heard the news.

Hecate says: "How did you dare To trade and traffic with Macbeth In riddles and affairs of death; " "Traffic" here is a verb meaning "to buy and sell, do business with". You know, like drug trafficking.

When Macbeth doesn't kill Duncan, lady Macbeth decides to insult and question his manhood. Her beliefs are that manhood can only be defined through murder. And in a way Lady Macbeth 'dares' Macbeth to kill Duncan. Macbeth encouraged by his wife's determination and the chance to prove his manhood agrees to continue with the murder.

the porter

The context helps here. Duncan is surprised to find that the Thane of Cawdor turned out to be a traitor. He says, "There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face; he was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust." We know what the second part means: Duncan trusted Cawdor completely. In the first part, the word "art" means skill or ability, "mind's construction" means the way someone's mind is constructed, or what they are thinking, so it means "there is no such thing as the skill or ability to find what someone is thinking in the face", or "you can't judge a book by its cover". Duncan is saying that you cannot tell what someone is thinking by looking at them, and this is true for Duncan anyway. Other people are capable of it.

The theme of manliness, which Lady Macbeth used in Act 1 Scene 7 to persuade Macbeth to do the murder, reappears in this scene. Lady Macbeth hopes to make Macbeth behave according to her wishes by questioning his manhood as she did before: "Are you a man?", "these flaws and starts . . . would well become a woman's story . . .", "Quite unmann'd in folly?". Macbeth buys into it: "protest me the baby of a girl", "I am a man again." But what Macbeth is dealing with is far too powerful to be controlled by this kind of talk.

He has imagined someone saying that he has killed sleep, and that Macbeth will sleep no more. This means that no visitor will be safe in Macbeth's home, for they can be doomed to the same fate King Duncan had endured. Because of his guilt, Macbeth will no longer sleep peacefully.

The "filthy witness" which Lady Macbeth talks about washing from Macbeth's hands is, of course, Duncan's blood. "Filthy" because it is dirty and smells unpleasant. (Have you ever been covered in blood?) "Witness" because its presence on his hands marks him as the murderer--it testifies against him.

Well, they first met long before the play started because they are good friends at the start. At the beginning of the play they are fighting side by side against "the merciless Macdonweald." When we first meet them, they are travelling together from the field of battle. They meet again twice at Macbeth's castle at Inverness both before and after Duncan is murdered. They meet again for the last time in Act III Scene 1 just before Banquo is murdered.

There's a party going on at the palace. People would notice a murder.

King Edward is portrayed as a healer, whereas Macbeth is portrayed as delivering death. Edward has "a heavenly gift of prophecy" which he gets from "holy prayers", whereas Macbeth has no gift of prophecy, and the prophecies he gets from the witches are deceptions.

We understand her better as a result. She prays to the "spirits that tend on mortal thoughts" to fill her "top full with direst cruelty", because she does not want any sympathetic portion of her nature (if there is any) to prevent her from persuading Macbeth to the murder. We understand how committed she is.

Second Murderer: "I am one, my liege, whom the vile blows and buffets of the world have so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world" First Murderer: "And I another . . ."

the scene with the witches

He had felt guilt

After seeing the witch prophecy came true

Macbeth is seeing the ghost of Banquo and this is causing him to act crazily, spoiling the party. Lady M tries to get him to settle down. But things get worse. Macbeth starts to say things which might give away the fact that he had Banquo murdered. Lady M then decides that she has to get rid of the guests.

this push / will cheer me ever, or disseat me now. / I have lived long enough.