Macbeth

Seyton tells Macbeth that his wife his just died.

Thanes are like governors, and the title of thane was later turned into Earl (when Malcolm became king, "Thanes, henceforth become Earls"). Glamis (pronounced "glahm-s") is an area/province of Scotland. Macbeth holds the title of Thane of Glamis, making him the governor/local ruler of Glamis.

To receive satisfaction from the hopelessly impaired part of the Narnia

Because they were mad at him, they wanted to kill him and make Malcolm king instead.

A sabbat

Macbeth is stating that Banquo is dead. It highlights Macbeth's fear and consciousness.

modern translation: There is no marrow in your bones; your blood is cold.

He has Macbeth himself explain it in 1,7:

"First as I am his kinsman and his subject, both strong against the deed, then as his host who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against the deep damnation of his taking-off."

1. Macbeth is Duncan's cousin.

2. This is regicide.

3. A host is bound to protect his guest. It's horrific to kill someone who is your guest.

4. Duncan is a meek and gentle (some would say dimwitted) person

5. Duncan is an honest king

This should be enough, but many directors go further to make the murder seem monstrous. In many productions, Duncan is portrayed as fifty or sixty years older than his sons and way older than his cousin Macbeth. Not only is he a feeble and elderly man, but he is saintly. However, Shakespeare did not actually write Duncan as an elderly king, although he is obviously old enough to have young adults for sons.

Both Lennox and the lord he is speaking with suspect Macbeth of killing Duncan and Banquo

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Lady Macbeth will become Queen of Scotland. The reason why she wants him to commit treason is for the benefit of her crafty self. When he becomes King she will become Queen. She is not thinking of anyone bar herself and she is using Macbeth to get to the throne. Macbeth sadly falls for his 'good' wife's idea and ends up committing a bad deed!

Macduff kills Macbeth. That fulfills the prophecy.

Macbeth tries to defeat the prophecy of "Beware Macduff" by killing Macduff's family. He is initially unconcerned with the final prophecy because he views it as impossible, even though everything else the witches have said have come true. His hubris and total lust for power blind him to these "truths."

Macbeth's attitude to the prophecies is not as straightforward as the simpleminded suggestion that he is governed by hubris and a lust for power would imply. Indeed I would suggest that he is governed by neither. What he is governed by, after Duncan is killed, is fear. He does not lust for power--he does not want to invade England, for example--but he is afraid of losing the power and authority he has. He is afraid that, since he came by the throne illegitimately, nobody will respect him. He is afraid that Banquo suspects him. Why else does he say "My fears in Banquo stick deep."? He is afraid that Macduff does not respect him as king. Why else does he say, "How sayst thou that Macduff denies his person at our great bidding?"

Part of him wants to trust the prophecies, to have that faith that quenches fear. But another part of him is afraid that the prophecies will cheat him, and that he himself must take action to fulfill them or thwart them. So, rather than let "fate crown him", he embarks on the murder to hurry the process along. Rather than accept that Banquo will "get kings", he tries to prevent it by killing him and Fleance. Rather than accept that Macduff is dangerous to him, but nobody of woman born is, he'll "make assurance doubly sure" by killing Macduff.

Macbeth is not proud or arrogant. He is frightened and desperate. He clings to the prophecies in hope that they will protect him from the danger he sees all around him. And when he realizes that that hope is a sham, he is ready to give up. Only Macduff's threat to humiliate him (the Greeks would have found Macduff to be very hubristic) blows some life into the fading ember of Macbeth's self-respect. His last speech is of a man left to his last desperate recourse:

Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,

And thou opposed being of no woman born,

Yet I will try the last. Before my body

I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,

And damned be him that first cries, "Hold, enough!"

King James 1st of England had previously ascended the throne of Scotland as King James 6th. But although he was King of Scotland and so was Macbeth, they were no' related. King James was supposed to be descended from Banquo who was no relation of Macbeth's

Man as a sinner.

Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth to grow up and just kill the King. But Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that she cant kill him since he looks like her father, this shows the reader that Lady Macbeth isn't as crazy as we think she is.

They don't. They are riding from the battlefield where they have dealt with the traitor Macdonweald to their camp at Forres (that's actually the name of a place in Scotland 25 miles east of Inverness, not a misspelling of forest) where the king awaits them. They are accosted by three witches of whom Macbeth asks, "why upon this blasted heath you stop our way with such prophetic greeting." A heath is defined as an area of open uncultivated land, the very opposite of a forest.

Yes it is.

Lennox: The night has been unruly; where we lay

Chimneys were blown down, and, as they say,

Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams of death

And prophesying with accents terrible

Of dire combustion and confused events

New-hatched to the woeful time. The obscure bird

Clamoured the live-long night. Some say the earth

Was feverous and did shake.

Macbeth: 'Twas a rough night.

Read the play and outline it. Take those ideas and make 10 points out of them.

I see that in your production you have cast Macbeth with a woman. That's interesting. (otherwise you must say "he says" not "she says")

The quotation you are referring to is:

If thou speak'st false,

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,

Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,

I care not if thou dost for me as much.

I pull in resolution, and begin

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend

That lies like truth: 'Fear not, till Birnam wood

Do come to Dunsinane:' and now a wood

Comes toward Dunsinane.

He's speaking to a messenger who has just told him that Birnam wood is coming to Dunsinane, an event about which he said, earlier in the play, "That can never be!" As the passage clearly shows, he says that if the messenger is telling the truth, he cannot rely on the prophecy "fear not, till Birnam wood do come to Dunsinane", because it is "equivocation"--it seems to say one thing and means another. And who is the "fiend that lies like truth"? You'll need three guesses because there were three of them around that cauldron.

None of the predictions made to Banquo come true in the course of the play. The first prediction which comes true is that Macbeth will become king (He is already Thane of Cawdor when they meet the witches, so that is not a prediction.)

It doesn't. On the contrary, if you didn't already know from the title of the play, (The Tragedie of Macbeth, as it's called in the First Folio), you would think from what the witches said that everything will be going great for Macbeth: he's Thane of Glamis, he is going to become Thane of Cawdor, and he will eventually become King. Who could complain about that?

He means that he has been given a crown with essentially no meaning as Banquo's son will be the one to take over the throne, no son of Macbeth will ever continue on the crown

Macbeth kills them as soon as he sees them. He can't have anyone left who knows he killed Duncan.

The information they bring (in Act 1 scene 3) is that Macbeth has been made Thane of Cawdor. What Macbeth does with this information is to pass it on to his wife.

Macbeth: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No."

Lady Macbeth: "All the perfumes of Arabia cannot sweeten this little hand."

Sounds the same to me.