Macbeth

During the Shakespearian time the number 3 meant bad luck, so Shakespeare placed the number 3 in all of his tragedies in order for the audience to foreshadow the coming events that may lead to something horrific. Ex. Macbeth: 3 witches, 3 apparitions. Hamlet: 3 times the ghost shown himself, etc.

Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] was the protagonist, or main character of the Shakespearean play. The antagonists were the adversaries and opponents to Macbeth. The antagonists included beings mortal and supernatural. For example, the witches appeared to be on Macbeth's side in letting him know what they led him to believe was his by destiny, due, and right. But they showed themselves to be antagonists by giving him a false sense of security. They set him up for his downfall by encouraging his ambitions, manipulability, and notions of a charmed life. In the way of motal examples, all those who joined together to overthrow Macbeth were antagonists. Specifically, antagonistic characters included the noblemen Angus, Caithness, Lennox, Macduff, Menteith, and Ross. They also included the future King Malcolm III [d. November 13, 1093]; and Siward, Earl of Northumberland, General of the invading English forces, and his son Young Siward.

He forces the murderers to question their own masculinity. The completion of the task will act as a way to prove that the murders are really men. Lady Macbeth did the same thing to Macbeth. She made him question his masculinity and the only way he could redeem himself was to kill Duncan.

After learning that he killed Macdonwald, the Thane of Cawdor (the traitor of Scotland), Duncan makes Macbeth the new Thane of Cawdor. He makes Macbeth the Thane because of his valiance in battle. After all, when a battle is done now-a days, awards and battle decorations are handed out, and the guys who were the bravest, most valiant soldiers are given awards like the Medal of Honor.

Except that Macdonwald (whom Macbeth unseamed from the nave to the chaps) is a totally different person from "That most disloyal traitor, the Thane of Cawdor" (who was captured and later executed "Is execution done on Cawdor?"). In fact, they must have been involved in two totally seperate battles (as indeed they were historically) because Macbeth had no idea that the Thane of Cawdor was a traitor or had been condemned when the witches predict that he will be Cawdor or when Ross announces that he has been given the title. He could not have been involved in that battle.

Macbeth was given the title of Thane of Cawdor for his valour in battle all right, but not because he had personally defeated the previous Thane. Macbeth never fought the previous Thane.

In Shakespeare's time, certain people were really frightened of witches and believed that they were a clear and present danger to their society. The history of the Salem Witch Trials is an example of this kind of fear, which was only starting in Shakespeare's day. Throughout the seventeenth century, fundamentalist religion became very powerful in England and even overthrew the monarchy, and it is religious fundamentalists who generally are frightened of witches.

Well, just kindness basically. Lady Macbeth thinks her husband is "too full of the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way" which means that he's too nice a guy to go around murdering people. Her assessment of him is correct as it turns out. The association of "milk" with kindness gives a suggestion of cowardice, as white was a colour associated with lack of courage (see "lily-livered" for example.)

Act 1 begins with the witches talking about meeting up with Macbeth. They don't seem like good witches. Then in Scene 2, readers and viewers hear good reports of Macbeth's bravery in his defense of king and country. So my very first impression of Macbeth is somewhat confused, somewhat questionable. But my first impression of Lady Macbeth isn't confused at all. Scene 5 begins with her reading the letter from her husband about his promotion and the witches' predictions. She has an assertive, pushing, strong character that creates a negative impression with its total disregard for human life other than her own.

He will not be defeated until the Birnam wood marches to his castle.

He is presented as a loyal and heroic warrior who had no apparent lust for power. However, the flames of ambition could be seen when he uttered "tell me more" after the witches prophecy. The prophecy, however, is half finished and he is responsible for finishing it off himself. Thus, the main plot is set in motion and is a chilling foreshadowing of the influence of power and the corruption it has, even on a "good" person like Macbeth.

Macbeth is seriously conflicted between a number of possibilities. He seriously considers letting fate take its course ("If chance would have me king, why then let chance crown me."), taking agressive action ("Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else o'erleap for in my way it lies."), and doing nothing and disregarding the prophecy ("We shall proceed no further in this business.") What drives him to commit the murder is not "vaulting ambition" but his fear that his wife will consider him less than manly.

What he says is, "The rest is labour, which is not used for you. I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful the hearing of my wife with your approach. So humbly take my leave." Shorn of the politeness, he means "I'd better leave now and warn my wife." It's annoying enough to have someone come home and say, "I've brought some friends for supper". The host will want to tidy up a bit and make sure there's enough to eat. It's even worse if it's the king. So it would be natural for Macbeth to want to get home to warn lady M to pick the dirty clothes off the living room floor and do some shopping so they don't have to serve the king wieners and beans or Kraft Dinner.

Before Macduff and the like discover Duncan's murder, Lady Macbeth was calm and told Macbeth to wash the blood off with water, as it if was as simple as that to remove the guilt and Macbeth's spiraling into insanity.

After the discovery, Macbeth pretends to be enraged and kills the two servants of the king (whom which he and his wife put the blame on) and admits to killing them out of rage and begins to become emotional. When Lady Macbeth sees this, she "faints" to draw attention from Macbeth to herself, so he will not dig his own grave.

Hope that helped

There are shrieking owls "It was the owl who shrieked, the fatal bellman . . ." The shrieking reflects the horror of the murder. There is a better example of pathetic fallacy in scene three of that act.

I think that Macbeth has a weak character and he also has a lack of control over his wife. If he had control over her, he probably wouldn't have killed Duncan

Shakespeare shows the three witches in the first scene of Macbeth to demonstrate that the play is a tragedy. Since witches are commonly associated with evil, this creates a dark and dangerous atmosphere and foreshadows death. The witches are also extremely important to the play because it is their prophecies that drive Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to commit terrible acts.

after the battle, the three witches greet Macbeth by calling him by three titles:

Thane of Glamis

Thane of Cawdor

King thereafter

We have to distinguish here between being a traitor to Scotland and being a traitor to the king. Macbeth is certainly a traitor to his king by murdering him. But is he a traitor to Scotland? Perhaps in the sense that the atmosphere of unease and paranoia he creates with his own unease and paranoia does Scotland no good. However, look closely at Malcolm. Malcolm invades Scotland with an English army, and his closest confidant is Siward, an Englishman. His first act as king is to abolish the Scottish title of Thane and set up the English one of Earl. Culturally and politically he is betraying Scotland to the English.

People hated Macbeth because he killed the king Duncan (the king of Scotland) so that he could become the king as the witches prophecy had mentioned and then Duncan's grooms and Banquo and who knows how many more. Even if they did not suspect him of all those crimes (and we know from Lennox's speech in Act 3 Scene 6 that at least some of them did), they could not help feel the oppressive atmosphere caused by Macbeth's paranoia. He keeps a "servant fee'd" in every house to spy on people and turn them in if they grumble about Macbeth.

All in all it was like living under Stalin.

Macbeth shows it through his tyranny,murders and his eagerness to see the witches again.

Lady Macbeth shows it when she turns mad nearing the end of the play and her death. ('out damn spot! out, i say!')

the spot thing is a direct quote from the play, it has no intention to be offensive or anything.

He was seriously whipped

Prior to her marriage to Macbeth, Lady Macbeth was previously married to a guy called Gillecomlan, by whom she had a son. This is not stated in Shakespeare's play, but explains how Lady M has "given suck" while she and Macbeth have no children.

1. How is it possible that he be tane of both Glamis and Cawdor when Cawdor already has a prosperous thane?

At the end of the play Macduff gave Macbeth two choices; surrender and live under the rightful king of Scotland or die. Macbeth chose death.

Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] lived in Scotland. When the Shakespearean play opened, his home was Inverness Castle. That was the property that he had through his title as Thane of Glamis. He also became Thane of Cawdor. And so the properties of Cawdor became his as well. Once he became King, he had access to the royal properties. The two royal residences that are mentioned in the Shakespearan play are the palace at Forres and the castle at Dunsinane.

The first time the witches told Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] about his noble and royal future. The second time they warned him of the threats to that future. In Act 1 Scene 3 of the Shakespearean play, the three witches predicted Macbeth's promotion to the powerful and wealthy titles of first Thane of Cawdor and then of King of Scotland. In Act 4 Scene 1, they gave Macbeth a false sense of security. They warned him against Macduff. Then they assured him of victory against all men born of women and as long as Birnam Wood didn't move to Dunsinane Castle. But they didn't link the warnings. Neither did they encourage him to think of believable explanations for such unbelievable events. For example, the witches warned Macbeth of Macduff without identifying Macduff as the bloodied child not born of woman. Macduff was delivered, not born, by Caesarian section from a recently dead mother. His mother therefore was considered a corpse and no longer a living, breathing woman.