Macbeth

He kills Banquo to thwart the prophecy about Banquo's issue becoming kings, but it doesn't work because Fleance escapes. He kills Macduff's family because of the warning to "Beware Macduff" but it doesn't work because Macduff escapes. Both times he kills the wrong person or people.

Hecate is a totally unnecessary character in the play and most scholars believe that she was added to Shakespeare's play afterward by another author, probably Thomas Middleton. Most of what she says is in Act III Scene 5. Since the whole tenor of the speech is that Macbeth will be made to feel secure so as to doom himself, since "you all know security is mortals' chiefest enemy.", the idea is to control Macbeth and make him a puppet. Free Will doesn't enter into it. However she does say, "all you have done hath been but for a wayward son, spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do, loves for his own ends, not for you." Her view is that Macbeth is selfish. This would not really be inconsistent with his having no free will, but some might look at it like that.

Macbeth says hardly anything, and what he says he says without flowery poetry. Lady Macbeth is excited, enthusiastic, and poetic. Moreover, she is the one in charge. "You shall put this night's great business into my dispatch" she tells him. She is the one who has planned and intends to carry out the murder; Macbeth has evinced no such intent.

Duncan is so full of himself. His first line complains that those that love him are sometimes annoying, "sometime is our trouble", which he graciously thanks as love anyway. Then he says, "Herein I teach you how you shall bid God yield us for your pains, and thank us for your trouble." He says he will teach them to thank him when he makes a nuisance of himself, and more, how they should thank God and pray that God should glorify him, Duncan, when they suffer. Lady Macbeth replies graciously that the trouble they have gone to isn't the fourth part of the Honour the king brings to their house by visiting it. She is gracious and if it sounds insincere, he does not notice it because she is supposed to give him this kind of insincere flattery.

In Act I Scene 3, the witches have appeared and have hailed Macbeth. Banquo is put out and says "What about meee?", although he puts it more nicely and less whiny. He says, "If you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then to me." Looking at a handful of seeds and saying which ones will grow is a metaphor for predicting the future; the seeds become a metaphor for all the potential events, some of which will happen and some will not. It is a deeper and more powerful way of saying "predict the future".

Scene 1: STRANGE WOMEN SEEN ON HEATHScene 2: SCOTS WIN BATTLE AT FORRES; MACBETH TO BE REWARDEDScene 3: WANDERING FORTUNE TELLERS GREET GENERALSScene 4: MALCOLM APPOINTED PRINCE OF CUMBERLAND; MACBETH UNHAPPYScene 5: LADY MACBETH PRAYS FOR HELP AS KING APPROACHES INVERNESSScene 6: KING DUNCAN ARRIVES AT INVERNESSScene 7: MACBETH DEBATES FUTURE AT DINNER PARTY

According to this line, a monarch is not entitled to govern merely by birth, but only by the virtue of his actions. Monarchy should be a meritocracy; there is no divine right to rule. This is why it is legitimate to overthrow Macbeth.

He has been called Thane of Cawdor. But as far as Macbeth knows, the Thane of Cawdor is a "prosperous gentleman"; he is not aware of the events in Fife described by Ross in the previous scene where the Thane of Cawdor was revealed to be a traitor and captured by some other Scottish hero. The word "robe" here is a metaphor for a title. Macbeth asks why they are calling him by someone else's title, like dressing him in someone else's clothes.

"Borrowed robes" is a phrase used by Macbeth in Act I Scene 3 to describe being hailed by someone else's title. Angus has nothing to do with it, although he does use the phrase "giant's robe" in Act V. In both cases, a "robe" is a metaphor for a title.

Nobody, unless you count the voice that said that Macbeth had murdered sleep. He did kill the two grooms, but not until the next morning.

The three "predictions" uttered by the witches in Act I Scene 3 of Macbeth are: 1. He is Thane of Glamis (he already knows this), 2. He is Thane of Cawdor (this is true although he knows nothing about it or even about the battle where Cawdor was revealed to be a traitor.) 3. He will be King (This is the only real prediction since it is something which will happen in the future.)

Is it really that hard to read it yourself?

Basically, in Act 2 Macbeth kills Duncan, Malcolm and Macduff flee and Macbeth is crowned King of Scotland at the very end.

She tells him to buck up and act like a man. But where telling him to act like a man used to work just fine to get him to behave as she wishes, she finds to her horror that it doesn't work any more.

He has forgotten that he is holding it. He is in a state of shock and does not fully understand what he is doing.

He is the man not of woman born mentioned in the witches' prophecy, which is why they warned him to "beware Macduff". He is not born of woman because he was delivered by C-section. Apparently in order to be born you need to be born in the natural way.

The witches address Macbeth first, and so Banquo says "But what about meeee? Tell meeee a prophecy." And so they do, but it is a prophecy which will not take place in Banquo's lifetime. He will not be around to see any of his descendants crowned. So he doesn't care much about it. Macbeth's prediction, on the other hand, will have to come true in his lifetime or not at all. Macbeth is naturally more caught up in the possibility the prophecy raises.

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The superstition says that you are not to say the word "Macbeth" when you are in a theatre, unless you are rehearsing or performing the play. What you are supposed to call it is "The Scottish Play". That is, assuming you believe in that sort of thing.

Because the witches said that Banquo's descendants and not Macbeth's would be kings. So even though Macbeth is king during his lifetime, it is not a lasting legacy. "If't be so, for Banquo's issue have I filed my mind; for them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd."

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.

We are not told how Lady Macbeth died. All we hear is "The queen, my lord is dead." It is up to the director to consider whether he wants to dramatize the death in some way or just leave it offstage. The director could choose to show Lady Macbeth poisoning herself, or sleepwalking off a parapet, or dying by some other means. It is unlikely that she was poisoned by someone else. Nobody would want to poison her except herself.

Duncan's grooms, who he and Lady Macbeth have framed for the murder of Duncan. He claims to have been infuriated at their apparent guilt, when in fact he just wanted to shut them up.

Macbeth persuades the murderers to kill Banquo and his son

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.