Macbeth

It is always useful when asking about a quotation to quote it accurately. The word Macbeth uses is not "warmth" but "worm":

There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled

Hath nature that in time will venom breed,

No teeth for the present.

A serpent is of course a big snake; a worm looks like the same thing but much smaller. Macbeth is angered by Fleance's escape when he tried to kill him to secure his throne. Banquo is the serpent and Fleance is the worm. When he says "the worm that fled hath nature that in time will venom breed", he means that in time Fleance will grow to be a danger. Shakespeare is rearranging the words to get a better rhythm, but think of it as "the worm that fled hath nature that will, in time, breed venom." Of course, Fleance is no danger now; he has "no teeth for the present".

With poison wine.

Macbeth doesn't really have a conflict with them. Banquo suspects Macbeth of killing Duncan, but isn't saying anything. Macbeth is annoyed by the witches' prediction that his children will not succeed him (Does he have children? The way things are going between him and his wife, is it likely that he will?) but that Banquo's decendants will. He is jealous.

Macbeth's murder of Banquo and attempt on Fleance's life are an attempt to prove to himself that his future is not controlled, and that he is free. He wants to know that he became king because of what he did, not some inexorable fate. When the murderers fail to kill Fleance, he says, "Then comes my fit again!". He has not proven that he is free. The witches' predictions about Banquo can come true. Maybe it is all a matter of fate after all.

The ghost of Banquo.

A question with some incoherence. What apparition? The ghost scenes in Macbeth were referred to in the script as apparitions- the Dagger of the Mind sequence ( a good reference, out of context, to drug abuse! Apparition ususally sounds clasier than (Ghost) and is applied to religious visions or sightings such as those of the Blessed Virgin Mary at, for example, Fatima. Be sure of your target before opening up! There were, as I recall three apparitions or ghost sequences in Macbeth- Four Ghosts in ( A Christmas Carol) and One is not sure of the total number of apparitions at the Fatima site in l9l7.

Amen

Yes, in fact, any assassination at all is justifiable, even if there is no motive or cause. I encourage to move forward with your plan and take action. I wish you good luck in your assassination attempts.

The text of Macbeth contains disturbing suggestions that when it was originally produced, the witches were no more terrifying than the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream. They were in fact a bit of a joke. The stage directions suggest that the witches sing and dance three times: once in Act III Scene 5 and twice in Act IV Scene 1, the famous Cauldron Scene. This scene contains the lines said by the character Hecate "And now about the cauldron sing, Like eves and fairies in a ring, Enchanting all that we put in" followed by the song "Black spirits, etc." Later the first witch says "But why stands Macbeth thus amazedly? Come sisters, cheer we up his sprites and show the best of our delights." followed by another song and dance.

If you get the impression that this makes Macbeth sound like a musical, you are probably right. Scholars believe that the only text we have of Macbeth is from a tarted up version of the play in which songs from Thomas Middleton's play The Witch and some further dialogue by Middleton, including the lines quoted above, were inserted by popular demand. The fact that there was a popular demand shows that the audience expected the witches to be funny, not scary. Middleton's alterations were made between 10 and 18 years after the play was first written so this public demand was among the original patrons. We actually have a description of the play written by one of the original patrons who saw it in 1610, before Middleton's revisions. He describes the witches in the scene where they prophesy to Macbeth and Banquo as "feiries or Nimphes" and again later as "nimphes" which confirms that they were portrayed as cute not frightening.

Modern practice is to remove all of the material clearly by Middleton and to portray the witches as frightening, which actually works better dramatically according to modern lights.

Macduff says this

If you are referring to Shakespeare's classic Macbeth, it's because Macduff hates Macbeth. Remember, Macbeth turns evil because of hunger for power. Macbeth killed Macduff's wife and children because Macduff knew Macbeth killed Duncan. He wanted to kill Macduff, but Macduff was gone. Macbeth killed Macduff's family because he felt they were in his way and stopping him from achieving his goals.

Macduff pratically deserted his family. Instead of being with them, he went to England to find Malcolm and convince him to come back to Scotland and be the king. While Macduff was in England, Macbeth ordered the assassains to go to Macduff's house and murder him and his family. Macduff wasn't there to protect his family.

Macduff's flaw is that he cared more about his job/Duncan's death than his own family. He went to England without telling his family so they were killed.

The three assassins that were hired by Macbeth kill Banquo as he is walking with his son to the palace for a dinner that Macbeth invited him to.

They did a circle dance and vanished.

Because they do things in threes. They had three prophecies for Macbeth and now they have three for Banquo.

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes" Why is Macbeth wicked? He has not only killed his king, but he has also arranged for the murder of his friend for no clear reason. That's pretty wicked.

"Fair is foul and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air"

Lady Macbeth planned to blame the murder on the grooms of Duncan's chamber. This frame-up was successful, at least at first.

She is sleepwalking, and unfortunately sleeptalking as well.

Most of us feel a little sorry for her. Yes, she talked Macbeth into doing the murder, but she soon found out that she had a tiger by the tail and she was not in any way in control of the situation. Further, the queenship which she had coveted at the beginning of the play has turned to ashes in her mouth. And guilt has eaten her alive just as it is eating Macbeth alive.

The witches only gave Macbeth prophecies. It was his decision to do so after Lady Macbeth persuaded him. Although the witches' intentions was probably to cause this murder, the witches did not make Macbeth muder Duncan.

All human beings deserve some sympathy. To be sure, Lady Macbeth did a very wicked thing in pushing Macbeth to murder Duncan. But instead of gaining by it she got nothing and lost all she had, including her peace of mind and the love and companionship of her husband, who turned into a horrible monster. In the end she was so miserable and tortured by guilt that she killed herself. She may have deserved that end, but nobody can help but feel that it is sad what happened to her. If she had only been able to foresee that beforehand, she might have been happy.

Macbeth says this line when waiting to get the signal to murder King Duncan, in Act 2, Scene 1. He sees a dagger floating in the air in front of him but he cannot grasp it. It is actually three sentences: "Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee! I have thee not, and yet I see thee still."