Macbeth in a Nutshell

1) There is war in Scotland.

2) Macbeth is a celebrated soldier and hero.
3) Macbeth and his friend Banquo bump into 3 witches on the way home.
4) The witches share 3 things:
a. Macbeth is Thane of Glamis (he already is)
b. Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor (he isn’t yet)
c. Macbeth will be King
d. The also share that Banquo’s sons will be king

5) King Duncan awards Macbeth with the title Thane of Cawdor

6) Duncan later announces his son, Malcolm, will be his successor (Future King)
7) Macbeth writes to tell his wife about the witches’ predictions. She plots to persuade
Macbeth to kill the king.
8) Duncan arrives at Macbeth’s castle.
9) Lady Macbeth bullies Macbeth into agreeing to kill Duncan.
10) Macbeth murders Duncan but feels very guilty.
11) Duncan’s sons flee in fear so Macbeth is named King.
12) Macbeth is a paranoid leader. He is paranoid that Banquo and his son is a threat
(remember the witches’ predictions) so arranges to have him killed.
13) He learns that Banquo is dead but his son has escaped. Guilt and paranoia
make him see Banquo’s ghost and he reacts suspiciously at a banquet.
14) We see more of the witches casting spells (to remind us they’re evil and
unnatural)
15) Macduff goes to England to join the escaped princes (Malcolm and Donalbain)
16) Paranoid Macbeth goes back to the witches for reassurance. They tell him 3
things again:
a. Beware Macduff
b. He’s safe until Birnam Wood reaches the castle
c. No one born of woman can harm him

17) Afraid of Macduff, Macbeth sends murderers to kill his family.

18) Angry, Macduff raises an army in England for revenge
19) Lady Macbeth is driven mad by guilt; she keeps seeing blood on her hands
20) We hear the English army are on their way
21) Macbeth neglects his ill wife to prepare for the battle. He’s still convinced he’s
safe because of the witches’ predictions.
22) The English army use branches from Birnam Wood as camouflage to disguise
their approach. From the castle, it looks like the woods are moving…
23) Lady Macbeth kills herself.
 24) The battle begins. Macbeth is smug and brags he can’t be harmed by anybody
born of woman.
25) Macduff announces that he was born by C section, thus not the ‘natural’ way.
He kills Macbeth.
26) Everyone celebrates.

Theme Key Quotes Questions to think about…

Nature ‘Thunder, lightning, or in rain’ (Pathetic Fallacy)- How does this set the
mood for the play? Note: There are
regular references to thunder elsewhere
in the play too!
‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’
How does this alliterative quote from the
witches in A1:S1 reflect on the events in
‘There’s husbandry in Heaven; the rest of the play?
Their candles are all out…’
(Metaphor)-Banquo is talking about the
lack of stars in the scene before the
‘The raven’, ‘The owl that murder. How does this foreshadow the
shrieked, the fatal bellman’ events to come?

‘The night has been unruly…’ How are the Raven and the Owl symbolic
of the ‘darkness’ presented in the play?

The lords discuss the storm in the scene

following Duncan’s murder. How does
the pathetic fallacy here add to the
tension in the moments before his body
is discovered?
Supernatu ‘… look not like the inhabitants
ral o’th ’earth…’ Banquo’s description in these two quotes
instantly reminds us that the witches
‘You should be women, And yet don’t appear ‘natural’. How would this
your beards forbit me to interpret have impacted a Shakespearean
that you are so.’ audience and their opinion of the three
witches?

‘Melted as breath into the wind.’

(Simile)- How does this simile reflect that
‘What, can the devil speak true?’ the witches are capable of more than
 simple trickery?

What is the significance of Banquo’s use

of the word ‘devil’
Frequent references to ‘Hecate’

Taken from the Greek Goddess of

feminine magic, Hecate’s character is
the witches’ leader. What might the
Banquo’s ghost appearance: ‘Thou
significance of this female character be
canst not say I did it…’
in the meanings behind the play?

Here the supernatural is used to

represent Macbeth’s guilty mind. Why do
you think it is Banquo’s ghost that
Macbeth sees and not that of Duncan or
Act 4, Scene 1- the witches spells
his other victims?

Think about some of the key ingredients

The three predictions. What they in the spell. What do these imply about
say:
the nature of the witches?
1) ‘Beware Macduff’

2) ‘none of woman born shall What the images imply/symbolise:

harm Macbeth’
(First apparition an armed head-
foreshadows Macbeth’s fate)
3) ‘Macbeth shall never
(A bloody child- Represents a child
vanquished be until Great
Birnam wood to high removed via C-section… which of course
Dunsinane hill shall come
reflects Macduff)
against him’

(A child crowned, with a tree in his hand-

represents the soldiers using the
branches to come for Macbeth. The
crowned child also reflects Banquo’s
offspring becoming kings, which is
emphasised further on in the scene)
Madness Macbeth:
and Guilt ‘I could not say “Amen”…’ Why is this significant about this religious
reference given the context of the play?

‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean How does Shakespeare use this
 wash this blood clean from my metaphor to show the extent of
hand?’ Macbeth’s guilt?

‘ere we will eat our meal in fear, How would a Shakespearean audience
and sleep in the affliction of these have reacted to these references to
terrible dreams’
Macbeth’s mental state after the
murder? What is the significance of the
‘O, full of scorpions is my mind,
metaphor ‘scorpion’ here?
dear wife!’

Why does Shakespeare use a visual cue

here? How is it effective?
Banquo’s ghost appearance: ‘Thou
canst not say I did it…’

Lady Macbeth:

‘Out, damned spot!’

‘Hell is murky’
How do the quotes in Act 5, Scene 1
mirror other events in the play? What is
‘Yet who would have thought the
the irony of this moment, given Lady
old man to have so much blood in
Macbeth’s behaviour towards Macbeth in
him?’
Act 2, Scene 2?

‘The Thane of Fife had a wife.

Where is she now?’

‘Here’s the smell of blood still: all

the perfumes of Arabia will not
sweeten this
little hand.’
To what extend does this line reflect
Macbeth’s own guilt and regret?
Macbeth about his wife: ‘canst
thou not minister to a mind
diseas’d, pluck from the memory a
rooted sorrow.’
Ambition Lady Macbeth:
‘Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too What is the significance of the verb ‘fear’
full of the milk of human kindness here? What does it tell us about Lady
to catch the nearest way.’ Macbeth?

‘Thou wouldst be great; Art not

without ambition, but without the What is Lady Macbeth referring to when
illness should attend it.’ she uses the word ‘illness’? What is she
saying about Macbeth and does the
 audience agree with her view here?
‘Was the hope drunk wherein you
dressed yourself?’
Why does Lady Macbeth choose to mock
‘And live a coward in thin own her husband this way? How does it affect
esteem, letting ‘I dare not’ wait him and what does it show about their
upon ‘I would’ relationship?

Macbeth:
‘This is a step on which I must fall
down, or else o’erleap, for in my
way it lies.’ What do these lines suggest about
Macbeth as a character before he has
‘Stars, hide your fires! Let not light even shared the news with his wife. How
see my black and deep desires.’ is this significant in considering the
meanings behind the rest of the play?
‘I have brought golden opinions
from all sorts of people, which
would be worn now in their newest To what extent is ambition seen as an
gloss, not cast aside so soon.’ evil trait in the play?

KEY TECHNIQUES USED THROUGHOUT THE PLAY:

Where do we find examples of these things in the play?

Dramatic Irony Religious Imagery Rhyming Couplets

Foreshadowing Nature Imagery Soliloquy
Metaphor Pathetic Fallacy Varying Rhythm and Rhyme
Simile Symbolism Blank Verse/ Plain Prose