Macbeth


 * Title: ** Macbeth
 * Author: ** William Shakespeare
 * Date of Publication: ** 1623
 * Literary Period: ** Renaissance
 * Genre: ** Tragedy


 * Describe the setting and then explain the relevance of the setting. **

The events of //Macbeth// take place in eleventh-century Scotland, a time of great political unrest in Europe. This unrest is mirrored in the minds of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.


 * Themes (These statements should be complete sentences and completely developed ideas) **

If we're going to talk themes, I think the best way to condense everything we talked about in class would be to compare and contrast the overt and the subconscious. Although Macbeth was the one demonstrating power bydoing the messy work of keeping the kingdom in order under King Duncan, he still managed to display contentment with being just Thane of Glamis and Thane of Cawdor until the three Witches told him he was "destined" to be king of Scotland. The Witches planted an idea in Macbeth's mind that augments his ambition to a degree he can no longer control. After Lady Macbeth reads the letter from her husband, she feels latent, powerful urges from deep within her mind awakened and begins to plot the best possible course of action to take in order for her husband to seize power. As soon as she begins to talk about unsexing herself, it becomes painfully apparent that things are not as they seem. Things get even more out of order when Macbeth defies several societal norms by murdering a guest and friend of his while the guest stays in his house. When Macbeth inaccurately equates bloodlust with masculinity, his actions further and further distort the natural order of things until he has the three Witches uttering prophecies of walking trees and men not born of women slaughtering him. At this point, everything is out of whack: Macbeth has gone from being a virtuous soldier to a morally nihilistic brute, Lady Macbeth is mentally ill and not too far away from (possibly) committing suicide, and the rightful king is nowhere to be found. Only when Macduff slays Macbeth and places Malcolm as King of Scotland is order and balance restored to the kingdom and the throne.


 * Plot Summary (Please do not copy and paste. Simply list the high points of the novel) - Consider creating a visual flow chart or graph and posting it here. **


 *  Macbeth gains the respect of King Duncan after proving himself a valiant leader in battle by fighting off the invaders of Duncan's Scottish kingdom
 * The three witches tell Macbeth will first become Thane of Cawdor, then King. They tell Macbeth's companion Banquo that his sons will be kings
 * Macbeth and Banquo learn that the Thane of Cawdor betrayed King Duncan and thus lost his title as Thane of Cawdor to Macbeth
 * Duncan proclaims his son, Malcolm to be heir to the throne and plants seeds of envy in Macbeth's heart
 * Duncan decides to celebrate his victory over the attempted insurgency at Macbeth's abode
 *  Lady Macbeth is introduced as she reads her lord's letter. She knows that Macbeth does not have the willpower to take what he wants
 * Macbeth murders King Duncan; he then ensures that those who were responsible for guarding him are seen as culpable
 * Macduff discovers the murder of Duncan
 * Macbeth murders the guards to keep them silent and Duncan's sons flee the country out of fear for their lives
 * Macbeth gives a feast and invites many thanes, including Banquo and his son Fleance. He plots to have them both killed, but Fleance escapes
 * Macbeth believes he sees the ghost of Banquo at the feast and acts erractically in response. This behavior draws the suspicions of the other thanes.
 * Macduff goes to England to support Malcolm in restoring order to the kingdom
 * Macbeth revisits the three witches
 * No man born of woman can defeat him
 * He will rule until Birnam Wood marches to Dunsinane
 * Macbeth misinterprets this to mean he cannot be defeated
 * Macbeth has Macduff's family murdered
 * Macduff and Malcolm prepare to invade Scotland when Macduff learns of how his family was eradicated
 * Lady Macbeth begins sleepwalking and, while doing so, desperately tries to clean her hands of blood that cannot be washed away
 * Malcolm and his troops march toward Dunsinane with branches from Birnam Wood to guise their advance.
 * Lady Macbeth dies; Macbeth is unphased
 * Macbeth loses the castle, but continues to fight, confident in the prophecy of being slain by only a man not born of a woman
 * As Macduff and Macbeth face each other mano y mano, Macduff reveals that he was born by c-section and was thus not born of woman
 * Macduff slays Macbeth and Malcolm assumes his place as the rightful King of Scotland


 * Memorable Quotes and their SIGNIFICANCE. **

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Lato,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Stars, hide your fires! // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Lato,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Let not light see my black and deep desires. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Lato,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">-Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 4 //

Macbeth wishes to hide his transgressions and all of the evil that surrounds them in the darkness of night so that he may quickly seize power with little to no social liability. Macbeth reveals his cowardice and lack of masculinity by asking to perform acts and hoping to flee the consequences.

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Come, you spirits // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood, // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Stop up th’access and passage to remorse, // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> That no compunctious visitings of nature // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Th’ effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts, // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers, // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Wherever in your sightless substances // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night, // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, // //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Lady Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 5 //

Lady Macbeth wishes to temporarily become more masculine so that she may go forth and do what she believes is best for her husband without being limited by gender and its associated roles. She knows her husband is too weak to commit the crime with the vigor and strength required to walk away from it cleanly and successfully, so she hopes to be man enough for the both of them.


 * Describe the significance of the opening scene. **

The three Witches decided to next convene after Macbeth's battle so that they can meet with him and deliver the prophecy. They proclaim, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair," foreshadowing the importance of the contrast between appearance and reality later in the novel


 * Describe the significance of the closing scene. **

In the end, Macbeth is left to face Macduff, the man whose home was invaded and family slaughtered upon the order of Macbeth. During their struggle, Macduff reveals that he is not of woman born because he entered the world through Cesarian section, rather than natural birth. Macbeth could have chosen to flee, but he chooses to play out the fate which the three Witches had decreed he would suffer and dies fighting in vain pride. With the death of Macbeth came the restoration of order to the kingdom, and all is well again. The tragedy lies not so much in what happens to Scotland than in Macbeth's transformation from a venerable and renowned warrior to a brutish tyrant.


 * Describe the author's style and provide examples from the text. **

William Shakespeare makes good use of his famous iambic pentameter, but what is even better is when he breaks free from this meter to show disorder and chaos both in the environment and the minds of certain characters. This can most clearly be seen as Lady Macbeth speaks late in //Macbeth// of removing the evidence of Macbeth's sins from her hands.


 * List importance characters and their significance. **


 * Macbeth: ** Protagonist of //Macbeth// (obviously). He abandons his morality in the pursuit of power and loses the everything: the power he so desperately craves, his most loyal ally, his wife, and his honor.
 * Lady Macbeth: ** The wife of Macbeth, who pushes him to commit the first murder (think Adam and Eve). She does her best to uphold the appearance of normality for herself and her husband, but her mind is consumed by insanity in the process of this task.
 * Banquo: ** Ally of Macbeth who is told that his descendants will sit on the throne promptly after Macbeth is told he will be king by the three Witches. Banquo serves as a foil to Macbeth because he does not let the idea of power for his family drive him to commit acts that go against his own moral code. He is killed at the order of Macbeth after King Duncan has been slayed, but his son escapes and his ghost haunts Macbeth at a feast he was invited to but killed before
 * Macduff: ** Thane of Fife, who contrasts Macbeth in that his primary concern lies not in satisfying his own ambitious desires, but in bettering the general welfare of his country, Scotland. He loses his family to Macbeth's bloodlust, but the primary driving force behind him slaying Macbeth was not vengeance, but justice.
 * King Duncan: ** In my humble opinion, he is a weak monarch who just cannot seem to keep his kingdom under control. He lives a virtuous life, but does not do what it takes to stamp out insurgency and is easily slain by Macbeth, his insubordinate
 * Malcom: ** son of King Duncan who cowardly flees Scotland for his own safety, not in the least concerning himself with the state of his home country. He is coaxed into leading a revolt against Macbeth and assuming his rightful place as king of Scotland by Macduff
 * The Three Sisters: ** They remind me of the three Fates from Greek mythology, but I believe that their influence on the future may not be as strong. I believe they plant the seeds of ideas in Macbeth's and Banquo's minds and just let things play out as they may.