This is a play of dark ambition – set against the backdrop of a gruesome war, the action
is both literally and conceptually dark: in thunderous storms, sinister forces awake a
thirst for power in Macbeth and his wife.
The play begins with the brief appearance of a trio of witches:
When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
…
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air…
and then moves to a military camp, where the Scottish King Duncan hears the news
that his generals, Macbeth and Banquo, have defeated two separate invading armies—
one from Ireland, led by the rebel Macdonwald, and one from Norway. Following their
battle with these enemy forces, Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches as they
cross a moor (open, uncultivated land). The witches speak in riddles, and prophesy that
Macbeth will be made thane (a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King
of Scotland. They also prophesy that Banquo will beget a line of Scottish kings, although
Banquo himself will never be king. The witches vanish, and Macbeth and Banquo treat
their prophecies skeptically until some of King Duncan’s men come to thank the two
generals for their victories in battle and to tell Macbeth that he has indeed been named
thane of Cawdor. (The previous thane betrayed Scotland by fighting for the Norwegians
and Duncan has condemned him to death.) Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility that
the remainder of the witches’ prophecy -that he will be crowned king- might be true, but
he is uncertain what to expect.
He visits with King Duncan, who tells Macbeth of his plans to name Malcolm (Duncan’s
son) his heir; Macbeth pretends to be supportive of this appointment, but notes to
himself that now Malcolm stands between him and the throne. They (Macbeth and
Duncan) plan to dine together at Macbeth’s castle, that night, and Macbeth writes ahead
to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her all that has happened.
Lady Macbeth reads her husband’s letter, and shares none of her husband’s uncertainty
about the witches’ prophecy. She fiercely desires the kingship for him, so much so that
she wants him to murder Duncan in order to obtain it. While she knows Macbeth is
ambitious, she fears he is “too full of th’ milk of human kindness” to
complete the deed, and in a famous speech, she begs,
… you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty.
In other words, she wants to shed the stereotypical feminine weakness, and be strong
enough to do the necessary, violent deeds to achieve greatness and power.
At Inverness, after King Duncan has dined, Macbeth considers killing the king in order to
achieve the witches’ prophecy, but is hesitant, conflicted, wavering. Lady Macbeth,
however, is committed: she overrides all of her husband’s objections and persuades him
to kill the king that very night. Her plan is to get Duncan’s two chamberlains (household
officers) drunk so they will black out, and then the next morning they will blame the
murder on the officers, who will be defenseless, since they will remember nothing.
On his way to murder the king, Macbeth’s fears and doubts interrupt his resolve, and he
hallucinates, thinking he sees a bloody knife:
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.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
He steels himself, and goes off to do the killing.
Meanwhile, it’s stormy, and Lady Macbeth waits for her husband, talking [to herself]
about how she would have killed the king herself because she’s so bold and tough, but
couldn’t because he looked too much like her father.
Macbeth returns, his hands all bloody from the deed, and tells her how, before he did it,
the chamberlains were praying, and he tried to pray with them, but the “Amen” stuck in
his throat, and that upon killing the king (Duncan), he heard a voice cry out “Sleep no
more, / Macbeth does murder sleep”.
Lady Macbeth gets all angry when she realizes that her husband didn’t leave the murder
weapon with the chamberlains, but Macbeth refuses to go back to the bloody scene, so
she brings it there to INCRIMINATE them, and then helps clean off the blood.
When Duncan’s death is discovered the next morning, it’s all very upsetting - Macbeth
and Lady Macbeth pretending to be outraged (he kills the chamberlains, pretending it’s
out of rage; she faints), and then Macbeth assumes the kingship. Duncan’s sons
(Malcolm and Donalbain) are suspicious of the whole thing, so they flee to England and
Ireland, fearing that whoever killed Duncan will kill them as well.
Fearful of the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs will seize the throne, Macbeth hires
a group of murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. Even though he makes sure
these murderers are resolved enough to commit the crime, he himself seems still
conflicted: “O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife” – either because he
feels bad about killing the king, or because he feels like there is unfinished business,
what with Duncan’s sons escaped, and Banquo’s sons as part of the witches’ prophecy.
The murderers ambush Banquo and Fleance on their way to a royal feast, but they fail to
kill Fleance, who escapes into the night. The murderer tells Macbeth this news at the
feast, and Macbeth becomes furious: as long as Banquo’s son is alive, the prophecy still
threatens him, his power is insecure: “the worm that’s fled / Hath nature
that in time will venom breed”.
At the feast that night, Banquo’s ghost is sitting in Macbeth’s seat, which is a little
alarming, especially since no one else can see it, and it makes Macbeth kind of nutty (he
starts muttering about blood), and his guests rather uncomfortable.
Because he senses things getting a little out of hand, Macbeth plans to visit the witches
in their cavern to get a grip on the situation, but the witches meet prior to this, and decide
to essentially confuse him. Before he arrives (during yet another storm), they are being
very witchy around a cauldron, making a stew of bizarre ingredients:
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog…
and when they sense his arrival, they famously chant “By the pricking of my
thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes” (Something Wicked This Way
Comes is also an awesome book by Ray Bradbury). They show him a sequence of
demons and spirits (a floating head, a bloody child, a procession of kings) who present
him with more prophecies: 1. he must beware of Macduff, a Scottish nobleman who
opposed Macbeth’s accession to the throne; 2. he is incapable of being harmed by any
man borne of woman; and 3. he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane
Castle. Macbeth is relieved, because he knows that all men are borne of women and
that forests cannot move. When he learns that Macduff has fled to England to join
Malcolm, Macbeth orders that Macduff’s castle be seized and, most cruelly, that Lady
Macduff and her children be murdered… which should take care of the “Beware
Macduff” part of the prophesy.
When news of his family’s execution reaches Macduff in England, he is stricken with
grief and vows revenge. Prince Malcolm, Duncan’s son, has succeeded in raising an
army in England, and Macduff joins him as he rides to Scotland to challenge Macbeth’s
forces. The invasion has the support of the Scottish nobles, who are appalled and
frightened by Macbeth’s tyrannical and murderous behavior. Basically there is a lot of
war talk and strategizing.
Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, becomes plagued with fits of sleepwalking and hallucinating
bloodstains on her hands: “Out, damned spot; out I say… Yet who would
have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” She’s
going crazy.
While Macbeth boasts about not being able to be killed by any man borne of woman, the
English army, led by Malcolm, meets in Birnam Wood, and decides to each take a bough
to disguise themselves in order to sneak attack the castle.
Before Macbeth’s opponents arrive, Macbeth receives news that Lady Macbeth has
killed herself, causing him to sink into a deep and pessimistic despair, stating that life is
a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
(The Sound and the Fury is also an amazing book by William Faulkner.) Nevertheless,
he awaits the English and fortifies the castle (Dunsinane), into which he has basically
withdrawn in order to stay safe, based on the witches’ prophecies (Birnam Wood not
moving, and all men being borne of women). He is struck numb with fear, however,
when he learns that the English army is advancing on Dunsinane shielded with boughs
cut from Birnam Wood. Birnam Wood is indeed coming to Dunsinane, fulfilling half of the
witches’ prophecy.
The battle is violent, and the English forces gradually overwhelm his army and castle. In
the fight, Macbeth encounters the vengeful Macduff, who declares that he was not “of
woman borne” but was instead “from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripped”
(what we now call birth by cesarean section). Though he realizes that he is doomed,
Macbeth continues to fight until Macduff kills and beheads him. Malcolm, now the King
of Scotland, declares his benevolent intentions for the country and invites all to see him
crowned at Scone.
So it all ends up good. Except for the people who died.