Macbeth Notes – Act V
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Teacher Notes
Scene i
Summary – At Macbeth's castle an attendant for Lady Macbeth seeks help from a doctor for her mistresses' affliction: sleepwalking. Lady Macbeth
enters with a candle and appears to be washing her hands. Although asleep, she speaks and reveals, indirectly, all of the couple's crimes and their
efforts to hide their guilt. The doctor warns about the possibility of her suicide.
[Lines 1-83] The last time we saw Lady Macbeth she was still trying to control her husband and keep him on task,
although she had shared with us that, in her despair, she actually envied those who had been killed. In this scene all
the powerful feelings and fears she had repressed earlier come spilling out in her sleepwalking and unconscious
speech. What is the equivalent for Macbeth of this unconscious revelation in sleep?
Here we find Shakespeare revealing some complex truths about the nature of psychological repression which would not
be formally described until Freud 300 years in the future. Part of Shakespeare's genius was his ability to recreate
aspects of the human psyche long before we had the concepts or terminology to name them. We can see why
actresses love to play this role, especially this scene. They can really let loose and play for the broad dramatic effect.
Notice how Shakespeare sets up the scene. The gentlewoman has observed this strange behavior for some time and
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has invited the doctor to watch too, in part to confirm what Lady Macbeth does in her sleep. Those guilty secrets are
beginning to become public. What makes the scene work for us is that we know the context in which the events or
speeches that Lady Macbeth alludes to took place originally, and we can see the doctor and gentlewoman guessing at
their significance. In a sense all the guilty feelings and fears that Macbeth experienced had come out in his
hallucinations, such as the bloody dagger, the voices that murdered sleep or Banquo's ghost; Lady Macbeth can only
reveal them in her disjointed memories during sleep.
When she first comes in at line 23 we notice two important clues before she opens her mouth: she has a light with her
at all times. For all her macho posturing back during Duncan's murder, she's afraid of the dark.
Then she goes through the motions of washing her hands, sometimes for a quarter of an hour says the gentlewoman.
In fact the first thing she says is, "Yet here's a spot" [line 34]. Now we know the significance of that gesture -- her
failure to wash away all the blood. The witnesses can only guess at it. At line 38 she has her first long speech:
Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One: two: why then 'tis time to do it. Hell is
murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier and afeard? What need we fear who
knows it, when none can call our power to accompt? Yet who would have
thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
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Lady Macbeth does not speak in graceful flowing lines of blank verse, like her husband in similar situations. Her prose
is choppy as she jumps from one image or idea to another. Look at how many different emotional responses are found
in this one speech. We understand the significance of the spot of blood that won't come out, the guilt she cannot
entirely repress. Then we jump to her part in the original murder plot, ringing the bell when it was time for her
husband to do the deed. Next she evokes that spirit of the night; in the dark even hell is not illuminated. Next, she
jumps to her favor persona, the nagging wife, giving her husband a bad time for having the same fears she obviously
experienced herself. Then the political reality of their situation: no one can accuse them of any of their crimes
because there is no power in Scotland that can hold them accountable. Finally the revelation of how difficult it was
for her to go back upstairs to Duncan's body to leave the knives and rub the grooms with blood. She has had
nightmares about how much blood she witnessed.
The same mixture of emotions is found in the next speech at line 45: "The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?
What, will these hands ne'er be clean? No more of that, my lord, no more of that! You mar all with this starting."
Lady Macbeth probably had no foreknowledge of the attack on Macduff's castle, but she feels the terrible guilt, a guilt
she associates with still trying to get rid of Duncan's blood. Then it's time to beat up Macbeth for "starting" as if she
were immune from the same fears. When confronted with the sight of Duncan's blood on his hands, Macbeth had
evoked the idea of great Neptune's ocean being unable to wash it away. Lady Macbeth responds to the same
experience with a sense of smell: "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" [line 53]. At line 65 she
chides Macbeth once again: "Wash your hands; put on your nightgown; look not so pale! I tell you again, Banquo's
buried. He cannot come out on his grave."
At line 69 she has her final speech before she leaves the stage. This is the last time we see Lady Macbeth in the play.
It is appropriate that we leave her as she cries out to her husband about going to bed, a reminder of how their
relationship has profoundly changed: "To bed, to bed! There's knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give
me your hand! What's done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed!" Her vivid memory of the night of Duncan's
murder blends into her sorrow at the estrangement from her husband who no longer needs her psychologically or,
apparently, sexually. It is significant that the doctor tells the gentlewoman to watch her closely and, at line 80, to
"Remove from her the means of all annoyance," i.e. any devices that she might use to kill herself. And that will be how
she dies, by suicide.
Scene ii
Summary – A group of Scottish lords are marching to meet Malcolm and General Siward near Birnam Woods. They describe Macbeth's frantic efforts to
prepare, as his guilty conscience weighs on him.
The Scottish thanes flock to meet Malcolm and the English army at Birnam Wood. One of them, Caithness, describes
Macbeth's reaction to the invasion at line 12:
Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies. [the hill on which Macbeth's castle stood]
Some say he's mad; others that lesser hate him,
Do call it valiant fury; but, for certain,
He cannot buckle his distempered cause
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Within the belt of rule.
In a subtle way Shakespeare throughout this final act will reveal a real ambivalence about Macbeth's actions. Yes, he
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is a murdering monster, but he is also the man of courage that we saw back at the beginning of the play. Here we get
that image of Macbeth wearing clothes that don't fit properly, in this case the belt that's too small for his body swollen
by the poison or distemper of his evil. No one fights on his side for love, only fear, at line 19. We get a similar
clothing image at line 20 when another thane, Angus, describes Macbeth's growing sense of discomfort: "Now does he
feel his title/ Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe/ Upon a dwarfish thief." I think this is a particularly
appropriate image to describe how Macbeth has never really been comfortable in wielding power.
Scene iii
Summary – Macbeth receives report of an army of ten thousand approaching his castle. He is confident that he can survive but is bothered that so many
of his subjects are flocking to join the invaders. He tells us how profoundly disillusioned he is. The doctor tells him of Lady Macbeth's mental affliction
and privately wishes he could get away from Macbeth.
In the preceding scene Macbeth's reaction to Malcolm's return is characterized as either madness or "valiant fury."
Review this scene and decide which diagnosis fits in your opinion.
The coming battle certainly has energized Macbeth. Throughout the scene he is shouting orders and hurling verbal
defiance. With the servants and the doctor he is sharp and sarcastic. But when he's by himself he reveals the depth of
his despair. Paradoxically the more spiritually empty he feels, the more he grasps at the promise of his
invulnerability.
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In the opening 10 lines he is angry that his thanes are deserting him, but at the same time he revels in the fact that
Malcolm, who was certainly born of woman, can do nothing to him. At line 7 he shouts, "Then fly, false thanes,/ And
mingle with the English epicures." "Epicures" here is an insult, calling the English "sissies." At line 10 he vows he will
never sag with fear. When a terrified young soldier comes in to report the approach of 10,000 English soldiers,
Macbeth mocks him for the very fear that he had instilled in the soldier, ordering him to prick his cheeks to get rid of
his complexion paled by fear. When Seyton, his right hand man throughout this final act, comes in and confirms the
report, Macbeth starts shouting orders and demands his armor although it is too early to put it on.
We can see him assuming that heroic role of the man of action, the soldier, which had led him to great success earlier
in his life. The doctor comes in with the report that his wife suffers from a spiritual affliction, what he calls "thickcoming fancies" at line 38, rather than any physical problem. Macbeth challenges the doctor at line 40.
Whose symptoms are these? Lady Macbeth's or her husband's? He is certainly knowledgeable about "thick-coming
fancies," isn't he? So when the doctor explains that no simple medication can cure these kinds of psychological and
spiritual problems, Macbeth angrily cries, "Throw physic [medicine] to the dogs" at line 47. He now asks the doctor,
sarcastically, to use his medical knowledge to get rid of the English enemy: "cast the water of my land," pee in the
cup, and prescribe the purgative drug that will expel the invaders. Macbeth, unwilling to wait for all his armor to be
put on him, rushes out shouting defiance and boasting that he will never be defeated until "Birnam Wood come to
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Dunsinane" [line 60]. Alone, the doctor tells us that if he could get away from Dunsinane, no amount of promised
profit could get him to return.
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Despite this brave front of "valiant fury," Macbeth in reality is profoundly sad. He may put on a brave show for others,
but we see him as having neither hope nor joy. Alone at line 20 he tells us,
This push
[coming conflict]
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.
I have lived long enough. My way of life
Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf,
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
Macbeth is in the autumn of his years, both chronologically and spiritually. He has lost the promise of growth and
regeneration. He correctly assesses how the people he commands feel about him, like the young soldier he just
savaged. All the things he thought being king would bring him, the honor and respect, have been denied to him
forever. If he is so filled with despair, why should he even try to resist Malcolm's attack?
Scene iv
Summary – Macbeth receives report of an army of ten thousand approaching his castle. He is confident that he can survive but is bothered that so many
of his subjects are flocking to join the invaders. He tells us how profoundly disillusioned he is. The doctor tells him of Lady Macbeth's mental affliction
and privately wishes he could get away from Macbeth.
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Malcolm continues to approach through Birnam Forest and issues a fateful order to his men to cut down tree branches
and use them as a kind of movable camouflage to mask the size of the army as it approaches Macbeth's castle.
Scene v
Summary – Macbeth receives report of an army of ten thousand approaching his castle. He is confident that he can survive but is bothered that so many
of his subjects are flocking to join the invaders. He tells us how profoundly disillusioned he is. The doctor tells him of Lady Macbeth's mental affliction
and privately wishes he could get away from Macbeth.
Back at the castle we get Macbeth, frantic with anger and desperate as his enemies close in on him, learning about the
death of his wife. The most famous speech in the whole play is Macbeth's after he learns of her death at line 17.
What makes it so famous? What significant action follows that speech? What connection is there between the speech
and the action?
As the scene opens Macbeth is his old confident self, hurling defiance and giving orders. However, there is a subtle
change in the situation. Back in Act V, scene 3 he was sending troops out through the countryside to let the populace
know he was still in charge. Now he hangs his banners on the battlements and says at line 2, "Our castle's strength/
Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie/ Till famine and the ague eat them up." Macbeth has lost control of the
country and has had to retreat into his castle. He explains this reversal of fortune by saying that if Malcolm's army had
not been reinforced by those who have deserted Macbeth's cause, he would have met the invaders in open battle.
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At line 7 there is a cry from some women off stage, and Macbeth sends Seyton to see what it was. While he waits
Macbeth marvels at line 9 at how much he has changed in his reaction to fear. We remember Macbeth's reaction from
the very beginning. The first time we saw his reaction to the witches' greetings his pace had raced and he had felt a
terror just at the suggestion of an imaginary murder. The night of Duncan's murder a "night-shriek" had set off
Macbeth's full-scale hallucinatory attack of a voice pronouncing his guilt. Banquo's ghost had unnerved him, and after
that experience he had declared that he needed more experience in evil to conquer his fear. Apparently it has
worked, although one has the sense that this change represents a loss in Macbeth's mind.
Seyton returns and rather brutally announces at line 16, "The Queen, my lord, is dead." Even Andy Sipowitz on NYPD
Blue, who has numerous complaints in his file for alleged brutality, has more sensitivity than this when he has to tell
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someone his wife is dead. Seyton's brusque statement reflects the general state of civility in Scotland under Macbeth's
reign.
The speech that begins at line 17 is justifiably famous. It reveals the depth of Macbeth's despair, a view of a world
where there is neither justice nor hope. There is no particular meaning in anything we do or refrain from doing. The
speech opens with the lines, "She should have died hereafter;/ There would have been a time for such a word." The
notes in the Signet edition interpret this to mean, "It was inevitable that she would die." Another, more cynical,
interpretation is that this is an inconvenient time; she should have waited before dying. The "word" here is that of
death.
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow/ Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,/ To the last syllable of recorded
time." When would have been a more convenient time for her death? How about "tomorrow"? But one "tomorrow"
evokes another and then another, and Macbeth realizes that time has lost significance for him. It no longer moves as
it had at the beginning of the play when he was engaged in grand schemes and courageous actions; now it "creeps"
from day to day without majesty or meaning, and it will continue down to the "last syllable," the final word of
recorded time. The passage of human events has become for Macbeth an experience of words only, like the word of
his wife's death. There is also an echo here of Act I, scene 5 back when Macbeth returned home and told his wife at
line 61 that Duncan was arriving at their castle. She asked when he proposed to leave, and Macbeth said, "Tomorrow."
His wife declared, "O, never shall sun that morrow see." Now the "tomorrows" have arrived with a vengeance in their
petty pace.
How did we get here? "And all our yesterdays have lighted fools/ The way to dusty death." We have moved from
"yesterday" to "tomorrow," like fools without any awareness of what was happening, that we were just moving to the
same point Lady Macbeth has already reached. It's not just "death" but "dusty death," with its echo of the Biblical
"ashes to ashes and dust to dust."
If time leads simply to death, what is the purpose of life? Macbeth explores life's meaning at line 23.
When Macbeth was first performed at court it was done inside using the illumination of candles or torches. These
would have cast very strong shadows of the actors on the floors and walls. Life in its shortness has often been
compared to a candle which burns itself out. In this passage Macbeth, played by an actor looking at a literal candle,
characterizes life as a piece of theater, something performed by a "poor player," someone who goes through the
motions, probably overacting as he "struts" and "frets" his allotted stage time and then disappears from the play.
Shakespeare throughout his career was fascinated by the idea of theater as a metaphor for life. Here we have a
character looking at the shadow he casts on stage, seeing his life in terms of a piece of make believe without meaning
or substance like a shadow.
Shakespeare could have ended his comparison here with the actor commenting on his acting. But he has Macbeth give
the comparison one more twist. What was the play all about? What story did it tell? What was its moral? "It is a tale/
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing." In every English village the mentally defective person,
called "the village idiot," tried to survive by begging or extorting money from passers-by. Often their communications
were just mad ramblings or shouted incoherence. Macbeth has looked into the cosmic abyss to perceive what meaning
life might have, and he finds it has none. The play the actor was performing is just noise; there is neither truth nor
justice, and nothing has any meaning -- it "signifies nothing." Yet this is what Macbeth wanted to be master of, what
he sacrificed his soul for.
As powerful as the speech is, it is only part of what is happening here. People have been so impressed by the poetry
of Macbeth's language that they overlook the significance of its context. At line 30 a messenger comes in and tells
Macbeth that Birnam Wood is rapidly approaching the castle. Macbeth's view of the world in which there is no justice,
truth or meaning turns out not to be true. There is a force for justice in the world and it is on its way. At line 43 he
begins "To doubt the equivocation of the fiend/ That lies like truth." Belatedly he realizes that he has been lied to by
our old friend "equivocation." At line 49 he expresses his despair again in rhymed couplets: "I 'gin to be aweary of the
sun,/ And wish the estate of the world were now undone." Remember back in Act IV, scene 1 when Macbeth called
forth the specter of universal destruction, the churches and castles blown down in the storm, to articulate what he
was willing to sacrifice for the witches' assurance. Now he wishes for the same destruction, the "estate of the world"
being undone to stop what is happening. In other tragedies the tragic heroes gauge the state of the universe by what is
happening to them individually; Macbeth does the same thing here. And once again, in a time of uncertainty, the old
soldier reasserts himself, and Macbeth ends the scene defiantly crying, "Blow winds! Come wrack! [destruction in
battle]/ At least we'll die with harness on our back" [lines 51 -- 52].
Scene vi
Summary – Malcolm gives the honor of leading the attack against the castle to Siward and his son.
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Malcolm's forces arrive at the castle, and he orders his men to drop the tree camouflage. He and Macduff lead one
part of the army, and the English general, Old Siward, is in charge of the other part. They go into battle determined
to win.
Scene vii
Summary – Although the people in the castle are quickly surrendering, Macbeth is determined to resist. He meets Siward's son and kills him. Macduff
searches for Macbeth in the battle. Malcolm enters and announces that the castle has capitulated.
In the opening lines Macbeth compares himself to a bear in a bear baiting contest, tied to a stake and attacked on all
sides by dogs. Yet, he continues to trust to his final assurance from the witches that he is vulnerable only to someone
not born of a woman. Young Siward enters and enthusiastically fights Macbeth because of his reputation; however, he
is in over his head and pays with his life. Macbeth brutally taunts Young Siward as he dies at line 11, "Thou wast born
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of woman." As Macbeth exits, Macduff enters, desperately seeking Macbeth, says at line 15, "If thou be'st slain and
with no stroke of mine,/ My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still." Refusing to fight against the poor paid
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mercenaries, "kerns," who are fighting for Macbeth, Macduff exits, listening for the loudest clamor of battle, figuring
that is where Macbeth can be found. At the end of the scene old Siward and Malcolm marvel that the fight against
Macbeth's army is going so easily. Macbeth's soldiers are refusing to fight, or as Malcolm says at line 28, "We have met
with foes/ That strike beside us," deliberately missing with their swords.
Scene viii
Summary – Macbeth meets Macduff and refuses to fight him. Macduff says that they will capture Macbeth and put him on public display as a monster.
Macbeth refuses to accept that fate and he and Macduff go offstage fighting to the death. Siward learns his son has died an honorable death in battle.
Macduff returns with Macbeth's severed head. Malcolm proclaims peace and reconciliation.
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This scene really sets the tone for this play as a tragedy. To put it simply, if the play works, the good guys at the end
of this scene will cheer the death of Macbeth. The audience will, however, feel a sense of loss. Why should we have
this reaction? Because we have seen where Macbeth began and how he has chosen incorrectly throughout the play.
We know that his life might have ended differently if he had been wiser or stronger. However, he has retained that
courage which made him a great soldier. How does Macbeth redeem his character here at the end?
Now Macbeth is by himself, deserted by all his army. In the opening lines he compares his situation to that of
defeated Roman heroes: "Why should I play the Roman fool, and die/ On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the
gashes/ Do better upon them." The English were very impressed by the strict code of personal honor which led Roman
soldiers who were defeated to commit suicide rather than allow themselves to be captured. Perhaps the fascination
was because suicide was such an extreme sin for the English at that time; perhaps it was because the suicide option
emphasized a rigid code of personal honor. Now Macduff finally finds Macbeth, who does not wish to fight the
bereaved husband and father: "My soul is too much charged/ With blood of thine already" [lines 5 -- 6]. Macduff lets
his sword speak for him. They fight, and Macbeth taunts Macduff with his promised vulnerability. Macduff at line 13
burst the final bubble of Macbeth's misplaced faith: “Despair thy charm, / And let the angel that thou still hast served
/ Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb / Untimely ripped.”
The "angel" here referred to is Satan, the fallen angel, to whom Macbeth has dedicated his life. Macduff was
delivered by C-section when he was torn from his mother's womb, and therefore, technically not born of a woman.
Macbeth is undone by the news, and his first reaction is to once again condemn the witches. At line 19 he declares,
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
That palter with us in a double sense;
[equivocate]
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.
We can see why Macbeth refuses to fight. The witches have cheated him; he would have done things differently if he
had known what was really going to happen to him. However, too much has happened for Macbeth simply to walk
away.
Macduff offers an option at line 23:
Then yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze of the time:
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit,
"Here may you see the tyrant."
Perhaps Macduff is serious in his offer, but it is more likely that he proposes this way for Macbeth to save his life
because he knows how proud the soldier Macbeth was before he became the evil king. The idea of being gawked at
must have been terrible for someone like Macbeth. Macduff's use of the term "monster," in a sense "freak," must have
been calculated to arouse Macbeth's anger. The prospect of spending the rest of his life in a sideshow, as a curiosity,
is unacceptable. Macduff wants to goad him into a final fight.
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And so Macbeth hurls his final defiance at line 27, despite everything that had happened:
I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet will I try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damned be he who first cries "Hold, enough!"
These are Macbeth's last words. They remind us that at the beginning of the play he was a national hero who fought
against overwhelming odds. And he is going out in the same way. He knows he will lose the fight; supernatural forces
have guaranteed that Macduff will win. Yet Macbeth chooses to die bravely, fighting to the last, even though no one
else on stage acknowledges or appreciates what he is doing.
Rather than showing the final battle between Macbeth and Macduff, Shakespeare gives us a substitute action,
demonstrating Macbeth's courage by the parallel with young Siward's death. When old Siward learns that his son has
died in battle, he asks at line 46, "Had he his hurts before?" In other words did young Siward die giving battle (wounds
in front) or running away (wounds in back)?
Satisfied that his son had died bravely in battle, old Siward concludes, "They say he parted well and paid his score"
[line 52]. It's a simple epitaph, very similar to the former Thane of Cawdor, back in Act I, scene 4, who also died well.
Despite the fact that he was a traitor, Malcolm at line 7 says, "Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it." So it
is also with Macbeth. What a great loss was this man who might have been both great and good. At least he died well.
Macduff enters with Macbeth's head, hailing Malcolm the new king of Scotland. Malcolm has the last speech in the
play. (Whoever has the final speech in a Shakespearean tragedy is a key figure; he's the one we're supposed to see reestablishing order in the world of the play.) Malcolm has a couple of political acts to bring closure to the play. First,
he makes all his thanes earls. "Earl" was an English title, so this move helps establish the Scottish dependence upon
English governance, which in turn helps support King James' political agenda to push the idea of the united kingdom.
Malcolm promises to reward his friends and allies, saying at line 64, "What's more to do,/ Which would be planted
newly with the time…." That's the same image that his father had used back in Act I, scene 4 to describe his rewarding
of Macbeth and Banquo. Malcolm also promises to punish Macbeth's ministers who help keep the tyrant on the throne
and reveals the cause of Lady Macbeth's death as suicide. So the play ends with the glowing image of Scotland and
Malcolm grateful for the help of the selfless English friends, a picture that, of course, had no basis in historic reality.
After all, Macbeth is one of literature's great examples of historical fiction.