Macbeth Notes

• Themes: ambition, fate vs. free will, the deceptivity of appearances
• theme of ambition, supernatural
• Lady Macbeth wants to convince husband to do something to be king, but she knows he's too nice to murder
• She evokes deamons to fill her with the "illness" to give her ruthlessness needed to commit murder for crown
• Claims she would have done it, but he looked like her father sleeping
• Supposed to look like conspiracy, but once Macbeth kills king, he gets carried away and kills the groom too, which is who should have been the one to blame.
• Shortest/bloodiest tragedy
• brave Scottish general who receives a prophecy from a trio of sinister witches that one day he will become the king of Scotland
• Murders King Duncan; seizes the thrown for himself
• Macbeth & Lady Macbeth propelled into life of arrogance, madness, & death
• Written around 1606 - early reign of King James I who was James VI of Scotland (throne 1603)
• Not the most complex but one of the most powerful & emotionally intense
• Tumbles madly open & close

__________________________________________

• Opens with trio of witches then moves to military camp
• Scottish King Duncan hears Macbeth & Banquo defeat 2 separate invading armies
• One from Ireland
• One from Norway
• Witches forsee Macbeth will be made Thane (rank of Scottish Nobility)
• Eventually Scottish King
• Also foresee Banquo will beget a line of Scottish King; never be king himself though
• the witches vanish
• Sceptical until Macbeth is dead made Thane of Cawdor
• King Duncan & Macbeth plan to dive in Inverness (Macbeth's castle); Macbeth sends note to lady Macbeth about what happened so she knows what to expect
• Lady Macbeth desires him to kill King Duncan; wants crown for her husband
• Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to kill King Duncan
• Plan to get Duncan's chamberlains drunk then kill him; blane on the Chamberlains - they won't remember anything.
• Macbeth stabs King Duncan
• Macbeth kills Chamberlains next day out of madness for Duncan being killed
• Assumes Kingship
• Duncan's sons Malcolm & Donalbain flea to England/Ireland for fear they'll be killed too
• Macbeth has Banquo & sons killed because of the witches prophecy
• Fail to kill Banquo's son Fleance; escapes into the night
• Banquo's ghost visits Macbeth
• Seeing the ghost Macbeth raves fearfully
• Lady Macbeth tries to neutralize the situation
• Witches tell Macbeth to fear Macduff who opposes Macbeth's succession to the thrown
• Macbeth wants Macduff's castle seized and Lady Macduff & Children killed
• Macduff vows revenge (he's in England now)
• Prince Malcolm & Macduff gather army; backed by Scottish people who fear Macbeth's tyrannical & murderous behavior
• Lady Macbeth starts sleepwalking; bemoans what she believes bloodstains on her hands
• Macbeth hears wife kills herself; goes pessimistic/depression
• fight
• Macduff not born of woman but ripped from mother (now known as C-section)
• Macduff beheads Macbeth
• Malcolm now king of Scotland

_______________________________________

• Corrupting power of unchecked ambition
• Cruelty & Masculinity
• Kingship & Tyranny

_______________________________________

• Main Theme - The destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints
• relation between cruelty & masculinity
• Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood, wishes she were "unsexed," and does not contradict Macbeth when he says a woman like her should only give birth to boys
• Such acts show they both equate masculinity & aggression & whenever they discuss manhood violence follows. Their understanding of manhood allow political sides to descend into chaos.
• Thru the witches' encouragement of violence & Lady Macbeth's behavior, Macbeth traces roots of evil & chaos of women
• Malcolm & Macduff are the ideal masculine men - when their families are murdered, Macduff says he will have revenge, but "I must also feel it like a man." Malcolm needs Macduff's lesson on the sentient nature of the masculinity.
• when Malcolm is coronated it suggests that order will be restored
• In the wake of Macbeth's reign, unnatural occurrences happen; an owl kills a falcon and 2 trained horses eat one another. Bad weather throughout, esp the night king Duncan is murdered.

_______________________________________

• Macbeth: great war leader; great scholar - ambition
• Thane of Cawdor turned traitor
• fought & won war
• promoted - greeted immensely as he returned home & given thane of Cawdor's title
• Macbeth & Banquo greeted by 3 witches who call him by new title & shocked - unaware of new title & told he'll be king
• current king is alive & has 2 sons
• finds out he does become thane, then ambition takes over to assume throne
• Wants to be the best soldier; hero he can become
• witches planted seed of ambition in him to become king
• has ambition but no bitterness to carry it out
• have no real power, can't force him to do anything
• Lady Macbeth unrivaled for her strength, but has a weakness
• sees that Macbeth is too nice to do what is necessary; he has the ambition but his kindness, is in the way.
• however she's not ruthless enough, either - she has to call on demonic powers to give her strength to complete the task
• "unsex me here...."
• Macbeth has to do it because Duncan looks too much like Lady Macbeth's father - he over does it
• It was supposed to look like Duncan's sons did it, but Macbeth ends up killing the grooms too.

• Ghost of his father - supernatural
• rightful father/king killed & claudius takes over
• talks with ghost who tells him that he demands revenge
• people at the time were very supersitious and believes in ghosts and the like
• question was: can I trust an apparition and do as they ask, when it could go against their own best interest?
• ghosts says he's going to hell for his own misdeeds

Why shouldn't he kill Duncan?
Indecisiveness - Tragic flaw paralyzed
Act 3, Scene 1 "Native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."
Seems too meditative and loses his power to act.


Lady Macbeth is a very strong femal character

• She says she will make sure Macbeth gets what he was promised - King - and she does. She's the one who plots, schemes, makes the plan. She isn't ruthless enough to convince Macbeth to pull it off, so she calls the demonic powers
• Macbeth has ambition, but isn't ruthless enough to find the quickest, easiest way 

• Supernatural element with the witches
• Ambition that drives both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth - drives him to kill Duncan, Banquo, Macduff's son
• Guilt - both feel it and leads to hallucinations & Lady Macbeth's suicide
• Revenge - Macduff & Malcolm
• Prophecy - is the inciting event of the play leads Macbeth to be ruthless with his ambition
• whether true prophecy or self-fulling prophecy plays a big role
• Blood is a symbol in the play, tied to guilt. Lady Macbeth in the final act of the play tries relentlessly to scrub the invisible blood stains from her hands - Macbeth makes a similar comment about the blood on his hands after he killed Duncan.
• Gender plays a big role in the play as well. Lady Macbeth is able to talk Macbeth into following through with killing King Duncan by questioning his manhood. She also wishes that she could be "ursexed" so that she could do it herself. Macbeth also goads the murderers into killing Banquo by questioning their manhood. Macbeth & Lady Macbeth equate masculinity & manhood with naked aggression and violence. However the 3 weird sisters are the most powerful characters in the play, yet they have beards - a manly attribute.