1. Ian Everbach, Margaret Mester, Ana Sheehan, Madison Starr
Macbeth, Act 5
Ian Everbach, Margaret Mester, Ana Sheehan, Madison Starr

2. Summary of Act 5
Still believing the witches' prophecy of his safety, Macbeth is unafraid upon hearing Malcolm's forces march on Dunsinane. Then, Lady Macbeth goes insane and commits suicide, leaving Macbeth nihilistic. Macbeth leaves his defenders to surrender themselves, killing young Siward yet becoming wary of fighting MacDuff. Macbeth loses confidence only when he learns MacDuff, by a technicality, could cause his downfall. After a fight, MacDuff decapitates Macbeth and brings the head to Malcolm, who honors his supporters and declares himself King.

3. Scene 1 Text disturbed sleep indication of disturbed state of mind
Doctor
I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive
no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?
Gentlewoman
Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen
her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon
her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it,
write upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again
return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.
A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once
the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of
watching! In this slumbery agitation, besides her
walking and other actual performances, what, at any
time, have you heard her say?
disturbed sleep indication of disturbed state of mind
sleep no longer heals
guilt
reminiscent of her reading of the first letter from Macbeth
Rehumanization

4. Scene 1 Text need for light indicates desire to be "good" again
Doctor
How came she by that light?
Gentlewoman
Why, it stood by her: she has light by her
continually; 'tis her command.
You see, her eyes are open.
Ay, but their sense is shut.
What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.
It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus
washing her hands: I have known her continue in
this a quarter of an hour.
LADY MACBETH
Yet here's a spot.
need for light indicates desire to be "good" again
afraid of the dark and what it might bring
washing of hands (O.C.D)

5. Scene 1 Text speaks of Duncan's murder
LADY MACBETH
Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why,
then, 'tis time to do't.--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
account?--Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him.
DOCTOR
Do you mark that?
The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?--
What, will these hands ne'er be clean?--No more o'
that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with
this starting.
Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.
GENTLEWOMAN
She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of
that: heaven knows what she has known.
speaks of Duncan's murder
first attempts to convince herself all is well while her subconscious knows otherwise
a higher power is aware of her guilt
"A little water clears us of the deed" (2.2.64)
speaks of murder of Lady Macduff

6. Scene 1 Text inability to absolve her guilt imagery of death
LADY MACBETH
Here's the smell of the blood still: all the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand. Oh, oh, oh!
DOCTOR
What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.
GENTLEWOMAN
I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the
dignity of the whole body.
Well, well, well,--
Pray God it be, sir.
This disease is beyond my practise: yet I have known
those which have walked in their sleep who have died
holily in their beds.
Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so
pale.--I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he
cannot come out on's grave.
Even so?
inability to absolve her guilt
imagery of death
it is possible to die "Holily"
attempt to convince herself all is well
disjointed ideas

7. Scene 1 Text orders herself to bed she must accept what she has done
LADY MACBETH
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!
Exit
DOCTOR
Will she go now to bed?
GENTLEWOMAN
Directly.
Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets:
More needs she the divine than the physician.
God, God forgive us all! Look after her;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night:
My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight.
I think, but dare not speak.
Good night, good doctor.
orders herself to bed
she must accept what she has done
disease imagery
suspicion of the Macbeths
desire to save her

8. Scene 2
A rebellious Scottish force marches toward Birnam Wood to join Malcolm and his English army.
Manhood:
"There is Siward's son / And many unrough youths that even now / Protest their first of manhood" ( ).
Dehumanization of Macbeth:
"Some say he's mad; others that lesser hate him / Do call it valiant fury. But for certain / He cannot buckle his distempered cause / Within a belt of rule... Now does he feel / His secret murders sticking on his hands... " ( ).
Just Monarchy:
"Those he commands move only in command, / Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title / Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe / Upon a dwarfish thief" ( ).

9. Scene 3
Upon hearing that Scottish and English forces are massed against him, Macbeth seeks assurance in the apparition's promise of safety for himself. Nevertheless, he is anxious about Lady Macbeth's condition and impatient with the doctor's inability to cure her.

10. Scene 3 Themes
Witches:
"I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm? / Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know / All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus: / "Fear not, Macbeth. No man that's born of woman / Shall e'er have power upon thee" ( ).
Just Monarchy:
"My way of life / Is fall'n into the sere, 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..." ( ).

11. Slide 3 Themes
Manhood:
"I'll fight till from my bones my flesh was reported. / Give me my armor" ( ).
Rehumanization of Lady Macbeth:
"...she is troubled with thick-coming fancies / That keep her from rest" ( ).
Dehumanization of Macbeth:
Throughout, Macbeth seems increasingly unstable:
"There is ten thousand--"
"Geese, villain?"
"Soldiers, sir." ( )

12. Scene 4
When the rebel Scottish forces join Malcolm's army, Malcolm orders each soldier to cut down and carry a bough from the wood so as to conceal their numbers from Macbeth.
Just Monarchy:
"We learn no other but a confident tyrant / Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure / Our setting down before 't" ( ).
"The time approaches / That will with due decision make us know / What we shall say we have and what we owe. / Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, But certain issue strokes must arbitrate..." ( ).

13. Scene 5 Summary/Analysis
Macbeth finds out Lady Macbeth has committed suicide
Dehumanization of Macbeth throughout the scene
Macbeth arrives at a very harsh conclusion about human existence
Enemy advances

14. Scene 5 Macbeth's short soliloquy Dehumanization of Macbeth
I have almost forgot the taste of fear;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.
Macbeth's short soliloquy
Dehumanization of Macbeth
Contrast between old self and new self
Diction: fears, horrors, direness, slaughterous
Imagery: night-shriek, fell of hair

15. Scene 5 Functions as a soliloquy Macbeth is not shaken by news
Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON
The queen, my lord, is dead.
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Functions as a soliloquy
Macbeth is not shaken by news
Says death is inevitable
Harsh, but realistic, outlook on life
Macbeth sees himself above the "lighted fools"
IRONY--referring to the "poor player"
SOUND & FURY

16. Scene 5 Militaristic tone
MACBETH
If thou speak'st false,
Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,
Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,
I care not if thou dost for me as much.
I pull in resolution, and begin
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend
That lies like truth: 'Fear not, till Birnam wood
Do come to Dunsinane:' and now a wood
Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!
If this which he avouches does appear,
There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.
I gin to be aweary of the sun,
And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.
Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!
At least we'll die with harness on our back.
Militaristic tone
the Witches' prophecy (misleading) is coming true
Macbeth is growing tired of living, wants to die proud

17. Scene 6 Malcolm and his troops arrive before Dunsinane Castle.
Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD, MACDUFF, and their Army, with boughs
MALCOLM
Now near enough: your leafy screens throw down. / And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle, / Shall, with my cousin, your right-noble son, / Lead our first battle: worthy Macduff and we / Shall take upon 's what else remains to do, / According to our order.
SIWARD
Fare you well. / Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, / Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight.
MACDUFF
Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath, / Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
They exit. Alarums continued.
Malcolm and his troops arrive before Dunsinane Castle.
Just Monarchy: Malcolm takes command, uses the royal 'we'
Manhood: Siward would rather die valiantly than be unable to fight

18. Scene 7 Summary
On the battlefield, Macbeth strikes down everyone around him. He slays Lord Siward's son. Meanwhile, Macduff searches for Macbeth.

19. Scene 7
MACBETH
They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,
But, bear-like, I must fight the course. What's he
That was not born of woman? Such a one
Am I to fear, or none.
Enter YOUNG SIWARD
YOUNG SIWARD
What is thy name?
...
My name's Macbeth.
The devil himself could not pronounce a title
More hateful to mine ear.
No, nor more fearful.
Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword
I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.
They fight and YOUNG SIWARD is slain
Thou wast born of woman
But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,
Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born.
Exit
Dehumanization of Macbeth: Macbeth ignores morality and slays all those around him, believing himself to be invincible
Witches: prophecy is referenced again - "laugh to scorn"
Macbeth says "They have tied me to a stake" - ironic because no one is making him fight; he has done this to himself
Manhood: Macbeth juxtaposed with Siward - Siward does not fear Macbeth because he is courageous, but Macbeth does not fear Siward only because he was prophesied to defeat him

20. Scene 7
Alarums. Enter MACDUFF
MACDUFF
That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!
If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
Are hired to bear their staves: either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword with an unbatter'd edge
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
By this great clatter, one of greatest note
Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune!
And more I beg not.
Exit. Alarums
Manhood: Macduff, unlike Macbeth, wants to kill only to avenge the deaths of his family
Monarchy: Macduff will only fight for a cause, while Macbeth fights out of personal emotion
Macbeth is continuously referred to as a tyrant

21. Scene 7 Malcolm and Siward appear and enter the castle
Enter MALCOLM and SIWARD
SIWARD
This way, my lord; the castle's gently render'd:
The tyrant's people on both sides do fight;
The noble thanes do bravely in the war;
The day almost itself professes yours,
And little is to do.
MALCOLM
We have met with foes
That strike beside us.
Enter, sir, the castle.
Exeunt. Alarums
Malcolm and Siward appear and enter the castle
"We have met with foes that strike beside us" - suggesting Macbeth's soldiers are fighting half-heartedly

22. Scene 8
Macbeth is reluctant to fight Macduff because Macbeth has already killed Macduff's whole family and believes he will also kill Macduff if they fight. When Macduff announces that he is not technically born of woman, then Macbeth becomes afraid. He reluctantly fights Macduff after Macduff threatens to display him as a public spectacle. Macduff kills Macbeth, cuts off his head, and brings it to Malcolm. Malcolm declares himself king, and gives titles to his loyal supporters.
Foreshadowing: Macbeth's head possibly hinted at by the Armed Head in Act 4?

23. Scene 8 text Macbeth vows to go down fighting
Enter MACBETH
MACBETH
Why should I play the Roman fool, and die
On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes
Do better upon them.
Enter MACDUFF
MACDUFF
Turn, hell-hound, turn!
Of all men else I have avoided thee:
But get thee back; my soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.
I have no words:
My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!
They fight
Thou losest labour:
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,
To one of woman born.
Macbeth vows to go down fighting
Macbeth sees Macduff, wants to spare him
Macduff says that words are useless, only wants to fight.
Macbeth says that Macduff's attacks are like trying to stab air. Macbeth reveals that he is invulnerable to those born of woman.

24. Scene 8 text Macduff reveals he was born via Caesarean section.
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.
MACBETH
Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow'd my better part of man!
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.
Then yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time:
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted on a pole, and underwrit,
'Here may you see the tyrant.'
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 I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'
Exeunt, fighting. Alarums. Macbeth is slain.
Macduff reveals he was born via Caesarean section.
Macbeth curses this information, saying that it robs him of courage. Macbeth, too, curses the witches and their ambiguous words. Macbeth wants to call truce with Macduff.
Macduff threatens to put Macbeth on public spectacle and humiliate him.
Macbeth decides to die fighting, is killed and decapitated by Macduff.

25. Scene 8
Manhood:
"Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, / For it hath cowed my better part of man!" ( ).
Macduff's vengeance, calls Macbeth 'coward.'
"I will not yield / To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet... And thou opposed, being of no woman born, / Yet I will try the last" ( ).
"...Damned be him that first cries 'Hold! Enough!' (5.8.39).
"Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt. / He only lived but till he was a man... But like a man he died" ( ).
Dehumanization of Macbeth:
Pitiable? Macbeth wants to spare MacDuff, fights only to preserve his own honor.
Yet never apologizes for his crimes, or shows great remorse. Aside from his honor, Macbeth seems to care about nothing anymore.

26. Scene 8
Just Monarchy:
"Behold where stands / Th' usurper's cursed head. The time is free... Our exiled friends... fled the snares of watchful tyrrany, / Producing forth cruel ministers / Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen" ( ).
"Hail, King of Scotland!" (5.8.70).
"That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, / We will perform in measure, time and place: / So thanks to all at once and to each one, / Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone" ( ).
Lingering questions: Uneasiness about Malcolm's reign, because Fleance is destined to take power.
Witches:
Their prophecies (woods reaching Dunsinane and born of woman) prove true because of semantics.
A self-fulfilling prophecy? If Macbeth had never heard, he would never have acted.

27. Work as a Whole...
Macbeth may be seen as a classic tragedy in which the tragic hero, plagued by a fatal flaw and prompted by fate, makes a decision which causes the hero's tragic downfall and triggering the ultimate catharsis.
Judgment:
How should we view Macbeth as a tragic hero?
Villain or victim?
Abominable or pitiable?
Elizabethan or Aristotelian?
Persuaded by witches or controlled by witches?
Capable of free will or subject to fate?
Does the Macbeths' conscience/acknowledgement of wrongdoing...
Make them more or less human?
Make their actions more or less despicable?