1. Introduction to Macbeth
Characters, Themes, Imagery,
and Types of Verse Used
Synopsis
and
Literary Devices that will be seen in the text.

2. Macbeth
He is a nobleman who murders Duncan, the King, in order to seize his throne.
Once he becomes King, he quickly becomes a tyrant and is killed.
The play charts the progression of evil as it overtakes his character.
Lady Macbeth
In the beginning she is the ambitious, cold-hearted character who urges Macbeth to follow his ambitions through murder.
However, she succumbs to feelings of guilt and regret.

3. The Witches
These supernatural figures offer deceptive predictions that serve to ignite Macbeth’s evil intentions.
Banquo
He is a nobleman, who also receives a favorable prediction from the witches, but refuses to take action to see that destiny fulfilled.
Later killed by assassins hired by Macbeth.

4. Fleance
He is Banquo’s young son who flees when Banquo is murdered and because he lives, Macbeth fears that Banquo’s line will fulfill the witches’ prediction by becoming kings.
King Duncan
Duncan is trusting and naïve. He never suspects that Macbeth and his wife are plotting his death.
He misreads both of them, just as he had misinterpreted the treacherous Thane of Cawdor (who was arrested and executed before the title is given to Macbeth).

5. Malcolm
Duncan’s son and heir, Malcolm is everything a king should be: virtuous, religious, innocent/uncorrupted, modest, and loyal.
Macduff
An honorable lord, Macduff opposes Macbeth and supports Malcolm as the new king, but only after determining that the prince is worthy.

6. Key Themes: 1. Fate versus Free Will
Does Macbeth have any control over his fate? Do the witches represent a destiny that can’t be avoided, or do they simply provide an opportunity for Macbeth to reveal his character and create his own fate?
2. The Nature of Evil:
Is evil a supernatural force that infects people? Or is it part of human nature? What happens to Macbeth once he commits himself to evil actions? What happens to the world around him?

7. 3. Appearance versus Reality:
How can one tell good from evil? Friends from enemies? Why does Duncan think that Macbeth and his wife are trustworthy when they are plotting his overthrow?
4. The Effect of Guilt on the Human Mind:
Can people take actions they know are wrong and remain unaffected? How are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth changed by their actions? Do they suffer psychologically even when they are not caught?

8. 5. The Nature of Kingship
What determines who is a rightful king? Can someone like Macbeth simply seize power? Or does a leader need to win the loyalty of the subjects? Must a king be virtuous, like Malcolm? Or simply powerful, like Macbeth?

9. KEY IMAGERY
Blood – it is seen throughout the play as the bodies continue to pile up. It also stains Lady Macbeth’s hands as she is overcome by guilt.
Ex. “It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood”
Darkness, Night, and Weather – In much of Shakespearean tragedy’s, darkness and weather sets the tone of what’s to come.
Ex. “And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp”
Hell – Horrid deeds, such as murder, is associated with hell as those who commit such a crime are seen as pure evil, like the devil.
Ex. “Not in the legions/ Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn’d/ In evils to top Macbeth”
Sorcery and Supernatural Forces - The witches, the apparitions, and Banquo’s ghost are all associated with the supernatural. They are forces or creatures that can not be explained.

10. FOR BETTER OR FOR VERSE Blank Verse:
Most of Macbeth is written in BLANK VERSE and it is an unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Each line contains five “feet,” or units made up of two syllables. The first syllable is unstressed; the second is stressed. This kind of foot is called an “iamb.”
Read aloud, iambic pentameter has this rhythm:
buh-BAH buh-BAH buh-BAH buh-BAH buh-BAH
“How do you do?”

11. In Shakespeare’s plays, blank verse sounds a lot like normal speech, only slightly more formal, rhythmic, and musical.
These lines of Macbeth are written in perfect iambic pentameter:
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
(Act 1, scene 7) = five feet in each line.
As you’re reading, look for moments in the verse where this tension seems to stand out, and consider how this use of poetic meter helps to support what is happening in the play.
-This is generally when an intense situation is occurring or Shakespeare wants you to pay attention.

12. BAH-buh BAH-buh BAH-buh BAH-buh
Trochaic Tetrameter:
The witches in Macbeth speak in trochaic tetrameter. Instead of iambs (unstressed-stressed), the syllables or feet in this poetic form are trochees (stressed-unstressed).
Tetrameter refers to the fact that there are four feet per line. A line of trochaic tetrameter has this rhythm:
BAH-buh BAH-buh BAH-buh BAH-buh
This meter gives the witches’ chants their hypnotic rhythm:
When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
(Act 1, scene 1)
The last unstressed syllable isn’t there, so you’re forced to pause at the end of the line. Due to the missing syllable, it’s hard to read these lines and make them sound like a normal conversation.

13. Synopsis
The play begins with the brief appearance of a trio of witches 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.
Following their battle, with these enemy forces, Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches as they cross a moor (grassed hill/ heath).
The witches prophesy that Macbeth will be made thane (a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland. They also prophesize that Macbeth’s companion, Banquo, will beget a line of Scottish kings, although Banquo will never be king himself.

14. 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.
Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husband’s uncertainty. She desires the kingship for him and wants him to murder Duncan in order to obtain it. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she overrides all of her husband’s objections and persuades him to kill the king that very night.

15. He and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncan’s two chamberlains drunk so they will black out; the next morning they will blame the murder on the chamberlains, who will be defenseless, as they will remember nothing.
While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and a number of supernatural omens, including a vision of a bloody dagger. When Duncan’s death is discovered the next morning, Macbeth kills the chamberlains—ostensibly out of rage at their crime—and easily assumes the kingship.
Duncan’s sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to England and Ireland, because they fear that they will be killed.
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.

16. They ambush Banquo on his way to a royal feast, but they fail to kill Fleance, who escapes into the night. Macbeth becomes furious: as long as Fleance is alive, he fears that his power remains insecure. At the feast that night, Banquo’s ghost visits Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth tries to neutralize the damage, but Macbeth’s sovereignty incites increasing resistance from his nobles and subjects. They do not like the way he rules.
Frightened, Macbeth goes to visit the witches in their cavern. There, they show him a sequence of demons and spirits who present him with further prophecies: he must beware of Macduff, a Scottish nobleman who opposed Macbeth’s accession to the throne; he is incapable of being harmed by any man born of woman; and he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle.

17. Macbeth is relieved and feels secure, because he knows that all men are born 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 to be seized and, most cruelly, that Lady Macduff and her children be murdered.
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 to challenge Macbeth’s forces. The invasion has the support of the Scottish nobles, who are appalled and frightened by Macbeth’s murderous behavior.

18. Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, becomes plagued with fits of sleepwalking in which she believes bloodstains to be on her hands. This guilt leads to her suicide, causing Macbeth to sink into a deep and pessimistic despair.
Macbeth 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.
When his forces are overwhelmed, he battles with Macduff and is beheaded.
Malcolm takes the thrown, but we are left wondering how Banquo’s line will become Scottish Kings.

19. Literacy Devices in the Text
Terms to Review:
Simile
Metaphor
Personification (animal, object, or idea)
Alliteration
Symbol

20. Potentially New Literary Devices to Review:
An Aside - words spoken by an actor to the people watching a play, that the other characters in the play do not hear.
A Soliloquy – an utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to him/herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present. This is often used to reveal a character’s inner most thoughts.
Comic Relief – an amusing scene, incident, or speech introduced into a serious or tragic section of a play to provide temporary relief from the tension present or to intensify the dramatic action.

21. Pathetic Fallacy - is a literary device wherein the author attributes human emotions and traits to nature or inanimate objects (in nature – hillside) .
Oxymoron - is a figure of speech that juxtaposes elements that appear to be contradictory. (Ex. “Great Depression,” “Jumbo Shrimp”)
Characterization – the description of a character in a literary work that is made to feel in some way as a real person.
*Dramatic Irony – occurs when the audience knows something that some of the characters do not.