Duncan arrives at the castle and comments on what a lovely place it is, he is then greeted sweetly by Lady Macbeth. Although Lady Macbeth is set on going through with the deed Macbeth starts to have second thoughts. He is worried what would happen if something went wrong ‘If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly.’ He is worried what the consequences would be if he was found out and he is also filled with guilt because Duncan is his friend and a good King. He tells Lady Macbeth he will not do it and wants nothing more to do with the plan but she is so determined to get what she desires. She asks ‘Was thou drunk wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?’ She is saying he’s acting as if he was drunk when he agreed to do this awful deed and since has slept and woken with a hangover and is not sure if he wants to go through with it. Shakespeare describes sleep as being a natural thing everyone has to do, she is sarcastically saying he is deprived of sleep and can’t think straight from the lack of sleep. She talks him round and he agrees to go through with it, Lady Macbeth drugs the Kings guardsmen’s drinks so they can not stop him and then they shall frame them.
Act two scene one is when Macbeth starts to turn; he is still hesitant to go through with the deed but has every intention of going through with it. Macbeth is a very talented soldier and has killed many times before. I think he is only hesitant about killing Duncan because he is the King. Macbeth runs into Banquo and his son Fleance. Banquo speaks of the witches and points out one of their predictions have come true ‘I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters, to you they have shown some truth.’ Macbeth pretends he does not think of them and promises Banquo they will discuss them later. Banquo and Fleance exit and Macbeth turns to see a dagger floating before his eyes. ‘Is this a dagger I see before me,’ he tries to clutch the dagger but his hand can not touch it ‘I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.’ He knows it is a trick of the mind ‘Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight?’ He wonders can’t you be touched as well as seen? He draws his own dagger which is much like the imaginary one pointing towards Duncan’s room. ‘On thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,’ there are droplets of blood on the blade and handle it shows the ‘bloody business’ he must do. In a way Macbeth is going against nature by killing Duncan when he is asleep because he is defenseless.
In scene two Lady Macbeth is stood in the courtyard talking to herself. ‘That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;’ she has drugged the servants and doing so has made her brave. She hears Macbeth shout and is afraid everyone has woken up and the deed is not done. ‘Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t’ If he had not looked like her father she would have done it instead of Macbeth. When Macbeth enters he is scared and anxious but Lady Macbeth tells him to get a grip of himself and wash the blood from his hands ‘Wash this filthy witness from your hand.’ Macbeth brought the daggers away the scene of the crime so Lady Macbeth tells him to put them back but he’s too scared ‘I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think of what I have done.’ Lady Macbeth takes the daggers and goes to plant the evidence on the watchmen. This shows Macbeth still has to be lead by his wife who is the stronger one of the two. Although he has done the deed he still needs persuasion and doubts what he is doing.
Act three starts just after Macbeth has been crowned King of Scotland. By now Macbeth has evolved from the brave hero we meet at the beginning of the play and turned into a ruthless murderer. Macbeth is hosting a feast and requests Banquo to be there, Banquo and Fleance plan to go riding that afternoon and promise to be back in time for the feast. Macbeth knows Banquo suspects him of murdering Duncan and is worried he will tell. Macbeth becomes paranoid everyone is against him. He has planned for both Banquo and Fleance to be killed whilst out riding. By now the audience can tell Macbeth trusts nobody and destroys anyone he sees as a threat. At the feast the bloodied ghost of Banquo appears to Macbeth but no one else, Macbeth panics and shouts at the ghost. He almost gives away that he was the one to kill Duncan ‘Thou canst not say I did it.’ At this point Macbeth shows he still does have points of weakness and is not totally indestructible like he likes to think he is. It shows he is still human and Lady Macbeth still has to give him confidence and give him the push he needs. He decides to return to the witches, this shows he needs reassurance that he is invincible and he wants to know more about what is going to happen.
Act four opens with Macbeth going to see the witches. They make Macbeth a potion which makes him hallucinate. He has three visions, they tell him to beware Macduff, no man born from woman can harm Macbeth, and that ha can’t be beaten until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane Hill. After hearing these apparitions Macbeth becomes very confident, he has totally turned into an evil selfish power hungry fool. Macbeth isn’t afraid of Macduff because everyone is born of a woman ‘Who can impress the forest, bid the tree unfix his earthbound root?’ and woods cannot move! Macbeth wants to know if Banquo’s descendants will be Kings, they show him a vision of eight of them and the last one holding a mirror showing there will be more kings, ‘Will the line go on forever?’
Lenox brings news ‘Macduff is fled to England.’ Macbeth says it is too late to have Macduff killed so he decides to have his castle ceased and his wife and children killed, Seize fife, give to th’edge o’th’sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line.’ This shows how far Macbeth is willing to go to make sure he stays King.
Act five opens in Lady Macbeth’s bed chamber where a doctor is looking over her. Lady Macbeth is sleep walking and re-acting the night of Duncan’s murder. Lady Macbeth without knowing is revealing the murders. All this time Lady Macbeth has been repressing her guilty feelings and when her conscience catches up with her she can’t cope with it and starts to lose her mind. She talks about blood, and she is washing her hands of the blood but can’t get a spot of blood off, ‘Out damned spot! Out I say!’ This is a total turn around from the beginning of the play, Macbeth is now the powerful one and lady Macbeth is now the weak one, she is full of guilt for what she has done and cannot cope whereas before Macbeth felt guilty and could barely cope he is now strong and doesn’t care.
Scene three shows how Macbeth has truly changed. He once needed to be guided and pushed to go through with deeds, now he can do them of his own back. At this point Macbeth is very confident, a servant tells him an army of 10 000 men is approaching. Macbeth does not seem to care he claims the battle will either cheer him up or dethrone him, ‘This push will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.’ Macbeth orders for his armour to be put on and talks to the doctor. He asks how Lady Macbeth is, ‘Not sick, my lord, as she is troubled.’ He says she is having frequent nightmares that stop her sleeping. Lady Macbeth has overcome with guilt and doesn’t have the strength to carry on lying like Macbeth does, she has totally changed from the beginning of the play were we see her pushing Macbeth she was once a strong determined woman now she is a fragile wreck and the saddest thing of all is when Macbeth needed the extra push to keep going she was there and helped him, now the shoe is on the other foot he is no where to be seen. This shows he is consumed by greed and selfishness with eyes only for himself.
Scene four is when the witches apparitions start to make sense, the English army is in Birnam wood, Malcolm commands ‘Let every soldier hew him down a bough and bear’t before him.’ The army will march on to Macbeth’s castle undercover of the trees so they can hide their numbers. In scene five Macbeth is waiting for the English army to attack, he is still not scared. He is saying leave the attacking army out there until they die of hunger and disease ‘Were they not forced with those that should be ours.’ Some of those men should have been fighting for him. Macbeth confesses he is not scared, ‘I have almost forgot that taste of fears;’ this shows Macbeth believes everything the witches have said and thinks he is invincible. He has changed from the once weak hearted man who needed his wife to give him the confidence he needed and has become a power hungry monster. Macbeth is so confident about what the witches said he has forgotten to be scared that there are 10 000 men outside his front door that want to kill him, he is so sure he will not be defeated. When you look back at the beginning of the play he was so scared of killing Duncan incase he was discovered and was to suffer the consequences, now he doesn’t care, I have supped full with horrors; direness, familiar to my slaughtertous thoughts, cannot once start me.’ Things that use to scare him will never scare him again. A servant tells Macbeth his wife is dead but Macbeth doesn’t really seem bothered. He has become so self absorbed and greedy he does not care for others, not even his wife who was there for him when he needed help to kill Duncan. A messenger enters to tell Macbeth some very strange news, ‘I looked toward Birnam, and anon, methought, the wood began to move.’ Macbeth cannot believe his ears.
Macduff wants revenge for what Macbeth did to his family and wants to fight. Macbeth says ‘My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already.’ Macbeth doesn’t want to fight because he thinks as he is invincible, he doesn’t want to kill anymore of Macduff’s family, I don’t think Macbeth cares about what he has done to Macduff and his family I think he just doesn’t see the point in fighting someone when he knows he will win. He tells Macduff he is wasting his time because no man born of woman can kill him. Macduff reveals he was born early by caesarian section. Although he was born by a woman he was not born naturally. The witches led Macbeth into a false sense of security and once he has heard Macduff all the security he had disappears and he is left scared and alone and as a result is killed.
This play was written in the 1600’s, in those days Witches were genuinely thought of as horrible and scary so people watching the play in those days would have been scared that the witches had been the ones behind Macbeth’s downfall. All of the witch’s predictions are true but they do not reveal what the price Macbeth will have to pay is. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth as a play not as story to be in a book. This play is hard to follow and some of the language is easier to understand when you can see them being acted out. The scene where Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost is hard to imagine but when it is acted out it is a lot easier to follow. There are many versions of Macbeth, in the theatre it is set in the 19th century in the middle of a war. The language is the same and so are the characters, the only thing different is the settings. Although the theatre production was very good and told the story well I think the film version was better. I could understand the film a lot better, I could see the characters reactions more clearly and it felt more realistic. You could clearly see Macbeth’s character change whereas in the theatre I found it hard to follow Macbeth’s behavior. Macbeth is a very dramatic play and is portrayed brilliantly in both the film and theatrical production. Shakespeare uses dramatic language to clearly show characters feelings. The film uses dramatic music to help set the mood and scene which is effective. Shakespeare uses many visual images in the play, he always brings the characters actions and thoughts back to nature, he describes killing someone in there sleep as going against nature because when someone is asleep they are at peace and defenseless. In away this shows Macbeth as a coward because he is too scared to confront Duncan when he is awake and able to fight back.
Like any good play, good always triumphs over evil and it is the same in Macbeth. Macbeth is the cause of his own downfall and his own death!
