Lesson 2

At the end of this lesson, the learners must be able to

• Analyze literature as a means of understanding unchanging values in a change world;
• Use prior knowledge and context clues;
• Explain passages from a play;
• Read and understand a script;

Shakespeare is a master of character development. He is also particularly clever at bringing out a character in contrast with other characters.

Macbeth is a powerful drama of a man whose weakness first brought him power, then defeat. The story is based on historical fact. The play was probably written in 1606 as a tribute to James 1, who traced his ancestry to the Scottish nobleman Banquo. Alive with the passions of eleventh-century Scotland, yet timeless in its impact, Macbethis one of the most gripping of Shakespeare’s tragedies. This violent drama and story of a psychotic killer and his fiendlike wife was actually written as a tribute to Shakespeare’s royal patron, King James I of England, who was also king of Scotland. Of all of his plays, this is a powerful suspense thriller.

The play is the shortest of all the tragedies. It is very intense, and the focus is on the psychological effect of the crimes upon Macbeth and the nature of the relationship between Macbeth and his wife.

Macbeth is an open political play. It is considered a history play, based on the events in the life of a real historical figure, but it is even more a powerful tragedy. Shakespeare played fast and loose with historical facts in all his history plays, but none more so than in this play. When Shakespeare wrote a play like Richard III, he was writing about events that had taken place about 100 years before, so most people in his English audience had a general sense of what that time was like. In the case of Macbeth, he wrote about a time over 500 years in the past a country about which most of his English audience were totally unfamiliar.

The historical Macbeth became king in the year 1040 after he had killed the previous king, Duncan, in battle. To put this in a historical context, this was hardly the Middle Ages; it was still the Dark Ages, as historians had termed the various stages of European history.It was 26 years before the Norman invasion of England, which was generally considered to be the beginning of the medieval period in Britain. In 1040 Macbeth became king and ruled for 17 years until he was overthrown and killed by Duncan’s son, who became King Malcolm III. Malcolm was famous primarily because he married an English princess named Margaret who was later made a saint. According to the Scottish historian Archibald Duncan, little was known about Macbeth and his lovely wife

Grunnich, except that they were pious and endowed a religious house at St. Andrew’s The couple went on a religious pilgrimage to Rome where, the chroniclers said, “they sowed money like seed.”

Now the fact that Macbeth killed the previous king was not a big deal. Of the eight Scottish kings who ruled during this time, seven had died of unnatural deaths, like burning to death under suspicious circumstances. It was highly unusual for a Scottish king to die of natural causes in bed. This violent record was largely the result of how Scottish kings came to power. There was no fixed process of succession from one king to the

next. In effect, when an old king died, every male who was related to the royal family had an equal chance for the throne, no matter how distant the relationship. It was a kind of royal free-for-all with the last man standing getting to be the king. Macbeth was overthrown in 1057, still nine years before the Norman French invasion of England under William the Conqueror.

Macbeth began as a very good king, a welcome change from the corrupt reign of Duncan. For the first seven years Macbeth had ruled in peace with equal justice. He helped rid Scotland of robber barons who had flourished under Duncan. But then in

last ten years of his reign, Macbeth became cruel and persecuted anyone he feared might oppose him in the future.

In the story, Lady Macbeth was plagued with fits of sleepwalking and dreams that she had bloodstains on her hands.

Macbeth (William Shakespeare) [List of Characters]

• Macbeth - Macbeth was a Scottish general and the thane of Glamis who was led to wicked the thoughts by the prophecies of the three witches, especially of their prophecy that he would be made thane of Cawdor. Macbeth was a brave soldier and powerful man, but he was not a virtuous one.
• Lady Macbeth - Macbeth's wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusted power and position.

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• The Three Witches - three “black and midnight hags” who plotted mischief against Macbeth by using charms, spells, and prophecies; their predictions prompted Macbeth to murder Duncan, to order the deaths of Banquo and his son, and to believe in his own immortality.
• Banquo - the brave, noble general whose children, according to the witches’ prophecy, would inherit the Scottish throne; like Macbeth, Banquo thought of ambitious ideas, but he did not translate these thoughts into action.

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• King Duncan - the good King of Scotland whom Macbeth murdered because of the latter’s ambition for the crown; Duncan was the model of a virtuous, benevolent, and farsighted ruler.
• Macduff - a Scottish nobleman who was hostile to Macbeth’s kingship from the start; he eventually became a leader of the crusade to unseat Macbeth.
• Malcolm - the son of Duncan, whose restoration to the throne signalled Scotland’s return to order, following Macbeth’s reign of terror.

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• Hecate - the goddess of witchcraft, who helped the three witches work their mischief on Macbeth.
• Fleance - Banquo’s son, who survived Macbeth’s attempt to murder him.
• Lennox - a Scottish nobleman
• Ross - a Scottish nobleman

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• The Murderers - a group of ruffians conscripted by Macbeth to murder Banquo, Fleance (whom they failed to kill), and Macduff’s wife and children.
• Porter - the drunken doorman of Macbeth's castle.
• Lady Macduff - Macduff's wife.
• Donalbain - Duncan's son and Malcolm's younger brother.

PLOT OVERVIEW
The play began with the brief appearance of a trio of witches and then moved to a military camp, where the Scottish King Duncan heard the news that his generals, Macbeth and Banquo, had defeated two separate invading armies — one from Ireland led by the rebel Macdonald, and another one from Norway. Following their pitched battle with these enemy forces, Macbeth and Banquo encountered three witches as they crossed a moor.

The witches prophesied that Macbeth would be made thane(a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor, and eventually would become King of Scotland. They also prophesied that Macbeth’s companion, Banquo, would beget a line of Scottish kings, although Banquo would never become king himself. The witches vanished, and Macbeth and Banquo treated their prophecies skeptically until some of King Duncan’s men came to thank the two generals for their victories in battle. They also informed Macbeth that he had been named thane of Cawdor. The previous thane betrayed Scotland by fighting for the Norwegians, and Duncan had condemned him to death. Hearing thus, Macbeth was intrigued by the possibility that the remainder of the witches’ prophecy — that he would

be crowned king — might also become true, but he was uncertain what to expect. He visited King Duncan, and they planned to dine together at Inverness, at Macbeth’s castle, that night. Macbeth informed his wife, Lady Macbeth right away, and told her everything that had happened.

Lady Macbeth felt none of her husband’s uncertainty. She desired the kingship for him and wanted him to murder Duncan so that he would become king. When Macbeth arrived at Inverness, she persuaded her husband to kill the king that very night. So, he and Lady Macbeth planned to get Duncan’s two chamberlains drunk so that they

would become somber and incapable of defending the king. Then, the next morning, they would blame the murder on the chamberlains, who would remember nothing, and thus, render them defenseless.

And so, that night after dinner, while Duncan was fast asleep, Macbeth slipped into his room and stabbed him. When Duncan’s death was discovered the next morning, Macbeth killed the chamberlains — upon pretense of rage at their crime — and soon, enough, readily assumed the kingship. Meanwhile, Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, fled to England and Ireland, respectively, fearing that whoever had killed

their father would desire their demise as well.

Fearful of the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs would seize the throne, Macbeth hired a group of murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. They ambushed Banquo on his way to royal feast, but they failed to kill his son who escaped into the night. Macbeth was furious; he believed that as long as Fleance was alive, he feared that his power would remain insecure.

At a feast one night, Banquo’s ghost visited Macbeth. When he saw the ghost

visited Macbeth. When he saw the ghost, Macbeth raved fearfully, thus startling his guests who were mostly of Scottish nobility. Lady Macbeth tried to neutralize the damage, but Macbeth’s kingship incited resistance from his nobles and subjects.

Frightened, Macbeth went to visit the witches in their cavern. There, they showed him a sequence of demons and spirits who presented him with further prophecies: that he must beware of Macduff, a Scottish nobleman who opposed Macbeth’s ascension to the throne; that he was incapable of being harmed by any man born of a woman; and that he would be safe until Birnam wood would come to Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth was

relieved and felt secure; he knew that all men were born of women and that a forest could not move, (how would the wood from Birnam come to Dunsnane castle?) Thus when he learned that Macduff had fled to England to join Malcolm, Macbeth ordered that Macduff’s castle be seized and, most cruelly, that Lady Macduff and her children be murdered.

When news of his family’s execution reached Macduff in England, he was stricken with grief and vowed revenge. Meanwhile, Duncan’s son, Prince Malcolm, had successfully raised an army in England, and Macduff joined him as he rode to Scotland to declare war against Macbeth. The invasion gained the support of the other Scottish nobles, who were appalled and frightened by Macbeth’s tyrannical and murderous behavior. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, was plagued with fits of sleepwalking and dreaming that she had bloodstains on her hands. Thus before Macbeth’s opponents had reached the castle, Macbeth received the news that his wife had killed herself, causing him to sink into a deeper and more pessimistic despair. Nevertheless, he awaited the English and

fortified Dunsinane, to which he seemed to have withdrawn in order to defend himself, certain that the witches’ prophecies guarantee his invincibility. He was struck numb with fear, however, when he learned that the English army was advancing on Dunsinane shielded with boughs cut from Birnam wood. Wood is indeed coming to Dunsinane, fulfilling half of the witches’ prophecy.

In the battle, Macbeth hewed violently, but the English forces gradually overwhelmed his army and castle. On the battlefield, Macbeth encountered the vengeful Macduff, who declared that he was not “of woman born” but was instead “untimely ripped” from his

mother’s womb (what we now call birth through caesarian operation). Thus, Macbeth realized that he was doomed, but he continued to fight until Macduff had killed and beheaded him.

Malcolm was thus seated as the King of Scotland, and declared his benevolent intentions for the country and invited everyone to see him crowned at Scone.