Macbeth

In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth advises her husband to "look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it." By this, she means that he should appear to be innocent to belie...

The first three predictions of the witches can be found in act 1, scene 3 of the play when Macbeth and Banquo are traveling across the heath. The three witches suddenly appear and offer Macbeth and...

I believe that Macbeth's character change is too extreme. From being a loyal subject and essentially a good man, he becomes a terrible tyrant, and in the end he is behaving like a madman. It was...

MACBETH. Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more.(act 5, scene 5, lines 26–28) Macbeth, written about 1605, is the last of...

This famous line from Macbeth tells us how the title character has come to see the world. Despite having everything he wants in life, despite being king of Scotland and having the absolute power to...

At the end of act 3, scene 4 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, in which the ghost of the murdered Banquo appears to Macbeth at his coronation banquet, the unnerved Macbeth decides to visit the...

In the "apparition scene," act 4, scene 1, of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth goes to the witches in the heath—possibly the same heath where the witches appeared to Macbeth and Banquo in act...

In act 1, scene 5, Lady Macbeth receives news of Macbeth's favorable prophecy and learns that King Duncan is on his way to their castle. Upon reading her husband's letter, Lady Macbeth is consumed...

In act 1, scene 2, a Captain in Duncan's army reports on Macbeth's courage in battle. We learn that he is "brave" and "valiant" (1.2.18, 1.2.26). This scene helps to establish that Macbeth begins...

Macbeth is a tragic hero because he started the play as a good man, but the manipulations of the Weird Sisters and his wife brought out his baser qualities. This leads to Macbeth's moral corruption...

Okay, you've got a ton of answers here, but what I believe is the intention behind these words, (the reason the witches say them), is because they are making an incantation. They are not just...

The porter functions as a bridge between Duncan's murder and its discovery. His dark humor also serves to reinforce the feeling of corruption and foreboding that permeates the play. On the night of...

When Macbeth utters these lines near the end of Act 1, scene 4, he has just learned that the king, Duncan, has named the king's own son, Malcolm, as his heir to the throne. Because of what the...

Macbeth considers and reconsiders his reasons for killing King Duncan several times at the beginning of the play, most notably in his soliloquy at the beginning of act I, scene 7. Here, Macbeth...

From the moment that Macduff sees King Duncan's bloody body lying dead in Macbeth's castle in act 2, scene 3 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macduff suspects that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were...

The dagger that Macbeth hallucinates prior to committing the murder of Duncan—his friend, relative, king, and guest—is symbolic of Macbeth's own conscience. It points toward Duncan's room and is...

Before killing Duncan, Macbeth experiences conflicting feelings about assassinating the king. Although Macbeth desires to become King of Scotland and entertains the idea of murdering Duncan, he...

At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is depicted as an ambitious, resolute woman, who is willing to doom her soul in order to become queen. When she first hears the news of the witches'...

In Act IV, Scene I, the witches show Macbeth the following three things: An "armed" head (wearing a battle helmet), which tells Macbeth to beware of Macduff. A "bloody child" who tells Macbeth that...

In Act 2 Scene 4, Ross converses with an Old Man who shares some news with him. Ross notes that, even though day should have arrived "by th' clock . . . dark night strangles the traveling...

These lines are spoken by King Duncan in act 1, scene 4 and refer to the duplicity of the former Thane of Cawdor, who has just been executed for treason. Malcolm praises the Thane of Cawdor, saying...

This quote comes from Act I, Scene VII, and is spoken by Lady Macbeth. She is responding to her husband's sudden reluctance to go ahead with the murder of King Duncan and take the crown for...

After Macbeth returns from Duncan's chamber covered in blood, he is visibly shaken and emotionally disturbed. Macbeth instantly regrets committing regicide and experiences extreme guilt for his...

When Lady Macbeth dies, Macbeth is faced with his own mortality and contemplates the brevity of life. When Lady Macbeth dies, it is right before the big battle between Macbeth's army and...

You might say that Lady Macbeth’s responds to her husband’s haunted conduct with excuses, male chauvinism, and power. Lady Macbeth excuses her husband’s conspicuous torment by making it seem like...

In act 1, scene 3 of Shakespeare's Macbeth, three witches give Macbeth three statements. The first, "Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!"(1.3.50), is simply a greeting. Macbeth inherited the title of...

When trying to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth does what all loving wives do to their husbands in similar situations. She insults and berates him. Lady Macbeth questions his ability...

The appearance of Banquo's ghost reminds us that Macbeth, despite his absolute power, isn't enjoying life as king of Scotland. A basically decent man brought low by overweening ambition, Macbeth...

After Duncan’s murder, Macbeth becomes a hardened man. He seems to become inured to death and to killing. This is not to say that Macbeth was unaccustomed to death and even to killing before...

Of all the great Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeth is the one most lacking in comedy. Apart from a brief episode involving the porter in act 2, scene 3, there is no low comedy in the play. However,...

In act 1, scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth enters the play reading a letter that Macbeth wrote to her regarding the prophecies of the three witches. Lady Macbeth's response to...

There are three prophecies in act 1, scene 3 and three more in act 4, scene 1 of Shakespeare's Macbeth which apply to Macbeth and which appear in Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland...

Before he commits the murder of Duncan, Macbeth seems to realize something that Lady Macbeth does not. He says, "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well / It were done quickly" (act 1,...

Shortly before the passage in which Macbeth says "let not light," Duncan has named his oldest son, Malcolm, as his heir to the Scottish throne. However, Duncan is so overjoyed at his victory over...

As other Educators have already explained, Lady Macbeth responds to her husband’s choice to not murder Duncan (i.e, “proceed no further in this business”) by questioning his masculinity. She calls...

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth thought that killing the king and ascending to the throne of Scotland would make them happy. Macbeth acknowledged his "vaulting ambition" and seemed to think that becoming...

Concerning Shakespeare's Macbeth, you can read the basics of the two thane's reactions for yourself in Act 1.3. Most of what you need is readily apparent. To clarify for you, I'll explain a...

The "sleepwalking scene" occurs in act 5, scene 1 of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The scene opens with an anonymous gentlewoman of the court describing Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking to a Doctor....

In the porter scene of Shakespeare's Macbeth, Inverness, Macbeth's castle, is depicted as hell. This depiction is an echo of what's just occurred in the castle (Duncan's assassination), as well as...

Macbeth is admitting to himself that he has no justification for committing the murder of King Duncan. He specifies the reasons he has for not killing him and then candidly acknowledges in an...

In Act I, scene 2 of Macbeth, both Macdonwald and the thane of Cawdor are traitors against Scotland, while Macbeth is a hero fighting for Scotland. The reader learns that "The merciless...

In contrast to Macbeth, who is almost immediately enthralled by the witches' prophecies that he will be made Thane of Cawdor and "shalt be King hereafter" (1.3.51–53), Banquo is skeptical of the...

In Act I, Scene II a captain provides an eyewitness view of a battle between King Duncan's forces and Macdonwald, a treacherous noble, aided by the Norwegian king. According to his testimony, the...

In act 1, scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth enters the play reading a letter from Macbeth telling her about the prophecies of the witches, most particularly, "Hail, King that...

In Act II, Scene III, Macbeth claims that he killed the grooms because he suspected them of killing King Duncan. He says that when he found Duncan's body he also found the grooms "steeped in the...

The total number of deaths Macbeth is responsible for is difficult to determine because we don't know how many people died in Macduff's castle. During the battle in Act 1, he kills Macdonwald, one...

Macbeth utters these lines at the end of a long and emotionally charged scene. The scene begins with Macbeth welcoming his guests to "a great feast," as Lady Macbeth calls it, to celebrate Macbeth...

At the end of act 1, scene 7 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth resolves to murder King Duncan and take the throne of Scotland for himself in order to fulfill the prophecy made to him by the...

In Macbeth, Macbeth is deeply influenced by a prophesy the witches make when he and Banquo are returning from battle. In Act I, scene iii, Macbeth comments on the day being "foul and fair" (line...

In Act Five, Scene 5, Macbeth learns that his wife has died and feels indifferent about her death. After receiving the news that Lady Macbeth is dead, Macbeth comments that the news of her death...