Macbeth

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

It's notable that Macbeth says these lines to himself. He doesn't want anyone to know about his ambitions, least of all Malcolm, whom Macbeth frankly acknowledges he'll have to step over if he's to...

When Macbeth wants to back out of the plan to kill Duncan and take his throne, his wife resorts to insulting and emasculating him in order to compel him to resubmit to her will. She asks him, Art...

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'...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

When Macbeth addresses the Weird Sisters in act 4, scene 1, he hopes to get some answers about the security of his position as King of Scotland. He fears, most especially, that Banquo’s descendants...

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 4, scene 3 of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Ross interrupts a conversation between Macduff and Malcolm to tell Macduff, “Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes / Savagely...

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...

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...

We witness Macbeth's first reaction to the witches' prophecy through the words of Banquo, who is with him: Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair? Banquo can't...

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...

Macbeth is saying here that he has walked so far into a river of blood that even if he turned around in an attempt to alter the trajectory of his murderous path, it would be just as difficult to...

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...

A work of theatrical genius it may be, but Macbeth is also a very grim piece of work. With all its bloodshed, witchcraft, and murder, it is not exactly a laugh a minute. And as a great playwright...

When the witches first appear in William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the role they play is to set the scene for the play, introduce some suspense—"When shall we three meet again?" (1.1.1)—draw attention...

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, Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth which describes his new position as Thane of Cawdor. Filled with conviction that Macbeth is destined to be king, she resolves to help him...

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 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...

In this scene, Lady Macbeth is observed first of all by a doctor and a gentlewoman, one of her ladies in waiting. They notice that she is rubbing her hands and walking around at night, but she...

It's safe to say that Macbeth's not best pleased when Duncan announces that his son Malcolm will succeed him as king of Scotland. After everything that he's done for Duncan, Macbeth feels betrayed...

Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he is worried that there is still a threat to his kingship, so he needs to take further action. This conversation takes place after Macbeth has killed Duncan. He...

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...

Macbeth has only recently become King of Scotland after murdering King Duncan, but he decides that in order to keep the throne, and his life, he must murder Banquo and his son, Fleance, to avoid...

"Not of woman born" means born by Caesarean section. Hecate, the head of the witches, gets angry at the three witches who prophesied to Macbeth in act 1. She is angry that they acted without...

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...

Let us remember that Lady Macbeth says this to her husband in Act II scene 2, after he has just killed Duncan and she has smeared the grooms with Duncan's blood to frame them for the deed. Lady...

The techniques that Lady Macbeth has used to manipulate her husband have been well identified and explained in the above answers. I believe the question remains of why Shakespeare chose to have her...

First Witch Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. Second Witch Not so happy, yet much happier. Third Witch Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! First Witch...

In act 1, scene 1, the Three Witches comment on how they will meet again upon the heath, where they shall introduce themselves to Macbeth. Before they exit the scene, the witches recite, "Fair is...

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...

This takes place in act 2, scene 3 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Macduff arrives at Macbeth's castle early in the morning to meet with King Duncan but instead discovers that Duncan has been...

Macbeth believes he heard a voice crying: Me thought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more!Macbeth doth Murder sleep”—the innocent sleep,Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,The death of...

These lines are spoken by Macbeth in his famous "Is this a dagger which I see before me" soliloquy in act 2, scene 1 of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Macbeth is on his way to murder Duncan when he...