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Macbeth Cliffs Notes

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Macbeth Cliffsnotes
Background:
Williams Shakespeare is known as one of the best playwrights of all time. Shakespeare was born in the year of 1564. His parents were John Shakespeare, and Mary Arden. His father was a leather maker and his mother was a land heiress. Although his parents were in the middle-class he received no formal education. On November 28, 1582 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. Together the two had three children. However, one had died from unknown causes.

Macbeth was Shakespeare's shortest work. However, it is one of his bloodiest plays. It was written in 1606 early 1607. It was the last play Shakespeare produced. The play has over 100 references to bloodshed and death. It is rifled with tragedy, horror, and death. It …show more content…

He wants to believe the witches prophecies ( Act 1; Scene 2; lines 48-50). Macbeth was seen as a fair, and honorable man that wishes to do no wrong. His wife has called him weak because he does not want to do actions against Duncan ( Act 1; Scene 7; Lines 47-59).
Lady Macbeth: Lady Macbeth is seen as a slender, long haired woman who cares for her husband. However, her desire to make her husband king drives her mad. She believes that a little water can clear her and her husband of their deeds (ACT 1: Scene 2; Lines 61-65). Although they wish not to think of it it soon drives her mad. This is seen when a doctor and a gentlewoman see her( Act 5; Scene 1; Lines 3-6).

Act …show more content…

They have news that must meet his ears, and change his fate. For this is where he will find the future to his fate.

ACT II

Macbeth has grown weary of how he should proceed. He soon decides what he should do. He must kill Duncan in order to get the crown. Now he has the crown and is being threatened. Banque has grown fearsome for what has happened. The witches prophecies have come true. He now fears what may happen to him. He and Fleance have fled the castle in fear of their lives. Macbeth now being king sees Banquo and Fleance as a threat to his crown. And so orders to have the two of them killed in order to protect his crown.

I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
Macbeth has just killed Duncan. Here he asks if his wife had heard anything. If so he may be caught. However, she just heard the owl hoot in the night.

ACT III

Banque has been killed while Fleance escaped. Banques murder has been place on Fleance. However, both of them had suspected Macbeth of the original murder. Now Macduff has fled to England to escape Macbeth's reach. But, upon hearing this Macbeth orders that all of Macduff's family and servants are to be killed.

Which of you have done

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With Macbeth being a general in the Scottish military, he had major influences on people and their daily lives. After the murder of King Duncan, Banquo’s suspicion of who committed the murders arose around a single suspect, Macbeth. Knowing that Banquo most likely knew the truth that Macbeth killed King Duncan, Macbeth went back to his evil ways with ease. Through his attendant, Macbeth summons three murderers. Shakespeare introduces the murders with stage direction “[Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers]” (Shakespeare, 363), in which Macbeth he uses Banquo as bait in order to gain their graces and loyalty “That it was he in the times past which held you so under fortune, which you thought had been our innocent self: this I made good to you in our last conference, pass'd in probation with you, how you were borne in hand, how cross'd, the instruments, who wrought with them, and all things else that might, so half a soul and to a notion crazed, Say 'Thus did Banquo.'”

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Macbeth's fear gets to him and causes him to act on his ambitions. “I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?” (II.ii.15). Macbeth's fear sparked his ambitions which led to murdering King Duncan while he was asleep.

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In play Macbeth, Shakespeare reveals that an individual’s great desire for power will lead him/her to perform consequential deeds that will scar his/her conscience and change the outcome of his/her life eternally. Macbeth is informed by three witches that he is going to become king and this initiates Macbeth’s thought of becoming powerful. Macbeth doesn’t act on his thoughts until he tells his wife, Lady Macbeth, that he could become king. Lady Macbeth is extremely power hungry and does all she can to convince Macbeth to be just as desirable as her. Together, they come up with a plan to murder King Duncan, so that Macbeth can become king like the witches foretold.

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Worthy Macduff and we shall take upon ’s what else remains to do, according to our order” (5,6,1-6). Lennox has just seen how crazy Macbeth has gone and now he thinks Macbeth is the one that has killed Banquo and is talking to one of the other lords and says “... And the right-valiant Banquo walked too late, whom, you may say, if ’t please you, Fleance killed, for Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late…” (3,6,5-7).

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Macbeth (full title The Tragedy of Macbeth), believed to have been written between 1599 and 1606 by William Shakespeare. Throughout its multi-year history, Macbeth has remained one of Shakespeare’s most enduring and popular plays. Half the length of Hamlet, it is the shortest of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Macbeth sustains the title of “an intensity of tragedy” stated by numerous scholars, which never lets up from the play’s dark beginning to its ambiguous conclusion. The stage history of Macbeth has been masked in mystery and superstition over the years and adaptations have incorporated that.

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“The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood is stopped; the very source of it is stopped” (2.3.77-78). Macbeth murders the guards to prevent them from professing their innocence, affirming their intention to avenge the king in a fit of rage for his misdeeds. Duncan 's children; Malcolm and Donalbain, flee to England and Ireland, respectively, for fear that the killer of Duncan wishes the death of both also. Macbeth has killed Duncan who is his cousin. “Where we are, there’s daggers in men’s smiles.

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Macbeth’s mental condition begins to dwindle as time goes on, starting with the murder of Duncan. At first, Macbeth is seen as a soldier that everyone aspires to be, strong, brave, and compassionate about his duties to the king. In act one scene two, Captain says, “...For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-...” This shows that he is a likeable person who has only the objective of serving his king. After meeting with the witches and hearing his prophecy, Macbeth starts to think about what it would be like to be king of Scotland.

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The scene Act 3 scene 2, conveys the theme that killing someone isn't the most proficient way in dealing with problems nor does it make life simpler, instead it creates more complications. Ironically, In this scene Lady Macbeth and Macbeth discuss the death of Banquo; both of them begin to show signs of fear & guilt. Both of them realize the troubles that come with killing Banquo, and recognize that troubles follow; his son Fleance can still cease the prophecy. This is demonstrated in the metaphorical quote “We have scorched the snake, not killed it.” Macbeth refers to Banquo as a snake, who has not yet been killed and is still able to “attack” them.

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Macbeth feels his destiny is to murder King Duncan and become the King of Scotland, which is why Macbeth promises Lady Macbeth achieve his destiny. Therefore, Macbeth’s ambition for power leads to the death of King Duncan. Moreover, Macbeth’s ambition for power triggers the massacre the ones who impede him from his pathway to the Scottish Throne. First, Macbeth has murderers kill Banquo to avoid obstructions in his plan to become the King of Scotland. Macbeth tells the three murderers hired: “…

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While Fleance was able to escape, Banquo was not so lucky. The reason for his murder was because the witches say to Banquo that his sons will be king Macbeth is out of control, and it also led to his decision to kill Macduff’s family, as Macduff was considered a threat, having figured out his insanity. []. By the end of the play, Macbeth is lost in a pit of state. The crimes he committed had desensitized him.

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Shakespeare engineered a most impressionable character in Macbeth who easily succumbs to the extensive magnitude of opposing constraints. This character is Macbeth, who is the protagonist in the play and husband to a conniving wife, who in the end is the sole cause for Macbeth 's undoing. Conflicting forces in the play compel internal conflicts within Macbeth to thrive on his contentment and sanity as he his torn asunder between devotion, aspiration, morality and his very own being. He has developed a great sense of loyalty from being a brave soldier; however, his ambition soon challenges this allegiance. As his sincerity begins to deteriorate, his own sanity starts to disintegrate until the point where he cannot differentiate between reality

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Lady Macbeth’s strong character portrayed in Act I Scene V creates suspicion of dark events later in the play. In the play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth reveals her true character in her speech and foreshadows King Duncan’s death. Throughout her speech, Lady Macbeth reveals her lust for power and desire to kill Duncan to become queen. Although Lady Macbeth’s character is recently introduced into the play, she reveals her true self as a sadistic and covetous person which foreshadows the murder of King Duncan and Macbeth’s prophesied future.

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In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the main character Macbeth, in many cases, is portrayed as being evil. However, his character is not truly the evil force driving the actions of the play. His wife, Lady Macbeth, as well as the witches and their misleading prophecies, are the real driving forces of Macbeth’s unspeakable actions. Macbeth is driven mad by the evil around him, causing him to turn to the violent behavior displayed throughout the many murders of the play.

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With every death, Macbeth has become more and more ruthless, he hasn’t even let it set in that he just ordered the murder of another of his friends. After this, Macbeth goes to see the witches demanding information, where he decides to murder Macduff until learning that he has fled to England. The second apparition tells Macbeth that no one borne of a woman can harm him, and Macbeths courage is spiked again, before he decides to murder Macduff's entire family. This is where Macbeth is officially at his worst, killing Macduff's entire family just because he

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I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on 't again I dare not.” (Act II, sc ii, Lines 48-50). Macbeth is getting extremely paranoid and feels bad killing Duncan. Macbeths ambitions caused him to murder Duncan, but he also had Banquo murdered, and wanted to murder Banquo 's son, Fleance. Macbeth wants Banquo killed because he saw him as a threat; however, Banquo had been Macbeth 's friend and thought he could trust him. "

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