Macbeth

10English:Key Scenes and Focusing Questions

In this booklet you will find:

Key scenes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, with space for you to make notes.

Notes on key characters, themes and relationships. Activities to help deepen your understanding of the

play. Essay questions that you could use for this topic.

As we have already viewed Roman Polanski’s film version of the play, and discussed the story at length, you will not be supplied with another copy of the plot. If you are missing this handout, please see me.

Our key scenes

Act 1, Scene 5: Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth's letter about what the weird sisters said, and works herself up to work him up to murder. . . . When Macbeth arrives, Lady Macbeth tells him to look innocent and follow her lead. Act 1, Scene 7: Macbeth almost talks himself out of killing the King. . . . Lady Macbeth gives her husband a tongue-lashing that makes him commit to their plan to murder the King. Act 2, Scene 1: Past midnight, Macbeth tells Banquo that they'll speak of the witches another time, and bids him goodnight. . . . Macbeth sees "a dagger of the mind," hears his wife's bell, and goes to kill King Duncan. Act 2, Scene 2: Lady Macbeth waits for Macbeth to come with the news that he has killed the King. . . . Macbeth is so shaken by the murder that he brings the bloody daggers with him, and Lady Macbeth takes them from him, to place them with the sleeping grooms. . . . A knocking at the castle gate frightens Macbeth, and his wife comes to lead him away, so that they can wash the blood from their hands. Act 5, Scene 1: Lady Macbeth's waiting-gentlewoman tells a doctor of the Lady's sleep-walking. . . . Lady Macbeth walks and talks in her sleep, revealing guilty secrets. Act 5, Scene 5: Macbeth expresses his defiance of the forces marching against him, then hears a cry of women and receives the news of his wife's death. . . . A messenger reports that Birnam woods is coming to Dunsinane; Macbeth goes out to meet his fate.

Act 1, Scene 5:

Inverness. Macbeth's castle.

Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter LADY MACBETH 'They met me in the day of success: and I havelearned by the perfectest report, they have more inthem than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desireto question them further, they made themselves air,into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt inthe wonder of it, came missives from the king, whoall-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title,before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referredme to the coming on of time, with 'Hail, king thatshalt be!' This have I thought good to deliverthee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thoumightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by beingignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay itto thy heart, and farewell.'Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt beWhat thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;It is too full o' the milk of human kindnessTo catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;Art not without ambition, but withoutThe illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis,That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it;And that which rather thou dost fear to doThan wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither,That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;

And chastise with the valour of my tongueAll that impedes thee from the golden round,Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seemTo have thee crown'd withal.

Enter a Messenger

What is your tidings?Messenger The king comes here to-night.LADY MACBETH Thou'rt mad to say it:Is not thy master with him? who, were't so,Would have inform'd for preparation.Messenger So please you, it is true: our thane is coming:One of my fellows had the speed of him,Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely moreThan would make up his message.LADY MACBETH Give him tending;He brings great news.

Exit Messenger

The raven himself is hoarseThat croaks the fatal entrance of DuncanUnder my battlements. Come, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,And fill me from the crown to the toe top-fullOf direst cruelty! make thick my blood;Stop up the access and passage to remorse,That no compunctious visitings of natureShake my fell purpose, nor keep peace betweenThe effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,Wherever in your sightless substancesYou wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,That my keen knife see not the wound it

makes,Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,To cry 'Hold, hold!'

Enter MACBETH

Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!Thy letters have transported me beyondThis ignorant present, and I feel nowThe future in the instant.MACBETH My dearest love,Duncan comes here to-night.LADY MACBETH And when goes hence?MACBETH To-morrow, as he purposes.LADY MACBETH O, neverShall sun that morrow see!Your face, my thane, is as a book where menMay read strange matters. To beguile the time,Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,But be the serpent under't. He that's comingMust be provided for: and you shall putThis night's great business into my dispatch;Which shall to all our nights and days to comeGive solely sovereign sway and masterdom.MACBETH We will speak further.LADY MACBETH Only look up clear;To alter favour ever is to fear:Leave all the rest to me.

Exeunt

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Act 1, Scene 7

Macbeth's castle.

Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service, and pass over the stage. Then enter MACBETH MACBETH If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere wellIt were done quickly: if the assassinationCould trammel up the consequence, and catchWith his surcease success; that but this blowMight be the be-all and the end-all here,But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,We'ld jump the life to come. But in these casesWe still have judgment here; that we but teachBloody instructions, which, being taught, returnTo plague the inventor: this even-handed justiceCommends the ingredients of our poison'd chaliceTo our own lips. He's here in double trust;First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,Who should against his murderer shut the door,Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this DuncanHath borne his faculties so meek, hath beenSo clear in his great office, that his virtuesWill plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, againstThe deep damnation of his taking-off;And pity, like a naked new-born babe,Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim,

horsedUpon the sightless couriers of the air,Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spurTo prick the sides of my intent, but onlyVaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itselfAnd falls on the other.

Enter LADY MACBETH

How now! what news?LADY MACBETH He has almost supp'd: why have you left the chamber?MACBETH Hath he ask'd for me?LADY MACBETH Know you not he has?MACBETH We will proceed no further in this business:He hath honour'd me of late; and I have boughtGolden opinions from all sorts of people,Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,Not cast aside so soon.LADY MACBETH Was the hope drunkWherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?And wakes it now, to look so green and paleAt what it did so freely? From this timeSuch I account thy love. Art thou afeardTo be the same in thine own act and valourAs thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have thatWhich thou esteem'st the ornament of life,And live a coward in thine own esteem,Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'Like the poor cat i' the adage?MACBETH Prithee, peace:I dare do all that may become a man;Who dares do more is none.LADY MACBETH What beast was't, then,That made you break this enterprise to me?

When you durst do it, then you were a man;And, to be more than what you were, you wouldBe so much more the man. Nor time nor placeDid then adhere, and yet you would make both:They have made themselves, and that their fitness nowDoes unmake you. I have given suck, and knowHow tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:I would, while it was smiling in my face,Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as youHave done to this.MACBETH If we should fail?LADY MACBETH We fail!But screw your courage to the sticking-place,And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep--Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journeySoundly invite him--his two chamberlainsWill I with wine and wassail so convinceThat memory, the warder of the brain,Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reasonA limbeck only: when in swinish sleepTheir drenched natures lie as in a death,What cannot you and I perform uponThe unguarded Duncan? what not put uponHis spongy officers, who shall bear the guiltOf our great quell?MACBETH Bring forth men-children only;For thy undaunted mettle should composeNothing but males. Will it not be received,When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy twoOf his own chamber and used their very daggers,That they have done't?

LADY MACBETH Who dares receive it other,As we shall make our griefs and clamour roarUpon his death?MACBETH I am settled, and bend upEach corporal agent to this terrible feat.Away, and mock the time with fairest show:False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

Exeunt

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Act 2, Scene 1: Court of Macbeth's castle.Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a torch before him BANQUO How goes the night, boy?FLEANCE The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.BANQUO And she goes down at twelve.FLEANCE I take't, 'tis later, sir.BANQUO Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that natureGives way to in repose!

Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch

Give me my sword.Who's there?MACBETH A friend.BANQUO What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed:He hath been in unusual pleasure, andSent forth great largess to your offices.This diamond he greets your wife withal,By the name of most kind hostess; and shut upIn measureless content.MACBETH Being unprepared,Our will became the servant to defect;Which else should free have wrought.BANQUO All's well.I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:To you they have show'd some truth.MACBETH I think not of them:Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,We would spend it in some words upon that business,If you would grant the time.BANQUO At your kind'st leisure.MACBETH If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,It shall make honour for you.BANQUO So I lose noneIn seeking to augment it, but still keepMy bosom franchised and allegiance clear,I shall be counsell'd.MACBETH Good repose the while!BANQUO Thanks, sir: the like to you!

Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE

MACBETH Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.

Exit Servant

Is this a dagger which I see before me,The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.Art thou not, fatal vision, sensibleTo feeling as to sight? or art thou butA dagger of the mind, a false creation,Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?I see thee yet, in form as palpableAs this which now I draw.Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;And such an instrument I was to use.Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,Which was not so before. There's no such thing:It is the bloody business which informsThus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworldNature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuseThe curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebratesPale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his designMoves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fearThy very stones prate of my whereabout,And take the present horror from the time,Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

A bell rings

I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knellThat summons thee to heaven or to hell.

Exit

Act 2, Scene 2: The same.

Enter LADY MACBETH LADY MACBETH That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;What hath quench'd them hath given me fire.Hark! Peace!It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it:The doors are open; and the surfeited groomsDo mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'dtheir possets,That death and nature do contend about them,Whether they live or die.MACBETH [Within] Who's there? what, ho!LADY MACBETH Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deedConfounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembledMy father as he slept, I had done't.

Enter MACBETH

My husband!MACBETH I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?LADY MACBETH I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.Did not you speak?MACBETH

When?LADY MACBETH Now.MACBETH As I descended?LADY MACBETH Ay.MACBETH Hark!Who lies i' the second chamber?LADY MACBETH Donalbain.MACBETH This is a sorry sight.

Looking on his hands

LADY MACBETH A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.MACBETH There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried'Murder!'That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them:But they did say their prayers, and address'd themAgain to sleep.LADY MACBETH There are two lodged together.MACBETH One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'When they did say 'God bless us!'LADY MACBETH Consider it not so deeply.MACBETH But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'Stuck in my throat.LADY MACBETH These deeds must not be thoughtAfter these ways; so, it will make us mad.MACBETH

Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep,Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care,The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,Chief nourisher in life's feast,--LADY MACBETH What do you mean?MACBETH Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house:'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore CawdorShall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.'LADY MACBETH Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,You do unbend your noble strength, to thinkSo brainsickly of things. Go get some water,And wash this filthy witness from your hand.Why did you bring these daggers from the place?They must lie there: go carry them; and smearThe sleepy grooms with blood.MACBETH I'll go no more:I am afraid to think what I have done;Look on't again I dare not.LADY MACBETH Infirm of purpose!Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the deadAre but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhoodThat fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal;For it must seem their guilt.

Exit. Knocking within

MACBETH Whence is that knocking?How is't with me, when every noise appals me?What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this bloodClean from my hand? No, this my hand will ratherThe multitudinous seas in incarnadine,Making the green one red.

Re-enter LADY MACBETH

LADY MACBETH My hands are of your colour; but I shameTo wear a heart so white.

Knocking within

I hear a knockingAt the south entry: retire we to our chamber;A little water clears us of this deed:How easy is it, then! Your constancyHath left you unattended.

Knocking within

Hark! more knocking.Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,And show us to be watchers. Be not lostSo poorly in your thoughts.MACBETH To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.

Knocking within

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!

Exeunt

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_________________________________________________________________________Act 5, Scene 1: Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle.Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman Doctor I have two nights watched with you, but can perceiveno truth in your report. When was it she last walked?Gentlewoman Since his majesty went into the field, I have seenher rise from her bed, throw her night-gown uponher, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it,write upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and againreturn to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.Doctor A great perturbation in nature, to receive at oncethe benefit of sleep, and do the effects ofwatching! In this slumbery agitation, besides herwalking and other actual performances, what, at anytime, have you heard her say?Gentlewoman That, sir, which I will not report after her.Doctor You may to me: and 'tis most meet you should.Gentlewoman Neither to you nor any one; having no witness toconfirm my speech.

Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper

Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise;

and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.Doctor How came she by that light?Gentlewoman Why, it stood by her: she has light by hercontinually; 'tis her command.Doctor You see, her eyes are open.Gentlewoman Ay, but their sense is shut.Doctor What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.Gentlewoman It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thuswashing her hands: I have known her continue inthis a quarter of an hour.LADY MACBETH Yet here's a spot.Doctor Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes fromher, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.LADY MACBETH Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why,then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, mylord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need wefear who knows it, when none can call our power toaccount?--Yet who would have thought the old manto have had so much blood in him.Doctor Do you mark that?LADY MACBETH The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?--What, will these hands ne'er be clean?--No more o'that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all withthis starting.Doctor

Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.Gentlewoman She has spoke what she should not, I am sure ofthat: heaven knows what she has known.LADY MACBETH Here's the smell of the blood still: all theperfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this littlehand. Oh, oh, oh!Doctor What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.Gentlewoman I would not have such a heart in my bosom for thedignity of the whole body.Doctor Well, well, well,--Gentlewoman Pray God it be, sir.Doctor This disease is beyond my practise: yet I have knownthose which have walked in their sleep who have diedholily in their beds.LADY MACBETH Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not sopale.--I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; hecannot come out on's grave.Doctor Even so?LADY MACBETH To bed, to bed! there's knocking at the gate:come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What'sdone cannot be undone.--To bed, to bed, to bed!

Exit

Doctor Will she go now to bed?Gentlewoman Directly.

Doctor Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deedsDo breed unnatural troubles: infected mindsTo their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets:More needs she the divine than the physician.God, God forgive us all! Look after her;Remove from her the means of all annoyance,And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night:My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight.I think, but dare not speak.Gentlewoman Good night, good doctor.

Exeunt

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Act 5, Scene 5: Dunsinane. Within the castle.Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and colours MACBETH Hang out our banners on the outward walls;The cry is still 'They come:' our castle's strengthWill laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lieTill famine and the ague eat them up:Were they not forced with those that should be ours,We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,And beat them backward home.

A cry of women within

What is that noise?SEYTON It is the cry of women, my good lord.

Exit

MACBETH I have almost forgot the taste of fears;The time has been, my senses would have cool'dTo hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hairWould at a dismal treatise rouse and stirAs life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughtsCannot once start me.

Re-enter SEYTON

Wherefore was that cry?SEYTON The queen, my lord, is dead.MACBETH She should have died hereafter;There would have been a time for such a word.To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more: it is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.

Enter a Messenger

Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.Messenger Gracious my lord,I should report that which I say I saw,But know not how to do it.MACBETH Well, say, sir.Messenger As I did stand my watch upon the hill,I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,The wood began to move.MACBETH Liar and slave!Messenger Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so:Within this three mile may you see it coming;I say, a moving grove.MACBETH

If thou speak'st false,Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,I care not if thou dost for me as much.I pull in resolution, and beginTo doubt the equivocation of the fiendThat lies like truth: 'Fear not, till Birnam woodDo come to Dunsinane:' and now a woodComes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!If this which he avouches does appear,There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.I gin to be aweary of the sun,And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!At least we'll die with harness on our back.

Exeunt

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Important characters and an important relationship

We are going to focus on Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and their relationship with each other. One of the most significant things about these two is that their

strength and sanity is seen to shift in relation to each other. At the start, for example, Macbeth is the character with doubts and fears about the murder of Duncan, while Lady Macbeth forces him to carry out the deed. By the end of the play, guilt has driven Lady Macbeth to madness and suicide, while Macbeth gains power and strength.

Why do you think Shakespeare has set these two up in this way?

What does this suggest about power, and gaining it in such a negative way?

Find five quotes that describe each of these characters at the start, and end of the play.

Macbeth:

1.2.3.4. 5.

Lady Macbeth

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Important Themes: Power and Madness

Macbeth’s main goal is to gain power, assisted by his wife. Once he gains power, he spends the rest of his life trying to hold on to it. Unfortunately for the Macbeths, as they rose to power in an unnatural way they are destined to fail in the long term. In the case of Lady Macbeth, power leads to guilt and madness. Macbeth turns into a tyrant, and the death of this previously likeable character is celebrated by both the surviving characters and audiences viewing the play.

Consider this statement carefully. What, in your words, is the main message that Shakespeare wants the audience to take away from this play?

The dagger that Macbeth imagines in Act 2, Scene 1 and the blood that Lady Macbeth sees on her hands (Act 5, Scene 1) are both symbols of power and madness. Choose one of these symbols and explain how it represents either power or madness.

Essay Practise

Choose ONE of the following questions to write an essay on Macbeth.

1. Describe at least ONE challenge faced by a character or individual in the text(s).Explain how the way he / she faced the challenge helped you to understand the character or individual in the text(s).

2. Describe at least ONE memorable use of language in the text(s).Explain how this use of language helped you understand a key idea or ideas in the text(s).

Note: Language might include figurative language techniques, imagery, symbolism, vocabulary, or style.

3. Describe an important relationship in the text(s).Explain how this relationship helped you to understand an idea or ideas in the

text(s).

4. Describe a character or individual who changed in the text(s).Explain why the change in this character or individual was important to the text as whole.

Remember to plan and proofread your essay. Use this space to start!