Macbeth ( analysis of acts )

CENE 1

 Three witches gather and say that they’ll meet with
Macbeth before sunset and after a terrible battle
that has been fought nearby.
 The three witches are later referred to as “the three
weird sisters.”
 Remember: “Fair is foul and foul is fair.”

ACT I, SCENE 2

 The scene is set on a
battlefield where
Macbeth’s army has been
fighting the army of the
traitor Macdonwald.
 The King, Duncan, asks a
brave soldier to comment
on the course of the
battle. This sergeant has
proved his valor by
fighting to save the
King’s son, Malcolm, from
capture by the rebel
Macdonwald’s forces.

ACT I, SCENE 2, CONT.
The Sergeant says that…
 The battle was evenly matched – with the
“whore” Fortune smiling temporarily on
Macdonwald…
 until Macbeth “brandished his steel, which
smoked with bloody execution.” Macbeth
carved his way through Macdonwald’s men
until “he came face-to-face with the slave
(Macdonwald)...”
 …at which point Macbeth “unseamed him
(Macdonwald) from the nave to the chops and
stuck his head upon the battlements.”


 Macdonwald’s men run – “trusting their heels.”
 The King of Norway fights on the side of
Macdonwald. Norway hopes that a successful
uprising by the traitor will allow him to capitalize
on his support and gain political power in Scotland.
 At this point, Norway sends his fresh forces onto
the field to fight Macbeth and Banquo’s tired and
battle-worn men.
 Duncan asks: “Didn’t this dismay Macbeth (and
Macbeth’s co-leader, Banquo)?”
 The Sergeant replies: “Yes. Like the sparrow
dismays the eagle or the rabbit dismays the lion.”


 Macbeth’s men defeat Norway’s army, and then march
to Fife, where Norway – here working with the traitor
the Thane of Cawdor – has a second force battling the
loyal Scottish thane, Ross and his troops.
 Remember: “Thane” = “Lord” or “Duke”
 Macbeth wins there, too.
 The King orders that the traitor Cawdor be executed
and that Macbeth be named the new Thane of Cawdor
in gratitude for his awesome performance on the
battlefield.

ACT I, SCENE 3

 Macbeth and Banquo ride from the battlefield.
 Macbeth observes: “So foul and fair a day I have not
seen.” Where have we heard this before?
 Macbeth and Banquo happen across the three weird
sisters, who greet Macbeth:
 “Hail Thane of Glamis.”
 “Hail Thane of Cawdor.”
 “Hail he that shalt be king hereafter.”


 The greeting unnerves Macbeth. He already is Thane of
Glamis (that was his father’s title, he inherited it).
 Macbeth knows, though, that he cannot be Thane of
Cawdor. “The Thane of Cawdor yet lives…” Macbeth
wonders (he knows; he is responsible for Cawdor’s arrest
as a traitor on the battlefield).
 “Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?” Macbeth asks.
 Macbeth is even more flabbergasted at the witches’
suggestion that he could ever be king.

Act I, Scene 3, cont.

• While Macbeth thinks-through the witches’
greeting, Banquo asks them about himself.

• About Banquo the witches say
• “You are lesser than Macbeth, but greater.”
• “You are not so happy as Macbeth, but
happier.”
• “You are not a king, but you will be the
father of kings.”


 Ross and Lennox arrive, and greet Macbeth as
“Thane of Cawdor.” They tell him that Duncan has
promoted him in gratitude for his bravery and
loyalty, and that Duncan wants to meet with
Macbeth and Banquo so he can personally deliver
his thanks.
 “Can the devil speak true?” wonders Macbeth.

 Banquo suggests that all of what the witches said
must be true.


 Macbeth ponders this, and wonders whether the
witches are good, or evil.
 “If their prediction is evil, how could it have been
fulfilled… and fulfilled for the good (i.e. “with me
replacing the traitorous Cawdor.”)
 “BUT,” he continues, “if what they said was good,
why is the last part of their prediction evil (i.e. that
Macbeth will have to somehow unseat Duncan and
Malcolm and Donalbain)?”
 So: what Macbeth thinks about is whether the
witches are foul creatures making fair predictions or
fair creatures making foul ones. Where have we
heard this before?

Act I, Scene 4
• The King says to Macbeth that there is no way he can
fully repay him both for helping to save his eldest son
Malcolm from capture and for driving-off the traitors
Macdonwald and Cawdor.
• Duncan then announces that he has an important
announcement to make regarding an official declaration
as to who will inherit his throne.
• Could it be?......
• Yes! Malcolm has been named Prince of Cumberland
and next in line to the throne! Why would Macbeth have
any hopes that he would be elevated even ahead of the
King’s own son? What is Macbeth’s reaction to this
announcement?


 Important: In this scene, Duncan says …

“There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the
face. He (the executed Thane of Cawdor) was a
gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.”
In other words…?

Freytag’s Triangle
In Technique of the Drama (1863), Gustav Freytag outlined what he
considered to be the most successful structure for a play, based on the
writings of Aristotle, Shakespeare, and other he considered to be
outstanding playwrights. Briefly, Freytag believed the action of the play
could be organized in the shape of a triangle, stressing that there should
be five distinct parts: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/lit_resources/english%20102/miscellaneous/freytag.htm

3. Climax

2. Complication 4. Falling action

1. Introduction (exposition) 5. Conclusion (dénoument)

THEMES ESTABLISHED THUS FAR IN
MACBETH
 “Fair vs. Foul”
 “Borrowed robes”
 “Why do you dress me in borrowed robes; the Thane of Cawdor
yet lives.”
 “New honors hang on Macbeth like new clothes; they cleave not
to their mold but with aid of use.” Banquo says this to Lennox
and Ross while Macbeth is lost in thought.
 One cannot read a man’s mind in his face. Our outward
appearance does not reveal our inward thoughts/plans.

ACT I, SCENE 5
 Lady Macbeth reads a letter sent by her husband
in which he relates the details of what the
witches have predicted and what Duncan has
done.
 He tells his wife that he’s invited Duncan to their
castle as a guest.
 She begins to formulate her plan to assassinate
Duncan.

 Lady Macbeth asks “spirits that tend on mortal thoughts”
to unsex her. She continues, saying: “Come to my woman’s
breasts and take my milk for gall.”
 She reveals her intentions to her husband. Macbeth
dismisses her immediately.
 Lady Macbeth reminds her husband that he is too loyal to
the king and that her plan has obviously upset him. “Your
face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange
matters.” Where have we heard this before?
 Lady Macbeth also urges her husband to consider
treachery as the quick way to become king. Deceit is easy:
“Look like the innocent flower,” she says, “But be the
serpent under it.”
 Lady Macbeth knows that her husband is “too full of the
milk of human kindness” to “catch the nearest way” to
power.

Act I, Scene 6
• Duncan arrives at Macbeth’s castle (Inverness) and comments on
its pleasantness and “good vibe.” Dramatic Irony.

Dramatic Irony happens when the audience knows more about what is
going on in a drama/comedy than one or more of the characters
know. Dramatic irony is a staple of horror movies. we – the
audience – know that the psycho-killer is hiding with his machete in
the basement where the cute girl and her obnoxious boyfriend are
about to go make-out.

• Lady Macbeth welcomes him cordially, giving no hint of her real
intentions.
• Duncan remarks on how happy he is to be with Macbeth and his
wife: “I love him greatly, and will continue to show him favor.”

Act I, Scene 7
• Macbeth’s first soliloquy: “If it were done when it is done, then it is
better it were done quickly.”
• He is here in double-proof, Macbeth says, reminding us that
Duncan is not just Macbeth’s sovereign, but his cousin as well.
• In the same speech, Macbeth comments that as Duncan’s host he
“should lock the door against any murderer” not bear the knife
himself. Macbeth continues to observe that Duncan has been a good
and benevolent king, not worthy of any treachery against him.
• Macbeth decides that he and his wife will make no more plots
against Duncan: “We will proceed no further in this business.”
• She calls him a wuss. “When you dared to do the deed, then you
were a man… now that [our opportunity] has presented itself… you
[are] impotent.” [1, 7, 50ff.]
• She also reminds Macbeth that had she promised so, she would
“dash the brains out” of a baby even in the act of nursing the infant.

Macbeth ( analysis of acts )

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