MACBETH

Act 1, scenes 1–4

Summary: Act 1, scene 1

Thunder and lightning crash above a Scottish moor. Three haggard old women, the witches,
appear out of the storm. In eerie, chanting tones, they make plans to meet again upon the
heath, after the battle, to confront Macbeth. As quickly as they arrive, they disappear.

Summary: Act 1, scene 2

At a military camp near his palace at Forres, King Duncan of Scotland asks a wounded captain
for news about the Scots’ battle with the Irish invaders, who are led by the rebel Macdonwald.
The captain, who was wounded helping Duncan’s son Malcolm escape capture by the Irish,
replies that the Scottish generals Macbeth and Banquo fought with great courage and
violence. The captain then describes for Duncan how Macbeth slew the traitorous
Macdonwald. As the captain is carried off to have his wounds attended to, the thane of Ross,
a Scottish nobleman, enters and tells the king that the traitorous thane of Cawdor has been
defeated and the army of Norway repelled. Duncan decrees that the thane of Cawdor be
put to death and that Macbeth, the hero of the victorious army, be given Cawdor’s title. Ross
leaves to deliver the news to Macbeth.

Summary: Act 1, scene 3

On the heath near the battlefield, thunder rolls and the three witches appear. One says that
she has just come from “[k]illing swine” and another describes the revenge she has planned
upon a sailor whose wife refused to share her chestnuts. Suddenly a drum beats, and the third
witch cries that Macbeth is coming. Macbeth and Banquo, on their way to the king’s court at
Forres, come upon the witches and shrink in horror at the sight of the old women. Banquo asks
whether they are mortal, noting that they don’t seem to be “inhabitants o’ th’ earth” (1.3.39).
He also wonders whether they are really women, since they seem to have beards like men.
The witches hail Macbeth as thane of Glamis (his original title) and as thane of Cawdor.
Macbeth is baffled by this second title, as he has not yet heard of King Duncan’s decision. The
witches also declare that Macbeth will be king one day. Stunned and intrigued, Macbeth
presses the witches for more information, but they have turned their attention to Banquo,
speaking in yet more riddles. They call Banquo “lesser than Macbeth, and greater,” and “not
so happy, yet much happier”; then they tell him that he will never be king but that his children
will sit upon the throne (1.3.63–65). Macbeth implores the witches to explain what they meant
by calling him thane of Cawdor, but they vanish into thin air.

In disbelief, Macbeth and Banquo discuss the strange encounter. Macbeth fixates on the
details of the prophecy. “Your children shall be kings,” he says to his friend, to which Banquo
responds: “You shall be king” (1.3.84). Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Ross
and Angus, who have come to convey them to the king. Ross tells Macbeth that the king has
made him thane of Cawdor, as the former thane is to be executed for treason. Macbeth,
amazed that the witches’ prophecy has come true, asks Banquo if he hopes his children will
be kings. Banquo replies that devils often tell half-truths in order to “win us to our harm”
(1.3.121). Macbeth ignores his companions and speaks to himself, ruminating upon the
possibility that he might one day be king. He wonders whether the reign will simply fall to him
or whether he will have to perform a dark deed in order to gain the crown. At last he shakes
himself from his reverie and the group departs for Forres. As they leave, Macbeth whispers to
Banquo that, at a later time, he would like to speak to him privately about what has transpired.
Summary: Act 1, scene 4

At the king’s palace, Duncan hears reports of Cawdor’s execution from his son Malcolm, who
says that Cawdor died nobly, confessing freely and repenting of his crimes. Macbeth and
Banquo enter with Ross and Angus. Duncan thanks the two generals profusely for their heroism
in the battle, and they profess their loyalty and gratitude toward Duncan. Duncan announces
his intention to name Malcolm the heir to his throne. Macbeth declares his joy but notes to
himself that Malcolm now stands between him and the crown. Plans are made for Duncan to
dine at Macbeth’s castle that evening, and Macbeth goes on ahead of the royal party to
inform his wife of the king’s impending arrival.

Analysis: Act 1, scenes 1–4

These scenes establish the play’s dramatic premise—the witches’ awakening of Macbeth’s
ambition—and present the main characters and their relationships. At the same time, the first
three scenes establish a dark mood that permeates the entire play. The stage directions
indicate that the play begins with a storm, and malignant supernatural forces immediately
appear in the form of the three witches. From there, the action quickly shifts to a battlefield
that is dominated by a sense of the grisliness and cruelty of war. In his description of Macbeth
and Banquo’s heroics, the captain dwells specifically on images of carnage: “he unseamed
him from the nave to th’ chops,” he says, describing Macbeth’s slaying of Macdonwald
(1.2.22). The bloody murders that fill the play are foreshadowed by the bloody victory that the
Scots win over their enemies.

Our initial impression of Macbeth, based on the captain’s report of his valor and prowess in
battle, is immediately complicated by Macbeth’s obvious fixation upon the witches’
prophecy. Macbeth is a noble and courageous warrior but his reaction to the witches’
pronouncements emphasizes his great desire for power and prestige. Macbeth immediately
realizes that the fulfillment of the prophecy may require conspiracy and murder on his part. He
clearly allows himself to consider taking such actions, although he is by no means resolved to
do so. His reaction to the prophecy displays a fundamental confusion and inactivity: instead
of resolving to act on the witches’ claims, or simply dismissing them, Macbeth talks himself into
a kind of thoughtful stupor as he tries to work out the situation for himself. In the following scene,
Lady Macbeth will emerge and drive the hesitant Macbeth to act; she is the will propelling his
achievements. Once Lady Macbeth hears of the witches’ prophecy, Duncan’s life is doomed.

Macbeth contains some of Shakespeare’s most vivid female characters. Lady Macbeth and
the three witches are extremely wicked, but they are also stronger and more imposing than
the men around them. The sinister witches cast the mood for the entire play. Their rhyming
incantations stand out eerily amid the blank verse spoken by the other characters, and their
grotesque figures of speech establish a lingering aura. Whenever they appear, the stage
directions deliberately link them to unease and lurking chaos in the natural world by insisting
on “Thunder” or “Thunder and lightning.”

Shakespeare has the witches speak in language of contradiction. Their famous line “Fair is foul,
and foul is fair” is a prominent example (1.1.10), but there are many others, such as their
characterization of Banquo as “lesser than Macbeth, and greater” (1.3.63). Such speech adds
to the play’s sense of moral confusion by implying that nothing is quite what it seems.
Interestingly, Macbeth’s first line in the play is “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (1.3.36).

This line echoes the witches’ words and establishes a connection between them and
Macbeth. It also suggests that Macbeth is the focus of the drama’s moral confusion.
Act 1, Scene 1

On a heath in Scotland, three witches, the Weird Sisters, wait to meet Macbeth amidst thunder
and lightning. Their conversation is filled with paradox and equivocation: they say that they will
meet Macbeth "when the battle's lost and won" and when "fair is foul and foul is fair" (10).

Act 1, Scene 2

The Scottish army is at war with the Norwegian army. Duncan, king of Scotland, meets a
captain returning from battle. The captain informs them of Macbeth and Banquo's bravery in
battle. He also describes Macbeth's attack on the castle of the treacherous Macdonald, in
which Macbeth triumphed and planted Macdonald’s head on the battlements of the castle.
The Thanes of Ross and Angus enter with the news that the Thane of Cawdor has sided with
Norway. Duncan decides to execute the disloyal thane and give the title of Cawdor to
Macbeth.

Act 1, Scene 3

The Weird Sisters meet on the heath and wait for Macbeth. He arrives with Banquo, repeating
the witches' paradoxical phrase by stating "So foul and fair a day I have not seen" (36). The
witches hail him as "Thane of Glamis" (his present title), "Thane of Cawdor" (the title he will soon
receive officially), and "king hereafter" (46-48). Their greeting startles and seems to frighten
Macbeth. When Banquo questions the witches as to who they are, they greet him with the
phrases "Lesser than Macbeth and greater," "Not so happy, yet much happier," and a man
who "shall get kings, though [he] be none" (63-65).

When Macbeth questions them further, the witches vanish into thin air. Almost as soon as they
disappear, Ross and Angus appear with the news that the king has granted Macbeth the title
of Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth and Banquo step aside to discuss this news; Banquo is of the
opinion that the title of Thane of Cawdor might "enkindle" Macbeth to seek the crown as well
(119). Macbeth questions why such happy news causes his "seated heart [to] knock at [his] ribs
/ Against the use of nature," and his thoughts turn immediately and with terror to murdering
the king in order to fulfill the witches' second prophesy (135-36). When Ross and Angus notice
Macbeth's distraught state, Banquo dismisses it as Macbeth's unfamiliarity with his new title.

Act 1, Scene 4

Duncan demands to know whether the former Thane of Cawdor has been executed. His son
Malcolm assures him that he has witnessed the former Thane’s becoming death. While Duncan
muses about the fact that he placed "absolute trust" in the treacherous Thane, Macbeth
enters. Duncan thanks Macbeth and Banquo for their loyalty and bravery. He consequently
announces his decision to make his son Malcolm the heir to the throne of Scotland (something
that would not have happened automatically, since his position was elected and not
inherited). Duncan then states that he plans to visit Macbeth at his home in Inverness. Macbeth
leaves to prepare his home for the royal visit, pondering the stumbling block of Malcolm that
now hinders his ascension to the throne. The king follows with Banquo.

Act 1, Scene 5

At Inverness, Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth that describes his meeting with the
witches. She fears that his nature is not ruthless enough-- he's "too full o' th' milk of human
kindness” (15)—to murder Duncan and assure the completion of the witches' prophesy. He has
ambition enough, she claims, but lacks the gumption to act on it. She then implores him to
hurry home so that she can "pour [her] spirits in [his] ear" (24)—in other words, goad him on to
the murder he must commit. When a messenger arrives with the news that Duncan is coming,
Lady Macbeth calls on the heavenly powers to "unsex me here" and fill her with cruelty, taking
from her all natural womanly compassion (39). When Macbeth arrives, she greets him as Glamis
and Cawdor and urges him to "look like the innocent flower, / but be the serpent under’t" (63-
64). She then says that she will make all the preparations for the king's visit and subsequent
murder.

Act 1, Scene 6

Duncan arrives at Inverness with Banquo and exchanges pleasantries with Lady Macbeth. The
king inquires after Macbeth's whereabouts and she offers to bring him to where Macbeth
awaits.

Act 1, Scene 7

Alone on stage, Macbeth agonizes over whether to kill Duncan, recognizing the act of
murdering the king as a terrible sin. He struggles in particular with the idea of murdering a
man—a relative, no less—who trusts and loves him. He would like the king's murder to be over
and regrets the fact that he possesses “vaulting ambition" without the ruthlessness to ensure
the attainment of his goals (27).

As Lady Macbeth enters, Macbeth tells her that he "will proceed no further in this business" (31).
But Lady Macbeth taunts him for his fears and ambivalence, telling him he will only be a man
when he carries out the murder. She states that she herself would go so far as to take her own
nursing baby and dash its brains if necessary. She counsels him to "screw [his] courage to the
sticking place" and details the way they will murder the king (60). They will wait until he falls
asleep, she says, and thereafter intoxicate his bodyguards with drink. This will allow them to
murder Duncan and lay the blame on the two drunken bodyguards. Macbeth is astonished
by her cruelty but resigns to follow through with her plans.

Analysis

Fate, Prophecy, and Equivocation

Just as the Porter in Act 2 extemporizes about the sin of equivocation, the play figures
equivocation as one of its most important themes. Starting from the Weird Sisters' first words
that open the play, audiences quickly ascertain that things are not what they seem.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "equivocation" has two different
meanings—both of which are applicable to this play. The first is:

“The using (a word) in more than one sense; ambiguity or uncertainty of meaning in words;
also . . . misapprehension arising from the ambiguity of terms.”

This definition as simple verbal ambiguity is the one that audiences are most familiar with—and
one that plays an important role in the play. The Porter’s speech on equivocation in Act 2,
however, refers to a more active type of equivocation. The second definition in the OED: reads:

The use of words or expressions that are susceptible of a double signification, with a view to
mislead; esp. the expression of a virtual falsehood in the form of a proposition which (in order
to satisfy the speaker's conscience) is verbally true.

This kind of equivocation is similar to lying; it is intentionally designed to mislead and confuse.

The intentional ambiguity of terms is what we see in the prophesies of the Weird Sisters. Their
speech is full of paradox and confusion, starting with their first assertion that "fair is foul and foul
is fair" (I i 10). The witches' prophesies are intentionally ambiguous. The alliteration and rhymed
couplets in which they speak also contributes to the effect of instability and confusion in their
words. For many readers, more than one reading is required to grasp a sense of what the
witches mean. It is not surprising, therefore, that these "imperfect speakers" can easily bedazzle
and confuse Macbeth throughout the course of the play (I iii 68).

Just as their words are confusing, it is unclear as to whether the witches merely predict or
actually effect the future. Banquo fears, for example, that the witches' words will "enkindle
[Macbeth] unto the crown"—in other words, that they will awaken in Macbeth an ambition
that is already latent in him (I iii 119). His fears seem well-founded: as soon as the witches
mention the crown, Macbeth's thoughts turn to murder. The witches’ power is thus one of
prophecy, but prophecy through suggestion. For Macbeth, the witches can be understood as
representing the final impetus that drive him to his pre-determined end. The prophecy is in this
sense self-fulfilling.

The oracular sisters are in fact connected etymologically to the Fates of Greek mythology. The
word "weird" derives from the Old English word "wyrd," meaning "fate." And not all fate is self-
fulfilling. In Banquo's case, in contrast to Macbeth’s, the witches seem only to predict the
future. For unlike Macbeth, Banquo does not act on the witches' prediction that he will father
kings—and yet the witches' prophesy still comes true. The role of the weird sisters in the story,
therefore, is difficult to define or determine. Are they agents of fate or a motivating force? And
why do they suddenly disappear from the play in the third act?

The ambiguity of the Weird Sisters reflects a greater theme of doubling, mirrors, and schism
between inner and outer worlds that permeates the work as a whole. Throughout the play,
characters, scenes, and ideas are doubled. As Duncan muses about the treachery of the
Thane of Cawdor at the beginning of the play, for example, Macbeth enters the scene:

KING DUNCAN: There's no art

To find the mind's construction in the face.
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Enter MACBETH, BANQUP, ROSS, and ANGUS.
To MACBETH: O worthiest cousin,
The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me! (I iv 11-16)

The dramatic irony of Duncan’s trust is realized only later in the play. Similarly, the captain in
Scene 2 makes a battle report that becomes in effect a prophecy:

For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name!—

Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour’s minion
Carved out his passage till he faced the slave,
Which ne’er shook hands nor bade farewell to him
Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’chops,
And fixed his head upon our battlements. (I i16-23)

The passage can be interpreted as follows: Macbeth “disdains fortune” by disregarding the
natural course of action and becomes king through a “bloody execution” of Duncan;
Macduff, who was born from a Caesarian section (his mother being “unseamed. . . from the
nave to th’chops”) and who “ne’er shook hands nor bade farewell” decapitates Macbeth
and hangs his head up in public.
As in all Shakespearean plays, mirroring among characters serves to heighten their differences.
Thus Macbeth, the young, valiant, cruel traitor/king has a foil in Duncan, the old, venerable,
peaceable, and trusting king. Lady Macbeth, who casts off her femininity and claims to feel
no qualms about killing her own children, is doubled in Lady Macduff, who is a model of a
good mother and wife. Banquo's failure to act on the witches' prophesy is mirrored in
Macbeth's drive to realize all that the witches foresee.

Similarly, much of the play is also concerned with the relation between contrasting inner and
outer worlds. Beginning with the equivocal prophecies of the Weird Sisters, appearances
seldom align with reality. Lady Macbeth, for example, tells her husband to "look like the
innocent flower, / but be the serpent under’t" (63-64). Macbeth appears to be a loyal Thane,
but secretly plans revenge. Lady Macbeth appears to be a gentle woman but vows to be
"unsexed" and swears on committing bloody deeds. Macbeth is also a play about the inner
world of human psychology, as will be illustrated in later acts through nightmares and guilt-
ridden hallucinations. Such contrast between "being" and "seeming" serves as another
illustration of equivocation.

The Macbeths and The Corruption of Nature

One of the most ambiguous aspects of the play is the character of Macbeth himself. Unlike
other Shakespearean villains like Iago or Richard III, Macbeth is not entirely committed to his
evil actions. When he swears to commit suicide, he must overcome an enormous resistance
from his conscience. At the same time, he sees as his own biggest flaw not a lack of moral
values but rather a lack of motivation to carry out his diabolical schemes. In this he resembles
Hamlet, who soliloquizes numerous times about his inaction. But unlike Hamlet, Macbeth does
not have a good reason to kill, nor is the man he kills evil—far from it. And finally, while Macbeth
becomes increasingly devoted to murderous actions, his soliloquies are so full of eloquent
speech and pathos that it is not difficult to sympathize with him. Thus at the heart of the play
lies a tangle of uncertainty.

If Macbeth is indecisive, Lady Macbeth is just the opposite—a character with such a single
vision and drive for advancement that she brings about her own demise. And yet her very
ruthlessness brings about another form of ambiguity, for in swearing to help Macbeth realize
the Weird Sisters' prophecy, she must cast off her femininity. In a speech at the beginning of
Scene 5, she calls on the spirits of the air to take away her womanhood:

Come you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood,
Stop up th'access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th'effect and it. (I v 38-45)

Lady Macbeth sees "remorse" as one of the names for feminine compassion—of which she
must rid herself. Thus she must be "unsexed." This does not mean, however, that in rejecting her
femininity she becomes manly. Instead, she becomes a woman devoid of the sexual
characteristics and sentimentality that make her a woman. She becomes entirely unnatural
and inhuman. Like the supernatural Weird Sisters with their beards, Lady Macbeth becomes
something that does not fit into the natural world.

The corruption of nature is a theme that surfaces and resurfaces in the same act. When
Duncan greets Macbeth, for example, he states that he has “begun to plant thee and will
labor / to make thee full of growing" (I iv 28-29). Following the metaphor of the future as lying
in the “seeds of time,” Macbeth is compared to a plant that Duncan will look after (I iii 56). By
murdering Duncan, then, Macbeth perverts nature by severing himself effectively from the
very "root" that feeds him. For this reason, perhaps, the thought of murdering Duncan causes
Macbeth's heart to "knock at [his] ribs / Against the use of nature" (I iii 135-36). Just as the Weird
Sisters pervert the normal course of nature by telling their prophecy, Macbeth upsets the
course of nature by his regicide.

Reflecting the disruption of nature, the dialogue between Macbeth and Lady in the scene
following the murder becomes heavy, graceless, and almost syncopated. Lady Macbeth, for
example, says:

What thou wouldst highly,

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false
And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'd'st have, great Glamis,
That which cries "Thus thou must do," if thou have it,
And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
Than wishest should be undone. (I v 28-23).

The repetition of the phrase "thou wouldst," in all its permutations, confounds the flow of
speech. The speech is clotted with accents, tangling meter and scansion, and the alliteration
is almost tongue-twisting, slowing the rhythm of the words. Just as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
have corrupted nature, the language Shakespeare uses in these scenes disrupts the flow of his
usually smoothly iambic meter.

Yet another part of the theme of corruption of nature lies in the compression of time that occurs
throughout the act. When Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth’s letter, she states: Th[ese] letters
have transported me beyond / This ignorant present, and I feel now / The future in the instant"
(I v 54-56). By telling the future to Macbeth and Banquo, the Weird Sisters upset the natural
course of time and bring the future to the present. Thus when Macbeth vacillates over whether
or not to kill Duncan, he wants to leap into the future: "If it were done when ‘tis done, then
‘twere well / It were done quickly" (I vii 1-2). He wants the murder to be over quickly—indeed
so quickly that it is over before the audience even registers it. Just as equivocation twists the
meaning of words, Macbeth's murderous desires twist the meaning of time.

Thus beginning with the Weird Sisters, equivocation in all its permutations is threaded
throughout the fabric of the first act. Over the course of the play, the breach between the
worlds of reality and illusion that is the core of equivocation grows ever wider.