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Nov 4, 2020 · The play’s two central murders occur in the dark, a state which induces paralysing fear in Macbeth after Duncan’s killing, and leads to the gory botching of the attack on Banquo and Fleance, who is able to escape in the confusion.
Summary. Three Witches tell Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, that he is to be made Thane of Cawdor and will be King. They also tell Macbeth’s friend, Banquo, that he will sire kings, although he will never be King himself.
- Summary: Act 5: Scene 1
- Summary: Act 5: Scene 2
- Summary: Act 5: Scene 3
- Summary: Act 5: Scene 4
- Summary: Act 5: Scene 5
- Summary: Act 5: Scene 6
- Summary: Act 5: Scene 7
- Summary: Act 5: Scene 8
- Analysis: Act 5: Scenes 1–8
At night, in the king’s palace at Dunsinane, a doctor and a gentlewoman discuss Lady Macbeth’s strange habit of sleepwalking. Suddenly, Lady Macbeth enters in a trance with a candle in her hand. Bemoaning the murders of Lady Macduff and Banquo, she seems to see blood on her hands and claims that nothing will ever wash it off. She leaves, and the do...
Outside the castle, a group of Scottish lords discusses the military situation: the English army approaches, led by Malcolm, and the Scottish army will meet them near Birnam Wood, apparently to join forces with them. The “tyrant,” as Lennox and the other lords call Macbeth, has fortified Dunsinane Castle and is making his military preparations in a...
Macbeth strides into the hall of Dunsinane with the doctor and his attendants, boasting proudly that he has nothing to fear from the English army or from Malcolm, since “none of woman born” can harm him (4.1.96) and since he will rule securely “[t]ill Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane” (5.3.2). He calls his servant Seyton, who confirms that an army o...
In the country near Birnam Wood, Malcolm talks with the English lord Siward and his officers about Macbeth’s plan to defend the fortified castle. They decide that each soldier should cut down a bough of the forest and carry it in front of him as they march to the castle, thereby disguising their numbers. Read a translation of Act 5: Scene 4
Within the castle, Macbeth blusteringly orders that banners be hung and boasts that his castle will repel the enemy. A woman’s cry is heard, and Seyton appears to tell Macbeth that the queen is dead. Shocked, Macbeth speaks numbly about the passage of time and declares famously that life is “a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Sign...
Outside the castle, the battle commences. Malcolm orders the English soldiers to throw down their boughs and draw their swords. Read a translation of Act 5: Scene 6
On the battlefield, Macbeth strikes those around him vigorously, insolent because no man born of woman can harm him. He slays Lord Siward’s son and disappears in the fray. Macduffemerges and searches the chaos frantically for Macbeth, whom he longs to cut down personally. He dives again into the battle. Malcolm and Siward emerge and enter the castl...
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Macbeth at last encounters Macduff. They fight, and when Macbeth insists that he is invincible because of the witches’prophecy, Macduff tells Macbeth that he was not of woman born, but rather “from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripped” (5.8.15–16). Macbeth suddenly fears for his life, but he declares that he will not su...
The rapid tempo of the play’s development accelerates into a breakneck frenzy in Act 5, as the relatively long scenes of previous acts are replaced by a flurry of short takes, each of which furthers the action toward its violent conclusion on the battlefield outside Dunsinane Castle. We see the army’s and Malcolm’s preparation for battle, the fulfi...
In the first scene, Macbeth is warned against him by name and resolves to put him to death; in the second, assassins, who have come too late to find him in his castle, massacre by Macbeth's orders his entire household; in the third we find him in England stirring up Malcolm to war against the tyrant, receiving the terrible news of the slaughter ...
The gentlewoman called the doctor because she has seen Lady Macbeth sleepwalking the last few nights, but she refuses to say what Lady Macbeth says or does. When he killed Duncan, Macbeth thought he heard a voice say he had murdered sleep.
Macbeth is introduced as the brave man who led King Duncan's forces to victory against the traitorous Thane of Cawdor, Macdonwald and The King of Norway, in a battle that could have gone either way were it not for Macbeth's leadership. We learn that Macbeth killed Macdonwald himself in battle.
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Macbeth is a tragedy that tells the story of a soldier whose overriding ambition and thirst for power cause him to abandon his morals and bring about the near destruction of the kingdom he seeks to rule. At first, the conflict is between Macbeth and himself, as he debates whether or not he will violently seize power, and between Macbeth and his ...
