What You Should What You Should Know: Know: MacbethMacbeth, ,

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6 January 6 January 20092009

A Word from the WiseA Word from the Wise• Glinda: “And Goodness knows/The

Wicked's lives are lonely;Goodness knows/The Wicked die alone;It just shows when you're Wicked,/You're left only/On your own…”

• Ozians: “Yes, Goodness knows/The Wicked's lives are lonely;Goodness knows/The Wicked cry alone;Nothing grows for the Wicked,/They reap only/What they've sown…”

Wicked

Act I, Scene OneAct I, Scene One• Who’s speaking here, and when?

– The witches come together and establish that they’ll meet with Macbeth

– They’re speaking before the Scots’ battle with the rebels (and Norwegians!) has finished, sometime during the 11th century

• What are the larger implications of “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”?– The larger implications of “Fair is foul, and foul is

fair” – Shakespeare uses the witches’ chant to foreshadow his play’s blurring of moral lines (Macbeth is a good man who’s swallowed by darkness, Malcolm’s responsible decision to flee ends up costing lives, Duncan’s trust turns out to be an awful thing instead of an impressive one, etc.). Good becomes hard to distinguish from evil, as even the best can turn wicked.

Act I, Scene TwoAct I, Scene Two• Where do we meet Duncan, and why is this

important?– We meet Duncan in Forres, a Scottish town near

(but not at) the scene of the battle; the battle is being fought at Fife, another Scottish town

– Macbeth is doing the fighting, not Duncan

• Who are the Scots fighting?– Rebel forces led by Macdonwald

• What terms are used to describe Macbeth when he’s introduced?– “Brave Macbeth” is said to be deserving of the

adjective

Act I, Scene TwoAct I, Scene Two• What happens when Macbeth finds the rebel

leader, and why is this important?– Macbeth hacks his way forward, heedless of

danger, until he reaches Macdonwald (who he kills in spectacularly bloody fashion)

– Macdonwald’s head – the rebel’s head – is placed on a pike (a giant pointed stick) after Macbeth kills him – this is foreshadowing

• What happens once the rebels are defeated? How do Macbeth and Banquo respond?– The Norwegians then attack the Scots, but

Macbeth and Banquo don’t lose heart – they fight twice as hard

Act I, Scene TwoAct I, Scene Two• Who’s helping the Norwegians, and how does the

battle against them go?– The Norwegians are being helped by a Scottish traitor, the

Thane of Cawdor (a nobleman), but Macbeth and Banquo lead a successful counterattack

• How do the Scots respond to King Sweno’s request?– King Sweno of Norway wants to surrender after Macbeth

defeats him, but the Scottish won’t let him bury his dead until he pays a huge sum of money – contrast this behavior with the kings in Beowulf

• What becomes of Cawdor, and what impact will it have on Macbeth?– Cawdor is to be executed as soon as possible, and his title

(since he’s a nobleman) will go to Macbeth (who is also a nobleman – the Thane of Glamis – because his father’s title was passed down to him after the elder man’s death)

Act I, Scene ThreeAct I, Scene Three• Why should we care about the punishment one

witch wreaks on a sailor?– The first witch’s punishment for the sailor sounds eerily like

what will happen to Macbeth – unable to sleep, dwindling away – after he kills Duncan in Act II (Shakespeare is a master of foreshadowing and thematic reinforcement)

• Why is foreshadowing particularly important in Macbeth? (Think about structure and themes…)– Foreshadowing is particularly important in a play like this

because the story is partly about the ways that foreknowledge – whether real or simply believed – can affect us

– If we “know” the future, can we change it?– If the play’s about a march into a future, the foreshadowing

forces us to look toward that future – as with Siddhartha and Beowulf, the play’s format reinforces its function

– The Weïrd Sisters are not “weird” (notice the presence of two dots above the “i”) – the word means that they’re able to see the future

Act I, Scene ThreeAct I, Scene Three• What’s significant about Macbeth’s

comment that “so foul and fair a day [he has] not seen”?– We soon see that Macbeth himself is

both fair and foul– Not only does this remind us of the

witches’ chant from earlier, but it underscores that one of the witches can essentially control the uncontrollable – the weather (and they can see the “uncontrollable” – the future)

Act I, Scene ThreeAct I, Scene Three• What does the weather symbolize Macbeth?

– The weather is consistently disordered – lots of storms that symbolize the chaos and passion fueling the play

– The disordered weather also symbolizes the rebellion of the natural world against Macbeth’s unnatural actions

• Why is the inhuman description of the witches important?– The witches seem inhuman, yet Macbeth listens to

them despite his initial resistance – he does the same thing with Lady Macbeth

– This is what happens when you listen to something inhuman, something evil – and forget what makes you good or human

Act I, Scene ThreeAct I, Scene Three• How do Banquo and Macbeth react to the witches’

words, and what do their reactions show about them?– Banquo isn’t nearly as impressed by the witches’ words as

Macbeth, but his reason is blinded just enough to qualify as a fatal flaw; he underestimates Macbeth’s newfound capacity for ruthlessness

– Macbeth disbelieves (rationally), but is tempted by the witches’ words; this reveals itself in his pleading demands for follow-up information, truths that the witches never provide

• What do the witches mean when they tell Banquo that he’s “Lesser than Macbeth, and greater/ Not so happy, yet much happier/Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none”?– Banquo will retain his humanity and “win” in the end when

Fleance earns the throne (implying that Malcolm will die before producing an heir) despite never ruling himself

Act I, Scene ThreeAct I, Scene Three• When Ross and Angus arrive and deliver

their burden of good news, how do Banquo’s and Macbeth’s new reactions further improve our understanding of both men?– When Ross and Angus arrive, Banquo is still

wondering whether the two men have simply gone crazy after fighting for so long

– When the two newcomers deliver information that verify one of the claims the witches made regarding Macbeth, Banquo reacts with astonishment – belief, but skeptical belief

– Macbeth, on the other hand, immediately jumps a step ahead, picturing a crown upon his own head

Act I, Scene ThreeAct I, Scene Three• What’s Banquo talking about when he

cautions Macbeth that “to win us our harm,/Th’ instruments of darkness tell us truths,/Win us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s/In deepest consequence”?– The devil may give you a couple of mild truths in

order to win your trust, and then hang you with that trust

• Why are Banquo’s words ultimately futile?– While Banquo tries to keep his friend from

staring into the abyss, it’s already too late – and even when Macbeth tries to back away, the voice of darkness and heartless ambition (in the form of Lady Macbeth) pushes him back to the edge

Act I, Scene ThreeAct I, Scene Three• What is Macbeth’s “internal debate” soliloquy

about?– Macbeth wonders whether he should trust the

witches, and argues well for either side; in the end, he merely chooses what he wants to believe, and that choice starts him down a very dark path

– Notice, however, that he’s wavering a bit, even here

• Do we really know why Macbeth wants to be king?– Not really; Susan Snyder points out that the

absence of Macbeth’s burning desire to rule resonates in this scene – we see that Macbeth seems excited, but we don’t really understand why he would want to be king

Act I, Scene FourAct I, Scene Four• Where is Duncan when Cawdor dies, and why is

this important?– Cawdor dies by another’s hand – it seems that King

Duncan (and later, King Macbeth) always kills by proxy

• What does Duncan say after Cawdor’s execution, and why is this one of the most important lines of the play?– Duncan mentions that you can’t tell what a man is

thinking, and that he trusted the Thane of Cawdor completely – then goes and does the same thing to Macbeth

– It’s incredibly naïve – but his words about not being able to trust your own judgment end up hanging over the entire play, both in the way that they describe Duncan’s ultimate downfall and the different ways in which other characters essentially repeat his assertion

Act I, Scene FourAct I, Scene Four• What does Macbeth tell Duncan in response to

the king’s expression of thanks?– “The service and loyalty I owe,/In doing it, pays

itself.” • What does Duncan announce shortly

afterward, and why does this alarm Macbeth?– Duncan’s sudden announcement that Malcolm will

be the Prince of Cumberland reminds Macbeth – harshly – that he stands outside of the usual line of succession, and that he’ll need to get rid of more than Duncan if he wants to reach the throne

• What does Macbeth say at the end of Scene Four that parallels Duncan’s important earlier line?– “Let not light see my black and deep desires” – an

immediate parallel to Duncan’s earlier point about not being able to trust the world as you see it

Act I, Scene FiveAct I, Scene Five• What does Lady Macbeth conclude after

reading Macbeth’s letter, and what does she vow to do?– Lady Macbeth reads her husband’s letter, and

immediately concludes that while he has enough ambition to want power, he lacks the ruthlessness he needs to take power

– His nature is too full of “human kindness” for him to do what is necessary

– She vows to herself that she’ll say whatever it takes to get her husband to change his mind

• How does Lady Macbeth react to the news that Duncan is coming to her home? When Lady Macbeth hears that Duncan is arriving

at the castle, she, like Macbeth, reacts with disbelief and guarded optimism that the prophecy may come true

Act I, Scene FiveAct I, Scene Five• What does Lady Macbeth ask for from the gods, and what

does the request mean? – She then asks for the gods to “unsex” her – i.e., to remove the

“milk of human kindness” that supposedly makes women weak and compassionate, and to fill her up with the steely resolve she’ll need to steer her husband down the “correct” path

• What is her final prayer, and how is it similar to Macbeth’s words from Scene Four?– She, like her husband (who cries out “Stars, hide your fires!”),

prays for darkness to fall and cover her deeds – showing that perhaps she and her husband are not as dissimilar as we’d first expect

• Why is Lady Macbeth’s advice to her husband – “look like the innocent flower,/But be the serpent under’t” – particularly significant? (Think of Duncan’s earlier words…)– Also, she tells Macbeth to “look like the innocent flower,/But be

the serpent under’t” – yet another reflection of Duncan’s almost-unconscious realization that our eyes can betray us, and that we can see what we want to see and hear what we want to hear

Act I, Scene SixAct I, Scene Six• What does the nesting behavior of the birds

on Macbeth’s castle symbolize?– Banquo mentions that the birds use Macbeth’s

castle as a nesting ground after they leave the churches where they usually live, providing an ironic juxtaposition between the castle as place-of-virtuous-life and the castle as the place-of-treacherous-death it will soon become

• Why is the repetition of “two” or “double” in this scene’s dialogue symbolically significant?– There’s lots of “doubling” occurring in the

dialogue – a subtle reference to the double face that Macbeth must wear (look like the flower, strike like the serpent)

Act I, Scene SevenAct I, Scene Seven• What is Macbeth’s “internal debate”

soliloquy about here, and what does he ultimately conclude at the end of it?– Macbeth agonizes alone about whether to go

through with his/Lady Macbeth’s plot, and resolves – again, alone – to abandon the entire venture

– Macbeth is painfully aware here of something he later forgets – that things are never as simple as “kill the king, take the throne”

– Consequences lead to further consequences, not dead ends – and Macbeth suspects that those consequences would force him to face an appropriate fate if he did end up killing Duncan

Act I, Scene SevenAct I, Scene Seven• Why does Macbeth feel that killing Duncan is

morally wrong?– Not only is it wrong for Macbeth to strike at

Duncan as his subject, but it’s wrong to do so as his host

– Also, Duncan hasn’t done anything wrong, or at least anything that would justify his slaughter

– This isn’t a matter of replacing a harmful or tyrannical ruler with someone better-suited to rule

– This is what happens when you begin basing your actions on “nouns without verbs,” as Snyder puts it; the Sisters tell Macbeth what he’ll be, but not how he’ll be it

Act I, Scene SevenAct I, Scene Seven• What argument does Macbeth first use on

Lady Macbeth when she arrives? When Lady Macbeth arrives, Macbeth essentially

tells her to be patient – that he’s barely lived a day as the Thane of Cawdor, and that they might as well enjoy their new honors instead of rapidly casting them aside

• Describe Lady Macbeth’s counterargument.– Lady Macbeth fights back with an almost

animalistic fury, mocking everything about Macbeth – questioning his love, his manhood, his honor, his courage

– It’s a blitzkrieg offensive, and Macbeth is completely overwhelmed by her; his denials and refusals sound defeated even as they leave his lips

Act I, Scene SevenAct I, Scene Seven• How does Macbeth respond to Lady

Macbeth, and what’s her rebuttal?– Macbeth states that he’s willing to do

whatever men do, but that he won’t turn himself into a monster for power’s sake

– Lady Macbeth rebuts that real men wouldn’t crumble in the face of fear, and that real men follow through on what they say they’ll do

– She states that she’d be willing to kill her own child as it nursed from her if she had pledged to do so, and dares her husband to meet her level of commitment to one’s word

Act I, Scene SevenAct I, Scene Seven• Why does Macbeth tell his wife that

she only deserves to have sons?– Macbeth tells her she’s only fit to have

male children, as her fighting soul couldn’t produce a “soft” female child

• What do Macbeth’s words subconsciously remind us about Lady Macbeth?– This serves as a reminder that her

heartlessness exposes her own relative powerlessness; her soul is trapped within a female body that allows a society she could conquer to cage her

Act I, Scene SevenAct I, Scene Seven• What is the Macbeths’ final

resolution?– The two resolve to get Duncan’s men

drunk enough to be blamed for the crime; Macbeth will stab Duncan with their own daggers, thus implicating them in their king’s slaughter

– Macbeth provides a final reminder of Duncan’s fateful words about trusting one’s sight: “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”