the archetype and tragic hero of Macbeth Act.ppt

Act I, Scene 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.”

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.

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

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?

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

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

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.

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
Act I, Scene 6

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,
Act I, Scene 7

Act 2, Scene 1
Banquo tells Macbeth he
dreamt of the witches.
Macbeth’s second
soliloquy: “Is this a dagger
I see before me, The
handle toward my hand?”

Act 2, Scene 2
Macbeth murders the King while his guards are drunk asleep.
Lady Macbeth observes that she would have done the deed
herself “If Duncan hadn’t looked so much like [her] father as
he slept.” (She has a weakness, but acts “tough”… this is a
“borrowed robe” example).
Macbeth botches the job. He returns to his chamber bloody
and with the murder weapons, which he was supposed to
plant on the guards.
Lady Macbeth, after chastising her husband as a “weak-willed
creature,” plants the dagger and returns… now just as bloody
as her husband.
Remember: 1. “Macbeth has murdered sleep.”
2. “Can all great Neptune’s ocean wash this
blood from off my hand?”

Act 2, Scene 3
In most of his tragedies, Shakespeare balances scenes
of intense drama or action with lighter scenes – which
often contain crude, offensive humor. Macbeth is no
different. Act 2, scene 3 immediately follows Duncan’s
murder and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s
unexpected(?) admission that they feel guilt. This
scene is commonly called the “porter” scene.
The persistent knocking of Macduff and Lennox (two
of Duncan’s very loyal thanes) wakens the castle’s
porter, who shuffles toward the gate – still a little
drunk from the night before – to admit the knocker.
Why does the porter take so long to open the gate?

Act 2, Scene 3, cont.
Macduff and Lennox have come to meet Duncan and
leave with him from Inverness (the castle). Macbeth –
who has “just awakened” – tells Macduff to go ahead
and get Duncan. Macduff, of course, comes back
screaming the news that the King’s been murdered.
Macbeth acknowledges that he killed the King’s
obviously guilty guards – he says he could not restrain
his anger at their treachery.
Macduff tells Lady Macbeth that the details of murder
scene are so terrible that “the reciting of [them] in a
woman’s ear would kill her as she heard [them].”
Macolm and Donalbain – the King’s sons – agree to
leave Scotland.

Act 2, Scene 4
Outside Macbeth’s castle, an Old Man and Ross
(another thane loyal to Duncan) talk of the strange
occurrences of the night before. “The heavens [were]
troubled by men’s sins, punishing this bloody world.”
Besides the night’s storminess, the two also observed
that the sun was dark – “snuffed out by the darkness
of night” – and that Duncan’s beautiful and well-bred
horses killd each other and became cannibals.
Macduff and Ross seem to agree that Malcolm and
Donalbain’s quick departure from Scotland makes
them look guilty.
Macbeth, says Ross, is in Scone for his coronation.
Macduff makes it clear that he has no intention of
attending.

Act 3, Scene 1
Macbeth invites Banquo to be the guest of honor at
a feast. Banquo says he will attend – he has been
ordered to, after all, but that he’ll be a few minutes
late. He wants to go riding with his son, Fleance.
Macbeth’s 3rd
soliloquy:
“To be king is nothing but to be safely king…My
immortal soul I have given to the devil to make the
children of Banquo kings!”
By convincing them that Banquo is the cause of
their misfortunes, Macbeth persuades two seedy
characters to assassinate Banquo and Fleance in the
evening as they return to the castle for the feast.

Act 3, Scene 2
Like her husband does, Lady Macbeth says (to herself)
that “We gain nothing and sacrifice everything when
we get what we want without achieving happiness.”
Lady M notices that her husband is upset and
preoccupied. She presumes that he is still distracted by
Duncan’s murder. He tells her that he has something
“awful and infamous” planned – but will not reveal any
other details of his plan to murder Banquo.
Could Macbeth’s distraction and upsetment be that he
is not comfortable with having hired men do his own
dirty work? Could he be upset that he has chosen a
coward’s way to kill his once-best friend?

Act 3, Scene 3
Banquo’s murder.
Fleance escapes!
Who is the third murderer? If it’s
Macbeth, why don’t the other two
assassins recognize him? Could it be that
he’s in disguise? Remember: “Borrowed
robes.” Could Macbeth be disguised (i.e.
wearing “borrowed robes”) so that the
other two guys don’t spot him?

Act 3, Scene 4
The banquet. Macbeth “worries” that Banquo’s
late.
The first murderer delivers the news that
Banquo is dead, but Fleance is escaped. Why
does Macbeth act like he isn’t aware of this?
Banquo’s ghost appears, and Macbeth starts
screaming at what all the others see as an
empty chair. Lady Macbeth tells them to pay
no mind to Macbeth’s disturbing behavior. “He
has been like this since boyhood, “ she says.

Act 3, Scene 5
We did not read this scene. In it, the “chief
of the witches”, Hecate, acknowledges
that they (the witches) have a firm grasp
on Macbeth.

Act 3, Scene 6
Lennox, who is loyal to Duncan, makes
sarcastic remarks about Macbeth to
another (unnamed) thane. “Banquo
shouldn’t have been out riding late, by
himself, alone. He got what he deserved.”
Lennox reveals that Macduff has gone to
England, there to join forces with Malcolm
and various English noblemen (with the
blessing of England’s king, Edward) to
raise an army against Macbeth.

We’ve heard three soliloquies from Macbeth up to this
point in the play.
Remember: a soliloquy is a long speech that a character
delivers aloud and which no other character overhears.
The purpose of a soliloquy is to reveal a character’s inner
thoughts to the audience. In movies, soliloquies are done
using a “voice over,” where we hear a character’s voice,
but see that he or she is not speaking.
Soliloquies are usually referred to by their first lines.
I, vi, 1-28: “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well
it were done quickly.”
II, I, 33- 63: “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the
handle toward my hand?”
III, 1, 48-72: “To be thus [king] is nothing, but to be safely

Act 4, Scene 1
Macbeth’s returns to the witches and demands
more information. They agree to reveal to him
three apparitions:
1. A helmeted head. This apparition warns: “Beware
Macduff; beware the Thane of Fife.”
2. A bloody baby. The second illusion delivers this
warning: “Macbeth cannot be harmed by any
man born of woman.”
3. A crowned child holding the branch of a tree. This
third apparition promises that “Macbeth will not
be defeated until Birnam Wood (a forest near his
castle) comes to Dunsinane hill (the hill on which
Macbeth’s castle is built).”

Act 4, Scene 2
Lady Macduff wonders why her husband
has abandoned her and gone so hastily to
England. She observes that “even when our
actions are not traitorous, our fear can
make us look like traitors (lines 3-4).”
Regardless of her husband’s true intent,
Lady Macduff tells her friend Ross that he
has betrayed her and his children… and
that he may, in fact be a coward.
Lady Macduff and all of her children are
brutally murdered in their undefended
castle by Macbeth’s henchmen.

Act 4, Scene 3
Macduff meets with Malcolm in England. Malcolm
confides in Macduff that he (Malcolm) is lustful and
greedy. Malcolm wonders if Macduff could support his
right to the throne knowing that his evils would make
Macbeth look “white as snow” and “innocent as a
lamb.”
At first, Macduff reassures Malcolm, suggesting that
no one can be as evil as Macbeth has been in his short
reign. Soon, though, Macduff admits that not only is
Malcolm not fit to be king, he’s not fit to live! (103-4)
Malcolm confesses that he was only testing Macduff’s
loyalty. Malcolm is pleased that Macduff has shown
himself to be loyal to Scotland, NOT JUST to whoever
happens to be on Scotland’s throne.

Act 5, Scene 1
Lady Macbeth’s maid has summoned a doctor to try to
cure Lady Macbeth of sleepwalking. The doctor
observes that Lady Macbeth’s seeming wakefulness
but absolute unawareness of anything happening
around her is quite unnatural (Remember: “Macbeth
has murdered sleep” – II, ii, 35).
Lady Macbeth mentions the murders of Duncan,
Banquo, and Macduff. All the while she scrubs her
hands, trying to wash away imaginary blood that her
guilt causes her to see. “Out, damned spot!”( V, i, 27).
This reminds us of what Macbeth says in Act II (Can all
great Neptune’s ocean wash [Duncan’s blood] from my
hands?” (ii, 58-9). Lady Macbeth replies (ironically) that
“A little water will clear us of this [bloody] deed.” (II, ii,
66-7).

Act 5, Scene 2
English soldiers along with Malcolm and
Macduff have assembled near Macbeth’s castle.
Cool lines:
“Now [Macbeth] feels his hidden murders
sticking to his hands.” (Angus: V, ii, 17-8).
Sticking… like drying blood.
“His followers act only because they are
commanded to do so, not out of love.” (Angus:
V, ii, 18-9).
“Now he feels his title of King draped loosely
round him, hanging like a giant’s robe upon a
dwarf-like thief.” (Angus: V, ii, 19-20).

Act 5, Scene 3
Macbeth’s men are abandoning him in
droves.
Those who remain are terrified of the
obviously superior English force gathering
near the castle.
Despite his professed confidence in the
“safety” guaranteed by the witches’
prophesies, Macbeth seems to be giving-
way to panic and fear.

Act 5, Scene 4
Malcolm orders the soldiers in the
woods to “each hew down a branch and
carry it before him, thus to conceal the
size of our force and trick Macbeth’s
reconnaissance into making a false
report of us.”
Birnam Wood will appear to be coming
to Dunsinane.

Act 5, Scene 5
Macbeth hears the news that his wife is
dead.
Suicide?
His reaction: “She should have died
later.” Now is inconvenient. (V, v, 17).

Act 5, Scene 6
The English forces under Malcolm,
Macduff, and Siward capture Macbeth’s
castle.

Act 5, Scene 7
Macbeth kills Young Siward (“You’re
obviously a man that was born of
woman!”) [V, vii, 12].
Outside, the English forces report that
Macbeth’s few remaining men do not even
fight. Several have come face-to-face with
Malcolm himself and done nothing.

Act 5, Scene 8
Macduff confronts Macbeth (“Turn, hell-
hound, turn!” [V, viii, 3]). Macduff reveals to
Macbeth the news that he (Macduff) “was
from his mother’s womb untimely ripp’d.” (V,
viii, 15-6).
Macduff kills Macbeth.
Siward ironically observes that they have
been very successful with almost no deaths.
Malcolm immediately assumes his rightful
place as King.

The Stewart family records its traditional descent from Banquo, Thane of
Lochaber, who makes an appearance as a character in William
Shakespeare's Macbeth. Historically, however, the family appears to be
descended from an ancient family who were senechals of Dol in Brittany.
They acquired lands in England after the Norman conquest and moved
to Scotland when David I ascended to the throne of Scotland. The family
were granted extensive estates in Renfrewshire and East Lothian and the
office of High Steward was made hereditary in the family.
It is through marriage with the daughter of Robert the Bruce that we can
begin to trace the descent of the Royal House of Stewart. The royal line
of male Stewarts continued uninterrupted until the reign of Mary, Queen
of Scots. As a family, the Royal Stewarts held the throne of Scotland, and
later that of England, in the direct line until the death of Queen Anne in
1714. In fact, the present Royal family still has Stewart blood links.
The following information, from
www.scotchclans.com, explains how the “sons of
Banquo” went on to be kings of Scotland (as foretold
by the witches).

the archetype and tragic hero of Macbeth Act.ppt

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the archetype and tragic hero of Macbeth Act.ppt