Macbeth: the story, act by act

Nobody knows exactly when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth. The Royal Shakespeare Company says it was most likely performed for King James at court in 1606. The play is a tragedy, which means the main character falls from greatness to ruin, often through their own choices.

In the exam it is Section A of Literature Paper 1. The question prints an extract, then asks about the play as a whole, so you need to know the whole story.

Act 1

Three witches meet in a storm and plan to meet Macbeth. Then a wounded captain tells Duncan, the King of Scotland, how bravely Macbeth fought for him against a rebel army and an invading Norwegian one. Duncan orders the death of a traitor, the Thane of Cawdor, and gives his title to Macbeth. A thane is a Scottish lord.

On a heath, an open stretch of wild land, Macbeth and his friend Banquo meet the witches. They greet Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, which he already is, as Thane of Cawdor and as the future king. They tell Banquo that his descendants will be kings, though he will not. Moments later, two lords bring the news that Macbeth is now Thane of Cawdor. One prophecy has come true, and Macbeth starts to think about murder.

Duncan names his elder son, Malcolm, as the next king. Macbeth sees Malcolm as a step in his way. Duncan then says he will stay the night at Macbeth’s castle.

Lady Macbeth reads her husband’s letter about the witches. She decides at once that Duncan must die, and calls on evil spirits to “unsex me here” and fill her with cruelty. When Macbeth arrives, she tells him to look innocent and leave the plan to her.

Alone, Macbeth lists the reasons not to kill Duncan. Duncan is his king, his relative and his guest, and he has been a good king. Macbeth tells his wife they will go no further. She mocks his courage and his manhood, and she gives him a plan. They will get Duncan’s guards drunk, kill him with the guards’ daggers and blame the guards. Macbeth agrees.

Act 2

That night Banquo tells Macbeth he dreamed of the witches. Alone, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air, pointing the way to Duncan’s room. A bell rings, and he goes.

Macbeth kills Duncan offstage. He comes back carrying the daggers, with blood on his hands, horrified by what he has done. He says a voice cried out that he has murdered sleep. Lady Macbeth takes the daggers back and smears the sleeping guards with blood. Then a loud knocking at the gate frightens them both.

A drunken porter, the man who keeps the gate, jokes that he is the porter of hell. He lets in Macduff, who finds Duncan’s body. Macbeth kills the guards, and says he did it out of fury and love for Duncan. Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, fear they will be next. Malcolm runs to England and Donalbain to Ireland, so people suspect them.

Outside the castle, Ross and an old man describe strange things: the day is as dark as night, an owl has killed a falcon, and Duncan’s horses have eaten each other. Macbeth has gone to Scone to be crowned. Macduff will not go to the crowning.

Act 3

Banquo suspects that Macbeth killed Duncan to make the prophecy come true. Macbeth is king, but he does not feel safe, because the witches promised the crown to Banquo’s descendants. He hires murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance, and he keeps the plan from his wife.

The murderers kill Banquo, but Fleance escapes.

That night, at a feast for the lords of Scotland, Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost sitting in his chair. Nobody else can see it, and Macbeth shouts at it in front of his guests. Lady Macbeth says he has often been like this and sends the lords away. Macbeth says “Blood will have blood”. He decides to visit the witches again. He feels he has waded so far into blood that going back would be as hard as going on.

The Scottish lords now call Macbeth a tyrant, which means a cruel ruler who governs through fear. Macduff has gone to England to ask for help against him.

Act 4

The witches show Macbeth three apparitions, or ghostly visions. An armed head warns him to beware Macduff. A bloody child tells him that no man born of a woman can harm him. A child wearing a crown and holding a tree tells him he will never be beaten until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill. Macbeth feels safe. Then he sees a line of eight kings, followed by Banquo’s ghost. Banquo’s descendants will rule after all.

Macbeth hears that Macduff has fled to England. He sends murderers to Macduff’s castle. They kill Macduff’s young son in front of his mother. Later we hear that they killed his wife, his children and his servants.

In England, Malcolm tests Macduff’s loyalty by pretending to be a wicked man. Macduff passes the test, and Malcolm tells him that an English army of ten thousand men, led by Siward, is ready. Then Ross arrives with the news that Macduff’s whole family has been killed. Malcolm tells Macduff to fight his grief like a man. Macduff answers that he must also feel it as a man, and he swears to kill Macbeth himself.

Act 5

At night, a doctor and a gentlewoman, who looks after Lady Macbeth, watch her sleepwalk. She rubs at her hands as if they were covered in blood and talks about the murders.

The Scottish lords march to join Malcolm’s army near Birnam Wood. Macbeth waits in his castle at Dunsinane and trusts the prophecies to keep him safe. Malcolm orders every soldier to cut a branch from Birnam Wood and carry it in front of him, to hide how many they are. To the watchers in the castle, the wood seems to move.

Macbeth hears that his wife is dead. He answers with a speech that begins “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” and says that life means nothing. Then a messenger reports that the wood is moving.

In the battle, Macbeth still believes no man born of a woman can hurt him. Then he meets Macduff, who tells him he was “from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripp’d”: he was cut from his mother’s body before he was born. Macbeth will not surrender, so he fights on, and Macduff kills him. Macduff brings Macbeth’s head to Malcolm, who is hailed as King of Scotland. Malcolm calls the dead pair “this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen”.

The main characters

• Macbeth: a Scottish lord and brave general who murders King Duncan to take the crown, then becomes a tyrant, driven by fear and guilt.
• Lady Macbeth: Macbeth’s wife. She pushes him into the murder, then breaks down under a guilt she cannot speak about.
• The witches: three strange women whose prophecies tempt Macbeth. They never tell him to kill anyone.
• Banquo: Macbeth’s fellow general, who hears the same prophecies and does nothing to make them come true. Macbeth has him killed.
• King Duncan: the gentle, trusting King of Scotland, murdered in his sleep as Macbeth’s guest.
• Macduff: the Thane of Fife. He finds Duncan’s body, loses his family to Macbeth and kills him in the end.
• Malcolm: Duncan’s elder son, who escapes to England and comes back to take the throne.
• Fleance: Banquo’s son, who escapes the murderers, so the prophecy about Banquo’s line stays alive.
• Lady Macduff and her son: murdered on Macbeth’s orders in Act 4.

The main ideas

Ambition. Macbeth can see where his ambition is leading, and he goes on anyway. Once he is king, ambition turns into fear.

Kingship and order. Duncan is a good king. Killing him throws Scotland, and even nature, into chaos. Order comes back only when Malcolm, the rightful heir, is crowned.

Guilt. Guilt returns as the dagger, the ghost, sleepless nights and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking. It cannot be washed away.

The supernatural. The witches tell the truth in ways that mislead. Banquo hears the same prophecy and does nothing, so the choice to kill is Macbeth’s own.

Appearance and reality. Faces hide what people intend, from the witches’ “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” to the Macbeths’ warm welcome for the king they plan to kill.

Men and women. Lady Macbeth links being a man with daring to kill. Macduff, who weeps for his family, gives the play a better idea of what a man is.

King James traced his family back to Banquo. In the history book Shakespeare used, Holinshed’s Chronicles, Banquo helps Macbeth plot against Duncan. The Royal Shakespeare Company says Shakespeare made Banquo and his descendants Macbeth’s enemies instead, to please the king.

What to do next

Learn the quotations on Macbeth: quotations to learn, and practise with How to answer the extract question. You can read the whole play free on the Folger Shakespeare Library website, which numbers every line.

Sources

• Folger Shakespeare Library, William Shakespeare, Macbeth: the entire play
• Project Gutenberg, William Shakespeare, Macbeth (ebook 1533)
• Royal Shakespeare Company, Macbeth: dates and sources
• AQA, GCSE English Literature 8702 specification