SparkNotes - Macbeth

SparkNotesNo Fear Shakespeare will help you break through all that. Put the pieces together with our easy-to-read translations. Soon youll be reading Shakespeares own words fearlesslyand actually enjoying it. No Fear Shakespeare pairs Shakespeares language with translations into modern Englishthe kind of English people actually speak today. When Shakespeares words make your head spin, our translations will help you sort out whats happening, whos saying what, and why. (Thane is a Scottish title of nobility, and Glamis is a village in eastern Scotland.) Macbeth is led to wicked thoughts by the prophecies of three witches, especially after their prophecy that he will be made thane of Cawdor comes true. (Thane is a Scottish title of nobility, and Glamis is a village in eastern Scotland.) Macbeth is led to wicked thoughts by the prophecies of three witches, especially after their prophecy that he will be made thane of Cawdor comes true.

Macbeth is a brave soldier and a powerful man, but he is not virtuous. He is easily tempted into murder to fulfill his ambitions to the throne, and once he commits his first crime and is crowned king of Scotland, he embarks on further atrocities with increasing ease. Macbeth cannot maintain his power because his increasingly brutal actions make him hated as a tyrant. Unlike Shakespeares other great villains, such as Iago in Othello and Richard III in Richard III, who revel in their villainy, Macbeth is never comfortable in his role as a criminal. He shows at the beginning of the play that he knows right from wrong, and chooses to do wrong without being able to justify it to himself. Lady MacbethMacbeths wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and position. Lady MacbethMacbeths wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and position.

Early in the play she seems to be the stronger and more ruthless of the two, as she urges her husband to kill Duncan and seize the crown. After the bloodshed begins, however, Lady Macbeth falls victim to guilt and madness to an even greater degree than her husband. Her conscience affects her to such an extent that she eventually commits suicide. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth apparently feel quite passionately for one another, and Lady Macbeth exploits her sexual hold over Macbeth as a means to persuade him to commit murder. However, their shared alienation from the world, occasioned by their partnership in crime, does not bring them closer together, but instead seems to numb their feelings for one another. The Three WitchesThree mysterious hags who plot mischief against Macbeth using charms, spells, and prophecies.

Their predictions prompt him to murder Duncan, to order the deaths of Banquo and his son, and to blindly believe in his own immortality. The play leaves the witches true nature unclearwe dont really know whether they make their own prophecies come true, or where they get their knowledge from. In some ways they resemble the mythological Fates, who impersonally wove the threads of human destiny. They clearly take a perverse delight in using their knowledge of the future to toy with and destroy human beings. BanquoThe brave, noble general whose children, according to the witches prophecy, will inherit the Scottish throne. Like Macbeth, Banquo thinks ambitious thoughts, but he does not translate those thoughts into action.

In a sense, Banquos character stands as a rebuke to Macbeth, since he represents the path Macbeth chose not to take: a path in which ambition need not lead to betrayal and murder. Appropriately, then, it is Banquos ghostand not Duncansthat haunts Macbeth. In addition to embodying Macbeths guilt for killing Banquo, the ghost also reminds Macbeth that he did not emulate Banquos reaction to the witches prophecy. King DuncanThe good king of Scotland whom Macbeth, ambitious for the crown, murders. Duncan is the model of a virtuous, benevolent ruler. MacduffA Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeths kingship from the start. MacduffA Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeths kingship from the start.

He eventually becomes a leader of the crusade to unseat Macbeth. The crusades mission is to place the rightful king, Malcolm, on the throne, but Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeths murder of Macduffs wife and young son. MalcolmThe son of Duncan, whose restoration to the throne signals Scotlands return to order following Macbeths reign of terror. Malcolm becomes a serious challenge to Macbeth with Macduffs aid (and the support of England). Prior to this, he appears weak and uncertain of his own power, as when he and Donalbain flee Scotland after their fathers murder. FleanceBanquos son, who survives Macbeths attempt to murder him. FleanceBanquos son, who survives Macbeths attempt to murder him.

At the end of the play, Fleances whereabouts are unknown. Presumably, he may come to rule Scotland, fulfilling the witches prophecy that Banquos sons will sit on the Scottish throne. LennoxA Scottish nobleman. RossA Scottish nobleman. The MurderersA group of ruffians conscripted by Macbeth to murder Banquo, Fleance (whom they fail to kill), and Macduffs wife and children. Lady MacduffMacduffs wife. Lady MacduffMacduffs wife.

The scene in her castle provides our only glimpse of family life other than that of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. She and her home serve as contrasts to Lady Macbeth and the hellish world of Inverness.