Macbeth - Act 5 summary

• Lady Macbeth


  • Sleepwalking
  • Eyes open but senses shut
  • Rubs hands
  • Tries to wash 'damned spot' of blood from hands
  • Mentions elements of the murders of Duncan, Banquo and Lady Macduff
• English forces approaching


  1. Led by Malcolm, Siward and Macduff

  2. Macbeth's men rising up against him, some calling him mad

  3. Group march towards Birnam Wood
• Macbeth dismisses reports of attack


  Reassures himself due to witches' prophecies
• Doctor's inability to help

  Lady Macbeth's 'thick-coming fancies that keep her from her rest'
• Scottish lords gather with Malcolm, Macduff and their army

  1. Cut down boughs of trees in Birnam Wood to use as camouflage

  2. Shadow the numbers of their host
• Macbeth continues to stand his ground against the siege
• Seyton reports that Lady Macbeth is dead
• Macbeth: 'Life is 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing''
• Messenger informs Macbeth that Birnam Wood is moving towards Dunsinane hill


  Macbeth unnerved that the prophecy has come true
• Malcolm's army arrive outside the castle

  1. Throw down their camouflaging branches to reveal themselves

  2. Malcolm talks through the battle plan against the 'tyrant's power'
• Macbeth claims he cannot be defeated by anyone born of a woman


  Macduff reveals he was 'from his mother's womb untimely ripped'
• Macduff kills Macbeth
• Malcolm is concerned about the safety of Macduff and Young Siward
• Ross tells Siward that his son has been killed in battle, but died bravely
• Macduff arrives with Macbeth's severed head and hails Malcolm the new King of Scotland
• Malcolm honours those who have fought alongside him against the tyranny of 'this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen'