macbeth

• Fair is foul and foul is fair


  What appears to be good will be bad and vice versa
• Macbeth's journey


  1. Road to temptation

  2. To the crown

  3. To insecurity

  4. To tyranny

  5. Road to death
• The play begins with three witches
• The witches plan to meet Macbeth

  After a battle
• Macbeth


  • Hero in the battle
  • Beheads Macdonald
  • Defeats Cordo and the Norwegians
• King Duncan rewards Macbeth by making him the Thane of Cordell
• Dramatic irony


  We know more than the characters
• Prophecies told to Macbeth

  • He's the Thane of Glams
  • He's the Thane of Cordell
  • He will be the king in the future
• Banquo is told his descendants will be kings
• Macbeth overhears the prophecies

  Leads him to think about murdering the king
• Duncan announces his son Malcolm will become the next king
• Lady Macbeth


  • Calls on evil spirits to help murder the king
  • Tells Macbeth to deceive everyone
• Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth

  To kill Duncan and blame the guards
• Macbeth accidentally brings the murder weapons back
• Lady Macbeth says a little water will wash the evidence away
• Macduff discovers the king is dead and raises the alarm
• Macbeth kills the guards and blames them
• Duncan's sons Malcolm and Donalbain leave Scotland
• Nature reflects the disorder in Scotland with storms
• Macbeth is made king
• Macduff refuses to attend the coronation
• Macbeth's anxiety about Banquo's descendants


  Metaphorically represented as scorpions in his mind
• The murderers kill Banquo but Fleance escapes
• Banquo's ghost appears to Macbeth
• Macbeth decides to speak to the witches again
• Hecate


  Goddess who rules over the witches
• Hecate decides to give Macbeth new prophecies to lead him to destruction
• Characters suspect Macbeth was involved in Duncan's death
• Macduff has gone to England to ask for help in overthrowing Macbeth
• New prophecies given to Macbeth

  • Beware Macduff
  • None of woman born shall harm Macbeth
  • Macbeth shall never be beaten until Burnham wood moves towards Dunsinane castle
• The witches show Macbeth a procession of kings descended from Banquo
• Macbeth's agents murder Macduff's family
• Macduff persuades Malcolm to return to Scotland to fight Macbeth
• Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and trying to get imaginary blood off her hands
• Macbeth feels his title hang loose about him like a giant robe upon a dwarfish thief
• Soldiers break branches off trees in Burnham wood as camouflage to approach Dunsinane castle
• Macbeth hears Lady Macbeth is dead
• Macbeth thinks Burnham wood is moving towards Dunsinane, fulfilling the prophecy
• Macduff reveals he was not strictly born of a woman, being born by caesarean section
• Macbeth is killed by Macduff