Author: Ruby

Malcolm paints himself in a bad light to test Macduff’s allegiance. Malcolm explains that is he where king he would take money from the poor and do the nasty with every woman in the world. After Macduff reveals that he is loyal to Scotland Malcolm tells him the truth “Unspeak mine own detraction; here abjure the taints and blames I laid upon myself for strangers to my nature.” meaning he takes back everything he said and he is actually the opposite. Ross then comes in and shares the bad news that Macbeth has killed Macduff’s wife and children. Malcolm motivates MacDuff to use his grief and anger to fuel their battle against Macbeth.

Lady Macduff, her son and Rosse were talking about Macduff and how he abandoned his family when they needed his protection. Lady Macduff keeps explaining how Macduff is a traitor and how she can get a new husband so easily while Rosse is trying to give good reasons why Macduff fled. “you know not whether it was his wisdom or his fear.”Wisdom! tp leave his wife, to his babes, his mansion, and his titles, in a place From whence himself does fly? he loves us not.”. Lady Macduff was correct and some murderers came and killed her and her son.

Lennox starts the scene by explaining Malcolm and Macduff’s alliances with England and their plan to dethrone Macbeth. They expect this will end up as a big war fueled by revenge.

Hecate will give Macbeth protection from death. Macbeth jealous of Duncan because he is now secure in death.

The scene starts with Hecate being annoyed with the witches because they didn’t invite her to cause mischief with Macbeth. She then goes on to come up with a plan to offer him immortality. Earlier in the play, Macbeth said “Duncan is in his grave. After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well. Treason has done his worst; nor steel nor poison, malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing can touch him further” exclaiming how envious he is that Duncan is now free of life’s troubles and can rest easy, whereas Macbeth has all this guilt and anxiety now that he is king.

MACBETH

Welcome everyone, come sit down and enjoy.

Lords

Thank you your majesty

MACBETH

We will talk with everyone as well as playing the host, we will wait for when Lady Macbeth will welcome everyone.

LADY MACBETH

Say welcome for me, to everyone.

First Murderer appears at the door

MACBETH

And they will respond to you with their hearts as well. The table is full on both sides. I will sit here in the middle. Be free and happy. Soon we will toast around the table.

Approaching the door

There is blood on your face.

First Murderer

Then it must be Banquo’s

MACBETH

It is better without him here. Is he dead?

First Murderer

My lord, I cut his throat.

MACBETH

You are the best to cut the throats, did you do the same to Fleance, if you did, you are supreme.

First Murderer

Most royal Macbeth, Fleance has escaped

MACBETH

I am angry, everything else had been perfect, as perfect as a whole marble, stong as a rock, as big as the air, but I am now restricted, bound into my own doubts and fears, but is Banquo safe?

First Murderer

Yes my lord, he is lying dead in a ditch with gashes all over him.

MACBETH

Thanks for that. The adult snake lies in the ditch. The young snake that escaped will in time become a threat, but for now, he has no fangs. Get out of here. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Exit Murderer

LADY MACBETH

king, there is no joy, we have given the welcome but now they are waiting to be fed.

MACBETH

Oh no! It’s ok the food will be out soon.

LENNOX

Please sit your highness

The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH’s place

MACBETH

We would have everyone noble in Scotland here if Banquo was present, I hope that he is late and nothing bad has happened to him

ROSS

He’s absent sir, he broke his promise. Please your highness, grace us with your company

MACBETH

The table is full.

LENNOX

There is a place reserved for you here, sir.

MACBETH

Where?

LENNOX

Here my lord, what’s wrong with your highness?

MACBETH

Which one of you did this?

Lords

What, my good lord?

MACBETH

You can’t say that I did it, don’t shake your head at me

ROSS

Stand up gentlemen, his highness is not well

LADY MACBETH

Sit down my friends, my husband is often like this, even when he was a child, please sit down. This is just a brief fit, he will be well again, don’t pay attention to him or he will be angry, just eat your food. Are you a man?

MACBETH

Yes and a bold one, a daring look that might appeal to the devil.

LADY MACBETH

Oh, proper stuff! This is your fears, the murder weapon that you killed Duncan with, these flaws and starts are not close to what real fear is, what would become storeys passed down generations. Shameful! Why do you make those faces, when everything is done, you look like a king on the throne

MACBETH

Please just look over there, look! (To Ghost) Look, see, what do you have to say? What do I care? If you can nod then speak as well. If the dead are going to return from their graves, then there is nothing to stop the birds from eating their bodies, so we might as well not bury our people at all.

GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes

LADY MACBETH

What? Has your foolishness paralyzed you?

MACBETH

As sure as I’m standing here, I saw him.

LADY MACBETH

Nonsense!

MACBETH

Blood has been shed now, and in the past. Horrible murders happen everyday, but now they have come back as ghosts.

LADY MACBETH

My worthy lord, your noble friends miss you.

MACBETH

I forgot about them. Don’t be shocked on my account, my friends. I have a strange condition which doesn’t surprise those who know me well. (raising his glass to toast the guests) Come, let’s toast to love and health to you all. Now I’ll sit down. Give me some wine. Fill my cup.

Lords 

Hear hear!

Re-enter GHOST OF BANQUO

MACBETH

Go! Out of my sight! Stay in the ground. Your bones no longer contain marrow, your blood is cold. You’re looking at me with eyes that can no longer see.

LADY MACBETH

Good friends, this is nothing more than a habit. It’s nothing else. It’s only spoiling our pleasure tonight

MACBETH

I am as brave as any other man to come at me in the form of a rugged Russain bear, the armed rhinoceros, or a tiger from Iran. Take any shape other than the one you have now and I will never be scared . Or come back to life again and challenge me to a duel. If I am scared then call me a little girl, get out of here you horrible ghost, you’re a hallucination, get out!

GHOST OF BANQUO leaves

LADY MACBETH

You’ve ruined the whole dinner party

MACBETH

How can such things happen, overcome us without our curiosity? When you look at these terrible things, you keep a straight face, whilst mine is white with fear

ROSS

What things my lord?

LADY MACBETH

Please don’t speak to him, he’s gone a bit mad. I’m sorry you all have to leave in such a hurry and I hope you had a good night.

LENNOX

Good night, and i hope his majesty gets better soon.

LADY MACBETH

Good night everyone.

Everyone leaves except Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

MACBETH

Everything will have blood and get revenge for unnatural things have come alive, what is the time of night?

LADY MACBETH

Almost morning, hard to tell whether it’s day or night

MACBETH

Why do you think that Macduff refuses to come when I command him?

LADY MACBETH

Did you ask for him sir?

MACBETH

I have paid for a servant to spy. Tomorrow I will go find the witches and I will make them tell me what is going on. My safety is the most important thing to me, I have caused so much trouble that I can’t go any further. I cannot go back. I have plans that I need to put in action before I think about it.

LADY MACBETH

You don’t seem like yourself, you should get some sleep

MACBETH

Let’s go to sleep, My strange delusions are what causes my fear: We are new to crime

End

In this scene, three murderers wait to ambush Banquo and his son. They successfully kill Banquo for Macbeth “O, treachery! Fly, good glance, fly, fly, fly! thou mayst revenge. O slave! Dies. FLEANCE escapes” Banquo is obviously upset and betrayed by this event although fleance gets away just like I predicted. This scene is significant for the rest of the play’s plot, also for Macbeth’s mental state. He already feels guilty about killing Duncan and now he’s gone and killed his best friend Banquo, so that’s going to take a toll on him and it’s also a set up for his eventual demise if the whiches are correct.

This scene feature Macbeth and lady Macbeth addressing the Banquo issue. Throughout the scene Macbeth’s guilt and paranoia is highlighted “We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it: she’ll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice remains in danger of her former tooth.” saying that he can’t be safe as king until they deal with Banquo. Macbeth has his plan but he can’t tell lady Macbeth for her own safety.

This scene began with Banquo giving a soliloquy about how all the predictions the witches made about Macbeth were true and clarifying to the audience that Macbeth has been crowned king. Later Macbeth fragile state of mind is causing him to believe that Banquo is untrustworthy because he was there when the witches told him his future and could possibly figure out that he killed Duncan. Banquo was also told that his sons will be kings, making him a threat to Macbeth as stated in the play “Our fears in Banquo stick deep; and in his royalty of nature reigns that which will be fear’d”. Macbeth then goes and hirers some murderers to kill Banquo and his son. I believe that this is the beginning of the end for Macbeth; somehow Fleance will survive and then seek out revenge by killing Macbeth for killing his father and then claiming the thrown making him and his sons after him kings.

This scene takes place the morning after King Duncan’s death. It begins with some workers at the castle talking about their drunken night the night before. Later it became known to everyone that King Duncan had been murdered in his sleep. Earlier in the scene, Lennox described the natural occurrences that happened last night “The night has been unruly… Our chimneys were blown down… strange screams of death… the obscure bird clamour’d the livelong night: some say, the earth was feverous and did shake.”. In Elizabethan times it was believed that kings were chosen by God to rule their kingdoms, so for Christian people at the time it was not farfetched that god reacted to Duncan’s death by causing an earthquake and other natural events. This technique used in media is called pathetic fallacy and is used to accentuate emotion, a point in the plot or event.

Macbeth gives a soliloquy right before he kills King Duncan, Shakespeare has used personification to give extra meaning to the dagger. Using the information from the other scenes we know that Macbeth is battling the moral issue about killing Duncan, the pressure about being a man from his wife and his given fate from the witches. All this stress is causing Macbeth to go a little insane and is now hallucinating a dagger to give him guidance. When he first acknowledges the dagger he is questioning if it’s actually there “Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight? or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” calling the dagger a “fatal vision” gives a new level of danger to the scene. In Macbeth’s soliloquy, he refers to the dagger as “thee” as you would say to a living thing, but by Shakespeare doing this, he was giving the dagger a purpose. I think the dagger symbolises the point of no return, he has to fully commit to the plan to reach his goal, if he doesn’t he will most likely be killed by his actions.