Macbeth plot

Question 1

What happens in Act 1?

Answer 1

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth decide to kill Duncan. He is tempted by a prophecy, his wife, and opportunity, and his own ambition.

Question 2

What happens in 1.1?

Answer 2

The witches are introduced.

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair”

Question 3

What happens in 1.2?

Answer 3

Macbeth and Duncan are introduced, and a battle is described.
“Belladonna’s bridegroom”, “Brave Macbeth”

Question 4

What happens in 1.3?

Answer 4

Witches meet MacBeth and Banquo and tell MacBeth he will be king, though Banquo’s sons will follow him. MacBeth thinks that he may not need to kill Duncan.
“If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me / Without my stir”

Question 5

What happens in 1.4?

Answer 5

Traitors are executed for treason, and MacBeth enters and finds that the King has chosen Malcom as his successor. He wishes that he could remove the competition without knowing he had done it.
“The Prince of Cumberland: that is a step / On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap”

Question 6

What happens in 1.5?

Answer 6

Introduction of Lady Macbeth, she gathers her courage and then tells her husband that they must kill Duncan
“fill me from the toe topfull / Of direst cruelty”
“He that’s coming / Must be provided for”

Question 7

What happens in 1.6?

Answer 7

Duncan comments on the pleasantness of the castle, and Lady Macbeth greets him and sweetly assures that everything is prepared for his visit. The dramatic irony builds tension. Shared lines with Duncan indicate a connection.
“This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air / Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself / Unto our gentle senses”

Question 8

What happens in 1.7?

Answer 8

Macbeth has been contemplating whether to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth comes to bring him downstairs, and he tells her he has changed his mind, which angers her. She convinces him and they make a plan.
“I am his kinsman and his subject / Strong both against the deed; then as his host / Who should against his murderer shut the door / Not bear the knife myself”
“Was the hope drunk / Wherein you dressed yourself?”
“I am settled and bend up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat”

Question 9

What happens in Act 2?

Answer 9

Duncan is killed, and the characters react

Question 10

What happens in 2.1?

Answer 10

Banquo and Macbeth bump into each other in the courtyard, where it is unusually dark. Shakespeare presents the difference between the honourable Banquo and deceitful Macbeth. Macbeth then sees the imagined dagger.
“There’s husbandry in heaven”
“He hath been in unusual pleasure”, “keep / My bosom franchised” and “allegiance clear” vs “a friend”, and “I think not of them” which are lies
“A dagger of the mind”

Question 11

What happens in 2.2?

Answer 11

After Duncan’s murder, Macbeth and his wife reunite. She paints the guards faces with blood. They have different responses, as Macbeth is presented as visibly guilty whereas Lady Macbeth seems indifferent. They have many shared lines and lines which do not fit the rhythm to show that they are frantic and thrown-off.
“This is a sorry sight” “A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight”
“this my hand will rather / the multitudinous seas incarnadine”
“a little water clears us of this deed”
“wake Duncan with thy knocking, I would thou couldst”

Question 12

What happens in 2.3?

Answer 12

The scene begins with the comedic relief of the porter joking with Macbeth about the effects of drinking. He also jokes that he is a porter of hell, which is ironic as the last man to enter the walls never will leave. Everybody in the castle discovers that Duncan has been murdered, however the blame lands on the guards. Malcolm and Donobain agree that they mustn’t trust the others, and leave.
“Ring the alarum bell! Murder and treason!”
“There’s daggers in men’s smiles”

Question 13

What happens in 2.4?

Answer 13

Ross and an old man discuss the unnatural storm. It is a use of pathetic fallacy, where the strange weather mirrors the strange events; it is as if God is angry. Macduff leaves for Fife.
“I have seen / Hours dreadful and things strange, but this strange night / Hath trifled former knowings”
“’Tis unnatural”

Question 14

What happens in Act 3?

Answer 14

Macbeth is presented as a poor leader, and his people become increasingly dissatisfied.

Question 15

What happens in 3.1?

Answer 15

Banquo reflects on the witches words, and his fears that Macbeth may have become King by evil means, however he can rest assured that his sons will be kings. Macbeth joins him and makes casual conversation, inviting him to the nights banquet. He checks that Fleance will ride with Banquo. Banquo leaves, and Macbeth ruminates on his fears that his own descendants will be crownless. He meets the murderers and asks them to kill Banquo subtly.
“I fear thou played’st most foully for’t”
“To be thus is nothing / but to be safely thus”, “Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown / And put a barren sceptre in my gripe”
“It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight, / if it find heaven, must find it out tonight”

Question 16

What happens in 3.2?

Answer 16

Macbeth feels incredibly guilty before the banquet, and his wife attempts to calm him
“’Tis safer to be that which we destroy / Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy”
“be bright and jovial / Among your guests tonight”
“O, full of scorpions is my mind”

Question 17

What happens in 3.3?

Answer 17

Banquo is killed by three murderers, but Fleance escapes.

“O, treachery! / Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly fly!”

Question 18

What happens in 3.4?

Answer 18

Macbeth meets with the murderers, and then sees Banquo’s ghost at the banquet, and creates a scene. Lady Macbeth has to console him.
“Never shake / Thy gory locks at me!”
“If you much note him / You shall offend him and extend his passion”
“Stand not upon the order of your going / But go at once.”

Question 19

What happens in 3.5?

Answer 19

The rules of witches, Hectate, decides that Macbeth is overly confident
“all you have done / Hath been but for a wayward son, / Spiteful and wrathful, who as others do, / Loves for his own ends, not for you.”

Question 20

What happens in 3.6?

Answer 20

Lennox and an unnamed Lord discuss the brewing war which will end Macbeth’s tyranny
“we may again / Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights”

Question 21

What happens in Act 4?

Answer 21

Tension brews; war is inevitable.

Question 22

What happens in 4.1?

Answer 22

Macbeth returns to the witches. They tell him three prophecies, and also show him a line of Banquo’s descendants as kings. Macbeth hears that Macduff has fled to England, and vows to kill his family; the combination of seeing himself as invincible and also doomed makes him reckless.
“beware Macduff”
“none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth”
“Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him”
“What, will the line stretch out to th’crack of doom?”
“From this moment / The very firstlings of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand”

Question 23

What happens in 4.2?

Answer 23

Ross comforts Lady Macduff, who cannot comprehend why her husband left his family. Murderers kill her son.
“there are liars and / swearers enough to beat the honest men”

Question 24

What happens in 4.3?

Answer 24

Malcolm and Macduff make plans to take back Scotland. At first, Malcolm tests him but eventually deems him trustworthy. Ross brings the news that Macbeth slaughtered his family.
“I grant him bloody, / Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, / Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin / That has a name”
“Dispute it like a man. / I shall do so, / But first I must feel it like a man.”
“Be this the whetstone of your sword”.

Question 25

What happens in Act 5?

Answer 25

All the effects of Macbeth’s actions come to fruition.

Question 26

What happens in 5.1?

Answer 26

A doctor and Lady Macbeth’s servant discuss her habit of sleepwalking. While she sleeps, she references the murders of Duncan, Lady Macduff, and Banquo.
“A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching.”
“Out damned spot!”
“The heart is sorely charged”
“Unnatural deeds / Do breed unnatural troubles”

Question 27

What happens in 5.2?

Answer 27

Macduff, Siward and the English army approaches. Macbeth’s army will meet them at the forest.
“Those he commands, move only in command, / Nothing in love”

Question 28

What happens in 5.3?

Answer 28

Macbeth seems incredibly self-assured in this scene, and even rages at a servant for bringing him news, because he thinks he has nothing to fear due to the witches prophecies. He believes he is near death, but then asks for his armour. The doctor tells him of his wife’s condition. Macbeth asks him to cure her, and when the doctor says he cannot, Macbeth mocks him and then goes back to preparation.
“The mind I sway by and the heart I bear / Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear”
“lily-livered”, “whey-face”
“How does your patient, doctor?”
“Can thou not minister to a mind diseased,”
“Therein the patient / Must minister to himself”

Question 29

What happens in 5.4?

Answer 29

Malcom tells every soldier to take a branch, in order to disguise themselves.
“I hope the days are near at hand / That chambers will be safe”
“Let every soldier hew him down a bough, / And bear’t before him”

Question 30

What happens in 5.5?

Answer 30

Macbeth broods on the futility of his life after hearing about the death of his wife. A messenger tells him that he watched the forest move.
“I have almost forgot the taste of fears”
“She should have died hereafter; / There would have been a time for such a word”
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow”
“Signifying nothing”
“The wood began to move”

Question 31

What happens in 5.6?

Answer 31

Malcolm tells his troops to drop their branches.

Question 32

What happens in 5.7?

Answer 32

Macbeth kills young Siward, and boasts that he will not be killed by anyone born of a woman. Macduff refuses to kill any of Macbeth’s men, as he knows they only do it for money.
“Swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn / Brandished by a man that’s of a woman born.”
“the castle’s gently rendered.”
“We have met with foes / That strike beside us”

Question 33

What happens in 5.8?

Answer 33

Macbeth rejects the idea of suicide, even though he is losing the battle. Enter Macduff, who tells Macbeth that he was not born of a woman, and then slays him. Macbeth goes down fighting.
“Why should I play the Roman fool and die / On mine own sword?”
“get thee back, my soul is too much charged / With blood of thine already”
“Macduff was from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripped”

Question 34

What happens in 5.9?

Answer 34

Malcolm, Siward, Ross, thanes and soldiers reconvene to announce Macbeth’s death, and Malcolm’s kingship. Young Siward’s death is announced, and his father is only concerned that he died bravely.
“But like a man he died”
“He’s worth more sorrow / And that I’ll spend for him / He’s worth no more”
“Dead butcher and his fiend-like queen”
“by self and violent hands / Took off her own life”
“Hail, King of Scotland”