Summary of Macbeth

 

As the play opens amid thunder and lightning, with three Witches- the Weird sisters- deciding that their next meeting shall be with a certain Macbeth. In the following scene, a wounded soldier reports to King Duncan of Scotland that his generals, Macbeth ( who is the Thane of Glamis ) and Banquo, have just defeated an invasion by the allied forces of Norway and Ireland, led by the rebel MacDonald.

When Macbeth and Banquo wander into a heath, the three Witches greet them with prophecies. The first hails Macbeth as “Thane of Glamis”, the second as “Thane of Cawdor “ , while the third proclaims that he shall “be King hereafter “ The Witches also inform Banquo he shall father a line of kings. While the two men wonder at these pronouncements, the Witches disappear. Another Thane, Rosse, a messenger from the King, arrives and informs Macbeth of his newly-bestowed title – Thane of Cawdor. The first prophecy is thus fulfilled. Immediately, Macbeth begins to harbour ambitions of becoming king.

Macbeth writes to his wife about the Witches prophecies. When Duncan decides to stay at Macbeths castle at Inverness, Lady Macbeth hatches a plan to murder him and secure the throne for her husband. While Macbeth raises concerns about the regicide, Lady Macbeth eventually manages to persuade him.

In the night, Macbeth Kills Duncan. Lady Macbeth arranges to frame Duncan’s sleeping servants for the murder by planting bloody daggers on them. Early the next morning, Lennox, a Scottish nobleman, and Mac duff, the loyal Thane of Fife, arrive. The porter opens the gate and Macbeth leads them to the Kings chamber, where Mac duff discovers Duncan’s corpse. In a sham fit of fury, Macbeth murders the servants before they can protest their innocence. Mac duff is immediately suspicious of Macbeth. Fearing for their lives, Duncan’s sons flee, Malcolm to England and his brother Donalbain to Ireland. The rightful heirs flight makes them suspect, and Macbeth assumes the throne as the new King of Scotland as a kinsman to the dead King.

Despite his success, Macbeth remains uneasy regarding the prophecy that Banquo would be the progenitor of Kings. Macbeth invites Banquo to a royal banquet and discovers that Banquo and his son, Fleance, While  be riding that night. He hires three men to Kill Banquo and Fleance. While they succeed in murdering Banquo, Fleance is able to escape. At the banquet, Banquo's ghost enters and sits in Macbeths’ place.

Disturbed, Macbeth goes to the Witches once more. They conjure up three spirits which tell him to “beware Macduff”, but also that “none of woman born shall harm Macbeth” and he will “never vanquish'd be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him”. Since Macduff is in exile, Macbeth massacres everyone in Macduff castle, including Macduff wife and children .Lady Macbeth eventually becomes rocked with guilt from the crimes she and her husband have committed. In a famous scene, she sleepwalks and tries to wash imaginary bloodstains off her hands.

In England, Malcolm and Macduff plan an invasion of Scotland. Malcolm leads an army, along with Macduff and Englishman Siward ( the Elder ), the Earl of Northumbria, against Dunsinane Castle. While encamped in Birnam Wood, the soldiers are ordered to cut down and carry tree limbs to camouflage their numbers, thus fulfilling the Witches' second prophesy. Meanwhile, Macbeth delivers a famous nihilistic soliloquy (“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow”) upon learning of Lady Macbeth's death ( the cause is undisclosed, but it is assumed by some that she committed suicide).

A battle ensues, culminating in the slaying of the young Siward and Macduff's confrontation with Macbeth. Macbeth boasts that he has no reason to fear Macduff, as he cannot be Killed by any man born of woman. Macduff declares that he was “from his mothers womb / Untimely ripped”(i.e., born by Caesarean section before his mothers actual delivery)- and was therefore not “of woman born”. Too late, Macbeth realises the Witches have misled him. A fight ensues, which ends with Macduff beheading Macbeth offstage, thereby fulfilling the last of the prophecies.

In the final scene, Malcolm is crowned as the rightful King of Scotland, suggesting that peace has been restored to Kingdom. However, the witches' prophecy concerning Banquo, “Thou shalt [be] get King” , was known to the audience of Shakespeare’s time to be true, as James I of England was supposedly a descendant of Banquo.

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