18.11.2008

Summing up William Shakespeare's Macbeth


The main characters

DUNCAN - King of Scotland
MALCOLM - Duncan’s elder son
DONALBAIN - Duncan’s younger son
MACBETH - the most courageous and successful warrior in the army of King Duncan; Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis
BANQUO - Macbeth’s friend and a general in the army of King Duncan.
FLEANCE - Banquo’s son
MACDUFF - the Thane of Fife
LADY MACDUFF - Macduff’s wife
MACDUFF’S SON
THREE WITCHES
SCOTTISH LORDS
SOLDIERS


The main points of the tragedy

1) First Act scene opens with the three Witches.

2) A sergeant reports to king Duncan that Macbeth has defeated the forces of Norway and Ireland.

3) Banquo and Macbeth hear the Witches’s prophecy: Macbeth shall be King but Banquo shall father a line of kings, though he himself will not be one.

4) Regicide: Macbeth kills Duncan. Fearing for their lives, Malcolm flees to England and Donalbain to Ireland.
Macbeth becomes king of Scotland as a kinsman of the dead king.

5) Macbeth hires killers to kill Banquo and his son, but Fleance escapes.
At the royal banquet, Banquo’s ghost appears, only Macbeth can see him.

6) Prophecies: the three Witches tell Macbeth to beware Macduff, that noone of woman born shall harm him and that he won’t be vanquished until Birnam Wood on Dunsinane Hill shall come against him.
Macbeth hires to kill Macduff ‘s family.

7) Macduff and Malcolm in England want to take the power from Macbeth and they plan to invade Scotland.

7a) Lady Macbeth’s sleep walking scene and her suicide.
Tomorrow and tomorrow…

8) Camouflaged by tree limbs, the army moves to the castle of Dunsinane and the battle begins.

9) Fight between Macbeth and Macduff. Macduff declares he was born untimely from his mother’s womb. Macduff beheads Macbeth.

10) Malcolm becomes king of Scotland.

Grazia Carbone