Macbeth

Macbeth's Ascent to King

Central Idea: Macbeth's journey to become the King of Scotland

Main Branches:

1. Ambition

   • Macbeth's desire for power

   • Lady Macbeth's influence on Macbeth's ambition

2. Prophecies

   • The witches' initial prophecies

   • Macbeth's reaction and obsession with the prophecies

3. Murder

   • Macbeth's first murder of King Duncan

   • Macbeth's increasing paranoia and subsequent murders

4. Guilt

   • Macbeth's guilt and remorse after the murders

   • Lady Macbeth's descent into madness due to guilt

5. Consequences

   • Macbeth's reign as king

   • Macbeth's downfall and eventual death

Sub-branches:

1. Ambition

   • Macbeth's initial contentment as a nobleman

   • Macbeth's encounter with the witches and their prophecies

   • Macbeth's growing ambition and willingness to do anything to become king

2. Prophecies

   • The witches' prophecy of Macbeth becoming Thane of Cawdor

   • The witches' prophecy of Macbeth becoming king

   • Macbeth's obsession with the prophecies and his belief in their inevitability

3. Murder

   • Macbeth's internal struggle before the murder of King Duncan

   • Macbeth's manipulation of others to carry out his subsequent murders

   • Macbeth's descent into madness and loss of control

4. Guilt

   • Macbeth's immediate guilt and remorse after killing King Duncan

   • Macbeth's hallucinations and visions of the murdered Banquo

   • Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking and guilt-driven behavior

5. Consequences

   • Macbeth's reign as a tyrant and the chaos it brings to Scotland

   • Macbeth's growing paranoia and fear of losing power

   • Macbeth's eventual downfall and death in battle

Note: This mind map provides a brief overview of Macbeth's ascent to king and is not an exhaustive analysis of the play.

Act 1:Scene 1/2:

About Macbeth (thane of Glamis):

• Adjective: brave and noble

• “Unseamed him from nave to chops”

• Not “dismayed”/worried about enemy

• Scotland (king Duncan, Macbeth) vs Norway + Scottish rebels/traitors

• Macduff is a good guys talking about the thane of Cawdor who is a bad guy

• Thane of Cawdor has been captured

• King will execute him and give his title to Macbeth

• Duncan values loyalty and is hurt by/swiftly punished disloyalty

• He’s close and personal with his people

Scene 3/4:

• Witches say Macbeth will be the thane of Cawdor and later king and Banquo won’t be king but will have children who are kings

• Macbeth and Banquo agree that there is potential danger so they wait to talk more later

• Macbeth is shaken

• Macbeth and Banquo are friends now but potential conflict between them

• Becoming the than of Cawdor feels excited and hopeful for being king

• Unfix my hair, heart beating, physical signs of anxiety

• “Cannot be ill, cannot be good”

• “Rapt”, entranced, distracted

• “Chance may crown me w/o my stir” maybe he won’t have to do anything to be king, if fate wants him to be king then he will just become king

Duncan’s Leadership Style:

• Grateful, praises, emotionally open

• Similar to Hrothgar, rewards

• Sees execution as necessary

• Takes betrayal personally

• Malcolm will be king, heir to the throne

• Macbeth realizes that there is another person in line ahead of him

• Donalbain is Duncan’s other son

• Duncan plans to go the Macbeth’s house to celebrate (inverness)

Themes:

• Leadership:

• Duncan’s leadership is very open, and king, which could leave him vulnerable

• Secrecy:

• Hard to regulate actions and emotions when keeping a secret

• Supernatural

• Danger in relying on something that may not be real

• People fear the unknown

• Manipulation

• Witches use manipulation to convince Macbeth and Banquo of their prophecies

Scene 5/6:

Gender:

• Lady Macbeth says “unsex me”

• Wants to be less womanly to kill Duncan

• “Take my milk for gall” - toxic, bitter, destructive chemical

• Milk - sweet, nourishing, life-giving

• Macbeth is too full of milk of human kindness, she wants to change him/control him

• Lady Macbeth said she would kill her own child for Macbeth, rejecting motherhood

Ambition:

• Lady Macbeth wants to kill Duncan even though Macbeth wants to wait

• Potential conflict because Macbeth wants to wait for fate and lady Macbeth wants to take action

• Lady Macbeth uses manipulation to convince Macbeth to go through with the plan

• Calls Macbeth coward and questions his loyalty to her because he won’t kill the king

Scene 7:

Secrecy, Disguise, Deceit:

• Lady Macbeth’s plan is to deceive everyone by framing the drunk guards

• Macbeth, Banquo, and Lady Macbeth are keeping the secret of the prophecies

• Lady Macbeth says he’s an open “book” and wants him to be better at keeping a secret

• “Look like the innocent flower (happy, trustworthy) but be the serpent (sneaky, aggressive, violent, refe4rence to Eve/Adam/ Devil, betrayal, poisonous/toxic) under it” (Lady Macbeth to Macbeth)

• Macbeth is worried about the consequences (afterlife and on earth)

• “Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor” (Macbeth) revenge, guilt, karma

• “False face must hide what the false heart doth know”

Act 2:Scene 1:

Banquo’s feelings:

• “Crowning” Fleance shows he’s tempted

• Still fearful of the witches but is intrigued too

• Frustrated/jealous

• Nightmares

Banquo’s relationship with Macbeth:

• Unspoken tension between Macbeth and Banquo

• Does his son being king mean Macbeth has to die?

• Lost respect

• Macbeth says “I think not of them” (lying and shutting out Banquo, distance, secrecy, deceit)

Dagger Soliloquy:

• Hallucination related to his guilt

• Blood + guilt

• Guilt already before the murder consumes him

Scene 2:

Lady Macbeth:

• Ambitious/ wants this

• Repressing guilt and telling Macbeth to too

• When Macbeth messes up, she gets nervous/angry

• Doesn’t want to process emotion because tasks to be done

• On edge/scared too, shows that she does feel like Macbeth

• Acting tough - defying gender norms

Macbeth:

• Guilty because this is the murder of a friend/king which is different from battle

• His character is changing already

• Realizes he can’t pray while killing Duncan (feels like a bad person)

• Hears a hallucinated voice saying that he will sleep no more

• Macbeth regrets killing Duncan

• Is Lady Macbeth feeling calm? Regretful? Nervous?

• Macbeth upset about blood on his hands

• “My hands are of your color, but I’d shame to wear a heart so white”

• “A little water”

• Worries he will mess up

• Relationship - closer or more conflict?

• Will the characters change from fair to foul?

• “Will all…ocean wash this blood clean from my hands…no it will rather… turn the green [sea] red”

Scene 3:

Porter/doorman of Macbeth castle, pretends he’s the gatekeeper of hell because he’s drunk, comic relief, use of humor to interrupt scenes of great tension, actually going to discuss themes

• Equivocator - someone who twists truth, who won’t give a straight answer

• Fair is foul is equivocation

• Are witches from hell

• Paradoxes are a form of equivocation

• Macbeth’s castle is hell because it has murder, center of evil, scary, Macbeth can’t pray, secrets

• The farmer the Porter refers to hanged himself because he got greedy, greed may be a theme

• Lady Macbeth plays into female stereotypes

• Fake fainting to create a diversion

• Macbeth kills the guards (not the plan)

• “Wherefore” = why

• Are people suspicious

• When Lady Macbeth isn’t there he makes messy choices

• The princes escape to scotland

• Malcolm goes to England and Donaldbain to ireland

• “There’s daggers in men’s smiles” princes can’t trust other people

• Unintended consequence, job opening for king

• Duncan was too trusting of the wrong people

Scene 4:

• Weird things are happening, it is more night than day, mouse ate falcon, horses ate each other

• Signs that bad things are happening maybe witches are present

Great Chain of Being - a conception of the nature of the universe that had an influence on Western thought, particularly through the ancient Greeks and derivative philosophes during the European Renaissance and the 17th and early 18th centuries

• Universe is full of many things

• Many beings are all different

• The beings are in hierarchical order of value from least being to highest form of being

• If you disturb one part of the order then the whole thing goes crazy (macbeth tries to be king so universe goes into disorder)

God

Supernatural beings

Kings

Lords/thanes

Common people

Predator animals

Other animals

Cool plants

Weak plants

Special minerals

Other minerals

Act 3:Scene 1/2/3:

• People are suspicious of the princes because they fled, which makes them look guilty

• Macbeth is going to be king now

• Banquo thinks that Macbeth is suspicious because it is convenient that he is now suddenly king

• Macbeth thinks that Banquo is a threat and is angry that he did so much just for Banquo’s descendants to later be king

• There’s a lot of tension/passive aggressiveness between them

• Macbeth hired assassins to murder Banquo and his son

• Change in morality

• Lady Macbeth doesn’t know this plan

• Doubtful joy - Lady Macbeth has what should make her happy but there is the doubt/fear/worry that gets in the way of it

• Macbeth would rather die because of his guilt

• Macbeth is having nightmares

• Macbeth is keeping a secret from Lady Macbeth about Banquo

• “Scorched the snake not killed it” - even though he killed Duncan there is still things/people in his way from being king which is making him angry, which is why he continues to kill people

• “Scorpions..” his mind is filled with poison, caused by guilt, can’t think clearly

• Macbeth isn’t getting his feelings validated

• Lady Macbeth isn’t communicating her feelings

• “Things without remedy should be without regard” - Lady Macbeth is trying to force Macbeth to stop thinking/feeling guilt about killing the king

• Macbeth thinks that what he is doing will make her proud so he’s keeping Banquo a secret, wants to be more a man

• “Faces masks to our hearts” Macbeth is saying what Lady Macbeth said in the beginning, he’s trying to be what he thinks she wants

• When you’re dead, you can sleep peacefully

Scene 4:

• Macbeth finds out that Banquo was killed but Fleance escaped.

• Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost in his seat haunting him, covered in blood. His guilt is causing him to hallucinate.

• Is this a supernatural ghost? or is this a hallucination in Macbeth's mind?

• Like Beowulf, the is a cycle of blood payment. Killing isn't a one-and-done thing, it is always much messier. Macbeth is witnessing that as he continuously has to kill people to get what he wants.

• Macbeth hasn't been sleeping because he is so full of guilt and secrecy and it's causing him to not think clearly.

• Macbeth is having a party while still keeping his plan a secret.

• Macbeth is spying on Macduff and other nobles that could be a threat to him. His leadership is based on spying and paranoia, not trust. He sees that trust got Duncan killed, so he's almost going in the exact opposite.

• Macbeth plans to go to the witches to find out more about his fate.

• Lady Macbeth is threatening his masculinity like before but it's not working in the same way. They've lost their communication and aren't on the same page which is going to put strain on their relationship.

Scene 5:

• Hecate, goddess of witches, is mad at the witches for messing with Macbeth without consulting her first

• Hecate wants the witches to use their illusions/magic to lead Macbeth to his confusion. Here, the supernatural use their power to manipulate Macbeth to his destruction.

• Orders the witches to meet with Macbeth and tell him everything he wants to know

Scene 6:

• Scotland is starving

• No one can sleep

• “Our suffering country”

• Chain of being disturbed

• Suspicious/mysterious deaths

• Macbeth’s official stories are suspicious but people can’t say it outright

• “Under a hand accursed”

• Leadership should be focused on the people not on self

• Macduff went to England to get a rebel army and Malcolm's help

• Lennox is deepu suspicious of Macbeth

Act 4:Scene 1:

• Beware of Macduff/thane of Fife

• Macbeth’s reaction: I thought so

• None of woman born can harm Macbeth (false sense of security/confidence)

• Macbeth’s reaction: I don’t have to fear Macduff but just in case I’ll kill Macduff anyway

• Now Macbeth jumps to murder to solve any problem

• Macbeth shall be safe until Birnam Forest moves to his castle at Dunshinane Hill

• Macbeth’s reaction: Sweet! Forests can’t move so he thinks this means that he’s invincible

• Witches seem to be giving good news but are probably bad (fair is foul)

• Macbeth is trying to hear what he wants to hear because he wants reassurance and justification in his actions and he wants the grief to be gone because all the killing will have been for something

• Macbeth finds out Macduff left for England

• He decides to kill Macduff’s family instead

• The witches show Macbeth that Banquo’s descendants will still be the king

Scene 2:

• Lady Macduff is upset that Macduff left her and their children without telling them

• Lady Macduff and the son are dead

Scene 3:

• Macduff meets up with Malcolm in England and the two make plans for how to overthrow Macbeth and take back their kingdom

• Malcolm’s a little suspicious of Macduff though, so he tries to suss out whether the thane is loyal to Scotland, or just in it for himself

• After Macduff proves himself loyal, the two of them join up with ten thousand troops to take down Macbeth

• Ross arrives, bringing news that Macduff’s family has died, but that if he returns to Scotland, there are a lot of folks who would happily join him to fight Macbeth

• Grief/Gender:

• “Dispute it like a man” fight/act

• “But I also feel it as a man” needs time to feel grief

• “Enrage the heart” act aggressively/use feelings as motivation

• Macduff feels guilty/responsible for the death of his family because he was away

• Ironically Macbeth gives Macduff the motivation to want to kill him

• Malcolm, Siward, and Lady Macbeth promote toxic masculinity, they feel that masculinity is the absence of emotions

• But Macduff offers a view of masculinity that includes love/emotion/grief

• Macduff is emotionally devastated by the murder of his family and realizes that Macbeth can’t understand his pain

• Vowing revenge, Macduff resolves to return to Scotland and murder Macbeth himself

Act 5:Scene 1:

• Conversation between doctor and servant talking about Lady Macbeth

• Lady Macbeth changes character

• Lady Macbeth has been sleep walking, sleep talking, sleep writing

• In her mind there is blood everywhere

• “What’s done cannot be undone”

• She “sleeps no more”

• She thought Macbeth was over reacting but now she is

• While she sleeps she confesses to what she’s done, can’t keep her secrets

• Humanizes Lady Macbeth

• When she’s rubbing her hand, she feel dirty with all the stuff she’s done and is trying to rub it to get rid of the feelings it causes her but she can’t

Scene 2:

• People either hate him or dislike him. He can't organize himself and is losing the loyalty of his people.

• Macbeth's people are only following him out of command not love. This makes him more vulnerable because it means the people don't actually care about him and could easily turn on him.

Scene 3:

• Macbeth is bullying his servants maybe because he’s trying to deal with his own insecurities

• He keeps repeating the prophecy, trying to convince himself that no one can stop him

• No one is there to help him so he is losing his confidence

• Old age should be really nice but Macbeth doesn’t have that, he has curses

• He tried to rush fate

• He had love, friendship, and honor but pushed them away while trying to become king

• Macbeth is thinking about suicide because he would rather die than live the way he is

• Macbeth is suiting up for a fight even though nobody is there because he wants to feel protected

• When the doctor tells him that Lady Macbeth isn’t sick he reacts badly and tells him to cure her which he can’t

• He wants so badly to return to his strength, battle is his strength, king is not

Scene 4:

• The army is going to cut down branches of Birnam wood and disguise themselves so that Macbeth can’t really see how many there are

• Should be a pretty easy battle because no one likes Macbeth

• Don’t see Macbeth as a threat

• Prophecy is coming true

Scene 5:

• Macbeth hears a scream and doesn’t even feel anything

• He realized that because he’s killed so many people that he is desensitized to screams/murder

• Macbeth finds out Lady Macbeth died

• Range of confusing emotions, shock, laughter, fears, confirmed, hysteria

• Finally he’s expressing emotions

• Numbness can be a part of grieving process

• “Life is a walking shadow… signifying nothing” - hopeless

• Macbeth says that Lady Macbeth should have died later

• It could either mean he’s sad that she died so young and so suddenly

• Or it could mean that it’s bad timing because his personal life and political life are in crisis

• “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” Macbeth feels like life is a slow march to death, he realizes he chose this future for himself

• Macbeth grieved pretty fast because there’s no time for him to process these emotions

• Macbeth tried to bring some value to his life by becoming king but it almost did the opposite

Scene 7:

• Macbeth kills Siward’s son

• Macbeth prophecy: Siward can’t hurt him because he was born of a woman

• Gives back some confidence

• Macduff wants to fight Macbeth to avenge his family

• Macbeth says to Macduff, you shouldn’t fight me because men who are of women born won’t succeed

• Macduff wasn’t born of a woman in a natural way, he was born through what would be a c-section (untimely ripped from his mother’s womb)

• This makes Macbeth realize the power of the witches and how they have been messing with him which led him to his end

• Even though Macbeth knows he will die because of the prophecies, he would rather go down trying than live this empty end of life existence

• Macbeth dies

• Malcolm becomes king

• Malcolm honors Siward's son and addresses the grief of those who had died

• Then he says they will call everyone who left

• He’s rebuilding the country

• Bring forth all spies and hit men that worked for the macbeths and get rid of them

• The actual king in real life was the descendant of Banquo

• Shakespear was kissing up to the king by putting him in the play