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Banquosaystothewitches ‘Ayefantasticalorthatindeedwhichoutwardlyyoushow’. Questioningtheirreality,instantlyrecognisedtheymaybemisleading.NotcaptivatedorcorruptedlikeMacbeth. ThisislinkedtotheDivineRightofKings.Howeverhebecomesmoreandmorecorruptedandcareslesslaterintheplay. SeeingBanquo'sghostshowshowguiltyMacbethtrulyis.Heseestheghostsofeveryonehe’skilledwhichsuggestshehasretainedsomeofhismoralcompass.Understandsthedarknessofwhathe’sdone. This theme of the relationship between gender and power is key to Lady Macbeth’s character: her husband implies that she is a masculine soul inhabiting a female body, which seems to link masculinity to ambition and violence. Shakespeare, however, seems to use her, and the witches, to undercut Macbeth’s idea that “undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males” (1.7.73–74). These crafty women use femalemethods of achieving power—that is, manipulation—to further their supposedly male ambitions. Women, the play implies, can be as ambitious and cruel as men, yet social constraints deny them the means to pursue these ambitions on their own.
Conflict between Good and Evil: Macbeth and his wife represent evil, while King Duncan, his generals, Banquo, and Macduff represent the good. Shakespeare has shown that Lady Macbeth is schemer, just like the witches without magical powers. While her attempts to kill the king fails, Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to do the job by taunting him when he hesitates. However, ‘good’ is always victorious as the play ends when Macduff and his forces behead Macbeth as a punishment for his crimes. The wine of life is drawn and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of. (Act-I, Scene-II, Lines, 192-5). Macbeth worries tho. The Witches also said that Banquo’s sons will become kings, so he sends some baddies to murder Banquo and his son. Shakespeare’sdramaticirony.Duncandescribesthecastleashavinga ‘sweetair’anddescribesLadyMacbethasa ‘fairandnoblehostess’.SuggestsDuncanisincapableofseeingevilandcan’tcomprehenditbecauseit’ssobeyondhisgoodnature. Lady Macbeth sees "remorse" as one of the names for feminine compassion—of which she must rid herself. Thus she must be "unsexed." This does not mean, however, that in rejecting her femininity she becomes manly. Instead, she becomes a woman devoid of the sexual characteristics and sentimentality that make her a woman. She becomes entirely unnatural and inhuman. Like the supernatural Weird Sisters with their beards, Lady Macbeth becomes something that does not fit into the natural world.IdidEnglishLitGCSEalmost2yearsagonowbutIstillhavetherevisionguideofkeyquotationsImadeforeachcharacter+social,historicalcontext.Igota9intheendsohopefullythishelpspeopleout. And whattayaknow! The Witches are right – Macbeth is promoted to Thane of Cawdor! Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth about the crazy predictions. And she’s like yeah! And King Duncan is coming to visit! So, she persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan, to make sure he becomes king. I know! She’s nasty! Fearful of the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs will seize the throne, Macbeth hires a group of murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. They ambush Banquo on his way to a royal feast, but they fail to kill Fleance, who escapes into the night. Macbeth becomes furious: as long as Fleance is alive, he fears that his power remains insecure. At the feast that night, Banquo’s ghost visits Macbeth. When he sees the ghost, Macbeth raves fearfully, startling his guests, who include most of the great Scottish nobility. Lady Macbeth tries to neutralize the damage, but Macbeth’s kingship incites increasing resistance from his nobles and subjects. Allegory: Macbeth is an allegory that shows how good and evil resides within men. It shows that when people believe in witchcraft or similar evil practices, they do not think about consequences. Here Macbeth shows that evil resides in man, and all he needed was a curse and a prophecy. Macbeth’s ambition turns to greed, and he kills King Duncan. However, goodness prevails by the end when Malcolm and Macduff kill Macbeth together with the assistance from England. Macbeth believes in the witches’ prophecy and remains overconfident. Recalling the first apparition shown by the witches, that nobody born of a woman could kill him, he remains anxious but unmoved. He worries about his wife, Lady Macbeth’s failing mental health.
The witches vanish, and Macbeth and Banquo treat their prophecies skeptically until some of King Duncan’s men come to thank the two generals for their victories in battle and to tell Macbeth that he has indeed been named thane of Cawdor. The previous thane betrayed Scotland by fighting for the Norwegians and Duncan has condemned him to death. Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility that the remainder of the witches’ prophecy—that he will be crowned king—might be true, but he is uncertain what to expect. He visits with King Duncan, and they plan to dine together at Inverness, Macbeth’s castle, that night. Macbeth writes ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her all that has happened. WhoisresponsibleforMacbeth’sdownfall?IsMacbethresponsibleforhisownactions?Ordidthewitchesnourishhisambitionandplanttheseed?Legend says that Macbeth was written in 1605 or 1606 and performed at Hampton Court in 1606 for King James I and his brother-in-law, King Christian of Denmark. Whether it was first performed at the royal court or was premiered at the Globe theatre, there can be little doubt that the play were intended to please the King, who had recently become the patron of Shakespeare's theatrical company. We note, for example, that the character of Banquo—the legendary root of the Stuart family tree—is depicted very favorably. Like Banquo, King James was a Stuart. The play is also quite short, perhaps because Shakespeare knew that James preferred short plays. And the play contains many supernatural elements that James, who himself published a book on the detection and practices of witchcraft, would have appreciated. Even something as minor as the Scottish defeat of the Danes may have been omitted to avoid offending King Christian.
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