Macbeth

@Macbeth - Background, including the real Macbeth

Macbeth - Character List

@Macbeth - Act Summaries - the APA citation for these summaries is given at the top of the page. **If you use this page it must be included in your source list but it is not one of the citations needed for your Annotated Bibliography.**


 * Prophecies in Act IV.i.** - Macbeth visits the witches and demands to know more about his future. They get the power for these from their master, Hecate. Each prophecy is accompanied by an apparition.

// Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff. // //Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough. (IV.i.73-74)//
 * First apparition and prophecy:** a floating head wearing armor which warns him to beware Macduff

// Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn // // The power of man, for none of woman born // // Shall harm Macbeth. (IV.i.81-83) //
 * Second apparition and prophecy:** a bloody child which says that no one born of woman will harm Macbeth

To this Macbeth responds that Macduff can life since there is no use fearing him. But to be extra sure, Macbeth decides to kill Macduff.

// Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care // // Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. // // Macbeth shall never vanquished be until // // Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill // // Shall come against him. (IV.i.94-98) //
 * Third apparition and prophecy:** a child crowned, with a tree in his hand that tells Macbeth to be brave (like the lion) and not worry about his enemies. The ghost tells Macbeth that he will never be defeated until Birnam Wood (the woods nearby) marches on Dunsinane Hill (where Macbeth's castle is) to fight against him.

Macbeth responds happily as this cannot happen. He asks rhetorically, who can command the forest and force the trees to uproot and march?


 * Fourth apparition:** Macbeth demands of the witches to know if the prophecy of Banquo will come true--that his heirs will be king. The witches all tell him not to demand more. He does. Then an apparition of 8 kings appear, each resembling one another, followed by Banquo holding a mirror. This confirms to Macbeth that Banquo's heirs will indeed become kings. Macbeth freaks out and yells at the witches. They dance around and then vanish. He calls in Lennox (who did not see the Weird Sisters). Lennox tells him that Macduff has fled to England. (Presumably to get back up to challenge Macbeth.) Macbeth decides to go to Fife and kill Macduff's wife and family.

The fourth apparition is an homage by Shakespeare to King James I because King James is a distant relative of the real Banquo. King James was very fond of Shakespeare's acting troupe. He paid them to perform for him and to perform in their theater, The Globe. In fact the name of their acting troupe became The King's Men.

**HOMEWORK:** View this page after we finish __ every __ act. Follow the appropriate links following each act and complete the homework. These are your responsibility whether or not they are announced in class on a particular day or not.

Turning in questions for each Act: Email, share through a One Drive or turn hard copy into turn-in folder.

Macbeth - After Act I

Macbeth - after Act II

Macbeth - after Act III

Macbeth - after Act IV

Macbeth - after Act V

HOMEWORK: View this page after we finish __every__ act. Follow the appropriate links following each act and complete the homework. These are your responsibility whether or not they are announced in class on a particular day or not.


 * __Macbeth__ Video links:**


 * Act I Scene 1 - witches "When shall we three meet again?"**

Stage production, ominous and dark: @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnc0pOjr1qY

Polanski 1971 film - less ominous and not so dark: @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZcFnZ2ZMR0

Stratford Shakespeare Challenge 2012 student competition entry: @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdHASvCpvbk
 * Act 1 Scene 3 - witches meet Macbeth and Banquo**

Macbeth and Banquo meet witches, Globe on Screen 2014: @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM3h0Gb2O20

Globe on stage: @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuGTaHpozog
 * Macbeth: "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow..."**