Macbeth
- Please see the bottom of this page for helpful Macbeth resources.
- Please see the bottom of each scene for detailed explanatory notes and analysis.
- Dramatis Personae.
- Act 1
- Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 1. A desert place.
- Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 2. A camp near Forres.
- Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. A heath near Forres.
- Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 4. Forres. The palace.
- Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. Inverness. Macbeth's castle.
- Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 6. Before Macbeth's castle.
- Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. Macbeth's castle.
- Act 2
- Act 3
- Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 1. Forres. The palace.
- Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. The palace.
- Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 3. A park near the palace.
- Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. The same. Hall in the palace.
- Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 5. A Heath.
- Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 6. Forres. The palace.
- Act 4
- Act 5
- Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1. Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle.
- Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 2. The country near Dunsinane.
- Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 3. Dunsinane. A room in the castle.
- Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 4. Country near Birnam wood.
- Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5. Dunsinane. Within the castle.
- Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 6. Dunsinane. Before the castle.
- Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 7. Another part of the field.
- Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8. Another part of the field.
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Related Resources
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 Macbeth: Study Guide
The Metre of Macbeth: Blank Verse and Rhymed Lines
Macbeth Character Introduction
Metaphors in Macbeth (Biblical)
Macbeth, Duncan and Shakespeare's Changes
Contemporary References to King James I in Macbeth
The Royal Patent that Changed Shakespeare's Life
Soliloquy Analysis: If it were done when 'tis done (1.7.1-29)
Soliloquy Analysis: Is this a dagger (2.1.33-61)
Soliloquy Analysis: To be thus is nothing (3.1.47-71)
Soliloquy Analysis: She should have died hereafter (5.5.17-28)
Explanatory Notes for Lady Macbeth's Soliloquy (1.5)
The Psychoanalysis of Lady Macbeth (Sleepwalking Scene)
Lady Macbeth's Suicide
Is Lady Macbeth's Swoon Real?
Explanatory Notes for the Witches' Chants (4.1)
Macbeth Plot Summary (Acts 1 and 2)
Macbeth Plot Summary (Acts 3, 4 and 5)
A Comparison of Macbeth and Hamlet
The Effect of Lady Macbeth's Death on Macbeth
The Curse of Macbeth
Shakespeare's Sources for Macbeth
Macbeth Q & A
Aesthetic Examination Questions on Macbeth
What is Tragic Irony?
Macbeth Study Quiz (with detailed answers)
Quotations from Macbeth (Full)
Top 10 Quotations from Macbeth
Characteristics of Elizabethan Tragedy
Shakespeare's Workmanship: Crafting a Sympathetic Macbeth
Temptation, Sin, Retribution: Lecture Notes on Macbeth
Untie the winds: Exploring the Witches' Control Over Nature in Macbeth
Why Shakespeare is so Important
Shakespeare's Language
Shakespeare's Influence on Other Writers
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In the Spotlight
Quote in Context
 Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so,
For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind.
Macbeth (3.1), Macbeth
Macbeth has killed Duncan and has become king of the Scots, yet he believes his crown is in jeopardy. The menace is Banquo. Like Macbeth, Banquo knows that there were two key parts to the unearthly revelation: first, that Macbeth will become king, and second, that Banquo will beget future kings. Macbeth fears Banquo is planning a coup to hasten the day of triumph for his heirs. Read on...
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Mixed Metaphors
 And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.
Macbeth (1.7), Macbeth
In this passage where the wild emotions of Macbeth's mind are struggling for utterance, one metaphor crowds upon and displaces another. "Pity" is first personified as a newborn infant, naked and miserable, such as would appeal to the sympathy of all men; then this infant bestrides the wind for a charger to carry the news of Duncan's murder throughout the world. This figure of a messenger seated upon the wind calls up a confused memory of a verse of the Bible (Psalms, xviii. 10.) to Macbeth's mind, and his imagination embodies pity as an angel riding on the wind. Read on...
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Points to Ponder
 Macbeth (as I have said and as others have said before me) curiously resembles Greek tragedy in a dozen ways,
of which I will mention but one more. Though it is full of blood and images of blood, the important blood-shedding is hidden, removed from the spectator's sight. There is, to be sure, a set scene for Banquo's murder: but it can be omitted without detriment to the play, and, in fact, always is omitted. Duncan is murdered off the stage; Lady Macbeth dies off the stage; Macbeth makes his final exit fighting, to be killed off the stage. There is nothing here like the "blood-bolter'd" culmination of Hamlet [Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Shakespeare's Workmanship]. Read on...
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