List of main characters:
Duncan(King of Scotland)
Malcolm(Duncan's oldest son)
Macbeth(Thane of Glamis)
Lady Macbeth(Macbeth's wife)
Banquo(Macbeth's friend and servant)
Fleance(Banquo's son)
Macduff(Thane of Five)
Three Witches
The Witches predictions:
I.
a-Macbeth, who is the Thane of Glamis, will also be the Thane of Cawdor.
b-Macbeth will be king one day.
c-Banquo will never be king, but his children will be kings.
II. a-Macbeth
should fear Macduff, the Thane of Fife.
b-Macbeth will never be harmed by a man born of a women.
c-Macbeth will never be defeated until the wood moves to his castle.
The Play: Three witches open the play and establish a mystic atmosphere. They mention Macbeth and bring the theme in the whole story: "Foul is fair and fair is foul!" This sentence shows that things are not what they seem to be, they are all paradox.
The second scene takes place on a battlefield.
A bloody sergeant arrives in the military camp and reports to King Duncan
that Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, is a great fighter. He won two
battles and he was so clever and sold the corpses from the battle for 10,000
pounds to the king of Norway. King Duncan says that Macbeth should
be honored for his courage and strength and he names Macbeth Thane of Cawdor.
Before Macbeth himself hears this good news he
and his friend Banquo meet the three witches. They predict Macbeth
what the future holds for him and Banquo:
a- Macbeth, who is the Thane of Glamis, will also be the Thane of
Cawdor.
b- Macbeth, will be king one day.
c- Banquo will never be king, but his children will be kings.
First, Macbeth and Banquo laugh about the predictions
but than a messenger arrives and tells Macbeth that the king made him Thane
of Cawdor.
Macbeth tells his wife, Lady Macbeth, in a letter
about the weird happening, and he also tells her that hte king will visit
them soon at their castle. Lady Macbeth is willing to do everything
to see Macbeth becoming king and so she thinks about murdering King Duncan.
When the king is in Macbeth's castle at the party Lady Macbeth forces Macbeth
to kill the king. Macbeth is scared, but his wife doesn't consider
him a man if he does not kill the monarch. In that same night, he
gets the guards drunk and kills the king.
The next morning the king is found dead and nobody seems more shocked than Macbeth. In his rage he kills the two guards and now no one can prove that they haven't killed the king. Malcolm, King Duncan's son, does not believe that the guards killed his father, but he is afraid and so runs away to England. Macbeth crowns himself as monarch adn so the witches prediction's have come true. He is afraid that some of the Thanes suspect that Duncan wasn't killed by the guards and the only person who knows about the witches' predictions beside Macbeth is Banquo, whose children should be kings some day as well. Macbeth sends three men to kill his friend Banquo and his son, Fleance.
That night, Macbeth was holding a party in his
castle and the ghost of Banquo appears to him. Macbeth is afraid
of loosing his crown and so he goes back to the witches to ask them for
advice. They tell him three things:
a- Macbeth should fear Macduff, the Thane of Fife.
b- Macbeth will never be harmed by a man born of a women.
c- Macbeth will never be defeated until the wood moves to his castle.
The witches also show Macbeth an illusion showing
Banquo's children being kings, and that makes Macbeth furious. In
the meanwhile, Lady Macbeth becomes insane because she cannot handle the
fact that she smeared the king's blood on the guard. She has horrible
nightmares, which cause her in becoming crazy. However, her insanity
is no worry to Macbeth. His only focused on his power and is afraid
that he will lose the crown again.
Macbeth is not loved as a king because he is
too hungry for more power. Macduff goes to England to start a revolt
with Malcolm, the rightful king. Macbeth is so furious about that,
that he sends someone to kill Macduff's family. Macduff is so angry
that he and Malcolm set out from England with 10,000 men. Macbeth
has lost all his friends. Only his pride and the confidence in the
witches predictions keep him going.
When Malcolm is in a forest, close to the castle
of Macbeth, he tells his troops that they should cut of the branches of
the trees and hide behind them. However, Macbeth is already waiting
for his attackers when he gets the message that his wife committed suicide.
He gets the message that the forest is moving towards the castle, when
in reality, they are the soldiers under the branches of the trees.
Now, he is afraid. He calls his troops and they begin a wild battle.
Finally, Macduff faces Macbeth. Macbeth
warns him that no man born of a woman can harm him, but Macduff is not
sacred because he was ripped from his mother's womb-and so kills Macbeth.
His head is cut off, and Macduff shows it to the crowd. It is then,
where Malcolm is crowned as the rightful king.
