Macbeth · GCSE English Literature

Plot

After a battle, Macbeth and Banquo meet three witches. They predict that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor and then king, and that Banquo's descendants will be kings. Macbeth is soon made Thane of Cawdor.
Lady Macbeth persuades him to murder King Duncan while he stays at their castle. Duncan's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, flee, and Macbeth becomes king.
Fearing the prophecy, Macbeth has Banquo murdered, but Banquo's son Fleance escapes. Banquo's ghost appears at a banquet.
The witches warn Macbeth to beware Macduff, but say no man 'of woman born' can harm him and he is safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. Macbeth has Macduff's wife and children murdered.
Lady Macbeth, overwhelmed by guilt, sleepwalks and later dies. Malcolm's army carries branches from Birnam Wood. Macduff, who was 'untimely ripped' from his mother's womb, kills Macbeth, and Malcolm becomes king.

Ambition and power; guilt; the supernatural; appearance and reality ('Fair is foul, and foul is fair'); kingship and tyranny; masculinity; order and disorder.

It was written around 1606 for King James I, who was also King James VI of Scotland, claimed descent from Banquo and was fascinated by witchcraft.
The Gunpowder Plot (1605) made killing a king (regicide) a shocking, topical subject. People believed in the Divine Right of Kings: kings were chosen by God, so killing one disrupted the natural order (the Great Chain of Being).
Jacobean audiences expected women to be obedient and gentle, which makes Lady Macbeth shocking.

'Fair is foul, and foul is fair' (the witches). 'Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires' (Macbeth).
'Look like th' innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't' and 'unsex me here' (Lady Macbeth). 'Vaulting ambition' (Macbeth).
'Is this a dagger which I see before me' and 'O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!' (Macbeth). 'Out, damned spot!' (Lady Macbeth).
'This dead butcher and his fiend-like queen' (Malcolm).

Soliloquy: A speech in which a character speaks their thoughts aloud, alone on stage.
Regicide: The killing of a king.
Divine Right of Kings: The belief that kings are chosen by God.
Great Chain of Being: The belief in a God-given order, with the king at the top of human society.
Tragic hero: A great person who falls because of a fatal flaw.
Hamartia: A tragic hero's fatal flaw, such as Macbeth's ambition.
Dramatic irony: When the audience knows something a character doesn't.
Tyrant: A cruel ruler who uses power unjustly.