Summary of Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Over the past few days, I have been reading the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. This is one of my favorite of Shakespeare’s plays. It is what was known as a tragedy and it covers the story of a Scottish general who ends up doing horrible things to become king.
This play begins on the now empty battlefield, in a storm, where three sisters emerge from the darkness. Throughout the play, these sisters are referred to as weird sisters, because they are witches. They discuss where they shall meet again. They also talk a little bit about some of the prophecies they will announce later on in the story.
The next scene starts with a man named Ross, who is a soldier, along with some others. They were going back to Scotland after a major victory after the war. They go to the king and report all the news from the war, including the heroic details of a general named Macbeth. They explain to King Duncan that Macbeth fought bravely and strong, and greatly helped to win the war.
In the next scene, Macbeth was introduced into the play. He is walking with his best friend Banquo, when they come across the three witches. The witches tell Macbeth that he will soon be king. They tell Banquo that he and his children will produce kings. Both men are thrilled by this news, and they go off to see Duncan, the current king.
While celebrating, King Duncan announces who will be his successor. Remembering what the sisters said, Macbeth believes that it will be him. However, Duncan chooses his oldest son and the rightful heir to the throne, Malcolm, to succeed the king when he dies. Macbeth is upset and confused, so he writes a letter to his wife, Lady Macbeth, for advice.
When he gets back to his house, Lady Macbeth tells her husband her plan to make Macbeth king. She decided to have a dinner party, to get Duncan’s guards drunk. Then, while everyone was asleep, she told Macbeth to go murder Duncan. Macbeth hesitated, and he wanted to find a different way to become king, for Duncan was one of his best friends, but Macbeth did the awful deed anyway. He accidentally brought the knife back to his room, so Lady Macbeth grabbed them and went back to smear all the blood on the guards.
Minutes after murdering Duncan, Macbeth began to realize what he had done and felt guilty and shameful. Lady Macbeth scorns him for how he feels, but she also feels that way, and is horrified that someone will find out. They even will not go answer the door when someone is knocking in fear that that person would see them all covered in blood. Murdering the king is the point of the story when Macbeth turns from a loyal, brave general, to a lying, murdering, cowardly king.
Even though Malcolm was the rightful heir to the throne and should have been king, Macbeth became king. This was because Malcolm and his younger brother, Donalbain flee in fear that the murderer of their father will come after them next. Everyone thinks that Malcolm and his brother murdered their father for the throne, but when someone suspected something, they went into hiding. Seeing no other person suitable for the throne, Macbeth becomes the next king. Donalbain goes into hiding in Ireland, while Malcolm works on gathering an army to go take back the throne from Macbeth.
Macbeth obviously does not want to lose all the power he had just got, so he wanted to get rid of any possible people who could be in line for the throne. He remembered what the weird sisters said about Banquo’s descendants becoming kings, so he wanted to get rid of Banquo and his family. He sent assassins to go kill his best friend and his family. This trip was mostly successful, for the murderers killed Banquo, his wife, and most of his kids, but his son, Fleance, however, escaped. Unfortunately, he could not save the rest of his family, but he would eventually carry out the prophecy of becoming king and producing other kings. After this, Macbeth began to see the ghosts of Duncan and Banquo. He felt more and more guilty and shameful every day, but he began to feel more happy because the witches told him that no person born of a woman could kill him.
Lady Macbeth was also feeling this way. Every night she would sleepwalk around the palace muttering and rubbing her hands together as if she was trying to wash them. She kept saying things such as “there’s another spot” like something was on her hands that she could not get off. She also would pick up a letter, read it silently, then put it back down and go to bed. Lady Macbeth was dreaming that there was blood on her hands, but she could not get it off. This represents that she was guilty and could not find a way to not feel ashamed of what she had done.
Meanwhile, Malcolm had been working on raising an army with an old friend of Macbeth’s, whose name was Macduff. Later in the story, Macbeth himself, along with some other murderers, go and murder Macduff’s family. Macduff had sensed something suspicious about Macbeth, and went to join Malcolm’s army. When Macduff heard the unforgivable news about his family, he immediately wanted revenge on Macbeth, so Malcolm’s army left as soon as possible.
Just before Malcolm’s invasion Lady Macbeth was found dead. During the battle, Macbeth personally killed a young man named Siward, whose father was fighting in the war too, and was devastated to hear that his son was killed. Finally, Macbeth encountered Macduff, who was furious with and wanted revenge on Macbeth. They fought for a while, but in the end, Macbeth was killed by Macduff. You may be wondering how this happened with the prophecy in order, but Macduff’s mother had had a sea-section when Macduff was born. This means that Macduff was technically not born.
Macbeth is a very exciting play to read, even though I do not think that Macbeth’s decisions about murdering his best friends were very good at all. I believe that Macbeth could have made an agreement with King Duncan that would have allowed him to become king at some point, instead of killing him. I recommend this play, because it is absolutely one of my favorites.