This document provides an overview of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. It summarizes the plot, in which the Scottish general Macbeth is told by witches that he will become king. Upon the urging of his wife Lady Macbeth, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the throne. He then faces increasing paranoia and commits more murders to secure his power, until he is overthrown by the rightful heir Malcolm with the help of Macduff. The document also outlines several major themes of the play, including fate versus free will, ambition, the nature of power, and violence.

1. THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
BY:
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

2. SHAKESPEAR
PLAYS
MACBETH
THE PLAY
SUMMARY
THEMES :
FATE AND FREE WILL
AMBITION
POWER
VERSIONS OF REALITY
GENDER
VIOLENCE
TIME
CHARACTERS:
MACBETH
LADY MACBETH
WEIRD SISTERS
ANALYSIS:
SYMBOLS AND IMAGERY
PLOT ANALYSIS

3. Shakespeare's plays,
listed by genre
TRAGEDIES
Antony and
Cleopatra
Coriolanus
Cymbeline
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
Troilus and
Cressida
HISTORIES
Henry IV, Part I
Henry IV, Part II
Henry V
Henry VI, Part I
Henry VI, Part II
Henry VI, Part III
Henry VIII
King John
Pericles
Richard II
Richard III
COMEDIES
All's Well That Ends
Well
As You Like It
Comedy of Errors
Love's Labour's Lost
Measure for Measure
Merchant of Venice
Merry Wives of
Windsor
Midsummer Night's
Dream
Much Ado about
Nothing
Taming of the Shrew
Tempest
Twelfth Night
Two Gentlemen of
Verona
Winter's Tale

4. first performed by
Shakespeare's
company around
1606
THE SCOTTISH
PLAY!
A TRIBUTE TO
JAMES I
OF ENGLAND
ONE OF
SHAKESPEARE`S
SHORTEST PLAYS
ONE OF THE
BLOODIEST
PLAYS OF
SHAKESPEARE`S
Traces of current
affairs:
JAMES I WAS
CROWNED
WITCHCRAFT
GUNPOWDER PLOT
FATE, FREE WILL
AMBTION AND
POWER
SHAKESPEARE`S
ONLY PLAY
HAPPENING IN
SCOTLAND

5. IS IT A
TRAGEDY?
FAIR IS FOUL
AND
FOUL IS FAIR
Ends in death
but with the
promise of
continuity
Hero is
destined for
destruction and
downfall
Hero's got a major flaw of
character or conflict with
some overpowering force
Serious or
somber theme
Dramatic work

6. MACBETH AT A GLANCE:
• Scottish general Macbeth is told by a trio of
witches that he will become Thane of Cawdor
and then King of Scotland. King Duncan names
Macbeth Thane of Cawdor.
• At Lady Macbeth’s prompting, Macbeth kills
Duncan then
• murders and frames the servants. Macbeth is
crowned king.
• Macbeth orders the suspicious Banquo and his
son killed, but Fleance survives. The witches
make a number of ambiguous predictions that
give Macbeth confidence.
• Macbeth has Macduff’s family executed. A
vengeful Macduff joins with Malcolm in a plot to
overthrow Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is overcome
with remorse and kills herself.

7. THEME: FATE AND FREE WILL
• FATE : A REASONABLE EXCUSE
• IS HE A VICTIM OF FATE?
• FATE &FREE WILL: FAIR IS FOUL AND FOUL
IS FAIR
• THE ROLE OF WEIRD SISTERS
• THE ROLE OF LADY MACBETH
• DO FATE AND FREE WILL
DETERMINE PEOPLE`S FUTURE?
• FATE: PREDETERMINED
• FREE WILL: DETERMINESTHE APPROACH

8. THEME: AMBITION
• IT`S NEVER ENOUGH!
• I`D DO ANYTHING FOR POWER…
• WHY REGICIDE? WHY CONTINUE
IT?
• MACBETH V.S MALCOM … BOTH
AMBITIOUS?
• WHAT DRIVES LADY MACBETH?
• UNNATURAL AMBITION

9. THEME: POWER
• POWER CURROPTS UNLESS IT IS GOD-
GIVEN:DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS
• POWER IS NATURAL UNTIL IT`S NOT!
• IS THERE AN IDEAL MONARCH IN THE
PLAY?
• THERE IS REGICIDE AND THERE IS
REGICIDE!
(REGICIDEV.STYRANNICIDE)

10. THEME: VERSIONS OF REALITY
• WITCHES, STAINS AND DAGGERS
:NOTHING IS QUITEWHAT IT SEEMS
• WHY DID THEY TAKE THE PROPHESY
SO SERIOUSLY?
• THE AIM OF HALLUCINATIONS IN
THE PLAY:TRUTHV.S REALITY…
• WEIRD SISTERS, DAGGERS, GHOSTS
…AND EXCUSES
• THE PROPHESY: SURPRISING? SCARY?

11. THEME: GENDER
• WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SHAKESPEARE`S
STRONG FEMALE HEROINS?
• MEN VS WOMEN …
• NATURE OF LADY MACBETH`S PERSUASION.
• “TOO FULL O`TH`MILK OF HUMAN
KINDNESS”
• MANHOOD V.S CRUELTY AND VIOLENCE
• EMASCULATED BY WOMEN

12. THEME: VIOLENCE
• ONE OF SHAKEPEARE`S MOST VIOLENT PLAYS
• THE REASON FOR ALL THE VIOLENCE? A CYCLE?
• BLOOD DEMANDS BLOOD
• HOW DID HE GET THERE?
• HOMICIDE: MAN`S ULTIMATE REDLINE
• AMBITION V.S REVENGE
• VILOLANCE : EVER JUSTIFIALBLE?

13. THEME: TIME
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

14. MACBETH
FORTUNE`S FOOL
FREE TO BE YOU
AND ME
SHE`LL MAKE A
MAN OUT OF YOU
NOT INTO FAME…
EXISTENTIAL HERO
of Cumberland!
That is a step
On which I must
fall down, or else
o'erleap,
For in my way it
lies. Stars, hide
your fires;
Let not light see
my black and
deep desires:
The eye wink at
the hand; yet let
that be,
Which the eye
fears, when it is
done, to see.
(1.4.55-60)
“Is this a dagger
which I see before
me,
The handle toward
my hand? Come, let
me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and
yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal
vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight?
or art thou but
A dagger of the mind,
a false creation,
Proceeding from the
heat-oppressed
brain?
I see thee yet, in form
as palpable
As this which now I
draw.
Thou marshall'st me
the way that I was
going;
And such an
instrument I was to
use”. (2.1.44-55)

15. LADY MACBETH
A WITCH
OR A
WOMAN?
WOMAN
UP!
Glamis thou art,
and Cawdor, and
shalt be
What thou art
promised.
Yet do I fear thy
nature;
It is too full o'
th' milk of
human kindness
To catch the
nearest way.
Thou wouldst be
great,
Art not without
ambition, but
without
The illness
should attend it.
(1.5.15-20)
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me
here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-
full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to
remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace
between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's
breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering
ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come,
thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of
hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it
makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of
the dark,
To cry 'Hold, hold!' (1.5.45-61)

16. WEIRD SISTERS
• ENTER THREE WITCHES
• WITCHCRAFT
• THE SISTERS AND FATE:
CLOTHO, LACHESIS & ATROPOS/AISA
[…] What are these
So withered and so wild in their
attire,
That look not like th' inhabitants o'
th' Earth,
And yet are on 't?—Live you? Or are
you aught
That man may question?

17. SYMBOLISM, IMAGERY, ALLEGORY
THE
“EQUIVOCATOR”
GUN POWDER PLOT
DEAD
CHILDREN:
END OF A LINE
BLOOD:
DAGGERS &
SPOTS
EIGHT
KINGS:
TWO BALLS AND A
SCEPTER
NATURE:
OWLS /HORSES
AND STORMS
LIGHT AND
DARKNESS:
LIGHT /LIFE
CLOTHING:
BORROWED ROBES
GIANT`S
ROBES/UPON A
DWARFISH THIEF

18. PLOT ANALYSIS
CONCLUSION:
I AM NO MAN
CLIMAX:
GHOST HUNTERS
SUSPENSE:
POWER HUNGRY
INITIAL
SITUATION
DENOUEMENT:
FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME
ON ME!
COMPLICATION
THE KING IS DEAD, LONG
LIVE THE KING
CONFLICT:
ENTER THREE WITCHES

19. WE`LL BE WITH YOU IN TWO WEEKS WITH
“ROMEO AND JULIET”