Play Synopsis In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a trio of witches predicts that Macbeth will be made king of Scotland. When the witches’ prophecies start to come true, Macbeth starts to have ambitions about becoming the new king. Despite his own doubts as to this prophecy, his wife, Lady Macbeth, schemes with him to kill the current king, Duncan, so that he can take the throne. He simply follows the orders of his wife blindly, even though she is clearly interested only in her own ascent to power. Macbeth soon succeeds in his plan to kill King Duncan, and ascends to the throne.
However, Macbeth soon starts to feel extremely guilty about the betrayal he has committed, and starts to feel paranoid about people finding out about his scheme to get to the throne. His rule becomes much more tyrannical and authoritative as he must kill more people along the way to avert suspicion away from himself. This includes his good friend Banquo and Banquo’s son, Fleance, whose flight complicates matters; Banquo’s ghost starts to haunt Macbeth, making him feel even guiltier and slip into madness. In the end, Macbeth’s friend MacDuff confronts him and takes over his castle and army, finally understanding that MacDuff fulfills the role in the prophecy that says he will be killed by someone who is not “of woman born.” MacDuff kills MacBeth and cuts off his head, and allows benevolent Malcolm to ascend to the throne.
Plot OutlineACT 1: It is revealed to Duncan that Macbeth and Banquo have fought off the Irish invaders and that the Thane of Cawdor has been killed; Duncan says that Macbeth shall be the new Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches, who give them their respective prophecies and say Macbeth will be king one day. Macbeth starts to believe the prophecy after he is named the new Thane of Cawdor, and starts to make plans to kill Duncan with Lady Macbeth.
ACT 2: Lady Macbeth starts to convince Macbeth that he should kill Duncan, and he successfully kills the king. They attempt to pin the blame for the king’s death on the two sons, who have fled, and Banquo starts to become suspicious of Macbeth due to their knowledge of the witches’ prophecy.
ACT 3: Macbeth hires a pair of murderers to kill Banquo, which they do, but Fleance, his son, escapes. Upon hearing this news, Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost on his throne, as he starts to show signs of madness. Macduff has been revealed to have fled to England to ask King Edward for aid to overthrow Macbeth with Malcolm.
ACT 4: Macbeth returns to the witches to ask for clarification on the prophecy, where they reveal that no one “of woman born” will hurt Macbeth (IV.i.96). Hired killers kill Lady Macduff and her son. Macduff and Malcolm successfully get an army to take back Scotland from Macbeth.
ACT 5: Lady Macbeth has finally descended into madness, while the English army comes to invade Scotland. However, the battle is quickly won by the English, and Macduff cuts down Macbeth and decapitates him, securing the throne for Malcolm.
Key Elizabethan Ideas
The Great Chain of Being:
In essence, Elizabethan society placed a great deal of importance on order and harmony; to that end, they created the idea of the Great Chain of Being, which stated that God was responsible for everything that happens in the world, arranging the events of time into a very precise order that must be followed. The selection of kings and queens was by divine mandate, as blood determined your lot in life. In order to maintain the balance of the universe, the Great Chain of Being must be kept up. This idea is very important in Macbeth, as the prophecy that Macbeth hears follows along with the Great Chain of Being (where events are destined to pass no matter what people do to change them). Even Macduff’s destiny to kill Macbeth involves him technically not being “of woman born,” since he was the product of a C-section, showing the elaborate lengths fate will go to in order to pass.
Religious Beliefs
The presence of witches in this play brings up the overly-Christian atmosphere of Scotland at the time of the play (and England at the time of the play’s release). In the Elizabethan era, superstition and fear of witches was rampant; many women were accused of being witches, and the conflict between Christianity and paganism was a big part of Elizabethan society at that point. Witches were something to be feared, as their practices ran afoul of what people felt was ‘natural’ in Christianity, and so they became exotic, frightening figures. The witches of Macbeth become an eerie and terrifying symbol of the power that people feared paganism had over their lives, and Shakespeare mined that for drama.
Family Structures
In the Elizabethan era, family was everything – your identity and your prospects were inextricably tied to who you were related to and how you were born. Social structures were fairly rigid, and you inherited your parent’s status and caste level. Macbeth, in his usurping of the throne through murder, is evidence of his attempt to transcend these familial barriers by killing or chasing off all other heirs to the throne, getting there through sheer placement in Duncan’s army.
Dramatic Personae (Cast of Characters)
DUNCAN – Anthony Hopkins
Hopkins would have the fatherly gravitas to convey the sensitivity and well-meaning wisdom of the character.
MALCOLM – Eric Bana
Bana has a great physical presence, and would be believable as a strong military leader and future king.
MACBETH – Hugh Jackman
Jackman has the ability to play both strength and vulnerability, and I think he could convey the paranoia and terror of Macbeth’s descent into madness.
LADY MACBETH – Famke Janssen
Janssen has a great, ethereal presence, and can present herself as an alluringly manipulative figure for Macbeth, coaxing him to do what she wants.
BANQUO – Chiwetel Ejiofor
Ejiofor has the ability to do Shakespearean roles, and can be a very convincing, committed ‘friend’ character. His presence would also diversify the cast a bit more.
MACDUFF – Joel Edgerton
Edgerton has a great, menacing presence when he wants to be, which will complicate matters when his character is ostensibly more virtuous than Macbeth. His swordfight with Macbeth would be given a great physicality.
The Character of Macbeth
The primary character of Macbeth offers an example of prideful characters who feel they deserve more than they have, and are destroyed because of these desires. The character of Macbeth is a general in the army of the King of Scotland, Duncan; after a visit with three witches, who prophesy that he will kill Duncan and become King himself. Regardless of the prophecy, Macbeth believes he may be granted the kingship on his own merits: “If chance may have me king, why chance may crown me without my stir” (I.iii.137-138). Given the opportunity that has been offered him, however, and with the encouragement of his conniving wife Lady Macbeth, he eventually decides to follow through with it and gain the kingdom. However, this is not as much of a victory as he may think, as he starts to doubt his own agency and the threat of his possible death.
As the director of this play, I choose to portray Macbeth as someone dramatically in over his head; he is obviously not equipped for power, but has the ambition to achieve it, especially in light of the certainty that the witch’s prophecy grants him. When he is first crowned Thane of Cawdor, he admits that he feels he is “dressed in borrowed clothes,” indicating that he does not feel ready for the powers that are being bestowed upon him (I.iii.108-109). Even other characters have little faith in his command abilities, as Angus once says "now does he feel his title / Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe / upon a dwarfish thief" (V.ii.18-20). Macbeth has a great deal of complexity to him, as he feels at once uncertain and completely sure of his ability to rule, and I want this tragic element of this unready and unprepared character to come through in my production.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth.
