MACBETHEnglish FAL

Gr11

Reading and viewing

Annemi Kruger

Story about the murder of a king.

Macbeth’s rise and fall

Three witches who plot against Macbeth

MACBETH PLOT

Duncan: King of Scotland Macbeth: A general in the army of

Duncan. Banquo: Macbeth’s friend and general Lady Macbeth: Macbeth’s wife Fleance: Banquo’s son Macduff: Thane of Fife

CHARACTERS

THEMES: Short tragedy Tragedy of a character Tragedy of moral order Poetic tragedy

Macbeth murder’s duncan The audience gets the account of the murder as he

retells the story to Lady Macbeth

The guards stir, but do not wake sufficiently to realize what is happening

Macbeth laments “I had most need of blessing and ‘Amen’ / Stuck in my throat” (2.2.35).

Macbeth’s “sleep no more” speech (2.2.38-46) suggests that he has murdered peaceful sleep as well – in fact, the two will not sleep well again for the remainder of the play.

In Scene 3, the porter provides comic relief to the tense scenes playing out on stage.

Duncan’s body is discovered and the guards are the prime suspects.

Macbeth murders the guards before they can be questioned, saying, “Who could refrain, / That had a heart to love and in that heart / Courage to make’s love known? (2.3.112-113)

Macbeth is made High King of Scotland.

The murder discovered

The apparitions

First apparition (an armed head): Beware Macduff

Second apparition (a bloody babe): No man born of woman can harm Macbeth

Third apparition (a royal child holding a tree): He will never be vanquished until Great Birnam Wood comes against him

The Death of the Macduffs

Macbeth plots the death of the House of Macduff

He really has no motive to kill Lady Macduff and her children; they pose no threat to her

Lady Macduff laments that she has been abandoned by her husband; he has left them alone, knowing that Macbeth will come for them; she calls him a traitor (4.2.4-5)

King Duncan hears about Macbeth’s recent success in battling an army of Irish.

On the battlefield, Macbeth and Banquo encounter three witches.

The witches tell Macbeth that according to their prophecy, Macbeth will become King of Scotland.

However they also tell Banquo that his children will also one day be King

ACT 1

Act 2 Before killing Duncan, Macbeth suddenly

has a hallucination; a dagger is floating in mid air pointing towards Duncan.

Macbeth rationalizes and concludes that the dagger is just a result of his mind coping with the guilt of killing the King of Ireland.

Macbeth leaves the hall to kill Duncan and Lady Macbeth enters.

Homework assignment

Write an essay of 500 words where you discuss Macbeth’s madness. Ranging from where he started to see the apparitions to killing the

king.

Due date: 20 March 2014

references Di Mateo, M. Gurino, E. (n.d). Macbeth. Available from:

www.slideshare.net

Anonymous, (n.d). Macbeth. Accessed on: 08 March 2014. Available from: www.slideshare.net

Thomas, n. (n.d). Macbeth: act 1-3. Accessed on: 8 March 2014. Available from: www.slideshare.net

Anonymous, (n.d). Macbeth. Accessed on: 08 March 2014. Available from: www.slideshare.com

Anonymous, (n.d). Macbeth: What has happened so far? Accessed on: 08 March 2014. Available from: www.slideshare.com