Act V: Scenes I - III

The Text

The scene occurs in a room at Dunsinane. Except for the last nine lines the scene is in prose. A Doctor and a Gentlewoman who waits on Lady Macbeth enter. The Doctor addresses the Gentlewoman. He has stayed awake with the latter for two nights, but he has not seen what she reported to him. He asks her when Lady Macbeth last walked in her sleep. The Gentlewoman replies that, since Macbeth ("his majesty") went into the field to fight, she has seen Lady Macbeth get up from bed, put on her dressing-gown ("night gown"), write on some paper, seal it, and return to bed. All the time she did this, Lady Macbeth was fast asleep. The Doctor says it is a disturbance of nature when one is simultaneously awake and asleep. He then asks what Lady Macbeth has said. The Gentlewoman refuses to tell, even to the Doctor, because she has no witness to support her statement.

The doctor says,

"To receive at

once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of

watching [of one awake]" (lines 10 - 12).

Until she exits, Lady Macbeth speaks a number of disconnected phrases and sentences. Most of Lady Macbeth's remarks refer to incidents which have been dramatised in the play; a listener might infer from her remarks a soul tortured by the guilty acts of its owner. The two listeners do make this inference about Lady Macbeth and express their shock at what they have been forced to conclude.

Remember Act II, Scene ii? In that scene, Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that water would clean his hands of the deed (murdering the King), but here, Lady Macbeth is obsessively washing her hands.

Lady Macbeth addresses Macbeth on lines 65 to 68. She in trying to convince him that we was just seeing things, and that Banquo's ghost wasn't really there. Maybe she's seeing ghosts and she's trying to convince herself they aren't really there by convincing others.

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The Text

The campaign against Macbeth is under way, and people are pumped up against Macbeth. Menteith says,

"For [Siward and Macduff's] dear causes

Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm

Excite the mortified man" (lines 3 - 5).

The scene takes place in the country near Dunsinane. Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, and their soldiers enter. They are Scottish rebels, who have not left their native land, the "many worthy fellows that were out" of whom Ross had told Malcolm and Macduff in the previous act. Menteith reports that the English forces, led by Malcolm, his uncle Siward, and Macduff, are near. They are burning for revenge, and their righteous cause would raise dead to do battle. Angus says that the native rebel army will meet the English near Birnam Wood. A short discussion follows as to who makes up the English army. Donalbain is not there, but Siward's son is there and many other young men. Menteith asks about Macbeth's situation. Caithness replies that Macbeth is strongly fortifying Dunsinane. Caithness continues,

"Some say he's mad;

others, that lesser hate him,

Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain,

He cannot buckle his distempered cause

Within the belt of rule."

Angus says that Macbeth can no longer escape from his crimes: every minute ("Now minutely") "revolts upraid his faith-breach." His men obey him only by command.

"Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title

Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe

Upon a dwarfish thief."

Menteith adds in a rhetorical question that Macbeth cannot be blamed for being frightened

"When all that is within him does condemn

Itself for being there."

Caithness says that they will march ahead

"To give obedience where 'tis truly owed."

And it is agreed that they will pour out as much blood as is necessary for their country's cure.

1. What images of Macbeth emerge from this scene?

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The Text

The scene is in a room at Dunsinane. Macbeth, the doctor, and attendants enter. Macbeth is impatient.

"Bring me no more reports" (line 1) 

"The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!

Where got'st thou that goose look?" (lines 11 - 12.)

He's fed up with the situation and he just wants peace. He is relying on his prophecies given by the apparitions:

"Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane

I cannot taint with fear" (lines 2 - 3).

A servant, white-faced with fear, enters. The servant informs Macbeth that ten thousand soldiers of the English power are approaching. Macbeth keeps interrupting his servant's report with scornful remarks because the servant looks frightened and undoubtedly speaks in a frightened way.

After the servant leaves, Macbeth speaks a soliloquy, which he twice interrupts with calls for his amour bearer, Seyton.

In the soliloquy he says that he is "sick at heart" when he sees . . . and we do not learn what makes him sick at heart, for he interrupts by crying once more for Seyton. Then he says that this attack "Will cheer me ever" or topple him from the throne now. He has lived long enough, he feels;

". . . my way of life

Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf."

All that one ordinarily expects of old age, such as "honour, love, obedience, troops of friends," Macbeth must not expect to have. Instead he will receive "Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honour, breath"; these who give the mouth-honour know in their hearts that they do not want to give it but dare not withhold it.

Lines 22 to 28 show Macbeth's regret. He is sad that he will die alone without any true friends. Maybe pushing people down for power isn't worth it (a moral of the story?). The reader may feel sorry for him, until the reader realises that Macbeth brought all this upon himself.

Seyton enters and says that all reports (probably of the approaching English and of the desertions) are true. Macbeth says that he will fight until his "flesh is hacked" from his bones. Macbeth wishes Seyton to help him on with his armour. Seyton tells him that it is not necessary yet. Macbeth insists. He gives orders to send out men who will hang those who say they are frightened. He interrupts his talk and addresses the doctor, of whom he inquires about his wife.

Macbeth then hears of Lady Macbeth's sickness. He responds rudely, meanly, and unprofessionally to the doctor. He doesn't seem like he cares very much about his wife, that this news is just another distraction.

At the end, the doctor says,

"Where I from Dunsinane away and clear,

Profit again should hardly draw me here" (lines 61 - 62).

He realises that Macbeth's castle isn't the most opportune place to be right now, so he decides to leave. He's just another person that's abandoned Macbeth.

1. Why is Macbeth unafraid?

3. What can we learn about him from his treatment of the doctor?

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