Answer: By "the theme" of Macbeth one means the principal idea of the play, an idea that is seen in dramatic clothing probably in every act of the play. Abstracting a theme from a play is not identical to establishing a point as fact: an abstracter is working from the data of the play to an idea; therefore, he is working toward an opinion-others may form other opinions of a

play's theme, and authors do not, as a rule, inform readers or audiences of their themes.

In Macbeth, as in other Shakespearean plays, we find that appearances are one thing, reality is another. This abstraction is too general to apply only to Macbeth. A more specific configuration of the main theme (there are also minor themes) of Macbeth is that a man is deluded who thinks that he can play with evil and remain unchanged: mankind, yielding to evil, which of course appears to be good, is led to destruction.

In Act I, this idea is embodied in Macbeth's and Lady Macbeth's response to the salutations of the Witches. Macbeth and his lady regard the greetings as Thane of Cawdor and future king as prophecies, and, further, with respect to the kingship, they contemplate murder of the incumbent, Duncan, although Macbeth is not told by the Witches to kill Duncan for his crown. In Act II, the Macbeths are deceived by the apparent ease and subsequent guiltlessness with which they can compass Duncan's death. They proceed in regicide, but Macbeth goes further than contemplated, because of his now-disturbed mind, to kill the two grooms. In Act III, Macbeth arranges the murder of Banquo and Fleance; but Fleance, who chiefly means the prospect of continuing Banquo's line, escapes. The murders of Banquo and Fleance had seemed to be assured, but the reality is otherwise. In Act IV and Act V, Macbeth wrongly reads the sayings of the Second and the Third Apparitions - the prophecies that "none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth" and he is safe "until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him." Significantly he takes no particular notice of the saying of the First Apparition to "Beware Macduff." In Act V, these three oracular utterances come true as Macbeth learns to his horror when Malcolm's army, disguised by branches from Birnam Wood, comes against his castle and when Macduff, confronting Macbeth, informs him that he "was from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd" in Caesarean birth. Macbeth learns in death that appearances pointed one way, but reality, rock-hard, lay in the opposite direction. Against this rock he is crushed.

Response: The parts of a Shakespearean tragedy may be broken into the exposition, the development of conflict, the climax, the turning-point, the denouement, and the catastrophe.

The exposition of Macbeth is relatively simple: we learn of battles involving Macbeth and Banquo against Macdonwald and his Hebrideans and against Sweno and his Norwegians. We also learn of the military distinction of these two Scottish captains and of the treachery of the Thane of Cawdor. With these intimations the exposition is virtually completed, and we rest for the moment to await developments.

Conflict in the dramatic sense swiftly begins with the Witches' greeting of Macbeth, having told him, "All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter" and of Banquo with "Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none." Macbeth muses over the murder of his king, and his wife eggs him on. Inopportunely King Duncan chooses to stay the night at Macbeth's castle. Duncan is dispatched,

Macbeth is crowned, and in the banquet scene (III.iv), he convenes his nobles in a notable manner designed to elicit their good will toward him as king. But the Ghost of Banquo, whom Macbeth has caused to be murdered, religiously menaces him. Macbeth loses control of himself and alienates his wife in this, the scene of greatest tension in the play.

This is the climax and the reversal of Macbeth's fortunes. The turning-point is seen where, in viewing the tragedy as a whole, it is evident that one of the two forces is moving so that its triumph is assured, and so that no reconciliation is possible. In Macbeth the turning-point appears in III.vi where there is intelligence that a joint Scottish-English force will invade Scotland and cleanse the realm of Macbeth. The denouement of Macbeth, a loosening of tension consequent upon the gradual fall of the protagonist from his apogee of control, is seen in Macbeth's need for further supernatural assurance (IV.i), the random killing of Lady Macduff and her offspring (IV.ii), the validation of Malcolm as King in the test with Macduff (IV.iii),

the steeling of Macduff to a personal revenge on Macbeth (IV.iii), and the assault on Dunsinane by the Scottish-English forces. The catastrophe is of course the killing of Macbeth by Macduff.

Response: The Witches of Macbeth were, we believe, taken seriously by the generality (although not the entirety) of Shakespeare's audience. Their credence was notably absent in the Restoration audience when "improvements" of Macbeth in the matter of Witches titillated these coterie playgoers. Even in today's world numerous persons proclaim themselves to be witches. Witches in Shakespeare's day were also called by other names, such as "nimphes," "feiries," "weirds." Unlike the fairies of A Midsummer Night's Dream they were associated with darkness and evil. The description "weird" in "weird sisters" came from Anglo-Saxon wyrd, "fate," although there is no evidence that Shakespeare knew this. He took the term "weird sisters" from his principal source for Macbeth, Holinshed's Chronicles, wherein they are called "goddesses of destinie." Shakespeare uses this conception of his Witches in I.ii, thereby lending them stature far above ordinary witches and assisting in deluding Macbeth to his downfall. When his destruction is at hand, Macbeth realises that the Witches are "juggling fiends," creatures through whom the Devil works.

Interestingly, the great American Shakespearean scholar George Lyman Kittredge wrote: "The Weird Sisters, then, are the Norns of Scandinavian mythology. The Norns were goddesses who shaped beforehand the life of every man." If this view of Macbeth were credited, Macbeth would be deprived of free will, and so be different from Shakespeare's other tragic protagonists

(except, perhaps, Romeo). In fact, the Witches never indicate that they control Macbeth's destiny; at most they predict it. No one in the play claims that they ordain human life.

On the other hand, if the Witches are regarded merely as figments of imagination (there is also the matter of Banquo's imagination), the play loses the idea that something in the universe is correspondent to something in the human soul: the Witches are not simply objectifications of Macbeth's evil desires and passions. Shakespeare keeps the Witches from being frivolous by exhibiting them in Macbeth only a few times; and their "masters," i.e., devils, are not seen at all perhaps because the rather sublime devil and his angels had degenerated at the hands of dramatists into comic figures.

The Witches of Macbeth also differ from ordinary witches in that they can disappear into thin air. They seem to know the past, the present, and something of the future. We do not know why the Hecate-scenes were introduced into Macbeth: one may guess that they were added to bring the play up to an average length or perhaps to make the play a little like a masque, a favourite Jacobean art form.

In his sorcery scene Shakespeare uses trochaic tetrameter catalectic (-u / -u / -u / -) or headless octosyllabic couplets (- / u- / u- / u-), also used for fairy songs in A Midsummer Night's Dream. This meter gives a wild, doggerel effect. The Witches employ this meter to elevate, render solemn, and induce obscure brevity in their communications to Macbeth, their inspiration being

presumably of diabolic origin. Among themselves the Witches speak as if they came from the least educated classes.

Finally one may notice that Shakespeare does not associate the Black Mass with the Witches although some of their speech effects do mock the Holy Trinity. Once, however, they do adore their invisible devils - the closest Shakespeare ever came to staging idolatry in the grosser Old Testament sense.

1. Look at Macbeth’s soliloquy, Act 1, Sc7. Show how Shakespeare uses a soliloquy to reveal character. Give two characteristics that are revealed by what he or she says in the soliloquy

2. Discuss how well the opening scenes of Macbeth obtain the interest of the audience whilst supplying information needed to follow the story

3. Shakespeare often uses the device of contrast to bring out the distinctive features of a character. What do the following contrasts tell us about Macbeth ?

a. Duncan v Macbeth as king

b. Macbeth v Banquo in their reaction to the witches and their later behaviour

c. Macbeth v Macduff in their attitude to the other’s wife

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