The Tragedy of Macbeth
A short 13 minute read about greed, ambition, and murder by William Shakespeare
Being one of the darkest tragedies of Shakespeare, Macbeth is a Scottish lord who ascends to the throne through the encouragement of his wife. Unfortunately, he becomes consumed by guilt and paranoia due to his actions and thus brings about his demise. This short version of the play was created to help introduce the works of Shakespeare to young readers.
Lead Characters
Macbeth
Macbeth is a Scottish general and the Thane of Glamis*. He is a brave soldier and very powerful; however, he is easily tempted. His meeting with three witches brings about is actions of committing murder repeatedly.
- *Thane is often the chief of a clan, who held land from a Scottish king and a highly ranked military officer.
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth is an ambitious woman who will stop at nothing to have power and position. She is ruthless in the beginning, but is later driven to insanity and becomes a victim to her guilt.
The Three Witches
The Three Witches are the mysterious hags who plot mischief against Macbeth by using their spells and prophecies. It is through these actions that prompts Macbeth to commit murders.
Macduff
Macduff is a Scottish nobleman who is hostile toward Macbeth’s rule. He seeks revenge against him for murdering his wife and child.
The Tragedy of Macbeth
During the reign of the great King Duncan of Scotland, there lived a most able and gallant thane called Macbeth. Not only was he close to the king, but he was also his most able general during war. He alone could defeat large and powerful armies, driving them into a state of complete disarray and panic.
Very recently, the reign of King Duncan had faced a threat from a rebel, the Thane of Cawdor, assisted by the troops of their enemy, the King of Norway. But to Macbeth, the rebel was no threat. Within a few days, the thane’s army was completely routed and the Scottish Army was left victorious.
Now, the story of Macbeth begins from the time of this war. He was returning from the battlefield with his friend, the noble Banquo, when suddenly they were stopped by three very strange-looking people. Their appearance was haggard and they looked piercingly wicked. These witches raised their bony fingers to the air and motioned them to stop. Then the first one turned to them and said, “All hail Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis!”
Macbeth was not surprised to hear this, as he indeed was the Thane of Glamis, and he guessed these old creatures must have recognized him. But what came next shocked both Macbeth and Banquo.
The second witch now walked up to Macbeth and said,
“All hail Macbeth, the Thane of Cawdor.”
And before Macbeth could react, the third witch came forth and exclaimed,
“All hail Macbeth, he who shall be king hereafter!”
Now the three witches turned to Banquo and said, in turn,
“Lesser than Macbeth, yet greater;” “Not so happy, yet much happier;” and “You shall beget kings, though you shall not be one.”
Leaving the two men completely dazed, the three witches vanished into thin air.
Macbeth and Banquo once again set off toward King Ducan’s command post, when they were greeted on a camp by some of Duncan’s soldiers. After greeting one another, the soldiers informed Macbeth that since the Thane of Cawdor had betrayed Duncan and led his armies against him, the king had declared that he would be executed. He also told the duo that Duncan had named Macbeth the new Thane of Cawdor as a reward for his gallant and loyal services to the throne over the years.
Macbeth and Banquo could only gape at the messengers and could not believe what they were hearing. It had only been a short while since the second witch had told Macbeth he would be appointed the Thane of Cawdor! How could this be possible?
And so Macbeth started wondering if the witches could really have seen the future! They had said he would be the next Thane of Cawdor, which had come true, so perhaps they had also been right about the fact that he would be the king too! But then, Macbeth concluded that it could just have been a pure coincidence and therefore, there was nothing much to think about. He was of course elated at being appointed the Thane of Cawdor and thanked the messengers for bringing him such delightful news.
At Duncan’s command post, Macbeth invited the great King of Scotland to spend a day with him in his castle. Duncan accepted his invitation. Soon afterwards, Macbeth wrote a letter to his wife, Lady Macbeth, and told her about the king’s visit and wanted her to get his castle in order. While writing, he also mentioned the three witches and their prophecies, adding how one of those prophecies had already come true.
When Lady Macbeth read the letter, her mind started racing and she could think of nothing else. Her husband was now no longer just a Thane of Glamis but also the Thane of Cawdor, as the witches prophesied. Lady Macbeth was convinced that her husband would soon be the new King of Scotland.
Since Duncan was coming to their castle, all they would have to do was kill him and then the witches’ second prophecy would also come true. If Macbeth was destined to be king, Duncan had to die during the visit.
When Macbeth returned to his castle, Lady Macbeth confided in him about her plans. At first Macbeth was completely against the idea of killing Duncan, because he felt that as his subject and his host, it was his duty to defend him and keep him safe. But Lady Macbeth refused to listen to reason, and finally managed to convince her husband.
That night, as Macbeth waited for his wife’s signal to kill Duncan in his chambers, he suddenly saw a dagger dangling before him. At first Macbeth assumed it was a dream, and that if he got up it would disappear.
But when he saw that the vision of the dagger kept following him, he could not understand what was happening to him. He said to himself,
“Is this a dagger that I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Or are you a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding form the heat-oppressed brain?”
Unable to hear his weakened mind any longer, at the sound of the bell tower chiming, Macbeth issued a warning. “The bell invites me. Hear it, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons you to heaven or to hell.” So saying, Macbeth went to murder his own king.
Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth had arranged to get Duncan’s personal soldiers drunk and had placed a dagger next to Duncan for her husband to use. While she waited for Macbeth’s return, she grew restless, scared that her husband might get caught in the act. However, her mind was put to rest as soon as Macbeth returned with blood on his hands.
The couple soon retired to their rooms, where Macbeth washed off the blood and pretended to be asleep. The next morning, the king’s guards, Macduff and Ross, arrived to rouse Duncan.
But this brought about chaos when they realized that the king had been murdered. They immediately raised the alarm. Macbeth, on hearing the news, appeared enraged, and ran into the room to kill the two guards. The blame rested on them, as they were killed before they could deny their involvement in the king’s death.
Malcolm and Donalbain, the king’s sons, hurried out of their rooms and found out the news. They realized that they might be the next targets of the vicious murders, so the two princes decided to run away from Scotland at once — Malcolm would flee to England, while Donalbain would rush to Ireland, where they would both be safe.
With the princes disappearing, some people began to wonder if they might be responsible for the death of their father. However, with the rightful heirs to the crown missing, Macbeth was anointed the new King of Scotland. The second prophesy of the witches had come true.
Macbeth at once settled into his new kingly duties. But he still had one nagging thought — he was afraid that Banquo, his close friend of many years would suspect something was amiss. After all, Banquo was the only other witness to the witches’ prophecies, and he might come to the conclusion that the murderer was none other than Macbeth. Therefore, he decided to have Banquo killed.
One night, Macbeth arranged for a banquet for his aides and ministers. Banquo, along with his son Fleance, was suppose to attend, but alas, Macbeth had other plans for him.
As Banquo set off, two men came out of the bushes and stabbed him. They tried to kill Fleance as well, but Fleance seeing the attackers approach, ran off into the darkness and Fleance was saved.
But that evening, when the banquet began, Macbeth refused to sit down. When asked to join the others, he kept commenting on how the table was full.
Though one chair had been left for him, Macbeth claimed he did not see it, because in that chair sat Banquo’s ghost. No one else could see the ghost and believed their king must be unwell. Macbeth, guilty of the murder, kept saying,
“You cannot say I did it. Do not shake your gory locks at me.”
Lady Macbeth, realizing that her husband was in a state of delirium, was scared that he might say more than he should. So she immediately told all those gathered there that he was unwell and asked then to leave.
Later, when Macbeth had regained is sanity, he told his wife that he would have to pay the three witches another visit, as he had to know that else lay in store for him.
The next day, he retraced his steps along the same path he had taken the first time he met the witches. He found them boiling something in a large black pot behind a stone slab and asked them to tell him what his future would hold. The first witch started reciting a spell, after which a voice spoke within the steam coming from the pot.
The voice told Macbeth, “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!Beware of Macduff!” As soon as the first voice was gone, a different voice uttered,
“Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.”
Macbeth was now very happy, because it was clear that the person going to kill him was not born yet. Finally, a third voice informed him,
“Macbeth shall never be vanquished until great Birnam Woods begin to walk against him.”
Again, Macbeth knew that this was not going to be possible, as trees couldn’t possibly uproot themselves and start to walk.
However, Macbeth did not want to take any chances, so he sent some of his hired assassins to Macduff’s castle. But Macduff had already left for England. On hearing that Macduff was not present, the assassins killed everyone in the castle, including Macduff’s wife and child.
Meanwhile, Malcolm and Macduff were in England, talking about affairs in Scotland. Malcolm assured his friend that the English loyalty had been very helpful and had provided him with a battery of ten thousand soldiers.
He told Macduff that there would soon be an attack on Scotland to take the throne away from Macbeth. While they were finalizing the plans, Ross arrived. He had just come back from Scotland and had some news. He told Macduff about the unfortunate event at his castle and the deaths of his wife and child. Macduff swore that he would return to Scotland and take his revenge against the perpetrator of this crime.
While plans to wage a war against Scotland were being discussed in England, a most queer thing was happening in the palace of the King of Scotland. The queen’s maid had ordered the doctor to come that night, as there was a rather strange thing happening that he needed to see for himself.
They waited for quite some time after everyone had gone to sleep. Then suddenly, they heard a door open and the light from a candle filled the room. It was the queen. It seemed that she was in some sort of trance.
She was trying to scrub her hands and kept saying, “Out, out, damned spot!” She kept mumbling about deaths and blood, and she even mentioned Macduff’s wife once. Finally, she exclaimed, “Will these hands ever be clean? They still smell of blood. Not even all the perfumes of Arabia can sweeten these hands!” Then, as mysteriously as she had arrived, she left.
The next day, the whole of Scotland was filled with the news that the English Army had arrived, led by Malcolm and Macduff. Macbeth immediately issued orders to keep a watch on their movements, and even brought the army out to defend the castle at Dunsinane Hill in the event of an attack.
While the Scottish Army prepared to fight, the English Army camped at Birnam Woods. Malcolm instructed his men to break some branches off the trees and place them in front of their bodies before laying siege to the castle. That way, their numbers would be hidden.
Macbeth was soon told by a soldier that the woods were approaching the castle. He immediately remembered the warning he had received from the third apparition in the presence of the three witches.
He had been warned that he would rule until the great Birnam Woods walked toward Dusinane Hill. As he was contemplating his next course of action, a cry rang through the palace walls.
Lady Macbeth had jumped form the roof and killed herself.
Macbeth knew that his time was also coming to an end, but he was still comforted by what the other apparition had told him, that no man born of a woman could kill him. He decided to put on his armor and leave the castle.
As he walked though the forest all alone, he was confronted by Macduff. Macbeth first tried to get past him without fighting, but Macduff had been charged with the murder of his family and would not have it any other way. Their swords clashed for a while, but neither man could gain any advantage.
Macbeth then claimed that no man born of a woman could kill him and that Macduff was wasting his time. To this, Macduff replied,
“Then let me tell you that from my mother’s womb I was untimely taken by the doctor. I was not born in the correct way.”
Now Macbeth knew he was not going to survive this fight. He fought for a while, but then the sound of the swords stopped.
There lay Macbeth, at the feet of the valiant Macduff. All the prophecies had come true.
With Macbeth dead, Malcolm regained the throne that was rightfully his after the death of his father. Under his reign, Scotland once again rose to its past state of glory. The evil era of Macbeth had been laid to rest forever.
Fidel Andrada
