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Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 0 )

Macbeth . . . is done upon a stronger and more systematic principle of contrast than any other of Shakespeare’s plays. It moves upon the verge of an abyss, and is a constant struggle between life and death. The action is desperate and the reaction is dreadful. It is a huddling together of fierce extremes, a war of opposite natures which of them shall destroy the other. There is nothing but what has a violent end or violent beginnings. The lights and shades are laid on with a determined hand; the transitions from triumph to despair, from the height of terror to the repose of death, are sudden and startling; every passion brings in its fellow-contrary, and the thoughts pitch and jostle against each other as in the dark. The whole play is an unruly chaos of strange and forbidden things, where the ground rocks under our feet. Shakespear’s genius here took its full swing, and trod upon the farthest bounds of nature and passion.

—William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays

Macbeth completes William Shakespeare’s great tragic quartet while expanding, echoing, and altering key elements of Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear into one of the most terrifying stage experiences. Like Hamlet, Macbeth treats the  consequences  of  regicide,  but  from  the  perspective  of  the  usurpers,  not  the  dispossessed.  Like  Othello,  Macbeth   centers  its  intrigue  on  the  intimate  relations  of  husband  and  wife.  Like  Lear,  Macbeth   explores  female  villainy,  creating in Lady Macbeth one of Shakespeare’s most complex, powerful, and frightening woman characters. Different from Hamlet and Othello, in which the tragic action is reserved for their climaxes and an emphasis on cause over effect, Macbeth, like Lear, locates the tragic tipping point at the play’s outset to concentrate on inexorable consequences. Like Othello, Macbeth, Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, achieves an almost unbearable intensity by eliminating subplots, inessential characters, and tonal shifts to focus almost exclusively on the crime’s devastating impact on husband and wife.

What is singular about Macbeth, compared to the other three great Shakespearean tragedies, is its villain-hero. If Hamlet mainly executes rather than murders,  if  Othello  is  “more  sinned  against  than  sinning,”  and  if  Lear  is  “a  very foolish fond old man” buffeted by surrounding evil, Macbeth knowingly chooses  evil  and  becomes  the  bloodiest  and  most  dehumanized  of  Shakespeare’s tragic protagonists. Macbeth treats coldblooded, premeditated murder from the killer’s perspective, anticipating the psychological dissection and guilt-ridden expressionism that Feodor Dostoevsky will employ in Crime and Punishment . Critic Harold Bloom groups the protagonist as “the culminating figure  in  the  sequence  of  what  might  be  called  Shakespeare’s  Grand  Negations: Richard III, Iago, Edmund, Macbeth.” With Macbeth, however, Shakespeare takes us further inside a villain’s mind and imagination, while daringly engaging  our  sympathy  and  identification  with  a  murderer.  “The  problem  Shakespeare  gave  himself  in  Macbeth  was  a  tremendous  one,”  Critic  Wayne  C. Booth has stated.

Take a good man, a noble man, a man admired by all who know him—and  destroy  him,  not  only  physically  and  emotionally,  as  the  Greeks  destroyed their heroes, but also morally and intellectually. As if this were not difficult enough as a dramatic hurdle, while transforming him into one of the most despicable mortals conceivable, maintain him as a tragic hero—that is, keep him so sympathetic that, when he comes to his death, the audience will pity rather than detest him and will be relieved to see him out of his misery rather than pleased to see him destroyed.

Unlike Richard III, Iago, or Edmund, Macbeth is less a virtuoso of villainy or an amoral nihilist than a man with a conscience who succumbs to evil and obliterates the humanity that he is compelled to suppress. Macbeth is Shakespeare’s  greatest  psychological  portrait  of  self-destruction  and  the  human  capacity for evil seen from inside with an intimacy that horrifies because of our forced identification with Macbeth.

Although  there  is  no  certainty  in  dating  the  composition  or  the  first performance  of  Macbeth,   allusions  in  the  play  to  contemporary  events  fix the  likely  date  of  both  as  1606,  shortly  after  the  completion  and  debut  of  King Lear. Scholars have suggested that Macbeth was acted before James I at Hampton  Court  on  August  7,  1606,  during  the  royal  visit  of  King  Christian IV of Denmark and that it may have been especially written for a royal performance. Its subject, as well as its version of Scottish history, suggest an effort both to flatter and to avoid offending the Scottish king James. Macbeth is a chronicle play in which Shakespeare took his major plot elements from Raphael  Holinshed’s  Chronicles  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland  (1587),  but  with  significant  modifications.  The  usurping  Macbeth’s  decade-long  (and  largely  successful)  reign  is  abbreviated  with  an  emphasis  on  the  internal  and external destruction caused by Macbeth’s seizing the throne and trying to hold onto it. For the details of King Duncan’s death, Shakespeare used Holinshed’s  account  of  the  murder  of  an  earlier  king  Duff  by  Donwald,  who cast suspicion on drunken servants and whose ambitious wife played a significant role in the crime. Shakespeare also eliminated Banquo as the historical Macbeth’s co-conspirator in the murder to promote Banquo’s innocence and nobility in originating a kingly line from which James traced his legitimacy. Additional prominence is also given to the Weird Sisters, whom Holinshed only mentions in their initial meeting of Macbeth on the heath. The prophetic warning “beware Macduff” is attributed to “certain wizards in whose words Macbeth put great confidence.” The importance of the witches and  the  occult  in  Macbeth   must  have  been  meant  to  appeal  to  a  king  who  produced a treatise, Daemonologie (1597), on witch-craft.

The uncanny sets the tone of moral ambiguity from the play’s outset as the three witches gather to encounter Macbeth “When the battle’s lost and won” in an inverted world in which “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” Nothing in the play will be what it seems, and the tragedy results from the confusion and  conflict  between  the  fair—honor,  nobility,  duty—and  the  foul—rank  ambition and bloody murder. Throughout the play nature reflects the disorder and violence of the action. Opening with thunder and lightning, the drama is set in a Scotland contending with the rebellion of the thane (feudal lord) of Cawdor, whom the fearless and courageous Macbeth has vanquished on the battlefield. The play, therefore, initially establishes Macbeth as a dutiful and trusted vassal of the king, Duncan of Scotland, deserving to be rewarded with the rebel’s title for restoring peace and order in the realm. “What he hath lost,” Duncan declares, “noble Macbeth hath won.” News of this honor reaches Macbeth through the witches, who greet him both as the thane of Cawdor and “king hereafter” and his comrade-in-arms Banquo as one who “shalt get kings, though thou be none.” Like the ghost in Hamlet , the  Weird  Sisters  are  left  purposefully  ambiguous  and  problematic.  Are  they  agents  of  fate  that  determine  Macbeth’s  doom,  predicting  and  even  dictating  the  inevitable,  or  do  they  merely  signal  a  latency  in  Macbeth’s  ambitious character?

When he is greeted by the king’s emissaries as thane of Cawdor, Macbeth begins to wonder if the first predictions of the witches came true and what will come of the second of “king hereafter”:

This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings: My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is But what is not.

Macbeth  will  be  defined  by  his  “horrible  imaginings,”  by  his  considerable  intellectual and imaginative capacity both to understand what he knows to be true and right and his opposed desires and their frightful consequences. Only Hamlet has as fully a developed interior life and dramatized mental processes as  Macbeth  in  Shakespeare’s  plays.  Macbeth’s  ambition  is  initially  checked  by his conscience and by his fear of the unforeseen consequence of violating moral  laws.  Shakespeare  brilliantly  dramatizes  Macbeth’s  mental  conflict in near stream of consciousness, associational fashion:

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. If th’assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease, success: that but this blow Might be the be all and the end all, here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgement here, that we but teach Bloody instructions which, being taught, return To plague th’inventor. This even-handed justice Commends th’ingredients of our poison’d chalice To our own lips. He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against The deep damnation of his taking-off, And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself And falls on the other.

Macbeth’s “spur” comes in the form of Lady Macbeth, who plays on her husband’s selfimage of courage and virility to commit to the murder. She also reveals her own shocking cancellation of gender imperatives in shaming her husband into action, in one of the most shocking passages of the play:

. . . I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done to this.

Horrified  at  his  wife’s  resolve  and  cold-blooded  calculation  in  devising  the  plot,  Macbeth  urges  his  wife  to  “Bring  forth  menchildren  only,  /  For  thy  undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males,” but commits “Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.”

With the decision to kill the king taken, the play accelerates unrelentingly through a succession of powerful scenes: Duncan’s and Banquo’s murders, the banquet scene in which Banquo’s ghost appears, Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking, and Macbeth’s final battle with Macduff, Thane of Fife. Duncan’s offstage murder  contrasts  Macbeth’s  “horrible  imaginings”  concerning  the  implications and Lady Macbeth’s chilling practicality. Macbeth’s question, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” is answered by his wife: “A little water clears us of this deed; / How easy is it then!” The knocking at the door of the castle, ominously signaling the revelation of the crime, prompts the play’s one comic respite in the Porter’s drunken foolery that he is at the door of “Hell’s Gate” controlling the entrance of the damned. With the fl ight of Duncan’s sons, who fear for their lives, causing them to be suspected as murderers, Macbeth is named king, and the play’s focus shifts to Macbeth’s keeping and consolidating the power he has seized. Having gained what the witches prophesied, Macbeth next tries to prevent their prediction that Banquo’s descendants will reign by setting assassins to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. The plan goes awry, and Fleance escapes, leaving Macbeth again at the mercy of the witches’ prophecy. His psychic breakdown is dramatized by his seeing Banquo’s ghost occupying Macbeth’s place at the banquet. Pushed to  the  edge  of  mental  collapse,  Macbeth  steels  himself  to  meet  the  witches  again to learn what is in store for him: “Iam in blood,” he declares, “Stepp’d in so far that, should Iwade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

The witches reassure him that “none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” and that he will never be vanquished until “Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him.” Confident that he is invulnerable, Macbeth  responds  to  the  rebellion  mounted  by  Duncan’s  son  Malcolm  and  Macduff, who has joined him in England, by ordering the slaughter of Lady Macduff and her children. Macbeth has progressed from a murderer in fulfillment of the witches predictions to a murderer (of Banquo) in order to subvert their predictions and then to pointless butchery that serves no other purpose than as an exercise in willful destruction. Ironically, Macbeth, whom his wife feared  was  “too  full  o’  the  milk  of  human  kindness  /  To  catch  the  nearest  way” to serve his ambition, displays the same cold calculation that frightened him  about  his  wife,  while  Lady  Macbeth  succumbs  psychically  to  her  own  “horrible  imaginings.”  Lady  Macbeth  relives  the  murder  as  she  sleepwalks,  Shakespeare’s version of the workings of the unconscious. The blood in her tormented  conscience  that  formerly  could  be  removed  with  a  little  water  is  now a permanent noxious stain in which “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten.” Women’s cries announcing her offstage death are greeted by Macbeth with detached indifference:

I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have cool’d To hear a nightshriek, and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in’t. Ihave supp’d full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me.

Macbeth reveals himself here as an emotional and moral void. Confirmation that “The Queen, my lord, is dead” prompts only the bitter comment, “She should have died hereafter.” For Macbeth, life has lost all meaning, refl ected in the bleakest lines Shakespeare ever composed:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Time and the world that Macbeth had sought to rule are revealed to him as empty and futile, embodied in a metaphor from the theater with life as a histrionic, talentless actor in a tedious, pointless play.

Macbeth’s final testing comes when Malcolm orders his troops to camoufl  age  their  movement  by  carrying  boughs  from  Birnam  Woods  in  their march toward Dunsinane and from Macduff, whom he faces in combat and reveals that he was “from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripp’d,” that is, born by cesarean section and therefore not “of woman born.” This revelation, the final fulfillment of the witches’ prophecies, causes Macbeth to fl ee, but he is prompted  by  Macduff’s  taunt  of  cowardice  and  order  to  surrender  to  meet  Macduff’s challenge, despite knowing the deadly outcome:

Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, And damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”

Macbeth  returns  to  the  world  of  combat  where  his  initial  distinctions  were  honorably earned and tragically lost.

The play concludes with order restored to Scotland, as Macduff presents Macbeth’s severed head to Malcolm, who is hailed as king. Malcolm may assert his control and diminish Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as “this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen,” but the audience knows more than that. We know what  Malcolm  does  not,  that  it  will  not  be  his  royal  line  but  Banquo’s  that  will eventually rule Scotland, and inevitably another round of rebellion and murder is to come. We also know in horrifying human terms the making of a butcher and a fiend who refuse to be so easily dismissed as aberrations.

Macbeth Oxford Lecture by Emma Smith

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

Macbeth Ebook pdf (8MB)

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by William Shakespeare

Macbeth study guide.

Legend says that Macbeth was written in 1605 or 1606 and performed at Hampton Court in 1606 for King James I and his brother-in-law, King Christian of Denmark. Whether it was first performed at the royal court or was premiered at the Globe theatre, there can be little doubt that the play were intended to please the King, who had recently become the patron of Shakespeare's theatrical company. We note, for example, that the character of Banquo—the legendary root of the Stuart family tree—is depicted very favorably. Like Banquo, King James was a Stuart. The play is also quite short, perhaps because Shakespeare knew that James preferred short plays. And the play contains many supernatural elements that James, who himself published a book on the detection and practices of witchcraft, would have appreciated. Even something as minor as the Scottish defeat of the Danes may have been omitted to avoid offending King Christian.

The material for Macbeth was drawn from Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1587). Despite the play’s historical source, however, the play is generally classified as tragedy rather than a history. This derives perhaps from the fact that the story contains many historical fabrications—including the entire character of Banquo, who was invented by a 16th-century Scottish historian in order to validate the Stuart family line. 　In addition to such fictionalization, Shakespeare took many liberties with the original story, manipulating the characters of Macbeth and Duncan to suit his purposes. In Holinshed's account, Macbeth is a ruthless and valiant leader who rules competently after killing Duncan, whereas Duncan is portrayed as a young and soft-willed man. Shakespeare draws out certain aspects of the two characters in order to create a stronger sense of polarity. Whereas Duncan is made out to be a venerable and kindly older king, Macbeth is transformed into an indecisive and troubled young man who cannot possibly rule well.

Macbeth is certainly not the only play with historical themes that is full of fabrications. Indeed, there are other reasons why the play is considered a tragedy rather than a history. One reason lies in the play's universality. Rather than illustrating a specific historical moment, Macbeth presents a human drama of ambition, desire, and guilt. Like Hamlet, Macbeth speaks soliloquies that articulate the emotional and intellectual anxieties with which many audiences identify easily. For all his lack of values and "vaulting ambition," Macbeth is a character who often seems infinitely real to audiences. This powerful grip on the audience is perhaps what has made Macbeth such a popular play for centuries of viewers.

Given that Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's shortest plays, some scholars have suggested that scenes were excised from the Folio version and subsequently lost. There are some loose ends and non-sequiturs in the text of the play that would seem to support such a claim. If scenes were indeed cut out, however, these cuts were most masterfully done. After all, none of the story line is lost and the play remains incredibly powerful without them. In fact, the play's length gives it a compelling, almost brutal, force. The action flows from scene to scene, speech to speech, with a swiftness that draws the viewer into Macbeth's struggles. As Macbeth's world spins out of control, the play itself also begins to spiral towards to its violent end.

Macbeth Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Macbeth is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

The third which says that Banquo's sons shall be kings, Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

Macbeth Act 1 Scene 3 questions

What is significant about the first words that Macbeth speaks in the play?

A motif or recurring idea in the play is equivocation. There is the balance of the dark and the light, the good and the bad. Macbeth's first line reflects this. It...

What news took the wind out of Macbeth's invincibility?

Macbeth rethinks his invincibility when MacDuff tells him that he was torn from his mother's womb.

Study Guide for Macbeth

Macbeth study guide contains a biography of William Shakespeare, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Macbeth
• Macbeth Summary
• Macbeth Video
• Character List

Essays for Macbeth

Macbeth essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

• Serpentine Imagery in Shakespeare's Macbeth
• Macbeth's Evolution
• Jumping the Life to Come
• Deceptive Appearances in Macbeth
• Unity in Shakespeare's Tragedies

Lesson Plan for Macbeth

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Macbeth
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Macbeth Bibliography

E-Text of Macbeth

Macbeth e-text contains the full text of Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

• Persons Represented
• Act I, Scene I
• Act I, Scene II
• Act I, Scene III
• Act I, Scene IV

Wikipedia Entries for Macbeth

• Introduction
• Sources for the play
• Date and text

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Read below our complete notes on “Macbeth”, a famous play by William Shakespeare. Our notes cover Macbeth summary, themes, characters, and analysis.

Introduction

Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare in either 1605 or 1606. Its full name is “The Tragedy of Macbeth”. It was first performed in around 1606.

The drama revolves around a Villain named Macbeth who is ambitious and brave but because of his thirst for power, he begins to do evil. He receives a prophecy from three witches that he will become the king of Scotland. To make this prophecy true, he kills the king of Scotland and many other people who become a threat to his throne. At the end he faces a downfall.

The play has many elements i.e. temptation, conspiracy, madness, pathos and destruction.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare Summary

This play portrays a tragic downfall of a brave warrior, Macbeth. After defeating the forces of Norway and Ireland, he receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that he will become the king of Scotland. The other part of the prophecy is that the children of Banquo, another Scottish general, will become the future kings. Macbeth is already made the Thane of Cowder. He is happy and ambitious after receiving the prophecy.

Afterwards, King Duncan declares that he will spend a night at Macbeth’s castle as a celebration of their victory. Macbeth informs Lady Macbeth about the King’s arrival and prophecies of witches. Lady Macbeth appears to be very evil. She makes the plan to kill the king and convinces Macbeth to act accordingly by challenging his manhood.

Lady Macbeth plans to get the chamberlains drunk to show them as culprits after murder. When everyone sleeps, they start acting upon their plan and Macbeth stabs Duncan with a knife and kills him. After that, Lady Macbeth stains the clothes and faces of chamberlains sitting outside the king’s chamber and puts the knives near them to show that they are the culprits.

The next morning, Macduff comes to Macbeth’s castle to receive the king but finds him dead. Subsequently, Macbeth kills the chamberlains to show anger towards king’s death and to show that he is innocent. Banquo discusses the certain issue with Macbeth and departs.

Later, Macbeth proclaims himself the king in front of everyone. He fears his friend Banquo because of the second part of the prophecy, so he arranges two murders to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. Murderers kill Banquo but his son manages to escape outside the castle in the dark woods.

Although, he successfully executes his plans but he starts behaving abnormally during dinner. He starts witnessing Banquo’s ghost and Lady Macbeth gives excuses for his unusual behavior.

Afterwards, Macbeth again meets the witches and receives three prophecies; Beware of Macduff, none of woman born shall harm him and that he is safe until Burnam’s wood moves to Dunsinane hills. Macduff goes to England to meet Malcolm and plan revenge against Macbeth. They decide to take help from King Edward of England and plan to attack Scotland with 10,000 soldiers. Meanwhile, Ross comes and tells Macduff that his family has been killed by Macbeth.

Moreover, Lady Macbeth starts behaving abnormally because of the guilt of her crimes. Death of Macduff’s family increases her madness and she becomes ill. English army attacks and reaches towards Burnam’s wood and they plan that each soldier will carry a bush in front of him. It seems like the forest is moving towards Dunsinane and the Prophecy of witches becomes true.

Lady Macbeth dies and the war begins. Macbeth fights keeping in mind that no-one can kill him as everyone is born out of mother. He kills Seward’s son and disappears. Macduff finds him, tells him that he was born by cesarean-section and beheads him.

Afterwards, he declares Malcolm the king of Scotland and everyone curses Macbeth and Lady Macbeth for their cruelty.

Themes in Macbeth

Kingship vs. tyranny:.

In the play Duncan is always referred to as a “king” while Macbeth becomes known as “tyrant” when he comes to the throne. This is because of the qualities present in a good king and a tyrant.

Macbeth starts doing evil for the thirst of power and throne which shows his violent temperament and disloyalty towards the country.  He kills the king and other people who are a threat to his kingship.

On the other hand, Duncan is kind-hearted and loyal towards his country. At the end, Macbeth faces downfall because of his cruel and immoral nature.

Relationship between Cruelty and Masculinity:

This theme shows that violence is not just a male’s attribute, females can also show violence. It is explored by the character of Lady Macbeth and the three witches in this play.

As we can clearly see, how Lady Macbeth shows aggression, cruelty and violence. She plans to kill the king and forces Macbeth to follow her evil plan and to kill every person who she sees as a threat.

On the other hand, we can see three witches who seem cruel and evil from their conversations throughout the play.

Fate vs. Freewill:

Another major theme of this play is fate vs. freewill. The character of Macbeth and three witches represent this theme.

Although, Macbeth is told by the witches about his future that he will become the king but he is not told how to take the position of king. Prophecy of witches is fate but how to make it reality depends upon Macbeth’s freewill. Instead of waiting for the right time, he chooses a wrong path that leads him towards downfall.

Reason vs. Passion:

This theme is represented by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Throughout the play we can see the difference between their persuasive strategies.

Macbeth is very logical and clear-sighted. He knows that he is doing evil and the consequences of it. He feels guilty for breaking King Duncan’s trust but he is persuaded by his wife to do evil.

On the other hand, Lady Macbeth passionately examines the pros and cones of her plan of killing the king. She is an emotional and evil person who uses emotional arguments to convince her husband to do the crime.

Macbeth Characters Analysis

Macbeth is the villain of the play. His initial impression is of a brave and courageous warrior who has won the battle through his bravery and dedication. However, when he meets the three witches, his lack of strength of character and overly ambitious nature is revealed. Shakespeare tries to convey the effects of ambitious nature and self-doubt in a person with weak character.

When Macbeth receives the prophecy from witches he becomes happy but later he is persuaded by his wife’s emotional argument to kill the king. He is a rational person who knows the consequences of doing evil but he is also occupied by evil forces.

Moreover, he also starts behaving abnormally because of the guilt of the sins committed by him but again the thirst for power makes him strong and he begins to act according to his evil plans.

In the end of the play, Macduff beheads him and he faces a downfall.

Lady Macbeth:

Lady Macbeth is one of the Shakespeare’s most evil female characters. She is Macbeth’s wife and a deeply ambitious and cruel woman who lusts for power and position. Her first appearance in the play is when she is plotting Duncan’s murder. She is a cruel and ruthless woman who convinces her husband to commit a sin by challenging his manhood.

She represents the relationship between femininity and violence in the play. Macbeth says that Lady Macbeth is a masculine soul residing in a female body which shows that females can also be cruel and ruthless.

Moreover, she remains firm to her decision of murdering the king and persuades Macbeth but later on the guilt of sins makes her mad. She tries to wash away the invisible blood stains from her hands. Her strength becomes her weakness and she commits suicide by the close of the play.

The Three Witches:

The three witches are referred to as “weird sisters” in the play. They are the ones who give prophecy about Macbeth’s future and play upon him like puppeteers.

Macbeth believes in their prophecies which lead him towards darkness and downfall.  However, their true identity is unclear. Although, they are servants of Hecate but the play does not tell us whether they are independent agents playing with human lives or the agents of fate.

Furthermore, some of their prophecies seem fulfilling and some are acted upon by Macbeth.

Banquo is another Scottish General and Macbeth’s friend. He is a brave, ambitious and virtuous person unlike Macbeth.  He also receives a prophecy from witches that his children will come to the throne in future.  This prophecy becomes a threat to Macbeth’s kingship and he orders to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. However, his son escapes but he is murdered.

Later, his ghost haunts Macbeth and he starts acting abnormally.

King Duncan:

He is the king of Scotland who is murdered by Macbeth for the lust of power and throne. He is a virtuous man and a good king who is faithful towards his country. His decision to pass the kingdom to his son, Malcolm, becomes the reason of his death.

Macduff is the thane of Scotland. He is loyal towards king and turns against Macbeth after discovering king’s death.  He flees to England to meet Malcolm where he comes to know about his family’s murder so he plans to take revenge from Macbeth. He also wants to unseat Macbeth from the throne.

Malcolm is the son of Duncan.  He flees to England fearfully after his father’s death. He raises an army there to take back his throne from Macbeth. In the end of the play, Malcolm becomes the king with the support of Macduff and England army.

He is Duncan’s son and Malcolm’s younger brother who flees to Ireland after his father’s death.

He is Banquo’s son who escapes the castle when murderers attempt to kill him. After that he does not appear in the play.

She is the goddess of three witches who guides them to plot mischief against Macbeth.  She is evil and weird.

Macbeth Literary Analysis

The play “Macbeth” portrays a tragic downfall of a brave warrior, Macbeth. At first he appears as a brave and courageous Army General who has won the battle through his bravery but later we come to know about his real self when he receives the prophecies from the three witches.  The prophecies are that Macbeth will become the king of Scotland soon and children of Banquo, another army general, will inherit the throne in future.

After these prophecies, Macbeth appears to be an evil, ruthless and overly ambitious person. He lacks the strength of character and starts doing evil to become the king. The thirst for power and position leads him towards a great downfall.

On the other hand, Lady Macbeth, a violent and ruthless woman, persuades him to murder the king because of the lust of throne and power. He is a masculine soul in a female body that is strong and overly ambitious about her plans. In the beginning she strongly acts upon her evil plans but later she cannot carry the burden of her sins that leads her towards madness. This shows that no matter how strongly one commits sins, at some point in life those sins overly burden him/her and haunt him/her.

Moreover, Banquo, who is faithful towards Duncan and does not plot evil to make the prophecy come true, is killed by Macbeth. But later on we discover that his ghost starts haunting Macbeth and he starts acting abnormally. It shows the contrast between personalities of the two, Macbeth and Banquo. Both are ambitious and brave but Macbeth is evil and Banquo is virtuous because he does not choose a wrong path to become more powerful.

Additionally, the king of Scotland named Duncan is also a virtuous and honored king who is killed by Macbeth because of his lust for throne. Duncan is referred to as ‘King’ throughout the play whereas Macbeth is referred to as a ‘Tyrant’ when he declares himself as a king. It shows the contrast between a good king and a tyrant. Macbeth murders every person who comes on his way of becoming the king. He is a wicked and immoral person who commits sins whereas Duncan is a moral person who rules the Scotland justly and peacefully.

The play also portrays the consequences and effects of thirst for power of a person who is morally weak and lacks the decisive power. Macbeth knows the consequences of his evil deeds but keeps on committing sins because he lacks the decisive power, he is constantly persuaded by his wife to murder those who are a threat to his kingship. It leads him to a tragic downfall.

More From William Shakespeare

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Macbeth , set primarily in Scotland, mixes witchcraft, prophecy, and murder. Three “Weïrd Sisters” appear to Macbeth and his comrade Banquo after a battle and prophesy that Macbeth will be king and that the descendants of Banquo will also reign. When Macbeth arrives at his castle, he and Lady Macbeth plot to assassinate King Duncan, soon to be their guest, so that Macbeth can become king.

After Macbeth murders Duncan, the king’s two sons flee, and Macbeth is crowned. Fearing that Banquo’s descendants will, according to the Weïrd Sisters’ predictions, take over the kingdom, Macbeth has Banquo killed. At a royal banquet that evening, Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost appear covered in blood. Macbeth determines to consult the Weïrd Sisters again. They comfort him with ambiguous promises.

Another nobleman, Macduff, rides to England to join Duncan’s older son, Malcolm. Macbeth has Macduff’s wife and children murdered. Malcolm and Macduff lead an army against Macbeth, as Lady Macbeth goes mad and commits suicide.

Macbeth confronts Malcolm’s army, trusting in the Weïrd Sisters’ comforting promises. He learns that the promises are tricks, but continues to fight. Macduff kills Macbeth and Malcolm becomes Scotland’s king.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Macbeth — Fate And Destiny In Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Fate and Destiny in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

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Published: Feb 8, 2022

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The intricate interplay of fate and destiny in "macbeth", final thoughts, works cited.

• Shakespeare, W. (2015). Macbeth. Simon and Schuster.
• Bloom, H. (Ed.). (2008). Macbeth (Modern Critical Interpretations). Infobase Publishing.
• Kranz, D. (2016). A Companion to Shakespeare's Works: The Tragedies. John Wiley & Sons.
• Bevington, D. (2014). Macbeth (Second Edition) (The Arden Shakespeare Third Series). Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare.
• Niederkorn, W. S. (2015). Shakespeare: The Tragedies. Pearson.
• Fischlin, D., & Fortier, M. (2017). Macbeth: Language and Writing (Arden Student Skills: Language and Writing). Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare.
• McEachern, C. (2016). Macbeth: A Critical Reader (Arden Early Modern Drama Guides). Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare.
• Jackson, R. (2018). Shakespeare and Domestic Life: A Dictionary. ABC-CLIO.
• Montrose, L. A. (2016). The Purpose of Playing: Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of the Elizabethan Theatre. University of Chicago Press.
• Moulton, C. E. (2018). Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist. Routledge.

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Supernatural in “Macbeth” Play by Shakespeare Essay

In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth , the supernatural plays a crucial part in inspiring Macbeth’s actions. Supernatural elements create dramatic tension, with the witches’ predictions in Scene 3 of Act 1 as a critical instigating incident. Macbeth’s desire to replace Duncan as Scotland’s monarch is driven by otherworldly forces. The presence of the supernatural encourages the protagonists to feel superior and arrogant. The supernaturally manufactured predictions lure Macbeth and Banquo with the idea of power, leading Macbeth to plot the cruel murder of Duncan. Macbeth believes that by murdering his close friend Banquo, he will finally be able to live up to the prophecy that he will become king. At an earlier gathering that night, he had a supernatural encounter with the ghost of a recently departed friend. The prophecies of the three witches inspire Macbeth’s desire to murder Banquo, but he digs himself into a deeper hole in the process. The play’s sense of mystery is enhanced by Macbeth’s use of the bizarre (Hibbs and Hibbs 275). The play’s supernatural aspects drive the plot and elevate its tragic elements by leading the protagonist further away from the passage of the typical hero.

Any supernatural effect on his choices, particularly those involving murder, is purely voluntary. It is only fair that he takes some responsibility for the many failures and catastrophes he is brought on by depending on them. On the other hand, without the supernatural, it is unlikely that Macbeth would even have the courage to consider such notions, much alone act on them. Macbeth begins his journey of murder when he tells Lady Macbeth about the witches. He recalled how “these Weird Sisters hailed me and pointed to the advent of time with ‘Hail, the king that shalt be,’” as he put it (Shakespeare). The influence of the supernatural on his wife, Lady Macbeth, drove him to murder King Duncan; had he not informed her about his vision, events could have turned out differently. Once he reveals to Lady Macbeth the divine prophesy he got, he loses all chance of returning to his former noble life. The supernatural plays a significant role in Macbeth’s universe.

In Scene 1 of Act IV, Macbeth returns to the Weird Sisters and demands to see visions of his future. Macbeth is warned of Macduff’s vengeance by a severed warrior’s head. In the second scene, a little boy, covered in blood, promises Macbeth that no man “of woman born” can kill him. Macbeth will not be beaten in battle, the young king swears, as long as Birnam wood is physically transported to Dunsinane. Upon learning of these impossibilities, Macbeth exclaims, “reign in this kingdom?” (Schojbert 1). The witches have Banquo leading a ghostly parade of imaginary kings. This only infuriates Macbeth more, and he goes so far as to admit to the audience that he wants to murder the whole Macduff family because of his pride.

In this play, the supernatural aspect is genuine or verifiable. Since both Macbeth and Banquo see the witches, their presence is confirmed. The supernatural aspect adds to the drama by validating and concretizing the hero’s internal struggles. Therefore, Macbeth’s witches represent the guilt deep within his psyche. However, the supernatural aspect does not exert an overbearing force, and the hero is never made helpless or absolved of responsibility for his actions. Although it is only suggestive, the hero is under no obligation to act upon it. The supernatural plays a vital role in accelerating the hero’s demise and elevating the tragedy within the play but ultimately teaches the weight of responsibility for personal actions.

Works Cited

Schojbert, Haley. The Supernatural, the Demonic, and Witchcraft in Early Modern English plays: Macbeth, the Witch, the Witch of Edmonton, and Doctor Faustus . 2020. The State University of New York at New Paltz, MA thesis.

Hibbs, Thomas, and Stacey Hibbs. “ Virtue, Natural Law, and Supernatural Solicitation: A Thomistic Reading of Shakespeare’s Macbeth .” Religion and the Arts, vol 5, no 3, 2001, pp. 273- 296, Web.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Wordsworth Classics, 1992.

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Macbeth’s Tragic Flaw

This essay about Macbeth as a tragic hero explores how William Shakespeare crafted Macbeth’s character in accordance with the classical definition of a tragic hero. Macbeth begins the play as a valorous and respected nobleman, but his encounter with the witches’ prophecy awakens his latent ambition. This ambition, his tragic flaw, leads him to murder King Duncan and sets him on a path of moral decay and further violent acts. The essay discusses Macbeth’s internal conflict and the psychological complexity that arises as he struggles with his conscience and descends deeper into tyranny. His initial nobility, combined with the devastating consequences of his actions, isolates him, leading to his inevitable downfall and death at the hands of Macduff. Shakespeare’s portrayal emphasizes the destructive power of unchecked ambition and the deep psychological repercussions of deviating from moral integrity, affirming Macbeth’s role as a tragic hero.

How it works

In William Shakespeare’s enthralling tragedy “Macbeth,” the persona of Macbeth embodies the quintessential tragic protagonist through a narrative imbued with ambition, ethical turmoil, and downfall. Shakespeare intricately constructs a narrative that delves into the journey of the tragic protagonist from valor to vice, providing a profound commentary on the perils of unbridled ambition and the intricate interplay between destiny and volition.

At the outset of the play, Macbeth is presented as a valiant warrior, deeply revered and esteemed for his courage and prowess in combat.

This initial depiction aligns with Aristotle’s portrayal of a tragic protagonist, which encompasses nobility and virtue as fundamental attributes. However, the seeds of his tragic flaw—overwhelming ambition—are planted by the prophecy of the three witches. They foretell Macbeth’s ascension to the throne of Scotland, igniting a fervent ambition within him that ultimately leads to his downfall.

The notion of the tragic flaw, or ‘hamartia,’ is pivotal in comprehending Macbeth’s adherence to the tragic protagonist archetype. His ambition impels him to commit regicide by assassinating King Duncan, an act that initiates his moral decline and the erosion of his character. This pivotal juncture transcends mere political maneuvering; it signifies a profound ethical transgression, the repercussions of which are immediate and dire. Remorse and paranoia begin to consume Macbeth, catalyzing further atrocities, including the murder of Banquo and the slaughter of Macduff’s kin. Each act of brutality propels him deeper into desolation and estrangement from humanity.

Macbeth’s metamorphosis epitomizes the psychological intricacy that Shakespeare infuses into his tragic protagonists. Initially, Macbeth is not devoid of conscience; his hesitation and subsequent anguish over Duncan’s murder depict a man grappling with his inner turmoil. However, his insatiable ambition blinds him to the moral dimensions of his deeds. As he succumbs to the allure of power and the dread of relinquishing it, he severs ties with those he cherishes and with his own moral compass. This isolation epitomizes the personal odyssey of the tragic protagonist, underscoring the individual element of tragedy.

The culmination of Macbeth’s tragic odyssey is his inevitable downfall. In classic tragic narratives, the protagonist must plummet from grace and endure the consequences of his flaws. For Macbeth, the fulfillment of the witches’ prophecy evokes not elation but existential dread and solitude. His reign is characterized not by triumph but by terror and suspicion, precipitating a loss of allegiance and eventual retaliation by those he has wronged. Macbeth’s demise at the hands of Macduff, who is impervious to Macbeth’s despotic tyranny by virtue of his unique birth, symbolizes not merely the conclusion of a reign but a poignant reflection on the inevitability of retribution in the face of despotism.

In conclusion, Macbeth epitomizes the tragic protagonist through his initial nobility, tragic flaw of unchecked ambition, moral turmoil, and ultimate downfall. Shakespeare’s portrayal of Macbeth’s trajectory from a valiant nobleman to a tyrannical ruler elucidates the ruinous potential of ambition and the profound psychological and ethical repercussions that accompany a departure from virtue. Macbeth’s narrative serves as a timeless admonition of the dangers that await those who forsake moral rectitude in pursuit of power, rendering him one of literature’s most captivating and tragic figures.

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29/30 Macbeth Essay in ONLY 516 Words!

This is what the senior AQA examiner said about this essay:

This whole essay is exploratory.

The best Level 6 feature is that it always focuses on Shakespeare’s ideas.

The student also explains a whole range of methods to explore those ideas.

The student is very concise so every word counts.

And each sentence is focused on the question.

The answer shows a deep understanding of themes as well as Shakespeare’s other ideas.

The student cleverly realises that the extract comes from the end of the play, so it makes much more sense to follow Macbeth from the beginning to the end.

Using the plot to structure your answer is always a good idea.

The student chooses quotes very well to back up their argument.

To get full marks, the student needs to include more quotes or references to the play to back up their argument.

As I always say, starting with the extract is waaaay harder than working through the play chronologically.

AQA have lately come to realise this. They know that their question “starting with the extract” is unhelpful. But they won’t change it, as this will be to admit they were stupid to phrase it this way.

Regular readers will know that I keep testing Tilf.io to see how accurate and useful it is.

It is very accurate with the grade here. Check out the advice it gives, and then my own.

Essay on How Macbeth Changes as a Male Character (the 2023 Question)

( Tilf.io’s comments are in brackets).

Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a character and a male who changes significantly in the play. His character arc begins as a noble thane, reluctant to sin against his king, who then commits regicide before finally being overcome with guilt, and losing all hope. 

(This is a strong opening that clearly sets out Macbeth's character arc and foreshadows the discussion of his transformation throughout the play. Well done.)

As you know I recommend a three part thesis. This achieves that. But I also recommend your thesis explains Shakespeare’s ideas. This just focuses on Macbeth’s character, not on Shakespeare’s reasons for presenting him this way.

Shakespeare introduces him as an honourable warrior, using extreme violence to display his loyalty to King Duncan. We find out he defeats the rebel MacDonwald and “unseamed him from the nave to the chops”, which reveals Macbeth’s bloodlust. This also foreshadows the theme of violence which dominates the play. 

(You've effectively highlighted Macbeth's initial presentation as a loyal and violent warrior, and the quotation you've chosen is apt.

However, consider exploring how this initial violence relates to Macbeth's masculinity and the expectations of male characters in the context of the play.)

Yes, this is great feedback from Tilf.io.

Once the Witches tell Macbeth his fate, he hesitates. As a “kinsman and loyal subject” he refuses to commit regicide and embrace sin. However, Lady Macbeth scorns this morality, pushing Macbeth to murder Duncan. She tries to develop his ambition and asks rhetorically, “Was the hope drunk, wherein you dressed yourself?” The accusation of “drunk” tells Macbeth he is foolish for hesitating when he weighs up the “deed” of murder. She suggest Macbeth was merely “drunk” on the thought of becoming king, but is not willing to make the sacrifice necessary to become king. 

(You've captured the pivotal moment of Macbeth's hesitation and the influence of Lady Macbeth well.

To strengthen this paragraph, link back to the question by discussing how Macbeth's hesitation and subsequent actions reflect the changing expectations of his role as a male character in the play.)

Yes, again I like Tilf.io’s feedback. The idea of masculinity requiring action is reflected in his determination to kill Macduff’s family: “From this moment, the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand.” (Act 4 Scene 1) 

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What Shakespeare can teach us about racism

Associate Professor of English, Trinity College

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William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy “ Othello ” is often the first play that comes to mind when people think of Shakespeare and race . And if not “Othello,” then folks usually name “ The Merchant of Venice ,” “ Antony and Cleopatra ,” “ The Tempest ,” or his first – and bloodiest – tragedy, “ Titus Andronicus ,” my favorite Shakespeare play.

Among Shakespeare scholars, those five works are known as his traditionally understood “race plays” and include characters who are Black like Othello, Jewish like Shylock, Indigenous like Caliban, or Black African like Cleopatra.

But what did Shakespeare have to say about race in plays such as “ Hamlet ” and “ Macbeth ,” where Black characters do not have a dominant role, for example?

As Shakespeare scholars who study race know, all of his plays address race in some way. How could they not?

After all, every human being has a racial identity, much like every living human being breathes. Said another way, every character Shakespeare breathed life into has a racial identity, from Hamlet to Hippolyta .

The playwright wrote about many key subjects during the late 15th and early 16th centuries that are relevant today, including gender, addiction, sexuality, mental health, social psychology, sexual violence , antisemitism, sexism and, of course, race .

In my book “ Shakespeare’s White Others ,” I explore the intraracial divisions that Shakespeare illustrates in all his plays.

Here are four things to know about Shakespeare and race.

1. No one should fear Shakespeare

For a long time, I was afraid of Shakespeare. I am not the only one.

In his 1964 essay “ Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare ,” James Baldwin detailed his initial resistance. Like many people today, Baldwin wrote that he, too, was “a victim of that loveless education which causes so many schoolboys to detest Shakespeare.”

A major part of Baldwin’s loathing of Shakespeare had nothing to do with the English writer specifically, but rather the white elitism that surrounded his work and literature.

But as Baldwin eventually realized, Shakespeare was not the “ author of his oppression .”

Just as Shakespeare didn’t create misogyny and sexism, he didn’t create race and racism. Rather, he observed the complex realities of the world around him, and through his plays he articulated an underlying hope for a more just world.

2. Shakespeare’s work reveals social injustice

“ Titus Andronicus ” featured the playwright’s first Black character, Aaron. In that play, written near the end of the 16th century, the white Roman empress, Tamora, cheats on her white emperor husband, Saturninus, with Aaron. When Tamora eventually gives birth to a baby, it’s clear Tamora’s baby daddy isn’t Saturninus.

Consequently, the white characters who know about the infant’s real father urge Aaron to kill his newborn Black son. But Aaron refuses. He opts instead to fiercely protect his beloved child.

Amid all the drama that occurs around the child’s existence, Shakespeare momentarily offers a beautiful defense of Blackness in the play’s fourth act.

“Is black so base a hue?” Aaron initially asks before challenging the cultural norm. “Coal-black is better than another hue, in that it scorns to bear another hue.”

In other words, at least to Aaron, being Black was beautiful, Blackness exuded strength.

Such words about the Black identity are not uttered elsewhere in Shakespeare’s plays – not even by the more popular Othello .

3. The power of whiteness

In plays such as “ Hamlet ,” “Macbeth” and “ Romeo and Juliet ,” race still figures in the drama even when there are no dominant Black characters.

Shakespeare does this by illustrating the formation and maintenance of the white identity. In a sense, Shakespeare details the nuances of race through his characters’ racial similarities, thus making racial whiteness very visible.

In Shakespeare’s time, much like our present moment, the presumed superiority of whiteness meant social status was negotiated by everyone based on the dominant culture’s standards.

In several of his plays, for instance, the playwright uses “white hands” as noble symbols of purity and white superiority. He also called attention to his character’s race by describing them as “white” or “fair.”

Shakespeare also used black as a metaphor for being tainted.

One such moment occurs in the comedy “ Much Ado About Nothing .”

A young white woman, Hero, is falsely accused of cheating on her fiancé. On their wedding day, Hero’s groom, Claudio, charges her with being unfaithful. Claudio and Hero’s father, Leonato, then shame Hero for being allegedly unchaste, a no-no for 16th-century English women who were legally their father’s and then their husband’s property.

With Hero’s sexual purity allegedly tainted, her father describes her as having “fallen into a pit of ink.”

Sex before marriage violated the male-dominated culture’s expectations for unwed white women.

Thus, in that play, Hero momentarily represents an “inked” white woman – or a symbolic reflection of the stereotyped, hypersexual Black woman.

4. The future of scholarship on Shakespeare and race

Today, scholars are publishing new insights on the social, cultural and political issues of Shakespeare’s time and our own. In fact, there are dozens of scholars and theater practitioners devoting their professional lives to exploring race in Shakespeare’s literature and time period.

In his 2000 book “ Shakespeare Jungle Fever: National-Imperial Re-Visions of Race, Rape, and Sacrifice ,” UCLA English professor Arthur L. Little Jr. explored British imperialism, racialized whiteness and the sexual myths about Black men.

In 2020, playwright Anchuli Felicia King wrote “ Keene ,” a satirical riff on “Othello” that offers a modern-day critique on whiteness. In “Keene,” Kai, a Japanese musicologist, and Tyler, a Black Ph.D. student, meet at a Shakespeare conference where they are the only two people of color at the elite white gathering. While Tyler is focused on writing his thesis, Kai is focused on Tyler. A romance ensues, only to see Tyler – much like Othello before him – betrayed by his closet white confidant, Ian.

In 2019, British actress Adjoa Andoh directed Shakespeare’s “ Richard II ” with a cast of all women of color – a production that she called “a thought experiment into the universality of humanity.”

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In a Pair of ‘Macbeth’ Productions, Only One Does Right by the Lady

One of Shakespeare’s most coveted roles for women gets different interpretations onstage in New York and Washington.

By Maya Phillips

“Macbeth” isn’t one of Shakespeare’s so-called “problem plays,” and yet, the vast contradictions and reversals of the central couple often present a problem for those staging it.

Two “Macbeth” productions now running — the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh’s “Macbeth (An Undoing),” at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn, and the Shakespeare Theater Company’s “Macbeth” in Washington — take opposite approaches to the text, particularly in their depictions of Lady Macbeth. The results are two wildly different kinds of tragedies, one more successful than the other.

The project of “ Macbeth (An Undoing ),” written and directed by Zinnie Harris, is to re-evaluate the female characters in Shakespeare’s tragedy. The play, presented by Theater for a New Audience and the Rose Theater, begins as a loose adaptation of the material: Macbeth, a celebrated soldier fighting on behalf of Scotland, hears a prophecy from three weird sisters that he’ll get two promotions, including one to the throne. The Macbeths then pave their path to power by murdering everyone who could stand in their way.

With the exception of some modern paraphrasing, the unnecessary fan-fiction-esque addition of a romantic affair and a larger showing by the witches — who sometimes break the fourth wall and at others appear as servants — much of the first half of the show follows the original. In the second half, however, the production changes direction; Macbeth is the one who can’t seem to wash the blood off his hands. As he descends into the particular brand of madness usually reserved for Lady Macbeth, she transforms into the king. In fact, those around her begin addressing her as “sir” and “king.” Lady Macbeth, it turns out, has her own history with the witches, whom she sought out for medicine to prevent a miscarriage but neglected to pay when she still lost the child.

“So I am reduced to my infertility after all,” Lady Macbeth says to her husband when he accusingly interrogates her about the miscarriages. The line is one of several that the play offers as a rebuttal to some unclear larger discourse about the gender politics of “Macbeth.” “Unclear” because the ultimate irony (and failure) of “Macbeth (An Undoing)” is that in trying to subvert the gender politics of the original, it actually contradicts itself, making the character arcs and themes largely incoherent. So this Lady Macbeth complains about being characterized by her infertility, and yet the material that most heavily emphasizes her obsessive desire for a child are unique additions to this play not found in Shakespeare’s text.

Playing Lady Macbeth, Nicole Cooper is at her best when she offers a more realistic, matter-of-fact interpretation of the character in the first half of the production. But she and her Macbeth, played by Adam Best, lack chemistry, and the actors can’t negate the fact that instead of expanding the characters, the play’s role reversals flatten them. Shakespeare already built in a reversal between these characters; Macbeth’s early hesitance and caution shifts to untethered resolve, while Lady Macbeth’s early steadfastness shifts to guilt and madness.

In losing the tension between the couple’s seesawing consciences and intentions, “Macbeth (An Undoing)” also loses the context of the play’s great speeches. The famous “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy, originally spoken by Macbeth in a state of grief-turned-apathy after learning of his wife’s death, loses its emotional weight when spoken by Lady Macbeth after she commits a murder.

There is, by the way, a good helping of murder in this version. And the blood flows freely. One character’s death comes with an almost comical deluge, audibly dripping onstage as the dialogue continues. Lady Macbeth, constantly plagued by blood spots, calls for more wardrobe changes than a contestant on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” This kind of ceaseless repetition and constant over-explanation of the themes drags down the pacing of the play and makes for a tiresome experience.

“Macbeth (An Undoing)” ends with the same outcome and same body count, though the unnecessarily convoluted route the play takes, full of ineffective additions and alterations, and absent much of Shakespeare’s poetry, only further emphasizes the missing artistry of the original story.

These creative decisions minimize Cooper’s ability to get the most out of Lady Macbeth, who is perhaps the most coveted Shakespeare role for women as a complex character who already subverts stereotypes about women as lovers, mothers and caretakers.

The very proof is in Indira Varma’s absorbing performance opposite Ralph Fiennes in the production of “ Macbeth ” that opened on April 12 in D.C. Set in a former soundstage about three miles from the Shakespeare Theater Company’s usual space, this engrossing production draws audiences into a wrecked war zone that is then mirrored in the Macbeth household.

As played by Varma (known for her role on “Game of Thrones” ), Lady Macbeth is neither a vessel of unbridled female lust, as is often the case, nor an evil girl-boss. Her performance is built on Lady Macbeth’s earnest, wholesome love for her husband. Even when Lady Macbeth rolls up her sleeves and impatiently grabs the daggers from her husband after his bloody act of treason, there’s a brightness to her affections; she guides Macbeth through the next step of their plot with the soft yet forceful scolding of a mother to her hapless son.

Though the show’s aesthetic is grandiose, and occasionally otherworldly, with climactic lighting design and titillating sound design, the performances are refreshingly grounded. From the onset the director, Simon Godwin (who also directed the electric TV film version of “ Romeo and Juliet ,” and National Theater Live’s sensual “Antony and Cleopatra,” also starring Fiennes), paints a sophisticated picture of the central couple’s relationship, and their subsequent fall from grace.

Fiennes’s Macbeth fully owns his ambitions, and potential for regicide, but he’s also tense and cautious to the point of neuroticism. He lumbers across the stage with his shoulders hunched, looking like he’s always on the defensive. Macbeth’s ultimate shift is not toward insanity as much as it is to willfulness rooted in his newly acquired power and driven home by male ego.

And when Lady Macbeth goes mad, there’s still some degree of cogency to her condition; Varma’s tone, posture and temperament shift drastically but never lose their connection to the rest of her performance.

By the end, these Macbeths are transformed more significantly and imbued with more humanity than the reconsidered and restyled couple in “Macbeth (An Undoing).” Because even stuck in a plot of warring men, and on stages ruled by men, Shakespeare’s tragic lady can still summon a magic all her own.

Macbeth (An Undoing)

Through May 4 at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Brooklyn; tfana.org . Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes.

Through May 5 at Shakespeare Theater Company, Washington, D.C.; shakespearetheatre.org . Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes.

Maya Phillips is an arts and culture critic for The Times.  More about Maya Phillips

Much Ado About Translation: Can The French Ever Capture The Genius Of William Shakespeare?

Updated April 30, 2024 at 6:30 p.m.*

LAUSANNE — Celebrated by some, detested by others, William Shakespeare has long served as a point of reference for the French literary world.

Voltaire (1694-1778), stuck as he was in the ways of classical literature, found Shakespeare's works to be "grotesque" and "contrary to good taste." But he also admitted that the English playwright was, at times, "sublime."

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Voltaire's mixed feelings are emblematic of a relationship — between Shakespeare and his later French counterparts — that was always more than a bit complicated. "He was a drunken savage with some imagination," Voltaire wrote in a letter in 1765.

Shakespeare's posthumous influence helped free early romanticism and then romanticism from the classical straightjacket of classicism, as acknowledged in 19th-century essays by Stendhal (1783-1842) and later Victor Hugo (1802-1885). Why? Because Shakespeare broke all the rules of French classical theater. That's also, of course, why others loathed him.

The "Other" of French literature

Hugo hailed Shakespeare as the forefather of "drama," by which he meant the mix of theatrical genres that he himself embraced. The French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was also a student of Shakespeare. "The real need of my heart, profound as an abyss / Is you, Lady Macbeth, soul so potent in crime / The dream of Aeschylus, born in the land of storms," he wrote in his poem L'Idéal.

Shakespeare speaks to the soul of French literary consciousness.

Fellow poet Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) wrote about another Shakespeare character, Hamlet, remarking on his tentativeness and failure to translate potential into achievement.

Shakespeare, in short, has served for the past two centuries as "the Other" who accompanies and speaks to the soul of French literary consciousness .

​Lost in translation?

But beyond the issue of Shakespeare's relationship to France, there's also the still-relevant question of how to translate his work to French.

In the 17th century, François de Malherbe (1555-1628), a poet, and Nicolas Boileau (1636-1711), a critic and poet, led a call for purifying and simplifying the French language. The changes that resulted had a significant impact on translation , in some ways complicating the task.

Shakespeare's language was rich and abundant and is also much closer in certain regards to François Villon (1431-1463) or François Rabelais (1483 or 1494-1553) — who lived and wrote before the "language purification" of François de Malherbe and Nicolas Boileau — than to Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) or Jean Racine (1639-1699). Molière (1622-1673), had he not written for Louis XIV, might have paved a new way of writing. But he did depend on Versailles. Also, he didn't speak English, so probably never heard of Shakespeare.

In the 18th century, translations were, in fact, adaptations, and a lot of major changes were sometimes introduced, as seen in versions by Pierre-Antoine de La Place (1707-1793) or Pierre Letourneur (1737-1788). The same things happened in England, where theater directors were free to change whatever they wanted to change. For many years, for example, Cordelia didn't die at the end of King Lear, as she does in the original text, but survived in order to marry Edgar. In 1750, the scandal of her death had become unacceptable for an audience shocked by the representation of the tragedy.

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Good bilingual news

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to translating Shakespeare is the incredible mix of genres the Bard used. He respected conventions only in the loosest of ways , reinventing literature to match his genius. He took so many liberties that he was able to juxtapose crude and ethereal expressions. He mingled lyricism with sententious style. He would go from prose to verse and from verse to prose, with no explanation.

There can be no "ultimate" Shakespeare.

That is why, all these centuries later, the recently published "Pléiade" edition of Shakespeare's complete works is such good news. The bilingual edition, translated by Jean-Michel Déprats with help from Gisèle Venet, is an outstanding accomplishment and a welcome contribution.

But does this mean that French-speaking readers finally get the Shakespeare they deserve and waited so long for? Maybe not — for at least two reasons: First, there were already several good translations of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Works by Pierre Jean Jouve (1887-1976), Jules Supervielle (1884-1960), André du Bouchet (1924-2001) or the recently deceased Yves Bonnefoy (1924-2016) come to mind.

The second reason is that there can be no "ultimate" Shakespeare , neither in French nor in any other language, not even in English. Shakespeare is meant to be reinvented, and will always be. Shakespeare is ahead of us, and not behind us. That's why he's such a titan.

*Originally published in September 2016, this article was updated April 18, 2030 with enriched media and audio file.

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