Macbeth
Questions
The most common questions about Macbeth, answered from the play.
- What is the summary of Macbeth?Macbeth tells the story of the fall of a Scottish commander who, after hearing from three witches that he will be king, murders King Duncan to seize...
- How Does Macbeth End?Macbeth ends with the death of the tyrant at Macduff's hands and with Malcolm, son of Duncan, hailed as King of Scotland. Before that, Lady Macbeth...
- What is the theme of Macbeth?The central theme of Macbeth is ambition and what it costs. Macbeth wins the crown through crime and, at every step, loses sleep, allies, and the...
- Who is Macbeth in Shakespeare's play?Macbeth is the protagonist of the play: a Scottish commander, Thane of Glamis and kinsman of King Duncan, who after hearing the witches kills the...
- Who Is Lady Macbeth?Lady Macbeth is Macbeth's wife and the mistress of the castle of Inverness, where King Duncan goes to sleep. She is the one who takes on the murder...
- Who Is Banquo in Macbeth?Banquo is one of King Duncan's commanders, Macbeth's companion in arms, and the father of Fleance. He hears the witches together with Macbeth,...
- Who is King Duncan in Macbeth?Duncan is the king of Scotland, father of Malcolm and Donalbain, and the victim of the crime that drives the play. He is a generous and trusting...
- Who Is Macduff in Macbeth?Macduff is the Thane of Fife, the nobleman who discovers Duncan's body, flees to England, loses his family in a massacre ordered by Macbeth, and...
- Who are the witches in Macbeth?The witches are the three sorceresses who, on the heath, tell Macbeth that he will be king. The play also calls them the Weird Sisters, and a fourth...
- What does "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" mean?It is the line with which the three witches close the first scene of the play (Act I, scene 1): "The beautiful is rotten, and the rotten can be...
- What does "none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth" mean?It is the promise of the second apparition the witches show Macbeth (Act IV, Scene 1): "no one born of woman can do harm to Macbeth." Macbeth takes...
- How does Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane?Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane because Malcolm's soldiers carry branches cut from it in front of their bodies. The witches' promise is fulfilled by a...
- What does the "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" speech mean?It is the speech Macbeth gives in Act V, Scene 5, on learning that Lady Macbeth has died. In it, he describes life as something without meaning.The...
- Why does Lady Macbeth rub her hands and say "Out, damned spot"?In Scene 1 of Act V, Lady Macbeth walks in her sleep, rubs her hands as if washing them, and says: "Out, damned spot! Out, I say." The spot is the...
- Why does Macbeth kill King Duncan?By what the play shows, Macbeth kills Duncan out of ambition, pushed by his wife: in that first meeting the witches only say that he will be king,...