Macbeth: A Book Report

For my book report, I read The Tragedy Of Macbeth (Originally published as, The Tragedie Of Macbeth), by William Shakespeare. The popular play has been adapted for television, movies, graphic novels, comic books, and even an opera, and is Shakespeare’s shortest known “tragedie”.

One of the notable traits of Macbeth (besides being written by the most famous writer of the 17th century), is the stage superstition surrounding it. Unless the name Macbeth is in one of your lines, it’s considered bad luck to say it. People believe that when Shakespeare wrote the play (some where in between the years 1603 and 1607), he used real witch spells in the text, and angered a clan of witches, causing them to curse the play. Because of the witches curse, if any one were to say Macbeth in a theatre, the entire production would be a failure, and harm would come to the leading actors. I’ve done a few plays, and as an actress, I can say I have experienced the “curse of the witches”. On opening night, a new comer to the theatre thought we were trying to trick him, so he said Macbeth. When it was time for the curtains to open, one of them got stuck, and a light fell from the ceiling, narrowly missing our leading lady.

Now, I’m not saying that it was the witches doing, but I do know that I’m not going to tempt fate by saying anything else on the subject.

Now, enough about superstitions, let’s get on with the book report!

In the beginning of “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, the current king of Scotland, King Duncan, is coming back from a battle with his two sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, and Lennox, a close friend of the King. They meet a wounded Captain, who tells the King that his cousin, Macbeth, Thane (modern day equivalent of a Count) of Glamis, killed the rebel leader Macdonwald. King Duncan is impressed, and decides to execute the current Thane of Cawdor for betraying him, and give the title to Macbeth.

In the next scene, Macbeth is walking with his friend Banquo, and they come upon three witches. The “weird sisters” greet him, calling him Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and King of Scotland. Then, they tell Banquo, that he won’t be a king, but his ancestors will. Soon after the witches disappear, two of the kings noblemen, Angus and Ross, come along and tell Macbeth that he was just announced Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth and Banquo are both shocked, and start to wonder if maybe the witches were real, and they hadn’t accidentally “eaten on the insane root that takes the reason prisoner”.

This is the first time that Macbeth thinks of murdering King Duncan in order to fulfill the rest of the prophecy, but certainly not the last.

When they get back to the kingdom, Macbeth invites the King to his home. He agrees, and the plot switches to Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s wife. She’s reading a letter that he sent, telling her all about the current events, and instead of being satisfied with this new advancement, Lady Macbeth (an extremely ambitious woman) begins to dream of what her life would be like if Macbeth became King, like the Weird Sisters said.

Soon after, a servant comes to tell her that Macbeth is returning, and that King Duncan will be their guest later that night. Not to long after she is told, Macbeth returns. She can tell as soon as she sees his face that he is troubled with the witches foretelling, and she tells him not to worry, just act like a gracious host, and they’ll figure out what to do after the banquet.

During the celebrations, Macbeth leaves the table to ponder the issue at hand by himself. He thinks aloud, and confesses that if it wasn’t for worldly punishments, he would have no qualms about killing the King. He also says that, “we but teach bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plaque th’ inventor”. Meaning, if he could murder someone for their title, who’s to say that the same thing wouldn’t happen to him if he became king?


He has finally talked himself out of killing King Duncan, when Lady Macbeth returns. When he tells her his decision, she bullies him into changing his mind, insulting his manhood and calling him a coward, and telling him that if she promised him to kill their first born child, that she would have “dashed the brains out, had I so sworn”.

He attempts to change her mind one last time, asking her what will happen if they fail, and she nearly laughs at him, and tells him that they’ll blame it on the servants. He tells her, “bring forth men-children only, for thy undaunted mettle should compose nothing but males”, (saying that her stubbornness and courage would be good traits in male children), and agrees to kill the King and claim the throne.

On his way to the King’s bedroom, he runs into Banquo and a servant. Banquo attempts to engage him in conversation, but Macbeth avoids it without to much suspicion, and as he leaves, sends off the servant as well.

He hallucinates a bloodied dagger as he waits for the coast to clear, but goes on to do what his wife told him to do.

When the deed is done, he comes back to Lady Macbeth, distraught. Instead of dropping the daggers at the beds of the servants like planned, he brought them with him back to their rooms. When the Lady tells him to go back, he refuses, and she goes in his place to plant the evidence.

The next day, Macduff (Thane of Fife) and Lennox (one of King Duncan’s friends), come to Macbeth, and tell him that the King requested he be woken earlier than usually, as to get a head start on the way back to his kingdom. Macduff volunteer’s to wake him up, and he leaves Macbeth and Lennox to make small talk.
He comes back upset, shouting, “O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!”

Macbeth, of course, already knows what’s going on, but acts as confused as Lennox for the sake of his supposed innocence.

The word gets around, and Lady Macbeth plays the part of the swooning Scarlett O’Hara while everyone is thrown into a frenzy.

The guards are found covered in Duncan’s blood, and Macbeth kills them before they can protest their innocence, saying, “Oh, yet I do repent me of my fury, that I did kill them.”, so that people will see it as a crime of passion.

Malcolm and Donalbain both fear for their lives, and so they flee the country. Malcolm goes to England, and Donalbain to Ireland.

Since they’ve left so suddenly, they become the prime suspects in the case. People are beginning to think that the two paid the guards to kill their father, so they could get to the crown faster.

So, by default, Macbeth became King.

Banquo is suspicious, saying to himself, “I fear thou played’st most foully for ’t”, and Macbeth remembers what the Weird Sister’s said about his friend’s ancestors.

His wife remembers too, and as we have already found out, she has no problem killing the people that stand in her way.

They find out that Banquo is leaving, along with his son Fleance, later that night, and Macbeth enlists two murderer’s to help him get rid of his former friend turned foe and his son.

Later, when they ride out, they’re attacked by the now three (Macbeth sent another felon to help) murderers, and before they can get to Banquo’s son, he calls out, “O treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou may’st revenge- O slave!”. Fleance must have heard him, because after Banquo is killed, one of the murderers says, “There’s but one down. The son is fled.”.

The same night, there is to be yet another feast, this one to celebrate the new king. Macbeth, now King Macbeth, stands to give the guest a speech, but finds all the seats full when he goes to sit down. He tells Lennox that the tables full, but Lennox is puzzled, and says, “Here is a place reserved, sir.”, pointing to a taken seat.

Macbeth realizes that the seat is taken not by a human, but the ghost of Banquo. He goes off on it, and the dinner party is alarmed. Lady Macbeth calms them by telling them that Macbeth often has fits like that, and that the convulsions would pass in a minute if they just ignored him.

He eventually finds his sanity again, and apologizes to his visitors, but before the celebrations can go on as planned, the ghost shows up again.

This time, Lady Macbeth can’t talk the guests into waiting his “fit” out, and they leave.

Macbeth tells his lady that he’s only tired, and they go to sleep, unaware of the fact that the Weird Sisters are meeting again, which can’t bode well for the newly crowned King.

While Lennox is talking with another man, we find out that Macduff is planning to join forces with some other countries, and overthrow Macbeth, which Lennox replies, “a swift blessing may soon return to this our suffering country under a hand accursed!”

Not terribly long after that, the Weird Sisters visit Macbeth again, and tell him three things. The first, is “Beware Macduff”. The second is, “none of woman born shall harm Macbeth”. The last, is “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him”.

After the witches have left him, Macbeth hears that Macduff has run off to England, and he plans to murder Macduff’s wife and sons, as to distract him from his plan of dethroning Macbeth.

The three murderers that Macbeth had hired to kill Banquo are hired again, this time to take care of Macduff’s wife and son.

Ross (a Thane), is sent as a messenger to England, and has to tell Macduff that Macbeth has had his family killed. Malcolm is with him when Ross tells him, and he comforts him, then says, “Come, go we to the king. Our power is ready; Our lack is nothing but our leave”.

Around this time, Macbeth has left to get ready for war because he hears what Macduff is planning, and Lady Macbeth starts sleep walking. During Shakespearean times, sleep walking was considered supernatural, and they thought that it was the beginning signs of madness.

By now, most of Macbeth’s once faithful allies have joined Macduff in his quest to name Malcolm King of Scotland, but Macbeth is unworried, because of the three things the Weird Sisters told him.

By then, Macduff’s army had a lot more soldier’s than Macbeth would have expected, and Macduff says, “let every soldier hew him down a bough and bear’t before him”. It just happens that those trees were in Birnam Wood, and that the battle was to be on Dunsinane Hill.

As Macbeth and his half-hearted army stood in position, waiting for an attack, Macbeth hears a noise and says, “Wherefore was that cry?”. His only friend left, Seyton, replies with, “The queen, my lord, is dead.”. It shows how much recent events have changed Macbeth, because he doesn’t even lament the fact that his beloved wife is dead.

He’s more preoccupied with the fact that the Great Birnam Wood is moving.

Still, Macbeth is sure that no man alive can kill him, and allows Macduff to enter his castle, and fight him like a man.

When Macduff comes face to face with Macbeth, he asks him if he’s afraid. Macbeth tells him what the Weird Sisters told him, and Macduff laughs and says, “let the angel whom thou still hast served tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped”, or in other words, his mother had what would have been called a Caesarean Section, more commonly known as a C-Section. Which means, he technically wasn’t “of woman born”.

This admission frightens away Macbeth’s courage, and not long after the fighting commences, Macduff returns to his allies with Macbeth’s head, saying, “Behold where stands the usurper’s cursed head”.

At this point, the play ends, with Malcolm becoming the King of Scotland, and saying to all of “my Thanes and kinsmen, henceforth be Earls, the first that ever Scotland in such an honor name”, and told the remaining inhabitants that they would need to all work together to bring back the exiled citizens that “this dead butcher and his fiendlike Queen, who, as ‘tis thought, by self and violent hands took off her life” had run off.
I really liked this book, and while reading it, I not only got to enjoy a wonderful piece of literature, but I also learned a lot about the language and theatre in Shakespearian times.

For example, in his life time, you addressed someone underneath you in rank with either thee, thou, or thy, and someone above you as you, ye, or your. That’s why, in Hamlet, Ophelia (the Chamberlain’s daughter) is told by Prince Hamlet “Get thee to a nunnery!”, instead of “Get ye to a nunnery!”.

And, the reason why there weren’t many female characters in any of the plays at the time, is because women weren’t allowed to act, and all female parts had to be played by young boys, and there weren’t that many young men in the acting profession.

The only thing I can find to complain about, is Banquo. The witches said that his ancestor’s would have the crown, but it was Malcolm who had the throne in the end. But when I read up on the subject a little bit, I found out that when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, he had just recently been hired to be the King’s playwright. James I was of Scottish descent, and Macbeth was Shakespeare’s way of flattering the King’s heritage. James I family also claimed to be related to the historical Banquo, so Shakespeare added that into the story as well, just to pander to the King’s will.