Macbeth - Act V

Summary- by Nafeesa Farooq

Act V – Scene I

Key Events

• A conversation between a Doctor & Gentle-woman about Lady Macbeth’s strange habit of ‘Sleepwalking’.

• Lady Macbeth talking about murder of Lady Macduff & Banquo … she laments …

• … marvel at her descent into madness

Act V – Scene II

Key Events

• … Scottish lords discussing the military situation• English army, led by ‘Malcolm’ approaches & Scottish army

will meet them near ‘Birnam Wood’• Macbeth is called as Tyrant by Lennox & other lords

• Fortification of the Dunsinane Castle along other military preparations

Act V – Scene III

Key Events

• … Macbeth walks boastfully in hall of palace b/c nothing to fear …

• “none of woman born” can harm him• Prophecy by witches … He’ll rule “till Birnam Wood move to

Dunsinane”• Macbeth calls his servant ‘Seyton’ who confirms that army of

10 Thousand Englishmen …• Macbeth insists to wear his armor …• Doctor tells to king about Lady Macbeth & he orders him to

cure her of her delusions

Act V – Scene IV

Key Events

• … near Birnam Wood, Malcolm talks with the English lord ‘Siward’ & his officers about Macbeth’s plan of defending the fortified castle

• … decided that each soldier should cut down the bough of tree from forest & carry it in front of him as they march towards the castle to disguise their numbers

Act V – Scene V

Key Events

• … within the castle, Macbeth orders to hang the banners & boasts that his castle will repel the army

• a woman’s cry is heard… & Seyton appears• Macbeth is shocked & speaks dully about passage of time in words like• “a tale / told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / signifying nothing.”• meanwhile, a messenger enters with an astonishing news: the trees of

Birnam Wood are advancing toward Dunsinane• Angry as well as terrified, Macbeth recalls the ‘prophecy’ that said he

could not die till Birnam Wood moved to Dunsinane• With a sigh, he declares to fight & at least he will die fighting

Act V – Scene VI

Key Events • Macduff says to draw their swords and prepare for a battle.

Act V – Scene VII

Key Events

• … during the battlefield, Macbeth fights energetically without any fear because no man born of woman can harm him

• He kills Lord Siward’s son & disappears from the scene in the battle

Act V – Scene VIII

Key Events

• In this part of the drama, Macduff comes into view searching anxiously for Macbeth, whom he longs to cut down personally

• Failing in his attempt, he jumps back into the battleBattle is ended resulting in the victory of Siward’s English army

• Malcolm and Siward together enters the Dunsinane castle• Elsewhere on the battle, Macbeth at last encounters Macduff• They fight … Macbeth insists that he is unbeatable because of the witches’

prophecy• Macduff reveals the truth that he was not of woman born, but “from his

mother’s womb / Untimely ripped”• Macbeth suddenly fears for his life but even then he declares that he will not

surrender “[t]o kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet,….• Here, the scene is ended only showing their fight

Critical Analysis- by Waheed Ahmed

Themes, Motifs & Symbols

… structures, contrast and literary devices that define texts’ major themes.

Motifs in Act V

• Vision• Violence• Prophecy• Structural Contrast

… are universal ideas explored in literary work.

Themes of Macbeth

• Things Are Not What They Seem

• Blind Ambition• Power Corrupts• Superstition Affects on Human

Behavior

… are objects used to represent abstract ideas.

Symbols in Act V

• Blood• Sleep Walking• Weather• Doctor & Illness• Malcolm & Macbeth their

Forces

Themes Motifs Symbols

The Fall of Man

Greekσ An ancient Greek tragedy concerned with The Fall

of Man from position of superiority to position of humility on account of his ambition or pride.

σ To Greeks such behavior is punishable by terrible vengeance.

σ Greek tragedy has bleak outcome.Christian

σ According to Christian tragedy; The Fall of Man in the Genesis story: “It is the weakness of Adam, persuaded by his wife, which leads him to the proud assumption that he can play with god.

Christian Tragedy & Macbethσ Macbeth exhibits element that reflect the greatest

Christian tragedy; The Fall of Man.σ Macbeth ends with coronation of Malcolm, a new

leader who exhibits all the correct virtues of a king.σ Christian drama offers a ray of hopeσ Both, The Fall of Man & Macbeth offer room for hope

i.e.σ Christ will come to save mankindσ In Christian terms though Macbeth acted tyrannically,

he is not entirely beyond redemption in heaven.

Fortune & Free-will

Beliefs

σ Ancient views of human affair were like wheel of fortune. Length and outcome are predetermined and fixed by external forces.

σ Fortune can tell what will be but it is man’s own will to choose the way to attain either right or wrong.

Macbeth vs. Fortune & Free-will

σ Macbeth is told he will become a king but he was not told how to be a king. So we can not blame him for becoming a king as it was his fortune that was predetermined.

σ But we can only blame him for the foul way which he has chosen to attain that goal i.e. his free will.

Kingship & Natural Order

Macbeth is set in a society where loyalty to one’s superior is absolute. Due to loyalty there is order in: σ Countryσ Familyσ Natural things

As this loyalty vanishes that results in disorder of:σ Countryσ Familyσ Natural things

•Renaissance concept of microcosm and macrocosm.•Lenox and old man talk about terrifying

alteration in natural order of universe.•Divine right theory of kingship.•“man is by nature superior to woman one

rules, and other is ruled.” (Aristotle)

Reason & Passion

Reason - Macbeth

σ Macbeth represent the manhood and he is quite rationale about thinking of consequences of his actions.

σ Recognizes ethical, political and religious reasons while thinking of regicide of prince.

Passion - Lady Macbeth

σ Lady Macbeth represents womanhood and she is quite irrational and emotional, she examines killing Duncan.

σ She is motivated by her feelings and also uses emotional argument to persuade her husband..

Motifs

Vision

… when Macbeth is about to kill Duncan, Banquo’s ghost sitting in chair at feast.

… Lady Macbeth saw a vision as she sleep walks that her hands are stained with blood and can not be washed off by water.

Violence

… pair of battles first Macbeth defeats invader and then is beheaded by Macduff due to his tyranny. In between there are series of murders;

ºDuncan’sºBanquo’sºLady Macduff’sºMacduff’s Son

By the end of action blood is seen everywhere.

… Motifs

Prophesyσ Prophesy set the Macbeth’s

plot in motion.σ Macbeth’s confidence upon

his safety was mainly based upon the prophesies and his all action were set in motion by prophesies.

a. Relations σ A wide contrast is seen in the

relationship of Macbeth & Lady Macbeth, he speaks about his lady in somewhat impersonal manner. (Scene-III)

σ Macbeth is seen absolutely changed. The speech ambitious man made here is about the futility of human life. (Scene-V)

Structural Contrastb. Tyranny and Kingship

σ There is great difference of army motivation in tyranny & kingship. Soldier fight due to love for their king whereas soldiers fight for fear in tyranny. (Scene-II)

σ This contrast is also seen in Malcolm’s words.

σ In kingship people are always safe in their homes but in tyranny they are not. (Scene-IV)

Symbols

Blood

Blood in the hands of Macbeth and his wife represents their guilt that can not be washed clean.

(Act-V, Scene-I)

Weather

‘Sleep’ signify mental peace & Lady Macbeth is devoid of that peace due to her guilt as goodness belongs from divine so as peace of conscience . And if somebody shattered that peace of conscience by evil act then that person must need to return to divinity to regain that peaceful conscience or sleep.

(Act-V, Scene-I)

Sleep-walking

Violation of nature reflects corruption in moral and political order.

… Symbols

Doctor & Illness

As medical illness in human body, some illness happens in state level when goodness is forced to expel and evil rules.

Caitheness says Dr. Malcolm will cure our sick country. And this sickness can only be removed by eradication of evil (Macbeth) by forces of goodness (Malcolm).

(Act-V, Scene-II)

Malcolm and Macbeth & their Forces

The movement of Birname wood to Dunsinane is the symbolic representation of force of goodness to eradicate the force of evil. Macbeth is the chief of evil force whereas Malcolm is the chief of force of goodness.

(Act-V, Scene-V)

Merits & Demerits- by Tayyab Mehmood Ehsan

Merits of Act V

1.Sleep Walking Scene

Portrayal of Lady Macbeth’s mental unrest through sleep walking scene is praiseworthy because sleep is related to rest of mind but walking while sleeping means the unconsciousness of mind due to some cause and Shakespeare’s use of sleep walking scene to portray conscience is one of the merits of the act 5.

Merits of Act V

2.Development of Conscience

in Lady Macbeth

At the very start of the Act 5 we observe there is a feeling of conscience developed in the Lady Macbeth. In act 5 scene1 we see lady Macbeth is afflicted with the torment of conscience which is cleared from the Sleep Walking scene:

Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why,then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord,fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear whoknows it, when none can call our power toaccount?—Yet who would have thought the old manto have had so much blood in him. (Act-V, Sc-I)This scene clarifies the feeling of conscience that Lady Macbeth

has over the killing of King of Scotland.

Merits of Act V

3.Macbeth Gets Fed-up with

Life

Macbeth’s act 5 that after doing so many evil works now Macbeth feels fed up of his life; he compares himself with the yellow leaf of autumn. This is quite clear from the following lines:

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing. (Act-V, Sc-V)

Macbeth compares life with a walking shadow that leaves a man after certain time and man with the player performing on the stage that is heard no more after his performance.

Merits of Act V

4.Feelings of Sympathy for Macbeth in our Hearts

5. Successful Deliverance of

Moral Lesson

Shakespeare is also successful in creating the feelings of sympathy in readers’ heart for Macbeth; which is the essence of the tragic ending of the hero.

The act 5 also summarizes the whole play and delivers a lesson that there is a moral order in the universe that any attempt to violate that order is fraught with the disastrous consequences.

Demerits of Act V

1. The conscience of Macbeth not as strong as that of Lady

Macbeth

The conscience of Macbeth is not as strong as that of Lady Macbeth; she starts walking in the sleep assuming the blood spot on her hands and also goes insane because of her conscience but the case is different with Macbeth. He shows his feelings of conscience but also kills young Siward and before killing him Macbeth introduces himself as demon.

Demerits of Act V

2. Lady Macbeth’s Controversial

Death

As most of the deaths in the play occur offstage same is that of Lady Macbeth; she dies offstage but her death is a bit controversial that she did suicide or someone killed her which is cleared in the last lines of the play

Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent handsTook off her life; this, and what needful else

Literary Devices- by Hafsa Mehmood

Alliteration

… is the use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words that are close together, as in- sing a song of sixpence

(repetition of /s/)

Macbeth says, "And with some sweet oblivous antitdote..." (repetition of

/s/)"Thou lily-livered boy..." (repetition of /l/)"Then fly, false thanes, …" (repetition of /f/)

Assonance

… is the effect created when two syllables in words that are close together have the same vowel sound, but different consonants, or the same consonants but different vowels, for example, sonnet and porridge or cold and killed

Macbeth: "As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,I must not look to have; but, in their stead,Curses not loud byt deep, mouth -honor, breath..."

(repetition of vowel /o/)

Metaphor

… a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

… a comparison without ‘as’ or ‘like’.

"Those linen cheeks of thine Are counselors to fear."

Metonymy

… is the act of referring to something by the name of something else that is closely connected with it, for example - using the White House for the US president

Macbeth asks the doctor, "Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuffWhich weights upon the heart?"

(heart represents the soul)

Personification

… the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

Macbeth: "Curses not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath,Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not."

(the heart denies, but only a person can deny)

Symbol

… is an object, creature, person, action or situation which is part of a larger unit. This larger unit is often abstract and inexpressible, and thus requires something more concrete to give at expression. For example:— A flag is a symbol of a nation.

In Macbeth, Macbeth’s castle becomes a symbol of hell when the murder of Duncan takes place. The witches are symbols of evil. The growing tree and Birnam Wood are symbols of good, of healthy growth. A writer often employs symbolism, and uses symbolic images.