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Setting
Act 1, scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Life and Death:
In Act 1, Scene 4, Malcolm describes the Thane of Cawdor's execution:
Malcolm: [V]ery frankly he confessed his treasons,
Implored your Highness' pardon, and set forth
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it.
This moment is ironic for a few reasons. The Thane of Cawdor never physically appears in the play, and the few times he is mentioned, he is described as a rebellious traitor, so it is ironic that Malcolm characterizes his behavior prior to the execution as honest and repentant—in death, he behaves more nobly than he ever did in life.
Malcolm's remark that dying is the worthiest deed the Thane of Cawdor ever did may also be a reference to his overall role in the play's narrative. It is the treachery and subsequent death of the Thane of Cawdor that fulfills the first part of the Weird Sisters' prophecy and sets the events of the play in motion. The Thane of Cawdor is less of a character than he is a plot device—if he did not betray Duncan and was not executed, he would serve no function in the play. In other words, Shakespeare brought this character to life with the sole intention of killing him.
Act 1, scene 6
Explanation and Analysis—Delicate Air:
In Act 1, Scene 6, Shakespeare employs olfactory imagery to describe Macbeth's castle at Inverness. Duncan and Banquo, oblivious to the fact that the castle will soon become the site of a violent murder, comment on the excellent quality of the air:
Duncan: This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.Banquo: This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath
Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle.
Where they most breed and haunt, I have
observed,
The air is delicate.
This passage is highly ironic, since the pleasant odor that Duncan and Banquo spend so much time discussing is later replaced by the stench of blood. In what may be a subtle instance of foreshadowing, their commentary contrasts sharply with Lady Macbeth's line in Act 5, Scene 1:
Lady Macbeth: Here’s the smell of the blood still. All
the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand.
It is also ironic that so many martlets have decided to build their nests in the walls of Macbeth's castle. Martlets, also called martins, are small birds in the swallow family that often roost in the walls of tall buildings or, as Banquo mentions, in church steeples. The presence of these church-dwelling birds, along with Banquo's use of the phrase "heaven's breath" gives the atmosphere of Inverness a holy quality. This sacred appearance is especially ironic given the fact that, in the previous scene, Lady Macbeth encouraged her husband to "Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under it"—that is, to behave like the treacherous snake in the Garden of Eden.
Related Themes:
Act 2, scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Water:
Water is mentioned frequently in Macbeth, often in relation to blood, and it's used as a motif that represents the permanence of guilt.
In Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth ponders whether an entire ocean would be capable of washing Duncan's blood off his hands:
Macbeth: Will all great Neptune's ocean wash the blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
His belief that the blood on his hands could turn an entire ocean red emphasizes the immensity of the guilt he feels. What's more, references to hand-washing are possibly an allusion to Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands before ordering the crucifixion of Jesus. But while Pilate believed Jesus to be innocent and executed him due to public pressure, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are in full command of their actions, which they know are morally wrong. And while Pilate's hand-washing was symbolic, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth must physically scrub the blood from their hands. Lady Macbeth is initially confident that Duncan's blood, and therefore her guilt, can be easily washed away:
Lady Macbeth: A little water clears us of this deed.
This confidence proves to be ironic, since, in Act 5, Scene 1, she cannot erase the hallucinatory blood from her hands no matter how obsessively she washes them:
Lady Macbeth: What, will these hands ne'er be clean?
Although water is capable of washing away blood, then, it cannot do the same for guilt.
Act 3, scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Death and Peace:
In Act 3, Scene 2, Macbeth makes an ironic statement about death and peace:
Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave.
After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.
Treason has done his worst; nor steel nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further.
This passage frames Macbeth as the real victim of Duncan's murder—the act has brought Macbeth nothing but trouble, while it seems, ironically, to have benefited Duncan. Now that Duncan is dead, Macbeth argues, he is safe from all kinds of harm, while the living Macbeth still grapples with physical threats and emotional disturbances.
Despite his lofty ambitions, it seems as though Macbeth failed to consider how much responsibility and hard work would be required of him as king of Scotland. In Act 3, Scene 2, Lady Macbeth expresses her belief that she and her husband have actually lost more than they have gained:
Lady Macbeth: Naught’s had, all’s spent,
Where our desire is got without content.
Macbeth already had all the advantages that kingship should afford (admiration, land, wealth) before he was king. Ironically enough, then, his ambition and greed have ultimately made it impossible for him to actually enjoy the very things he already had when he was a thane.
Related Themes:
Act 3, scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Macbeth's Confidence:
In Act 4, Scene 1, the Weird Sisters reveal several prophecies to Macbeth. Most notably, one of their summoned apparitions declares that "Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him." Macbeth, believing such a thing to be impossible, interprets the prophecy as an assurance that he will never be defeated:
That will never be.
Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
Unfix his earthbound root?
Macbeth's confidence in the integrity of the natural world is ironic, since the laws of nature have already been abandoned in the wake of Duncan's murder. In Act 2, Scene 4, the audience learns that animals have begun to behave in ways that are contrary to their natural instincts: an owl, a bird naturally inclined to hunt mice and other vermin, has killed a falcon, and Duncan's tame horses have gone wild and engaged in cannibalism. Macbeth's expectation that nature is predictable is thus mistaken.
Macbeth also experiences a great disturbance in the natural order when the ghost of Banquo appears in Act 3, Scene 4. After witnessing the specter, Macbeth expresses his belief that the supposedly constant laws of nature have ceased to apply:
The time has been
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end. But now they rise again
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns
And push us from our stools.
Macbeth fully accepts that the spirits of the dead can return to torment the living, so it is ironic that he cannot imagine a scenario in which Birnam Wood uproots itself and walks to Dunsinane. And although he has witnessed the Weird Sisters predict the future and summon powerful supernatural entities (deeds that should be impossible), he still regards the laws of nature as unbreakable and has faith that these laws will protect him.
Related Themes:
Act 4, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Macbeth's Confidence:
In Act 4, Scene 1, the Weird Sisters reveal several prophecies to Macbeth. Most notably, one of their summoned apparitions declares that "Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him." Macbeth, believing such a thing to be impossible, interprets the prophecy as an assurance that he will never be defeated:
That will never be.
Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
Unfix his earthbound root?
Macbeth's confidence in the integrity of the natural world is ironic, since the laws of nature have already been abandoned in the wake of Duncan's murder. In Act 2, Scene 4, the audience learns that animals have begun to behave in ways that are contrary to their natural instincts: an owl, a bird naturally inclined to hunt mice and other vermin, has killed a falcon, and Duncan's tame horses have gone wild and engaged in cannibalism. Macbeth's expectation that nature is predictable is thus mistaken.
Macbeth also experiences a great disturbance in the natural order when the ghost of Banquo appears in Act 3, Scene 4. After witnessing the specter, Macbeth expresses his belief that the supposedly constant laws of nature have ceased to apply:
The time has been
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end. But now they rise again
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns
And push us from our stools.
Macbeth fully accepts that the spirits of the dead can return to torment the living, so it is ironic that he cannot imagine a scenario in which Birnam Wood uproots itself and walks to Dunsinane. And although he has witnessed the Weird Sisters predict the future and summon powerful supernatural entities (deeds that should be impossible), he still regards the laws of nature as unbreakable and has faith that these laws will protect him.
Related Themes:
Act 5, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Delicate Air:
In Act 1, Scene 6, Shakespeare employs olfactory imagery to describe Macbeth's castle at Inverness. Duncan and Banquo, oblivious to the fact that the castle will soon become the site of a violent murder, comment on the excellent quality of the air:
Duncan: This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.Banquo: This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath
Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle.
Where they most breed and haunt, I have
observed,
The air is delicate.
This passage is highly ironic, since the pleasant odor that Duncan and Banquo spend so much time discussing is later replaced by the stench of blood. In what may be a subtle instance of foreshadowing, their commentary contrasts sharply with Lady Macbeth's line in Act 5, Scene 1:
Lady Macbeth: Here’s the smell of the blood still. All
the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand.
It is also ironic that so many martlets have decided to build their nests in the walls of Macbeth's castle. Martlets, also called martins, are small birds in the swallow family that often roost in the walls of tall buildings or, as Banquo mentions, in church steeples. The presence of these church-dwelling birds, along with Banquo's use of the phrase "heaven's breath" gives the atmosphere of Inverness a holy quality. This sacred appearance is especially ironic given the fact that, in the previous scene, Lady Macbeth encouraged her husband to "Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under it"—that is, to behave like the treacherous snake in the Garden of Eden.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Water:
Water is mentioned frequently in Macbeth, often in relation to blood, and it's used as a motif that represents the permanence of guilt.
In Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth ponders whether an entire ocean would be capable of washing Duncan's blood off his hands:
Macbeth: Will all great Neptune's ocean wash the blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
His belief that the blood on his hands could turn an entire ocean red emphasizes the immensity of the guilt he feels. What's more, references to hand-washing are possibly an allusion to Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands before ordering the crucifixion of Jesus. But while Pilate believed Jesus to be innocent and executed him due to public pressure, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are in full command of their actions, which they know are morally wrong. And while Pilate's hand-washing was symbolic, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth must physically scrub the blood from their hands. Lady Macbeth is initially confident that Duncan's blood, and therefore her guilt, can be easily washed away:
Lady Macbeth: A little water clears us of this deed.
This confidence proves to be ironic, since, in Act 5, Scene 1, she cannot erase the hallucinatory blood from her hands no matter how obsessively she washes them:
Lady Macbeth: What, will these hands ne'er be clean?
Although water is capable of washing away blood, then, it cannot do the same for guilt.
Act 5, scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Death and Peace:
In Act 3, Scene 2, Macbeth makes an ironic statement about death and peace:
Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave.
After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.
Treason has done his worst; nor steel nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further.
This passage frames Macbeth as the real victim of Duncan's murder—the act has brought Macbeth nothing but trouble, while it seems, ironically, to have benefited Duncan. Now that Duncan is dead, Macbeth argues, he is safe from all kinds of harm, while the living Macbeth still grapples with physical threats and emotional disturbances.
Despite his lofty ambitions, it seems as though Macbeth failed to consider how much responsibility and hard work would be required of him as king of Scotland. In Act 3, Scene 2, Lady Macbeth expresses her belief that she and her husband have actually lost more than they have gained:
Lady Macbeth: Naught’s had, all’s spent,
Where our desire is got without content.
Macbeth already had all the advantages that kingship should afford (admiration, land, wealth) before he was king. Ironically enough, then, his ambition and greed have ultimately made it impossible for him to actually enjoy the very things he already had when he was a thane.
Related Themes:
