Act 1, Scene 1The witches
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
The end of the first scene, in a storm.
- In plain words
- What seems good is bad, and what seems bad is good. They float away through the fog and dirty air.
- What it shows
- The paradox turns right and wrong upside down and sets up the play’s biggest idea: things are not what they seem. The fog hides things, just as people in the play hide their true selves. Macbeth echoes these words in his very first line, before he has even met the witches.
Themes Appearance and reality · The supernatural · Order and nature
Techniques Paradox · Rhyming couplet · Alliteration · Pathetic fallacy · Symbolism
Act 1, Scene 2The wounded Captain
Till he unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix’d his head upon our battlements.
A report from the battlefield, given to the king near the start of the play.
- In plain words
- Macbeth sliced the rebel open from his belly button to his jaw, then put his head up on the castle walls.
- What it shows
- Our first picture of Macbeth is of a brutally violent man, but here his violence is praised, because it serves the king. The play then asks what happens when the same violence is turned against the king himself.
Themes Violence · Loyalty and betrayal
Editions differ: Some editions print “chops” instead of “chaps”. Both mean the jaws.
Act 1, Scene 2Duncan
O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
News arrives of how bravely Macbeth fought in the battle.
- In plain words
- Brave cousin! What a worthy man!
- What it shows
- Duncan praises Macbeth warmly and trusts him completely. The audience later sees how badly that trust is repaid, so the praise becomes painful to look back on.
Themes Loyalty and betrayal · Appearance and reality
Act 1, Scene 2Duncan
No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive
Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.
News arrives that one of the king’s own lords fought against him in the battle.
- In plain words
- The Thane of Cawdor will not betray my trust again. Have him executed, and give his title to Macbeth.
- What it shows
- There is strong dramatic irony: Duncan hands the title of a traitor to the man who will become a far worse traitor. Macbeth does not just take Cawdor’s title, he takes on his betrayal too.
Themes Loyalty and betrayal · Power and kingship · Appearance and reality
Techniques Dramatic irony · Imperative · Rhyming couplet
Act 1, Scene 3Macbeth
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
A heath, just after the battle. These are the first words this character speaks in the play.
- In plain words
- I have never seen a day that was so bad and so good at once.
- What it shows
- He means the weather is foul but the victory is fair. Without knowing it, he echoes the witches’ “Fair is foul”, which links him to them before they have even met, and suggests he is already open to their influence.
Themes Appearance and reality · The supernatural · Fate and free will
Techniques Antithesis · Alliteration
Act 1, Scene 3The witches
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
Strange figures greet a soldier on a heath, on his way back from battle.
- In plain words
- Hail, Macbeth, who will be king one day!
- What it shows
- This is the third greeting, and the one that matters: the promise of the crown plants the idea in Macbeth’s mind. The play keeps asking whether the witches make this happen, or only say what Macbeth already wants.
Themes Fate and free will · Ambition · The supernatural · Power and kingship
Editions differ: Some editions print “thou shalt” instead of “that shalt”. The meaning is the same.
Act 1, Scene 3Banquo
Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair?
Just after the prophecies on the heath, one soldier notices how the other reacts.
- In plain words
- Why do you jump, sir, and look afraid of news that sounds so good?
- What it shows
- Banquo notices that Macbeth looks startled and afraid, not pleased. It suggests the idea of murder may already be in Macbeth’s mind, which is why good news frightens him.
Themes Ambition · Appearance and reality
Act 1, Scene 3The witches
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:
The prophecies for the second soldier on the heath.
- In plain words
- Your children will be kings, though you will not be one.
- What it shows
- This prophecy becomes the reason Macbeth turns on Banquo: if Banquo’s family will rule, Macbeth’s crown will not pass to his own children. King James I was believed to be descended from Banquo, so Shakespeare’s first audience would have heard this as a compliment to their king.
Themes Fate and free will · Power and kingship · The supernatural
Techniques Antithesis
Act 1, Scene 3Banquo
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence.
Just after the first prophecy comes true, one soldier warns the other.
- In plain words
- Often, to lead us into harm, the agents of evil tell us small truths to win our trust, then betray us in what really matters.
- What it shows
- Banquo sees the danger that Macbeth ignores. “Instruments of darkness” presents the witches as tools of the devil. His warning is a clear contrast with Macbeth, and it predicts exactly how the prophecies will trick Macbeth later.
Themes The supernatural · Appearance and reality · Fate and free will · Light and darkness · Loyalty and betrayal
Techniques Metaphor · Repetition
Act 1, Scene 3Macbeth
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?
Moments after learning that one of the prophecies has already come true.
- In plain words
- Why am I giving in to this idea, which is so horrible that it makes my hair stand on end and my heart pound against my ribs, against nature?
- What it shows
- Within moments of the prophecy, he is already picturing murder. The “horrid image” frightens him physically, which shows he still has a conscience. Calling it “against the use of nature” brings in the idea that killing a king goes against the natural order.
Themes Ambition · Guilt · Order and nature
Techniques Aside · Rhetorical question
Act 1, Scene 3Macbeth
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,
Without my stir.
On the heath, after the first prophecy has come true.
- In plain words
- If fate wants me to be king, then fate can crown me without me doing anything.
- What it shows
- For a moment he chooses to leave it to fate. This is the heart of the fate and free will question: the witches only say he will be king, and it is Macbeth who later decides to make it happen.
Themes Fate and free will · Ambition
Techniques Aside · Repetition · Personification
Act 1, Scene 4Duncan
There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
The royal palace, after a traitor has been executed. Macbeth walks in straight after these words.
- In plain words
- You cannot tell what someone is thinking from their face. I trusted him completely.
- What it shows
- Duncan is speaking about the old Thane of Cawdor, but Macbeth walks in at once, so the audience sees the dramatic irony: he is about to trust the new Cawdor completely too. It also shows the theme of appearance and reality, and perhaps Duncan’s weakness as a judge of people.
Themes Appearance and reality · Loyalty and betrayal
Techniques Dramatic irony · Metaphor
Act 1, Scene 4Macbeth
Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
Just after the king names his eldest son as heir to the throne.
- In plain words
- Stars, stop shining, so that no light can show my dark, secret wishes.
- What it shows
- Malcolm now stands between Macbeth and the crown, and Macbeth’s thoughts turn darker. He asks the light to hide what he wants, which shows he knows his desires are evil and must stay secret. Light and darkness imagery runs through the whole play.
Themes Ambition · Light and darkness · Appearance and reality · Guilt
Techniques Aside · Imperative · Rhyming couplet · Personification
Act 1, Scene 4Duncan
I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing.
The royal palace, welcoming Macbeth back from the battle.
- In plain words
- I have started to help you grow, and I will keep working to make you flourish.
- What it shows
- Duncan pictures himself as a gardener caring for a plant: a good king who rewards loyalty and helps his people grow. This gentle, natural image contrasts with Macbeth’s rule later, which brings only destruction.
Themes Power and kingship · Loyalty and betrayal · Order and nature
Techniques Metaphor
Act 1, Scene 5Lady Macbeth
Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way:
Macbeth’s castle, alone, just after reading his letter.
- In plain words
- But I worry about your character: you are too kind and gentle to take the quickest way to the crown.
- What it shows
- “Milk” suggests softness, even motherhood, so she sees Macbeth’s kindness as a weakness. It shows she knows he will not act without being pushed, and that she is willing to do the pushing.
Themes Ambition · Masculinity and gender
Techniques Metaphor · Soliloquy · Euphemism
Act 1, Scene 5Lady Macbeth
Thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it:
Macbeth’s castle, alone, just after reading his letter.
- In plain words
- You want to be great, and you have ambition, but you lack the ruthlessness that should go with it.
- What it shows
- “Illness” here means wickedness (from “ill”, meaning evil): the ruthless streak she thinks ambition needs. The word also hints at sickness, which is where the Macbeths’ crimes lead.
Themes Ambition
Techniques Soliloquy · Metaphor · Repetition
Act 1, Scene 5Lady Macbeth
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements.
Macbeth’s castle, alone, moments after hearing that the king will stay the night.
- In plain words
- Even the raven is hoarse from croaking about Duncan’s fatal arrival at my castle.
- What it shows
- The raven was a bird linked with death and bad omens. Calling Duncan’s arrival “fatal” shows she has already decided he will die, before she has even talked to her husband about it.
Themes The supernatural · Violence
Techniques Symbolism · Soliloquy
Act 1, Scene 5Lady Macbeth
Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty!
Macbeth’s castle, alone, moments after hearing that the king will stay the night.
- In plain words
- Come, evil spirits who help with murderous thoughts: take away my womanly nature and fill me from head to toe with the worst cruelty.
- What it shows
- She calls on evil spirits, as a witch might, which links her to the supernatural. Asking to be “unsexed” shows she believes kindness belongs to women and cruelty to men, so she must stop being a woman to kill. To a Jacobean audience this would probably have seemed deeply unnatural and dangerous.
Themes Masculinity and gender · The supernatural · Ambition · Violence · Order and nature
Techniques Imperative · Soliloquy · Metaphor · Alliteration
Act 1, Scene 5Lady Macbeth
look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under’t.
Macbeth has just come home, and the king is on his way to stay the night.
- In plain words
- Look innocent, like a flower, but be the snake hiding underneath it.
- What it shows
- This sums up the theme of appearance and reality. The serpent recalls the Bible story of Eden, where the devil, as a serpent, tempts Eve. She is teaching her husband to deceive, and it is a lesson he learns too well.
Themes Appearance and reality
Techniques Imperative · Metaphor · Antithesis
Act 1, Scene 5Lady Macbeth
Leave all the rest to me.
The end of the scene in which Macbeth comes home before the king’s visit.
- In plain words
- Leave the rest of it to me.
- What it shows
- A short, firm command that ends the scene. At this point she is the one in control, which turns the expected roles of husband and wife upside down.
Themes Power and kingship · Masculinity and gender · Ambition
Techniques Imperative
Act 1, Scene 6Duncan
This castle hath a pleasant seat;
Arriving outside Macbeth’s castle.
- In plain words
- This castle is in a lovely spot.
- What it shows
- Duncan admires the castle where he will be murdered that night. The audience knows the plan, so his trust is painful dramatic irony.
Themes Appearance and reality
Techniques Dramatic irony
Act 1, Scene 7Macbeth
If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly:
Macbeth’s castle, during the feast for the king, alone.
- In plain words
- If the murder could be finished once it is done, it would be best to do it quickly.
- What it shows
- He cannot even name the murder and calls it “it”, a euphemism. The repetition of “done” shows him going round in circles. The soliloquy shows a man arguing with his own conscience.
Themes Guilt · Ambition · Violence
Techniques Soliloquy · Euphemism · Repetition
Act 1, Scene 7Macbeth
He’s here in double trust;
Macbeth’s castle, during the feast for the king, alone.
- In plain words
- He trusts me here in two ways.
- What it shows
- He goes on to explain: as Duncan’s relative and subject, and as his host, he should protect him, not kill him. Macbeth knows exactly how wrong the murder would be.
Themes Loyalty and betrayal · Power and kingship
Techniques Soliloquy
Act 1, Scene 7Macbeth
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 castle, during the feast for the king, alone.
- In plain words
- Nothing drives me on except my ambition, which is like a rider who leaps too high onto his horse and falls off the other side.
- What it shows
- He admits his only reason is ambition, and he sees where it leads: a fall. The horse-riding metaphor predicts the whole tragedy, as his ambition carries him up and then brings him crashing down.
Themes Ambition
Techniques Metaphor · Soliloquy
Act 1, Scene 7Macbeth
We will proceed no further in this business:
Macbeth’s castle, during the feast for the king, talking with his wife.
- In plain words
- We will not go any further with this plan.
- What it shows
- He decides not to kill Duncan, calling the murder a “business”, a euphemism. It shows his conscience can still win. Lady Macbeth overturns the decision within minutes.
Themes Guilt · Loyalty and betrayal
Techniques Euphemism
Act 1, Scene 7Macbeth
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
Macbeth’s castle, during the feast for the king, in a private argument.
- In plain words
- I dare to do anything a real man should do. Anyone who does more is not a man at all.
- What it shows
- Macbeth argues that a true man has limits, and that murder goes beyond them. It is a moral idea of manhood, which Lady Macbeth then tears down.
Themes Masculinity and gender
Act 1, Scene 7Lady Macbeth
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
Macbeth has just said that a real man has limits.
- In plain words
- When you dared to do it, then you were a man.
- What it shows
- She answers his idea of manhood with her own: a man is someone who dares to act, whatever the act. By linking courage with murder, she manipulates him.
Themes Masculinity and gender
Act 1, Scene 7Lady Macbeth
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 pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
Macbeth’s castle, during the feast for the king, in a private argument.
- In plain words
- I have breastfed a baby and know how sweet it is to love it, but I would have pulled it from my breast and smashed its head in, if I had promised to, as you promised to do this.
- What it shows
- This is one of the most shocking images in the play. She takes the most loving bond there is, a mother and her baby, and imagines destroying it, to show how seriously she takes a promise. It also suggests the Macbeths once had a child.
Themes Violence · Masculinity and gender · Loyalty and betrayal
Techniques Hyperbole
Act 1, Scene 7Lady Macbeth
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail.
Macbeth has just asked what will happen if they fail.
- In plain words
- Just wind your courage up as tight as it will go, and we will not fail.
- What it shows
- The image is of winding a crossbow, or tuning a stringed instrument, until it holds tight. She makes the murder sound simple and certain, and her confidence wins him over.
Themes Ambition · Masculinity and gender
Techniques Metaphor · Imperative
Act 1, Scene 7Macbeth
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
The last line of the scene, once the murder plan is agreed.
- In plain words
- A lying face must hide what a lying heart knows.
- What it shows
- Macbeth has decided to go ahead, and he takes on his wife’s lesson about deception. It echoes the idea behind the witches’ “Fair is foul” and closes Act 1 with him committed to murder.
Themes Appearance and reality
Techniques Repetition · Alliteration
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