MACBETH: SUMMARY
ACT 1
Macbeth was a brave general of the Scottish army, as well as the thane of Glamis. He was sent by his king and cousin Duncan together with other Scottish thanes to stop a revolt led by the thane of Cawdor. Macbeth played a crucial role in winning the battle; therefore Duncan decided to reward him giving the further title of thane of Cawdor, and sent Ross, another thane, to inform him about his promotion.
Meanwhile Macbeth and his friend Banquo were returning home from the battle. At a certain point, they met three strange and ominous witches. They greeted Macbeth as thane of Cawdor and future king of Scotland, and predicted that one of Banquo's children would become king. Then they disappeared. Macbeth was suspicious of the prophecy, until Ross came to him and told him he had been promoted to thane of Cawdor by Duncan. Ross reported also that the king with his thanes would stay that night at Macbeth's castle at Inverness. Macbeth was both surprised and doubtful: thereby decided to write a letter to his wife about the predictions.
After Macbeth had arrived home, Lady Macbeth persuaded her husband to kill the king, showing all her cruelty and courage. She advised him to behave as nothing had happened; apart from that, she would organize everything else for the murder.

ACT 2
In the late afternoon Duncan, his sons Malcolm and Donalbain and all the Scottish lords arrived at Macbeth's castle. They had dinner and went to bed. In the meantime, Lady Macbeth and her husband prepared a plan to kill Duncan. They intended to blame the king's servants for the murder; thus Lady Macbeth made them drunk in the evening. At dawn, Macbeth entered the king's room and killed the king with a dagger. Then he put the short knife near the sleeping servants in order to have evidence.
In the morning Macbeth, Macduff and Lennox (other two thanes) entered Duncan's room to wake him up, but found him dead. Macduff and Lennox alerted the entire castle, and presumed the servants were the murderers. But Macbeth had killed them before they could bear witness. Malcolm and Donalbain felt endangered and decided to flee respectively to England and Ireland.

ACT 3
Since Duncan's two heirs had escaped, Macbeth was chosen as successor and was crowned at the Scone King of Scotland. He decided to organize a banquet for the following day to celebrate this.
However, he was still worried about the prophecy about Banquo; therefore, without informing his wife, he hired two murderers to kill him and his son Fleance. Nonetheless, the latter managed to survive and escaped to Ireland.
Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth reflected on her murder and started to think that it had not given them the happiness they expected. Besides, she noticed that Macbeth was spending more and more time alone.
At the banquet, Macbeth had a vision of Banquo's ghost staring at him. He was so terrified, that Lady Macbeth had to cancel the banquet and dismiss all their guests. After having calmed down, Macbeth decided to visit the three witches again the following day.
In the same time, more and more rumors and suspects were flying around Macbeth's behaviour. For this reason, Macduff went to England and joined Malcolm and the English king Edward to prepare a plan in order to restore the legitimate royal power in Scotland.

ACT 4
The three witches evoked three ghosts which revealed Macbeth other three prophecies:
- He should be afraid of Macduff
- No man born of woman could kill Macbeth
- Macbeth would be safe until Birnam wood didn't move to Dunsinane hill.
Contemporarily, some soldiers of Macbeth broke into Macduff's castle and killed his family to punish his treason to Macbeth.
In the meantime, Lady Macbeth's repentances were growing, so that she started walking and talking in the castle at night. She was obsessed with her murderers, because he could not wash the blood on her hands any more.
More and more thanes sided with the English army: Ross joined Malcolm and Macduff in England, while others rebels were gathering at Birnam wood. Later, the whole English army reached the wood.
Once arrived there, Malcolm prepared a strategy: every English soldier should cut a branch from a tree and carry it in front of him. In this way Macbeth would notice the attack much later and would not realize the number of enemies.

ACT 5
The day of the final battle was approaching. Macbeth, firmly convinced that no-one would kill him, sent a doctor to visit his wife. But he returned informing Macbeth that his lady had already died. Macbeth seemed not to be much worried and commented that day he had no time for her passing. Then a soldier told him that an army disguised as the Birnam forest was approaching his castle. It was the English army allied with the Scottish rebels. Macbeth became worried but was still convinced to be the winner: one prophecy was still left on his side. He went into the battle and fought terribly, killing Siward, the English general's son. Nonetheless the English army was too strong and quickly took the castle. However, Macbeth managed not to be captured. Suddenly, he was reached by Macduff, who challenged him in a duel. Macbeth was still convinced to be unbeatable, because all humans are born of women. But Macduff affirmed he had been cut from his dead mother's body and formally he was not born naturally from a living woman. Only then Macbeth understood the witches' prophecies and winced, but continued to fight to defend his honour. Macduff, willing to avenge his family, killed Macbeth. On the announce of his death, all the castle exulted. Finally, Malcolm was crowned King of Scotland at the Scone.

LADY MACBETH'S DEATH - ACT V, SCENE 5 - ANALYSIS

The extract belongs to the play "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare; it deals with Lady Macbeth's death. The text can be subdivided into two parts for study purposes: each part contains a monologue of Macbeth.
The first part opens with a cry of women. Macbeth does not understand immediately what the noise is, and must ask to his servant Seyton. Then, he reflects on his change of behavior and his habit of violence.
It seems that Macbeth is not sensitive to suffering any more; he refers to the cry of woman with the phrase "that noise", and employs the word "that" to underline his distance from reality. He is aware of his change, as he explains in his first monologue. He says he has "almost forgot the taste of fears": indeed, from the moment where his ambition overcame his loyalty, all his fears have calmed down. The semantic choice "taste" underlines his insensibility.
Then he proceeds saying that once he would have been scared of hearing a cry in the night; his hair would have roused and stirred and his senses would have cooled. Through this comparison Macbeth highlights his transformation and seems nearly afraid and repentant of it. In particular, he focuses his attention on his hair: once it too would have reacted as if it were alive, while now Macbeth is a mere mask ruled by the events. The concept is reinforced by the run-on-line between "hair" and "would" (l. 5 and 6) and the final position of the verbs "rouse" and "stir".
Afterwards, Macbeth affirms he "has supped with horrors": the verb "sup" underlines his several murders, on which he had based his power step by step. Horror is now familiar to his thoughts; this is underpinned by the key position of the word "direness".
In the second part the servant re-enters. Macbeth questions him using the adverb "wherefore", which underlines his new practical approach. This time too he employs the adjective "that" to refer to the cry. Seyton reports him that Lady Macbeth has died. Macbeth starts his second monologue, commenting with the expression "She should have died hereafter". He seems to have expected her death, thus revealing his fatalistic view of the world. He sighs only because she has died when he has to concern about the hovering battle.
Then Macbeth starts a digression about the absurdity of life. He says that days creep slowly until the last syllable of the book of life, and every day draws us nearer to death. The repetition and the polysyndeton at l. 14 highlight the insignificant succession of time, while the word "syllable" draws on the comparison between time and the structure of a book started at l. 13 with the term "word" referring to Lady Macbeth's death. At l. 17 Macbeth seems to consider all human being as "fools", because they do not realize that every day they approach their death, through which all beings are transformed into mere dust. Human beings are under the illusion that they can manipulate the world at their own will, while they all are doomed to death and all their efforts to reach success and glory are vain. Here Macbeth recalls what happened to him and understands that his actions have been completely useless.
In the final part, he compares life to a walking shadow, a temporary and insignificant impression. He likens it also to a "poor player" who after his acting he is not heard any more, and to a "tale told by an idiot", full of useless and meaningless words and emotion. The expression "poor player", "tale" and "signifying nothing" are reinforced by their key position in the line; besides, the words "tale" and "told" are underlined through a run-on-line. The lines reassert vanity of life.
The comparison also recall Macbeth's meetings with the witches: indeed they are walking shadows, who induced Macbeth to act a part beyond his capacities as a poor player; they told him a mysterious and ambiguous tale, which led him to a tyrannical life