Macbeth Act 3 Notes

ACT 3

Scene 1


In Act 3 Scene 1 the three witches are making a spell and talk about using body part within the spell. This is all part of the supernatural. During the spell they stop and say 'something wicked this way comes' (referring to Macbeth. The reference to Macbeth as 'something', this makes Macbeth seem less human which also fits with the theme of the play. But, also alongside the word 'wicked' also referring to Macbeth which shows how the witches see Macbeth even though they are supposedly wicked too.
Whilst Macbeth is with the witches in this scene he demands to know more on his future and to find out everything the witches know. Is Macbeth trying to obtain the knowledge and the power of the witches? Why? The witches then agree to show Macbeth a few more things about his future, however they do this through apparitions.

1. The first apparition is an armed head. - foreshadowing the end of the play, with Macbeth's head?
2. The second is a blooded child. - Who is the child, Fleance, Macbeth's unknown baby?
3. A child crowned with a tree in his head. -resembling the forest?

Macbeth thinks he is invincible and the no one will try to kill him. The 3rd apparition may have also been a reference to Banquo's children. Even though Macbeth is so assure of himself that no one will try and hurt him he still wished to no what is going to happen with Banquo's children.
Shakespeare has chosen for Macbeth to ask lots of questions when in the room with the witches, he has done this to show how worried Macbeth really is of the unknown.

Macbeth has also planned to kill Macduff's family. This relates back to how power hungry Macbeth really is and how mentally damaged he is becoming, that Macbeth is losing the reality point of life and has created a word of his own in which he assumes he will avoid all punishment and that he can do no evil.

Scene 2

[Notes on the reading: parts in bold are important.]

LADY MACBETH
Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content:
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.

Lady Macbeth talks with a typical rhyme much like the witches, and seems to talk very powerful until Macbeth walk in the room. Lady Macbeth also uses an exception amount of words beginning with the letter D, why?

Enter MACBETH

How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done.

MACBETH
We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it:
She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let the frame of things disjoint, both the
worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: 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.

Macbeth is known for referencing towards animals. Why has Shakespeare chosen to include such specific animals in Macbeths speech.The animals are chosen specifically in the book to help keep the gothic genre fluent throughout the book, its also another way to symbolize and show the situation and power shift that has taken place.

LADY MACBETH
Come on;
Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night.

Does this speech show how Lady Macbeth doesn't want him to carry on with what he is doing anymore, and that he should appreciate what he's got. 

MACBETH
So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you:
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;
Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
Unsafe the while, that we
Must lave our honours in these flattering streams,
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.

LADY MACBETH
You must leave this.

MACBETH
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.

A second reference to animals, which helps to back up the view earlier.

LADY MACBETH
But in them nature's copy's not eterne.

MACBETH
There's comfort yet; they are assailable;
Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

LADY MACBETH
What's to be done?

This shows Lady Macbeth asking what Macbeth is going to do. This also shows the power shift, where as before Lady Macbeth was the one who had the plans for what they were to do. She is unsure of the situation.

MACBETH
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood:
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
So, prithee, go with me.

The lines highlight show the weather change that has taken place, since the murder of the King, and also in this speech of Macbeth we see how Macbeth also begins to talk like the witches with the rhyming. Also, this is when we see that Macbeth has really changed, because he is making plans with out Lady Macbeth's involvement. 

Macduff's wife is highlighted as 'wife' in the play, she has no name, just her title. Shakespeare has chosen to do this because it shows how she isn't that important and that her status is nothing special.  The scene includes Macduff's wife, her son and Ross. Ross is the cousin of Macduff's family and he keeps check with the family whilst Macduff has gone to England to try and convince the King of England to come and fight Macbeth. A messenger comes along and tells the family they should flee because Macbeth has ordered for them all to be killed. However, its a little too late and the whole family are killed.

Exeunt

Scene 3

Line 13 'was once thought honest' was used to describe Macbeth, this shows that everyone is realizing Macbeth's true character and shows the change of Macbeth's character through the play. Macbeth is decribed horribly by Macduff and Malcom this is another reflection of how sinister Macbeth has become and also shows how Macbeth now has no friends.
This scene is important because it shows how things have changed and that everyone is now against Macbeth.
At the end of the scene Ross comes to England to personally deliver the news of his family, this has been included also to show his reaction when he told. Because this then explains why Macduff acts the way he does at the end of the play.