Macbeth summary
Scene Event(s) Key quote
1.1 Witches discuss meeting Macbeth ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’
1.2 Captain and Duncan discuss how great Macbeth ‘Brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name’
is and make him Thane of Cawdor
1.3 Witches give Macbeth first predictions ‘Stay, you imperfect speakers’
1.4 Duncan greets Macbeth and Banquo ‘Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and
deep desires’
1.5 Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth’s letter, has big ‘It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness’
soliloquy then meets Macbeth 'Unsex me here’
‘Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent
under’t’
1.6 Lady Macbeth welcomes Duncan to their castle ‘Every point twice done and then done double’
1.7 Macbeth worries about killing Duncan with Lady ‘When you durst do it then you were a man’
Macbeth ‘False face must hide what the false heart doth
know’
2.1 Macbeth worries about killing Duncan with big ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me?’
soliloquy
2.2 The Macbeths kill Duncan ‘Macbeth does murder sleep’
‘A little water clears us of this deed’
2.3 Porter + everyone finds out about murder so Lady ‘Help me hence, ho’
Macbeth faints ‘Most sacrilegious murder’
2.4 Ross and Old Man discuss unnaturalness of ‘A falcon tow’ring in her pride of place was by a
events mirroring murder mousing owl hawked at and killed’
3.1 Macbeth plans Banquo’s murder ‘I fear thou played’st most foully for’t’
3.2 Lady Macbeth is excluded from murder ‘Nought’s had all’s spent’
3.3 Banquo gets killed, Fleance escapes ‘Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly,fly!’
3.4 Banquet scene 'Never shake thy gory locks at me!’
‘Are you a man?’
3.5 Hecate gets mad at witches 'Security is mortals’ chiefest enemy’
3.6 Lennox recaps events so far ‘How it did grieve Macbeth!’
4.1 Witches give Macbeth second predictions ‘How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!’
‘Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great
Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come
against him’
4.2 Lady Macduff and son get killed ‘To leave his wife, to leave his babes, his mansion,
and his titles’
4.3 Macduff meets Malcolm in England and they ‘It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash is
have a chat then he hears his family are dead added to her wounds’
‘Dispute it like a man’
5.1 Sleepwalking scene ‘All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this
little hand’
5.2 They prepare to fight Macbeth ‘Dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds’
5.3 Macbeth wants to fight to death ‘I have lived long enough.’
5.4 Malcolm gets army to disguise themselves with ‘None serve with him but constrained things whose
Birnam wood branches hearts are absent too’
5.5 Macbeth finds out LM dead so he talks about ‘Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in
life’s futility this petty pace from day to day’
‘Life’s but a walking shadow’
5.6 Macolm starts battle ‘Let us be beaten if we cannot fight’
5.7 Macbeth kills Young Siward ‘My name’s Macbeth.’
5.8 Macduff kills Macbeth ‘Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane and
thou opposed being of no woman born’
5.9 Malcolm becomes King of Scotland ‘This dead butcher and his fiend-like queen’
Scene Event(s) Key quote
1.1 Witches discuss meeting Macbeth ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’
1.2 Captain and Duncan discuss how great Macbeth ‘Brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name’
is and make him Thane of Cawdor
1.3 Witches give Macbeth first predictions ‘Stay, you imperfect speakers’
1.4 Duncan greets Macbeth and Banquo ‘Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and
deep desires’
1.5 Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth’s letter, has big ‘It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness’
soliloquy then meets Macbeth 'Unsex me here’
‘Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent
under’t’
1.6 Lady Macbeth welcomes Duncan to their castle ‘Every point twice done and then done double’
1.7 Macbeth worries about killing Duncan with Lady ‘When you durst do it then you were a man’
Macbeth ‘False face must hide what the false heart doth
know’
2.1 Macbeth worries about killing Duncan with big ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me?’
soliloquy
2.2 The Macbeths kill Duncan ‘Macbeth does murder sleep’
‘A little water clears us of this deed’
2.3 Porter + everyone finds out about murder so Lady ‘Help me hence, ho’
Macbeth faints ‘Most sacrilegious murder’
2.4 Ross and Old Man discuss unnaturalness of ‘A falcon tow’ring in her pride of place was by a
events mirroring murder mousing owl hawked at and killed’
3.1 Macbeth plans Banquo’s murder ‘I fear thou played’st most foully for’t’
3.2 Lady Macbeth is excluded from murder ‘Nought’s had all’s spent’
3.3 Banquo gets killed, Fleance escapes ‘Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly,fly!’
3.4 Banquet scene 'Never shake thy gory locks at me!’
‘Are you a man?’
3.5 Hecate gets mad at witches 'Security is mortals’ chiefest enemy’
3.6 Lennox recaps events so far ‘How it did grieve Macbeth!’
4.1 Witches give Macbeth second predictions ‘How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!’
‘Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great
Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come
against him’
4.2 Lady Macduff and son get killed ‘To leave his wife, to leave his babes, his mansion,
and his titles’
4.3 Macduff meets Malcolm in England and they ‘It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash is
have a chat then he hears his family are dead added to her wounds’
‘Dispute it like a man’
5.1 Sleepwalking scene ‘All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this
little hand’
5.2 They prepare to fight Macbeth ‘Dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds’
5.3 Macbeth wants to fight to death ‘I have lived long enough.’
5.4 Malcolm gets army to disguise themselves with ‘None serve with him but constrained things whose
Birnam wood branches hearts are absent too’
5.5 Macbeth finds out LM dead so he talks about ‘Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in
life’s futility this petty pace from day to day’
‘Life’s but a walking shadow’
5.6 Macolm starts battle ‘Let us be beaten if we cannot fight’
5.7 Macbeth kills Young Siward ‘My name’s Macbeth.’
5.8 Macduff kills Macbeth ‘Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane and
thou opposed being of no woman born’
5.9 Malcolm becomes King of Scotland ‘This dead butcher and his fiend-like queen’
