Macbeth: From Prophecy to Fall
Trace how prophecy, Macbeth’s decisions and political resistance shape the tragedy from promised greatness to a costly restoration.
Prophecy and choice
The play's political movement depends on five connected ideas:
| Movement | Meaning in the play |
|---|---|
| Prophecy | a statement about a possible future, not an instruction to commit a particular act |
| Regicide | the killing of a monarch |
| Tyranny | rule maintained through fear, coercion and violence rather than secure loyalty |
| Resistance | opposition that develops from guarded speech into organised action |
| Restoration | the return of lawful succession and public order, though not the erasure of damage |
In Act 1 Scene 3, the Weird Sisters predict that Macbeth will become king. They do not tell him to murder Duncan. Macbeth's first responses keep several futures open: he wonders whether chance may crown him "Without my stir", yet he also imagines an outcome that frightens him. The prophecy matters because it gives a shape to a desire or possibility; it does not carry out the deed.
The following scenes make Macbeth's agency harder to avoid. When Malcolm is named heir in Act 1 Scene 4, Macbeth begins to conceal what he wants. In Act 1 Scene 7, he can list moral, political and practical reasons not to kill Duncan, and he recognises "vaulting ambition" as his only spur. His eventual agreement therefore follows knowledge and deliberation.
One defensible reading is that supernatural knowledge exerts powerful pressure: the first prediction comes true, making kingship seem promised. A different emphasis is that the Sisters expose and stimulate possibilities that Macbeth chooses to pursue. The strongest explanations hold influence and responsibility together rather than pretending that either fate or free choice acts alone.
Read the passages
Text
Macbeth — Act 1, Scene 3
By William Shakespeare
[1] FIRST WITCH.
[2] All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
[3] SECOND WITCH.
[4] All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
[5] THIRD WITCH.
[6] All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!
[7] BANQUO.
[8] Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear
[9] Things that do sound so fair?—I’ th’ name of truth,
[10] Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
[11] Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
[12] You greet with present grace and great prediction
[13] Of noble having and of royal hope,
[14] That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.
[15] If you can look into the seeds of time,
[16] And say which grain will grow, and which will not,
[17] Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
[18] Your favours nor your hate.
[19] FIRST WITCH.
[20] Hail!
[21] SECOND WITCH.
[22] Hail!
[23] THIRD WITCH.
[24] Hail!
[25] FIRST WITCH.
[26] Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
[27] SECOND WITCH.
[28] Not so happy, yet much happier.
[29] THIRD WITCH.
[30] Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:
[31] So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
[32] FIRST WITCH.
[33] Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
[34] MACBETH.
[35] Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.
[36] By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis;
[37] But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,
[38] A prosperous gentleman; and to be king
[39] Stands not within the prospect of belief,
[40] No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
[41] You owe this strange intelligence? or why
[42] Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
[43] With such prophetic greeting?—Speak, I charge you.
Notes
Numbers identify lines of this supplied extract, not universal verse numbers.
Text
Macbeth — Act 1, Scene 3
By William Shakespeare
[1] MACBETH.
[2] [Aside.] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor:
[3] The greatest is behind. [To Ross and Angus.] Thanks for your pains.
[4] [To Banquo.] Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
[5] When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
[6] Promis’d no less to them?
[7] BANQUO.
[8] That, trusted home,
[9] Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
[10] Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange:
[11] And oftentimes to win us to our harm,
[12] The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
[13] Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
[14] In deepest consequence.—
[15] Cousins, a word, I pray you.
[16] MACBETH.
[17] [Aside.] Two truths are told,
[18] As happy prologues to the swelling act
[19] Of the imperial theme.—I thank you, gentlemen.—
[20] [Aside.] This supernatural soliciting
[21] Cannot be ill; cannot be good. If ill,
[22] Why hath it given me earnest of success,
[23] Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor:
[24] If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
[25] Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
[26] And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
[27] Against the use of nature? Present fears
[28] Are less than horrible imaginings.
[29] My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
[30] Shakes so my single state of man
[31] That function is smother’d in surmise,
[32] And nothing is but what is not.
[33] BANQUO.
[34] Look, how our partner’s rapt.
[35] MACBETH.
[36] [Aside.] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me
[37] Without my stir.
Notes
Numbers identify lines of this supplied extract, not universal verse numbers.
Reading the play
Study all five acts of Macbeth, following the action from service and prophecy in Act 1, through regicide in Act 2 and insecure rule in Act 3, to tyranny and resistance in Act 4 and defeat in Act 5. Check act, scene and speaker when selecting whole-play evidence; line numbers can differ between editions.
Regicide as a threshold
Regicide is more than the next event in the story. Shakespeare makes it a threshold between an honoured soldier who can still refuse and a ruler who must keep using violence to defend what violence gained.
Act 1 Scene 7 gives Macbeth time to think. He understands that Duncan is his king, relative and guest, so the murder would break several bonds at once. This matters because the play does not let ignorance excuse him. His language tests reasons, consequences and motives before he chooses.
The killing itself is withheld from the audience. At the end of Act 2 Scene 1, a bell sounds and Macbeth exits towards Duncan's chamber. Act 2 Scene 2 begins with Lady Macbeth waiting; Macbeth then re-enters with bloody daggers and reports the deed. Instead of displaying a fresh feat of warrior violence, Shakespeare fills the stage with listening, broken exchanges, knocking and Macbeth's imagined cry of "Sleep no more".
Here is the full reasoning chain:
- Interpretation: the regicide is a chosen crossing, not the automatic fulfilment of
prophecy. - Evidence: Macbeth acknowledges his motive in Act 1 Scene 7; after the offstage murder,
his first sustained response is fear and the loss of sleep. - Dramatic choice: the audience is denied the killing but made to experience its tense
approach and disturbed aftermath. - Meaning: this can shift attention from physical spectacle to Macbeth's knowledge of
what he has done and to the political breach that must now be concealed. - Whole-play development: later killings receive less deliberation. By Act 4 Scene 1,
Macbeth wants the first impulses of his heart to become the first actions of his hand.
Context sharpens this interpretation when it stays attached to the scene. The historical Duncan died in battle against Macbeth, but Shakespeare's tragedy reshapes that history into the secret murder of a sleeping king and guest. The change makes betrayal, concealment and consequence central to Macbeth's tragic fall; it does not turn the play into a factual account of medieval Scotland.
Read the passages
Text
Macbeth — Act 1, Scene 7
By William Shakespeare
[1] MACBETH.
[2] If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
[3] It were done quickly. If th’ assassination
[4] Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
[5] With his surcease success; that but this blow
[6] Might be the be-all and the end-all—here,
[7] But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
[8] We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases
[9] We still have judgement here; that we but teach
[10] Bloody instructions, which being taught, return
[11] To plague th’ inventor. This even-handed justice
[12] Commends th’ ingredience of our poison’d chalice
[13] To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:
[14] First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
[15] Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
[16] Who should against his murderer shut the door,
[17] Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
[18] Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
[19] So clear in his great office, that his virtues
[20] Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
[21] The deep damnation of his taking-off;
[22] And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
[23] Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, hors’d
[24] Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
[25] Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
[26] That tears shall drown the wind.—I have no spur
[27] To prick the sides of my intent, but only
[28] Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
[29] And falls on th’ other—
Notes
Numbers identify lines of this supplied extract, not universal verse numbers.
Text
Macbeth — Act 2, Scene 2
By William Shakespeare
[1] Enter Macbeth.
[2] MACBETH.
[3] I have done the deed.—Didst thou not hear a noise?
[4] LADY MACBETH.
[5] I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
[6] Did not you speak?
[7] MACBETH.
[8] When?
[9] LADY MACBETH.
[10] Now.
[11] MACBETH.
[12] As I descended?
[13] LADY MACBETH.
[14] Ay.
[15] MACBETH.
[16] Hark!—Who lies i’ th’ second chamber?
[17] LADY MACBETH.
[18] Donalbain.
[19] MACBETH.
[20] This is a sorry sight.
[21] [Looking on his hands.]
[22] LADY MACBETH.
[23] A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
[24] MACBETH.
[25] There’s one did laugh in’s sleep, and one cried,
[26] “Murder!”
[27] That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them.
[28] But they did say their prayers, and address’d them
[29] Again to sleep.
[30] LADY MACBETH.
[31] There are two lodg’d together.
[32] MACBETH.
[33] One cried, “God bless us!” and, “Amen,” the other,
[34] As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands.
[35] List’ning their fear, I could not say “Amen,”
[36] When they did say, “God bless us.”
[37] LADY MACBETH.
[38] Consider it not so deeply.
[39] MACBETH.
[40] But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”?
[41] I had most need of blessing, and “Amen”
[42] Stuck in my throat.
[43] LADY MACBETH.
[44] These deeds must not be thought
[45] After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
[46] MACBETH.
[47] Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more!
[48] Macbeth does murder sleep,”—the innocent sleep;
[49] Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care,
[50] The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
[51] Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
[52] Chief nourisher in life’s feast.
[53] LADY MACBETH.
[54] What do you mean?
[55] MACBETH.
[56] Still it cried, “Sleep no more!” to all the house:
[57] “Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor
[58] Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more!”
Notes
Numbers identify lines of this supplied extract, not universal verse numbers.
When rule becomes tyranny
Macbeth gains the crown largely offstage, but Shakespeare makes his inability to rule securely spectacularly public. At the banquet in Act 3 Scene 4, the Ghost of Banquo occupies Macbeth's place. A ceremony designed to gather the nobles around their king instead shows Macbeth addressing a figure the guests cannot see and losing control of the occasion.
This is more revealing than simply saying that Macbeth feels guilty. The staging turns an inner or supernatural disturbance into a political failure: the king cannot sit in his own place, maintain the feast or control what his court witnesses. When Macbeth says that "blood will have blood", he recognises that violence returns, yet his response is to seek more knowledge and continue the cycle.
Act 4 Scene 1 then accelerates the pattern. The apparitions offer conditions that sound like guarantees, and Macbeth chooses their most reassuring meanings. When he resolves that the "firstlings of my heart" will become the "firstlings of my hand", the gap between impulse and action almost disappears. News that Macduff has fled is followed immediately by the decision to attack his household; Act 4 Scene 2 stages the domestic consequences.
Tyranny, then, is not just Macbeth being a bad king. It is a form of rule in which insecurity produces surveillance, preventive violence and the destruction of people who are not political combatants.
Read the passages
Text
Macbeth — Act 3, Scene 4
By William Shakespeare
[1] The Ghost of Banquo rises, and sits in Macbeth’s place.
[2] MACBETH.
[3] Sweet remembrancer!—
[4] Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
[5] And health on both!
[6] LENNOX.
[7] May’t please your Highness sit.
[8] MACBETH.
[9] Here had we now our country’s honour roof’d,
[10] Were the grac’d person of our Banquo present;
[11] Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
[12] Than pity for mischance!
[13] ROSS.
[14] His absence, sir,
[15] Lays blame upon his promise. Please’t your Highness
[16] To grace us with your royal company?
[17] MACBETH.
[18] The table’s full.
[19] LENNOX.
[20] Here is a place reserv’d, sir.
[21] MACBETH.
[22] Where?
[23] LENNOX.
[24] Here, my good lord. What is’t that moves your Highness?
[25] MACBETH.
[26] Which of you have done this?
[27] LORDS.
[28] What, my good lord?
[29] MACBETH.
[30] Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake
[31] Thy gory locks at me.
[32] ROSS.
[33] Gentlemen, rise; his Highness is not well.
[34] LADY MACBETH.
[35] Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus,
[36] And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
[37] The fit is momentary; upon a thought
[38] He will again be well. If much you note him,
[39] You shall offend him, and extend his passion.
[40] Feed, and regard him not.—Are you a man?
[41] MACBETH.
[42] Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
[43] Which might appal the devil.
[44] LADY MACBETH.
[45] O proper stuff!
[46] This is the very painting of your fear:
[47] This is the air-drawn dagger which you said,
[48] Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws, and starts
[49] (Impostors to true fear), would well become
[50] A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
[51] Authoris’d by her grandam. Shame itself!
[52] Why do you make such faces? When all’s done,
[53] You look but on a stool.
[54] MACBETH.
[55] Pr’ythee, see there!
[56] Behold! look! lo! how say you?
[57] Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.—
[58] If charnel houses and our graves must send
[59] Those that we bury back, our monuments
[60] Shall be the maws of kites.
[61] [Ghost disappears.]
Notes
Numbers identify lines of this supplied extract, not universal verse numbers.
Text
Macbeth — Act 4, Scene 1
By William Shakespeare
[1] LENNOX.
[2] ’Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word
[3] Macduff is fled to England.
[4] MACBETH.
[5] Fled to England!
[6] LENNOX.
[7] Ay, my good lord.
[8] MACBETH.
[9] Time, thou anticipat’st my dread exploits:
[10] The flighty purpose never is o’ertook
[11] Unless the deed go with it. From this moment
[12] The very firstlings of my heart shall be
[13] The firstlings of my hand. And even now,
[14] To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:
[15] The castle of Macduff I will surprise;
[16] Seize upon Fife; give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword
[17] His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
[18] That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool;
[19] This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool:
[20] But no more sights!—Where are these gentlemen?
[21] Come, bring me where they are.
[22] [Exeunt.]
Notes
Numbers identify lines of this supplied extract, not universal verse numbers.
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