Macbeth
William Shakespeare
In Scotland, Macbeth receives a prophesy that he will become king. After sharing the prophesy with his wife, they work together to overthrow the current king and install Macbeth in his place. Their ambition and quest for power don’t come without consequences though, and both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth suffer madness, paranoia, and despair right up until their deaths.
Major thematic elements: power, ambition, madness, death, predestination
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IB Literature and IB Language and Literature Connections
Place of publication: England
Language: English
Era: 17th century
Genre: Drama
Author: Male
Readers, writers and texts | Time and space | Intertextuality: Connecting texts
Identity | Culture | Creativity | Communication
Perspective | Transformation | Representation
Full text, basic summaries, and overviews
Macbeth | Full text
We’re offering three different formats for the full text—the first is the plain, full text from MIT’s Shakespeare page. The second is a downloadable format from the Folger Shakespeare Library. The third is from Shakespeare-Online.com; this version has hyperlinked words and lines of text to explanations with hyperlinks back to where students left off.
Macbeth | Audiobook
Like the full text, there are many options for audiobooks. We’re linking a multi-reader, theatrical version (music and sound effects) on YouTube by Shakespeare Network (timestamps posted in comments), the audio of the production staring Paul Scofield, Librivox’s list of options, and Lit2Go, which might be our favorite option in terms of accessibility for students.
Macbeth - William Shakespeare - Ian McKellen - Judi Dench - HD Restored - 4K | YouTube | Shakespeare Network | 2:25:31
”1979 videotaped version of Trevor Nunn’s Royal Shakespeare Company production” of Macbeth. Each act is timestamped in the video description.
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Macbeth Study Guide | Course Hero
Course Hero’s guide includes an overview and infographic, plot and scene summaries, character list, quotes, symbols, and discussion questions. Their entire study guide is also available via YouTube.
Read more | Watch here
Macbeth Study Guide | Spark Notes
This study guide includes plot and scene summaries, characters, literary devices, frequently asked questions (and answers!), quizzes and essay topics. Spark Notes also offers a video summary, which we’re linking with this note: the pace is slow, and probably better for clarifying the plot than for introducing it to students.
Read more | Watch summary video
Free Will, Witches, Murder, and Macbeth, Part 1: Crash Course Literature 409 | YouTube | CrashCourse | 12:55
”The Sound! The Fury! Today, we’re talking about Shakespeare’s Scottish play, Macbeth. So, was Macbeth really predestined to do all the murdering and bad kinging and other terrible stuff? That’s the big question in Macbeth, and it’s one of the ideas we’re going to talk about today, among many.”
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Why should you read “Macbeth”? - Brendan Pelsue | YouTube | TED-Ed | 6:08
”There’s a play so powerful that an old superstition says its name should never be uttered in a theater. A play that begins with witchcraft and ends with a bloody, severed head. A play filled with riddles, prophecies, nightmare visions, and lots of brutal murder. But is it really all that good? Brendan Pelsue explains why you should read (or revisit) ‘Macbeth.’”
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About the author
Information about William Shakespeare is provided on our page for Hamlet.
Articles, essays, and videos about Macbeth
Macbeth. Compare and Contrast: Opening scenes from five adaptations | YouTube | Jacquie Sexton | 11:23
”Opening scenes from Polanski (1971), BBC (2005), Wright (2006), Goold (2010), Kurzel (2015)”
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Gender, Guilt, and Fate - Macbeth, Part 2: Crash Course Literature 410 | YouTube | CrashCourse | 12:06
John green talks about “Shakespeare’s dark, bloody, Scottish play, Macbeth. This time around, we’re looking at” how “the play’s characters operate, how the play deals with gender, and…Macbeth as an early anti-hero.”
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Talking About Poetry: Meter | Bucks.edu
In “Macbeth, Part 2: Crash Course Literature 410,” John Green mentions that in specific scenes, Macbeth’s lines are feminine and Lady Macbeth’s lines are masculine. This worksheet is a nice 2-page overview of scansion and meter, including types of feet and names of metered lines.
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From Orson Welles to Michael Fassbender: A Study of Macbeth’s Soliloquy | YouTube | Darwin Dayan | 21:02
Soliloquy performed by Orson Welles (0:05), Sean Connery (1:18), Nicol Williamson (2:15), Jon Finch (3:24), Ian McKellen (4:37), Patrick Stewart (6:15), Lars Willets (8:08), Anthony Sher (10:36), Joseph Millson (11:55), Jeremy Brett (13:18), Michael Fassbender (14:21), John Gielgud (16:06), Paul Scofield (16:56), Alan Cumming (18:09), Birdman (film)(19:03)
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Tomorrow, and tomorrow — Ian McKellen analyzes Macbeth speech (1979) | YouTube | Kris Joseph | 12:07
”As part of an ‘in-studio master class’ on speaking Shakespeare, Ian McKellen talks in depth about the imagery and analysis he used to bring a famous Macbeth speech to life for a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company.”
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Macbeth in Historical Context | Columbia College
This page includes information on the Tudor and Stuart dynasties, London theater and Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeth and James I.
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British Library | Assorted Articles
The British Library has many lessons and texts related to Macbeth. Here are some of our favorites:
Manhood and the ‘milk of human kindness’ in Macbeth | “The tragedy of Macbeth revolves around the question of what it means to be a man.”
Conjuring darkness in Macbeth | “Mullan explores how Shakespeare uses speech and action to conjure the play’s sense of growing darkness.”
Character Analysis: Lady Macbeth | Analysis based on Act 1, Scene 5 of Macbeth
Witches in Macbeth | Discussion of “Renaissance beliefs about witches” and Shakespeare’s blurred lines “between the witches and Lady Macbeth.”
Macbeth and Shakespeare’s linguistic innovation | “David Crystal shows how…linguistic innovations help express the action and atmosphere of the play and the troubled psychology of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.”
’Unsex Me Here’: Lady Macbeth’s ‘Hell Broth’ | “Gilbert considers how Lady Macbeth in her murderous ambition goes beyond prescribed gender roles, but in doing so only succeeds in monstering herself and becoming a parodoy of womanhood, until madness again confines her to feminine helplessness.”
Shakespeare’s Violent Women: A Feminist Analysis of Lady Macbeth | Camila Reyes & Amy Kenny | Undergraduate Research Journal
This four-page essay includes an introduction, overview of early modern gender roles, and analysis of Lady Macbeth.
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Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow | Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut borrows from Macbeth’s soliloquy for the title of this short story, which takes place in the year 2158. If you need some supplemental material and students are Shakespeared-out, this would be a great play to read and analyze for its connections to Macbeth.
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Lesson plans and other teaching resources
Macbeth Study Guides | Various Sources
There are several PDF study guides available for Macbeth. We’re listing a few here, with a brief summary of contents.
From PBS: This guide includes a synopsis, main characters, key themes, Shakespearean vocabulary, overview of blank verse and trochaic tetrameter, a modern-English version of a soliloquy, a section on Macbeth and Scottish history, the “Scottish Play,” witchcraft in Shakespeare’s time, and school activities, which include discussion and writing prompts, individual and group activities.
From Shakespeare Theatre: This guide includes a synopsis, historical context, overview of masques, overview of witches, and Macbeth and adaptations.
From Course Hero: This guide reflects the content provided on the Course Hero website.
From PMT: This guide focuses on characters and relationship types.
From Scribbly: This guide also focuses on characters, with a section we like called “key debates,” which highlights important topics related to each character.
From eNotes: This guide is packed with information (all hyperlinked in the table of contents). Of particular use: Criticism and essays on Macbeth, essential passages for main characters, and essay topics.
Teacher’s Toolkit: Macbeth | Using Discovering Literature in the Classroom | British Library
This guide should be used with lessons from British Library’s website, most of which are hyperlinked within the document itself. This toolkit does a nice job bringing in outside sources to support the study of Macbeth and Shakespeare.
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Scene Analysis: Summary and Lines of Interest | Mrs. Koza English
This handout shows how students can paraphrase lines and then write commentary about those lines. This activity could be easily adapted for any passage from the play. Mrs. Koza has additional activities for Macbeth: Scene Analysis Guide and Shakespeare Project.
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AmLIT Macbeth Analysis Questions | Static1
This assignment asks students to choose one question to answer from several smaller lists of questions. Lots of critical analysis questions.
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Macbeth: Character Analysis | MrBuff.com
This handout goes with a lecture/video Mr. Buff created and posted on YouTube (hyperlink in document).
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Unit: Macbeth | LouisianaBelieves.com
This full unit includes hyperlinks to additional texts and resources, standards, plus lessons and summative assignments.
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Shopping List
Texts and other resources you may find helpful.
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Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Paperback on Amazon.com
Macbeth staring Ian McKellen and Judi Dench
DVD on Amazon.com
Macbeth staring Michael Fassbender
DVD on Amazon.com
Macbeth: A Dagger of the Mind by Harold Bloom Hardcover on Amazon.com
Macbeth (No Fear Shakespeare)
Paperback on Amazon.com
Roman Polanski's Macbeth
DVD on Amazon.com
Macbeth staring Patrick Stewart
DVD on Amazon.com
Macbeth (Bloom's Shakespeare through the Ages) Paperback on Amazon.com