OVERVIEW: Act I

Bill Long 4/25/05

The purpose of this page is to trace the flow of action in Act I of Macbeth. Instead of just narrating the events, scene by scene, however, I will use key quotations or speeches as the linking ideas. Subsequent essays then will examine significant themes, turns of phrases and character portrayal and development in Macbeth, the briefest and arguably the most linguistically dense tragedy of William Shakespeare.

Act I, Scenes 1-3

A brief conversation among the three "weird sisters" (1.3.32) opens the play. They mention that they are anxious to meet with Macbeth on the heath. In lapidary language they articulate one of the themes of the play: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (1.1.11). Moral confusion, darkness and the powers of the supernatural will be ever-present themes in the play.

As with the contrast between the eerie and dark scene in Hamlet 1.1 and the bright and orderly court scene in 1.2, so we have in Macbeth 1.2 a scene in which the king, surrounded by some thanes and other nobles, receives news of how his troops are doing in battle. Macbeth rose to the occasion in two instances, first in slaying the rebel Macdonwald, and second, in confronting the Norse king Sweno and "curbing his lavish spirit" (1.2.57).

The action begins to build as we return to the weird sisters in 1.3. They greet Macbeth, who is accompanied by his kinsman Banquo, with unforgettable lines: "All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!/ All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!/ All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King herafter" (1.3.48-50). Like Mary the mother of Jesus, who was troubled by the message of the angel visitant that she would soon bear a child, Macbeth is stunned by this news and seeks clarification from the sisters. The sisters disappear before responding, however, and two Scottish thanes appear, announcing to Macbeth that he has indeed become Thane of Cawdor [he already is Thane of Glamis]. Another theme is gently suggested: the supernatural knowledge possessed by these eerie creatures destabilizes Macbeth even as it spurs him to action.

Act I, Scenes 4-7

With 1.4 we are back at the court, where, with language of hyper cordiality and pomp, Macbeth is welcomed and commended by King Duncan. Duncan says to Macbeth, "I have begun to plant thee, and will labor/ to make thee full of growing" (1.4.28-29). However, Macbeth will have to play second fiddle to Malcolm. "Our elder, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter/ The Prince of Cumberland..." (1.4.38-39). The resulting tension is palpable.

We meet Lady Macbeth, one of the most dominant and vividly-portrayed women in Western literature, in 1.5. Though she reads a letter in which her husband tells her of the sisters' prophecy, she is hesitant to embrace his optimism: "Yet do I fear thy nature,/ It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness/ to catch the nearest way" (1.5.16-18). Hence, she will see it as her role to try to stimulate him to action. "Hie thee hither,/ That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,/ And chastice with the valor of my tongue/ All that impedes thee from the golden round..." (1.5.25-28). When the messenger enters announcing that King Duncan will be spending the night that evening as guest of the Macbeths, different senses are piqued. We hear the screeching and croaking of the raven (1.5.38-39), and, when the King himself arrives in the next scene, we almost smell how the air "nimbly and sweetly recommends itself/ Unto our gentle senses" (1.6.2-3).

As countless commentators have noted, the contrast between appearance and reality begins to rise powerfully in these scenes. The King is blissfully unaware of the plot against his life; Macbeth is ignorant of the way that his wife is working on him to recommit himself to his plan. The reader is informed, however, that "false face must hide what the false heart doth know" (1.7.82).

The presence of the King at Macbeth's home provokes profound soul-searching in Macbeth. He feels he cannot go through with a plot to murder Duncan because it would be breaking the guest-host taboo and would be an act that would probably result in all kinds of unexpected rebellion among the nobles and lesser folk. The sensitive and responsible Macbeth is stretched almost to the emotional breaking point in his fine soliloquy in 1.7, and ends by identifying ambition as the culprit. "I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Valuting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,/ And falls on th' other--" (1.7.25-28). However, with skillful and threatening words his wife is able to allay his fears and steel him to the task ahead. "But screw your courage to the sticking place,/ And we'll not fail" (1.7.60-61).

Conclusion

By the end of Act I all of Macbeth's doubts have seemingly been resolved. "I am settled, and bend up/ Each corporal agent to this terrible feat./ Away, and mock the time with fairest show..." (1.7.80-81). This barest skeleton of an outline already gives us the sense that we are in the realm of human motivation and emotion, of the conflict between ambition and obedience/honor and of the tension between the truths revealed to the marginal people in darkness and the realities worked out by noble people in that same darkness.

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