what is macbeth?

Answer 1

a book written 400 hundred years ago by a english bard named shakespere.....macbeth is a king whom finds him self in a world of trouble.....a grerat novel filled with mystery & intrigue

Answer 2

Macbeth is not only the main character, but the title of Shakespeares bloodiest play.

its bad luck to say the play before any stage performance.

Answer 3

Macbeth is not Shakespeare's bloodiest play. That honour rests with Titus Andronicus.

Answer 4

MacBeth is nothing more than a play on naked greed for power and the consequences of not understanding your advisors

Answer 5

The name of 'The Scottish Play', it's considered very bad luck to mention it around actors.
Also, it's the name of several characters in the play.
And it was written by William Shakespeare.

Answer 6

A Boring play by Shakespeare. I'm sorry, but I really thought it was boring.

Answer 7

a famous play by shakespeare

Answer 8

Macbeth
This article is about Shakespeare's play. For the historical person, see Macbeth of Scotland. For other meanings, see Macbeth (disambiguation).
Scene from Macbeth, depicting the witches' conjuring of an apparition in Act IV, Scene I. Painting by William RimmerThe Tragedy of Macbeth is among the most famous of William Shakespeare's plays, as well as his shortest tragedy. It is frequently performed at professional and community theatres around the world.

This play, loosely based upon the historical account of King Macbeth of Scotland by Raphael Holinshed and the Scottish philosopher Hector Boece [1], is often seen as an archetypal tale of the dangers of the lust for power and betrayal of friends.[citation needed]


Date and revision
Macbeth cannot be precisely dated, but the likeliest date of composition is between 1603 and 1606.[1] The play is unlikely to be earlier than 1603 given that it seems designed to celebrate King James's ancestors and the Stuart accession to the throne in 1603 (James believed himself to be descended from Banquo).[2] Many editors of the play suggest a more specific date of 1605-6; the principal reason for this is a number of possible allusions to the Gunpowder Plot and its ensuing trials, specifically the Porter's speech (Act II, scene iii, lines1-21) may contain allusions to the trial of the Jesuit Henry Garnet in spring, 1606; "equivocator" (line 8) may refer to Garnet's defense of "equivocation" [see: Doctrine of mental reservation], and "farmer" (4) was one of Garnet's aliases.[3] However, the concept of "equivocation" was also the subject of a 1583 tract by Queen Elizabeth's chief councillor Lord Burghley as well as the 1584 Doctrine of Equivocation by the Spanish prelate Martin Azpilcueta that was disseminated across Europe and into England in the 1590's.[4]

Scholars also cite an entertainment seen by King James at Oxford in the summer of 1605 that featured three "sibyls" not unlike the weird sisters; Kermode surpises that Shakespeare could have heard about this and alluded to it with the three witches.[5] However, A. R. Braunmuller in the New Cambridge edition finds the 1605-6 arguments inconclusive, and argues only for an earliest date of 1603.[6] The play is not considered to be any later than 1607, since, as Kermode notes, there are "fairly clear allusions to the play in 1607."[7] The earliest account of a performance of the play is April 1611, when Simon Forman recorded seeing it at the Globe Theatre.[8]

The text of Macbeth incorporates later revisions by Thomas Middleton, who inserted passages from his own play The Witch (1615), most notably an extra scene involving the witches and Hecate, because these scenes had proven highly popular with audiences. These revisions, which include all of Act III, scene v, and a portion of Act IV, scene i, are usually indicated as such in modern texts.[citation needed]


Performance
Apart from the one mentioned in the Forman document, there are no performances recorded with certainty in Shakespeare's era. In the Restoration, Sir William Davenant produced a spectacular "operatic" adaptation of Macbeth, "with all the singing and dancing in it" and special effects like "flyings for the witches" (John Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, 1708). In an April 19, 1667 entry in his Diary, Samuel Pepys called Davenant's MacBeth "one of the best plays for a stage, and variety of dancing and music, that ever I saw." David Garrick returned to the Shakespearean original in a 1744 production.[9]

On the stage, Lady Macbeth is considered one of the more difficult and challenging female roles because of her intensity and varied emotions.[citation needed]


Synopsis
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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The play opens amid thunder and lightning, with three Witches—the Weird Sisters—deciding that their next meeting shall be with a certain Macbeth. In the following scene, a wounded soldier reports to King Duncan of Scotland that his generals, Macbeth (who is the Thane of Glamis) and Banquo have just defeated an invasion by the allied forces of Norway and Ireland, led by the rebel Macdonwald.

Macbeth and Banquo with the Witches by Johann Heinrich Füssli.When Macbeth and Banquo wander into a heath, the three Witches greet them with prophecies. The first hails Macbeth as "Thane of Glamis", the second as "Thane of Cawdor", while the third proclaims that he shall "be King hereafter". The Witches also inform Banquo he shall father a line of kings. While they wonder at these pronouncements, the Witches disappear. The Thane of Ross, a messenger from the King, arrives and informs Macbeth of his newly-bestowed title—Thane of Cawdor. The first prophecy is thus fulfilled. Immediately, Macbeth begins to harbour ambitions of becoming king.

Macbeth writes to his wife about the Witches' prophecies. Duncan decides to stay at Macbeth's castle at Inverness. Lady Macbeth hatches a plan to murder him and secure the throne for her husband. While Macbeth raises concerns about the regicide, Lady Macbeth eventually manages to persuade him.

In the night, Macbeth kills Duncan. Lady Macbeth arranges to frame Duncan's sleeping servants for the murder by planting bloody daggers on them. Early the next morning, Lennox, a Scottish nobleman, and Macduff, the loyal Thane of Fife, arrive. The porter opens the gate and Macbeth leads them to the king's chamber, where Macduff discovers Duncan's corpse. In a sham fit of fury, Macbeth murders the servants before they can protest their innocence. Macduff is immediately suspicious of Macbeth. Fearing for their lives, Duncan's sons flee, Malcolm to England and his brother Donalbain to Ireland. The rightful heirs' flight makes them suspect, and Macbeth assumes the throne as the new King of Scotland as a kinsman to the dead king.

Despite his success, Macbeth remains uneasy regarding the prophecy that Banquo would be the progenitor of kings. Macbeth invites Banquo to a royal banquet and discovers that Banquo and his son, Fleance, will be riding that night. He hires three men to kill Banquo and Fleance. While they succeed in murdering Banquo, Fleance is able to escape. At the banquet, Banquo's ghost enters and sits in Macbeth's place. Macbeth is the only person who can see it, and his display of terror convinces many attending lords of his guilt.

Disturbed, Macbeth goes to the Witches once more. They conjure up three spirits which tell him to "beware Macduff", but also that "none of woman born shall harm Macbeth" and he will "never vanquish'd be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him". Since Macduff is in exile, Macbeth massacres everyone in Macduff's castle, including Macduff's wife and children.

Lady Macbeth eventually becomes racked with guilt from the crimes she and her husband have committed. In a famous scene, she sleepwalks and tries to wash imaginary bloodstains off her hands.

Lady Macbeth sleepwalking by Johann Heinrich Füssli.In England, Malcolm and Macduff plan an invasion of Scotland. Malcolm leads an army, along with Macduff and Englishman Siward (the Elder), the Earl of Northumbria, against Dunsinane Castle. While encamped in Birnam Wood, the soldiers are ordered to cut down and carry tree limbs to camouflage their numbers, thus fulfilling the Witches' second prophesy. Meanwhile, Macbeth delivers a famous nihilistic soliloquy ("Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow") upon learning of Lady Macbeth's death (the cause is undisclosed, but it is assumed by some that she committed suicide).

A battle ensues, culminating in the slaying of the young Siward and Macduff's confrontation with Macbeth. Macbeth boasts that he has no reason to fear Macduff, as he cannot be killed by any man born of woman. Macduff declares that he was born by Caesarean section (before his mother's actual delivery)—and was therefore not "of woman born". Too late, Macbeth realises the Witches have misled him. A fight ensues, which ends with Macduff beheading Macbeth offstage, thereby fulfilling the last of the prophecies.

In the final scene, Malcolm is crowned as the rightful King of Scotland, suggesting that peace has been restored to the kingdom. However, the witches' prophecy concerning Banquo, "Thou shalt [be]get kings", was known to the audience of Shakespeare's time to be true, as James I of England was supposedly a descendant of Banquo.