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Shakespeare’s shortest and bleakest tragedy — the story of how ambition, once unchained, consumes everything it touches.
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All tools →Macbeth, a Scottish general, hears a witches' prophecy that he will be king. Urged on by his wife, he murders King Duncan, seizes the throne, and spirals into tyranny, paranoia and death.
A tight cast centred on Macbeth's fall - his ambitious wife Lady Macbeth, the noble Banquo, the pious King Duncan, the vengeful Macduff, the rightful heir Malcolm, and the three equivocating Witches.
Ambition and its costs, the destructive power of guilt, the supernatural, what makes a legitimate king, masculinity and gender, and whether we are ruled by fate or free will.
Written c. 1606 for James I, soon after the Gunpowder Plot. The play flatters James (Banquo's descendant), reflects Jacobean fears of witchcraft, and dramatises the horror of regicide.
Drill down into each part of the play. Every section is written for the Edexcel IGCSE Literature Paper 2 essay on the play.
A detailed act-by-act and scene-by-scene walkthrough of the play, from the witches' opening prophecy to Macduff's final blow.
Read the plot guideAnalysis of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, Duncan, Macduff, Malcolm and the Witches - including their arcs, relationships and key quotes.
Read the characters guideAmbition, guilt, the supernatural, kingship, appearance vs reality, gender and the tension between fate and free will.
Read the themes guide20 memorable quotations with speaker, scene reference and detailed analysis - quick to find in your copy in the exam.
Read the key quotes guideJacobean England, James I, witchcraft and Daemonologie, the Divine Right of Kings, the Gunpowder Plot and the Great Chain of Being.
Read the context guide"Fair is foul, and foul is fair"
— Witches, 1.1
"Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires"
— Macbeth, 1.4
"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t"
— Lady Macbeth, 1.5
"Is this a dagger which I see before me?"
— Macbeth, 2.1
"Out, damned spot! Out, I say!"
— Lady Macbeth, 5.1
On the Edexcel IGCSE Literature exam, Macbeth is one of six literary heritage texts in Paper 2 Section B, and the question comes as one essay:
With about 45 minutes for one essay on the whole play, revision must cover every act, not just set scenes.
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Macbeth by William Shakespeare is in the public domain. Quotations are reproduced freely.