Macbeth Summary and Analysis

Perhaps one of the most significant themes of human history is the struggle for and retention of power. Equally potent is the distinctly human fear of suffering self-imposed and external consequences. Nowhere are these fundamentals of human existence better portrayed and expanded upon than in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, first performed in the early 1600s and set in 11th-century Scotland. Although it is the shortest tragedy attributed to Shakespeare, Macbeth explores the true meanings of perception, power, and morality. 

A castle with a small garden within its walls.

The play opens with three witches discussing plans for manipulating the Scottish nobleman Macbeth. They promise him enhanced nobility, and eventually, the whole of Scotland. Regardless of this prophecy, Macbeth feels he must act upon the witches’ words to make them true. After being angered by the promotion of King Duncan’s son to a higher status than he holds, Macbeth resolves to kill King Duncan and seize power by blaming the slaying on others. After brutally slaughtering King Duncan despite agonizing hesitation, Macbeth feels the weight of his actions and begins to go insane. Although supported by his wife, Lady Macbeth, his descent into a mad, rash, and paranoid leader is swift and leaves a reverberating wake behind him. 

In light of his previously established hesitancy, Macbeth quickly orders the execution of his longtime friend Banquo to secure his newfound throne. As these aristocratic events unfold, the people of Scotland fall into disarray and despair over Macbeth’s poor leadership. Under mounting pressure, a united force of noblemen manages to overthrow Macbeth’s tyrannical regime and install the late King Duncan’s son as king of Scotland. 

Even though a military operation officially ended Macbeth’s rule, in a way, he had already given up his power over Scotland when he refused to look past the walls of his castle. He complains to Lady Macbeth about his “fruitless crown” and “barren scepter” without the realization that he is ironically the only limit to his dominion. Shakespeare accentuates Macbeth’s delusion via his outbursts of rage and horror, a truthful beam of light in a dark eclipse of facade and deception that suggests sanity. Power and its associated paranoia corrupt the already dark nature of Macbeth, creating a grotesque monster out of an otherwise dull darkness. 

Macbeth comes to realize above all else that his power knows bounds, many of them existing only in his head and within the sheltered walls of his castle. As in the well-known poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Shelley, Macbeth sees the greater vista of power as inherently limited by the horizon of time and will, things he lacks significantly. 

Regardless of his respectable beginnings, Macbeth’s descent into madness highlights the fallibility of human nature and the fleetingness of power. But even through his killings, rashness, and bold-faced deception, the audience cannot help but feel a deep sorrow for Macbeth. To fall from the future’s prized possession to the past’s hated relic is to fade precipitously, but to regress to betrayal and treason is a nearly unforgivable offense. In a way, Macbeth cannot redeem himself because he is fundamentally a corrupted person, a character trait so abstract to most works of literature that the concept of being irredeemable seems strikingly unnatural.