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In Scene 8, Macbeth is at last confronted by his worst fear, Macduff. He now realises the fatal truth:
Macduff was not born of woman. He nevertheless puts up a fight, and is killed.
The final scene sees the leading men of Scotland assemble. Macduff enters with the head of Macbeth
upon a staff. Malcolm is proclaimed King.
THE END APPROACHES
Act 5 has many short scenes as the audience watches the final quick collapse of Macbeth's kingdom.
First comes Lady Macbeth's mental illness and the infamous sleepwalking scene. Then we witness the
English forces assembling at Dunsinane.
After this, we note Macbeth's ever-weakening attempt to defend himself, his soldiers deserting him, his
wife being mentally ill, and he himself clearly distracted.
Malcolm's forces gather at Birnam Wood, and chop down branches of trees to hide their numbers.
Lady Macbeth commits suicide and Macbeth is distressed to find that one more prophecy turns out to be
equivocal: the great forest at Birnam is indeed coming to Dunsinane.
Malcolm's forces throw down their branches to reveal just how large a force confronts Macbeth
The forces attack and Macbeth confidently defends himself, believing still that no-one born of woman can
defeat him. Macduff goes about in search of him.
The two leading Scottish protagonists finally meet face to face. Macbeth at last learns the fatal truth: the
witches have once again deceived him. Macduff was not born of woman but was cut from his mother's
womb.
The shock news dismays Macbeth and he is killed. His head is mounted on a pole for all to see. Malcolm
is proclaimed king of Scotland.
These final short episodes are mostly action scenes to bring the tragic events to a conclusion.
Macbeth has been deceived throughout by the witches' equivocal statements and, in the end, dies --
bravely but nevertheless ignominiously.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
SCENE 8:
"Why should I play the Roman fool, and die
On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes
Do better upon them."
- What does Macbeth mean when he says he will not "play the Roman fool"? (2)
[Need help?]
A valiant Roman general was expected never to surrender but to commit suicide by falling on his own
sword. If he failed to do so, he would be captured and made a slave -- the ultimate humiliation and
suffering.
Macbeth therefore means that he will not commit suicide.
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"But get thee back, my soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already."
- What does Macbeth mean by this? (2)
[Need help?]
Macbeth had ordered the murder of Macduff's wife, his children and his servants. He now claims that he
does not wish to have Macduff's death on his conscience as well.
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- Why is Macbeth initially successful in his battle with Macduff? (4)
[Need help?]
Macbeth is fighting under the belief that the witches' final prophecy will hold good: that he cannot be
beaten by any man who was born of a woman.
Such a belief in his own non-assailability gives him the power to beat anyone.
This speaks volumes about the power of self-belief: as long as one believes in oneself, there can be no
obstacles. When self-doubt creeps in, then there is little one can accomplish.
When Macduff tells him the awful truth that he was not born of a woman, Macbeth immediately loses hope
-- and, with it, the fight.
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"Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd."
- How is it that Macduff is not born of woman? (2)
[Need help?]
Macduff was born by Caesarean section, i.e. he could not be born naturally and therefore would have died
along with his mother.
The surgeons therefore cut his mother open and removed the baby from her womb. Presumably the
mother would then have died.
The name "Caesarean section" comes from the fact that Julius Caesar was supposed to have been
born this way.
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- Were the witches' speaking the truth when they told Macbeth to fear no-one born of
woman? (4)
[Need help?]
Probably the witches were telling the truth. At least, their prophecy enabled Macbeth to have the
confidence to fight off almost everyone.
But their words were really half-truths, weren't they? Macduff was still born of a woman but what the
witches meant was "born naturally to a woman".
Always be aware of when people are not telling the whole truth -- which is what happens most of the
time!
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"We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit,
'Here may you see the tyrant'."
- What does Macduff mean by this? (2)
[Need help?]
It has always been a great source of entertainment to put human oddities on show: people like the
Elephant Man, and midgets, and excessively ugly people -- even excessively beautiful people.
And so, if Macbeth surrenders now, he will be tied to a pole like such an oddity so that everybody may see
him, and shout abuse at him and hurl rotten tomatoes and eggs at him.
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SCENE 9:
"We shall not spend a large expense of time
Before we reckon with your several loves,
And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
In such an honour named."
- Explain the changes that Malcolm introduces upon being proclaimed king. (6)
[Need help?]
First, Malcolm will reward those that fought on his side.
Second, he is going to change the system of Thanes into the one he has seen in operation in England,
i.e. the Thanes will now be known as Earls.
Third, he will invite all the exiles who fled Macbeth's tyranny to return. Other things will be done later,
when he has had more time to think of them.
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- If you were a Scottish nobleman, would you trust Malcolm? (8)
[Need help?]
I don't think I would fully trust him.
In the first place, he did run away when his father was murdered whereas he should have stayed and
rallied forces in opposition to the murderers.
After all, with Duncan's death, he was now the king -- that's what his father had already decided.
Second, he only returned to Scotland because he could hide behind Macduff.
And then a true Scotsman hated the English, so why was he forcing an English system of Earls to replace
the tried and tested Scottish system of Thanes?
Moreover, the Scottish kingship rested on military prowess and not on hereditary. Duncan had broken
the rules by appointing his son as his successor.
Why then not revert to the time honoured system and appoint a real man to the throne, i.e. Macduff?
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