Macbeth Act 1 Scene 2 Essay
A Scene-by-Scene Description of Events of the Play From Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA) Macbeth 2007 Student Guidebook education@shakespeare.org www.shakespeare.org
When the battle’s lost and won (Act I, scene i)
The play opens with thunder and lightning, and the entrance of three ‘weird’ sisters.’ Their exchange is very short, but from it we find out there’s a battle going on and that they plan to meet again on the heath; this time, with Macbeth. They are summoned away but before they go, they all intone, “Fair is foul and foul is fair.”
Doubtful it stood. (Act I, scene ii)
The next scene takes place on a battlefield where a bloody sergeant reports to the audience and King Duncan, on the progress of the battle. We learn that ‘the merciless Macdonwald’ is a Scottish rebel who, with foot soldiers from the western isles, was winning the battle. ‘Brave Macbeth’ then fought his way to face the rebel, and with his sword ‘unseam’d him from the nave to the chops,’ i.e. cut him open, and put his head on their battlements. We also learn that the Norwegian king who has invaded Scotland from the North began a fresh assault, which was met with great resistance by …show more content…
She fears her husband’s nature, which is ‘too full o’th’milk of human kindness,’ and wishes his arrival so that she may ‘pour’ her ‘spirits’ into his ear. A servant arrives to announce that the King is coming. Alone with the audience, Lady Macbeth invites the ‘spirits that tend on mortal thoughts’ to ‘unsex’ her and fill her full of ‘direst cruelty.’ As she speaks, Macbeth enters, and she greets him with his double title, and goes on to imply that he will become even more. Macbeth tells her that Duncan arrives tonight and plans to leave tomorrow. She replies, ‘never shall sun that morrow see.’ She advises her husband to look like the innocent flower, but
When the battle’s lost and won (Act I, scene i)
The play opens with thunder and lightning, and the entrance of three ‘weird’ sisters.’ Their exchange is very short, but from it we find out there’s a battle going on and that they plan to meet again on the heath; this time, with Macbeth. They are summoned away but before they go, they all intone, “Fair is foul and foul is fair.”
Doubtful it stood. (Act I, scene ii)
The next scene takes place on a battlefield where a bloody sergeant reports to the audience and King Duncan, on the progress of the battle. We learn that ‘the merciless Macdonwald’ is a Scottish rebel who, with foot soldiers from the western isles, was winning the battle. ‘Brave Macbeth’ then fought his way to face the rebel, and with his sword ‘unseam’d him from the nave to the chops,’ i.e. cut him open, and put his head on their battlements. We also learn that the Norwegian king who has invaded Scotland from the North began a fresh assault, which was met with great resistance by …show more content…
She fears her husband’s nature, which is ‘too full o’th’milk of human kindness,’ and wishes his arrival so that she may ‘pour’ her ‘spirits’ into his ear. A servant arrives to announce that the King is coming. Alone with the audience, Lady Macbeth invites the ‘spirits that tend on mortal thoughts’ to ‘unsex’ her and fill her full of ‘direst cruelty.’ As she speaks, Macbeth enters, and she greets him with his double title, and goes on to imply that he will become even more. Macbeth tells her that Duncan arrives tonight and plans to leave tomorrow. She replies, ‘never shall sun that morrow see.’ She advises her husband to look like the innocent flower, but