Setting: Tense and dramatic opening with lightning and thunder.
Characters: Three witches (the Weird Sisters).
Key Points:
Witches agree to meet Macbeth after a great battle.
Famous line: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair."
Meaning: Good is bad, and bad is good (a paradox).
Implication: Hints at supernatural events to come.
Act 1, Scene 2
Setting: Scotland at war with rebels and Norway.
Characters: King Duncan, Macbeth, Banquo, a captain.
Key Events:
Captain praises Macbeth and Banquo for their bravery and victory.
Three significant reports:
Macbeth executes rebel McDonald.
Victory against Norway's King Sweno.
Thane of Cawdor betrays Duncan.
Duncan orders the Thane's execution and awards Cawdor's title to Macbeth.
Key Quote: "Disdaining Fortune with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution."
Imagery: Foreshadows Macbeth's potential for murder.
Theme of fate vs. free will introduced.
Act 1, Scene 3
Characters: Witches, Macbeth, Banquo.
Key Events:
Witches discuss a curse on a sailor.
Macbeth arrives and echoes the witches with, "So foul and fair a day I have not seen."
Witches hail Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, predict he will be Thane of Cawdor and king.
Banquo's prophecies are ambiguous: he is lesser yet greater than Macbeth.
Macbeth questions the prophecies' intentions in an aside: "If chance will have me King, why chance may crown me without my stir."
Act 1, Scene 4
Setting: Duncan meets with other Thanes.
Key Events:
Duncan learns of Cawdor's execution and expresses trust in the traitor.
Macbeth arrives; Duncan praises him and Banquo as heroes.
Duncan names Malcolm as his heir.
Macbeth's aside reveals his desire for the throne: "Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires."
Themes: Guilt and ambition are explored, contrasting light and dark imagery.
Act 1, Scene 5
Characters: Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth.
Key Points:
Lady Macbeth believes the witches' words but doubts Macbeth's resolve.
Calls upon dark spirits for power: "Unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty."
Represents ambition and manipulative power.
Act 1, Scene 6
Setting: Duncan arrives at Macbeth's castle.
Key Events:
Duncan admires the setting, unaware of impending doom.
Dramatic irony emphasized as audience knows the castle will be the scene of his murder.
Act 1, Scene 7
Characters: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Key Events:
Macbeth wrestles with his conscience about murdering Duncan.
Critiques his own ambition: "vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself."
Lady Macbeth chastises him, using gender expectations to manipulate him.
Reveals a violent plan for the murder: drugging the servants and framing them.
Key Quote: "I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this."
Themes: Gender roles, ambition, and manipulation are central.
Conclusion
Act One ends with tension surrounding Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's plans for murder, setting the stage for the ensuing chaos.