Lady Macbeth: Chapter 25  Summary & Analysis

Over the next year Duncan continues to send ships to fight Thorfin and continues to lose. Macbeth is often away at war, and Gruadh misses him. Gruadh spends her time embroidering, mostly images of battles, which fascinate young Lulach. His interest in violence frightens her, and she tries to distract him with “books and monkishness,” but it does not work.

That winter, Macbeth returns and he and Gruadh have sex, but she does not become pregnant. She has become more resigned to their combined infertility, but wonders “if, and when” Macbeth will replace her with someone more fertile.

Banchorrie acts as a messenger between Duncan and Macbeth. Duncan wants Macbeth to raise thousands of men to attack the Saxons. Macbeth refuses, even though without his help Duncan will not have enough soldiers. Two weeks later Duncan sends Macbeth another plea. With his messenger comes Drostan, Gruadh’s childhood friend. He has come to collect reports for his monastery and has brought gifts from Duncan: two drinking horns, red wine, mead, and sweetmeats. Gruadh is happy to see her friend but unimpressed by the gifts.

That evening, Gruadh pours mead for her friends and family. She gives Macbeth one drinking horn and Drostan, her guest, the other. Drostan shares with Maeve, as he does not like mead. However, soon after taking a sip, Maeve collapses. Gruadh rushes to her friend, who dies in her arm. Macbeth, still at the table, begins to vomit. His men escort him out, and Gruadh commands Bethoc to do what she can to counteract what she suspects is poison.

Macbeth convalesces in bed. Bethoc does what she can, but Gruadh realizes she needs Catriona’s expertise. Catriona arrives and begins to care for Macbeth. Weak as he is, Macbeth is happy to see his old friend and lover. Gruadh recognizes this but swallows her jealousy, reasoning that, if his love for Catriona will save him, so be it. Catriona determines the poison was a mixture of foxglove and purple fairy flower. The antidote requires the herb ruigh, or rue—Gruadh’s nickname. 

As Macbeth recovers he and Gruadh receive word of Duncan from Ruari. Duncan tried to capture some holy relics but failed, and many Scottish men were slain in the process. Now, Duncan has returned to Dunsinane and complains that he failed because he did not have the support of Moray’s troops. Behind his back other mormaers have begun to meet and say that Macbeth is “the only mormaer in Scotland who can repair the damage Duncan has wrought.”

Early in August Macbeth asks Gruadh to prepare the house for a war council. Mormaers and warriors from across Scotland come to meet in secret. Banchorrie comes too and argues that Duncan must be stopped before he destroys Scotland. The other men agree they need an “elected king,” who is both a warrior and a wise man. Emboldened and convinced by the support of his fellow mormaers, Macbeth agrees to rebel. 

Later that night Macbeth joins Gruadh in their bedroom. He tells her his coconspirators want him to participate in an old Celtic tradition—they want him to kill Duncan himself and win the crown. Although he has killed many men before, even his cousin Gilcomgan, Macbeth wonders if it is sinful to kill Duncan, thereby “forcing fate.” Gruadh counters that “sin is a choice […] and so is this path.” Macbeth points out that he’s always had ambitions for Scotland as much as for himself—he sees Duncan as destroying the Gaelic traditions, and believes he can save them.