King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Some lines in the play directly paraphrase passages in the Bible. "The near in blood, / The nearer bloody" alludes to Matthew 10.36: "And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household." Macduff's son's proclamation that he will live "As birds do" refers to Matthew 6.26: "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." Even Macbeth's statement about "dusty death" is a reference to Genesis 3.19: "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Many allusions are to Christ, like this one in Act 1, Scene 2:
Captain: Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
Or memorize another Golgotha
In the Bible, Golgotha was a location outside Jerusalem referred to as the "Place of a Skull," where Jesus was said to be crucified. By alluding to this site, the captain foreshadows the unholy and murderous acts that Macbeth will later commit.
Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 7 uses the imagery of angels to emphasize Duncan's holiness:
Macbeth: [H]is virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off
Lady Macbeth's line in Act 2, Scene 2 compares Duncan to Christ and herself to Pontius Pilate:
Lady Macbeth: A little water clears us of this deed.
Pilate was a Roman official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately condemned him to crucifixion. The Bible has Pilate wash his hands before giving the order, symbolically absolving himself of guilt. Like Pilate, Lady Macbeth must wash her hands to remove evidence of the deed she has committed.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm draws a parallel between himself and the "Lamb of God," a title that the Bible gives to Jesus:
Malcolm: To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
T' appease an angry god.
While Duncan and Malcolm are both associated with Christ, Macbeth is identified with Satan. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth encourages her husband to behave as treacherously as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, who tempted Eve and brought about the fall of humankind:
Lady Macbeth: Look like th’ innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under ’t.
The gatekeeper of Macbeth's castle at Inverness imagines himself as the porter of hell, which would make "Beelzebub"—or Satan—his employer. Macbeth later laments that he has given his soul "to the common enemy of man," i.e. the devil.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm observes that, just as Macbeth was the most esteemed of Duncan's thanes, Satan was once the greatest of God's angels:
Malcolm: Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
Malcolm calls Macbeth "Devilish," while Macduff refers to him as the "fiend of Scotland."
Macbeth also contains several references to the apocalypse, when, according to Christian doctrine, the dead will resurrect to face final judgement before God. In Act 2, Scene 3, Macduff emphasizes the horror of Duncan's murder by alluding to doomsday:
Macduff: Up, up, and see
The great doom's image. Malcolm, Banquo,
As from your graves rise up and walk like sprites
To countenance this horror.
All these biblical allusions, especially those that associate Malcolm with Christ and Macbeth with the devil, elevate Macbeth from an earthly tragedy to an epic battle between good and evil.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Banquo warns Macbeth to be wary of the Weird Sisters' prophecy:
Banquo: And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s
In deepest consequence.
Banquo is paradoxically suggesting that, although the prophecy itself is genuine, the witches' intentions in delivering it may be dishonest. They have accurately predicted that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor, but Banquo reasons that this prediction may be an "honest trifle" intended to win Macbeth over so that he takes the rest of the prophecy at face value without considering its possible consequences.
This warning echoes the Weird Sisters' earlier paradoxical statement, "Fair is foul and foul is fair." Although the witches seem to be telling the truth and foresee mainly positive events, Banquo argues that they may be attempting to manipulate Macbeth toward some unfavorable end. The witches notably do not specify whether the events they predict will come to pass no matter what, or whether Macbeth must actively participate in their fulfillment.
Banquo, of course, is eventually proven right, and his words foreshadow the events that occur later in the play, when Macbeth fails to consider that the Weird Sisters' prophecies may have a hidden meaning. The promises that no man of woman born can harm Macbeth and that Macbeth will never be vanquished until Birnam Wood walks to Dunsinane are technically "honest," in that they are not untrue, but their ambiguous wording makes them easy to misinterpret. Macbeth, who is by this point paranoid and desperate, fails to think critically about the wording of these prophecies and falsely believes that he is invincible, even though the Weird Sisters are actually predicting his destruction.
When Ross and Angus greet Macbeth with the title of Thane of Cawdor in Act 1, Scene 3, they foreshadow the fact that, like the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth will eventually become a traitor to the crown. In Act 1, Scene 4, Duncan laments that the Thane of Cawdor, whom he regarded as a loyal friend, was able to deceive him:
Duncan: There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Macbeth similarly exploits Duncan's trust in him, pretending to welcome him to his castle at Inverness while simultaneously plotting to assassinate him.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Angus explains how the Thane of Cawdor was ultimately revealed as a traitor. Then, in Act 1, Scene 4, Malcolm describes the Thane of Cawdor's execution, unknowingly foreshadowing his own eventual fate:
Malcolm: He died
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he owed
As ’twere a careless trifle.
Like his predecessor, Macbeth's treachery also eventually proves to be his undoing, and he too develops a rather apathetic outlook on life. Cawdor betrayed his country to aid the invading Norwegian forces, but this act of betrayal was rendered meaningless when the Norwegian army was defeated. Likewise, Macbeth's poor performance as king and his lack of heirs to carry on his legacy eventually convinces him that Duncan's murder was pointless.
Macbeth is a play that explores the nature of free will and fate, so it should come as no surprise that prophecies appear frequently in the text. Although the play leaves it ambiguous as to whether these prophecies merely predict the future or actually shape it, they always foreshadow what is to come.
The motif of prophecy is introduced in Act 1, Scene 3, when the Weird Sister's refer to Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor and tell him that he shall become king.
Second Witch: All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch: All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
Macbeth, of course, does eventually become king, but it is unclear whether this event was actually fated to occur. Macbeth becomes Thane of Cawdor without any action on his part, but he needs to kill Duncan in order to become king, suggesting that him hearing the prophecy has changed the course of events.
Banquo is skeptical of the witches' prophecies and warns Macbeth not to take them too literally:
Banquo: And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s
In deepest consequence.
This warning foreshadows a moment later in the play, when Macbeth fails to notice the ambiguity of the Weird Sisters' other prophecies.
In Act 4, Scene 1, and apparition summoned by the witches foreshadows the fact that Macduff will be the one to kill Macbeth:
First Apparition: Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff!
Beware the Thane of Fife!
Another apparition foreshadows that fact that Macduff, who was born via caesarean section, will be able to kill Macbeth:
Second Apparition: Laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.
Macbeth erroneously believes that this prophecy means he is invincible, when it actually foreshadows the fact that Macduff was not born of woman. Otherwise, why would Macbeth have cause to beware the Thane of Fife?
A third apparition foreshadows the fact that the English army will use branches Birnam Wood to conceal their numbers:
Third Apparition: Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him.
Ignoring Banquo's earlier warning, Macbeth believes that the events described in the prophecy are impossible. He interprets the prophecy literally and fails to consider that it may have a figurative meaning.
The conversation that the Weird Sisters have in Act 1, Scene 3 about the sailor and his wife foreshadows events that occur later in the play:
First Witch: I’ll drain him dry as hay.
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid.
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary sev’n nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.
Look what I have.Second Witch: Show me, show me.
First Witch: Here I have a pilot's thumb,
Wrecked as homeward he did come.
The witches' plan to curse the sailor with sleeplessness foreshadows how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will have their sleep disturbed: Macbeth will suffer from terrible nightmares that make it impossible for him to rest, and Lady Macbeth with sleepwalk while reliving the ghastly deeds she has committed.
The first witch explains that she cannot wreck the sailors ship, but she can cause storms to hamper his voyage. Likewise, the Weird Sisters never force Macbeth to act, but their prophecies influence his behavior, and just as the sailor does eventually end up shipwrecked, Macbeth is ultimately doomed by his own actions.
When Ross and Angus greet Macbeth with the title of Thane of Cawdor in Act 1, Scene 3, they foreshadow the fact that, like the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth will eventually become a traitor to the crown. In Act 1, Scene 4, Duncan laments that the Thane of Cawdor, whom he regarded as a loyal friend, was able to deceive him:
Duncan: There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Macbeth similarly exploits Duncan's trust in him, pretending to welcome him to his castle at Inverness while simultaneously plotting to assassinate him.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Angus explains how the Thane of Cawdor was ultimately revealed as a traitor. Then, in Act 1, Scene 4, Malcolm describes the Thane of Cawdor's execution, unknowingly foreshadowing his own eventual fate:
Malcolm: He died
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he owed
As ’twere a careless trifle.
Like his predecessor, Macbeth's treachery also eventually proves to be his undoing, and he too develops a rather apathetic outlook on life. Cawdor betrayed his country to aid the invading Norwegian forces, but this act of betrayal was rendered meaningless when the Norwegian army was defeated. Likewise, Macbeth's poor performance as king and his lack of heirs to carry on his legacy eventually convinces him that Duncan's murder was pointless.
King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Some lines in the play directly paraphrase passages in the Bible. "The near in blood, / The nearer bloody" alludes to Matthew 10.36: "And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household." Macduff's son's proclamation that he will live "As birds do" refers to Matthew 6.26: "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." Even Macbeth's statement about "dusty death" is a reference to Genesis 3.19: "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Many allusions are to Christ, like this one in Act 1, Scene 2:
Captain: Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
Or memorize another Golgotha
In the Bible, Golgotha was a location outside Jerusalem referred to as the "Place of a Skull," where Jesus was said to be crucified. By alluding to this site, the captain foreshadows the unholy and murderous acts that Macbeth will later commit.
Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 7 uses the imagery of angels to emphasize Duncan's holiness:
Macbeth: [H]is virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off
Lady Macbeth's line in Act 2, Scene 2 compares Duncan to Christ and herself to Pontius Pilate:
Lady Macbeth: A little water clears us of this deed.
Pilate was a Roman official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately condemned him to crucifixion. The Bible has Pilate wash his hands before giving the order, symbolically absolving himself of guilt. Like Pilate, Lady Macbeth must wash her hands to remove evidence of the deed she has committed.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm draws a parallel between himself and the "Lamb of God," a title that the Bible gives to Jesus:
Malcolm: To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
T' appease an angry god.
While Duncan and Malcolm are both associated with Christ, Macbeth is identified with Satan. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth encourages her husband to behave as treacherously as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, who tempted Eve and brought about the fall of humankind:
Lady Macbeth: Look like th’ innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under ’t.
The gatekeeper of Macbeth's castle at Inverness imagines himself as the porter of hell, which would make "Beelzebub"—or Satan—his employer. Macbeth later laments that he has given his soul "to the common enemy of man," i.e. the devil.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm observes that, just as Macbeth was the most esteemed of Duncan's thanes, Satan was once the greatest of God's angels:
Malcolm: Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
Malcolm calls Macbeth "Devilish," while Macduff refers to him as the "fiend of Scotland."
Macbeth also contains several references to the apocalypse, when, according to Christian doctrine, the dead will resurrect to face final judgement before God. In Act 2, Scene 3, Macduff emphasizes the horror of Duncan's murder by alluding to doomsday:
Macduff: Up, up, and see
The great doom's image. Malcolm, Banquo,
As from your graves rise up and walk like sprites
To countenance this horror.
All these biblical allusions, especially those that associate Malcolm with Christ and Macbeth with the devil, elevate Macbeth from an earthly tragedy to an epic battle between good and evil.
King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Some lines in the play directly paraphrase passages in the Bible. "The near in blood, / The nearer bloody" alludes to Matthew 10.36: "And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household." Macduff's son's proclamation that he will live "As birds do" refers to Matthew 6.26: "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." Even Macbeth's statement about "dusty death" is a reference to Genesis 3.19: "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Many allusions are to Christ, like this one in Act 1, Scene 2:
Captain: Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
Or memorize another Golgotha
In the Bible, Golgotha was a location outside Jerusalem referred to as the "Place of a Skull," where Jesus was said to be crucified. By alluding to this site, the captain foreshadows the unholy and murderous acts that Macbeth will later commit.
Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 7 uses the imagery of angels to emphasize Duncan's holiness:
Macbeth: [H]is virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off
Lady Macbeth's line in Act 2, Scene 2 compares Duncan to Christ and herself to Pontius Pilate:
Lady Macbeth: A little water clears us of this deed.
Pilate was a Roman official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately condemned him to crucifixion. The Bible has Pilate wash his hands before giving the order, symbolically absolving himself of guilt. Like Pilate, Lady Macbeth must wash her hands to remove evidence of the deed she has committed.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm draws a parallel between himself and the "Lamb of God," a title that the Bible gives to Jesus:
Malcolm: To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
T' appease an angry god.
While Duncan and Malcolm are both associated with Christ, Macbeth is identified with Satan. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth encourages her husband to behave as treacherously as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, who tempted Eve and brought about the fall of humankind:
Lady Macbeth: Look like th’ innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under ’t.
The gatekeeper of Macbeth's castle at Inverness imagines himself as the porter of hell, which would make "Beelzebub"—or Satan—his employer. Macbeth later laments that he has given his soul "to the common enemy of man," i.e. the devil.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm observes that, just as Macbeth was the most esteemed of Duncan's thanes, Satan was once the greatest of God's angels:
Malcolm: Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
Malcolm calls Macbeth "Devilish," while Macduff refers to him as the "fiend of Scotland."
Macbeth also contains several references to the apocalypse, when, according to Christian doctrine, the dead will resurrect to face final judgement before God. In Act 2, Scene 3, Macduff emphasizes the horror of Duncan's murder by alluding to doomsday:
Macduff: Up, up, and see
The great doom's image. Malcolm, Banquo,
As from your graves rise up and walk like sprites
To countenance this horror.
All these biblical allusions, especially those that associate Malcolm with Christ and Macbeth with the devil, elevate Macbeth from an earthly tragedy to an epic battle between good and evil.
Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 1 demonstrates his feelings of guilt and self-loathing and foreshadows the madness that will consume him and Lady Macbeth in the aftermath of Duncan's murder.
This soliloquy includes various types of sensory imagery. Macbeth's senses become muddled, and he struggles to determine whether the dagger that he sees pointing the way to Duncan's chamber is real or illusory:
Macbeth: Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch
thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
This confusion of visual and tactile imagery echoes the Weird Sisters' claim in Act 1, Scene 1 that "Fair is foul and foul is fair." Although the dagger appears to be "fair" or real, the fact that Macbeth cannot touch it makes him suspicious that his guilt and anxiety about Duncan's murder are causing him to hallucinate:
Macbeth: Mine eyes are made the fools o’ th’ other senses
Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still,
And, on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There’s no such thing.
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes.
In addition to this uncertainty regarding the reliability of his senses, Macbeth also worries that the ground itself, having heard him entering Duncan's chamber, will be able to reveal his crime to the world:
Macbeth: Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabouts
Macbeth's paranoia regarding sound foreshadows the moment in Act 2, Scene 2, when he thinks he hears a voice say "Sleep no more!"
The soliloquy also contains several allusions to mythology and history, which help demonstrate how Macbeth views the act he is about to commit. Macbeth references Hecate, the ancient Greek goddess of witchcraft, as well as the Roman prince Sextus Tarquinius:
Macbeth: Witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate’s off’rings, and withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his
design
Moves like a ghost.
The reference to Hecate suggests that Macbeth views the murder of Duncan as an act that, like witchcraft, goes against the natural order of things. By mentioning Sextus Tarquinius, who famously raped a Roman noblewoman, Macbeth also suggests that the murder of Duncan is an act of defilement as morally repugnant as sexual assault.
Upper-class men of Shakespeare's time were often educated in Greek and Latin, and Macbeth contains several allusions to Roman history that this portion of his audience would have appreciated. In Act 2, Scene 1, Macbeth makes a reference to an event that catalyzed the creation of the Roman Republic:
Macbeth: [A]nd withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, also known as Tarquin the Proud, became king of Rome in 534 BCE after assassinating his predecessor, Servius Tullius. Like Macbeth, he did so at the urging of his wife and became known as a tyrannical monarch who often had his political opponents put to death.
In this passage, Macbeth is actually making a reference to Tarquin's son Sextus, who famously raped a Roman noblewoman named Lucretia in her own bed. By personifying murder as a man who walks "with Tarquin's ravishing strides," Macbeth suggests that the murder of Duncan, like the rape of Lucretia by Sextus, is an act of violation that scorns the rules of hospitality.
Macbeth's allusion to this event is also an instance of foreshadowing. Lucretia's rape and subsequent suicide so outraged the people of Rome that it led to the overthrow of Tarquin and the establishment of the Roman Republic. Like Tarquin, Macbeth is ultimately overthrown, and the ascension of Malcolm to the throne marks a change in the nature of Scottish rule characterized by a new alliance with England.
In Act 3, Scene 1, Macbeth compares himself to the Roman general Mark Antony and Banquo to Julius Caesar:
Macbeth: There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony's was by Caesar.
After Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, Mark Antony butted heads with Caesar's adopted son Octavian. In 31 BCE, Octavian declared war against Antony's lover, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, and declared Antony a traitor. After his forces were defeated in battle, Antony committed suicide, and Octavian became emperor of Rome.
This passage is also a self-reference to Antony and Cleopatra, another play by Shakespeare, in which a soothsayer predicts that Mark Antony's fortunes will be less than Julius Caesar's. The Weird Sisters in Macbeth predict, in quite similar fashion, that Banquo will be both lesser and greater than Macbeth.
Both these prophecies prove true. Although Julius Caesar is assassinated, his heir becomes the emperor of Rome, while Antony is disgraced. Despite the fact that Macbeth has him murdered, Banquo's descendants still become kings of Scotland, and Macbeth dies in ignominy.
In Act 5, Scene 10, Macbeth seeks to distance himself from Antony and from other Roman generals who famously committed suicide:
Macbeth: Why should I play the Roman fool and die
On mine own sword?
Cato the Younger was a Roman senator who killed himself rather than ask for a pardon from Caesar, and Marcus Junius Brutus, the Roman statesman who famously aided in Caesar's assassination of Caesar, took his own life after being defeated by Caesar's successor. His story parallels that of Macbeth, who kills Duncan but is later defeated by forces under the command of Duncan's son. Like Brutus, who decided to die by suicide rather than live under Octavian's rule, Macbeth refuses to serve Malcolm and instead chooses to die in battle, insisting that he won't "yield / to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet."
King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Some lines in the play directly paraphrase passages in the Bible. "The near in blood, / The nearer bloody" alludes to Matthew 10.36: "And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household." Macduff's son's proclamation that he will live "As birds do" refers to Matthew 6.26: "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." Even Macbeth's statement about "dusty death" is a reference to Genesis 3.19: "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Many allusions are to Christ, like this one in Act 1, Scene 2:
Captain: Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
Or memorize another Golgotha
In the Bible, Golgotha was a location outside Jerusalem referred to as the "Place of a Skull," where Jesus was said to be crucified. By alluding to this site, the captain foreshadows the unholy and murderous acts that Macbeth will later commit.
Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 7 uses the imagery of angels to emphasize Duncan's holiness:
Macbeth: [H]is virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off
Lady Macbeth's line in Act 2, Scene 2 compares Duncan to Christ and herself to Pontius Pilate:
Lady Macbeth: A little water clears us of this deed.
Pilate was a Roman official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately condemned him to crucifixion. The Bible has Pilate wash his hands before giving the order, symbolically absolving himself of guilt. Like Pilate, Lady Macbeth must wash her hands to remove evidence of the deed she has committed.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm draws a parallel between himself and the "Lamb of God," a title that the Bible gives to Jesus:
Malcolm: To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
T' appease an angry god.
While Duncan and Malcolm are both associated with Christ, Macbeth is identified with Satan. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth encourages her husband to behave as treacherously as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, who tempted Eve and brought about the fall of humankind:
Lady Macbeth: Look like th’ innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under ’t.
The gatekeeper of Macbeth's castle at Inverness imagines himself as the porter of hell, which would make "Beelzebub"—or Satan—his employer. Macbeth later laments that he has given his soul "to the common enemy of man," i.e. the devil.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm observes that, just as Macbeth was the most esteemed of Duncan's thanes, Satan was once the greatest of God's angels:
Malcolm: Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
Malcolm calls Macbeth "Devilish," while Macduff refers to him as the "fiend of Scotland."
Macbeth also contains several references to the apocalypse, when, according to Christian doctrine, the dead will resurrect to face final judgement before God. In Act 2, Scene 3, Macduff emphasizes the horror of Duncan's murder by alluding to doomsday:
Macduff: Up, up, and see
The great doom's image. Malcolm, Banquo,
As from your graves rise up and walk like sprites
To countenance this horror.
All these biblical allusions, especially those that associate Malcolm with Christ and Macbeth with the devil, elevate Macbeth from an earthly tragedy to an epic battle between good and evil.
King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Some lines in the play directly paraphrase passages in the Bible. "The near in blood, / The nearer bloody" alludes to Matthew 10.36: "And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household." Macduff's son's proclamation that he will live "As birds do" refers to Matthew 6.26: "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." Even Macbeth's statement about "dusty death" is a reference to Genesis 3.19: "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Many allusions are to Christ, like this one in Act 1, Scene 2:
Captain: Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
Or memorize another Golgotha
In the Bible, Golgotha was a location outside Jerusalem referred to as the "Place of a Skull," where Jesus was said to be crucified. By alluding to this site, the captain foreshadows the unholy and murderous acts that Macbeth will later commit.
Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 7 uses the imagery of angels to emphasize Duncan's holiness:
Macbeth: [H]is virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off
Lady Macbeth's line in Act 2, Scene 2 compares Duncan to Christ and herself to Pontius Pilate:
Lady Macbeth: A little water clears us of this deed.
Pilate was a Roman official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately condemned him to crucifixion. The Bible has Pilate wash his hands before giving the order, symbolically absolving himself of guilt. Like Pilate, Lady Macbeth must wash her hands to remove evidence of the deed she has committed.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm draws a parallel between himself and the "Lamb of God," a title that the Bible gives to Jesus:
Malcolm: To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
T' appease an angry god.
While Duncan and Malcolm are both associated with Christ, Macbeth is identified with Satan. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth encourages her husband to behave as treacherously as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, who tempted Eve and brought about the fall of humankind:
Lady Macbeth: Look like th’ innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under ’t.
The gatekeeper of Macbeth's castle at Inverness imagines himself as the porter of hell, which would make "Beelzebub"—or Satan—his employer. Macbeth later laments that he has given his soul "to the common enemy of man," i.e. the devil.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm observes that, just as Macbeth was the most esteemed of Duncan's thanes, Satan was once the greatest of God's angels:
Malcolm: Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
Malcolm calls Macbeth "Devilish," while Macduff refers to him as the "fiend of Scotland."
Macbeth also contains several references to the apocalypse, when, according to Christian doctrine, the dead will resurrect to face final judgement before God. In Act 2, Scene 3, Macduff emphasizes the horror of Duncan's murder by alluding to doomsday:
Macduff: Up, up, and see
The great doom's image. Malcolm, Banquo,
As from your graves rise up and walk like sprites
To countenance this horror.
All these biblical allusions, especially those that associate Malcolm with Christ and Macbeth with the devil, elevate Macbeth from an earthly tragedy to an epic battle between good and evil.
Upper-class men of Shakespeare's time were often educated in Greek and Latin, and Macbeth contains several allusions to Roman history that this portion of his audience would have appreciated. In Act 2, Scene 1, Macbeth makes a reference to an event that catalyzed the creation of the Roman Republic:
Macbeth: [A]nd withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, also known as Tarquin the Proud, became king of Rome in 534 BCE after assassinating his predecessor, Servius Tullius. Like Macbeth, he did so at the urging of his wife and became known as a tyrannical monarch who often had his political opponents put to death.
In this passage, Macbeth is actually making a reference to Tarquin's son Sextus, who famously raped a Roman noblewoman named Lucretia in her own bed. By personifying murder as a man who walks "with Tarquin's ravishing strides," Macbeth suggests that the murder of Duncan, like the rape of Lucretia by Sextus, is an act of violation that scorns the rules of hospitality.
Macbeth's allusion to this event is also an instance of foreshadowing. Lucretia's rape and subsequent suicide so outraged the people of Rome that it led to the overthrow of Tarquin and the establishment of the Roman Republic. Like Tarquin, Macbeth is ultimately overthrown, and the ascension of Malcolm to the throne marks a change in the nature of Scottish rule characterized by a new alliance with England.
In Act 3, Scene 1, Macbeth compares himself to the Roman general Mark Antony and Banquo to Julius Caesar:
Macbeth: There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony's was by Caesar.
After Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, Mark Antony butted heads with Caesar's adopted son Octavian. In 31 BCE, Octavian declared war against Antony's lover, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, and declared Antony a traitor. After his forces were defeated in battle, Antony committed suicide, and Octavian became emperor of Rome.
This passage is also a self-reference to Antony and Cleopatra, another play by Shakespeare, in which a soothsayer predicts that Mark Antony's fortunes will be less than Julius Caesar's. The Weird Sisters in Macbeth predict, in quite similar fashion, that Banquo will be both lesser and greater than Macbeth.
Both these prophecies prove true. Although Julius Caesar is assassinated, his heir becomes the emperor of Rome, while Antony is disgraced. Despite the fact that Macbeth has him murdered, Banquo's descendants still become kings of Scotland, and Macbeth dies in ignominy.
In Act 5, Scene 10, Macbeth seeks to distance himself from Antony and from other Roman generals who famously committed suicide:
Macbeth: Why should I play the Roman fool and die
On mine own sword?
Cato the Younger was a Roman senator who killed himself rather than ask for a pardon from Caesar, and Marcus Junius Brutus, the Roman statesman who famously aided in Caesar's assassination of Caesar, took his own life after being defeated by Caesar's successor. His story parallels that of Macbeth, who kills Duncan but is later defeated by forces under the command of Duncan's son. Like Brutus, who decided to die by suicide rather than live under Octavian's rule, Macbeth refuses to serve Malcolm and instead chooses to die in battle, insisting that he won't "yield / to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet."
Macbeth is a play that explores the nature of free will and fate, so it should come as no surprise that prophecies appear frequently in the text. Although the play leaves it ambiguous as to whether these prophecies merely predict the future or actually shape it, they always foreshadow what is to come.
The motif of prophecy is introduced in Act 1, Scene 3, when the Weird Sister's refer to Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor and tell him that he shall become king.
Second Witch: All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch: All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
Macbeth, of course, does eventually become king, but it is unclear whether this event was actually fated to occur. Macbeth becomes Thane of Cawdor without any action on his part, but he needs to kill Duncan in order to become king, suggesting that him hearing the prophecy has changed the course of events.
Banquo is skeptical of the witches' prophecies and warns Macbeth not to take them too literally:
Banquo: And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s
In deepest consequence.
This warning foreshadows a moment later in the play, when Macbeth fails to notice the ambiguity of the Weird Sisters' other prophecies.
In Act 4, Scene 1, and apparition summoned by the witches foreshadows the fact that Macduff will be the one to kill Macbeth:
First Apparition: Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff!
Beware the Thane of Fife!
Another apparition foreshadows that fact that Macduff, who was born via caesarean section, will be able to kill Macbeth:
Second Apparition: Laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.
Macbeth erroneously believes that this prophecy means he is invincible, when it actually foreshadows the fact that Macduff was not born of woman. Otherwise, why would Macbeth have cause to beware the Thane of Fife?
A third apparition foreshadows the fact that the English army will use branches Birnam Wood to conceal their numbers:
Third Apparition: Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him.
Ignoring Banquo's earlier warning, Macbeth believes that the events described in the prophecy are impossible. He interprets the prophecy literally and fails to consider that it may have a figurative meaning.
King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Some lines in the play directly paraphrase passages in the Bible. "The near in blood, / The nearer bloody" alludes to Matthew 10.36: "And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household." Macduff's son's proclamation that he will live "As birds do" refers to Matthew 6.26: "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." Even Macbeth's statement about "dusty death" is a reference to Genesis 3.19: "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Many allusions are to Christ, like this one in Act 1, Scene 2:
Captain: Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
Or memorize another Golgotha
In the Bible, Golgotha was a location outside Jerusalem referred to as the "Place of a Skull," where Jesus was said to be crucified. By alluding to this site, the captain foreshadows the unholy and murderous acts that Macbeth will later commit.
Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 7 uses the imagery of angels to emphasize Duncan's holiness:
Macbeth: [H]is virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off
Lady Macbeth's line in Act 2, Scene 2 compares Duncan to Christ and herself to Pontius Pilate:
Lady Macbeth: A little water clears us of this deed.
Pilate was a Roman official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately condemned him to crucifixion. The Bible has Pilate wash his hands before giving the order, symbolically absolving himself of guilt. Like Pilate, Lady Macbeth must wash her hands to remove evidence of the deed she has committed.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm draws a parallel between himself and the "Lamb of God," a title that the Bible gives to Jesus:
Malcolm: To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
T' appease an angry god.
While Duncan and Malcolm are both associated with Christ, Macbeth is identified with Satan. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth encourages her husband to behave as treacherously as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, who tempted Eve and brought about the fall of humankind:
Lady Macbeth: Look like th’ innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under ’t.
The gatekeeper of Macbeth's castle at Inverness imagines himself as the porter of hell, which would make "Beelzebub"—or Satan—his employer. Macbeth later laments that he has given his soul "to the common enemy of man," i.e. the devil.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm observes that, just as Macbeth was the most esteemed of Duncan's thanes, Satan was once the greatest of God's angels:
Malcolm: Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
Malcolm calls Macbeth "Devilish," while Macduff refers to him as the "fiend of Scotland."
Macbeth also contains several references to the apocalypse, when, according to Christian doctrine, the dead will resurrect to face final judgement before God. In Act 2, Scene 3, Macduff emphasizes the horror of Duncan's murder by alluding to doomsday:
Macduff: Up, up, and see
The great doom's image. Malcolm, Banquo,
As from your graves rise up and walk like sprites
To countenance this horror.
All these biblical allusions, especially those that associate Malcolm with Christ and Macbeth with the devil, elevate Macbeth from an earthly tragedy to an epic battle between good and evil.
Upper-class men of Shakespeare's time were often educated in Greek and Latin, and Macbeth contains several allusions to Roman history that this portion of his audience would have appreciated. In Act 2, Scene 1, Macbeth makes a reference to an event that catalyzed the creation of the Roman Republic:
Macbeth: [A]nd withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, also known as Tarquin the Proud, became king of Rome in 534 BCE after assassinating his predecessor, Servius Tullius. Like Macbeth, he did so at the urging of his wife and became known as a tyrannical monarch who often had his political opponents put to death.
In this passage, Macbeth is actually making a reference to Tarquin's son Sextus, who famously raped a Roman noblewoman named Lucretia in her own bed. By personifying murder as a man who walks "with Tarquin's ravishing strides," Macbeth suggests that the murder of Duncan, like the rape of Lucretia by Sextus, is an act of violation that scorns the rules of hospitality.
Macbeth's allusion to this event is also an instance of foreshadowing. Lucretia's rape and subsequent suicide so outraged the people of Rome that it led to the overthrow of Tarquin and the establishment of the Roman Republic. Like Tarquin, Macbeth is ultimately overthrown, and the ascension of Malcolm to the throne marks a change in the nature of Scottish rule characterized by a new alliance with England.
In Act 3, Scene 1, Macbeth compares himself to the Roman general Mark Antony and Banquo to Julius Caesar:
Macbeth: There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony's was by Caesar.
After Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, Mark Antony butted heads with Caesar's adopted son Octavian. In 31 BCE, Octavian declared war against Antony's lover, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, and declared Antony a traitor. After his forces were defeated in battle, Antony committed suicide, and Octavian became emperor of Rome.
This passage is also a self-reference to Antony and Cleopatra, another play by Shakespeare, in which a soothsayer predicts that Mark Antony's fortunes will be less than Julius Caesar's. The Weird Sisters in Macbeth predict, in quite similar fashion, that Banquo will be both lesser and greater than Macbeth.
Both these prophecies prove true. Although Julius Caesar is assassinated, his heir becomes the emperor of Rome, while Antony is disgraced. Despite the fact that Macbeth has him murdered, Banquo's descendants still become kings of Scotland, and Macbeth dies in ignominy.
In Act 5, Scene 10, Macbeth seeks to distance himself from Antony and from other Roman generals who famously committed suicide:
Macbeth: Why should I play the Roman fool and die
On mine own sword?
Cato the Younger was a Roman senator who killed himself rather than ask for a pardon from Caesar, and Marcus Junius Brutus, the Roman statesman who famously aided in Caesar's assassination of Caesar, took his own life after being defeated by Caesar's successor. His story parallels that of Macbeth, who kills Duncan but is later defeated by forces under the command of Duncan's son. Like Brutus, who decided to die by suicide rather than live under Octavian's rule, Macbeth refuses to serve Malcolm and instead chooses to die in battle, insisting that he won't "yield / to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet."
