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Macbeth

Chapter 2: Dramatis Personæ
By William Shakespeare
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About This Book

A Scottish general learns from three witches that he will rise to great power, and with his wife's encouragement he murders the reigning king to seize the throne. Haunted by guilt and fear, the couple descend into paranoia, hallucinations, and ruthless violence, while supernatural prophecies and apparitions complicate their choices. Banquet scenes and sleepwalking episodes dramatize moral disintegration, as opposing nobles and bereaved leaders gather resistance. The plot culminates in a military confrontation that restores order and punishes tyranny. Themes include ambition and its corrosive effects, the tension of fate versus agency, and the instability of appearance versus reality.

Contents

ACT I
Scene I. An open Place.
Scene II. A Camp near Forres.
Scene III. A heath.
Scene IV. Forres. A Room in the Palace.
Scene V. Inverness. A Room in Macbeth’s Castle.
Scene VI. The same. Before the Castle.
Scene VII. The same. A Lobby in the Castle.
ACT II
Scene I. Inverness. Court within the Castle.
Scene II. The same.
Scene III. The same.
Scene IV. The same. Without the Castle.
ACT III
Scene I. Forres. A Room in the Palace.
Scene II. The same. Another Room in the Palace.
Scene III. The same. A Park or Lawn, with a gate leading to the Palace.
Scene IV. The same. A Room of state in the Palace.
Scene V. The heath.
Scene VI. Forres. A Room in the Palace.
ACT IV
Scene I. A dark Cave. In the middle, a Cauldron Boiling.
Scene II. Fife. A Room in Macduff’s Castle.
Scene III. England. Before the King’s Palace.
ACT V
Scene I. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.
Scene II. The Country near Dunsinane.
Scene III. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.
Scene IV. Country near Dunsinane: a Wood in view.
Scene V. Dunsinane. Within the castle.
Scene VI. The same. A Plain before the Castle.
Scene VII. The same. Another part of the Plain.
Scene VIII. The same. Another part of the field.

Dramatis Personæ

DUNCAN, King of Scotland.
MALCOLM, his Son.
DONALBAIN, his Son.
MACBETH, General in the King’s Army.
BANQUO, General in the King’s Army.
MACDUFF, Nobleman of Scotland.
LENNOX, Nobleman of Scotland.
ROSS, Nobleman of Scotland.
MENTEITH, Nobleman of Scotland.
ANGUS, Nobleman of Scotland.
CAITHNESS, Nobleman of Scotland.
FLEANCE, Son to Banquo.
SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, General of the English Forces.
YOUNG SIWARD, his Son.
SEYTON, an Officer attending on Macbeth.
BOY, Son to Macduff.
An English Doctor.
A Scottish Doctor.
A Soldier.
A Porter.
An Old Man.

LADY MACBETH.
LADY MACDUFF.
Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth.
HECATE, and three Witches.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants and Messengers.

The Ghost of Banquo and several other Apparitions.

SCENE: In the end of the Fourth Act, in England; through the rest of the Play, in Scotland; and chiefly at Macbeth’s Castle.