Scenes 1 & 2
English Lit: AQA GCSE Macbeth, topic 2.1.1
Act 1, Scene 1
Here's a summary of what happens in Act 1, Scene 1:
Thunder and lightning
- The first thing that the audience see and hear is thunder and lightning.
- This immediately shows that conflict is coming and sets the frightening, negative tone of the play.
Three witches on battlefield
- The play opens with the three witches meeting. They are planning to meet with Macbeth when the fighting is finished.
- Shakespeare begins with the witches to show the audience that the play has supernatural themes from the start.
'Fair is foul and foul is fair'
- The witches talk about the changes happening in nature: ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’.
- This shows that turmoil (disruption) has already started in the natural world.
Analysis - 'Fair is foul and foul is fair'
- The theme of evil-doing and deception recurs in the story. This is the first indication that things may not always be as they appear.
- Macbeth appears to be a good friend and a heroic character. But when he is tempted by power, he becomes a villainous, selfish character who murders numerous people, including his own friends.
- This is an oxymoron (words which mean opposite things) and suggests to the audience that things are not always as they appear.
Act 1, Scene 2
Here's a summary of what happens in Act 1, Scene 2:
Macdonald's death
- There is a meeting at King Duncan’s headquarters. A bleeding captain has brought the king news of the battle.
- Macbeth has fought well and killed Macdonald (sometimes spelt Macdonwald), who had betrayed King Duncan: ‘unseam’d him from nave to th’ chops / And fix’d his head upon our battlements’.
- King Duncan calls Macbeth ‘O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman’.
Macbeth becomes Thane of Cawdor
- Ross, another Thane, arrives with news of Macbeth’s fight against Norway and another traitor, the Thane of Cawdor. He fought like the husband of the Roman goddess of war and won.
- King Duncan sentences the Thane of Cawdor to death for his betrayal. He rewards Macbeth with his title: ‘with his former title greet Macbeth’; ‘What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won’.
- King Duncan sends Ross to tell Macbeth about his new title, Thane of Cawdor.
Test yourself on Scenes 1 & 2
What literary technique is being used in the following quote from Act 1, Scene 1?
'Fair is foul and foul is fair'Summary of Act 1, Scene 2
What title is Macbeth given in Act 1, Scene 2?
Who is King Duncan praising when he says the following quote?
‘O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman’