 Hello and welcome to our intensive revision video. Now I made this video because of two things. The first reason is if you have gone through all of the different classes in this course so far and you've gotten firstly an overview and a very detailed overview of Macbeth but also walked through each act as well as each scene in this play I think it'll be really useful to have an idea of exactly more broadly how to summarise the plot, the main characters, the key quotes as well as how this fits in when you're considering revising for your exams. The second reason I did this is for those students who don't necessarily have the luxury of time to go over the entire course and to look over all the other videos prior to going into this lesson. So this video is also a really brief and intensive revision class in order to help you essentially catch up on all the essentials of Macbeth especially if you don't have that much time but if you do have time and you've had a chance to go through the rest of this course it's a good way to recap all the different areas of the play that you need to be aware of. So now let's begin and I decided to create essentially a table where you can look at or rather not necessarily a table more a mind map where you can look at all the different aspects of the play and consider what you can write about in your exams in detail. So let's begin with a brief overview of the plot. Now hopefully you can see this but I've also replicated this mind map exactly as it is as a downloadable resource however let's begin with a plot right here. So essentially just to summarise and just to recap the clay begins with the witchers prophesying to Macbeth that he will be king of Scotland and this essentially triggers his sense of ambition and of course he then plots with his wife Lady Macbeth to kill King Duncan in order to become the next king of Scotland. Then Macbeth afterwards kills Banquo because the witches had also prophesied that Banquo would have his children as kings and of course Macbeth wants to ensure that not only does he remain king but his entire lineage become kings as well and then essentially Macduff flees in addition to King Duncan's sons and his family is killed by Macbeth after the apparitions with the witches so the Macbeth after he takes over power after he's killed King Duncan Banquo he's become really consumed by ambition but also consumed by how to protect his crown so of course he goes to see the witches the witches are prophesying beware Macduff and that's what causes him to go and hire murderers and kill his family he does miss Macduff who does flee to England then finally the play ends with a rebellion that occurs this is of course Macduff, Malcolm, all of King Duncan's sons as well as all the noble men who see Macbeth now as a tyrant they obviously rise against him and then they come and ultimately Macduff who's not born of woman so he's born via sea section is the one that ultimately has the power to kill Macbeth and of course this was also prophesied in the apparitions and of course Macbeth is killed and Malcolm takes his rightful place as the next king of Scotland so that's the plot in a nutshell however the other thing you need to be aware of is of course when you're thinking about the plot and the genre in other words the category of Shakespeare's plays that this belongs in I've put this right here it is a tragedy now remember a tragedy does not mean that somebody always has to die the categorization or the classification of what a tragedy is is essentially any kind of play or story that features somebody who's essentially a good person and a noble person and essentially they have something called homacia so this is a term that was created by Aristotle this means that they have a fatal flaw and in Macbeth's case it's his ambition his wish for power and this is what essentially causes them to be corrupted and ultimately this leads to their downfall so do you remember that tragedy doesn't always feature somebody dying in this case in the case of Macbeth he does die however Macbeth is a tragedy primarily because he is overcome by his fatal flaw which is ambition and this causes him to go from being a really good person at the start to being an evil and cruel tyrant a cruel king and ultimately this leads to his downfall people stop caring for him and ultimately they rebel against him and he is killed now when we move on to context and key contextual factors that you need to be aware of these are your a04 marks you need to be able to talk about when you're looking at any kind of question how to answer that key theme so for example ambition or the key character question but you need to also be able to relate it to contextual factors in other words what's happening at the time of writing what does Shakespeare want to do in order to kind of convey these ideas at the time of writing now the first contextual aspect is to do with social hierarchy now do remember that at the time that Shakespeare was writing this the English social system and the kind of social hierarchical structure was extremely rigid so you had at the top of the social chain the king or the queen that was leading at the time and their power and their rule was not to be questioned then you had underneath the king or queen you had the nobleman and the aristocracy again they were essentially there and they there was very little social mobility beneath them you had the soldiers and then after that you had essentially the merchants the people who engaged in business and who had to work for a living as opposed to the aristocracy who didn't have to work beneath them you then had the vast majority of peasants and people who essentially lived off the land but didn't necessarily have very much wealth and then of course beneath that essentially all the poor people the sick and so on now you have to be aware of this in terms of mcbeth because essentially mcbeth belongs to the strata of noblemen as well as the soldier so there's this kind of interesting mix of him being both a noblemen but also a soldier however what shadesville wants to indirectly reinforce as a message of this play is that this social hierarchy needs to be respected we need to accept our social stations and our social positions in life if you're born a king or queen you stay a king or queen and your children will become kings queens and part of the monarchy however if you're born as a nobleman you should be happy to be a nobleman or if you're born a soldier you should be happy to serve your country as a soldier and you should not want to change that position either upwards or downwards and so on and so forth in terms of the social hierarchy so that's the first contextual point to be aware of now the second contextual point to bear in mind is to do with divine right of kings what does this mean this means that at the time it was believed by most elizabethans or jakabians depending on what you want to call it but we will call it for the purposes of this course elizabethans now people at the time believed that the power of the king or queen now you had queen elizabeth and i put her name right here but also who came after queen elizabeth was king james the sixth now they were put in place by god so the monarch in other words a king or queen was chosen to implement what god wanted on earth and to go against them to either disobey the king or queen to question the leadership or even worse to kill them ultimately was tantamount to a sacrilegious act against god so always remember at the time contextually speaking a lot of elizabethans and a lot of people believed that the king or queen was divinely placed there to rule and to execute what god wanted and ultimately to kill them would be a sacrilegious act now the other contextual factors to be aware of is to do with the supernatural now always remember when it came to kit to witches and anything related to witches and wizardry this was seen as causing chaos and this was seen as evil in other words when we look at the witches and this is especially important because shakespeare uses them in the first act they are seen as causing chaos and destruction now the supernatural by the elizabethans was seen as a very destructive force and a lot of elizabethans would have looked at the witches who met banco and mcbeth and being really afraid and they would have said why on earth would mcbeth even want to listen to what they have to say they are there to cause chaos the supernatural and any being that was related to the underworld was seen as inherently evil and counter to god now when it comes to the next contextual factor to be aware of this is to do with elizabethan women now this is relevant when you're thinking about lady mcbeth now elizabethan women were expected to be number one very much home providers so this was a very patriarchal society at the time in other words it was a society that was very male dominated and women were expected to be caregivers it was expected to live at home and their ambition was really to just be good wives to be good mothers hence when we think about lady mcbeth she was seen as especially evil when she said el sex me here when she wanted to change her gender so that she can become powerful this was seen as really shocking from an elizabethan perspective because a lot of women at the time were expected to be very docile very passive and really the ambition should only stretch as far as having a family and having a happy husband now the other key point and actually here they are interrelated are to do with the main characters and the quotes to remember and again this is really useful as a summary because especially if you're very tight on time maybe you can just remember these key quotes and of course relate them to the key characters here so let's begin with the first key character and of course that is mcbeth and we know that mcbeth he's a nobleman and he's also scottish soldier he's essentially a really good person at first he's very brave very valiant and very noble however once he meets the witches he becomes corrupted by the prophecies he then becomes really ambitious and he ultimately kills king duncan and becomes corrupted by ambition now these are the key quotations to remember when you're thinking about mcbeth and i would suggest just memorise these quotations the first is black and deep desires now he says this in act one scene three after the witches have prophesied he's going to be king and then he realises that he's been made then of corridor which is one of the prophecies now he then speaks as an aside and he says let light not see my black and deep desires this is tantamount to him basically saying that his wish to be more ambitious to change his social hierarchy and social position to become king is actually a very evil deed indeed and of course that relates to divine right of kings he's going against god's will if he wants to be the the next person or the successor to king duncan the other key quotation is of course vaulting ambition and this relates to the theme of ambition because of course it ties into mcbeth's wish to become more powerful and so he mentions vaulting ambition and this is after actually his wife has divulged to him the plot to kill the king and he considers whether he has the capacity and the power to actually take over and whether his ambition he can live up to that the other key quotation to remember with regards to mcbeth is in act four scene one when he called the witches secret black midnight hags now this is in contrast to act one scene three when he first encounters the witches with banquo because when he first encounters them he's really scared he's really shocked however by this stage when he's calling them black midnight hags this shows the complete transformation in his character has become so corrupted by his ambition he's even in many ways he believes that he'd even command the witches to do what he wants the final quotation relating to mcbeth is in the final act act five scene three i believe so this is um not the final act but uh two scenes before the final scene he says life's but a walking shadow this is just before he dies and he realizes that he has been tricked by the witches he has believed the supernatural and he's been tricked by them don't forget that they are there to cause chaos and he realizes that life is extremely brief so this is one of shakespeare's actually most famous quotations and he and of course this is a metaphor so life is but a walking shadow so those are key quotations to remember for mcbeth let's move on to the other key character of course and that's lady mcbeth so of course we know that lady mcbeth from the start is actually a very cunning woman she has been referred to as the fourth witch because unlike with elizabethan women and of course this is a contextual point she wants to be really ambitious she wants power she even wants to be a man if she can in order to gain that power for herself but then she has to use her husband and work through her husband now in terms of the quotations to remember for lady mcbeth the first is when she says unsex me here and this is when at the beginning of act one uh i believe act one scene four she essentially is reading the letter for mcbeth where he has met the witches and she essentially is really consumed by her desire for them to ascend to the throne and to be monarchs so for her to be queen and for mcbeth to be king however she almost expresses her desire she's talking directly to the supernatural spirits and she's saying i would like if possible to even be a man so that i can execute these deeds myself i can go and personally kill king donken and this shows that she is so consumed to do whatever it takes to become powerful that if that means she changes her gender and goes against her womanly instincts then she will do so and she wants the supernatural to work with her and of course this has led for her to be called the fourth witch because you know women at the time if they didn't want to go ahead and be very maternal women and they didn't want to be typical Elizabethan women they were seen as somehow possessed by supernatural spirits the other quotation to remember with lady mcbeth is when she advises mcbeth look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it now what she is telling mcbeth here is that he should be become very good at deceiving others he should use external appearances to misguide people like Duncan Banquo all of these noblemen in order not only to betray them in and but also to become really powerful and to maintain his power and of course this shows just how manipulative scheming and evil lady mcbeth really is now the other key quotation is when she says in act five scene one out damn spot now this is really interesting because initially lady mcbeth is consistently quite evil initially and in act one act two act three we each time we witness lady mcbeth she's quite evil very scheming she just wants to see what both she and mcbeth can do to maintain the power however she then becomes really overcome by guilt and she um her human nature overtakes and by act five scene one she reflects on all the evil that she's done the death of king Duncan that she's caused the death of Banquo that she's caused the chaos that mcbeth has caused the kingdom of scotland of course this is in conjunction with her and now she becomes extremely guilty and she starts seeing visions always remember that visions and hallucinations represent guilt and so she sees on her hands spots and these of course can also be metaphors for blood and she's asking them to leave she's trying to cleanse herself of all her evil actions but of course she's unable to do so and she commits suicide now the other key character to be aware of is mcduff now mcduff is the other nobleman and unlike mcbeth he remains very loyal to the reigning crown and of course this is king Duncan and then afterwards Malcolm he even flees to england once mcbeth and once it becomes clear that mcbeth is the one that's killing everybody and he is an ideal example of somebody who obeys and follows the social hierarchy he's a nobleman and a soldier and he's a nobleman at the beginning and a soldier at the beginning but he also remains a nobleman and soldier at the end he accepts his social position and as a result he remains alive but also he doesn't necessarily trust what's happened and he doesn't necessarily trust appearances as they are now when it comes to key quotations for mcduff the first to bear in mind is when he discovers king Duncan's body and he describes it as a most sacrilegious murder and of course this ties in contextually to the divine right of kings this idea that killing the king is tantamount to essentially ignoring god and going against god's wishes hence why it is sacrilegious this is very religious language the other key quote to remember with mcduff is when he discovers that or rather he learns that his family has been killed by mcduff this is an act four scene two or rather act four scene three and he essentially says all my pretty chickens this is his metaphor that he uses to describe his family who've been killed and he's really overcome with grief and shock when he realizes that they have been killed and of course this fuels his desire to go and avenge their deaths and ultimately he is the one who's not born of women who kills mcduff the other key characters of course are the witches and of course they tie into the supernatural and now in terms of the quotes to remember for the witches the first is fair is foul and this is what they say in act one scene one they essentially are speaking in oxymorons and speaking in contradictions and this shows that they essentially create lots of chaos even the language represents that they take an order that's working they take the natural order that's working but they try and turn it topsy-turvy and they do so successfully through mcbeth the other key quotation with the witches is when they meet and encounter mcbeth and they repeat three times all hell mcbeth so they say all hell mcbeth they know glamis all hell mcbeth they know corder and all hell mcbeth king hereafter now if you remember that quotation and it's repeated three times and of course this is what sets the tragedy in motion this is what plants the scenes of ambition in mcbeth's mind the final quotation to remember for the witches is when they enact four scene one they say something wicked this way comes and this is to describe mcbeth they themselves are quite wicked beings so for them to equally see this wickedness in mcbeth this shows that his corruption is complete he is now attirent the other key characters to remember is king duncan and the first quotation to remember with king duncan is valiant cousin and of course king duncan he's the rightful king he's the person that's been put in place by god and what uh shakesville wants to show is that under his leadership and under his position scotland is working everything is working as it should scotland is quite prosperous it's even very powerful because they win the battle that starts off even the first scene of the play however we also find that king duncan is a very very fair king because he rewards mcbeth for his hard work by calling him not only valiant very brave but also giving him a promotion to fame of quarrel now the other key quotation for duncan is when he addresses lady mcbeth when he's going to their home and he's hosted by them as noble hostess now of course this is contradictory this is ironic uh it will rather dramatic irony for us as the audience because we know that they are plotting to kill him however what this might also show is king duncan is somewhat naive he's unable to read people and he really heavily relies on external appearances and on what people tell him and hence as a result of that that's what leads to his ultimate death now the final key character and the key quotations to remember are to do with banquo and of course banquo is the other nobleman he's the guy that fought alongside mcbeth he was a very good friend of mcbeth however ultimately he was betrayed by mcbeth and killed by him now when it comes to banquo the first quotation to remember is when he asks and this is a rhetorical question he asks can the devil speak true and now this is in act one scene three and he says this once he once the witches disappeared so now they've made the prophecies to both mcbeth but also to him so he learns that his children supposedly will become kings and he asks mcbeth who seems really enraptured and very distracted by these prophecies is it possible for evil beings like these supernatural witches to speak any types of truths this shows that much like lots of elizabethan people at the time he was very mistrusting of the supernatural he was mistrusting of the witches and he didn't believe that they had the best interest in mind and he was right the other key to quotation to remember for banquo is when he says i fear thou place most folly for it so this is when he's speaking to himself in an aside and he sees that mcbeth actually has not only become king because king duncan has mysteriously died he doesn't know that it's made better obviously killed him but also he's now realizing that there's somewhat a change in mcbeth's demeanor and he essentially privately expresses his doubts about how mcbeth became powerful and he says that he fears that maybe mcbeth actually acted on the witches prophecies and he's the one that orchestrated their killings and of course he never ultimately finds out because he himself is killed so that's it if you are tight on time and you're not entirely sure how to go about things i will suggest watching this video once more making notes and of course remembering all of these key quotations bearing in mind the context the genre of this and the key characters because of course always remember that you will either be asked a theme question or a character question and of course when you're considering the quotations to remember for each question these will be sufficient so thank you so much for watching this intensive revision video i hope you found it useful