A Scottish general is told by three witches that he will be king, and what he does to make it true sets off the deadliest chain of promises in Shakespeare.
A short, fast, gruesome tragedy that you can read in an evening, and one where the supernatural promises really drive the plot. The verse is dense in places and the play is mostly men talking about murder, but it is free and about sixteen thousand spoken words by our count. Four and a half out of five (my opinion).
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A full-spoiler Macbeth summary built around nine witch predictions: when each is made, when it pays off, and what Macbeth does because of it, plus a body count by act and who knew what. Project Gutenberg text, counted by us.
Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare in five acts and twenty-eight scenes. After a victory in battle, the Scottish general Macbeth meets three witches who hail him as a future king, and the play follows what he and his wife do to make that happen. It is in the public domain, and we worked from the free Project Gutenberg ebook, number 1533, a text prepared by the Project Gutenberg Shakespeare Team. Act and scene numbers on this site follow that edition, and other editions may number scenes differently.
Below you’ll find a prophecy tracker: nine predictions made by the witches and their apparitions, where each is made and settled, and what Macbeth does because of it. There is also a body count by act and a map of who knew what, all counted from the text. The page has full spoilers, since it is a classic and the whole play is covered.
A short, fast, gruesome tragedy that you can read in an evening, and one where the supernatural promises really drive the plot. The verse is dense in places and the play is mostly men talking about murder, but it is free and about sixteen thousand spoken words by our count. Four and a half out of five (my opinion). Read it if: you only know the famous lines and want the play behind them; you want a classic you can finish in one sitting; you like tragedies where the plot turns on a prophecy; you are studying it and want the prophecies, deaths and secrets in one place. Skip it if: you dislike shakespeare's verse and want modern prose; you want a happy or hopeful story: this one is dark and bloody; you want a long, slow character study: the play moves fast.
A full-spoiler Macbeth summary built around nine witch predictions: when each is made, when it pays off, and what Macbeth does because of it, plus a body count by act and who knew what. Project Gutenberg text, counted by us. Summary: Macbeth →
After a victory in battle, the Scottish general Macbeth is told by three witches that he will be Thane of Cawdor and then king. He kills King Duncan, then more people to protect the crown, until Macduff and Malcolm's army defeat him. The summary on this page has full spoilers.
William Shakespeare. The play is in the public domain, and the free Project Gutenberg ebook number 1533, from the Project Gutenberg Shakespeare Team, is the text this page was built from.
In the Project Gutenberg text there are twenty-eight scenes in five acts: seven in act one, four in act two, six in act three, three in act four and eight in act five. Other editions may number some scenes differently.
