Macduff kills Macbeth and cuts off his head. In his final battle with Macduff, Macbeth discovers that Macduff was cut from his mother’s womb, not “born”, and he realizes the witches were right again. Macduff joins forces with Duncan’s son Malcolm, and cutting down the trees from Birnam Wood and using them as camouflage, their forces descend on Macbeth, fulfilling the witches’ prophecy. Lady Macbeth begins manifesting her guilt through nightly sleepwalking and hallucinations of blood on her hands which never washes off. Macbeth kills everyone in Macduff’s castle, but Macduff himself is not there. Macbeth takes comfort in the fact that every man is born of a woman, and woods cannot travel. He seeks out the help of the witches from the heath, and receives three prophecies: beware of Macduff no man born of a woman can harm him and his safety will be held until Great Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill. Banquo is murdered, but Fleance escapes, and Macbeth begins to see the ghost of Banquo. He hires assassins to kill Banquo and his son Fleance in order to prevent his prophecy of fathering a line of kings from coming true. While Macbeth ascends to the throne, he is consumed by his guilt and becomes suspicious and tyrannical.

Because Duncan’s sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee the country in fear for their own lives, Macbeth, as kin of the king, is crowned.

Lady Macbeth plants bloody daggers on them. He stabs King Duncan in his sleep and frames his two guards, who are so drunk that they are passed out and have no memory of the night’s events. Macbeth is so frightened and guilt-ridden by the idea of killing the king that he experiences hallucinations and doubts, but he is pushed on by his wife. Lady Macbeth is even more ambitious than Macbeth, and through manipulation, mockery, and persuasion, she eventually convinces him that he should kill King Duncan when he comes to stay at their castle that night. He is initially skeptical, but he soon begins to entertain aspirations of becoming king. His friend Banquo also receives a prophecy that he will father a line of kings.

Macbeth, a victorious general, receives a prophecy from three witches that he will eventually become king.

Macbeth william