Macbeth

by SparkNotes, William Shakespeare

Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes books contain complete plot summaries and analyses, key facts about the featured work, analysis of the major characters, suggested essay topics, themes, motifs, and symbols, and explanations of important quotations.

Genres: Classics, Shakespeare, School, Plays, Fiction, Literature, Historical Fiction

76 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Many of the editions by this group of authors are actually guides to books rather than the works.

If the author of the SparkNotes is known, they should be the first author. Please leave these SparkNotes Editors as the second author and the author of the original work as the last author. Do not combine with the original work. Do not put the author of the ORIGINAL work first.

Link to discussion.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

اگه بخوام باز شکسپیر بخونم حتما از اسپارک نوت کمک میگیرم باز‌.
خیلی قشنگ امروزی کرده بود و اودیوبوکش نمایشی بود.
با گروه خوندمش وگرنه فکر نکنم هیچوقت جرأت نمیکردم زبون اصلی بخونم.
یه سری کوئت هم از هر دو مدل متنش در آورده بودم که تو پروگرس هام آپدیت کرده بودم.

[Mina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very useful copy. I recommend it to anybody who likes Shakespeare. Even if you comfortable with the language, like first language comfortable. Some of the translations are questionable, but interesting to read even if you know what it means.
I found it quite irritating to read at the beginning because the original and translated version are on seperate pages. This is confusing at the start, as you start to read one after the other.

[Cedricsmom]

I wish Goodreads didn't count as READ books that I did not finish. Why isn't there a DNF feature on this program? Is that bad for selling books?

Anyway, I didn't get through Macbeth. What sticks to my ribs, though, is that Lady Macbeth was the real main character here; she talked her old man into killing the King and whenever he wavered on his decision to do it, she was right there with the browbeating. What a bitch. I'd have told her "you want him dead so bad? YOU kill him." She was a nightmare. I just couldn't go forward after that.

[Tarissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first venture into Shakespeare's world... And I ended up with the dark tragedy, The Scottish Play itself. Macbeth. I think I like it.

In the No Fear Shakespeare edition, the Modern English version is very well written. It helped understand Shakespeare's words better, for sure. It felt like I was in a book club, of sorts, getting insight from (a slightly more educated) someone else. It's great! There were a small handful of times that I questioned the translation though as being a bit too frivolous, like when it adds "tight pants" in there (I laughed out loud over that one!)... Or when it changed "fortune" to "Lady Luck"?? Other than that, this edition was perfectly what I needed to guide me through a Shakespearean reading alone. Would definitely return to this series when I decide to read another written by him.

Macbeth is a story of man's (and woman's) selfish desires to be powerful and leader over all; of the sinful and murderous natures that humans have; of the effects of guilt and shame that take a toll on a person who has committed horrible actions...

This play is an interesting study of human nature to contrast Macbeth's actions with that of his wife's. The one, who cannot secretly harbor the evil deed in his heart, the other who has the mental calmness to plot, theorize, and coordinating the whole scheme to get to her desired destination: the royal throne of Scotland. What opposites they are, yet this couple still works out one of the sneakiest assassinations ever known -- fictionally, of course.

Now, it's really not a long play to read. (I was glad for that, as I was just wanting to test the waters of the Bard. I feel like I could read more from him in the future and not feel daunted by the task.) The Old English phrasings may be something you have to adjust to while reading, but I personally felt like I was able to understand the scenes fairly well.

Minimum age to read: 16 and up.

[Kayleigh Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in AP Lit and definitely recommend this "SparkNotes" version to anyone that struggles reading Shakespeare (so basically I recommend it to the whole population lol). Basically, it's the actual Shakespeare on the left page, and on the right page it's translated into modern day English. It really is helpful, and made it much more enjoyable to read-- so I'm very glad we got this version of the book :).

[atlas · Rating 5 out of 5]

macbeth

[Yashti · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Aditya Narasimhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of all of Shakespeare's tragedies, "Macbeth" is what I would deem as his magnum opus. First off, the elephant in the room: although a play, I would argue Macbeth could be more entertaining and is most definitely more enriching read compared to watched. SparkNotes has done a great job in providing an ample "translation" of the text, so that even if the Old English becomes a burden, you will still be able to enjoy the essential story at the heart of Shakespeare's writing. In terms of narrative, Macbeth provides an intriguing moral story on the issue of foresight and many of the Seven Deadly Sins. Lord Macbeth, himself, is revealed to be a noble sort at the beginning, though he is quickly tainted by three witches who prophesize him to be King. This thought of seizing the throne corrupts his mind, though not without the guidance of his wife, Lady Macbeth. Overall, Lady Macbeth possesses a far more interesting persona and character in contrast to Macbeth, despite only serving the role of a side character. Through her aid and manipulations, Macbeth does fulfill the prophecy to become King of Scotland; however, the means by which he took to achieve said goal and the blood trail he has left behind come back to haunt him--quite literally at some points. His reign as a monarch becomes one of a tyrant, with his actions not going unnoticed by the opposition, and by the end, the reader is left wondering about foolish Macbeth, "Was it all worth it?"

[Lyden Orbase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, Sparknotes!

[Layna T]

good ol Shakespeare... trying to read more of the tragedies

[améliane !! · Rating 3 out of 5]

that was honestly a mess but still kinda entertaining sometimes

shakespeare was kinda freaky sometimes

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ha two can play this game Nick.

Not a favorite of Shakespeare's work but not unbearable. I was a little bored but at least it's fast paced and I did like the foreshadowing and the three witches. The HTRLLAP connections were fun and I did enjoy dissecting the play even though I wasn't particularly impressed with the complexity of the plot of development of the characters. Oh well I guess that's not really what Shakespeare is known for so!

Xx

[Alexandra Lubarsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot of Macbeth and the thoughtful characterization and character developments make this my favorite of Shakespeare’s full-length plays. There is so much to explore thematically in this text and I look forward to the conversations we will have in class. I also appreciate the accessibility of the No Fear format.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a banger for spooky szn

[Dave Harmon · Rating 1 out of 5]

[icky face emoji]
Shakespeare plays are like a Jackie Chan movie: the plot could have been written by an 8 year old and its full of a bunch of fancy karate gymnastics that has nothing to do with the story and and distracts the viewer.

[kylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. I feel like this is pretty standard Shakespeare. I liked the development of the characters and I feel like the ending paid off. Overall, a pretty good story.

[Luise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich hätte nie gedacht dass mir ein Shakespeare Stück so sehr gefallen wird, aber here i am. Am Anfang lowkey bisschen verwirrend aber mit der Zeit ging’s dann doch

[kai · Rating 4 out of 5]

so my chore is to sweep and my parents got a roomba…wanted to name it macbeth bc its a backstabber

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an English major I always dreaded required Shakespeare reading. My college required a full Shakespeare course—in addition to the Shakespeare I had to read here and there in other literature courses—and I retained not a single whit of it. I would enjoy his writing on an individual line basis, but I could never see bigger pictures, or form mental pictures in my head of what was going on. And, as such, was basically lost through every damn play I read. This has always been something I've found disappointing about myself. In hindsight I don't remember how I passed my required Shakespeare course; maybe read as best as I could, then leaned on lectures to fill the gaps well enough to muddle my way through tests.

So about a month ago I wanted to read some Shakespeare for the first time in over a decade (that's my sly way of dating my college years lol), mostly because I was reading a book called Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature (which I haven't finished but based on how it's going, I recommend) and got in the mood to actually read some Shakespeare. And I was like, there has to be some really good resources for understanding Shakespeare, right?

There may be better ones than No Fear Shakespeare, but this is the one I found. No Fear Shakespeare includes both the original text and a modern "translation" (it's not technically a translation, but you know what I mean).

My gut feeling is the physical book setup might be a touch awkward, where the original text is on the left hand page and the modern on the right hand page. But I read the Kindle edition which sets it up by scene: Read through Act 1 Scene 1 in the original, then the modern follows. Seems like a smoother way of dealing with things, at least if reading both is your goal (as it was with me). If you're more interested in using the modern as a spot check for the few things you're not comprehending, then the Kindle format will probably not be ideal.

I probably don't need to talk about the original text much. I mean, it's Macbeth. Story's been the same for, like, the last four centuries or so?

But I will say, without taking into account the modern translation, that this is the most I've ever understood Shakespeare. I think there's two reasons for that: 1. These days I read out loud, which demands more personal interaction with the text than, you know, not reading out loud. 2. This is kind of related to point one, but it's still its own thing: When reading for school I always tended to speed read. These days I am reading for fun, so take my time. But reading out loud forces that; it's hard to speed read when vocalizing everything.

Being able to read the modern version of the text went a long way in solidifying my understanding. To use percentages, in college I might have understood, oh, 20% of what I read. Which is to say, after I finished reading a play, the impression I got from reading was about 20% of the full story. This time reading original text (and I should note Macbeth was not a play I'd read previously) I think my understanding level was closer to 60%. Which is to say, details may have flown over my head, but I caught general scene arcs and some specific intention with the dialogue. But after reading the modern version, I got it. Maybe not 100% (it can be argued I don't get 100% of anything I read), but I got it to the degree I normally get contemporary novels.

Because I went scene-by-scene, first reading original, then the modern, I got a fairly good feel for how the modern functions. It's not rewriting for the sake of rewriting; if a Shakespeare sentence sounds fine to modern ears, the modern version will keep it as-is. That's rare—especially since one of the major functions of the modern is putting everything into prose rather than verse—but it does happen a few times. So I think there are three key things being updated by the modern (aside from the prose thing): 1. The actual words being used. 2. The grammar, particularly in terms of punctuation (as Shakespeare tends to shorten a lot of words with an apostrophe). 3. Giving information a more logical flow. Beyond that, the philosophy seemed to be to focus sentence-by-sentence, probably so that people using the modern to simply spot-check their understanding of the original don't have to read an entire paragraph. Also worth noting—even though I don't think this will surprise anyone—while it's updating language, the modern isn't trying to be "hip" or shoehorn in concepts or items that didn't exist back then; nobody is answering phones or using the slang of the youth.

The other thing that's very noticeable about the modern is that it's not trying to out Shakespeare the bard himself. The prose is functional, not trying to sound unique or impressive on its own. I suspect trying to read the modern without the original wouldn't be a very exciting exercise; you'd get the story, but not the flavor (if that makes sense). It's practical, absent the sort of flair or personality you'd want out of typical prose writing. And I think that's a good thing; it understands its purpose is to supplement, not replace.

Ultimately, if you're like me and looking to read original Shakespeare while also getting some help, I highly recommend No Fear Shakespeare's take on Macbeth.

[Jeff B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really my first Shakespeare as an adult - and I loved it. Despite knowing many of the quotes and so many references in pop-culture, I didn't know the story and was surprised by many of the twists and turns. It's a play so it's a pretty quick read and I was captivated the whole time.

This version contains Shakespeare's original text in Shakesperean English (Early Modern English/Modern English) and after each scene it repeats in a translation to the truly modern English that we use every day. I'm no purist and would almost always prefer clarity over artsy and vague, so I mostly read the translated versions of the scenes, but would often compare great lines. I'm sure I would have figured out all the original text and adapted to it, but it would have been a slower read and I'm sure I would have missed more than I (probably) did.

I think this story is mostly about ambition and how our desire for greatness is often our undoing. It touches on many other ideas like loyalty, guilt, free will, fate, how we get trapped in our lies, and the futility of this brief life. It's kind of a time travel story, too, as the witches can see the future and watching how these predictions come to pass is a lot of the fun.

One thing that confused me at the end is that I expected Banquo's son to be the next king, based on what the witches said, but that didn't happen - but I looked it up and maybe their prediction of Banquo's descendants being King was in there because the current King during Shakespeare's life was possibly a descendent of the Banquo, if he was real. I obviously didn't know that or if that's even the reason it was in there, but it would be a cute and clever nod.

I really enjoyed this and plan to read more Shakespeare in the near future. I see now why he is so highly regarded.

[Kandace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well who doesn't love a Shakespearean verse from time to time? I was assigned this particular version of the play by my 100 level intro to theater instructor and tbh I was very perturbed by the idea that you have a side by side original and modern translation of the play in one book. After getting used to the structure of this book the modern translation served a good purpose to illuminate ideas - particularly through explanatory footnotes related to some contextual comments - but largely served as a dry and non-poetic approach to the language of Shakespeare's original.

Also, given who I am I am fundamentally opposed to SparkNotes so the fact that this exists really irks me. But this is me. For others it may be perfectly fine and acceptable. And, we must continue to beg the question of why and how do we continue to revere Shakespeare's work in the theatre and as a literary work? Questions I remain pondering with the inability of Shakespeare to produce a complicated female figure in this play. Give me more of the motivations behind the ruthless Lady Macbeth please and thank you.

[Barry Medwid · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the trauma to this day. Reading Shakespeare in middle school. 5 decades have passed. Scars have healed. Time to give the poet another go.
But where to start? Thankfully for us rubes there is the No Fear Shakespeare series. While I've just finished Macbeth this is really a review of the series as I have read 6 or 7 in this series in the past year.
At first I started reading the modern translation on the right page first then reading the original. Then curiously I started reading the occasional paragraph in the original and then reading the translation. After 3 or 4 of the books I was reading mostly the original with only some of the translation. And most surprising was understanding much of what I read with interest (that sound you hear is my eighth grade english teacher flipping in his grave)
I am not worthy to shine the shoes of a Shakespearean scholar but it is nice to know I can read and see the plays with some understanding and enjoyment.

Highly recommended. Now to start on No Joy Tolstoy

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kindle version not as good as the book

This is a review for No Fear Shakespeare Kindle (I know Amazon lumps all Macbeth reviews together). In the paperback version of No Fear Shakespeare, the original and modern text appear side by side. Unfortunately, in the Kindle version, the original full act is all together followed by the modern. There is no way in the menu part to flip back and forth (both versions are placed in the same “chapter” in the menu) and no way to compare line by line like the paperback. I will NOT purchase another Kindle version because I don’t see much point. I will purchase the paperback version of No Fear Shakespeare or get a free Kindle version of the play.

[Hanae]

I think this book was truly interesting because it has some old English and you can learn a bit from this book. I thought it was interesting how the killing was very underrated, people seemed very comfortable murdering or eliminating people just for power. During the age of Shakespear you really did need to watch your back because anyone could kill you. Strangers can kill you, and even the people who you think you are close to can double-cross you. Especially if you had power like being king you would be the main target since a lot of people would want that kind of power.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first ever Shakespearean play and I loved reading through this No Fear version. I felt I was able to genuinely enjoy the story with an easy translation that I could utilize when I needed it. I don't think I would have made it through this story otherwise. This play turned out to be a compelling story on self-fulfilling prophecies, being careful what you wish for, and manipulation. It was much deeper than I anticipated. I would recommend the No Fear Shakespeare series to anyone.

[Concetta Kellough · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never liked Shakespeare because it took too long to figure out what Shakespeare was trying to say, if I could at all. This version of Macbeth in plain English side by side with the original words is wonderful. I thought the story was fantastic and I understood what was happening because the plain English was easy to understand. With No Fear Shakespeare books, I can finally enjoy Shakespeare's plays.

[SusanwithaGoodBook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read Macbeth several times, seen the play at the Globe, and read a novel based on the play, so this was a quick re-read and then I watched a movie version from 2010 with Patrick Stewart in the lead roll. It was really great - filmed in some creepy place that looked like an abandoned hospital or something. That really added to the effect.
I have to laugh at Lady Macbeth washing her hands every time. I love that part with her descent into madness. So good!

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm familiar with Macbeth, and have read it multiple times. I found this edition useful in uncovering meanings that were previously unclear, and that I didn't feel the need to check the meaning of individual words as I read. Some may quarrel over the modern translations, but even so, it gives a reader insight to possible interpretations that may have relevance. I enjoyed reading it and recommend it along with other texts that can add to ones understanding of this essential play.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was perfect for my purposes. We attended an immersive theater performance of Sleep No More in NY. I wanted to brush up on the story before experiencing it since Sleep No More heavily incorporates the Macbeth story in the performance. The side by side feature is great. I also liked the character explanations. Next time I attend Shakespeare in the park I will get a No Fear Shakespeare version beforehand!

[Aldellyn Po · Rating 3 out of 5]

Macbeth has been one of my favorite books and reading this version made it a very easy and fun read (sorry Ysabel 🙂). There were translations that I found too literal though, and personally do not agree to. In any case, it’s another way of enjoying Shakespeare 😊