MACBETH:
“Why should I play the Roman fool and die / On mine own sword?”
Macbeth is questioning why he should kill himself like ancient Roman soldiers who committed suicide to avoid disgrace. He’s saying, “Why should I take the coward’s way out?”

Device: Allusion to Roman honor; rhetorical question showing his pride and hesitation.
Theme: Bravery, honor, resistance to fate.
Analysis: Macbeth still clings to his warrior identity. He doesn’t want to die by his own hand—he wants to go down fighting.

“Whiles I see lives, the gashes / Do better upon them.”
He says as long as there are enemies alive, he would rather use his sword to wound others than himself.

Device: Violent imagery – “gashes” emphasizes bloodshed.
Theme: Violence, ambition, destructive masculinity.
Analysis: He still believes killing is his best option. Even in defeat, violence is his instinct.

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(Macduff enters)
MACDUFF: “Turn, hell-hound, turn!”
Macduff commands Macbeth to face him. He insults him by calling him a “hell-hound”—a dog from hell.

Device: Metaphor, religious imagery.
Theme: Good vs. evil, revenge, justice.
Analysis: Macduff sees Macbeth as a monster, not a man. This is a duel of justice, not just war.

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MACBETH:
“Of all men else I have avoided thee.”
Macbeth confesses that he’s been trying to avoid fighting Macduff more than anyone else.

Analysis: This shows Macbeth’s fear. He’s not afraid of many people, but he’s afraid of Macduff—either from guilt for killing his family or from instinct.

“But get thee back. My soul is too much charged / With blood of thine already.”
Macbeth tells Macduff to leave because he already feels the guilt of murdering Macduff’s wife and children. His soul is “overloaded” with their blood.

Device: Metaphor – “charged” like a burden or debt.
Theme: Guilt, moral conflict.
Analysis: Macbeth has a rare moment of regret, but it doesn’t stop him from fighting. Guilt coexists with violence in his mind.

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MACDUFF: “I have no words; / My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain / Than terms can give thee out.”
Macduff says he doesn’t want to talk—his emotions are too strong. His sword will speak for him. He calls Macbeth bloodier than words can describe.

Device: Personification – “my voice is in my sword” gives the sword human qualities.
Theme: Revenge, justice through action.
Analysis: Macduff is focused on avenging his family. Words won’t bring justice—only Macbeth’s death will.

(They fight. Alarum – sounds of battle)

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MACBETH:
“Thou losest labor.”
Macbeth tells Macduff he’s wasting his time trying to kill him.

“As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air / With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed.”
He brags that trying to cut him is like trying to cut the air. He believes he can’t be harmed.

Device: Simile – comparing Macbeth’s body to “air” shows his arrogance.
Theme: Overconfidence, illusion of invincibility.
Analysis: Macbeth is relying on the witches’ prophecy. He believes he’s untouchable, so he fights fearlessly.

“Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; / I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield / To one of woman born.”
He tells Macduff to try killing someone else who can actually die. Macbeth believes he’s magically protected—no man born of a woman can kill him.

Device: Irony – audience already senses this confidence is misguided.
Theme: Fate vs. free will, false security.
Analysis: Macbeth puts his faith in the witches’ words, not realizing they’ve been deceptive.

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MACDUFF:
“Despair thy charm, / And let the angel whom thou still hast served / Tell thee Macduff was from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripped.”
Macduff shatters Macbeth’s belief. He reveals he wasn’t born in the usual way—he was delivered by Caesarean section, taken from his mother’s womb early.

Device: Dramatic irony – a twist that changes the outcome completely.
Theme: Fate catching up, prophecy misinterpreted, downfall.
Analysis: This is the turning point. The witches’ prophecy was true, but Macbeth misunderstood it. Macduff is the one man who can kill him. Macbeth’s “charmed life” is now meaningless.

MACBETH:

“Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so, / For it hath cowed my better part of man!”
Macbeth curses Macduff for telling him the truth (that he was not born naturally). He says it has taken away his courage—his “better part of man.”

• Device: Personification (“tongue that tells me so”)
• Theme: Fate, deception, manhood
• Analysis: Macbeth feels betrayed and weakened. His confidence is shattered.

“And be these juggling fiends no more believed / That palter with us in a double sense,”
He curses the witches, calling them tricksters who speak in riddles with double meanings.

• Device: Metaphor (“juggling fiends”), irony
• Theme: Appearance vs. reality
• Analysis: Macbeth realizes too late that the witches played with his trust and twisted their prophecies.

“That keep the word of promise to our ear / And break it to our hope.”
The witches told him things that sounded like promises, but their words were misleading. They gave him hope only to destroy it.

• Theme: Betrayal, illusion, false prophecy
• Analysis: Macbeth finally understands he was manipulated. His downfall is partly due to their deceit—but also his own ambition.

“I’ll not fight with thee.”
He doesn’t want to fight Macduff anymore—he feels defeated.

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MACDUFF:

“Then yield thee, coward, / And live to be the show and gaze o’ th’ time.”
Macduff mocks him. If Macbeth won’t fight, he should surrender and become a public joke.

“We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, / Painted upon a pole, and underwrit / ‘Here may you see the tyrant.’”
Macduff says they’ll treat him like a freak at a circus—displayed on a pole for people to laugh at, with a sign saying “This is the tyrant.”

• Device: Simile and imagery (comparing Macbeth to a rare monster)
• Theme: Justice, reputation, shame
• Analysis: Macduff wants Macbeth humiliated, not just dead. This shows how deeply Macbeth has wronged Scotland.

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MACBETH:

“I will not yield / To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet / And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.”
Macbeth refuses to surrender and bow to Malcolm. He won’t let the common people insult him.

• Theme: Pride, downfall
• Analysis: Even at the end, Macbeth clings to pride. He’d rather die than be humiliated.

“Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane / And thou opposed, being of no woman born, / Yet I will try the last.”
Even though the prophecies came true and his end is near, he says he’ll fight to the very end.

• Theme: Fate vs. free will, bravery
• Analysis: This shows Macbeth’s tragic bravery—he chooses to die fighting, not running.

“Before my body / I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, / And damned be him that first cries ‘Hold! Enough!’”
He prepares for battle, challenges Macduff, and says they’ll fight until one of them dies—no surrender.

• Device: Heroic language, metaphor (“throw my shield”)
• Theme: Masculinity, defiance
• Analysis: A final, fierce gesture. Even though he’s doomed, Macbeth goes out like a warrior.

(They exit fighting)
(Macbeth is slain. Macduff exits carrying Macbeth’s body.)

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MALCOLM (after battle):

“I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.”
Malcolm hopes all their comrades are safe.

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SIWARD:

“Some must go off; and yet by these I see / So great a day as this is cheaply bought.”
Siward says losses are expected in battle, but they were lucky—this victory didn’t cost too many lives.

• Theme: Sacrifice, honor

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MALCOLM:

“Macduff is missing, and your noble son.”
He notes the absence of Macduff and Siward’s son.

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ROSS:

“Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt.”
Ross gently says that Siward’s son died honorably in battle.

“He only lived but till he was a man, / The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed / In the unshrinking station where he fought, / But like a man he died.”
He became a man in battle and died bravely without retreating.

• Theme: Honor, bravery
• Analysis: In this world, dying in battle is noble. Siward’s son achieved manhood through courage.

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SIWARD:

“Had he his hurts before?”
He asks if the wounds were on the front—meaning he faced his enemy.

ROSS:
“Ay, on the front.”

SIWARD:
“Why then, God’s soldier be he! / Had I as many sons as I have hairs, / I would not wish them to a fairer death; / And so his knell is knolled.”
Siward is proud. If he had thousands of sons, he wouldn’t want a better death for them. He accepts the funeral bell (“knell”).

• Device: Hyperbole
• Theme: Military honor, stoicism
• Analysis: Siward values bravery above grief. His son died well—that’s enough for him.

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MALCOLM:

“He’s worth more sorrow, and that I’ll spend for him.”

SIWARD:
“He’s worth no more. They say he parted well and paid his score.”
Malcolm wants to mourn him more, but Siward says his son died a soldier’s death and that’s enough.

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(Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head)

MACDUFF:

“Hail, King! for so thou art. Behold where stands / Th’ usurper’s cursèd head. The time is free.”
Macduff greets Malcolm as king and shows Macbeth’s severed head. Scotland is now free from tyranny.

• Theme: Restoration of order, justice
• Analysis: Macbeth’s head represents the fall of evil and the return of rightful rule.

“I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl”
Macduff sees Malcolm surrounded by noble men—Scotland’s best.

“Whose voices I desire aloud with mine. / Hail, King of Scotland!”
He wants everyone to shout with him: Malcolm is king!

ALL: “Hail, King of Scotland!”
They all cheer and accept Malcolm as their rightful ruler.

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MALCOLM (final speech):

“We shall not spend a large expense of time / Before we reckon with your several loves”
Malcolm says they’ll soon reward those who supported him.

“Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland / In such an honor named.”
He gives all the thanes a new English title—“earl”—for the first time in Scotland’s history.

• Theme: New beginnings, honor
• Analysis: He’s signaling a fresh start and unity with England.

“As calling home our exiled friends abroad / That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,”
He’ll bring back all those who ran from Macbeth’s rule.

“Producing forth the cruel ministers / Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen”
He’ll punish the people who helped Macbeth and Lady Macbeth—whom he calls a “fiend.”

• Device: Metaphor (“dead butcher,” “fiend-like queen”)
• Theme: Tyranny, justice

“(Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands, / Took off her life)”
He mentions Lady Macbeth’s suicide.

“We will perform in measure, time, and place.”
He promises to carry out justice fairly and calmly.

“So thanks to all at once and to each one, / Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.”
He thanks everyone and invites them to witness his coronation.