Scene 1

• setting: a dark cave with a bubbling cauldron
• the three witches appear and circle the cauldron, chanting charms and putting ingredients in the cauldron
• Hecate appears and praises the witches‘ work
• Macbeth enters and the witches summon horrible apparitions in order to answer Macbeth‘s questions
  
  • a floating head warns Macbeth of Macduff
  • a blood-covered child calms Macbeth by explaining that he cannot be killed by any man "of woman born"
  • a child wearing a crown and holding onto a tree promises that Macbeth cannot lose in battle until Birnam wood physically moves toward his stronghold at Dunsinane
  • finally, Macbeth is presented with an image of a ghostly procession of eight future kings, which is followed by Banquo
• Macbeth is confused by the last apparition
• Lenox enters and informs Macbeth that Macduff has fled to England
• consequently, Macbeth decides to send murderers to kill Macduff‘s family

Scene 2

• setting: Macduff‘s castle
• Lady Macduff asks Rosse why her husband has fled
• Rosse answers that she should just trust her husband and leaves shortly afterwards
• the lady tells her son that his father is dead, but the child insists that he is not
• a messenger arrives and warns Lady Macduff that she is in danger and that she should flee
• Lady Macduff does not feel guilty of anything and protests
• a group of murderers enters and they kill Macduff‘s son
• Lady Macduff runs away and the murderers hurry after her

Scene 3

• setting: England, a room in King Edward‘s palace
• Malcolm explains to Macduff that he does not trust him because he has left his family in Scotland behind
• Malcolm wonders if Macduff is trustworthy and puts him under a test: he goes on about his own vices and ponders about whether he might even be fit to be king as he is lustful, greedy and violent
• Macduff disagrees at first but as he is too loyal to Scotland and fears about its safety, he eventually agrees with Malcolm that he is not fit to rule Scotland
• in voicing his disagreement, Macduff has passed Malcolm‘s test of loyalty
• Malcolm then sets everything straight and embraces Macduff as an ally
• when a doctor appears and tells Macduff and Malcolm about the wretched souls who wait for King Edward to cure them, Malcolm explains that King Edward has miraculous powers
• Rosse enters and informs Macduff that his wife and his children are well
• he continues reporting the terrible conditions that trouble Scotland since Macbeth has become king
• Malcolm replies that he will invade Scotland with ten thousand English soldiers
• Rosse drops his masquerade and tells Macduff about Macbeth murdering his wife and children
• Macduff grieves and Malcolm ushers him into turning his grief into anger and avenging his family

Function Scene 1-3

• witches (the weird sisters) as goddesses of destiny or as supernatural embodiments of the Christian concept of original sin
  
  • the word weird descends from the word wyrd which means fate or doom
  • prophecies are supposed to confuse their audience so that they become self-fulfilling
  • Macbeth would not have been likely to kill Duncan if not for the prophecy
  • however, the prophecies might as well be accurate readings of the future
  • Macbeth is the most explicitly Christian of Shakespeare‘s tragedies
  • evil deeds first lead to psychological torment and then to destruction
• the symbolism of the apparitions (which foreshadow the way the prophecies will be fulfilled)
  
  • the armored head hints at a war
  • the bloody child refers to Macduff’s birth by cesarean section he is not “of woman born” (Act IV, Scene 1, 80)
  • the crowned child is supposed to be Malcolm who carries a tree (just like his soldiers later on carry tree branches)
  • the procession of kings reveals the future line of kings who all descend from Banquo
• Macbeth‘s descend into utter madness is marked by the murder of the Macduffs‘
  
  • he is not politically motivated to kill them but does so out of a pure desire to do harm
  • his method of kingship is based upon immoral legitimacy and not on loyalty to the state
• Macduff as teacher for Malcolm
  
  • Malcolm has a somewhat twisted understanding of manhood that is quite similar to Macbeth‘s
  • Macduff shows that manhood is more than aggression and murder; it is also about allowing oneself to be sensitive and to feel grief
  • for Malcolm, this is an important lesson to learn how to be a judicious, honest and compessionate king