Macbeth: Viewpoint and narration
14 lenses on viewpoint and narration for Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Count lenses are exact for our text. AI lenses are our reading and cite only quotes that passed a word for word check.
Jump to: E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 E9 E10 E11 E12 E13 E14
E1. Person and tense: first or third, past or present. Count
A play: characters speak in the present; stage directions are in the present tense.
E2. Whose viewpoint is each chapter? Both
play script. See the full lens on the book page.
E3. Share of the book told by each viewpoint character. Both
Viewpoint is distributed across multiple characters. Macbeth dominates scenes 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 18, 23, 25, 26, 27. Lady Macbeth, Macduff, Malcolm, and Duncan each anchor several scenes.
Scenes (numbered through the play): Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 5, Scene 7, Scene 10, Scene 12
E4. Narrative distance: close inside a head, or far off? AI
Narrative distance is close inside characters' heads during soliloquies and intimate scenes. Macbeth's dagger vision and Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking show internal torment directly. Battle scenes are more distant.
Scenes (numbered through the play): Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 13, Scene 21, Scene 25
Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:— I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. (Ch 8, para 22)
Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep,”—the innocent sleep; Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care (Ch 9, para 23)
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red. (Ch 9, para 30)
E5. Strict viewpoint or head hopping? AI
Strict viewpoint per scene; the play does not head hop within a single scene. Each scene is anchored to one or two characters' perspectives, though the audience sees all action.
Scenes (numbered through the play): Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 10
E6. Is the narrator reliable? Where are the cracks? AI
The narrator is not present; characters are reliable within their knowledge. Macbeth misinterprets the witches' prophecies, but the audience sees the truth. Lady Macbeth's guilt is genuine, not hidden.
Scenes (numbered through the play): Scene 18, Scene 23, Scene 27
This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill; cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? (Ch 3, para 48)
Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. (Ch 18, para 38)
Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him. (Ch 18, para 44)
E7. Frames and tales within tales. AI
No frames or tales within tales. The play is a direct dramatic action with no embedded narratives or stories told by characters about past events.
E8. Narrator asides and addresses to the reader. Both
7 paragraphs where the narrator seems to speak to the reader or about the telling. (rough estimate from word lists)
Ch 4, para 8: DUNCAN. Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing.—Noble Banquo, That hast no less deserv’d, nor must be known …
Ch 8, para 22: Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:— I have thee not, and yet I see thee …
Ch 18, para 25: MACBETH. Call ’em, let me see ’em.
Ch 18, para 48: MACBETH. I will be satisfied: deny me this, And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know. Why sinks that cauldron? and what noise is this?
Ch 20, para 54: MACDUFF. If it be mine, Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it.
Ch 25, para 18: MESSENGER. Let me endure your wrath, if’t be not so. Within this three mile may you see it coming; I say, a moving grove.
No narrator asides or addresses to the reader. The play is pure dialogue and stage directions; no authorial voice intrudes.
E9. Documents used: letters, diaries, reports, by type and sender. Both
How often each kind of document is named in the narration. (rough estimate from word lists)
| Document | Mentions |
|---|---|
| will | 63 |
| report | 9 |
| note | 4 |
| letter | 2 |
Macbeth's letter to Lady Macbeth in scene 5 reports the witches' prophecies. Messengers deliver news of battles, murders, and approaching armies. No diaries or formal documents.
Scenes (numbered through the play): Scene 5, Scene 10, Scene 17, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 23
E10. What the narrator hides, and where the reader knows more than the lead. AI
The audience knows more than Macbeth about the witches' deception. Scenes 18 and 27 reveal that the prophecies are ambiguous; Macbeth misreads them until the final battle.
Scenes (numbered through the play): Scene 18, Scene 23, Scene 27
Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. (Ch 18, para 38)
Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him. (Ch 18, para 44)
Despair thy charm; And let the angel whom thou still hast serv’d Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb Untimely ripp’d. (Ch 27, para 9)
E11. Free indirect style: where the narrator slips into a character's voice. AI
Free indirect style is minimal in a play script. Soliloquies like Macbeth's in scene 8 and Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking in scene 21 slip into characters' inner voices without mediation.
Scenes (numbered through the play): Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 13, Scene 21, Scene 25
Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:— I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. (Ch 8, para 22)
Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep,”—the innocent sleep; Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care (Ch 9, para 23)
Out, damned spot! out, I say! One; two. Why, then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky! Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? (Ch 21, para 18)
E12. How thought is shown: tagged, italic or blended. Count
Thought is mostly shown with tags like thought, wondered, reflected.
| Tag | Times |
|---|---|
| thought | 13 |
| wondered | 0 |
| reflected | 0 |
| said to himself | 0 |
| said to herself | 0 |
| asked himself | 0 |
| asked herself | 0 |
| told himself | 0 |
E13. What triggers each change of viewpoint? AI
Viewpoint changes at scene breaks. Each new scene introduces a new location and often a new focal character. No mid scene shifts occur.
Scenes (numbered through the play): Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 10
E14. Hindsight: where an older narrator comments on events. AI
No hindsight narrator. The play unfolds in present time; characters do not reflect on past events with mature perspective.
Ask Macbeth a question about its craft (free beta)
Answers cite chapter and paragraph, and every quote is checked against the text. (3 free questions a day).
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