Scene I
Lady Macbeth has gone mad. Like her husband, she cannot find any rest, but she is suffering more clearly
from a psychological disorder that causes her, as she sleepwalks, to recall fragments of the events of the murders of Duncan,
Banquo, and Lady Macduff. These incriminating words are overheard by the Doctor and a lady-in-waiting.
Scene II
Four lords of Scotland—Lennox, Menteth, Angus, and Caithness—resolve to join Malcolm and the
English forces, who have by now marched into Scotland and are encamped at Birnam Wood, not far from Macbeth’s stronghold
at Dunsinane.
Scene III
Macbeth dismisses reports of invasion by trusting to the prophecies of the apparitions, which seemed to
promise him invincibility in battle. When a servant enters to announce the approach of a huge army, Macbeth appears momentarily
to lose courage and then angrily spurns his servant and orders his armor to be put on. The Doctor, whose news concerning Lady
Macbeth is just as grim, is treated with similar contempt.
Scene IV
The English and rebel Scottish armies, under the leadership of Malcolm, meet at Birnam Wood. With military
foresight, Malcolm orders each soldier to cut a branch and carry it in front of him as camouflage “to shadow the numbers
of our host”—that is, to conceal the actual size of the advancing army.
Scene V
Now fully armed, Macbeth confidently turns all his scorn on the advancing armies, only to find his brave
rhetoric interrupted by an offstage shriek. The queen is dead—whether by her own hand is not made clear—and Macbeth
is left to contemplate a lonely future of endless tomorrows “signifying nothing.” Yet another blow comes with
the announcement that Birnam Wood appears to have uprooted itself and is even now advancing towards Dunsinane. Again Macbeth
recalls the prophecies of Act IV, sure of, but still wishing to deny, their powerful truth.
Scene VI
Malcolm and his troops have reached Dunsinane under the “leafy screens” of the branches, thus
fulfilling the prophecy of the apparitions: Birnam wood has come to Dunsinane.
Scene VII
In a scene that foreshadows the final destruction of a tyrant in single combat, Macbeth is challenged by
the courageous son of Siward. Immediately afterwards, Macduff is seen eagerly seeking out the man who was responsible for
the murder of his family. Lastly, it is announced that Macbeth’s forces have surrendered Dunsinane castle. But the business
is not yet finished.
Scene VIII
On another part of the battlefield, Macbeth and Macduff finally come face to face. Words, then sword thrusts
are exchanged, and Macbeth, the bloody and tyrannical usurper of the throne of Scotland, meets his predestined end.
Scene IX
In the freshly taken castle of Dunsinane, events move to their natural conclusion. With the tyrant dead
and war honors duly acknowledged, Malcolm is proclaimed by all the assembled thanes to be the new king of Scotland.
