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Macbeth Drawing Ideas

One symbol, witch scene, character, line or layout from the play per press, most with act and scene.

Macbeth Drawing Ideas

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  1. A king asking questions over a cauldron"How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!" (4.1). He has come back for answers.

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Symbols 12

  • A candle with its flame just gone to smoke "Out, out, brief candle!" (5.5). One curl of smoke where the flame was.
  • A clock that says day under a black sky "By the clock 'tis day, and yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp" (2.4). Draw the lamp as the sun.
  • A crown that casts too long a shadow Lady Macbeth calls the crown "the golden round" (1.5). The shadow is yours to stretch.
  • A flower with a snake curled under its leaves "Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't" (1.5).
  • A hoarse raven on a battlement "The raven himself is hoarse" (1.5). Lady Macbeth says it as the king's visit is announced.
  • A night sky with every star gone dark "Stars, hide your fires" (1.4). Banquo says of the sky, "Their candles are all out" (2.1).
  • A small figure lost inside a huge robe His title hangs on him "like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief" (5.2). Sleeves to the floor.
  • A tangled thread being knitted smooth Sleep is what "knits up the ravell'd sleave of care" (2.2). Tangle on the left, even rows on the right.
  • A wood that walks: trees on legs going uphill The prophecy names "Great Birnam wood" and "high Dunsinane hill" (4.1). In Act 5 the wood seems to move.
  • An owl perched above a falcon An old man tells of "a mousing owl" that went after a falcon (2.4): the natural order upside down.
  • Birds nesting under the eaves of a castle Banquo points out the "temple-haunting martlet" that nests on the walls (1.6). The castle looks kind.
  • Two hands held under running water "A little water clears us of this deed" (2.2). Clean hands and clear water, nothing more.

The witches 12

  • A cat that mews three times and a hedge-pig that whines once "Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd." "Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whin'd" (4.1). Two witches, two animals.
  • A cauldron bubbling over a fire "Double, double, toil and trouble; fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble" (4.1). Round pot, three legs.
  • A child of smoke wearing a crown and holding a tree The stage direction: "An Apparition of a Child crowned, with a tree in his hand" (4.1).
  • A line of eight kings, the last holding a mirror "A show of eight kings", "the last with a glass in his hand" (4.1). Draw the glass as a hand mirror.
  • A sailor's wife with chestnuts in her lap "A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, and mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd" (1.3).
  • A shelf of labeled jars: newt, frog, bat, dog The recipe: "Eye of newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog" (4.1). Letter each label.
  • A thumb held up like a weathervane "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes" (4.1). A witch says it as Macbeth nears.
  • A witch sailing in a kitchen sieve "But in a sieve I'll thither sail" (1.3). A round sieve, a rag of sail, rough water.
  • Three figures on a heath in thunder and lightning "Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches" (1.1). Where will they meet next? "Upon the heath."
  • Three shapes thinning into air like breath They vanish "into the air", "as breath into the wind" (1.3). Solid at the feet, gone at the head.
  • Three sisters dancing in a ring, hand in hand "The Weird Sisters, hand in hand" (1.3). They go round as they chant: "Thus do go about, about".
  • Three smoke shapes over a pot, each with a ribbon of words Draw the apparitions of 4.1 as smoke and letter what they say: "none of woman born", "Birnam wood".

Scenes by act 12

  • A boy with a torch lighting his father across a courtyard "How goes the night, boy?" "The moon is down" (2.1). Banquo and his son Fleance.
  • A feast table with one empty chair Macbeth looks at his own seat and says, "The table's full" (3.4). Draw the chair empty.
  • A king arriving at a castle in clear air "This castle hath a pleasant seat" (1.6). Duncan likes the place the moment he sees it.
  • A king asking questions over a cauldron "How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!" (4.1). He has come back for answers.
  • A letter read by a window "Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter" (1.5). It tells her what the witches said.
  • A messenger pointing at a hill where the trees seem to move He reports: "The wood began to move" (5.5). Of this prophecy Macbeth had said, "That will never be" (4.1).
  • A new king hailed, and a road leading to a coronation The last line invites all "to see us crown'd at Scone" (5.8). Malcolm speaks it.
  • A sleepy porter with a ring of keys at a gate "Here's a knocking indeed!" (2.3). He grumbles and jokes all the way to the door.
  • A woman walking in her sleep with a taper "Enter Lady Macbeth with a taper" (5.1). A doctor and a gentlewoman watch from the side.
  • Soldiers each carrying a leafy branch "Let every soldier hew him down a bough, and bear't before him" (5.4). Malcolm gives the order.
  • Two exiles talking in the shade of a tree Malcolm to Macduff: "Let us seek out some desolate shade" (4.3). They are far from home.
  • Two travelers stopped on a heath by three strangers "So foul and fair a day I have not seen" (1.3). They greet Macbeth by three titles, one after another.

Characters and lines 12

  • A doctor taking notes by a doorway "I will set down what comes from her" (5.1). A notebook, a pen, a worried face.
  • A line about a false face lettered on a mask "False face must hide what the false heart doth know" (1.7). Macbeth ends the act with it.
  • A line about time lettered around an hourglass "Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day" (1.3). Macbeth, aside.
  • Banquo with a row of small crowns stretching behind him The witches tell him: "Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none" (1.3).
  • "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" lettered as a mirror image All three witches say it (1.1). Letter half the line forward and half reversed.
  • King Duncan as a crown and a traveling cloak In 1.4 he names "our eldest, Malcolm" as his heir. Draw the giver, by his things.
  • Lady Macbeth with a light that never leaves her side "She has light by her continually; 'tis her command" (5.1). A small flame in every picture of her.
  • "Life's but a walking shadow" lettered along a long shadow From the same speech (5.5): "a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage".
  • Macbeth wearing three name tags, one above another The greetings of 1.3: "Thane of Glamis", "Thane of Cawdor", then "king hereafter".
  • Malcolm with a crown held just above his head Named heir in 1.4; hailed "King of Scotland" in the last scene (5.8). Not yet crowned when it ends.
  • "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" on three calendar leaves Macbeth (5.5). One word to a leaf, each leaf a little fainter.
  • "What's done cannot be undone" on a knotted rope Lady Macbeth, sleepwalking (5.1). One knot that will not come loose.

Project layouts 12

  • A book cover: a crown balanced on a candle Two of the play's own pictures in one: "the golden round" (1.5) and the "brief candle" (5.5).
  • A character web with one man in the middle Macbeth at the center; lines out to his wife, Banquo, Duncan, Macduff, Malcolm and the witches.
  • A chart of who holds the crown Three names in order: Duncan, Macbeth, Malcolm. Add the act and scene where each change is told.
  • A comic page of the cauldron scene, told in smoke The chant, the thumbs, his questions, three smoke shapes, the line of kings, the witches vanished (4.1).
  • A cut-paper castle at night with one lit window Black paper, one yellow square. The window can be the one where the letter is read (1.5).
  • A feast seating plan with one seat left blank The feast of 3.4. Name the guests the scene names: Lennox and Ross are both at the table.
  • A fortune graph that climbs and drops across the play Mark the scene where you think he stands highest, and write one line beside it saying why.
  • A map of the play's Scotland with five place names Forres, Inverness, Scone, Birnam and Dunsinane are all named in the text. Check an atlas for where.
  • A playbill with a castle skyline along the bottom Title, author, your own cast list. The castles in the text are Inverness and Dunsinane.
  • A poster with a crown above and a cauldron below The two halves of the play: what he wants and who told him. Title across the middle.
  • A prophecy scorecard in two columns Left: what the witches say in 1.3 and 4.1. Right: the scene where each comes true, and how.
  • A weather chart for the play: thunder, fog, dark at noon Thunder opens 1.1, 1.3 and 4.1. "Fog and filthy air" is in 1.1. Day turns dark in 2.4.

How it works

These Macbeth drawing ideas keep to the pictures the play itself makes: a crown, a candle, hands under running water, a wood that walks. In a hint, 4.1 means Act 4, scene 1.

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Five groups from one play

Symbols are the play's repeated pictures: light going out, a robe that does not fit, birds behaving strangely. The witches has the heath, the sieve, the cauldron and the smoke shapes that rise from it. Scenes by act runs from the first meeting to the new king. Characters and lines pairs people with quotations to letter. Project layouts are whole assignments.

Guilt as water, prophecy as smoke

The play's hardest moments are drawn through its own images. Guilt is two hands under running water and a light kept burning all night. The apparitions are smoke over the cauldron with their words lettered beside them. Power is a crown and the shadow it throws.

  • Keep one small flame in every picture of Lady Macbeth. The text says she has light by her continually.
  • Act and scene numbers follow the Project Gutenberg text of the play. Check your class edition before you letter one on a poster.

Questions and answers

What can I draw for Macbeth?

For a single picture, a hoarse raven on a battlement, a snake under a flower or three figures on a heath. For a project, a chart of who holds the crown, a map of the play's Scotland or a comic of the cauldron scene.

What are the symbols in Macbeth?

Light and darkness, with stars and candles going out; water and washing; sleep; clothes that do not fit, like a giant's robe; and birds: the raven, the owl, the falcon and the martlet. Each is in the Symbols group.

What do the three witches tell Macbeth?

In Act 1 they greet him as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and king hereafter. In Act 4 the apparitions tell him that none of woman born shall harm him, and that he is safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane.

What goes in the witches' cauldron in Macbeth?

The best-known lines list eye of newt, toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog, then adder's fork, blind-worm's sting, lizard's leg and howlet's wing. A shelf of labeled jars shows them without drawing the brew.

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