As soon as we start to read the play, we learn that Macbeth has earned himself an honorable reputation, and is described by King Duncan as a ‘valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!’ His loyalty and bravery are portrayed through his defeat of the Norwegian army and Scottish rebels, and he returns from battle, a gallant and reputable soldier. The extent of his courage is shown as he is interminably praised by his noblemen, has become a hero of Scotland, and the thane of Cawdor, although he does not know this yet.
Whilst returning from a tough battle, he meets the three witches. They are dark, mysterious creatures, who are portrayed as supernatural beings that symbolise evil. We are shown their evil characteristics when they utter the phrase,
‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’,
which means good is evil and evil is good. Their evil appearance raises questions about their gender,
‘you should be women\ And yet your beards forbid me to interpret, \ That you are so’,
which is able to shroud the readers in a vague understanding of their existence.
They seem hold some possessive qualities, as Macbeth echoes the witches’ words,
‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’. As the witches reveal their prophecies to Macbeth, telling him of future royalties, ‘hail to thee, thane of Cawdor’, ‘that shalt be king hereafter’,
Macbeth’s mind is set going. After being told by a nobleman, Ross, that he has being given the title of Thane of Cawdor, due to the execution of the previous thane, he is surprised, ‘What! Can the devil speak true?’ but at the same time, he starts to think of his second prophecy,
‘Glamis and Thane of Cawdor:\The greatest is behind.’
Even so, Macbeth has an obstacle to overcome, as Malcolm is to be the heir to Duncan. Macbeth sees this as a threat, ‘The prince of Cumberland! That is a step, \On which I must fall down, or else o’er-leap.’
Even at this early stage, the thought of the murder of king Duncan sets in,
‘My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, \ shakes so my single state of man’,
but he is clearly traumatized by the thought. It seems that the witches chose Macbeth instead of Banquo, because Macbeth seems easily influenced, whilst Banquo is more settled, as we see here, when he talks of Macbeth,
‘Look how our partner’s rapt’.
We can see here the foundation of all of Macbeth's desires. As of yet, he is weary of his newfound prophecies, but is already thinking how he can help them grow. There is a probability that Macbeth's thoughts are being controlled, but that can be argued.
After Lady Macbeth receives word of the prophecies, she seems to go into a state of madness, and she calls on the devils and supernatural to,
‘unsex me here, \And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full, \Of direst cruelty, and to relieve her of any remorse that women possess’.
This unsexing bears a strange correspondence with the witches’ own ambiguous sexuality, which adds to the paranormal aura of the play. She feels that Macbeth is too merciful and inadequate to seize the throne from the king and fulfill both of their dreams. After all that we know about Macbeth, it seems that even Macbeth’s bravery is easily over shadowed by his wife’s ambitious aspirations and bloodthirsty nature. She is now able to graft Macbeth’s character into a person who has the guts to endure what’s to be carried out, which would go against every fibre in Macbeth's body. Even so, Lady Macbeth has something on her side: Macbeth's ambition.
Although Macbeth is thinking along the same lines as Lady Macbeth, he lacks the ruthlessness that Lady Macbeth possesses, and she uses her cunning to convince him to take the steps that are needed. Because Macbeth had shown some courage previously, when talking to Lady Macbeth, she brings that back, and challenges Macbeth, asking him weather that was just in a state of drunkenness,
‘Was the hope drunk, \Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? , \ And wakes it now, to look so green and pale, \At what it did so freely?’ (1,7,36-39).
This pressure from his wife, to do the deed and prove himself manly, leads him to strengthen his will, and also shows how easily influenced he is
‘I am settled, and bend up, \Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.’ (1,7,79-80).
After the killing of Duncan, we see Macbeth systematically killing the two guards. This is a demonstration of Macbeth's newfound ruthlessness, as he shows no remorse for king Duncan’s death, to the extent that he butchers the guards in cold blood for a deed, which they were never culpable of.
We can see that Macbeth has been partially scarred, as he refuses to go back to the room to plant the daggers, so as to frame the guards,
‘I’ll go no more:\I am afraid to think what I have done.’ (2,2,51-52).
We see that he already has a guilty conscience, for his ruthlessness was short-lived, and we see Lady Macbeth doing the last part of the job. Macbeth admits that after murdering Duncan, he wasn’t able to utter a religious word,
‘But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’?’ (2,2,31).
Could God have forsaken Macbeth, and had not allowed him to utter ‘Amen’, or could the witches have been controlling him, not permitting him to utter the word.
There are clearly some different factors, working to affect Macbeth's judgments and actions. We have the witches who have given him an incentive to try and gain the throne, by telling him he will become king, although they didn’t tell Macbeth how, and it was up to him how he interpreted their prophecies. There is the possibility that the witches could have some sort of supernatural control, over Macbeth, although that is uncertain. The last factor is Lady Macbeth, who is a very big influence, denouncing Macbeth’s manhood, if he dare withdraw from the deadly deeds that they involved themselves in.
At this moment, Macbeth is starting to arouse suspicion in Banquo, as we see when his thoughts revealed to us in (Act three Scene I),
‘I fear\Thou play’dst most foully for’t,’ (Ln 2-3),
but Macbeth has other plans for Banquo. In a very revealing soliloquy, in the same scene, Macbeth reveals to us his deepest feelings and desires,
‘our fears in Banquo/Stick deep,’(Ln 48,49).
Macbeth realises the witches’ prophecy directed to the sons of Banquo, declaring that they were to become future kings, would signify that Macbeth’s legacy would in turn soon be denied,
‘For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind, \For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered’ (3,1,64-65),
and scolds himself for the actions he has taken. But ambition still reins in his twisted mind, and he conspires to kill Banquo and Banquo’s son, Fleance, in a desperate attempt to prevent the witches’ prophecy from surfacing. He is in essence combating evil with evil, to spoil the witches’ prophecies, but things have changed. As he has attained a superior rank, he doesn’t want to get his hands soiled, and leaves the dirty work for two hired murderers,
‘there shall be done/A deed of dreadful note,’ (3,2,43-44).
We can see how the scene has changed, and how Macbeth’s ever imposing character is developing, when he meets Lady Macbeth. It is almost a reversal of character, as Macbeth is now the commanding voice, and his wife, seems to be in recession. This is also shown by the way he conspires to kill Banquo, and doesn’t engage his wife. Also it is now him speaking in high tone metaphorical language,
‘We have scotched the snake, not killed it:\She’ll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice\Remains in danger of her former tooth,’ (3,2,13-15).
his now marks the point at which Macbeth has broken all his morals, and is currently under no influence from the witches or Lady Macbeth. The actions that he proceeds to carry out are self-motivated, spurred on by the will to be all-powerful, unmatched and unrivalled. This means that he has to eliminate anybody who he sees as a threat to his throne, and that means even women and children.
After hearing that Banquo is dead, but Fleance has escaped the slaughter, Macbeth doesn’t seem too concerned, until the ghost of Banquo suddenly appears. This sudden apparition is suggestive of a warning from the witches, not meddle around with other peoples businesses. Macbeth is clearly distressed by the sudden appearance of Banquo’s ghost,
‘never shake \ Thy gory locks at me’, and Lady Macbeth is needed to calm him down and put him back in line.
After his encounter with the ghost of Banquo, he goes to the witches to seek answers. It seems that everything that he does is fuelled by the witches’ prophecies, and he needs them to tell him what’s to become of himself. What he learns boosts his self-confidence sky high and allows him to feel unchallengeable. The witches tell him through apparitions that,
‘none of woman born\Shall harm Macbeth,’ (4,1,80-81), and, ‘Macbeth shall never vanquished be until\Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill\Shall come against him,’ (4,1,92-94).
Macbeth is also told to beware of Macduff, and so he sends for his wife and child to be murdered, as a reprisal. We can see that Macbeth is once more acting upon the witches’ prophecies, and using violence and force to pursue them. During act 4, Macbeth makes a statement about the weird sisters,
‘damned all those that trust them,’(4,1,139),
and that was probably the one time that he sounded sane, in the midst of all the murder he had been involved with. Even so, he still reverted to his ‘sinister’ ways, following his long trail of treachery. This is furthermore shown by the death of Lady Macbeth, as Macbeth seems to show no remorse, casually uttering,
‘She should have died hereafter;\There would have been a time for such a word,’ (5,5,17-18).
Macbeth is only shaken by word that,
‘The wood began to move,’ (5,5,35).
He is immediately angry, doubtful of his fate, and ponders the truthfulness of the prophecies, and what they mean to him now. He immediately tries to reassure himself,
‘What’s he\That was not born if woman? Such a one\ Am I to fear, or none,’ (5,6,12-14).
Again we see that he is relying on the prophecies, even though the first one has betrayed him. As Macbeth finds himself in a duel with Macduff, he discovers that Macduff wasn’t born, but,
‘was from his mother’s womb\Untimely ripped.
This denounced the last prophecy, and with it, Macbeth's confidence, and although he puts on a brave face, and refuses to surrender, he is slain.
There is a possibility that the supernatural powers harnessed by the witches could have been use to control Macbeth, and force him to carry out the evil acts that he fulfilled, although we are not informed of any such goings on, and so cannot be sure of it. However that doesn’t signify that the witches didn’t have any influence to manipulate Macbeth. They provided him with notions that he will become king, and that he would not succumb to death from a man born of a woman. How he achieved those prophecies was his undertaking, and in the end it was wholly his choice of the path he would take to attain the high-ranking titles he was prophesied. His ambition would lead him astray. Lady Macbeth was a huge influence, and was the milestone between good and evil. Eventually she tipped the balance and was able to sway Macbeth into her wicked ideology. After this, Macbeth reinforced himself in his murderous and immoral actions, up to the point when he couldn’t care less when his wife died. Seeped in his self-confidence, he was distraught when one by one the prophecies began to betray him, and he paid the inevitable price. Therefore, I feel that Macbeth was responsible for his actions and his ambition proves to be his downfall.
