He realises that as soon as he killed Duncan, he would have started down an evil road that he would never be able to return along, and to secure his position he would just have to keep on murdering those who could prove a problem to him. Macbeth even has his best friend murdered, but, uncharacteristically baulks at doing the deed himself and hires others to complete his dirty work for him, which also involves murdering a 10-year-old boy, Banquo’s son. However, the news of the escape of Fleance shakes Macbeth to the core.
Later on in the play, Macbeth has Macduff’s entire family murdered out of spite for Macduff, which seems very brutal even by Macbeth’s impressive standards.
One thing I did notice to be consistent throughout the play was the deterioration of both Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s mental condition. This all starts about the time of the murder of Duncan, when Macbeth sees a mysterious dagger leading him towards Duncan’s chamber, and becomes even more apparent after the murder of Banquo, when Macbeth sees an apparition of Banquo, covered in blood. This could be his conscience. Lady Macbeth also begins to hallucinate and picture her hands covered in blood whilst she still sleeps. There is a lot of such bloody and violent imagery throughout the play. She eventually dies, although Shakespeare omits to mention how, and we are left to speculate. Macbeth becomes increasingly wild and unpredictable and by the end of the play all but the most faithful to his cause, those too stupid to see its doom, and those too afraid to turn traitor against it have abandoned Macbeth in his castle. He, however, is by this time too deranged to notice anything amiss. This much is evident from his use of language and his gradual loss of emotion. He is not completely mad, as he does retain some sanity for his fight with Macduff.
The statement that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are ‘evil murderers’ I find to be over exaggerated, because at heart I believe that there is still some compassion, certainly in Lady Macbeth, even if not really in her husband, as she continues to love her husband until she goes mad. Her compassionate side is also visible in her inability to murder Duncan.
At the start of the play, Macbeth has many redeeming features, notably: bravery, loyalty, courage, love, and motivation, to an extent. Halfway through the play he appears to have lost bravery and courage when he cannot murder his friend himself and then runs from his ghost, he has also very little love left for his wife, as his mind is on other things, and his motivation has gone, as what he wanted has been achieved. His loyalty has gone, as there is no one to be loyal to apart from maybe his wife. At the end of the play he has definitely lost love and motivation, but he seems to have regained his bravery and courage, but this may only be because he knows that he is finished, whatever happens, and resolves to put on a brave face until the end; “Why should I play the Roman fool and die on mine own sword?”
This play was written at a time when England had a new Scottish king, so the idea was rather appropriate, if not rather treasonous. At the time there was a lot more political and social significance. Lady Macbeth is a very interesting character, because I think that she is not actually evil, but it is just through her love for her husband that evil is worked. She seeks only to do good for her husband, due to her extraordinary motivation, which makes her willing to do anything she thinks would help him, and she is presented the perfect opportunity by the witches. She does not view her deeds as evil, but as what was meant to happen. She is just not very moral, and, as she does not know Duncan as well as Macbeth, she would have little difficulty in killing him. For Macbeth, however, it is a different matter: Duncan has just honoured Macbeth, and both have a great respect for each other. However, she cannot bring herself to murder Duncan when she has the chance, because, she says; “Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t.” This shows that she still holds compassion for others and is not the brutal and cold-blooded murderer that she appears to be. Throughout the play she loves her husband refuses to leave him to his fate, even as she herself begins to lose her sanity. It is possible that she commits suicide towards the end of the play; she definitely dies, but we are left to speculate as to how; “who, as ‘tis thought…took off her life”
Her redeeming features are, in a way, her motivation, although her desire to do good leads to evil. Her motivation is due to another of her virtues: love. She is willing to do anything for Macbeth, and sis greatly worried when his mental health breaks down, such as at the banquet feast, when Macbeth has a vision of Banquo’s corpse, who he has just had murdered. He practically admits his guilt to them, especially of the murder of Duncan. Lady Macbeth is instantly making excuse on her husbands behalf, and gets the Lords to leave so that there are no further damning revelations. This is typical of her love for her husband, through thick and thin, even when the outlook is bleak.
I believe that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are not evil murderers. However, both possess some evil qualities, as well as their good ones. On the one side there is murder itself, deceit, cowardice, motivation, cold-heartedness and evil itself, whilst on the other side there is bravery, motivation, strength, love, courage, loyalty and guilt. All these features weigh up and show that there is always more good than evil in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth himself have redeeming qualities, some they retain until the end, some that they gradually abandon, and some that they gain, but I do not think that they are evil murderers, but were originally good, loyal people who are slowly tainted by the witches and the emergence of the ambitions. I personally believe that none of the murders would ever have occurred had the witches not spurred Macbeth’s ambitions.
