Between Act one Scene Three and Act two Scene one, many events happen. The Thane Of Cawdor has been executed, and Duncan names Mabeth as his successor, and then invites himself to Macbeths castle. A eager Macbeth sees that “chance” will not make him king and makes his mind up to do something about it. Lady Macbeth becomes startled to learn that Duncan is on his way to the castle, and later calls upon the evil spirits to make her ruthless, so she can committ the murder. Also Lady Macbeth can see Macbeths feelings by his facial expressions so demands that he hides them and to leave everything to her. Up until act 3, Macbeth is unsure whether to commit the murder constantly changing his mind. Lady Macbeth speaks to Macbeth and persuades Macbeth into killing duncan with her intelligent thinking.
Act One scene Three opens with the sisters asking where they have been and the third witch tells them how she watched a sailors wife eat lots of chesnuts” munched and munched and munched”. She asked for one and the sailors wife, rudely replied”aroint thee witch” The witch learns that her husband is a sailor and has gone sailing. The witch claims that “in a sieve I’ll thither sail, and like a rat without a tail, I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do”.’ This is a lengthy decription of all of the things this witch is going to do to this sailor, whose wife was liable for his ill health and terrible times out at sea. They tell us that the ship shall be “tempest-tossed” which means they will create great storms, “sleep shall neither night nor day” and “I’ll drain him dry as hay”, by these two figures of speech , they mean they will not allow him to sleep and they will drain him of all the energy that was present in his vulnerbale human body consequently making him infertile. Half way through this scene “Macbeth doth come”, before his appearance the three witches link hand and begin making a spell. Macbeth enters a says “so foul and fair a day I have not seen” by this he means he has never seen a day so good yet with the weather is awful. The witches are a physical embodiments of Macbeth’s ‘vaulting ambition’ and his desire for power. They represent the unnatural damage done to nature and the order of society and religion when the king and God are overthrown. The witches are perhaps that seed of temptation within every human being which is what makes Macbeth’s fate a tragedy: he is representative of all humankind. Banquo has similar choices but intelligently ignores the witches words.
Before committing the murder Macbeth wonders, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come let me clutch thee”. He can see a dagger in front of him and yet he is not sure whether it is one of real nature of “a dagger of the mind, a flase creation”. Finally Macbeth says “I go, and it is done. The bell invites me. Hear it not Duncan, for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell” . Again here the irnoically tragedy is that this act will send Duncan directly to heaven but Macbeth diectly to hell. In the Jacobean era kings were thought to be the closest to God. If the king was murdered it was an attack on the religious and natural order and the consequences would be those of offending God and the entire religious, Christian, order. This suggests the moral evil that will be committed if he kills the king. Macbeth continues to list all the reasons why he should and shouldn’t commit this relentless sin of evil
Finally looking at a scene where the role of the supernatural is integral into the downfall of Macbeth must be, Act two scene one. This is set in the courtyard of Macbeth’s castle. In this scene we see the build up of tension climaxing in Macbeth committing the murder himself. Origanally Lady Macbeth was going to take on the deed herself, and she was described to be male-like to even consider such a thing. However, despite her unnatural, witch-like talk of leaving her female body, ‘un-sex me here’, Such un-women like features are linked to Banquos describtion of the witches as things that “look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth” and how “her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips. You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so” By this we can learn that they are non-humane and therefore consequentl;y don’t share the same feelings and emotions. Witches in Jacobean time were seen as to be part of the devil and any sign of witchcraft would’ve lead to great uproar and in most cases a death penalty. Adding to Lady Macbeths demand, she does seem too fragile and feminine to do the deed, as we come in touch with her feminine side when she greets Dunacn. As Macbeth is tempted into evil by the witches so he is by his wife. The scene starts with Banquo and Fleance going to bed soon after departing from King Duncan’s chamber, but on their way meet with Macbeth. Banquo broaches the subject of the witches rather suspiciously as he witnessed the prophicies, so promised by the witches which adressed Macbeth as, “Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis”, “all hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor” and finally, “all hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter”. We immediately interpret that witchcraft will play a big role in the later events, which again are attributing to Macbeths downfall. Within this mind dwelling scene such weather anomilies and talk of un-naturalism like “The curtained sleep; witchcraft celebrates” is a fine example, which again links us to witchcraft being the heart of decisions and un-natural events. Banquo suspects that Macbeth’s ambition wil drive him to do evil and it becomes apart to Banquo that he may be planning an evil deed. Ironically however, although Macbeth may be king his ‘barren septre’ means that he has no heir. Perhaps his evil means that he is no longer fertile and therefore cannot perform his natural duty. But he fears that Banquo’s sons will be heirs as the witches fortell and so the murder of the king becomes the beginning, in a chain of murders to attempt to secure his absolute position and future.
Macbeth is a short and powerful play, presenting a great nature corrupted by ambition and an unscruptulous wife. As Macbeth becomes more involved with the supernatural his state of mind changes. His previous values and morals disintergrate as the supernatural takes control of him. Macbeth descends into a world filled of greed which forces him into commiting far greater murderous actions which are solely down to his greed. The image of sleep, and being denied sleep, links both the character in their story and Macbeth. If sleep is the most natural and innocent act then when Macbeth murders the king he becomes evil and unnatural because he has ‘murder sleep’. He can no longer tell the difference between his waking or sleeping nightmare: he is in a living hell. This hugely brings us to favouring this as a big part in Macbeths downfall.
