This is the complete opposite to his wife, who upon reading her husbands letter begins to realise she can obtain her greatest goals, and will have to use evil to get it.
‘What thou wouldst highly, that wouldst thou holily, I do fear thy (Macbeth’s) nature’
Her mind begins to conjure evil deeds, ways to speed up the process that will have her crowned. We see the true extent of this in the following line:
‘Unsex me here, make thick my blood, take my milk for gall.’
Very wicked and brutal words, and it is perhaps no coincidence that she calls to be unsexed, just like the witches are – these two unsexed inputs are the two things which control Macbeth the most throughout.
Despite Macbeth’s constant opposition to the murder we see him commit it. This is perhaps the greatest sign all through the tale of the power Lady Macbeth has over her husband.
‘Screw your courage to it’s sticking place’
She takes his confused mind and apparent weak nature and uses him. Despite his abundance of physical strength he cannot fight his true love for her deep inside.
The vision of the dagger and the killing of the guards are simply a show of his conscience, a factor his wife had done so much to hide. His visions and lashing out are the first signs of his insanity. We see this more with his voices and his inability to say ‘amen’. Religion was very strong in the in the era of king James – the play for whom this play was written.
Lady Macbeth in the meanwhile is not as strong as she seems.
‘Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t.’
Although wicked in the way she manipulates her husband, she feels she has to as she has not the courage to perform the deed herself. She then bottles up her emotions to console her husband, whom she knows is slipping from sanity.
Macbeth’s conscience is ‘full of scorpions’, his week mentality causes the recent events to get to him, and from the killing of Duncan onwards he begins to loose all sense of what is right, and becomes a completely different person – one who is wrapped in the prophesies, one who is butcherous.
We see his butcher like qualities in the killing of Macduff’s family, as well as the killing of banquo.
‘Give to th’edge of the sword his wife, his babes and all unfortunate souls.’
Can Macbeth be persecuted for his actions? As we know he is on the brink of insanity at the moment, if he has not already passed it. Surely an insane man has no ability to think rationally, so is not in full control of his actions.
A lot may argue he knows full well what he is doing at this point, and that he is not as weak as he seems, but I disagree and believe the evidence speaks louder than I ever can.
While Macbeth’s mental state deteriorates (he has more visions) Lady Macbeth begins to pay for her wicked ways. She lets out her problems in her sleep as her naive ways thought it better to keep them enclosed during the hours of daylight.
Even on news of her death Macbeth shows little remorse, ‘She should have died hereafter’ his only remark on the occurrence. The soliloquy which then follows shows a man whose will for life is severely lacking. The true extent of this is shown in act 5 scene 8.He refuses to fight with Macduff as he was ‘From his mother’s womb untimely ripped’. This also portrays Macbeth’s dependence on the prophesies, he does not even bother to test their worth.
This willingness to die is not the sign of a butcher. A butcher would have less conscience, even no conscience at all? A butcher shows no remorse for his victims, yet we see much remorse with the vision of Banquo’s ghost and his words to Macduff:
‘My souls is too much charged with the blood of thine already.’
A true sign of conscience and regret for past actions, even in insanity the true man he once was comes to the surface. Butcher like? Perhaps not.
However Malcolm’s description of the couple is going to be slightly harsh anyway. It is bias, after all Macbeth killed his father and in the process gained the title king of Scotland, a prestige that had been promised Malcolm in act 4 scene 1. Malcolm is obviously bitter because of this, and throughout the play we do not hear one good word about Macbeth from Malcolm, even when he was a noble.
To conclude, I feel Macbeth is not a butcher, but does show butcher like qualities in latter parts of the play, when he was insane. His insanity was due to his future being forced upon him by both his wife and the witches.
Lady Macbeth however is a fiend. She forces her husband to commit murder against his will because of her own copious ambition and cowardice, and her ultimate lack of strength caused both to fall into a bewildered state, and left Macbeth with no purpose of direction. Lady Macbeth’s naivety caused her wickedness; she thought ‘a little water would clear her of the deed.’
Although Malcolm’s description is hard on Macbeth, is does not portray the true extent of Lady Macbeth’s evil.
